Merry Christmas to All

Merry Christmas everyone! I wish all of you a safe and happy holiday season.

I will be taking a bit of a break from my blogging routine to enjoy the holidays. I will post my annual Best and Worst of the Year list next week on Silent Cacophony.

I will resume my regular posting schedule here when school starts back up in January. Until then, peace and warm wishes!

Lots of love,

Chase

Listen More

"If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two mouths and one ear."

- Mark Twain (taken from Growing Character by Deb Austin Brown)

Life is Complex

"Your life experience is part of a much more complex system, and only you can figure it out."

- Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 49

photo credit McGun

Gifts Tell

"Every gift tells a story."

- Indigo Books Store Poster – in the window for the Christmas season 2005

Too Busy Picturing...

Graham, a father stands on a ladder to reach the eaves trough of his roof. He needs a bit of help and calls to his neighbor's teenage son. The boy waves and rollerblades away.

Graham says, "Gee, thanks, well, I'd like to help you, sir, but I'm too busy picturing your daughter naked."

Funny scene!

Don't Stop!

"He who stops being better stops being good."

- Oliver Cromwell - taken from Growing Character by Deb Austin Brown

I Must Have Changed

“…and who are you?”

“I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”

- McLuhan, Marshall and Quentin Fiorce. The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. Penguin Books: Toronto, 2003, pg 153-154.

Fight With a Pen

"So I fight with a pen to enlighten a friend."

- Sweatshop Union "Labour Pains" off the album Local 604.

Please head on over to Silent Cacophony to read the interview I did with Dusty Melodica from Sweatshop Union last week. It was a great interview with one of the best hip-hop groups out right now.

The interview is available as a podcast from Dope FM or you can read it on my other blog and see their videos there as well.

Enjoy!

Inspiration From Television

This happens to me often. I am watching a show and a pearl of wisdom jumps out at me. I pause the DVD or quickly find a pen and paper to scribble down a line of dialogue.

Recently I have been watching Battlestar Galactica Season 2.0. They had it at the public library and I am glad they did. I haven't really had a chance to watch this show and I've heard good things about it.

I have been really impressed with what I have seen so far. The show is brilliantly writing and acted, and has a lot of suspense and action. (If you haven't seen this show yet, there are spoilers ahead.)

Science fiction is great for shining a light on real life situations that we face every day. Now, a dark series about war with sentient robotic lifeforms might not seem like it could shine a light on any important issues, but it does. The show is smart.

One scene in particular has really stuck with me this past month. I think we can all learn something from it.

The chief mechanic is working on one of the fighter ships. He puts on a sticker on it that it is “unserviceable scrap.” A captain comes up to him and tells him how important it is that the ship be fixed soon. The key context here is that they are running out of supplies and everyone is weary and tired of their situation in space.

Captain: “Damn it. I need that ship online.”

Chief: “What can I tell ya captain. Engine mounts are shot, cockpit seals are cracked. If it were a horse, I'd shoot it.

Captain: “Chief, come on, work with me here. I need your help.”

Chief: “What'd ya want me to do? Work my crew to death?”

Captain: “No, just do you're best. Nobody's expecting any miracles here.”

Chief “Maybe that's the problem.”

The chief then gets the idea to build a new fighter on his off-duty time. His crew thinks he's crazy and doesn't support him at first. He goes ahead and does it anyway, all by himself. He's overworked, his crew is overworked but the project becomes something that energizes the crew. They come together and get it done.

This is inspirational to me. It makes me think that we can all accomplish great things. This chief went above and beyond the call of duty. He did something that wasn't expected but that was truly needed and useful. I think if we examine our lives, we can do the same thing at home, at the workplace, or in the community. I've already got a few ideas kicking around in my head. Maybe we can all create little miracles.

Feelings are Prelinguistic

"Feelings, in other words, are prelinguistic; we feel before we 'think' in language. Language is thought. Feeling is more basic, more connected to the animal part of us. Language seems to be best for describing the world outside ourselves; it does not seem well suited to describing our feelings."

- Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 102

Stories Make Themselves

"My basic belief about the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves."

- Stephen King. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Scribiner: New York, 2000. pg 163

JAG

BEARER "How did you sabotage it?"
HARM "With a Navy issue, thirty-four inch, brass tip cinch."
BEARER "What the hell is that?"
HARM "My belt."

- JAG
taken from Great TV Quotes

Time + Effort + Imagination = Good Relations

"Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing."

- Kim Rohn

I found this quote here

http://www.heartsandminds.org/quotes/kids.htm

I'm not exactly sure who Kim Rohn is but I like what she had to say here.

Happy Monday Everyone!