I’m going to let you into a little secret – being brilliant is absolutely within your reach – just one click (and 50 small steps away).
The fantastic Nicholas Bate has developed a cheat sheet for his ‘How to be Brilliant’ series of blog posts.
I’d take his advice – find some paper, print this off and disseminate liberally – just after you read it your self and start YOUR journey to being brilliant.
Awesome stuff Nick.
On the dark side of the Moon, man has found the answer to all his energy needs – mining an essential element to generate clean, sustainable power for earth. Such an easy solution – until the one man stationed there on a three year contract, is suddenly face-to-face with a younger, more angry version of himself.
Moon is the directorial debut for Duncan Jones – the son of David Bowie, and this movie is great testament to the fact that science fiction can be made on a low budget – but with high style. Visually the film is quite similar to 2001:A Space Odyssey – with GERTY (played by a disembodied Kevin Spacey) playing the part of the protective robot minder.
I really enjoyed this – the story is very clever and the part of Sam Bell (almost single handed through the film) is played admirably by Sam Rockwell. It won’t be headlining your local Odeon – but it is worth seeking out and enjoying.
By coincidence, I’m here in Seattle on the day that Windows 7 is released, its one of my quarterly visits to the mother ship to sync with my team, who are busily engaged in building a great support experience for Online Services and BPOS. I enjoy coming here and hanging with some really bright people and ensuring that I am involved in interesting and valuable projects, but today the focus will be elsewhere on the Redmond campus.
It is a happy coincidence to be here on a launch day – those don’t come around too often, and they seem like fun occasions. I’m not going to wax lyrical about the OS, I’ve been using it for a while and I find it quick, stable and easy to use, and there will thousands of news and blog articles about how good and bad it is, and how Microsoft is either brilliant or diabolical.
Whatever.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the spectacle – enjoying the buzz, and hoping that the whole release is a success. I’m proud of my job, and the company that I work for – and days like these make me realise why.
The second in an occasional series – some suggestions to build up your music collection, but not the new shiny stuff. These suggestions focus on the outskirts, building up your back catalogue to find some gems. Don’t take my word for it – click the links to get to the Amazon pages for these artistes.
What classics have you discovered for your collection?
Easily devoured in a short flight – ‘A Day at the Airport’ (Amazon UK link) is an interesting experiment of having an ‘author in residence’ at Heathrow Airport. Of course, it helps that the author in question is Alain de Botton, who has a significant following and some great books under his belt.
Unfortunately the book comes across a little bit as an extended brochure for Terminal 5, however as de Botton spent his time camped out in the middle of the Terminal concourse it is clear that he has exposed some good insight into the travellers he encountered. If you are on and off planes as often as I am, then you soon get to wonder about your fellow passengers, and this book does a great job of telling those stories.
It is a great intro to Alain De Botton, beautifully written and an interesting travel read.
Have you read any good travel writing lately?
Of course you do! Show the world how much a new week means to you – with an ‘I Love Mondays’ cube poster from Nicholas Bate. Awesome stuff Nick! I suggest a wallpaper for those of us digital nomads that don’t have a cube or an office this Monday…
More inspiration for alongside your Sunday breakfast –
Who or what gives you inspiration?
Not much great new music this week, but these are worth checking out – don’t take my word for it – click the link for the Amazon page for each of these albums.
What are you listening to? What should I be listening to?
Despite having two Zunes at home (a new HD and a 30), we still have three iPods on the go, and despite loads of changes – I am still not a fan of iTunes. Here are three alternatives the bloated Apple client.
What other tools are you using to escape the Apple hegemony?
Picked this up on the recommendation of a friend after discussing 1950’s calypso music, it’s a modern classic I hadn’t heard of telling the tale of a small group of (mainly) Trinidadian immigrants in London in the fifties.
Buy The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon on Amazon now
Sam Selvon eschews ‘Standard’ English and fuses the patois of the main characters into the language of the book – it is an interesting concept and challenges the reader to hear the characters much more clearly.
As the stories develop, the book exposes the pathos of an immigrants life in London, the colour bar, austerity Britain and a lack of jobs are in conflict with the natural indomitable spirit of Moses, Sir Galahad and Cap – the standout scene being a dance attended by all the key characters and hosted by a ‘lahdedah’ friend who tries to impress the white guests he has bought. Priceless images of calypso dances and ‘slackness’ ensue.
This is a marvellous book, that shows how cold and unforgiving London can be, and how the diversity of the city can also shine through.
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