Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by things that demand your attention every day. Apollo Robbins tries to teach that lesson in the video below through some very deft handiwork. Watch it a second time to catch what you miss the first time and see how distracted by the world you really are.
I wrote last week about changing perspectives and wanted to add onto the discussion a bit. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by things that demand your attention every day. Apollo Robbins tries to teach that lesson in the video below through some very deft handiwork. Watch it a second time to catch what you miss the first time and see how distracted by the world you really are.
0 Comments
This seems to be roughly a bi-weekly occurrence that I find a TED talk that I cannot simply keep to myself. As someone who has played piano for most of my life, I am in absolute awe of this young man. He is far and away a better pianist than I will ever have the hope of being and he can't even see the keys. You have probably see videos of famous blind musicians like Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder playing the piano and making millions doing it but I venture to say that this goes beyond even them. The things that Derek Paravicini can do on the piano and the speed with which he can do them are almost inhuman. I wish that I could speak with him regarding his abilities so that I could understand how he does what he does. Perhaps I will need to edit my story about the loss of sight to incorporate a character like this amazing man. Please take the time to watch this through to the end, it is completely and utterly worth every second. I was very sad to hear yesterday of the passing of Scott Carpenter, the fourth American in space (and the second American to orbit the earth after John Glenn) in 1962. Ever since I was a boy, I was amazed by spaceflight and counted astronaut among my possible career paths will into my teenage years. In the spring of 1995 I was given the amazing opportunity to spend a week at Space Camp in Florida. I still have many very fond memories of that time from the activities that I took part in and the history that I learned. I won’t go into all the details because I could write about that week for hours, but I was amazed at the training that the first astronauts had to go through to get a chance to be some of the first humans in space. Much of this training was simulated at the camp and I got the chance to experience heavy g-forces, simulated weightlessness, and even a simulated space walk to service a broken satellite. Of course, astronauts had to be smart and resourceful as well and we worked in teams to run shuttle missions, build model rockets and even design a space station which we then had to “pitch” to the entire camp. It is truly sad that so many of these original pioneers of space are no longer with us and we must always remember what they did for the exploration of space. As we look at where we are today, I am amazed that the human race has placed devices on many of the planets in our solar system and even succeeded in propelling things completely out of our solar system. Looking forward from here, I am a bit fearful of the commercialization of space exploration with corporations getting into the race, but excited to see the potential for space flight becoming as regular an occurrence as a jet flight is today within the next 50-100 years. Take a moment to think of all the great explorers that have helped further the human race, from Erikson to Polo, from Columbus to Magellan, from Lewis and Clark to Gagarin, there is no shortage of people who have risked everything up to and including their lives to move the human race forward. Think of all these folks today and thank them for helping us get to where we are today. Then take a moment and think just how much farther we have to go… I’m not sure which I’m more surprised about, the fact that American Football is big enough around the world that there is a professional league in Germany (at least I’m assuming it IS professional) or the fact that the German Football League has been around long enough to be on German Bowl XXXV (that’s 35 for the non-roman crowd). Sadly, you have already missed your opportunity to tune into German Bowl XXXV live since it was played yesterday. I wish I could tell you who won…but the entire website is in German. In other news, the Copenhagen Towers beat the Triangle Razorbacks by a score of 28-21 in the 2013 Mermaid Bowl yesterday. Bonus points to anyone who can point out the literary connection that somehow ties this back to a writing blog…
I wrote here a few months back that I had found a stash of old papers from my college days and would be posting a bunch of my old stories and poems. I had been a bit hasty with that proclamation. The papers I had found were important, but not from any of my creative writing classes. That was then, this is now!
Ever since I was a little boy I have dreamed about venturing off this planet into space. I fell in love with SciFi staples like Star Trek and Star Wars at a very early age, was fortunate enough to spend a week at Space Camp in Florida during a spring break from school one year, and spent more time than my parents probably preferred, learning everything there was to learn about the US space program. Tomorrow, Felix Baumgartner, world record base jumper, is scheduled to attempt the highest freefall jump in history by piloting a helium filled balloon to an altitude of 120,000 (yes, 120 THOUSAND) feet and then throwing himself back to earth. While this probably belongs in the "Cool Stuff", I felt the need to put it here o the blog since it's timely and lifting off in less than 12 hours. Provided weather is good in New Mexico, Baumgartner will take flight at 8AM EST tomorrow morning.
This whole project (mine that is) has started to change the way that I think about the world around me. I am starting to no longer take my five physical senses for granted as I explore how life might go on without them.
Wish Mr. Baumgartner luck as he ventures to the edge of space, where few have gone before him, and none in quite this way. This isn't a music blog, but I don't want to limit myself with the things that I post on here and this was just too good to pass up. Anyone who is anyone has probably seen or at least heard of the YouTube sensation that was the USA Swim Team lip syncing Carly Rae Jepsen's song "Call Me Maybe". If you browse through YouTube for a few minutes, you're bound to come across hundreds if not thousands of similar videos of people mouthing the words of this catchy song over Jepsen's actual recording. Anyone can put one of these videos together in an afternoon with a simple digital video camera and some simple editing software that probably came pre-installed on your laptop. But what if you wanted to try something completely different? This group of musicians took what is already a very well known song and made the very own version of it. I'm impressed by this because there were probably close to 100 people involved in making this happen and they did a great job with it. The song in the video below has the feel of Jepsen's original, but also brings something new to it. Enjoy!
It is that time again that the Olympics are upon us. While there are sure to be hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of Facebook, Twitter, and blog posts about the games over the next few weeks, I hope that I can offer something a little bit different. Over the course of the next two weeks while the games are going on I will be writing some special poems and stories about fictional competitors in the games. They will be quick and dirty at this point and by no means will they be polished work, but hopefully you will get some enjoyment out of them. I also want to give a special shout out to a couple of athletes that hail from the Rochester area. Women's soccer team leader Abby Wambach has already scored a goal in the opening game yesterday so hats off to her. Ryan Lochte is from nearby Canadaigua and will be giving Michael Phelps all that he can muster in the pool to try and take a few gold medals from the boy from Baltimore. I want to wish all of the Olympians the best of luck, regardless of the nation that they represent and hopefully these games will be the best yet! |
AuthorMy blog is here to give updates on my writing projects and occasionally post new poems or story excerpts. Archives
September 2016
Categories
All
|