Only by trying something new, struggling, learning, and then trying again do we improve our performance. It’s a simple matter of acclimating to unchartered territory.

A hat tip to @joshr for tweeting the article.

In the talk, Sir Ken Robinson discusses how we ‘unlearn’ creativity by becoming scared to fail. Coincidentally, I found myself thinking something like that a few days prior to watching the talk. I realised that I was scared to do anything that was ‘sub-standard’ and this was prohibiting me from practicing and developing new skills.

As the old adage goes, though, ‘don’t run before you can walk’, and this is something I keep having to remind myself.

I see other people doing fantastic work and take great inspiration from what other people create, but I also feel disheartened to know that I can’t produce what they do. I have come to accept that I don’t have to follow other people’s approaches. Creativity is about doing things for yourself in a way that pleases you.

Oft-imitated Illustrator/doodler Jon Burgerman summed it up quite nicely in a recent issue of Computer Arts magazine.

“Maybe there is some sort of doodle style, but the way I draw is just the way that I draw… I always assumed that I drew in a very bad way.”

If you try to imitate others from the off, you will only end up frustrated. Just do what makes you happy and keep doing it.

"France and England are like an old married couple who often think of killing each other, but would never dream of divorcing." — Former Europe minister Denis MacShane

Incroyable, but true … France’s 1956 bid to unite with Britain — Guardian Unlimited

Perfection is not when there’s nothing to add, but when there’s nothing to take away — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Something to apply to recording those demos, methinks!

There are plenty of people I admire, but Steve was a real hero to me, as an incredibly entertaining and enthusiastic person, but also for the fact that he seemed to take the best from everything.

At least he died doing what he loved the most, and in his home country. This quote from crocodilehunter.com by his producer, John Stainton, makes a nice summary:

His producer and closest friend, John Stainton said on Croc One today,
“The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest Dads on the planet. He died doing what he loves best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. Crocs Rule!”

BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5313078.stm

CollyLogic: What really matters…

While most people our age are dead-set on city living, we both agreed that what we really wanted was a house in the suburbs, rather than a flat in a central location. So that’s what we’ve gone for. Personally, having my own private space makes a huge difference to the way I feel at home. In our flat in Woodingdean I was constantly aware of my neighbours, and felt very self-conscious as a result. Now I feel like the personification of the saying "An Englishman’s home is his castle".

It’s been a couple of weeks since we moved in, and we’ve still plently of un-packing to do, but we’ve got the place nice and cosy, and most importantly we now have a broadband connection, which we’d become so accustomed to!

So here’s to many happy years in our new home!

Can’t wait to do it all again some time soon!

See them here: SkillSwap Slides.

It the first time I’ve given any kind of talk or presentation since Uni, so needless to say I was extremely nervous. However, with the encouragement of SkillSwap organiser Andy Budd and the ever enthusiastic web types that made up the ‘audience’, I soon began to actually enjoy myself. Being the worrisome type, I’d had all kinds of pre-event concerns – "Was the talk too niche?", "Was it too general?", "Would those in attendance know more about the subject than me?"… I needn’t have worried. Everyone there knew enough about XML to be interested, but not enough to defeat the point of the talk.

It was great encouragement when people started asking questions, and Paul commented that, during breaks and pauses, people were chatting amongst themselves about what they’d like to do with the technologies they had just been shown. Unfortunately, not quite everything went to plan, and I had to cut the presentation slightly short when a demonstration piece I’d prepared to show what can be achieved with XSLT just didn’t work. It was reliant on two things – a working web server that I had prepared on a USB key, and an Internet connection. We couldn’t get both on the same machine! Oh, well.

I thoroughly enjoyed giving the talk (I love being the centre of attention, really!), and was even more glad to hear that everyone there had enjoyed themselves, too. I can’t wait to see what the next SkillSwap brings!

The slides and a working version of the demonstration page should be available soon…