Blog Marco

Even successful people failed on their way to the top... The video uses famous American people such as Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Ulysses S. Grant. Life = Risk. Failure is a part of life and success.

Humans are vain... from Greek Mythology in Narcissus to more recent times with the Vanessa Hudgens scandal... to yourselves! In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a handsome youth who rejected the desperate advances of the nymph Echo. As punishment, he was doomed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. It is from this story that the word narcissism is derived from, which is the excessive love or admiration of oneself and is a psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem in the extreme state - but can also be used to describe the attribute of the human psyche that everyone has which is charactised by admiration of oneself. You own a mirror? Well you've got some level of narcissism in yourself. It's just normal. With Narcissus he ignored a girl who was pining for him (Echo) since he fell in love with his own image...

Humans are vain no matter where they are in the world. How does Vanessa Hudgens step into the picture? Well first of all she took photos of herself nude. Who knows the real reason for taking the photos but one reason may have been to just "have a look". She also has a tonne of other naughty candid photos, which is normal nowadays, especially with the proliferation of cheap digital cameras.

I was going through some old Seinfeld episodes when I caught this quote - perhaps the best and most comedic way to end a conversation with Telemarketers:

[Jerry Answers the Phone]
Telemarketer: "Hi, would you be interested in switching over to TMI long distance service?"
Jerry: "Oh Gee, I can't talk right now..why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you later."
Telemarketer: "Uh Well I'm sorry were not allowed to do that"
Jerry: "Oh I guess you don't want people calling you at home"
Telemarket: "..no"
Jerry: "Well you know how I feel"
[Jerry hangs up the phone]

We are the lucky ones. I've just read a news story from China about this story of a kid going to uni. It's a special story that moved me when I read it. From poverty to succeeding in university, have a read:

LAST week was the start of the Chinese academic year. Thousands of poor peasant children have triumphed over the world's most competitive high school system and taken their places at university. It can be a proud and bewildering experience. For a young man in Liaoning province called Sun Dapeng, it is time for an annual visit to his father's grave. Dapeng's father left this note three years ago before swallowing a can of pesticide: "My son, when you read this letter I will no longer be in this world, because I cannot provide for your education. Please accept my death as my apology." Dapeng's mother had died when he was young. His father was a landless peasant who slaved his guts out to earn five or 10 yuan on a good day, nothing on a bad one, hauling heavy loads despite a lapsed disc in his lumbar spine. His father had covered the school fees and protected Dapeng from manual work so he could concentrate completely on his study. But when Dapeng was offered a place at a teaching college the first year tuition fee was 5308 yuan ($851) - 100 times the old man's life savings of 52 yuan. This year the national censors have ensured there is no coverage of the student and parent suicides that greet the start of every academic year.

In Liaoning province, Sun Dapeng has just returned from his father's grave. He has just graduated from university with a teaching degree and a major in geography. Last week he started teaching at a privately owned primary school. It is hard work - he has to prepare and teach 24 lesson every week - but he earns between 700 and 800 yuan a month.

It is enough for him to soon repay the 6000 yuan student loan he eventually received from the local city government and the money he borrowed from his sister. His sister was cleaning chicken yards at the time for 200 yuan a month. Visiting his father's grave, Dapeng whispered "ku jing gan lai" (the suffering is over, I promise a better future). But the suffering will never be over. "If I had not gone to university my father would not have killed himself," he says quietly. "He was the perfect father."

We are lucky.

I was reading an article about Shannon Noll's move into the US market and I found an interesting quote by Shannon. Here it is:

What I've found is the people in the middle of the road are the ones with attitude and that sort of thing. But when you get to work with people at the top of the pile you realise there is hope; there are some decent people out there. They're not out to prove themselves to anyone.

Of course the quote is within the context of the article, which is talking about Noll's work experiences with notable songwriters in USA. But I've heard this quote a few times before, from different people about different careers, from business people to photographers. I've observed the same thing. Hmmm... something to ponder about...

Goal setting. How do you setyour goals? I thought I had it all down pat... but I guess I haven't been specific enough with my goals. Self help books keep repeating it over and over. The three key things for a successful goal. Goals need to be specific, their results quantifiable and they must have a time frame. But before you go ahead and set your goals you need to know what you really want. Once you know that you can determine where you want to be in the long term, then working backwards you set milestones - smaller goals to meet along the way. Easier said than done.

Ok So What that Family Guy plagiarises off Simpsons... It's still funny. In this installment watch the behind the scene footage of a recording of the voices behind Family Guy, a Video about Family guy and a compilation of clips about Christianity and finally another compilation trying to attach some morals to clips of the Family Guy.

The Making of the Family Guy

Family Guy vs Christianity (Blasphemous?)

Do you want to get a job in the defence forces? Want to join the RAAF? The Australian defence force has released a new job recruiting method. They imitated the US defence force by giving away free army/naval/air force games on their website. So even if you don't want to join the forces yet, maybe after playing a few shoot 'em ups or battleships and a bit of subliminal programming they can convince you to sign up.

A pagan is a person who does not acknowledge your god. Paganism is any of the various religions other than Christianity or Judaism or Islamism. Repeats of the BBC series Pagans by Richard Rudgley is currently being repeated on the ABC. He tries to connect ancient paganism culture and rituals to today's world. And he does a pretty good job of it. Very convincing. Richard Rudgley is an anthropologist who has written a book about the topic. In the TV series he re-evaluates 5,000 years of European history to outline the influence of Pagans. Originally the word 'pagan' simply referred to country dwellers but Rudgley suggests that Christian propaganda led to the term becoming associated with anything considered lewd and dangerous. It is widely known that the Christian events of Christmas and Easter were born out of pagan rituals.

Now step in Harry Potter. Modern paganism for kids. When Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, it became the most successful Harry Potter film yet. The film grossed nearly $4.1million in box office takings on its opening day. In its first three days it earned $10.55million in Australia. Certain elements in the books and movies ring true for members of the Wicca community who practise magic, says the president of the Pagan Awareness Network, David Garland.

American politics taking on Web 2.0 - on YouTube! First one is "I Got a Crush...On Obama" By Obama Girl and the second video is the answer to that video from the Hillary Clinton camp: "Hott4Hill feat. Taryn Southern"

The song and video features scantily clad actor and model Amber Lee Ettinger lip-synching to lyrics that profess her "devotion" to US presidential candidate Barack Obama.

A parody of the Obama Girl video, Hot 4 Hill involves another good-looking young American woman gyrating and cooing her affections for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The video starts with a direct reference to the Obama Girl video, which began with actor Amber Lee Ettinger calling Obama on his phone. Taryn Southern the girl in this film spends much of the video dressed in a stars and

I can't believe how fast time flies by. It's been nearly 2 years since this blog went live. From the first post on the 21st of August 2005 till now. Where does the time go? I asked myself back in 2005. Everyone is given the same 24 hours. Everyone, rich-poor, successful-unsuccessful.... everyone. It is your choice how the a time is spent. It is after all our most precious commodity. Go make the most of your time...

For all you digger fans out there you can download it from this page (Digger XP). It has been remastered and it can be played on Windows XP! But if you want the original remastered Dos version you can go here. The website also contains the recordings of the games of the world record holders - a very interesting watch! This game was made back in 1983 but I picked it up much later around 1989 when a lot of games seemed to be swapped around on those 3.5" disks. For some reason my file of Digger was named Dig Dug so I always called it that until I found out just a few months ago that it was actually called Digger. Dig Dug is actually another game but I never played that one. Digger is a simple game - get all the gems and move on to the next level before nobbin or hobbin comes out to get you. Bonus points are awarded for shooting down those aliens or getting the money or even getting the money to squash nobbin (or hobbin).

Following my addiction to the internet game Street Fighter II Ryu vs. Sagat I've found another game to waste plenty of precious time: Overkill Apache. The screencap above is my best score yet - reaching the rank of Sergeant Major Army... and I'm retiring from playing... Have fun!

Australian Entertainment Trends: More DVDs: In 2003, Australians bought 30.8 million DVDs. In 2006, we bought 63.6 million. Less Cinema: In 2003, we bought 89.8 million tickets. In 2006, we bought 83.6 million. More Internet: In 2003 5.08 Million active users. This year: 6.43 million. More Video Games: In 2003, Australians spent $751 million. In 2006, we spent $925 million. More PayTV: 410,000 in 2003. 672,000 in 2007.

I was at a seminar last weekend and they played this video on the screen to make the point that the world is changing all around us NOW. So what does the future hold for us? Well, the video is meant to make you think that if you don't CHOOSE to CHANGE as the world changes rapidly around you - YOU WILL BE LEFT BEHIND... something to ponder about as you go about your daily life... the video is entitled: "Did You Know? Shift Happens"

I feel so behind... the actual video was uploaded onto YouTube in January (2007), but the original concept was made last August by Carl Fisch, a teacher in the US. He made the video for a staff presentation. The sources, original powerpoint presentations are on his blog.