Year: 2011

Above Par

This time last year I was saying ‘So Long 2010‘ with an air of the unknown and a wariness of the uncertain.

Life had changed rather dramatically and – as alive as I felt, as invigorating the sense of endless possibility was – I didn’t know what would happen next. And, truth be told, I continued not knowing for most of the year.

Today however? I am above par.

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Imagine tumbling through darkness:

You’ve slipped from a mountainside and a blizzard roars up and around as you desperately flail and fall through the cold, black nothing.

In that never-ending gloom, in that deafening storm, peaceful acceptance eventually takes over and calm reigns throughout.

Do you feel it?

The ground is far, far away. The air on your face is a blanket of ice smothering your face as it burns… Yet it somehow refreshes; filling your lungs forcefully as further still you cascade through the bleak unknown.

In that tranquil nothingness, thoughts spark and race through your mind, freshly cut to rage, rage against the dying of the light. Upwards, around you, chinks  of sunlight break through and, in that moment, in that quiet deathly moment, your hands shoot out and cling and claw – like grappling hooks – at the rocks around.

You catch one, two.. three… and pull.

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My light has shone, my hooks have been launched and at last I’m climbing.
Better yet, I’m climbing higher than I’ve ever been before.

And the view is breathtaking.

The Alps - Sept 3rd

Happy New Year friends and readers, I wish you all the very best for 2012 and everything wonderful that it brings.

As a certain chap said to me recently: it’s going to be epic.

Recent things…

aka ‘5 things on Friday’, issue #0.

One of the blogs I read fairly regularly is that of ex-BBC chappy, Hugh Garry.

He’s a smart chap and I finally managed to meet him at a social media week event a little while back, which was nice. One of the things he mentioned back then was an attempt he was making on his blog called ‘5 things I liked this week‘.

Once a week [well, nearly – get back on the horse Hugh!] he just puts exactly that: five links to five things that he liked that week. I’ve been doing something similar for the ‘heads for a while now and, well, I think I’d quite like to do something similar, for myself, in 2012.

Every Friday (hopefully on my way home from work) I’m going to jot down the five things I’ve done or seen that week. Or perhaps even five things that have happened to me or that I’ve seen or whatever. Either way, it’s going in the Moleskine and then, naturally, it’s ending up on here.

To kick off, and for memory’s sake, this is the one I started God knows when earlier this year, but with a much larger number than five. Call it ‘Cool things that happened in 2011’ or something.

So, in no particular order:

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AND THAT’S IT!

Wow…  I aimed for 5 and I finished with 55.  Not bad for my first go.

Let’s see how this works out for 2012.

🙂

Alfie and James

Pic taken from aforementioned cooking comp; ‘Nom Nom Nom 2011‘, Alfie and  I – aka ‘The Hirsute Hashtag Slingers‘ – looking dashing and awesome, ready and raring to go.

We had such fun that day and this pic just makes me smile.

via Annie Mole

Thursday Projects

focus

c/o Michael Hell

Taking an hour for lunch isn’t easy at the best of times. I try, we all do. Hell, (1000heads creative director) Robbie Dale and I have been trying to schedule a weekly lunchtime catch up for nearly two years now – it’s shocking how this meeting is hardly ever kept. However, the promise of it being there week in, week out at least makes us try to keep it…

Something new is required, a weekly focal point of something where I deliberately take myself away from the office (where possible) and attempt to build something new. Be it a new piece of writing or a new photography effort; the fourth day of the working week – the lunch break at least – is where I’m going to do it.

I started a fortnight ago and have already built something cool for the guys I work with; “1000heads is Out of the Office“.

This week? I don’t know… I might revisit This is my N8, maybe.

So here’s a challenge for 2012: book yourself an hour a week to build something new. Something fun.

Oh, and do it on a Thursday.

…

Get to it.

 

 

 

 

The BWA*

*Big Wall of Asia

Beijing North Train Station

Moleskine Entry: 24th April, 2011

Up early today, we’re on the 9:30 train out of Beijing to visit the Great Wall of China.

One ticket to Badaling please!

We came, we saw and the Big Wall of Asia did not disappoint.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China

MPD Sufferer [at the Great Wall]

The Great Wall Skyline

Tonight most of the friends I’ve made are off home and I’ll be venturing out into the city on my own for another week.

I say ‘on my own’, there other people here, friends I’ve made along the way, plus one of my train buddies has extended his stay to hangout a bit longer. Should be cool.

Can’t believe I’m less than a week from home.

Moscow – nay London! – seems an entire world away.

Other things:

– – — – Whatley out

One world. One dream.

Prometheus

The trailer is here –

And, even though Mr Ridley Scott would have you believe otherwise, the connections to the Alien franchise are strong with this one.

Exhibit A:

This ship, the ship the crew of the Nostromo board at the beginning of Alien in response to the distress / warning call.

Which, surprisingly enough, looks remarkably like this one, exploding and falling out of the sky in the trailer for Prometheus.

2011-12-22_2344

Similar right? Shape, structure etc… it’s all there.

OK, so some spaceships look like other spaceships. True. However, any fan of the original Alien film will recognise the following image, aka – Exhibit B:

This chap is actually nameless in the film, however he has somehow earned the name of ‘The Space Jockey‘. Look what he’s sitting on and just look what this is, coming out of the ground in the Prometheus trailer.

2011-12-22_2348

This film is set on the ship that the crew of the Nostromo discover. That much is plain to see. Ridley Scott has said that there will be no Aliens, however there will be space jockeys. In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gifted it to man. The film’s official synopsis talks about man’s search for its very beginnings.

One wonders if these ‘space jockeys’ are pitched as our creators [as well as those of the Xenopmorph] and this is what happens when we meet ‘God’ face to face.

Who knows, we only have to wait until summer 2012 to find out and it’s about time Ridley Scott came back to the sci-fi genre.

Bring it.

 

EDIT: Spoiler-free review available to read now.

just friends

“Let’s just be friends” came the reply.
“What? Just friends? Can I ask why?”

Panic flickered across her eye,
she looked away and began to sigh.

Go on, say it. Say that lie…

“I like you a lot, you’re a really nice guy…”
I heard the “…but” as I gazed at the sky

It’s always me, I just wanna know why.

 

— JW, 1995

 

Me and my friends

a parable for the ambitious

I’ve been thinking about the future a lot of late. Not about flying cars or memory implants and what not, more along the lines of having an actual plan.

2011 has nearly come and gone and the blank canvas I stared upon at the crest of the year is once again gushing towards me like a second, more powerful, ocean wave rearing its head up and over the naked shore.

Advice is sought, advice is given and sometimes, in the most surprising places, advice is discovered. Over the past six to eight months or so, the same piece of counsel has been recurring time and time again from a myriad of different vessels.

If I don’t do something about it soon, I fear I will drown in the flood.
“It’s like the old joke…”

It had been raining for days and days, and a terrible flood had come over the land. The waters rose so high that one man was forced to climb onto the roof of his house.

As the waters rose higher and higher, a man in a rowboat appeared, and told him to get in.

“No,” replied the man on the roof. “I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me.” So the man in the rowboat went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save him.

The waters rose higher and higher, and suddenly a speedboat appeared. “Climb in!” shouted a man in the boat.

“No,” replied the man on the roof. “I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me.” So the man in the speedboat went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save him.

The waters continued to rise. A helicopter appeared and over the loudspeaker, the pilot announced he would lower a rope to the man on the roof.

“No,” replied the man on the roof. “I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me.” So the helicopter went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save him.

The waters rose higher and higher, and eventually they rose so high that the man on the roof was washed away, and alas, the poor man drowned.

Upon arriving in heaven, the man marched straight over to God.

“Heavenly Father,” he said, “I had faith in you, I prayed to you to save me, and yet you did nothing. Why?”

God gave him a puzzled look, and replied “I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what more did you expect?”

Have faith.
Listen to those around you.
Defend ideas.
Be smarter.

But most of all: have a plan.

Whatley out.