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

Fleden-WHAT??

By Lawrence Wm. Goldfarb ©1993, 1994 All rights reserved.

It was about to happen, that moment, that dreaded moment. I was at my friend Marcello’s birthday party; I had been enjoying the Brazilian music when one of the other guests engaged me in a friendly conversation. We discussed the usual things, such as the weather and how we each knew the guest of honor. Peter had just finished telling me about his research in engineering when it happened:

“What do you for a living?”

“I’m a Feldenkrais®teacher.”

“Felden-what?”

“Feldenkrais. It is a method of movement re-education, named after the man who developed it, Moshe Feldenkrais.”

“Felden-Christ?”

“Close, but not quite. It’sFeldenkrais:
F - E - L - D - E - N - K - R - A - I - S.
It rhymes with rice.”

“Feldenkrais?”

“Exactly. The Feldenkrais Method is a way to teach movement. I work with people who have physical limitations, such as chronic pain or neurological problems, or with people who want to improve their performance, like actors, musicians, or athletes. I also teach classes in the physical education program at the University.”

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JR: 2011 TED Talk Winner

This is an inspiring presentation by the winner of the 2011 TED Prize.

Khan Academy: A new paradigm of education.

Salman Khan started out tutoring his nieces using Skype. After some time, he decided to record some sessions for them and post them online. Over time, he began to get quite a following of these videos and realized that he had found a great alternative or supplement to traditional classroom education.

Here's a talk he gave at TEDTalks.

Here's a link to the Khan Academy.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

All Japanese All The Time

All Japanese All the Time.

A buddy pointed out this blog to me. This guy apparently learned business level Japanese in about 18 months.

From the blog:

"I am your host, Khatzumoto. I learned Japanese in 18 months by having fun. In June 2004, at the ripe old age of 21, all post-pubescent and supposedly past my mental/linguistic prime, I started learning Japanese. By September 2005, I had learned enough to read technical material, conduct business correspondence and job interviews in Japanese. By the next month, I landed a job as a software engineer at a large Japanese company in Tokyo (yay!)."

I've been studying Japanese as well as other languages for years, so once I got over my jealousy, I gave it a good read and there are tons of great insights and resources for language learning and working toward any goal.

I recommend it highly.

Pecha Kucha: 20 Images x 20 Seconds

Pecha Kucha is a very cool ritual event that is now taking place in cities all over the world.

From site: "PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.

It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace."

What I love about this ritual is being exposed to an incredible density of great ideas and designs. It's what I call condensed experience. I highly recommend checking out the site and the event if you get a chance.

Pecha-Kucha Site