Films for Action - for starters

The best new website: www.filmsforaction.org

I watched a short documentary on it last night. They mentioned Nonviolent Communication on it. So then I spent 3 hours watching Marshall Rosenberg on youtube explaining jackal and giraffe language. I hope I have learnt something. My past 20 hours (since the 3 hours with Marshall) were quite harmonious. Let's see how tomorrow will be. How long will I remember to phrase my statements of please and thank you the right way.

Ok, so, apart from the Nonviolent Communication, the 25-minutes-documentary also spoke about the global consciousness we need to mainstream in order to spread the awareness of sustainability issues. This means: climate change is a global thing, people we do not see every day might suffer from its consequences more than we do. The economically worst off are the ones at the end of the supply chain, the farmers and factory workers without whom we would not live in the illusion of plenty. But since we do not see them on an everyday basis, they are not part of our consciousness. This problem is addressed in the "Think Global" statement.

On the other hand, we do not need to act globally most of the time - we can try to avoid depending on a global financial system, consume produce from the other side of the globe, etc. Ultimately, we need to learn to re-connect to our immediate local environments as much as possible. To try to find a job locally, to buy locally sourced food (or grow your own), to help the development of your city and country as much as you can. Of course it's great to help someone far away, but doing it relying at the end of the supply chains might not be the best approach. Ultimately, the point is to "Act Local".

Important to point out is that GO CHECK the FILMS FOR ACTION page, watch a movie and think about what it means. There is so much awesome creative knowledge out there, honestly, we need to harvest it better!

Ok, now a truly life changing experience to me today - next to the walnut muffins with coffee cream topping - is the discovery of coursera.org - just signed up for a course on Model Thinking!!!

Long live open source, creative commons and other awesome platforms for information sharing!

Off to have a muffin. I made it :-)

What's new?

Not much and lots. Still no big issues with wrinkles or white hear.

Still taking Zumba classes. Still contemplating what to do with my blog (they say I am not very decisive. I was sure the diagnosis was wrong, but maybe it had a point after all.)

Still happy. Occasionally less so, but it's all just a question of perspective.

Still working. Sometimes maybe too much.

But I need to step up the cake making effort. It has slowed down since we got the new crib. Maybe semi-professional ovens scare me.

Ok, new is: biked all the way to the coast and back in the same day and took a dip in the North Sea. Went to Terschelling. Got ourselves a mortgage. Finished Atlas Shrugged. Bought a bike on Marktplaats (after previous - awesome - bike got stolen).

Decided not to wear my wedding dress (purple) to other people's weddings.

The balance is not too bad, I think. Point being, there is not one topic I could stick to in one blog post, but next tie around I will prepare better and will try to add some value :-) Even though there is already plenty of value in this world, so maybe I do not need to add much. But that triggers a whole different line of thought and I do not necessarily want to get started on that...

Good night, jo ejszakat!

I'm going to Leonard Cohen with Priyanka tomorrow :-))) I am super excited about it - an artist I think everyone should see live at least once!