Showing posts with label optimism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label optimism. Show all posts

Monday, 6 February 2012

#100happy today - Music Monday

Because it's Music Monday on Twitter, Christina has asked (via the awesomeness that is @hundredhappy) what music can make Monday happier.

I'm off work today, using up the rest of my annual leave I have to take before the end of February, so am compiling a playlist of make-Mondays-better songs :)

Here's what I have so far:

Emmy the Great - Iris
Queen - A Kind of Magic
Dario G - Sunchyme
The Rocket Summer - So Much Love
Belle & Sebastien - Legal Man
I'm from Barcelona - The Painter
Ting Tings - That's Not My Name

So get thee to Youtube on your dinner break and listen to some of these gems to put a smile on your face on this bleak Monday in February!

Saturday, 4 February 2012

Review - "Piercing the Darkness: Leave a Note"

WORLDWIDE EVENT: It's happening wherever YOU ARE AT!! January's event is super easy: Leave a Note. On January 17th, take 30 seconds to write an encouraging note on a piece of paper. Leave it anonymously somewhere that someone who needs it can find it - and let destinydo the rest!

On top of a stack of cans in the grocery store? Post-it note on the bathroom mirror at work? Written on the back of your bill at a restaurant? Scribbled on a napkin and left on a bench? Scrawled on a piece of notebook paper and slipped into the locker of someone you don't know? Yes, yes, yes! All of these are perfect. The idea is to make someone smile, give them hope, encouragement...and pierce the darkness that has overcome our world.

The purpose of Piercing the Darkness is to help be a source of light in the world in these times of darkness. We do easy, simple things that help others feel a little better, and in turn, we feel a little better, too. It's a baby step towards bringing light back into this perpetually darkening world.

Each month, we have a small, simple event. Something super easy that anyone can do, anywhere in the world, to make the world a lighter, brighter place. Please join us as we spread joy, hope and love - and invite your friends and family, too! And to be invited to future events, please "Like" our page, and join our Group!



[LINK]


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I participated in this project on Tuesday 17th January and I've got to say, it was a heck of a lot of fun :)

The night before the project, I wrote out my cards and thought about where I would put them on my lunch break from work...







To my great delight, on my lunch break it was crisp and freezing cold, but there was glorious sunshine and a bright blue sky :)

I set about a random walk around the town centre and picked the spots I wanted to leave my notes. 

I ended up choosing a parking meter (because who likes paying for parking? We need to make paying to park your car better with notes!), a public toilet (I brightened up grey tiles with a sunshiney greeting card!), a table outside a cafe, and I posted one through the door of a (closed on Tuesdays) cheese shop, hehe!




 I stuck the one about growing old/up onto the carton of milk in the fridge at work (because my colleagues are legends and they deserve a smile on a Tuesday morning!)

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Here's some of my favourites from others that posted their photos of notes:

^ by @rachelpatti on Twitter




^ These three are by Emily from the Events page on Facebook

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This event took place on 17th January but there's no reason you shouldn't carry on Piercing the Darkness any day of the year - add a little light into someone's life by posting a note of your own (and then uploading a picture of it to the Facebook page!)

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Please consider "liking" the Piercing the Darkness page on Facebook - they do one event like this per month






Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Kickarse Poetry: "Invictus"

Invictus


Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

 ~ William Ernest Henley 

Stoic Henley suffered bone tuberculosis and had to have most of his leg amputated aged 17 but wrote ^ this in 1875 to defy melancholy and encourage determination within himself. What a dude.


Credit for introducing me to this poem goes to Front magazine, by the way (if you're reading this at work, be warned that if you click the link for the mag there will be bare boobies, ohnoes!) as model Emily has the final verse tattooed on her arm which is kinda cool.




Sunday, 16 October 2011

#100happy - Beautiful South - Song for Whoever

100 Happy is one thing per day that makes you smile. Feel-good ammunition for when things get tough.  For more on #100happy, see undane.co.uk or search #100happy on Twitter.



#100happy for 15th and 16th October:

  • Waking up to sunshine streaming through the gaps in the curtains
  • Bagels, sausage, scrambled egg and tea
  • A trip to B&Q with The Boy
  • Having two dear friends (and their spaniel, who is named after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer) visit our new house
  • Chatting about life, love and Manchester United in a country pub
  • Lamb and redcurrant pie with chips, cabbage and gravy
  • Real ale
  • Singing along to some inspired choices from the jukebox in the local and staying til the early hours of the morning
  • Getting a lift home from the landlord in his Jag(!)
  • Waking early and watching the rugby
  • Returning to bed for a cheeky nap
  • Sunshine
  • A mug of hot Vimto
  • Fluffy socks
  • Having no housework to do because we already did it during the week
  • Tea and ginger biscuits
  • Red berry scented candles
  • Cuddles

Friday, 14 October 2011

Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Monday, 26 September 2011

Quote of the Day - Charles Dickens

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many -- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

~ Charles Dickens



Thursday, 11 August 2011