tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58127372009-10-14T07:41:08.277+01:00urbanmonklifeplease imagine some really well worded disclaimer that explains anything i've written in a really acceptable way,Tomnoreply@blogger.comBlogger344125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-5017927003747993242009-07-09T21:23:00.002+01:002009-07-09T21:24:45.623+01:00"Learned and leisurely hospitality is the only antitode to the stance of deadly cleverness that is acquired in the professional pursuit of objectively secured knowledge. I remain certain that quest for truth cannot thrive outside the nourishment of mutual trust, flowering into the commitment of friendship." -Ivan Illich (educationalist)Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-2950024655863312052009-06-29T17:53:00.002+01:002009-06-29T17:56:15.911+01:00"It is commonly thought that conservative-minded people are as a rule old, whereas innovators are young. This is not quite true. Conservative-minded people are most commonly young men -young men who want to live, but who neither think nor have time to think, and who therefore choose the old way of life as a model." -Leo TolstoyTomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-362566071045111542009-03-22T12:58:00.002Z2009-03-22T13:44:53.420ZOn leadership in our continent. (I live in Europe)There are various types of protest all over Europe about the 'current economic crisis'.The mood seems to be that people are feeling angry and increasingly more desperate, but are unsure where to channel either of these.(not sure much of the UK has quite woken up to it yet, we're still in bit of a stupor)I read an article by a journalist speaking Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-20207615899400688582009-03-06T21:39:00.004Z2009-03-06T21:56:18.313ZFebruary is a good month.Every February there are two warm sunny days, that arrive just when you are not sure if there has ever been warm sun apart from in distant childhood memories.It's been a long time since I wrote on here anything about what I've actually been up to.Well..I have been walking up snowy hills; getting more lifts from strangers and teaching them to play metaphysical Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-4988084482079631942009-02-06T22:17:00.004Z2009-02-06T22:40:32.725ZSome strong words about the love of money i am writing now to remind myself:"there was no escaping the feeling that all these titans of global capitalism were in the same boat, and that boat was going down.". -The BBC reporting on the World Economic Forum in DavosEverything gets shaken eventually.. It's just amazing the amount of trust and assumption of permanence that gets invested Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-62544827148632296222008-12-27T16:53:00.003Z2008-12-27T17:08:28.534Z"Every patio, flat roof and window sill, can be looked upon as an opportunity for food production."-'The Self Sufficient Gardener' by John SeymourTomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-52859884140223709472008-11-25T12:14:00.001Z2008-11-25T12:23:17.087Z"a home is not a home if there aren't any mattresses on the livingroom floor" -kristerI like their home.Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-79790295352769861572008-11-19T13:39:00.002Z2008-11-19T13:42:11.832Z"Had to disconnect cooker as unsafe." -Southern heating and plumbing.left by workmen on a scrap of paper in our kitchen.och well..Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-82128724841722081562008-11-03T15:55:00.001Z2008-11-03T15:55:31.360Z"Western cultural views of how best to organize and lead (now the methods most used in the world) are contrary to what life teaches. Leaders use control and imposition rather than participative, self-organizing processes. They react to uncertainty and chaos by tightening already feeble controls, rather than engaging people's best capacities to learn and adapt. In doing so, they only create more Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-86087065603520310042008-10-22T16:45:00.004+01:002008-10-22T16:49:15.564+01:00So the government is asking banks to be less harsh on people whose houses they are trying to repossess.I'm sure there's a parable Jesus told, recorded about this?!The one where a king lets off a man who owes him a huge amount of money. And then the man goes to a really poor man and threatens him for the small amount of money he is owed by him.Don't think it has a happy ending..Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-22799848885090707702008-10-09T12:58:00.004+01:002008-10-09T13:04:07.960+01:00"Imagination is better than knowledge" -Albert Einstein.The world is all a mixture of imaginary and real. Perhaps the main way we make sense of the world is through imagination. But whose imagination?Very few things that we are told count are very solid..Academic qualifications are pieces of paper.Money is amazingly imaginary (or how did hundereds of billions of pounds just 'disappear' in a day?)Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-33942666788534081102008-10-01T12:32:00.002+01:002008-10-01T12:33:07.546+01:00There are no paths of no return; the dangers are in getting stuck in dead ends. I think if we are always prepared to learn and humble enough to be wrong, and always seeking, knocking, asking, loving, then we are more 'safe' than any bank vault or mountain fortress (both of which are more likely to be traps?).Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-88975006080831491442008-09-30T10:36:00.000+01:002008-10-01T12:39:40.539+01:00"He who sacrifices the mass good for his personal conscience has a peculiar conception of 'personal salvation'; he doesn't care enough for people to ‘be corrupted' for them." Saul AlinskyI find this a really intriguing quote.There is a good article about Alinsky here:http://www.infed.org/thinkers/alinsky.htmTomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-42619948474375521672008-08-26T12:26:00.001+01:002008-08-26T12:28:03.403+01:00"Only two kinds of people can afford the luxury of acting on principle, those with absolute power and those with none and no desire to get any...everyone else who wants to be effective in politics has to learn to be ‘unprincipled’ enough to compromise in order to see their principles succeed." (Rogers 1990: 12)?Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-51060966467879764022008-08-06T16:09:00.003+01:002008-08-06T16:12:54.650+01:00It was like some massive game of hide and seek where thousands of people slowly explored the huge crumbling palace, discovering art and small groups of interesting people creating things in every hidden corner.(photography by jennie)Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-16697303523159243332008-07-31T14:50:00.000+01:002008-07-31T14:51:14.149+01:00"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."-Pablo PicassoTomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-65960713495909087092008-07-30T23:50:00.005+01:002008-07-31T00:04:48.268+01:00So I got talked into jumping on a bus to a festival in Poland at short notice.then in a separate incident I got talked into hitching back.I am still on the way back.Found all this in middle of nowhere in German countriside in the middle of the night. The cathedral was full of people and really loud dramatic singing.Then walked around outside a bit and found electronic music playing out in the Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-41785783132409689322008-07-29T22:59:00.000+01:002008-07-31T00:04:03.432+01:00Living simply and thinking collectively.We need to learn from: The Chinese.Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-80637434748108586402008-06-21T18:25:00.002+01:002008-06-21T18:30:33.547+01:00Happy Summer Solstice!Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-5076702588572939132008-05-15T12:35:00.002+01:002008-05-15T13:02:44.585+01:00I have been making important administrative phone calls to offices where they only speak French. This is hard. Got shouted at. But in the end I think I won them over.Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-4242420712071093332008-05-14T12:31:00.000+01:002008-05-15T12:34:41.622+01:00Been living in a park with beer and tea in the sun and football and BBQs and hundereds of randoms and some really good old friends and new. In my element. Mini festival involving the world's biggest dress (!?), it's like a big top, 14m high and 19m in diameter.Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-77752914574410617742008-05-13T12:29:00.000+01:002008-05-15T12:31:31.888+01:00So I lost football against Connor and Brad. They beat me 63 - 54, in a 60 minute match.Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-18132393359270791202008-04-18T11:43:00.002+01:002008-04-18T11:52:12.386+01:00so i got stuck in some big hazy cloud of fever for a week and dreamt I had to play football matches in rivers, and got lost in huge mazes, and had my head pounded in. Yeah and lots of puking. I'm on the mend now though.Last night I saw a film about some friends trying to shut down their local weapons factory in England. Was really good.Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-36625692769276982132008-04-03T14:57:00.004+01:002008-04-03T15:08:55.674+01:00I´m a feminist.last saturday was womens daythe news remembered:in europe Statistics show that for women between 16 and 44 years of age, domestic violence is thought to be the major cause of death and invalidity, ahead of cancer, road accidents and even war.hellloooooooooo? this basicly means: home (and a love relationship) is the most dangerous place where a women can be...isn´t that shocking. Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5812737.post-49609537311443949832008-03-31T12:17:00.001+01:002008-03-31T12:18:45.715+01:00"I'll go and get the axe [so that we can try and smash a hole in the ice on this frozen lake to jump through]" -ETomnoreply@blogger.com