Friday’s Motivational Inspiration

1. Steal like an artist.
2. Don’t wait until you know who you are to start making things.
3. Write the book you want to read.
4. Use your hands.
5. Side projects and hobbies are important.
6. The secret: do good work and put it where people can see it.
7. Geography is no longer our master.
8. Be nice. The world is a small town.
9. Be boring. It’s the only way to get work done.
10. Creativity is subtraction.

I stole this from The Instructables Blog, who in turn borrowed it from How To Steal Like An Artist (and 9 other things nobody told me) by Austin Kleon.

Time to get on and make something this weekend!

Bee-ing on time

I’ve been fascinated by bees for many years.  Whether it has been friend’s hives, or just hives I’ve come across when on walks out and about I’ve always loved the hum and the single mindedness of bees.  Growing up in rural Warwickshire bumble bees were a common occurrence in the garden, and my parents orchard would buzz to drunk bees and wasps in the autumn as the late arrivals took advantage of the fermenting wind-fallen apples.

Today I’m finally taking a step towards a further understanding of bees, because today I start my bee keeping classes.  This is a beginners course being run by the Bee Keepers Association of Northern Virginia and every Saturday for the next eight weeks I’ll be dragging myself to a classroom bright and early to learn the fundamentals of this ancient craft.

I’ll post more as the classes progress, and who knows… maybe by autumn I’ll have honey of my own!

We will remember them

For their sake, wear a poppy and please give generously

It is Remembrance Day, and once more after a week of explaining to coworkers why I am wearing a poppy I will be taking time to pause for two minutes in the November sunshine to think of those serving overseas, and those who never came home.

I will think of my great-grandfather’ service in the Royal Lancers and the Warwickshire Yeomanry, and of my grandfather’s quiet words about friends of his that didn’t come home.  I will think of my grandmother telling of watching Coventry burn, and of my brother recounting his experiences from Iraq and Afghanistan.  I will think of my friends currently serving overseas, and of their friends, some of whom never made it home.  I will think of all of those who put their lives in peril so that we may live as we do today.

I will recall the words of the Ode of Remembrance from Laurence Binyon’s poem “For the Fallen“:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

From Laurence Binyon’s poem “For the Fallen“, the Ode of Remembrance

To learn more about the new ways you can support The Poppy Appeal click here

Jack Straw’s secrecy motive

Just a day after Jack Straw uses a veto to block the release of the Iraq Minutes to the British public we learn of yet another occaision where what Jack Straw says and what Jack Straw does are not necisarily the same thing.

The Telegraph – John Hutton admits terror suspects were handed over for rendition

Just read the following:

In a statement to MPs that will reignite the row over “extraordinary rendition”, Mr Hutton said officials had been aware of the incident in 2004.

The case was also featured in papers that went in front of then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Home Secretary Charles Clarke.

The disclosures contradict Government claims that Britain has never been complicit with extraordinary rendition, whereby detainees are transferred to states where torture is legal.

Now do you still believe Jack Straw or any member of the current government should be able to veto the release of their records and minutes?

In case you are still not convinced, remember this is the same Jack Straw who, along with Tony Blair, catagorically deny to parliment and the British public that American Extraordinary Rendition flights had ever used British airports or military facilities, only to have David Millband contradict him completely in the spring of last year!

The Telegraph – British airport used for US rendition flights

So in a few short years  New Labour has managed to say “we’re all for freedom of information, we do not allow extraordinary rendition, and we do not help others carry out extraordinary rendition” party and do completely the opposite!

Merry Christmas!

To all who read this, I hope you and yours are enjoying a day off work, and can relax today!

All the best, me!