My what a decade its been, its hard to imagine almost 10 years have passed since I played in my first band in Dublin on a saturday night sometime in January of 2000. As I recall we were practising Whisky in the Jar by Thin Lizzy. Anyway enough reminiscing, heres my top 25, 25 for that is the number of favourite albums from this decade that I have, you can invent your own number.
1. Blind Vision, me/the phoenix/the cassini projekt (2008)
2. Symphonie Schizophrenique, me. (2006)
(hehehehe)
4. Kid A (2000) Radiohead
5. Permission to Land, (2003) The Darkness
6. Deloused in the Comatorium- (2003) TMV
7. Relationships of Command (2000) ATDI
8. The Deep Blue (2007) Charlotte Hatherley
9. Parachutes (2000) Coldplay
10. Black Cherry (2003) Goldfrapp
11. Ghost Reveries (2005) Opeth
12. Hail to the Thief (2003) Radiohead
13. Animals as Leaders (2009) Animals as Leaders
14. Felt Mountain (2000) Goldfrapp
15. Deliverance/Blackwater Park (2000)- Opeth
16. In Rainbows (2007) Radiohead
17. Hour of the Bewilderbeast (2000) Badly Drawn Boy
18. Grey will Fade (2004) Charlotte Hatherley
21. We Love Life (2001) Pulp
22. With Teeth (2005) Nine Inch Nails
24. Show Your Bones (2006) Yeah Yeah Yeahs
25. Turn on the Bright Lights (2002) Interpol
Need work? Trying making your own.
How do you find a job in today's economy when most companies aren't hiring and few jobs are being created? Commentator Charles Handy says the thing to do is make your own work.
TEXT OF COMMENTARY
KAI RYSSDAL: Maybe the toughest part of today's unemployment number to wrap your brain around is that there aren't a whole lot of places that 10 percent of the work force not working can go. Companies aren't really hiring, not many new jobs are being created.
Commentator Charles Handy says the thing to do is make your own work.
Charles Handy: Let's be realistic -- jobs are going to be in short supply for the next few years. Of course, it does depend on what you mean by a job.
The other day, I was having lunch with an advertising executive. He was bemoaning the fact that he had lost his job while still at the height of his powers, as he saw it. Just at that moment, the electrician who was working in his house put his head around the door. "I won't be back for a couple of days," he said. "I've got another job to fit in." In his world, a job meant a client; in my friend's world, it meant an employer.
There's no obvious limit to the number of electrician-type jobs that can exist. Or plumbers. Or accountants. The world is full of potential clients -- for something. The problem is that you have to create the something yourself, and most of us are not born entrepreneurs. Particularly if we have grown up and even grown old in institutions, moving from school to college to organization, places where work was shoved at you, yours only to pick up your shovel or pen and deal with it.
It's best to practice it young if you can. I said to my kids, "When you leave college don't get a job at first. Find someone who will pay you money for something you make or do for them. It will be good practice for life later on." But it's never too late to start, and more of us will have to, one day, now that life is longer and organizations much slimmer.
I did it. I became fed up with organizations -- grew out of them really -- and went on my own when I was 49. Cold-calling potential clients, learning to live a cash-flow life after a salaried one. It was hard at first. But I learnt to love the freedom, and the joy of working with people rather than for people. Besides, if you are your own boss, it's up to you how hard you work, or where, or when, or why.
Ryssdal: Management consultant Charles Handy is a founder of the London Business School. His most recent book is called "Myself, and Other More Important Matters."
Some low res (phone) photos of our favorite dogs on our latest cross country adventure. Sam and Milo in Flagstaff, AZ.
I've written 2 new songs-ish, getting lots of ideas popping out of nowhere. Doing an MSc atm, maybe thats feeding into the creativity based right hemispherical development of the brain.
Background:
I
bought a Buttonbush at a native plant sale this spring. Didn't know
where to plant it, so I potted it beside the porch steps. The blooms
aren't especially showy, but they have attracted several really cool,
very small, critters for me to take pictures of. Thus, I've learned to
check it out every time I ascend or descend the steps. A fading bloom
of this bush provides the setting for this Tale.
I did the school drop and checked the bush when I got home.
Getting ready to leave again, I checked on the moth.
I went down to ground level to investigate.
The Mother of All "Oh.My.Goodness" Spiders
So. I had an hour to kill while the car dealer did his thing. I'd seen a couple of yellow butterflies fluttering above the overgrown area just beyond the parking lot, so I headed that way, camera in hand.
Time for closer inspection.
A passing dragonfly (perhaps a damsel, I don't know.) caught my attention, and I turned to fire off a few shots at it.
When I turned back, she was GONE!
I took my sandal-shod feet to a spot about a yard away to continue my photo shoot.
I never did get to shoot the butterflies. They reappeared as I was getting in my car to leave. And I saw one at 3 traffic lights on the way home. :~p
And the Mama Arachnid? Wolf Spider. She doesn't look quite like the one that's most prevalent in this area, but she's a wolf spider for sure. In the grass. IN my hometown!
Acacia is Matt's brother Sam's daughter. She's just over one year old here.
