Tweeting and Twittering

I've opened a Twitter account for me, myself, as opposed to some of the websites I've built and been tinkering with.

If you are interested in the sorts of things I will post, which may end up being quite similar to the sorts of things I put on Pinterest, point your mousey thing at

@MyPortfolioMind

I'm having a little difficulty with my profile image at the moment, I'm trying to sort it out via the Android app and not getting very far. Does anyone have any tips?

So that's two blogs, two websites, one Facebook account, a Pinterest account, LinkedIn and three Twitter pages. Am I missing anything? 

I'm back, but I still haven't found what I am looking for.

I've had a funny half year, after losing a pet and then some big changes for my family, somehow I really lost my way and track of time. The last few weeks have been focused on making some organisational changes in my home; moving furniture, repurposing storage, failed DIY and generally trying new arrangements. As well as repeatedly thumping my computer which is being REALLY slow.

Unlocking brain power

Now I am watching a film called Limitless in which a man takes a new drug that brings him absolute clarity, his deductive reasoning increases more than tenfold. I've yet to see the part where he finds the drawbacks but he is able to connect ideas, memories and patterns from his life to create new solutions, and a lot of money, and it is making me think.

I know I am smart, I was always smart, but I've been a bit unlucky having worked for companies that either went broke or had some other issues, so I have never really had a chance to prove myself. I've also been somewhat let down by my health which is a nuisance and doesn't really help.

I am very aware of things around me, like the guy in the film. I'm good at putting ideas together and creating new ideas from them but I am not so good at how to connect to the right people to put them into practice. I've been burned a few times; shared an idea, heard nothing back then one day the idea is on the shelves. Twenty years ago at university I wrote an essay predicting that the music business would come to see the live experience as its primary income stream, and now with the rise of filesharing my theory is proving quite accurate. There are even businesses based on people sharing the experience.

I know that in the right situations I am quick thinking, able to spot trends, aware of potential pitfalls and capable of asking all the questions that get the information needed at that moment. A little bit like the man in the film who's brain starts working at full capacity.

But somehow I can't get that on a CV and prove to a decent employer that I am the person they need.

I know that 'the right situations' are ones where I am stimulated, required to stretch my mind, a little under pressure and where I have some incentive to solve the issues at hand. I.e. situations that are not a lot like most of the paid employment I have had.

It is partly bad luck that I found jobs in the wrong places, partly a distinct lack of self belief and the confidence required to get my foot through the right door (I am most definitely an introvert), and partly a serious distaste for the mundane and repetitive. Not that I can't knuckle down, I've cleared rooms piled high with junk and turned them into orderly and accurately mapped file storage spaces, but when you keep being asked to do those tasks but have the brain power for so much more it gets to be entirely disheartening.

I've always had the sense that the solution for me is just a tiny bit beyond my reach, that if I could turn a little quicker that idea I glimpsed would come into full focus or that if I could just connect couple of dots I would have all the answers.

So the little pills the man in the film takes to make all that happen sound very appealing. Except now the film is over, I really don't want to deal with some of those consequences.

The Bard of Avon, confimed

I have written here before about my conviction that one William Shakespeare was the true author (maybe with some help) of the plays we attribute to him.

Now a book is about to be published by a number of scholars who agree that the man from Stratford not only could be, but most likely is the writer of those great works.

Championing The Bard

What better birthday gift could the Bard ask for?

It's the little things

I like this

It is a part of why I like to pass on information I find, you never know how sharing something might make a difference to someone's life and all it costs is a little time. The rewards could be lifelong.

Gainful employment

As you know I am a bit of an information junkie. I love to look up the answers to anything and everything. Whether it's how particle physics works, who Prince Blucher was, how to make sure a guitarist doesn't get his cables trapped under the drum kit or who needs to know about that recipe for jam roly poly, I want to know and share as much as humanly possible.

If you have seen my other blog you might also know I am in search of my dream job. The major obstacle being that I don't know what I want to do with my life and have no clue what job would be a dream for me.

I am, therefore, trying to imagine ways to combine the two. My craving for answers (and disseminating them) with my search for the perfect work.

I'm a bit late to create Google unfortunately, and am not that interested in programming search algorithms anyway.

Please do let me know if you know of a job that sounds like it would suit me to a T!

Social media

I've just signed myself up to Google+. Since I already use Google email and Google Blogger to write this blog it seemed like a natural next step. So far though I'm not finding it quite as intuitive as I'd liked.

So if anyone has any tips or knows of good places to find advice please let me know in the comments below.

Web privacy

Both Google and Facebook are making changes to the way they work that enable them to gather more information about you so that they can personalise advertising that appears on your screen and thus make themselves more money.
Both are free services so you are under no obligation to stick with them but you can make certain changes to protect yourself.

Change you Google settings to remove the details of your web history. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/320137

Read this article about the Facebook timeline so you understand the changes. https://www.facebook.com/notes/daniel-b-lancaster/the-timeline-faq-why-timeline-cant-be-removed-and-what-you-can-do-to-protest-it/390360994314464

Be web savvy, be web safe.

Shopping

I'm not a fan of shopping for food, I'm not fond of cooking and I have issues with a ridiculous number of foods. So a shopping trip can be very hard work - I have to read the label on everything. All the things I like have a million calories. All the healthy stuff is either going to make me poorly or will taste like mashed tissue paper!
So I set out with good intentions, honest!, but by the time I reach aisle eleven I am usually in a bad mood and grab the first cake I come across, a couple of bottles of milk and something main coursey like a shepherds pie (if there's is no onion in it of course).
Over the next few weeks I am due to have a few hospital visits and tests that I am hoping will  begin to pin down exactly which foods I have a problem with - knowing my luck it will be milk, tea and bread!

I am a member of a few facebook groups dedicated to people with a food intolerance of some sort. The recurring theme I see on them is "no one takes the problem seriously, they think I am being picky." I've had that numerous times. But some people have even had restaurants ignore their needs, leaving them in the loos bringing up the food they just ate.
So next time someone tells you they can't eat apple or any other food, don't ignore it and don't think it will be funny to grate apple into their food!

The News or the Daily Drama

Today I happened to be listening to Radio 2 in the car. In the business section of Simon Mayo's show they interviewed a person from the HPA (Health Protection Agency) who said that they had found that there was a small theoretical risk of infection from the Garra Rufa fish pedicures.
2 hours later, again in the car, I was listening to a local commercial station who get their news from Sky. They ran the same story with the words "A government agency has proved that HIV and Hepatitis can be passed on by fish pedicures". Now that phrasing gives and entirely different perspective on the story. They didn't offer any interviews with or explanations from spokespeople from the HPA, just a salon owner who offers the fish pedicure.
The first article was reasoned, calm, informative and honest.
The second was alarmist, inaccurate and probably quite damaging to the people who offer the treatment.
Imagine if you only heard the second item. You would believe that the treatment is dangerous.
Now imagine if all you listen to is inaccurate, commercial news. The whole world becomes full of evil and danger.
But who can you trust? If often seems that even the BBC is becoming more sensationalist and alarmist.
I think the answer is to read around, look around. Try to find your information from as many sources as you can. After a while you will start to recognise the ones that are alarmist and sensationalist and you will begin to tune your awareness and will recognise who to trust.
Make your mind up from the best sources you can find, don't put your faith in just one.

Information Junkie

One of the many ways I describe myself is as an Information Junkie.
For as long as I can remember I have been unable to pass any text without reading it, and rereading it, and again, even if it is just the blurb on the cornflakes packet and milk carton. (This is not to say I retain all the information.) I always pick up leaflets, bits of paper in National Trust properties, the flyers they hand out at gigs, anything off a big display of pamphlets. Articles in magazines that I clip out and put in a folder. I want to know. I can't resist. I need to know. (Sometimes I eventually get round to recycling the leaflet.)
I don't remember when I first became a sharer. These days though whenever I read something I usually think of someone who might find the information useful - not so much with my cereal box I admit - and will email it to them or write it down for the next time I see them. Just recently I sent a friend a picture of an elephant ornament you can paint - she loves elephants - and for once I got a thank you. I think most people just assume I am bonkers. Perhaps they forget that once, 5 years ago, they mentioned that they wanted to find a wim wom for their mustard mill and now they don't know why I am sending them pictures of wim woms.
Some people find it a bit annoying - "stop filling my inbox up" - but it is never done with malice. I truly believe that I might one day find the key piece of information that will really make a difference to someone's life. Part of me even believes that I might eventually stumble across something that makes the difference to my own life. Perhaps one day I may make a really important connection - like sending a picture of a helix to Francis Crick, asking Shakespeare why people breed or telling Copernicus I feel dizzy when I look up at the sun.

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Thanks to Ma for the wonderful phrase 'a wim wom off a mustard mill' to describe a thingamajig.