Finding my creative voice through blogging

/ Robert / 9 Comments

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For as long as I can remember I have felt a yearning to create. Conforming to the expectations of society led me to follow predictable jobs and safe paths. I directed my creative talents to cooking and cake decorating. As my confidence grew I branched out into painting and photography. More recently I have begun to write poetry. When it comes to my creations I am my harshest critic so I need objective feedback from others. I am going to share with you the steps I followed to engage critics of my work.

Creative path
I began my writing journey by creating an annual newsletter to let friends and family in the UK know what life was like in Australia. As my circle of friends in Australia grew I tried to keep in touch everyone using Facebook. I quickly realised that this was great for keeping track of photos but not much use for written work.

Next I tried Twitter, this has a much wider target group, but the 140 characters length of tweets proved even more limiting. I found salvation in the form of blogging – I signed up for an account with WordPress in September 2012. I belong to a virtual family in the blogosphere. Over 350 people around the world follow my blog. As my posts feed into Facebook and Twitter the exposure of the blog has grown to 1,925 directly linked people plus anyone else who stumbles across it while surfing the web.

No looking back
I have stopped reading the daily news, preferring instead to spend time catching up with the 500+ blogs I follow. I ‘like’, ‘comment’, ‘reblog’ and ‘ping back’ to posts that inspire me. So far I have found blogging to be the best platform for me to share my creative thoughts. Reaching an unbiased audience who is willing to provide constructive criticism helps me to grow, to improve and provides an opportunity to connect with others around the world.

Thank you for reading my blog,

Robert

Links:
WordPress
Facebook
Twitter

Collaborative Leadership is the New Black

/ Robert / Leave a comment

Author C. Rochelle's avatarA Green(ish) Life

I recently found this chart that perfectly summed up some issues I’ve been dealing with lately:

photo

Truth! The times they are a changing, and bosses who are more concerned with exerting their supreme authority than actually inspiring the best from their employees are going the way of the dinosaurs. Collaboration is key.

Rewind to the first time I was a boss: It may have been inexperience, or it may have been that I was just drunk with my new-found power, but my management style fluctuated between complete disinterest, thinly veiled irritation at being bothered with “unnecessary’ details, followed by frantic, last-minute micromanagement, and ending with a tirade of negative reinforcement. I mean, does that inspire anyone to work harder? Maybe a Willy Loman-esque masochist with daddy-issues…

Needless to say, things did not end well with that employee, and that person is probably still out there somewhere in the world hating…

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What a Difference a Day Makes

/ Robert / 4 Comments

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One of my favourite performances of this song is by Dinah Washington recorded in 1959. “Cuando vuelva a tu lado”, the Spanish original was written in 1934 by María Grever. English lyrics “What a Diff’rence a Day Made” were written by Stanley Adams later that year.

What a difference a day made, twenty four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers where there used to be rain
My yesterday was blue dear
Today I’m a part of you dear
My lonely nights are through dear
Since you said you were mine
Oh, what a difference a day made
There’s a rainbow before me
Skies above can’t be stormy since that moment of bliss
That thrilling kiss
It’s heaven when you find romance on your menu
What a difference a day made
And the difference is you, is you

My yesterday was blue dear
Still I’m a part of you dear
My lonely nights are through dear
Since you said you were mine
Oh, what a difference a day made
There’s a rainbow before me
Skies above can’t be stormy since that moment of bliss
That thrilling kiss
It’s heaven when you find romance on your menu
What a difference a day made
And the difference is you, is you, is you

References:
Performance history, Second hand songs
Lyrics, Jamie Cullum Lyrics
The flowers are from a cabbage shaped succulent in the garden

A Festival of Lights for Isis

/ Robert / Leave a comment

Isidora's avatarIsiopolis

One of the things I’ve been looking at lately is the continuity between the ancient Egyptian nature and worship of Isis and its later expression when Her religion spread throughout the Greco-Roman world.

There are many such points of continuity, in my opinion, but one that caught my attention recently is Isis’ enduring expression as a Lady of Light.

The ancient Egyptians held Festivals of Lights in which the entire town or city would light oil lamps that would burn throughout the night—entirely equivalent to our own stringing of lights at Halloween or Yule. (My imagination sees Egyptian neighbors vying with each other over elaborate displays of lights.)

The historian Herodotus (5th century BCE) writes about such a Festival of Lights at Sais, the city of Neith. He says:

“At the times when they gather together at the city of Sais for their sacrifices, on a certain night they all…

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Why the rush?

/ Robert / 2 Comments

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I normally hold off getting up to join the jostling sardine packed aisle when a flight lands. As I was sitting next to the aisle and near the front of the plane on my return to Sydney on Thursday, I squeezed myself into the melee. With a backpack and duty free bag in hand I headed for the door and alighted.

While contemplating the meaning of life during my journey on and off the travelators, I became aware of a man who had been trying to elbow his way past me on the plane. Judging by the focussed look on his face and a head down stance he seemed eager to be the first to reach passport control. Whatever, I thought and quickly forgot about him as I negotiated the SmartGate using the shiny new ePassport, property of the Australian Government.

I took my time to walk to the luggage claim area. From experience I know that the bags take a while to commence their journey around the carousel. As I approached the belt I noticed a solitary person strategically placed next to the where the bags appear. Yes you guessed it the overtaking passenger was the first person to stake his claim next to the conveyer. Why? I wondered to myself, do people feel the need to push, rush and shove past others, only to have to wait for their bags, then to queue to exit customs? The irony is that my bag came out first.