Yes, I’m a day late with this… Sorry, it was written, I just didn’t post it up!
Anyway, today (that’s yesterday), the world lost a comedy legend. I absolutely love his work, and I could watch his movies over and over again (besides the Scary Movie ones, but in all fairness he stole the show whenever he was on the screen in those).
What surprises me is the amount of people who don’t really rate him and – even more disgraceful – how many people don’t actually know who he is.
Yes, sure, there are a million people in the world more important than him; the world was never going to come to a standstill when he died or anything. But you have to give him credit – there wasn’t anyone as prolific or as good as what he did. True, he was corny, cheesy and maybe just a little bit silly – but that’s what made him so great at slapstick. He was, in his own right, a legend.
So for those of you who still don’t know him, enjoy this. There really are hundreds of clips that I could've put on here, but for me this is my favourite.
RIP Leslie Nielsen
PS - for the record, one of my favourite moments is
In some ways, I like today’s animation more that yesterday’s. As far as I’m aware, it’s not as well known as More, but the music you’ve probably heard on more than one occasion.
It’s only simple. It’s only short. But for some reason, I get pretty overwhelmed whenever I watch it – it does for me that same thing that the first ten minutes of Up! does (which, by the way, you should all put on your list. Even if you only watch that opening montage, it’s a must).
I know the most of you reading it probably aren’t all that old; but still, I think it’s important to be able to reflect and remember your past. Yeah, there were probably things in it that you really wish hadn’t happen. You’ll have regrets, too (and I think anyone who says that they don’t have regrets is being silly. There’s a difference between having regrets and wanting to change things). And of course, there are things that to this day make you want to cry – and it’s really ok if they do.
But no matter what happens in your life, or what has happened, never be afraid to look back on it. If anything, it’s important to, so you can see what you’ve got now.
I’m not sure how I got all of that from this video; to be honest it’s just a stream of thought. Enjoy the video, anyway…
So, today and Friday I’m going to show you two animations that I really really love, both of which (I hope) will really make you feel and get some ideas from you.
I think the reason I like them so much is because they really make you feel something, and they both say so much. At the same time, neither of them have any dialogue what so ever. And if they did, they really wouldn't be as moving.
This one was up for the Academy Award Short Film in 1998. Hope you enjoy (and I’ll write more on Friday, I promise).
Happy Monday everyone! Hope it’s been a good weekend and you’re feeling positive about the next week!
Today I wanted to give you a bit more freedom on what you wanted to see today. I realise that some of you need a bit more positivity than others, some of you want to think more… and I don’t want to talk about the same things over and over, like I told you last time. So today, I want YOU to choose your own video. From this website:
Yeah, I know not posting up an actual video might make some controversy between the handful of you that I know read this – but I said I wanted to show you a variety of things on the internet, and I seriously believe this website could be bookmarked on everyone’s browser.
It says it all in the tagline: TED is about “ideas worth spreading”. The website has a database of over 700 speeches and conferences about a variety of things, including science, culture and entertainment, and you’ve had some pretty prolific people take part in this: Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, Jane Goldall, as well as some top modern day philosophers and Nobel Prize winners. You can also find videos depending on what you want to get out of it; whether you want something funny, inspiring, or just to make you smile and see how beautiful things are.
Now, I don’t ask much from you guys usually; however, this time I want you to do a little bit more than to just read and watch. I want you to find a video on this website, and I want you to tell me about it. Why you chose it, why you like it, and if you think I should use it on a post sometime in the future. Basically, I want you to choose your own inspiration today, and let me know about it.
And seriously guys, bookmark it. This is really going to be one of those websites that you’re not going to want to forget about. I found it months ago, and it’s taken me a fair bit of the weekend to find it again. Well, to find it and watch a bunch of videos…
Let me know what you find!
: )
PS – in case you just skipped through that whole post because you were only looking for a video, go back and read what I put. Or, be really lazy, and just go here:
Ok, so I am feeling a little bit ill and, following on from Wednesday, I don’t really have much else to add to that point. Thing is, I’ve become a little bit paranoid lately that I am just going to end up saying the same thing over and over again, and I don’t want to do that. For one, I hate repeating myself, and for two, you guys don’t want to read the same thing – you’ll switch off and you might never come back (and none of us want that, do we?)
So, I’m going to keep it short and sweet. On Wednesday, I talked about seeing the world.
Today, I want to show you the people from all over the world. The guys in this video come from completely different places, have different backgrounds, speak different languages, and I’d be pretty surprised if half of them have even met.
But even with those differences, and the miles and oceans that separate them, they’ve all come together to create something really fantastic. Listen to it – if these guys can come together and make this with all of those barriers, who knows what you can do.
So, I maybe lied a little bit last week. Well, not lied as such, but I was maybe a little bit misleading. Although I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life, there is one thing that I know that I want to do, and that is see to the world.
You see, I took a gap year just before I started university. I mostly planned on just working full time throughout that year so I could fund it and I wouldn’t have to be rely on Smart Price food and Supernoodles for three years, but it was always my dream to go travelling (like my Grandad did. I’ll talk about him more on another day). It was always a pipedream and I suppose, in some ways, I never really thought it would happen… not for a long time, at least.
Anyway, the money started coming in, and I didn’t really spend all that much because my parents didn’t ask for rent and I didn’t go out much. After a couple of months, I saw there was a fair bit in my bank account, and I dared myself to dream a little bit more. Then, on a Saturday in December 2007, I was shopping with my mum and I had decided to go into STA Travel to pick up a few brochures and ask a couple of questions.
I came out with a booked flight to New Zealand in two months time, on my Grandad’s birthday.
I suppose this guy was similar; not massively, but he still took a chance on doing something that he wanted to do, and that’s why I admire him. He used to be a computer games programmer, and after his company approached him to help develop the game Destroy All Humans, he decided that he didn’t want to keep doing that for the rest of his life; especially not games about “killing everybody”. So, although a little while before he must’ve thought his dream of seeing the world was too far away, he quit his job and boarded a plane.
A lot of you have already seen this video, but that doesn’t make it or what he did any less brilliant. Seriously guys, if you have the same dream – or any dream, for that matter - and you think there’s too much in the way and holding you back, then do yourself a favour: Stop listening to the doubts, and just do it.
I bet it was the best decision that Matt ever made. I know it was mine.
Welcome to another week of videos and good cheer, people!
Today’s blog, I thought I’d keep nice and simple. For starters, I’m aware that there are more than two people reading this blog now (even though only two people are following me). Seriously guys, make a Google account and let me know what you think of this; I’d really like to get some feedback on what I’m putting here, and how I can improve it. Furthermore, I’d really like to get a nice little archive of videos, and I always love finding something brilliant and new. Sometimes, you don’t find these things unless other people show you them.
Anyway, if you don’t want to make a Google account, or you’ve forgotten your password to it or you have another reason not to be able to follow me, then please, email me:
On that note, let me give you a video that is about keeping your mind open to new things. There really are some things in life that you don’t find because you’re not looking for them. There’s a lot of things in life that sometimes you don’t get to see…
So, I wanted to carry on a little from Wednesday’s blog, because I realise that there’s another side to what I was talking about.
On the one hand, Wednesday’s blog was about not having to worry about making a decision when the pressure was on you from other places. On the other, you might be stressing out because you want to make an all important decision in your life, or you want to make a change, and you feel as though you don’t have any options to take. You might feel like that you can’t do this or be that because you don’t have something in particular.
If that’s the case, I want to tell you to look at what you do have, and be positive about what you have. I had a conversation today with a friend who had a very interesting statistic. As a student, with theoretically a £3000 annual income, we are still part of the richest 10% of the global population.
All I’m saying is be thankful for what you do have, and be positive about it.
There is plenty that you can do in the circumstances that you’re in.
You’ve just read that and I know what you’re thinking; and you’re right, I don’t know who you are or what kind of situation you’re in. But I think it’s safe to assume that, no matter who you are, you probably have much, much more than you give yourself credit for.
Just listen to the song I’ve put up today. Not only do I want you to listen to the lyrics, but I just want you to see how much Nina Simone loves being on that stage. Look her up on Wikipedia; she hasn’t exactly had the easiest of lives, but she went out there and she made sure that she did what she wanted to do.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
… I think it was him that said it, anyway. I’m not sure if it was specifically him, but I know it’s from the movie. I haven’t actually seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off yet, but I do own it on DVD, so I will get round to it one day… If you have seen it, how good is it? Is it worth it?
Sorry. Anyway the point is that I like the quote, and I like it because it’s true.
The thing is, like Ferris, I’m a student. And as a student (in my last year, nonetheless), I’ve been having an awful lot of people lately asking me the same question.
“What are you going to do when you’ve finished?”
The answer to that question, honestly, is that I don’t know; and that doesn’t go down too well with many people (especially the older generation, who usually think of students as drunken tax dodging hooligans and then assume that I’ve just been having a good time the last three years). Sure, I could make up some crap about how I want to be a teacher, or I’m going to do a Master’s degree, or I just want to settle down and have kids and maybe take a work from home course in Child Psychology or Bookkeeping & Accounts like the advert says. I’m not calling it crap because I don’t want to do any of those things; I just genuinely don’t know what I want to do.
And to be honest again, that doesn’t worry me.
Just because I don’t know where my ultimate destination is, it doesn’t mean I don’t have any direction. Even though I don’t know where life is taking me yet, I’m just enjoying the journey; and from what happens in that time and the paths that my life takes, that’s how and when I’ll decide what I want to do. Not because I feel the pressure on me to make a decision, and certainly not because
This video puts it pretty perfectly. Life is like a music composition. You don’t listen to music to hear the first and last note, you listen to it for the in between. For the ups and downs, for the crescendos, for the quiet notes that build and build and build into something spectacular.
Sometimes you just need to stop thinking about the destination and enjoy the journey. Don’t let the in between parts pass you by.
So, as some of you might be wondering (or probably guessed), my name isn’t actually Hedwig. I’m not keeping anything secret, and I have nothing against my actual real name – to be honest, I quite like it. But for the record, I’m not going to share it with you; the way I see it, you’re reading this blog for what I’m writing about and what I’m showing you, not for who I am. Anyway, the reason that I chose the name Hedwig is for the person in today's video.
For some of you, you may recognise this person as a fictional German transsexual. For another portion of you, you’re disappointed that it’s not Harry Potter’s trusty pet owl. For everyone else, you’re probably thinking “WTF? What the hell is and what are you into, you freak?!"
However, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is one of my favourite movies, and it never ceases to make me smile or put me in a good mood… or, for that matter, inspire me. The entire film, while being a musical spectacular and full of sexual content, is about finding yourself, and being comfortable with who you are and what you want to be – even if you don’t know what that is yet. Overall, it’s about being happy. And this is exactly what I want to do in this blog.
So anyway, I could go as far as recommend that you watch this movie and hope you feel the same way as I do about it. You might not though, and the last thing I want to do is lose your respect by commanding you watch a film about a he/she with botched-up genitals. However, today’s video is going to be from the movie, and it’s little theory about what love is and how it came to be. I hope you enjoy that, at least.
FYI – The origin OFThe Origin of Love comes from Plato’s Symposium. If you like ancient philosophy, by all means, put it on your list
If you’re continuing on from yesterday… welcome back to the blog! If you’re new, then read my first blog from yesterday to see what this is all about.
Today I just wanted to spread a little bit of happiness. It’s Friday after all (as I’m publishing this it is, anyway), so it makes sense to put up something that will give you a good feeling for the weekend.
So, this video... I think this video sticks with me because I know that a little bit of kindness can go a long way, and that kindness doesn’t have to come from the obvious places, like your family or your closest friends. In some ways, having a complete stranger reach out to you can mean even more, because they’re the ones that have no obligation to you. They don’t have to ask how you are, or even look at you, but they do it anyway. Yeah, maybe they are just bored… but maybe, just maybe, they do actually hope that everyone else is having a good day.
What I’m trying to say is that no matter how bad your day is, or how rough things might be going, sometimes it means a lot for somebody, anybody, to be there for you; even if they have no idea what you’re going through or even who you are, just having someone in the background (or, in this case, the middle of the street) saying “Hey, I’m here if you need me” can be enough to cheer you up.
You can ignore them if you want – hundreds of people must’ve walked past these guys without a second thought – but I bet that at least 90% of them looked back on it at some point later that day and it made them feel that much happier, and made their day just that tiny bit brighter.
So anyway, today I just wanted to show you something that would do just that. Hey, who knows – it might make you want to spread the happiness around a few random strangers too.
I always wanted to start a blog. However, the problem was that I never knew what to write a blog about. I kept asking myself a ridiculous amount of questions:
Did I have a real hobby that I could write about almost every single day and keep people interested?
To me, no. I mean, I wrote stories, I live to write stories, but I didn’t want to be so self-absorbed as to put all my work up and ask random people who didn’t give a crap for feedback. Especially when all of those that would comment wouldn’t give me any actual criticism, they’d just say “Hey, that’s really cool, but I’m only commented on yours so I can get you to read my blog in return!” … Especially when I’d probably end up doing the same thing to other people, too.
Was my own life interesting enough to write about and basically create a diary?
Probably not. Besides, the last thing I wanted to do was keep a diary for everyone to see. Not that it would actually have anything on there. Most days would consist of the same routine over and over: a mix of surfing the internet, pretending to do work, writing some kind of fiction, and then sleeping; with the occasional movie or social interaction thrown in here and there.
No matter what, I couldn’t think what on Earth I could possibly write anything about.
So, I asked myself something else; something which actually meant I had to find some direction and give all of this some actual purpose. I had to think about not what I wanted my blog to be about, but rather what I ultimately wanted it – and myself – to do. And that answer was simple:
I want people to be inspired. And to smile more. And laugh more. And think more. And realise that in a world filled with depressing news stories, cynical moaning and generally negative views on the universe and everything, there really is some good in it. Furthermore, I wanted all of those things for myself too.
So, this is the deal. From this day on (and hopefully everyday), I’m going put something up that is going to make you feel something. And I’m going to chime in with my own views on the subject, or a little bit of an explanation, or some random story as to how I came across it or just a little something about myself that perhaps has something to do with it.
It could be a video, a picture, a poem, a story, a news article... Anything that you can find in the time it takes to click…
… and it could make you feel happy, thoughtful, inspired, or just make you feel a little warm inside so you think to yourself “Yeah, this world ain’t so bad after all.”
The put it shortly and sweetly, I want to brighten your day. Feel free to brighten mine by telling me your thoughts on the subject, or just generally your thoughts on life in the little comment thing at the bottom. Or recommend some things that I could use in the future!
So, to the First Day of this blog. To the First Day of the rest of our lives. And this little video just goes to show you that all of us, all kinds of people, have a common ground. Have a think about the question, too; what would you want? If you want to, let me know.
