Random Musings of a Technohippy

One of the blogs I follow is by a remarkable young lady, named Jill Homer, living up in Alaska who’s feats of endurance cycling make my triathlon exploits seem like sunday afternoon outings. She has cycled the course of the Iditarod dog sled race, more than once. This summer she cycled the Great Divide mountain bike route from Canada to Mexico (2,700 miles) in an astonishing 24 days. She has a wonderful approach to life that I admire greatly, but today she posted a comment that stopped me in my tracks because it resonated so much with how I currently look at my life.

“I don’t want to ever become the kind of person who doesn’t dare to fail and fail spectacularly. I don’t ever want to be unwilling to approach the unknown. I don’t ever want to live a life free of risk.”

Too often we are afraid to attempt things because of worries over how we might appear to others or too ourselves. It’s a timely reminder and one that I intend to write out and put up on my notice board. Thanks Jill, for reminding me of how important that is.

This isn’t new, but I just ran across it the other day and it seemed relevant and interesting, especially where he says the Whole Earth Catalog (1967) was “…like Google in paperback”: Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement speech in 2005. Following is the last part of a very short speech:

“When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Thank you all very much.”

Well after 3 days of setup, the festival opened. Our section, I have to admit, looks great and we’ve received a whole load of compliments on what we built. We had glorious sunshine until yesterday when the heavens didn’t so much open as just slowly empty. I stood in the rain at midnight, listening to the Levellers in the mud. A perfect glastonbury moment. Mind you, when did they get old? Last time I saw them was 17 years ago. We’re of an age and it was something of a surprise to see them all grown up and now one of the fathers of festival music.

They may have got older, but the invective is still there and bouncing away to the encore of There’s Only One Way was glorious. I retired to my bed and listened to the rain.

I’ve taken a few photos, not many though and only on my phone as I’ve not dragged the big camera out yet. lI forgot to set up a feed from flickr so you’ll have to visit directly to see them, address is in the previous post.

Right, the sun’s come out so I’m off exploring, catch you all later.

J

Isn’t falling on me

I’m up in the hills about an hour outside Seville, at a wonderful retreat called Trasierra. I’m working for in-spa.co.uk as one of their massage therapists in the sunshine. It’s glorious weather here and doing me the power of good.

Just like the guests I’m detoxing, eating fabulous healthy food, going on hikes and doing some exercise. Unlike the guests I’m not lying in the sun relaxing in between all that, I’m working my, unworn, socks off giving rather a lot of deep tissue massages each day. The clients are a mixed bunch, mostly alpha females, all with good jobs and large disposable incomes. Over the last few days they’ve relaxed, refreshed and it’s been great fun getting to know them all.

The rest of the team are all first class, we were introduced to the guests as the very best of our kind in the business, which felt great. Apparently I’ve had nothing but good feedback from everyone and to be able to stand together in this sort of crowd of personal trainers, nutritionists, therapists etc is a quiet vindication of the years I’ve been working at this. I feel very humble here, but at the same time really quite proud.

I’ve managed to catch up on some sleep when not working and I’m looking forward to the long hike we’reall doing together tomorrow. A few more days then it’s back to the reality of London, but only for a few days then I head off to Glastonbury for a week helping friends build an art project in the green fields. I have another week out here in July and I’ve been asked if I’m available in August if they need someone for then. I said yes.

So much happening, it feels a bit strange after the last few months of treading water. Be interesting to see where it all leads over the next few months.

T’ra.

Ok, so I’m not getting paid for it (yet), but it’s proper writing for a real technology blog.

techwinter.com

Basically I get to write whatever I like that interests me on the subject of technology, with a focus on mobile technology, as long as it’s reasonably in depth and not just ‘ooh look, someone’s got a new shiny coming out’. I’m hoping to post every couple of weeks which should give me time to come up with interesting subjects and to write more than just a paragraph or two. I think it will be both challenging and interesting and will at least get me thinking more about my writing. Who knows where that might lead.

Here I am again, with a new blog and a few ideas for posts to put up. Eventually this will get transferred over to my main website, but until that’s sorted out I’ll leave it hosted here. Feel free to add comments to anything you see but please remember this is my blog, and my ideas, if you don’t like them, well, tough.