TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Table Mouse by TET Lately I've not been able to get a lot done in the way of my own creative projects because many of them require too much time and some kind of lead in to get excited about them. Which I imagine sounds some what peculiar to you and you may be wondering why I can't be excited about my own projects right from the get go? Most creative projects are about 5% inspiration and 95% work. That 5% is the really fun bit. It's getting the idea. Some of you reading this find the idea stage the hard part. Not me. I get ideas for things even when I'm not trying to come up with ideas. The only trouble I have is knowing which ideas are worth turning into an actual project. The other 95% is the work to bring an idea to full realization. It doesn't matter what you do, even if you enjoy doing it, some days it just feels like work. More so if what you do for yourself for fun is also what you get paid to do for other people as well. The line becomes blurre...

Several years ago I wrote an short essay titled 'Some People Dream of Becoming Astronauts' as a response to the soul crushing experience that is Job Network Agencies. In Australia, long term unemployed people are pushed through these agencies and encouraged to get any job they can. It kind of makes sense because you can't afford to be choosy when you've been out of work for months and have bills to pay. However most people have bigger dreams to do something more meaningful with their lives. Not necessarily world changing but meaningful to them. It struck me that those people would be better served by having someone help them to become 'astronauts' - as a metaphor for a more meaningful life that's going to require effort to achieve. It's maybe not the Job Agency's place to be that 'someone' but they certainly have access to resources and training options (and sometimes even funding) that can point many people in the right direction. To...

The following post is a comment I left in response to a Mashable post, Why Are People Still Buying CDs? by Todd Wasserman. I've stopped buying music, full stop (with one exception). I used to be a collector of music and would look forward to buying CDs of favorite songs as well as trying out the full albums of bands that seemed to consistently appear on my radar. I must be one of the few that enjoys buying a band's album not knowing if I'll like the songs that weren't singles. I haven't bought a CD in years with one exception... David Bowie can put out a CD and I'll buy it - don't even need to listen to the songs prior to purchase. I grew up with Bowie but all the other music it was fun to collect bits and pieces of bands from here and there as they drift in an out of view. For some reason I stopped buying CDs and collecting music as a tangible product. Other priorities I guess [or maybe because they stopped selling CD singles where you could sample ...

Serif DrawPlus X5 Image: Serif Website . There was a time when I could skim through a manual for virtually any application software in the space of a weekend and that would be all I'd need to find my way around the program from then on. There was even a time when I could work out applications based on my previous experience of using similar software. Whilst those days aren't completely gone I'm finding it harder and harder to learn new software simply because the software can do so much more than it used to. For example, I got very used to using Corel Draw 8 and the suite of tools that came with it back in 1995. I learnt to use it over the space of a weekend so I could complete a large commission I was working on for a client. I'm from the school of if it does the job then don't upgrade . Corel Draw 8 has done the job I need it for well for nearly 15 years. Plus I don't like spending money unnecessarily on upgrades - I just don't buy into the wh...

My goals whiteboard for 2010 - most of which didn't get done! As it happens the first day of 2013 is my regular day to write for this blog so I thought why not just wish all my readers a very Happy New Year! May this year be your best yet for life, love and the pursuit of happiness! Traditionally this is the time of year where I completely overlook making any New Year resolutions because you can make resolutions anytime - no need to wait for New Years. That said, this year I've come the closest I've ever been to making an actual New Years Resolution. I spent some of the last day of 2012 listing all the projects I have wanted to complete since 2010 and decided I'm going to get them done by the end of 2013. Sounds an awful lot like a New Years resolution doesn't it? Some of the projects I've been wanting to get done since before 2010. They made the cut because I had them written on a white board, as part my goals list for 2010, that still sits in my ga...