Senses working overtime #539

1 Spring rain this week

2 Reading: Lightning Striking - Lenny Kaye

Lenny writes about his choices for the ten transformative moments in Rock'n'Roll.

3 Listening: Joe Satriani's What Happens Next album

If you only want one track - try Headrush.

4 Watching: The Marlow Murder Club

Similar to The Thursday Murder Club (great books by Richard Osman, but the movie version on Netflix falls flat) - The Marlow Murder Club is a bit of fun with its quirky female leads. 

5 Inspired by: James Clear

Photo by Product Photography on Unsplash

"Use the best idea you have right now. Claiming you need to 'learn more' or 'get your ducks in a row' is just a crutch that prevents you from starting. Education is a lifelong pursuit. You will always need to learn more. It's not a reason to wait."

Overtime: 

Priest and philosopher Desiderius Erasmus reminds us of the power of concentrating on a single target:

"He who chases two hares catches neither."

Courtesy James Clear

Senses working overtime #538

1 The feeling this week is...

...not the best as I suffered my second virus of the year, leading to the week off school. Unprecedented. I can't recall ever needing five days but I did this time. I kept testing negative for covid but this virus had all the same symptoms. Weird.

2 Spring's emergence at Maple Grove

The Maple Grove tuis love this plum tree's blossom. At one point this week we watched as three of them feasted.

3 Listening: Borboletta - Santana

4 Reading: Mojo Magazine #378

5 Reading: Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

Overtime: Asher Purdy-Hodge

'Creepy I like teeth because he likes time'.

Senses working overtime #537

1 Looong working week

The PPTA teachers' strike on Wednesday and two late night parent teacher evenings either side of the strike made this seem like a fortnight. By Friday night I was cream crackered!

Today (Saturday) - I have a solid 12 hour day ahead of me marking student work. Just saying'.

2 Reading: the hut builder - Laurence Fearnley

3 Listening: Riverside - Shine of New Generation Slaves

4 Reading: Look Wot I Dun: My Life in Slade - Don Powell/Lise Lyng Falkenberg

5 Listening: WTWMC - Spring in their steps

Overtime: Emma Meakin

This week has largely revolved around my Emma discoveries on Wozza's Place. More to come next week.

Overtime: R.I.P. Mastodon's Brent Hinds.

Tragically, he died in a motorbike crash this week. His legacy is secure with an amazing catalogue of music behind him. My Mastodon reviews on Goo Goo G'Joob are here.

Senses working overtime #536

1 Crisp mornings this week

2 Reading: Fay Wray's On the Other Hand

Fay's autobiography (no ghost-written help for her) is pretty amazing. I guess, like many actors, she drifts from role to role while the human drama of her life plays out.

Her role in King Kong was one of seven films she did in 1932 alone.

3 Listening: Nadia Reid - Out of My Province

4 Watched: The Dry

5 Listening: WTWMC - Spring in their steps

Overtime: Will Ahmed (entrepreneur)

"Success is being excited to go to work and being excited to come home."

Senses working overtime #535

1 Wintery rain this week at Maple Grove

Photo by Henry Lim on Unsplash

2 Watching: News reports on the NCEA changes and use of AI in marking

I wrote about it on Wozza's Place and tomorrow will have a similarly themed post on Baggy Trousers.

3 Reading: On the Other Hand - Fay Wray

Her autobiography is pretty fine. As the blurb says on the back - she turns out to be 'one of the most astute observers of the drama and hoopla of Tinseltown'. She also had a fascinating childhood.

4 Listening: WTWMC Spring in their steps

A playlist to prepare for spring. It's full of the joys. You can follow along in real time.

5 Listening: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication

Overtime: James Clear

"You are richer than 93 percent of people. Not in money, but in time.

Over 108 billion people have lived throughout history. 93 percent of them are dead.

You have what every king and queen, every pharaoh and ruler, every CEO and celebrity of the past would give all their wealth and power for:

Today."

Senses working overtime #534

1 A week of frosty mornings

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

2 Watched: A Man Called Otto on Netflix

I loved the novel (A Man Called Ove by Swedish writer Fredrik Backman), and Tom Hanks is an excellent Otto.

3 Listened to: my collection of Procol Harum albums.

Some absolute gems in this post. 

4 Reading: Fathers - Jon Winokur

A collection of reminiscences about famous, infamous, and fictional fathers from their children, with contributions by Candice Bergen, Angelica Huston, Thurgood Marshall, Calvin Coolidge, and other notables. Five dollars from Little Red Bookshop.

5 Listened to: Rammstein - Sehnsucht

The Rammstein albums are coming up soon on Goo Goo G'Joob.

Overtime: Arthur Schopenhauer

"The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. - A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short."

Senses working overtime #533

1 The feeling this week:

Photo by Eduard Delputte on Unsplash

2 Watching: Alone Africa (season 12)

This one is dropping episodes every Friday so it's a bit painful waiting but, like all the other Alone seasons, it's good quality reality stuff.

3 Reading: Three books

Photo by Celine Ylmz on Unsplash

Full week at school means not a huge amount of time that I can devote to reading, so I am continuing to enjoy Bel Ami (Guy de Maupassant), God Only Knows (David Leaf) and the biography of Truman (it's huge!)

4 Listening: Joe Henderson - Page One

I bought this from JB Hi Fi this week - a perfect album and it was his solo debut! 

5 Reading: Mojo Magazine #377

I'm a latecomer to early to mid period Genesis. Great covermount CD featuring some seminal prog bands.

Overtime: James Clear

"There are many elements of living a good life, but the first and most foundational is to love yourself and enjoy spending time with yourself.

Go do things on your own so you learn to trust your mind and view it as a welcome companion. If someone declared, "Tomorrow you must spend the day alone" the hope is that you would reply, "That sounds like a good day!"

The person who is at ease within finds every other space larger and more enjoyable."