It’s incredible how refreshing one small change in your routine [...]]]> I’ve got into bad habits. Start the computer in the morning, and I usually do the same thing. Check email. Check Twitter. Check Facebook. Check check check what did I miss. I feel like I’m starting the day on the back foot, responding and reacting.

It’s incredible how refreshing one small change in your routine can be. I’m going to try leaving the incoming – the emails, tweets, replies, likes, comments, invitations and updates. Try creating something first.

I got the idea from Seth Godin.

While we’re on the subject of creativity, Louis CK on George Carlin and creativity.

I’ve never been to the Dead Sea but I have seen some amazing salt, like the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia:

Or the salt mines near Cusco in Peru:

And the [...]]]> I just saw these rather beautiful photos of salt formations in the Dead Sea on Boing Boing:

I’ve never been to the Dead Sea but I have seen some amazing salt, like the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia:

Or the salt mines near Cusco in Peru:

And the salt pans at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, where workers harvest salt from sea water:

Jeremy is very clever though. His surname is [...]]]> Jeremy caused all this furore recently when he suggested that striking public sector workers should be shot in front of their families or something like that. I don’t know, I don’t really care. I don’t really care because Jeremy doesn’t really care either. He just says this stuff to promote himself.

Jeremy is very clever though. His surname is his brand.

It’s there on the cover of his books where he hilariously treads a fine line between rampant bigotry and sage pub-speak. I don’t actually know what’s in Jeremy’s books. I don’t know, I don’t really care. I don’t really care because Jeremy doesn’t really care either. He writes that stuff to sell books to people who read them on the toilet.

His surname is there on the DVDs of him blowing up caravans. Or in Top Gear. That’s the TV show where he destroys pristeen hillsides to demonstrate how awesome Land Rovers are, offers his learned insights into the historical correlation between truck driving and prostitute killing, sabotages electrical cars and enjoys banter with his two simple friends. If I recall correctly they are called Vole and Admiral Lazy. Vole and Admiral Lazy are contractually obliged to say his only his surname and only in a gruff voice.

Jeremy is the best person at getting people to shout his name since Gordon Bennett.

But fear not, people. Jeremy is the opposite of Candyman. If you don’t say his surname, you take away his power. His jeans loosen, he starts to smile, and his opinions sound more like those of a normal human being. So remember – from now on, it’s just Jeremy. Imagine.

Oh, and, er, this:

#embedly_twitter_11483930{background:url(http://a0.twimg.com/profile_background_images/99486167/twilk_background_4be51a9d28e77.jpg) #9ae4e8; padding:20px;} #embedly_twitter_11483930 p{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 0px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} #embedly_twitter_11483930 .embedly_tweet_content{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} #embedly_twitter_11483930 p span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:0px;height:40px; padding-bottom: 12px;} #embedly_twitter_11483930 p span.metadata span.author{line-height:15px;color:#999;font-size:14px} #embedly_twitter_11483930 p span.metadata span.author a{line-height:15px;font-size:20px;vertical-align:middle} #embedly_twitter_11483930 p span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 10px 0 0px;width:48px;height:48px} #embedly_twitter_11483930 p a {color: #0000ff; text-decoration:none;} #embedly_twitter_11483930 p a:hover{text-decoration:underline} #embedly_twitter_11483930 .embedly_timestamp{font-size:13px;display:inline-block;margin-top: 5px;} #embedly_twitter_11483930 [...]]]> Just read this on Twitter:

The thing @ruskin147 read was this:

I’ve been in Ghana for the last six months. While away, I’ve had my news from Al Jazeera, CNN and BBC World, and online from Twitter, Facebook, the usual suspects (not the gang out of the film, I mean the places you’d usually expect to find news online). I’ve experienced, and not for the first time, the odd sensation of watching or reading news that is directly relevant to me, while distanced from it all. The news here in Ghana has been of cocoa, gold and oil, corrupt ministers, incompetent governments, striking doctors, Chinese loans, and how annoyed everyone was when David Cameron said the UK would cut aid to countries that didn’t respect gay rights.

So it was with disbelief that I saw photographs of the riots in London and around the UK – like everyone else I’m sure – but also the same weird veneer of detachment that I found when I saw the news on the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London while I was in Cambodia. Then there was Hackgate and the News of the World closing down. The cuts. Occupy. Bankers. The Eurozone crisis. Leveson. Jesus, at one point, a dog chased some deer in a park.

There’s a national strike in the UK today, and no imminent let-up in the ‘pain’ everyone is feeling according to the press, which presumably is not actual pain unless it’s a physical side-effect of constantly reading how much pain you’re in.

The thing is, I just find it difficult to take any of this stuff too seriously. Like someone confronted with something utterly shocking and unbelievable, I watch or read news from the UK and just get the urge to giggle. Maybe it’s denial. Maybe this is a defence mechanism. It all seems too much. The vocabulary used to talk about the situation doesn’t help. Pain. Misery. Armageddon.

Wait, what? Armageddon? For crying out loud. Here’s part of the problem: using words like Armageddon. You know what leads to Armageddon? Nuclear war. Invasion by a hostile alien race. Meteorites the size of Dorset. That’s Armageddon. Not the Eurozone crisis.

From the language used by the media to describe the current situation (oh and, let’s say, every situation ever) you’d think that we’re all going to be huddled together for warmth, burning bargain bin Olly Murs albums, eating our Soylent Green and reminiscing about the good old days when we sat on the train to work ignoring each other and staring at our iPhones like our lives depended on it. We were so desperate for entertainment, any kind of joy in our life, that we turned to poor quality television talent shows. We had to make jam.

Pain. Misery. Sorry to be all ‘right on’ about this, but take those words and run them up against the following:

• The second elections in 51 years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, plagued by killings and irregularities, now in their third day and in danger of annulment or dispute triggering a return to the violence that has decimated the country
• Having to walk for miles to fetch dirty water that gives your children diarrhoea
• The boy in the village I’m living in who is so dirty he didn’t realise he had maggots in the wound on his leg
• Being forced to choose between 12 years in jail or marriage to the man who raped you
• Having your home destroyed by earthquake, floods, hurricanes, conflict
• The stuff going on in the UK

Things are bad for some people in the UK, and will get worse. Of that there is no doubt. But, Britain, you’re still all good. Pain and misery are the words thrown around by the press who want to sell you papers and the politicians who patronise you. So make jam, keep your sense of humour, be nice. The world is run by idiots but you’re all right, aren’t you champ. Cup of tea? Lovely.

I’m not an economist, analyst or expert. And with that, I’m going to shut up.

#embedly_twitter_64876944{background:url(http://a1.twimg.com/profile_background_images/228372881/EconomistTwitterBackground1600x1200.jpg) #c9dce3; padding:20px;} #embedly_twitter_64876944 p{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 0px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} #embedly_twitter_64876944 .embedly_tweet_content{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} #embedly_twitter_64876944 p span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:0px;height:40px; padding-bottom: 12px;} #embedly_twitter_64876944 p span.metadata span.author{line-height:15px;color:#999;font-size:14px} #embedly_twitter_64876944 p span.metadata span.author a{line-height:15px;font-size:20px;vertical-align:middle} #embedly_twitter_64876944 p span.metadata span.author [...]]]> Been running a search of Twitter for ‘Britain’. These two tweets came up back-to-back. Is the second an explanation for the first?

MP3 collection just threw this album up for the first time in ages on shuffle. I Remember Syria – interviews, sounds and [...]]]> Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, has been urged to spare himself the fate of Col Muammar Gaddafi in Libya by taking up an offer of asylum elsewhere in the Arab world.

MP3 collection just threw this album up for the first time in ages on shuffle. I Remember Syria – interviews, sounds and music from Syria from the amazing Sublime Frequencies recorded in 1998 and 2000. Well, well, well worth a listen – as all Sublime Frequencies stuff is.

Multiple interiors

“The way it must be” – interview

So here [...]]]> Words, phrases and styles enter the Twitter lexicon, and stick like glue. When you start seeing them it seems like it’s all you’re seeing. There are currently two that leap out at me – I certainly hope they’re effective with someone because they set off my ‘hackneyed crap’ alarm whenever I see them.

So here are my Two Ways To Curate Yourself a Better Twitter:

• Stop posting links with numbers promising a list, and absolutely numbers followed by the word ‘ways’. Please. Please stop.
• Stop using the word ‘curate’. Oh God please, please desist.

Below, random samples from the past 24 hours on Twitter. I’m not singling out individuals (unless I am), these are from a simple search for use of the words ‘ways‘ and ‘curate‘:

49 ways? Seriously?

Special highlight for use of mavens as well as curators.

Intermittent Use of Capitals really Confusing

Nearly a full house