Never, Ever Give Up.

This is a truly inspirational video of one man's journey to get in shape and regain basic functioning. It's amazing how he sticks it out when his physical situation seemed stacked against him. It points out that sometimes simply gritting it out can really help in confronting life's challenges.

I've watched this many times when I've needed a shot of inspiration to keep me on track.

Original Video on YouTube.

Ira Glass on Storytelling Part 1 of 4

Anyone who has sat down and attempted to do some creattive work can attest to how challenging this can be. In this video series Ira Glass discusses the process of storytelling and shares some great insights into what can make someone great in this endeavor. More so, he discusses how to deal with some of the more challenging aspects of this type of pursuit.

All 4 parts are filled with gems.



Original Video on YouTube with other parts.

Sugata Mitra: Child Driven Education

What happens when you leave a computer embedded in a wall in a slum?

This is a wonderful presentation on Ted.com. It's truly amazing what can be achieved when a great learning context is in place. What's most amazing is how simple these particular examples are in their setup.





Original Video on Ted. .

Pretty Cool Goals

I'm sitting next to a young woman in a cafe who is blind. She's typing on a computer and has earphones that let her know what she's typing. I know this because she asked me for the wifi password and I then watched her type it and she confirmed that it worked without looking at the screen.

Her seeing eye dog is waiting patiently under her chair. A very cute white lab that I would very much like to pet.

After I ate my lunch,(tomato soup and tomato mozzarella sandwich) she got a phone call. I'm guessing by the tone that she's talking to a boyfriend.

In any case, she mentions casually that soon she's running a half marathon. She clarifies for her partner that the half marathon is coming up soon and that the triathlon is a few months after.

Pretty cool goals.

After she hung up the phone, I had the pleasure of speaking with her. She told me a bit about her sporting pursuits. She also mentioned that she's tracking her progress on a blog. She explained that she wants to learn about tumbler, so she's using this project to do so. As we chatted some more, she told me that she is actually a tour guide. She facilitates tours of the city where everyone is blindfolded. I'm looking forward to checking this out at some point.

Before she took off, she let me pet her dog.

Eliza's Blog

Learning to Model

Here are a few videos that are taken from David Gordon and Graham Dawes' book and DVD on Modeling titled 'Expanding Your World.'






Here's a link to their site with more videos on their site:

Expanding Your World Site