Archive for April, 2010
Inspiration Through Music
Posted by: | CommentsWhat is it that inspires you? When there are roadblocks in your path what do you turn to in order to overcome them? There are many things in this world we can turn to which inspire us on to greater things. For some people it is the actions of great people of the past. Others look at inspirational quotes or perhaps have a role model in life they look up to. For me the strongest form of inspiration comes in the form of music.
Have you ever heard a piece of music that affected you so strongly it almost seemed to take you out of reality or triggered some deep emotion? I know I have. Often times before I work on something, need to make a decision, come up with an idea, or just think a situation through I find a place to be by myself and just listen to music. The right music at the right time can bring clarity to the mind and push out all the extraneous thoughts of the day allowing you to focus on the matter at hand. If you are having trouble with something in your life I encourage each of you to try just finding a quiet space, putting on some music, closing your eyes and just letting the emotion of the music flow over you while you think about what you need to do.
Now as I said before, the right music at the right time can bring clarity to the mind. For some people bands like Slayer may work, but for me personally heavy death metal just isn’t what I’m looking for. I have found through listening to tons of music that instrumental music seems to be the most effective for clearing your mind. A friend recently introduced me to an artist known as Ed Alleyne Johnson. He is world famous for playing the electric violin. Below is a youtube video to one of his live performances.
(Want to hear more? Check out Ed’s CDs Symphony and Purple Concerto)
As the 19th century French Poet Victor and Hugo put it, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent.” There are some problems to great and emotions to deep in each of our lives to be faced with nothing but silence or the incessant chatter of the modern world. Music is the means with which we can face these problems, understand these emotions, and ultimately emerge better for it.
So I ask again, what is it that inspires you? Are you willing to put aside the busy, noisy, and sometimes overwhelming modern world and take some time for yourself? I challenge each of you to spend 15 minutes each day doing nothing but listening to music and see what effect it has on you. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.
What music have you heard that inspires you? Feel free to post it in the comments below or send me an email at mat@trumanburger.com!
Are Computers Men or Women?
Posted by: | CommentsAs internet marketers, we spend a lot of time staring at, coaxing, pleading with our computer. And I saw this joke on line and thought it was funny.
We all need to take a little bit of time for humor. So, I thought I would post this and make a survey, as most people have an opinion. So please read the joke, and then state your opinion. You just need to click a button and hit submit. It will ask you for an email, but you don’t need to send that to participate. We will post the result in 1 week on Saturday, May1st. Happy surveying.
Are Computers Men or Women?
A language teacher was explaining to her class that in French, nouns unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine.
“House” in French, is feminine -”la maison,” “Pencil” in French, is masculine “le crayon.”
One puzzled student asked, “What gender is computer?” The teacher did not know, and the word was not in her French dictionary.
So for fun she split the class into two groups appropriately enough, by gender and asked them to decide whether “computer” should be a masculine or a feminine noun.
Both groups were required to give four reasons for their recommendation.
The men’s group decided that computer should definitely be of the feminine gender (“la computer”), because
- No one but their creator understands their internal logic
- The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else
- Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later review
- As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheque on accessories for it.
The women’s group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine “le computer”) because:
- In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on.
- They have a lot of data but still can’t think for themselves
- They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem
- As soon as you commit to one, you realise that if you had waited a little longer you could have gotten a better model.
Here is where you get to vote. Come on World, let’s see what the opinion is? Don’t forget the submit button.
This post is just for fun. To my best knowledge, the Joke is free to the public.
