Tuesday 29 May 2012

Dilbert’s Daddy


Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

~ Scott Adams,
American cartoonist and writer

  • Born June 1957
  • Earned a BA in economics and held various roles in big businesses
  • Was a big fan of the Peanuts comics and of Mad magazine
  • Started drawing his own comics at the age of six but didn’t became a full-time cartoonist until 1995
  • Famous for creating the Dilbert comic strip        image and information from Wikipedia

Saturday 26 May 2012

and the show went on

6th February, 2010 and Sir Johnny Dankworth and his lifelong Partner and wife, Dame Cleo Laine are due to perform in concert that evening. A 40th anniversary, but Johnny had died that day in hospital.
Capture82 year old Cleo, out of respect for John, went ahead with the show and asked John’s friend Andy to take John’s role in the piece that they were about to play, because, as Cleo said,
He would have wanted to play this piece if he were here and I know that the one person that he would have entrusted it to would be to Andy ….”
It just make me think of just how important such a meaningless thing as music is. Music, in itself has no purpose other than the importance we attach to it and that attachment makes it so extremely important!
If you ever wish to invoke a memory, refer to the music that was playing at the time and watch how peoples’ state begins to change as soon as the music plays out and their memory recreates.
Yet music is timeless but so clearly leaves pegs in our timelines.
‘Sound pegs’  to which we attach emotional states and visual images.
‘Sergeant Pepper Lonely Heart’s Club Band’, played during the summer when I left school. ‘Stephen Stills’ solo album played when I was 21. The Doobie Brothers ‘Captain and Me’ had a profound impact on me when I first moved away from my home town, in 1973 and so they roll on, sounds as time pegs, each invoking emotional states from me but the biggest emotion of all … familiarity.
Familiarity because each piece of music is an old friend.
What songs or pieces of music are really important to you?
image from play.com amongst others

Monday 21 May 2012

Legal Research

RatLawyerHiResAt a weekend convention of biological scientists, Hannah, a researcher remarks to Pam,
'Did you know that in our lab we have switched from mice to lawyers for our experiments?'

'Really?' Pam replies, 'Why did you switch?'

'Well, for two reasons. First we found that lawyers are far more plentiful, and second, the lab assistants don't get so attached to them,' chortled Hannah.

Source Various

Monday 14 May 2012

Love not working

“If you find something you love to do, you'll never work a day in your life"

~ Erin Reagan 

played by Bridget Moynahan  in Blue Bloods
Series 2 episode 20
‘Working Girls’

Saturday 12 May 2012

That’s not. Is it not?

There is a strange phenomena that happens when you use negation.
For example, if I were to say to you do not think of a blue elephant, the first thing that you would have to do is think of a blue elephant, so that you will know what it is that you must not think of.
Then  you can dismiss any thoughts of a blue elephant.
Since if you had to think of it then you cannot really dismiss it. Its too late! You already thought of it.
So, actually, there is a tremendous amount of power in using negative words and negative tag questions. Is there not?
I could, for example say “I'm not suggesting that you think about this as you sleep and dream tonight”.
Firstly, I am presupposing that you will sleep and dream tonight and secondly you will have to process this so that you can dismiss it. It is a command in the form of a suggestion : “Think about this tonight”
What are the chances that you will dream about what I have said – who knows?
The point is that you had to process what I said, which makes it a suggestion.  As my Mentor Steve Crabb says: “You cannot not process what I say”
In hypnotic language, the word not becomes very useful when making suggestions.  Does it not?
Now lets consider what happens in every day life and the hypnosis that takes place naturally:
Somebody might say to you “how are you?” and you respond
”I'm not too bad”

Your unconscious just heard, ‘I am ___ bad’.
It processes that and then reinstalls the word not The ‘Auto Suggestion’ has taken place. Has it not?

So it may seem strange that one of the better things that you can do is to say
“I'm not too good”
Because your unconscious will process  I'm ___ too good, and then add not back into the mix
All of this can be a confusing process. It becomes clear when you practice it.
What may be better is to delete not from your language and always frame your words in factual statements.
“How are you?”
”I am OK”. There is NO negative auto suggestion in that answer. It  is a positive Auto Suggestion.
Is that a good idea? Is it not?
My thanks go to Frank Pucelik for this little gem!
Now for the tag question “Is it not?”.
It is a question that is tagged on to the end of a question or statement and it is designed to invoke a positive or a negative response.
“Is it not?” will invoke a positive thought and “Is it?” will invoke a critical thought – an investigation as to the truth of the statement or question and so it invokes the negative – Does it not?
So do NOT have a great day and do NOT enjoy yourself and I suggest that you NOT smile a lot today!

Saturday 5 May 2012

Seeing eye to eye

From Will and Guy's Funny Clean Jokes at www.guy-sports.com

Roger left for work on Friday morning.  Friday was payday, so instead of going home, he stayed out the entire weekend partying with the boys and spending his entire pay packet.

Finally, Roger appeared at home on Sunday night, and obviously he was confronted by his angry wife, Martha who castigated Roger for nearly two hours with a tirade befitting his actions.  Finally, Martha stopped the nagging and said to Roger, 'How would you like it if you didn't see me for two or three days?”

Roger replied grimly, 'That would be fine with me”

Monday went by and he didn't see his Martha. Tuesday and Wednesday came and went with the same results.

By the Thursday, the swelling had gone down just enough so that Roger he could see Martha a little out of the corner of his left eye

 

Will Baker

I was born in Southsea, Portsmouth after the 2nd World War had ended and I lived for most of my childhood in Portchester; Trincomalee, Ceylon [Sri Lanka]; and attended the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook, Suffolk. Sport was one of the few things that genuinely excited and interested me and I played and watched avidly.

I trained to be a teacher at Bulmershe College of Education, Reading and later at Sussex University and have taught in Paulsgrove; Leigh Park; Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico; North East Surrey and Gosport. Humour has always been an essential aspect of my teaching and attitude to life in general.

I am extremely happily married to Steve and have been since 1970 and we have two grown up children of whom we are very proud.  Will's favourite holiday destination is Les Costes, a Holiday Cottage in Pardaillan, Dordogne, France.

I am now retired and am enjoying working with my good friend and ex-teaching colleague, Guy, on our humour website.

Guy Thomas

I was born in Cowbridge, which is in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales.  My formative years were spent at the local grammar school followed by Cardiff University.

For 4 years I flirted with research into growing better plants.  What I like most about that job was part time teaching of undergraduates so I moved into mainstream education and to the teaching front line.  It was at my first school at Wakeford, in Hampshire that I met Will.