The opening band was a local bunch of blokes called One Mississppi. They're a super talented indie/alt rock band based here in Austin. In a world with annoying bands like Linkin Park, it was so awesome to hear a local band that was just loud and heavy. Drummond and I are going to try to catch some of their upcoming shows.

Then, The Riverboat Gamblers came on. I really like the song "On Again/Off Again" on the To The Confusion of Our Enemies album, but I'd never seen them live. Oh my God...get thee to a Riverboat Gamblers concert. We just watched them play about 8 songs or so before The Toadies came on, but it was quite possibly the most high octane, loudest set I've heard in a very long time. Again, they're super talented and I loved hearing that kind of raw, punk laden, heavy guitar and reverb that makes my rib cage shake. The lead singer is an awesome frontman.

The Toadies came on, and now that I've seen them live, I can truly appreciate what great musicians they are. There's no bigger let down than going to see a beloved band live and they suck in that setting. The Toadies absolutely did not miss a beat though. Their sound was perfect, they played a great mix of songs from their latest release, No Deliverance and the old stuff off Rubberneck and Hell Below/Stars Above. Hearing those songs played live, those songs that have been part of my life for so long, was a trip. They wrapped it up with "Tyler," my absolute favorite Toadies song. Singing it with the band and the other fans there gave me chills. That concert from start to finish reminded me why I'm obsessed with this kind of music.

"And she runs through her days with a smile on her face
And she runs, and she waits, and I wait

We can drive to anyplace, day or night, across the state
And in the morning, into Mexico, we will wake up

I find a window in the kitchen, and I let myself in
Rummage through the refrigerator, find myself a beer
I can't believe I'm really here, and she's lying in that bed
I can almost feel her touch, and her anxious breath!

I stumble in the hallway, outside the bedroom door
I hear her call out to me, I hear the fear in her voice
She pulls the covers tighter, I press against the door

I will be with her tonight!" -"Tyler" by The Toadies

FYI: More photos at the Flickr site.

A recent post (looking-glass) that included a NASA link about SOFIA reminded me today that I have had a photo of the mirror on my computer for a few years now, When I looked at the properties I noticed a bit of a mixup insofar as the date modified versus the date created, I am unsure how or why the computer chose to do that, unless it is dyslexic, but I thought it fit right in with the other post I did earlier, the mixed up ( pill box physics) lids. And while I was at it I picked an old cartoon from the file because I liked the combination of items done that week, a lot of "space stuff". Of course the Sophia has always been in my mind, as well asNASA's SOFIA. ;)  The Bubble Nebula photo "BLOWING COSMIC BUBBLES" is behind the "aliens".For a few minutes I enjoyed watching a drawing being done of the Bubble Nebula by monkeypi. I am easily amused.

OOPS!!! I thought I posted this yesterday, but in fact only saved it as a draft, sooooooooooooo, I am using it as part of a MUCH longer post of collages. You see, the last post (pillbox physics) used a page from the Physics of the Impossible as a backdrop for some comics. So I did it again, going from the vacuum in space to the vacuum in today's comics. Comparing pages to comics is interesting, and you almost need a diagram, but hey, it keeps the brain from turning to mush.

Ray...Latido... Oh my. Hmmm. Where am I going with this? Of of course, keeping it simple, Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do. I don't wanna mess up the translation now.

There goes a day in the life of sofa kings and queens...I think I'd need a degree in physics to explain it. Can't pictures do? It worked for Faraday.

This past week has certainly proved to be a study in relationships between friends and those who wish to be more than...just friends. 

Last weekend, Tilia and I attended a play at the Globe Theatre, which was very nice indeed, but then it promptly rained on our heads. (The Globe is partially an outdoor theatre) Since I had already lost my voice at that point and was not very well, you can imagine this incident only prevailed my sickness. 

On Monday, not expecting a devastated friend's call, I promptly had gone under a day's vow of silence where I only agreed to whisper. After all I had a job interview coming up in a few day's time and couldn't make a mess of things. But Carla had just broken up with her 'sort of' boyfriend and was torn up about it. She wanted me to not only stay on the phone, but to come over and nestle her back to emotional health. Well this simply was impossible considering my lack of psychical health, and it even took her some convincing that I couldn't make it, surprisingly enough.(Though she could rarely understand me and I told her many times we'd need a translator)

As much as I love Carla, she can be extremely needy to the point of self deprecation. Which the remains of the week's events would reveal. So the next day, I agreed to come over, purchase some crisps and hot cocoa and watch a film with Carla at her place. Though most of the night I merely ended up listening to her reminisce about this man who was CLEARLY wrong for her. But I am merely the humble friend. I listened and nodded.

At the same time, there was no sign of Ethan (her hot flatmate with the HUGE...DVD collection) and I began to forget about my attraction to him. But it was clearly a case of out of sight, out of mind because at the end of the night, just as I was about to leave, I bumped into Ethan in the hallway. He was still dressed in his work suit (he's a political recruiter in Westminster, how posh) and told me he had just seen a play at the National. We spoke about it and a couple other plays it turns out we both want to see as well...figures. But I was soon on my way out the door and back safe in my bed. 

It was only the next morning when I realized I clearly wasn't over him. 

So Saturday night I was planning to attend Phoebe's (hot gay Chinese woman) going away party, since she'd be moving to Brussels. Carla and I would attend together, so she suggested I come over a bit earlier so I could <hint hint> catch a glimpse of Ethan before we, and he, went out on our separate ways. While Carla began a long conversation with a friend from Portugal...in Portuguese, I walked into the kitchen to get some tea. When in pops Ethan. 

We embarked on what seemed like an hours conversation on everything from travel to American politics to missile supply to Henry Kissinger on the BBC. (We both watched his interview at the Republican Convention) Ethan seemed surprisingly pleased with my political knowledge and, while he was merely in the kitchen to iron his shirt, he attempted to do so about four times. Clearly he didn't want the conversation to end. He then found dishes to wash, while I simply stared longingly into his cleverly orated eyes. 

So there is, I feel, something there. The conversation was cut short by Carla calling my name, in which he promptly disappeared. Little did I know once he left for the evening that Carla would tell me she had a bit of a crush on him as well and would, and I quote, "be jealous if I shagged him." Thus the continuous neediness of Carla continues...So I'm at this point wondering if I should continue pursuing this man, as it seems my friend would become unreasonably upset with the occurrence.

So we go to the party in Soho, have a good time, see people we both know, drink, dance and mingle. Since it was a gay club everyone assumed we were together. Why does someone always assume I'm with a woman? Anyway,  she pulls me aside quite early in the night telling me her feelings for Phoebe have been festering and she feels the need to release her inhibitions tonight before she goes to Brussels. I brush it off, believing that she is merely panicking since she just ended a relationship and is definitely one of those people addicted to them. I support her brave inquisition since I believe life is short and I myself over think such decisions. 

I never actually thought she'd take my advice and actually go through with it. With little alcohol in her system mind you. 

Phoebe, just as I expected, humbly turned down Carla's request for love, and worried that Carla's second rejection of the weekend would only turn her to Ethan, we had a little chat. Though I still wonder if she may subconsciously try to sabotage my situation with him. 

Which has brought me to my conclusion. I must ask Ethan out on a date. Before it's too late. Mind you, I don't see him going for Carla (she's really not his type) but still, before she maybe even says something about me to him, I must act quickly. And Carla's brave move last night towards Phoebe has given me double inspiration to do so. 

And since Ethan claims all Americans are "quite ballsy" perhaps I'll use that as an excuse to ask him out. 

Wish me luck all you lovely anonymous cyberspacers. And look out for updates on what happens.

It's a matter of fact: People are usually poor listeners, even when they think they are the exact opposite. Often it's not even a matter of "not wanting to", it's just we're so busy rushing, taking care of the hundreds of things we need to get done everyday.

Here's the good news

Listening can be trained. Everyone can learn how to listen better and more actively. However, it's a matter of how important you really find it to learn it...

What are the benefits of REALLY listening?

By listening deeply and actively you can experience so many positive things, here are just a few ones:

• You can understand situations and people better
• You can enhance your relationship with people
• You can consistently lower the numbers of discussions and even fights
• You can start living a more balanced and even healthier life
• and much more!

How can we learn to listen?

In order to listen better and actively, we need to:

• be ready to put the other person first
• be ready to allocate enough quiet time for the talk
• be ready to dedicate our full attention to the person we are talking with
• be ready to put our own thoughts, prejudice, judgement aside
• be ready to grow - because this is one of the benefits I did not mention above :)

So, are you ready to listen?

Dang! I am pushing the rope again.* Making life harder than it has to be. I need to remember that this day, my life, the universe will be what it is. I am not in control, nor am I owed anything. I can radiate love and light only when I am shining from my center, and not by willing myself to do so. On rereading a previous post (The Case Against Will), I am resolved to spend the day "moodling" in dreamy idleness.

Learning is hard! When the same lesson comes around again and again (there's that spiral again), it must be important, eh? Today I am reminded to cease struggling and to listen for clarity.

*a concept described by Sarah Susanka in The Not So Big Life

A lot.

Sometimes all day long.

Half of the time I can't remember what I've said because I'm only half-listening. Not because I don't care about the things that she says, but because she usually tells me something like, "Mommy, I want to make a necklace for my teacher," and after I praise her for being so thoughtful, she follows up with, "Tell Gaston to tell his friends." This is when she expects me to respond as both Gaston and his friends. So half-listening is a survival technique.

Car trips can be especially painful. When my husband drives, her music is off-limits. When I drive, I let her listen. (My fault, but whatever.) I can tune it out almost immediately and it keeps her quiet. Win-win, as far as I'm concerned. But driving makes her chatty. It gives her all kinds of insight into the lives of her characters and like the woman she already is, she does her best to share those tidbits to change her "friends" for the better.

For example, yesterday while listening to Beauty and the Beast, she decided that LeFou should dump Gaston because then no one would want to marry him, either. "Mama, tell LeFou that he needs a new friend. Tell him to tell his friends, too."

While moderating ONE's imagination, TWO started to flail her arms and cry. She was tired (probably of Disney) and hungry. I dug through my diaper bag while watching the road and pulled out one of her snacks. I handed it back to ONE, who was trying to set LeFou up with the three girls in the story who were in love with Gaston.

"Pea, can you please give this to your sister?"

"Sure, Mama." I could see TWO smile at ONE in the mirror as they made the exchange.I loved that TWO probably thought that the food came from ONE.

"Thank you, Pea. You're my special big girl."

Then the car got very quiet.

"Mama?"

"Yes, Pea."

"It makes my heart feel good when you say that."

It's easy to forget that ONE listens better than I do. That she does absorb everything I say, even when I'm not paying attention. That what I say has a real impact.

I have to be careful about this half-listening. I almost missed a little bit of her heart.

LISTEN

"When I ask you to listen to me

And you start giving advice,

You have not done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen to me

And you begin to tell me

why I shouldn't feel that way,

You are trampling on my feelings.

When I ask you to listen to me

And you feel you have to do something

to solve my problem,

You have failed me, strange as that may seem.

Perhaps that's why prayer works for some people.

Because God is mute and doesn't offer

Advice or try to fix things.

God just listens and trusts

You to work it out for yourself.

So, please just listen and hear me.

And if you want to talk,

Wait a few minutes for your turn;

And I promise I will listen to you."

Anonymous, attributed elsewhere as being found in David Bailey and Sharon Dreyer's book: Therapeutic Approaches to the Care of the Mentally Ill (1977). I got it in a workshop put on by HAI - the Human Awareness Institute.

Active listening and sacred listening and just listening all go a long way towards building connection between us humans. Even with the best of ears, there's a lot that can be lost along the way. I wonder how we've done so well!

I wonder, too, what kinds of experiences you've had when you're tried a new way of listening.

ola!, originally uploaded by ildarabbit.

well today i was going to write my first proper blog post but i got wrapped up in photo editing and listening to the awesome soundtracks to Juno and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (both also excellent movies). so i'm postponing actual blogging and taking the cop out of posting cute bunny pictures instead. this is sure to be non offensive to any readers and, well ... my blogging alias is ilda rabbit after all ;) these bunnies are from two recent litters, see more on my flickrstream.

Speaking of leaving things open and arrangements...

I also left open the book I have been picking my way through, Physics of the Impossible, last night as well, on page 214. When I did my collage today, I just kinda' worked around part of the page.

Recent posts will show you the connections.

OBAMA

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=ato7BtisXzE

McCain

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=XAWBPVzNCkg&feature=related

the way that things happen and they are incredible and you say "i will remember this and keep this forever" and then you blink and you are in the thick of something new and different and where is that thing that you were going to keep forever?

my job has been insane. the past two weeks, i've put in at least 50 hours if not 60 each week. but there's that way that many days i come home sort of energized, or if not energized, at least i feel like the work that i am doing and the good that it does deserves the deep exhaustion i feel. instead of coming home and going "no, i cannot relax right now because i did not do enough meaningful stuff today" which i've been known to do, i am able to let myself relax. that's nice.

but there are also days... well, there are days that i do that work and i come home and i am exasperated and upset. i'm working on those.

but today, i am here to write about the staff retreat. the staff retreat happened before a lot of things and it's less than a month, and already my eyes are less shiny about the whole thing, but i still believe it was incredible. which is saying a lot because we did work stuff together for many many hours and i'm used to my meeting's retreats where even with my job as registrar, i feel like the hardest work i have to do is deciding whether i want to read a book inside the lodge or out in the orchard.

the folks that i work with are a boisterous crew. i was nervous about going with them all to quaker center-- a place that's always just been peaceful for me. i really really like them, but i wasn't sure what it would feel like.

and the weird thing was, it didn't feel weird.

the morning of the second day, i went up to the casa de luz, where the san francisco meeting has its meetings for worship during our retreats. well, actually, first i went to the redwood circle because i'd never been for whatever reason, and one of the new people to our agency was amazed by it, and i felt i should get to know it. then up to the casa, where i sat and looked out the window and prayed. awhile later, people started coming up. it's where the first part of our agenda after breakfast was scheduled to happen. the activity we did involved scenarios involving ethical dilemmas. at the end of that session, we had a checkin, and i was able to honestly say that i felt like we were a good group to be using that space. i spoke about how i'm a quaker (which people knew) and that i was worried about how folks would use this space that is in some ways sacred to me, but that i really felt like what we were doing was in line with quakerism-- this particular practice of asking questions and honestly looking deep within.

at the end of the three days, we met in the redwood circle for a closing. we got the "mailboxes" we'd made and had been putting things in for folks, and were encouraged to look at our mail in silence and to contemplate the weekend in silence, and then to speak out of the silence. i've never been to a quaker meeting that involved so much giggling or, um, playfighting, but even in that, i was able to say that these folks were really important to me. i spoke about george fox saying to walk cheerfully through the world, answering that of god in everyone, and how a way to look at that is to find something to honor in everyone, and i really feel like these folks do that. at least with each other (the executive director speaks to the site coordinators like equals) and, more importantly, with the youth that we work with.

honestly, i'm writing this now, because i need a little bit of reminding of this weekend already. it's been a stressful time, and the agency is not perfect. but those things-- honoring questions and people, and looking deep to find answers-- i can still see.

White's dry, even tone lends an air of authority to this quiet farm setting. The book is filled with simple, understated descriptions. Oddly enough, my favorite description was Zuckerman's dump. There's a lovely rhythm and variation to it that I admire.

...an astonishing pile of old bottles and empty tin cans and dirty rags and bits of metal and broken bottles and broken hinges and broken springs and dead batteries and last month's magazines and old discarded dishmops and tattered overalls and rusty spikes and leaky pails and forgotten stoppers and useless junk of all kinds, including a wrong-size crank for a broken ice cream freezer.

I vaguely remembered that Fern saves Wilbur in the first chapter, but forgotten how Fern drifts out of Wilbur's story. I had forgotten how funny it could be. Sometimes the humor is subtle, like when Fern's mother is the one who immediately sees that the "miracle" is the spider, but the men stubbornly insist on seeing the miracle as the pig. Sometimes it's slapstick, like when Fern's cousin Avery breaks the rotten goose egg.

I remembered, of course, that Charlotte dies, but forgotten that she dies alone. No wonder no one can read that passage without breaking down!

I loved the scene where Wilbur watches in horrified fascination as she captures a fly and tells him she's going to drink its blood. The scene where she decides what kind of silk to use to write the words (excerpted here ) is a great example of using your research to tell the story, instead of forcing True Spider Facts on the reader. And the scene I remembered most vividly from my first readings all those years ago is the 514 baby spiders drifting away under their silk balloons. In short, I love Charlotte because she is so much like a real spider. I wonder now if I got some of my love for bugs from this story.

They called Charlotte "bloodthirsty, wise, and true." I call this book gentle, unflinching, and true.

That anagram comes from the text in the mini-collage that was from a much larger collage in the last entry, "I mean is the rest of the world like covered in a layer of foam or something cause those guys hit the floor like its magnetic. He had an interesting angle but it was basically the same old same old. Ok, if you dont believe me, test me. Say something silently and I'll tell you what it was."

If you look at the collage, there is a woman sitting on the sofa over the words LOOKING GLASS.

With a slight variation in the anagram it can also read, “I’m in the world because you’ve managed to connect beyond millions seen in the sky. Oh, you never underestimated me, alas some say it's imaginary, but after a while most get it. If we alter time that’s how it looks. He’ll tell if she felt it right. He does call the SOFIA lady a looking glass.” Can you tell the difference?

Kate Torralba will be at first EVAR (!!!)

L&AMP (Listening & Appeciating Music Party)

at the Victory Center, Promenade

it's from 7:30pm to 10:30pm

(that's right, KT fans, you asked for 3 SOLID HOURS of KT-wownezz? You got it!)

on Friday, 19 September 2008

Buzz me details :)

from Kate's Facebook Group:

INFLUENCES:

Frederic Chopin, The Carpenters, Joni Mitchell, Tori Amos, Aimee Mann, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Jeff Buckley, Fleetwood Mac, Massive Attack, Nirvana, Feist, The Do, The Beatles, Fiona Apple, Barbie Almalbis, Portishead, Burt Bacharach, Sergio Mendes, Astrud Gilberto, 70's-80's female balladeers oozing with cheese

BIOGRAPHY:

Kate Torralba started singing in Cebu at two years old. A music-loving aunt taught her how to sing, and the household help's devotion to FM radio had her build a repertoire quite early.

Kate's fascination with the piano was awakened at four years old: several family members took lessons at home, all studying the same piece, 'Moon River'. One day she supposedly just went up to the keys and played it.

She finally begun classical piano training at 7 under Ms. Lygia Ibanez, directress of the elementary school where she studied (St. Benedict's Childhood Education Centre). Early on she favored the languid romanticism of Chopin.

By the time she turned 9, Kate was flown to the U.S. to perform at a concert for Filipino child prodigies. An opportunity for a piano scholarship was turned down as her family would not have her live overseas at such a young age.

Disenchanted by missing her lunch hours at school and grueling piano training, Kate turned to her brother's New Wave music and later on discovered alternative rock. By 13, she gave up on her piano studies.

She picked up the electric guitar and with her close buddies formed a grunge band called X. A local music school formed a high school girl group called The Outskirts where she played the keyboards and sung vocals as well.

Upon high school graduation, Kate fronted a pop-alternative rock act named Hard Candy (which today, coincidentally, is the name of Madonna's latest album). It would later on gain a solid following in her hometown Cebu as the band raked in 5 victories at the 1st San Miguel Cebu Music Awards, including Band of the Year, Song of the Year (Freefall, which she co-wrote with the band), Female Vocalist of the Year and Listener's Choice. Kate would also gain popularity for the outfits she designed and wore onstage - a portent of her future as a fashion designer.

The band won a recording contract which was unfortunately shelved when Kate moved to Manila to pursue a year-long media relations stint at the Philippine Senate (under female legislator Loren Legarda).

In 2002, Kate received her big break in the local fashion industry and started what would become the successful Kate Torralba label (see KT: Kate Torralba Designs page). Simultaneously, she begun gigging in the big city, notably at the now-defunct artist's haven Sanctum Intramuros, and Pipers in Makati (where she performed with guitar greats Mike Villegas of Rizal Underground, Ian Umali of P.O.T., and Perf de Castro).

Through the years, Kate's solo piano act which brings to mind the likes of Tori Amos, Fiona Apple and Regina Spektor, has slowly and surely gained a cult following in Manila. She does her renditions of a wide range of songs: from 90's rock anthems like Pearl Jam's Jeremy and Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun, to folk (Joni Mitchell), New Wave (The Cure), and standards (Judy Garland) - and her distinctive piano style makes them her own.

2008 marks a breakthrough for the solo artist: Finally she conquers her shyness of her own songwriting with a self-produced EP entitled 'Long Overdue'. Her melancholy, soulful music may be the antithesis of her fashion (which has been dubbed as 'mainstream'), but they are equally defining facets of her persona.

"Iron wood shingles or sirap are one of the traditional roofing materials of Indonesia. Ironwood is known locally as Kayu Besi or Ulin. It is one of the world’s most durable timbers. The roof has four overlapping layers of shingles. It has a serviceable lifespan of at least thirty years."

It was 12:18PM when a Wave3 "raise the roof" commercial came on for tonight's news; it was as soon as I pasted that paragraph about sirap roofing. Why am I writing about sirap roofing? Because things come to me in unusual ways, symbolism of some sort. Earlier in the morning I read the Space.com article which mentioned spelling people's names backwards, which is how we have many of the star names we do, like the name Dnoces which "is the word "second" spelled backwards, a reference to Astronaut White (Edward White, II, who was also the second man to walk in space)." A star of a different kind, PARIS, spelled backwards is sirap.

There is a quote on the net about Paris Hilton, "Really, a T-shirt with your name on it? Is it so you remember or we never forget? Maybe it should be spelled backwards because we suspect that every time she looks in the mirror there’s a split second when she wonders, “Wait, who’s Sirap?” Well, it just so happens I did see the word SIRAP on a t-shirt on one of the "sirap" sites I visited this morning, though it wasn't Miss Hilton's though both did find way into my collage.

You will proably notice I still have a couple of POTI book references, because they help clairfy some connection in the last week's entries and collages. I mentioned my daughter was in Paris last week in the table's set post, so there are many connections that make it sweet...

like the bushel of pears my friend brought me yesterday after a trip to her father's farm.

Always another connection! ;)

Light began to pulse and quiver

She could not shove through the strange, trembling light to meet him.

His voice came as though it were pushing through a cloud.

It wasn't that he wasn't there and then he was. It wasn't that part of him came first and then the rest of him followed

It was a sort of shimmering, seeing him through the water, through smoke, through fire, and there he was, solid and reassuring

"I'm right here," she tried to say, but her voice seemed to be caught at its source

but SUDDENLY she felt a violent push and a shattering as though she had been thrust through a wall of glass

she looked around rather wildly

The air around them was moving with the delicious fragrance that comes only on the rarest of the spring days when the sun's touch is gentle and the apple blossoms are just beginning to unfold

They had left the silver glint of a biting autumn evening

She turned slowly to face a mountain reaching so high into the sky that its peak was lost in a crown of puffy white clouds.

"When shall we three meet again,
in thunder, lightning, or in rain"

to action little, less to words inclined

she finds it so difficult to verbalize. it helps her, if she can quote instead of working out words on her own

Nothing is hopeless. We must hope for everything.

(third planet of the star)

We don't travel at the speed of anything.

The more a man knows the less he talks

We stopped here, more or less, to catch our breaths. And to give you a chance to know what you're up against.

To stake one's life for the truth

The work proves the craftsman

She was a marble white body with powerful flanks, something like a horse but at the same time completely unlike a horse, for from the magnificently modeled back sprang a nobly formed torso, arms, and a head resembling a mans, but a man with perfection of dignity and virtue, an exaltation of joy.

From the shoulders slowly a pair of wings unfolded, wings made of rainbows, of light upon water, of poetry

He fell to his knees

No, not to me. Never to me. Stand up.

With a gesture both delicate and strong she knelt in front of the children, stretching her wings wide and holding them steady, but quivering. Onto my back now, the new voice said

The children took hesitant steps toward the beautiful creature

Came the new voice, a rich voice with the warmth of woodwind, the clarity of a trumpet, the mystery of an English horn. You can't go on changing my name each time I metamorphose.

She/he/it smiled at them and the radiance of the smile was as tangible as a soft breeze, as directly warming as the rays of the sun

A tremor went through the great wings and then lifted and they were moving through the air

"Look," He pointed. "The mountains are so tall that you can't see where they end."

She looked upwards and indeed the mountains seemed to be reaching into infinity.

As more and more takes place online, listening becomes a vital aspect of engaging with the web.  Hearing what others are saying about your organisation or about topics you're interested in will start to become one of your routine tasks.  Even if you're not confident in (or even interested in) setting up a blog or joining a social networking site there is a mass of information out there that could help you to do your job more effectively.  The widespread availability of free tools makes it easy for you to listen to what is going on with your funders, your competitors, your supporters and your clients.

Are you currently listening to what people are saying online?

Blog posts

Six approaches for social media adoption - listen http://whitehallwebby.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/six-approaches-for-social-media-adoption-2-liste/

Building a nose for news www.waugaman.org/blog/2008/08/18/building-a-nose-for-news/

Listening and learning http://nten.org/blog/2008/09/03/nten-is-listening-and-learning

Why putting on your listening ears is the first step http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/09/wearemedia-why.html

What are the best first steps and a few advanced tips for listening.  What are the best how to resources? http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/09/wearemedia-what.html

What kind of information can you listen to on the web and how do you do it?

By taking the example of a small community arts group in Canterbury, there are a number of sources of information that you might want to tap in to:

• RSS feeds from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport with the latest initiatives and funding news
• RSS feeds from Canterbury City and Kent County Council with similar news and funding opportunities
• Twitter search for posts tagged with #artsinkent
• Twitter posts from people you know talk about the arts
• Blog posts from key performers and artists in Kent
• Blog posts that feature keywords such as "arts", "community", "kent", "canterbury", "dance", "theatre" etc
• RSS feed of a Google search for sites containing the name of your organisation
• You Tube videos that people have made at your events (to make it easier to collate, you may want to tag them with the name of your organisation)
• Bookmarks that other people have saved on subjects relevant to you on a site such as Delicious or Magnolia
• Photos that people have taken at your events and posted on Flickr (perhaps tagged with the name of your organisation)

Below are some interesting links listing different ways to listen on the web.  You might also want to dowload a copy of the "How to use new media" guide.

Blog posts

Summary of some of the tools you can use to listen http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/09/nptechblogs---t.html

Listening on Twitter www.chrisbrogan.com/how-to-listen-for-opportunities-on-twitter/

Pulling all of that information together into one place

Once you've started listening, the amount of information coming in every day can be a bit overwhelming, especially if the different sources of information - such as twitter feeds, blog subscriptions and keyword searches - are all found on different websites.

Feed aggregators allow you to pull together these different strands into one place.  Some examples of feed aggregators are iGoogle, Netvibes and Pageflakes.

After setting up one of these pages, you can save it as your homepage so up to date information is always to hand.

One example of a Pageflakes site is this one, tracking discussion about the Government's Empowerment White Paper www.pageflakes.com/ewp.

Blog posts

Tools to help pull together info http://whitehallwebby.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/two-tools-i-really-like/

More links

I've been tagging things I find about listening at http://delicious.com/ICT_Hub/listening, please feel free to send me anything else you find.

Whilst on holiday in Kenya, I spoke to lots of people about the stuff I do, particularly this: www.justicefortom.com.

Many of them considered themselves novices in all things web, and certainly thought that Web 2.0, or social media, was beyond them (except for Facebook, of course!). So, over many suppers with a variety of people I explained that it was not a thing, rather a more effective use of online communities - and your interaction with them. (I am a fascinating guest).

The theory behind your web presence is no different:

1. What are you wanting to do?

2. Who are you doing it for?

Now you need to find out where the communities are that exist online already. At this point I recommend you use a listening service such as Addictomatic. (In a previous post I have explained how to use this - although it is really simple so you don't need to read the post unless you love my prose so much you can't get enough - understandable of course :))

Once you have spent some time listening, finding the places where your target market are already conversing and collaborating, you can then begin to join in the discussion. This will enable you to really understand how you can effectively meet the needs of your audience and refine your own offering online accordingly.

At the same time as doing this, you are establishing a solid piece of online real estate - proving that you are not just shoving stuff out there. People will begin to recognise you if you join in the conversations online, (the simplest way of doing this is by commenting on blogs - yes it is that simple).

Finally, you need to start your own conversation.

An example

Let me run through the Soy Sambu conservancy online offering:

Kat Combes, the Director of the conservancy, had set up a website and was looking to start a blog to:

• raise awareness of what the conservancy was doing
• attract funds
• share experience and learn from others

Kat is web savvy, however considered setting up and running a blog way beyond her abilities. In fact the more she googled, the more scared she became. I sat with her for about an hour and ran through Addictomatic and Wordpress; showed her how I manage my own blogs and how simple it actually was - even for the technically impaired like myself. We then created the conservancy blog and I walked away. Kat has since then played extensively and here is the fruit of her labour: http://soysambuconservancy.wordpress.com/

Now, the blog will stay pretty much as it is, whilst Kat 'listens' using Addictomatic and a variety of key words. However, please do comment and send links to any other websites that you think would be good to look at, and keep an eye on how it grows from here (on the conservancy blog of course not here!).

Whilst talking about the conservancy site, Graham Vetch - the manager - spoke about how the conservation was not just about the land and animals, but also about the people living there. How part of the challenge was to take the indigenous people from poverty to self-sufficiency. He is frustrated as he has many plans and is not sure where to start. Now this is where I believe blogging really can come into its own. We discussed how Graham could just throw his hat on the ground, sit down and start blogging about his plans  taking us with him on his journey.

Now this will achieve two things:

1. Share a journey that could help numerous communities and community managers
2. Give Graham access to feedback on his plans - enabling him to find out where to start and learn from others' experience

I am very excited about this and as soon as we have set it up - I will show you.

So, the tool-kit?

Addictomatic and Wordpress are the tools I recommend for the moment. However, it is less about the tools and more about changing the way you think about your online presence - use the community, share your knowledge, take people on your journey with you rather than simply talking about it after it is done.

What the talker's don't realize is how much they are missing out by listening.

Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, and the numerous other social networking apps are another way for people to constantly talk, talk, talk.  No one really wants to listen... because all your "followers" are doing the same thing as you...talking, talking, talking.

It's the listener's who go farther in life.  Listener's are the gatherers of information to discern what is useful and not.  Talker's don't have the time to hear the good ideas....they are just listening to themselves.

So please, all the talkers, please Twitter away...

I'll listen while I work on getting ahead....

What more could happen?  How many "storms of the century" are we going to see creep across the Atlantic Oceans? 

How prepared are we and what steps are being taken? 

The research on this is fascinating!  Yet no one seems to be trying to execute a mass answer to this ~ especially with all the good talk of "we care about the this and that".  LOL ~ but it is not really about the people is ~ though they are a person too.  Anyway, I digress, again, sorry.

Look up some information ~ but keep digging.  Don't forget about research into the number three. 

How neat is it one pole of the Earth is heating relatively quicker than the other??  (I would take a look at the winds, ocean current data available, and over the last two years how strong the typhoons have been in the southern part of the globe.)

Today's anagram came from the randomly chosen comics shown with the golden highlighting in the collage below, "Arranged into the proper sequence every question in the universe can be answered with those letters. This is my genius. I guess I didn't notice. What're you talking about? It totally fits...it...uh...This I gotta see."

On page 97 of the book I got from the library, Physics of the Impossible, one of the sentences I have been using words  (like "room-temperature" in the post still levitating) from for my quantum string is, "One possibility would be to coat our walls with a room-temperature superconductor, assuming that such a device could be created one day," and yeah, there is a table set in the last post, table’s set. It makes sense if aliens came to have a little chat over dinner it would be in the middle of a cornfield, right? It follows a couple of other posts on the same subject. I let the universe say what it needs to when I anagram.

at the edge of dawn
all the wild animals
come out from their secret place of sleep

running
tripping
suspended in the moment of
falling
over the edge

clutching
for dear life
and dear death
oh,
the time i spend
dangling off the cliff

morning is a fight
against gravity
a constant struggle
fighting against the inevitable

the spit has to land somewhere
somewhere suspended
between
my body
and everything around me
constantly moving
shifting underneath
somewhere in the gravel
pressing against my cheek
as I'm saying goodbye

goodbye: to the last breath i took
expanding inside me
change
moving in through the stillness

goodbye as it dies
my body
making room for another
breath

born, reborn in each moment
it doesn't land at the bottom
it just keeps falling

I was struck today with the thought that the traditional corporate structure has a fundamental flaw. This flaw relates to its ability to harness the power of its peoples' ideas.

I may be wrong, but it seems that the traditional corporate structure is predicated on the workers doing the doing, the managers doing the managing and the CEO/ Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) (with Board consultation and expenditure on consultants) doing the thinking.

The flaw for me is that unless the CEO/ CSO spends time directly talking to the people doing the doing, they'll only ever be hearing from the managers managing the same thing they've always managed (with the expected change/ transformation that all corporates go through)

Where are the structures for the CEO to actively ask the questions of the people who perform the company's activities and (arguably) are the best people to advise on how things are done better?

Is bringing in a firm of consultants to ask your staff for the answers the best investment of shareholder funds? Will the consultants end up filtering the message to what they 'corporately anticipate' the Board want to hear? I do not (totally) mean to be unfair to consultants in this in terms of their value add and business model in strategic decision-making - thinking independently is always of benefit.

Further to this, I believe that the aggregation of the average messages or required actions is also a structural flaw. If you seek to hear the 'noise' of an issue and prioritise action/ change on that basis, you're by definition missing the silent issues or improvement opportunities. It does not bear testing to assume that in a sophisticated organisation of client or process focused roles that any broader 'noise' can be heard past questioning the lowest levels of the organisation.

I run recurring six monthly reviews with every member of the company (granted only 75 now: scale will require solutions). We spend half an hour and I ask them whether, beyond things that they're working on with their line manager, there are things that I could enable or effect change on that would increase their happiness/ role enjoyment/ enjoyment of the company. Even in a situation where they are completely happy, I push them on how I could make them even happier. I also take the whole team away every six months and similarly we work up (and on) the things that we should be stopping, starting or continuing. My senior managers are not involved in guiding these conversations. Just facilitating.

As you would expect from the tone of the rest of this post, the stuff that they come up with is brilliant. I end up with pages worth of actions. And why? Because each of them has time whilst doing their job to think about how they could improve the activities of the company that they are undertaking. Managers think about how they can get better managing. So in act the CEO and the front line team are the ones that should be having the regular 121 conversations.

...but how to practically do this?

I'm listening. Please leave your thoughts in the comments.