Senses working overtime #469

1 Back to the frenetic fast-paced work environment

Apologies if that's headache inducing - but...

2 Watching: Monk

I love whodunnits and this is the perfect show to watch after it was back to the five day rinse and repeat work cycle. We're on to season 2.

3 Listening: Bill Evans - How My Heart Sings!

Nothing better to calm the nerves before Monk

4 Reading: Scattershot - Bernie Taupin

After a promising start, I'm finding this hard going. He tries too hard to impress and the name-dropping is just sad after a while. Working week has meant little time to read it but I'll persevere.

5 Reading: Books Don't Sell - Seth Godin

Overtime: Morning habits

I love reading Thomas Oppong's Postanly Weekly articles. This one on early morning habits is terrific.

Senses working overtime #436

1 The feeling this week...

Been sick this week with a sore throat/sniffles

2 Watching: Belfast

A pretty much perfect movie. I didn't realise it was a Kenneth Branagh film until the end credits. Wonderful soundtrack of Van Morrison songs adds to the perfection.

3 Listening: Right On Time - Lucinda Williams

4 Reading: Thomas Oppong's  100 habits for a great life

5 Reading: Why we wake up at 3.00am

Overtime: 

“The art of living is to enjoy what we can see and not complain about what remains in the dark. When we are able to take the next step with the trust that we will have enough light for the step that follows, we can walk through life with joy and be surprised at how far we go.” 

 Henri Nouwen

Senses working overtime #413

1 Listening: Susan Cowsill

Loving both of her solo albums and Nanny's Song in particular.

2 Reading: Martin Chuzzlewit

3 Listening: Prince - Sign O' The Times

4 Watching: The Recruit (on Netflix)

5 Reading: Excellent article on Dark Side Of The Moon.

Overtime: 

A quote I’m pondering: “I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.” ― Daniel Keyes

Senses working overtime #410

1 Alone Season 9

We've started Season 9 of this gritty visceral show this week.

2 Birnam Wood update

I haven't had too much time to get into the book this week - loads happening - like Graduation Day, but you can read my first impressions here.

3 Lindsey Buckingham

I've had this one on repeat all week.

4 Friedrich Nietzsche on how art can help you grow as a person

5 The Wisdom of Søren Kierkegaard: Life Lessons And Principles From His Greatest Work

Overtime: A question worth asking:

‘Is this dead time or alive time?’ I like to carry this stoic question with me through my day. It breaks me out of the unhealthy mindset of choosing between busyness and boredom, and helps me think about whether I’m actually spending my time well. 

Thomas Oppong

Senses working overtime #384

1 Burning Man

One of my daughters and her partner attended this event a week or so ago. That extraordinary image is of traffic leaving for home.

2 The most important forces shaping our world

This is one terrific piece of writing - I was fully engaged! Morgan Housel writes that apart from World War 2,

The three big ones that stick out are demographics, inequality, and access to information.

3 Knowing is no enough, we must apply

4 Kaizen or 'good change' (the principle of gradual change)

5 Curiosity

Overtime: How our favourite songs can save us

Photo by Dollar Gill on Unsplash

Senses working overtime #370

1 Solitude is not loneliness

2 The importance of rest - Poet May Sarton

“I always forget how important the empty days are, how important it may be sometimes not to expect to produce anything, even a few lines in a journal. A day when one has not pushed oneself to the limit seems a damaged, damaging day, a sinful day. Not so! The most valuable thing one can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of a room.” — Journal of a Solitude

3 Proactive and reactive thinking - Thomas Oppong

4 Tarzan in real life (sort of)

(Courtesy of Swiss Miss)

5 The best music of 2022 so far (according to Alexis Petridis)

Overtime: 

"Usually, the better someone does their job, the easier it looks. You rarely realize how hard it is until you try it yourself."

James Clear

Senses working overtime #292

  1 Morning rituals

Photo by Ekaterina Kasimova on Unsplash

The summer holidays mean a change to my morning rituals - I'm going to experiment with some of these over the coming weeks. Good for my senses.

2 Morning haze

This mind and body playlist  (suggested in that list from number 1 above) is very soothing. There are thousands of these on Spotify but this one stands out for me.

3 Mozart for morning meditation

This is one of my favourite CDs at home. Number 2 above just reminded me.

4 Poem Beginning With a Retweet 

If you drive past horses and don't say horses
you're a psychopath. If you see an airplane
but don't point it out. A rainbow,
a cardinal, a butterfly. If you don't
whisper-shout albino squirrel! Deer!
Red fox! If you hear a woodpecker
and don't shush everyone around you
into silence. If you find an unbroken
sand dollar in a tide pool. If you see
a dorsal fin breaking the water.
If you see the moon and don't say
oh my god look at the moon. If you smell
smoke and don't search for fire.
If you feel yourself receding, receding, 
and don't tell anyone until you're gone. 

Maggie Smith

5 Christmas Vacation

Like millions of others, I'll be watching my DVD of this movie again in the lead up to Christmas, as the out-laws arrive.

Overtime: The morning routine (revisited with Thomas Oppong)

Senses working overtime #283

1 Why the brain forgets 

2 When the pandemic ends...

3 Rest in peace Eddie Van Halen

4 Things you can learn from people who succeed later in life

by Thomas Oppong

5 Brie Larson has a series of cool YouTube videos you could check out.

Overtime: Woodstock

Having picked up some new Woodstock soundtrack records (Woodstock 3 - a triple, and Woodstock 4 - a double album) I've been collating all my Woodstock related CDs, DVDs, record albums, magazines and books and put them in one place in The Shack (a.k.a. ARF). Oh, and I rewatched the movie again! It's still one brilliant piece of documentary film making some 50 years later kids.

Senses working overtime #162

1 Solo

I enjoyed this rollicking adventure and addition to the stand alone Star Wars back story collection. Here is some great concept art.  

2 More Solo

Watching the movie, you'd never know there were problems making it. But there were. Here's the inside skinny. Opie Taylor did good!

3 Poetry corner

All the warm nights
sleep in moonlight

keep letting it
go into you

do this
all your life

do this
you will shine outward
in old age

the moon will think
you are
the moon

Swampy Cree narrative poem
trans. Howard Norman (1972)

4 The Return of Thomas Oppong Part 1

He's never been away, just hasn't appeared in this column for a spell. He's still awesome too. Here he is on deep thinking.

5 The return of Thomas Oppong Part 2

Reading and why it is such a huge part of my daily life, by Thomas.

Overtime: Roy of the Rovers

My favourite image of the week is this one, that I used on my Wozza's Place blog. 

The story, the grace, the colour, the drawing of the keeper, the image of Roy bleeding from the panel and the fantasy wonderland of it all - I have gazed at it a lot this week!

Senses working overtime #150

1 Brain fog

Photo by Ahmet Sali on Unsplash

I have no idea why Thomas Oppong used that image for his piece on reducing brain fog, but he did. Something subtle at work I guess that escapes me right now. There's a whiff of inappropriateness to the image and that's unusual for Thomas. He always uses Unsplash free photos and they usually have something oblique to add to his piece.

So this is odd. To balance it out I offer the final image to this week's JFTT edition.

Anyway, his piece is good, so, yes, worth your time. Check it out here.

2 RIP Russ Solomon

Another week, and another hero down. Celebrate the life of Russ Solomon. Who is he? Read this.

3 Clever golden arches campaign

Here's the deal.

4 Lost in Space
Netflix look like they got the mix right, even if the promo is too long. Less is more people!!




5 Quotenik
I'm a quote fiend so I loved this repository! Love this quote of the day:

Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours.

—

Jane Kenyon

“Everything I Know About Writing Poetry,” in A Hundred White Daffodils (Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1999), 141.

Overtime
International Women's Day came and went during the week and the world spun on in its eccentric way for men and women.

Photo by Oladimeji Odunsi on Unsplash

I love this image. Strength and beauty and the enigma that is to be a women - all there! Thanks Oladimeji.

Celebrate!

Senses working overtime #133

1 Marvel rankings

Here are the new ones now that the latest Thor is out. Fun!

2 Get journaling!

Nice reminder from the consistently awesome Thomas Oppong on the joys of keeping a regular journal.

3 Apollo 15

Apollo 15 Astronaut Al Worden took this eery photo of Earth on the way home from the Moon
4 JFK 22 November 1963

Nice piece about the fiction generated by the JFK assasination.

5 Reputation
Tay Tay's new album is out and this Vox run down of her current state of being is spot on!

Overtime - 

Culture overload from now until Christmas explained by Vox!