short video, fun to watch

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

What FUN! Two guys using iPads to create a magic act as a presentation promoting Stockholm.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I just  updated my body age test at RealAge.com. After a long questionnaire about health & lifestyle, they tell you what age your BODY really is. Not bad for a chronologically-almost-63-year-old, eh?

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I bet if you start watching this you can't stop. I couldn't. The whole thing is beautiful, but what amazed me most is how that hummingbird can fly!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Just a couple of weeks ago, my step-daughter suggested I get the app DrawSomething. A short time later, I was an addict.

I check my app in the morning, in the afternoon, at night before bed. Why? It's such interactive fun with my peeps!

Today's local paper has an article that says it's a viral hit and over 13 million people are playing it already and it's topped the chart of free apps in iTunes and it's the #1 word game in more than 80 countries.

You don't have to have ANY drawing skills to use this. Part of the fun is watching myself and others try to draw whatever will elicit a guess at the word being drawn. Sometimes it's the most terrible, stick-figure, hilarious attempts at drawing reality that give the best clues.

If you're old enough to remember those long evenings enjoying a group game of Pictionary, you'll understand. If you're not, give DrawSomething a try and you'll definitely understand within minutes.

But! Once again, my warning: It's addictive, so don't try it unless you have time for it!

• on iTunes
• for Android

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

This Canadian artist, Guy Laramee, carves landscape sculptures out of old books. Amazing!

A video that shows some of how he does it:

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

My chiropractor, Eric, sent me a link to this video. I'm embedding it here so I can watch it whenever I need some motivation. Hope you find it helpful too. Watch it all the way through, even if you feel pretty sure what it's going to tell you.

Description from YouTube: "A Doctor-Professor answers the old question "What is the single best thing we can do for our health" in a completely new way. Dr. Mike Evans is founder of the Health Design Lab at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of Toronto, and a staff physician at St. Michael's Hospital."

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Today is Day 4 of participating in this 21-day fitness challenge.

I’m fully appreciating the main/major benefit I’m getting — the amazing mood lift!

I’m more open to making other plans, other commitments, even when they’re nothing to do with fitness. (But I guess they are, really — they’re all about fitness-of-Kate’s-inner-self.) Yesterday, I found myself making no less than 3 suggestions to my partner about active things I want to do with him—including 2 fly-fishing classes.

I had an insight yesterday. Many years ago I officially gave up procrastinating, very successfully. Doing so changed my life. Only after giving it up did I realize that procrastination had been taking up an enormous amount of my energy, emotion, resistance, avoidance, you name it. I always had kind of a low-level tension, that something’s-not-done feeling. OK, back to the present.... I absolutely know, intellectually at least, that keeping fit helps one’s mood and spirit. And I’ve felt it, of course, whenever I’ve done something active. But I forget to remember that feeling from one time to the next. I forget that I have that easy route to a lifted mood and brighter energy.

So yesterday, my insight was comparing procrastination to my laziness about fitness. Procrastination was nothing more than avoiding doing stuff I knew had to be done, even stuff I *wanted* to do. My laziness about keeping fit has been very much like procrastination in its effects on me. (Duh—why didn’t I see this before?!)

Making this 21-day commitment has changed the landscape of how I approach all activity, everything I do and think and how I feel during the rest of the day. I guess my mind, emotions, and body all know that it’s inevitable—that I WILL be keeping active, no question, so what’s the point of resisting. As they say, “Resistance is futile.”

AND I also realized that I will be remaining on this endorphin high for the rest of the challenge. (Yay!)

It’s a done deal, and everything in me has already made the adjustment. Not just my body, but also my mind, mood, emotions, etc. have already switched over to acceptance rather than resistance. So voila! I’ve let go of the bad energy that comes with resistance.

Happy days!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I've joined Celestine Chua and 296 participants in a 21-day fitness challenge (21DFC). It's a promise-to-self to do something active every day.

Today is "pre-work" day. Doing the mental prep-work and planning for success. Here's today's assignment:

2012.02.01_21DFC-Pre-Work.pdf Download this file

My planning/reporting calendar

I'll edited this calendar daily to show what activity I actually did. Here's the final result of the 21 days!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

From: MastersInIt.org

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

via Sachin Agarwal

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

For each hit watching this 5-minute video on YouTube, Medicom will make a donation to support advances in cancer research at the Goodman Cancer Research Centre at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

This video was produced by the Research Centre Staff! The 3 older gentleman dancing together are 3 of the most internationally renowned cancer researchers in the world. The individual in the leather jacket is the head of the research center at McGill.

Please click and watch! It's fun! Use the link info below. I tried not to embed the video here because I'm pretty sure if you watched it here, it wouldn't add to the hit counts or the resulting donations. But when I posted the link in full, the video embedded itself. So... here's my alternative way of leading you to the video:

1. Go to http://youtube.com

2. Copy and paste the following into your browser's address bar at the end of the URL above:
/watch?v=Hg1yw8D3glE

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Amazing project—how to build a living bridge—knowledge passed on from one generation to the next.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by the crew of expeditions 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011, at an altitude of around 350 km.

Music: Jan Jelinek | Do Dekor, faitiche back2001
w+p by Jan Jelinek, published by Betke Edition
http://www.janjelinek.com | http://www.faitiche.de

Image Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov

Shooting locations in order of appearance:

1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night
2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night
3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia
4. Aurora Australis south of Australia
5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night
6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean
7. Halfway around the World
8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East
9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East
10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night
11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay
12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night
13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam
14. Views of the Mideast at Night
15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea
16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night
17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean
18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I'm definitely sympatico with Chuck Lorre on this one!

Chuck Lorre Productions #359
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 8:35PM

Okay, I'm just gonna say it out loud. There are times when going crazy looks attractive. And I'm not talking about becoming charmingly eccentric. I've already got that covered none ways to Sunday. No, I'm talking about purposely emigrating to the land of lunacy. That special psychological zip code where The Ancient Laws of Behave Yourself no longer apply. My "reasoning" is simple. It takes a great deal of effort to sustain a conservative, trustworthy persona. Surrendering that effort would involve, from a Freudian perspective, a conscious dismantling of the super ego-that part of the psyche entrusted with enforcing parental and socially approved actions. And therein lies the allure of going full frontal wack-a-doodle. The constant energy required to pass as normal would suddenly become available for doing and saying whatever pleases me in the moment. Imagine it. The id and libido completely unbound by any and all mortal or cultural restrictions. Hmm... Probably won't need the shrink anymore... might need a lawyer.

~ Chuck Lorre

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

We recently became the proud owners of this beautiful classic woody boat, a 32-foot Grand Banks trawler.We've named her KAIA, which means "the sea, restful place, home, the one with the beautiful body" (etymology is Hawaiian, Japanese, Native American Hopi, among others).

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I learned this "matrix" decision-making method over 3 decades ago. It has helped me successfully process some of my major life-changing decisions. I've also used it in combination with my partner, and it truly helped to open up our co-decision-making discussions to include each person's priorities, hopes, dreams, wishes, etc.

Prompted by a decision-making article I just read at TinyBuddha.com, I decided to share this matrix method here. It seems complicated the first time you use it, but you'll see that it really isn't after you've gone through the process once. Take it slowly, referring frequently to the example matrix I've included at the end, and all will come clear.

Click here to download the PDF file, then start using it! Let me know if it helps you!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

You may or may not like the idea of the HST. But I beg you to figure out the truth about why you do or don't support it. I don't mean the truth according to the Liberals. I don't mean the truth according to Bill Vander Zalm. I don't mean the truth according to the Fight HST website.

OK, how CAN we get to the "real truth" then?

Well, check this out. Chris Thompson, a 30-year-old UBC law student with a BA in economics, planned to create his own independent video about the HST. He wanted to describe how it works and tell us his version of why it is or isn't a good tax.

As Thompson did more and more research, he began to find much misinformation and decided that we have been seriously mislead by the Fight HST people. According to Thompson's video, much of what we've been reading is untrue—in fact, it's worse than untrue, it's a bunch of "facts" that have been manufactured by skewing data and/or blatantly lying about it.

You watch the video; you research the data Thompson uses; you decide.

Please watch Thompson's video if you want to be an educated voter in this HST referendum. Pause the video as needed to absorb the illustrated data and details. Thompson speaks quickly, so it will take you more than one viewing to hear and understand it all.

As Dave.ca says in his article about The Best HST Video Out There:

"Why did it take a student to put out this video while the government with all the resources in the Province could not do something half as engaging? ...Chris’ passion, editing skills and basic social media interest has a video which could assist the population in better understanding the HST. Oh, fun fact, Chris’ video in three days has more views than ALL the Government’s HST videos over the last year combined."

Please watch this video a couple of times at least!

Read more about Thompson's video:

• The Vancouver Sun's article: UBC student uses YouTube to skewer HST opponents
• Dave.ca's article: The Best HST Video Out There

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Amazing pinks and purples in the sunset views from our condo last night.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I've been writing sporadically in my prePosterous blog for a couple of years. Recently I'm drawn toward creative & "spiritual" writing—my deeper thoughts and experiences and musings.

I don't know where this will take me, but I'm open to all paths. I remain the seeker. Synchronicity rules and moves me about, thither and yon.

I'm retired, and it's time to draw upon my experience and what-I-hope-is-earned-wisdom to share what comes up for me in response to living in my world.

These writings will need their own home. I was going to post them here in my prePosterous blog, tagging (labelling) them in order to group them. But I couldn't think up a single tag that would identify them. How could I? I don't know where this direction will lead me.

So please visit my new blog so we can "Ponder the Preposterous" together. Post your constructive comments and personal feedback whenever you can!

Namaste,
Kate

Permalink | Leave a comment  »