Get Shouty

.

Should is a banned word.
Personally it makes me laugh.
Professionally it raises eyebrows.

Yesterday was a Bollywood extravaganza on the Blogsphere- very ordinary ugliness, hints at machiavellian plots and threats of foul murder (I just can’t believe what’s going on over at Creating Passionate Users, Kathy is a source of great kindness and support).

….and yet….
I found Elizabeth Perry’s lovely Woolgathering site which is a wellspring of quiet vision and gentle observation. She shares her delicate watercolours everyday and graces us with her mantra: Looking, Thinking, Drawing, Being.

….and yet…
Gavin, Paul and David and a posse of good sorts joined in on a Twitter call for Marsupial Madness- and a show of what makes this community of bloggers great. They , en mass, chose to change their photo personas to the small furry creatures who inhabit my continent- a burst of fabulous silliness.

I’m a big believer that silliness and beauty outweighs ugliness.

In true American Beauty style, being ordinary is a great fear of the deeply shallow and insecure, and that fear expresses itself in many ugly ways. On the Blogshere ugliness can hide, but so many wonderful flowers bloom.

It’s a year since I started posting to Get Shouty. As it’s been such an adventure in the Hundred Acre Wood I thought I might let Pooh and Piglet have the microphone (through Benjamin Hoff) to help me describe it:

1 Blogging makes me hungry for my day:

2 Blogging allows me to listen:

“Lots of people talk to animals,” said Pooh.
“Not that many listen though.”
“That’s the problem.”

3 Blogging helps me simplify:

4 Blogging lets me know that there is no one right way right way, there is only conversation:

The Hundred Acre Wood grows for me every day- it’s my thinking spot and helps me demystify Heffalumps and Woozles. Thank you to: Gavin, CK, Paul, Mack, Sean, Emily (and all the Sydney coffee crew), Terry, Russell, Richard, Clay, Luc, Nina, C.B., Marcus, Mike, Cam, Lebowski and everyone who has visited, commented, inspired, provoked, delighted, informed, prompted, educated……and made Get Shouty what it is.

How can you get very far, If you don’t know Who You Are?
How can you do what you ought, If you don’t know What You’ve Got?
And if you don’t know Which To Do Of all the things in front of you,
Then what you’ll have when you are through
Is just a mess without a clue
Of all the best that can come true
If you know What and Which and Who.

Kitchen diaries

I want to believe something that makes my chest hurt.  It seems that a lot of people do.

 Hugh MacLeod from Gaping Void is asking for 500 word manifestos.

Submission guidelines here. The manifesto archive is here.

Here’s some edited highlights

Seth Godin:

Does it take 500 words to change things?

Probably not. It probably takes less than a hundred, plus a secret ingredient.

The secret ingredient is your desire to actually do something about it. To take action, to believe that it’s worthwhile, to confront what feels like a risk but really isn’t. The secret ingredient is to ignore excuses, abandon procrastination and stop looking for proof.

Julien Smith:

P.T. Barnum said “There’s a sucker born every minute,” but it’s high time we realized that these days, for every minute, the sucker in someone is withering away. Now, with every passing minute, there’s a sucker out there wising up. You had better be ready. It’s a sucker revolution, and it’s about time.

Karma is taking a virtually physical presence in our communities and mindspace. We know not only that we don’t like a company, but also why we don’t like it… or if we don’t, finding out is just a few keystrokes away.

Mike Peter Reed:

 Don’t listen to them just because they are talking. Don’t learn how to be dumb. Before you let them into your mind find out if they have anything to say or if they are just saying anything. Don’t just listen, be attentive.

You cannot live forever, and the greatest of empires will crumble. With every action or inaction, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, you steer the future of a world that will resonate throughout the universe for eternity.

 And a ten minute manifesto by Thomas R. Clifford:

1.    Why?  Keep asking it.  Crystallize why you are here…in eight words or less.  Your life depends on it.

2.    Inspire someone to do something positive in their life.

3.    Blogging changes how you see the world.  How you see the world changes your blogging. 

4.    Create something meaningful…even if it benefits a few.

5.    Spend some time each day in silence.  Discover the world within yourself.  The answers are not “out there.”  “Out there” is “in here.”  See #6.

6.    Quantum physics changes the game entirely.  Take the time to find out why.

7.    Be a “Perpetual Student” of Life…you know a lot less than you think you do.

8.    Brand yourself.  People are doing it for you, anyways.

9.    When you think you’ve “got it,” you probably don’t.  Ask a different question to get a different answer.  See #1.

Paul Coleman in posting this YouTube video started a comment storm that I think adds quite a bit to the experience of the video.

 Over 1.5 million people have viewed it.

It’s overly long and the music is as Jared commented so heavy-handed that it could’ve been an ad for cancer research. But I really do think that what is says is more than everyday people have access to cameras and the internet.

How to define it? Perhaps using CK’s methodology: This is what it’s not:

•  
  • It’s not fake
  • It’s not funny
  • It’s not filtered
  • It’s not polished
  • It’s not perfect
  • It isn’t about empowerment
  • It’s not about artistic merit

It is:

• About wanting to be heard
• About sharing
• About trying to connect

A few blog commentators were scathing. I was amazed by the sentiment that sentiment itself is bad. That emotion is naff. That the real loneliness of most people is tacky, crap and should be swept under the carpet where urban hipsters don’t have to see.

Ben puts it well:

“It has nothing to do with taste or artistic merit. I suppose there’s an element of voyeurism, liking looking into people’s gardens as you whizz past on the train. It’s real, which I like. It’s not a version of real or some one’s perception of real, these are real videos of real people uploaded to YouTube with no intention of being put into a 1M plus video montage. Literally. Boys, girls, black, white, old, young, mums, dads, kids, grans, animations, cats, dogs and even some EMO’s.

One of my favourite quote is from Larry Page, “Knowing what’s really happening is more important than trying to control people”. To me, that’s what’s happens on YouTube.”

And William Deed nails it:

” I was genuinely interested in each person who appeared in that video and not in a fucking, ain’t that interesting kind of way, but I was able to empathise with a whole load of people who were not only trying to understand themselves, but understand how to live in an age where the personal has become public.”

I agree, all you too cool for school marketing types. This is your audience fellas- look and learn. Most of these people could do with a good friend.

via Good Magazine check it out

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