“If someone is not humane in spite of being human, what has he to do with music?”
© (Confucius quote) Oxford University Press.
Technorati Tags: Confucius, The Analects, Confucius Analects, Food For Thought, Philosophy
“Zigong asked about the gentleman. The Master said: ‘He puts his sayings into action before adopting them as guidelines.’”
© (Confucius quote) Oxford University Press.
Technorati Tags: Confucius, The Analects, Confucius Analects, Food For Thought, Philosophy
Good books are always worth being read moren than once. It gives me a clear indication of how my perspective keeps changing as I am getting older.
Confucius “The Analects” is one of my all-time favourite collection of teachings.
I have been planning to review it for this blog, but have found it too difficult a task. What I will do instead is every now and then post some of my favourite quotes.
“One does not worry about the fact that other people do not appreciate one. One worries about not appreciating other people.”
© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent. / © (Confucius quote) Oxford University Press.
Technorati Tags: Confucius, The Analects, Confucius Analects, Food For Thought, Philosophy
“TV. Is it the reflector, or the director? Does it imitate us, or do we imitate it?” (© Michael Franti / Disposable Heroes)
As much as I am against censorship and against being told what to do, the current state of television is very worrying, and I am not sure I would oppose certain shows or even channels being prohibited.
Kids grow up watching series and talkshows that do not represent real life, thinking that they do – and grow into adults who cannot think properly. They continue to consume countless hours of television, further numbing their minds and their feelings, being more and more prone to manipulation by the media and the people in power.
I am occasionally exposed to daytime TV, and what I see saddens and depresses me.
As one good friend once said: “You have to be very careful about what you feed your mind with.” Amen.
© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.
Technorati Tags: Food For Thought, TV, Television, Television Drug, Talkshows, Gameshows
Have been too busy to write any full-length posts. Do please accept my apologies…
I thought that I should at least share another one liner with you:
Judge people by their actions, not their intentions.
How true. Words are meaningless and forgettable, as Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) once sang.
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Technorati Tags: Food For Thought, Dave Gahan, Depeche Mode
You have possibly noticed that I have been pretty excited about Last.FM.
If you have been using it, you will understand. If you are into music but haven’t been using it, then you should join in on the Last.FM fun asap.
The good old record shops – where you know the salesman and know that you can trust his taste – are unfortunately almost extinct. In the country where I grew up, a once great shop had to eventually start selling crap just to survive – now 95 % of its inventory belongs to said category. In the place where I now live, your CD needs will only be satisfied if you are into the worst of the worst Top 40 and “Hip Hop” stuff. To not even mention the mighty vinyl…
Vinyl… good ol’ vinyl… I do miss the days of making proper compilation tapes (cassette tapes, that is) for mates and for girlfriends. There was something magic to it. You had to actually sit down and fully concentrate on the task at hand – or start all over if you made a mistake. Well, you had to start all over if you are a perfectionist like yours truly… I remember impressing girls with many a compilation I had put together for them. Cassette tape players are out of fashion, and it has become more and more difficult to impress them. Ha ha…
Nowadays, you put together a playlist in your iTunes. Since you’re already at it and it will most likely be listened to on a computer anyways, you might as well make use of the 700 MB on the CD-R, so you put eight, nine, or even ten hours (depending on your encoding rate) of music onto the CD. While arranging the playlist, you keep checking your MySpace, reply to some emails, accept an invitation for a chat with a friend – to finally rip the CD in the background while indulging in more online madness.
What does that have to do with Last.FM? I will go into that in my next post. I will outline for you how Last.FM works and how you can use it to your advantage.
Stay tuned. Subscribe to the RSS Feed to not miss the follow-up(s).
© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.
Technorati Tags: Last.FM, Record Shops, Vinyl, Compilation Tapes, Online Radio, Personal Radio, Personalized Radio, Personalized Radio Station, Online Music, MySpace
Whether you already are self-employed, about to open your own business, organizing an event with friends, or working freelance: a written job description is a helpful tool.
I have been self-employed for five years now, running one main business and a few other things I am hoping to build on in the future. I only took the time to write my job descriptions (a separate one for each business) last year. I feel it has helped me focus.
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine asked me to recode her website, change the product photographs, and update the text (that she would provide me with). I explained to her that I wanted to do all the tasks in one go, since that would be the most productive way for this project. The instructions from both sides could not have been clearer, so we agreed on a price. Shortly after she found out that she would be featured in a magazine, so she wanted some new pictures up immediately and the text on the index page updated, later some more photographs from her new collection added as soon as it was available. And I still had not received the text updates. I explained to her that the price she was paying was already a bargain, and that I would not do any extra work at no additional cost. Job description was in place, but had not been written down. Her interpretation of things was different to mine. Kind of goes back to my post re “Perceptions”.
Two acquaintances and I organized a few events this year, but they were not interested in sitting down and writing their own job descriptions. I wanted to be involved in those events, even though I did know then that resigning from our collective would be the smart thing to do. Needless to say, all people involved ended up disagreeing on who was in charge of what, who was entitled to which percentage of the profits, etc. (I might go into this matter in another post some time.) You live and learn.
Now working on other events with a new collective. Job descriptions are in place, plus other details of course, so there can be no argument since it is all available in black on white. And not written in the beautiful language (not) of legalese.
© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.
Technorati Tags: Lifehacks, Self Employment, Freelance, Food For Thought, GTD, Getting Things Done, Job Description, Job Descriptions
I came across this one a while ago. Really like it:
When you’re dropped in a pile of shit, so to speak, you have to decide – either add to the pile, or use it as a fertiliser.
Technorati Tags: Food For Thought
More and more I see how life and also dealing with people has an awful lot to do with perceptions.
Just recently my girlfriend said how happy she was that after all the years we have been together, I still open the door for her and let her hop into the taxi before me. I shamefully had to admit that I do this for selfish reasons: I cannot stand sitting behind the driver.
She is happy. I am happy. Both of us for rather different reasons.
© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.
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Technorati Tags: Food For Thought
Another one-liner.
Hope it will inspire you to do a bit of thinking:
If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you always got.