Blogging's a Fine Art

Diogenes recently interviewed me on “the fine art of blogging.” I love the internationality of this interview because Diogenes appears to be a world citizen - interested in commonalities across all cultures. Blogging really brings peoples across the world closer - and Dio's blog shows how it can be done.

Interestingly, “Dio” wanted to know why and how I blog. My first inspiration came when Dr. Ellen Weber, with whom I work, began to blog. She was so enthused with blogging she couldn’t stop talking about the joy she found. That stirred me so much that I thought I’d like to begin a blog, too...

You might enjoy reading the rest of Dio’s interview at Quasi Fictional.

What inspired you to begin blogging and what inspires your blogging now?

Google Vision With The Grande Phone App

A future gadget ?

Wow, what's this ?

It's a concept developed by UK designer Callum Peden.
''Branded'' as Google Vision features a handset-type device that opens out to reveal a retractable flexible screen.

Callum envisages WiFi access , GPS, image recognication features etc.
Nice try. But if you take in the account what Andy Rubin did with Android software that is now part of Google Inc, things can get more interesting ;))

Still, I don't think Google is acctually building mobile device.
They are in the software and media business .

So, my guess is still that Google will build UI software platform for mass market mobile phones .

The Grande Phone App is only my fictional name for Google's suite of apps that will include Search, Gmail, Maps and Gtalk etc co-developed with MNO, handset makers and advertisers.

Just like Dr. Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, once said;

Your mobile phone should be free," Schmidt told Reuters. "It just makes sense that subsidies should increase" as advertising rises on mobile phones.

Maybe Blyk is onto something after all.

Celebrating Bloggers Who Use More Intelligences

When I attend sports events and folks make a great play everyone celebrates. In my journey around the blogosphere in the last couple of weeks, I noted intriguing ways bloggers get more of their multiple intelligences up and running. Here're the posts I'm celebrating this week...

Logical Mathematical Who would have guessed that the height of the ceiling where you work can affect your creativity and focus. Frank Roche shares new information from the August issue of the Journal of Consumer Behavior:

"When a person is in a space with a 10-foot ceiling, they will tend to think more freely, more abstractly,” said Meyers-Levy. “They might process more abstract connections between objects in a room, whereas a person in a room with an 8-foot ceiling will be more likely to focus on specifics."

How might you make adjustments for more focus where you work?

Interpersonal or Social Intelligence David Armano practices what he preaches about conversations. In fact, David believes that we can't participate well in conversations without being willing to be quiet and listen. If we go back far enough, according to David, the conversation virus began to spread...

If we are to give credit—it belongs to the first individual who decided to listen before choosing to speak (or grunt). Now all we have to do is unlearn some of the things we've been taught as professional adults and move forward.

David models great strategies to provide voice for others in your blog. What strategies do you use to create more voice for your readers?

Naturalistic Intelligence Most of us may not realize that we're contaminating our home environments even more than the world outside our door. Check out GreenBurbia's post on common household items that are hazardous to your health. What an eyeopener!

Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence Story Brings Brands to Life. C.B. Whittemore shares depth found in the art of story. Here's just a quick overview...

S-tudy the audience
T-ailor the experience
O-rchestrate the details
R-elate
Y-ield long term relationships

There's so much depth here that you'll gain great new strategies by checking out the details.

Spatial Intelligence Scott McArthur shares an amazing visualization tool and tells us about its capabilities....

The categorisers have thoroughly sliced the categorising! For instance, they've color-coded their categories: data,metaphor, concept, strategy, information, and compound visualisation techniques. As if that were not enough to spark your brain, the creators also provide clues as to whether the model works best for convergent or divergent thinking, and whether it is more for an overview vs. detailed perspective.

Play with this one - it really delivers!

Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence Bob Glaza's now in training for a Bike Ride Across Iowa. Bob last reported that he had 300 miles under his belt. On another note last weekend Ellen Weber and I participated in a Rotary District Conference golf tournament along with Ruth Cronkrite and Maureen Hall to place first in women's competition. When exercise is fun it's so much easier to get my heart pumping harder! And, of course, that supplies the brain with needed doses of oxygen! That's a real secret for people who want to keep their noodle at peak performance.

Intrapersonal Intelligence When we dream, we need to connect to realities, too, according to Joanna Young. She's making some of her goals reality by going for a two-week getaway at a book festival in Scotland. Now why didn't I think of that as a great way to enhance my writing? Hmmmm.....

Musical Intelligence Want to fine tune your blog with some upbeat sounds? You might enjoy Jeremy Jacobs' jazzy playlist to move your brain waves fairly fast as you write your blog post today.

So many of you are tapping more brain in your blogging... I hope to catch you at your best and celebrate your unique ideas with others.

Procrastinated? Timing's Just Right to Save Bucks for SOBCon07

Have you procrastinated about attending SOBCon at Chicago's Hotel Sofitel May 11-12? Just think... you can find last minute airfare at reduced rates. Right now is perfect timing to follow through and save bucks. Now that's using the old noodle!

And you gain a million dollars' worth by attending...

1. One thing about SOBCon that intrigues me . . .to discover what people like Liz Strauss, Jim Walton, Drew McClellan, Lisa Gates, Easton Ellsworth and Tammy Lenski are really like.

2. They better have plenty of activities because I like to be engaged rather than sitting. From what I see in the advertising, it looks like they plan to deliver!

3. The one thing I would have to bring to SOBCon... new discoveries about how the brain works and strategies to tap its rich resources.

4. The perfect location for SOBCon 08 would be near a golf course as Ellen Weber suggested.

5. One reason to go to SOBCon is to pick other peoples' brains to gain strategies to improve my blog overall.

6. At Live Open Mic Night at SOBCon, it would be hilarious to share humor about blogging.

7. What I wish I knew about SOBCon is ...I'd have to say with all the great advertising and people sharing what's on the agenda ahead, that Liz and the crew've really put out the scope of the conference with excitement.

Ellen Weber tagged me share my thoughts on SOBCon07. Now's just the right time to sign up if you haven't done so... No more procrastinating!

Magazines to Push Thinking

What we read reveals a lot about us because it influences how we think. For instance, "believing something is true," according to Tulving, "results from the accumulation of information over time, is largely context independent, and has been ascribed to the semantic memory system." I choose magazines with latest ideas and information to push my thinking. So here goes...

Scientific American Mind - provides some of the latest insights about how the mind functions and how that affects us.

The Artist's Magazine - highlights articles on art trends and features new artist's work.

PC Magazine - provides tips about software, PC's and hardware.

The New Yorker - gives very different views and pokes fun at bureaucracies.

Prevention - proactive ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

I generally choose Time or Newsweek when in a doctor's or dentist's office because they give an overall update from so many areas.

In addition I read many books. Here's a few I'm reading currently - The Message, for one more day, If Minds Had Toes, Poetry 180 and The Yoga of Drawing

Rob Watts and Steli Efti tagged me for this Magazine meme. And, now I'm tagging Drew McClellan, Ben Yoskovitz, Hsien Lei, Nancy Friedman, and Gavin Heaton. Plase post a link back to my magazine post.

What magazines do you enjoy most. Go ahead and join the magazine meme if you wish and be sure to tag me.

Mobile User Experience to be debated

People's forum for open, calm discussion. London. Today. Tomorow. No hype.

There is constant need for better mobile interfaces and interaction. People from mobile telecom industry are gathering in London and talk about mobile UIs .
It's the first ''manifesto statement'' I've seen in the mobile space .

Sort of guide and creative thinking highlighting the key issues in mobile user experience. Read a conference blog.

One Last Message...Love

According to the Urban Monk, the blogosphere is coming to an end. If I had just one last post, what would it be? What would I want to leave as my legacy?

Love... wide and deep, infinite and all-encompassing.

Paradox of love is that the more I give it to others the more it seems I have received... Even if you give love and it's not returned, your brain fills with serotonin, a hormone of well being. The giving of love brings well being.

Power of love is expressed in actions and not just words. For instance, if I show grace and mercy to an enemy I gain more than I can through revenge. Though another person's intentions toward you may be bad, and causes cortisol to fill your brain, you can begin to turn that around by finding a new solution...a "where to from here" approach as you walk away from it and start afresh. For example, Terry Waite, a journalist held captive in Lebanon forgave his captors for taking away five years of his life. He resumed freedom with new vigor rather than stewing in the juices of wrongs. When cortisol fills the brain, it takes years off your life and leaves you susceptible to disease.

Celebration of love brings people together in ways that spills happiness to all. In events such as the first words, the first steps and smiles to graduation, marriage and career to the way we choose to face our final days to bless others around us demonstrate how powerful love is in our lives. These celebrations fill us with serotonin a hormone of well being.

Love for people in the wider world If you're fearful of people unlike you or if you hear rumors about groups of people, ask what you can do to change your assumptions about others since they're likely not true. Many volunteer to care for the wider community.

For instance, I belong to Rotary, which I joined because I want to give "service beyond self." Many Rotarians help meet needs of people in the inner city. I work on a camp board that provides a camping experience for special needs children. By participating in these activities and others, our fears of others soon vanish and we build new respect for many people in the community. Through gifts of Rotarians, polio has virtually been eradicated across the world. Rotarians "build good will and better friendships."

Love for the Natural World We've inherited a very beautiful world. We demonstrate love the natural world by being a good steward of what we received. In this way, we share that bounty with future generations.

The Message of Love a contemporary rendering of the Bible from the original languages by Eugene H. Peterson, provides the goals I have and they reveal the true nature of love in very majestic language...

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure int the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

To love well takes a whole life's journey and I keep learning more! But be a little easy if I slip up and I'll do the same for you!

Cody McKibbean tagged me as part of the Blog Apocalypse meme. If you want to participate in the Blog Apocalypse meme–Urban Monk will give $500 to charity!! Anyone who wants to participate is welcome–just link to my post here, and link to this page that tells you all about the Blog Apocalypse meme.

STEP ONE
The blogosphere is ending. No more blogs. Blog apocalypse. The Internet is still working, the world is fine. But you can’t write anymore. Write your last post. Make it a good one. What is the reason you blog? What is the last gem of knowledge you want to leave? What do you want to be remembered for? Who are you? What is the meaning of life? Haha…well not exactly but you get the point. Pour your heart into it.

I'm tagging Mike Sansone, Liz Strauss, Rob Watts, Starbucker and Ellen Weber because I'm curious about what they'll develop.