“why you won’t make the hard decisions” and how The Flinch will help you change that

Julien used to intimidate the hell out of me.  Then he pushed me. Go ahead, think of something that you want to do but you’ve put off because of every reason excuse imaginable. Now go read The Flinch.   You have no reason NOT to read it, it’s one of the best damn life lessons you’re going to get and it’s free.

What Education Can Learn from Marketing

I recently finished a project that has required me to skim resources that are related to kids, education and digital media skills.  It’s made me ponder our educational situation here in the U.S. I’m also pondering how the generational lag between teachers and students is, in some cases, contributing to a lack of very necessary skills for students graduating and learning in a digital age. It’s not a case of teachers being poorly trained but I think teachers aren’t aware of the potential resources at their disposal to help kids learn in ways that work for them as individuals. Enter Joseph Pine. Pine is a big believer in authentic experiences.  When he spoke at TED,[.....]

Lessons from an Oil Spill : Green is the new Black

59 days and counting. The video below is a TED talk by Rob Hopkins on “Transition to a world without Oil“, who reminds us that the time period in which we’ve developed and build our lives around oil dependency is very short and will very shortly come to an end.  He touches on how oil production has dwindled as well as the energy we get from oil now vs. the 1930s. “The world isn’t Second Life. We can’t create new land and new energy systems at the click of a mouse.” Rob founded the Transition movement, helping communities take the steps to creatively come up with new ideas on sustainability now, before our world changes[.....]

Kevin Scott Wolverton ~ December 2, 1998

This post was originally published two years ago. Shiny beautiful day, not so cold, laughter ringing as you race to the car and to be the best person you could be. One tiny instant and you disappeared. No second chances or last words, no thoughts to comfort us. I should have stopped you, for a moment, just a second to give the world time to reset so that you weren’t a causality. I failed, little brother. The powers that be in this world give and take without questions and without answers. “Why?” was the question on my mind for years. There will never be answers. One moment, someone’s stupid mistake, and you are gone. You[.....]

[RL] Fighting for New Orleans

2 years. That’s how long it’s taken our country to forget about New Orleans and the 9th Ward. To erase from our minds what happened when Hurricane Katrina with all its force took down a city so rich in culture and full of history and made it a swamp. In a heartbeat, thousands of people were left homeless. With some kind of luck, the Hurricane didn’t take the lives of as many feared. Earlier tonight Chris Penn posted a little map on his blog showing how the 9th Ward looks now. How little progress that has been made is shocking. People have forgotten, Americans have forgotten what it was like to watch people standing on[.....]