Memories

My Grandmother

It’s only when you start looking through an old box, you begin to realise the memories you have kept. The things that remind you of where you have been, the adventures you have had and the people you have loved and lost.

Last weekend, at my parents, I found a box. This box contained photos, articles and important papers relating to two generations of my family. Old photos of family members that I don’t even recognise and papers that I had never read before. I’m lucky that my mum is a bit of a hoarder and keeps all of the important family papers together like this. I feel very lucky to have a great sense of my family history and some of the amazing adventures they went on.

While going down this memory lane, I wish I had kept more bits and pieces about my life from the last couple of years. I have some old photos from my teenage years (many I would rather forget after some disastrous hair cuts) and a computer full of things from uni, but I don’t have anything physical, nothing that I can hold or anything that couldn’t be lost by a computer malfunction. I’ve tried for many years to keep a diary and take photos of important moments, but as usual with projects like this, they get forgotten about and left to fester. But after seeing the things in this box, I knew that I have to do something about this and make sure that I have some things to hand down.

The trouble is that in this day and age, we keep everything digitally. We live for the now and don’t plan for the future. We keep our Timeline on Facebook for everyone to see. We record our lives in blogs for people to read and comment on. We ‘check in’ to our favourite places and we adjust our photos to make them look beautiful so that we can share our lives on instagram. BUT, what if one day, the internet broke and we lost everything? Then a lifetime is lost as memories and stories fade away into the abyss.

In our heart of hearts I think we all want to be remembered for something. So my plan is now to keep a diary of my life so that someone in 40 - 100 years time can look back and think, “Wow, Great Uncle Steven did that, he was there when that happened.” I’m going to try and include some trinkets and some photos for people... because this is not about preserving memories for myself, but preserving my stories for future generations.

Jesus...hasn't two years gone fast?

One #FollowFriday, a few tweets and one innocent drink has led to an amazing 2 year relationship! Pete means a lot to me and I don't know where I would be now if he wasn't in it.

So cheers to two amazing years and to the great adventures we still have ahead!

My week of ponders - W/C 14th May 2012

• I really want to find out more about the art of tea drinking. We now live in a coffee dominated culture and I am fascinated by this ancient past time…anyone got any ideas?
• My pet hate of the week is seeing people walking down the street, still wearing their headphones and trying to talk to their friends…no you can't multi task…it is just rude!
• This would be awesome if it was in London - http://tnw.co/M1bgnT
• Google search - just got a little bit better:  http://on.mash.to/KT1epS
• This is going to become very useful if it actually comes out - http://bit.ly/J79Rcu
• Congratulations to Mark Zuckerberg on becoming a billionaire and getting married! http://on.mash.to/KqkwhC 
• Thats The Hunger Games finished - what a great book! Right, time to download the next
• What a quiet months for good films…fingers crossed for Prometheus!
• Yay for a new drunk kitchen!

These are just a few thoughts that have crossed my mind this week and are no way meant to offend. If you want to discuss these further or want to make your opinion heard, please drop a comment below. 


Thanks! 
Originalsteve

Predicting the future

 A well thumbed issue!

Hidden away in the back of this month’s Wired magazine is a great article on how Wired uses 7 rules to spots the next big trend, idea, product or service. I’ve always been really interested to know how people do this so I wanted to share this with you.

Here are the 7 rules you need to follow to spot the next big thing.

You need to:
1 - Look for cross pollinators > Ideas that can cross boundaries
2 - Surf the exponentials > Ideas that take advantage and spot things that are becoming faster, cheaper and smaller
3 - Demand Deep Design > Ideas and products that keep design at the heart of development
4 - Give points for audacity > Ideas that are bold and daring can often be very good
5 - Bank on openness > Ideas that are open and want to integrate (explain, integrate with what?)
6 - Favour the liberators > Ideas or products that are making changes to something that's usually closed off
7 - Spend time with the time-wasters > Ideas that come from people playing and not looking for a direct solution to the problem.

What do you think? Has this triggered some new thoughts or do you think you have the next big idea? For me, it made me look at the things that could be used to make your day a little bit easier. For example, why don’t tube announcements give you the weather report outside? Would it not be useful if you knew that you needed to get your brolly out of your bad before you step outside the station?

Go and grab of a copy of the new Wired to get the full article, it is totally worth it.

Also, this month’s issue (June 2012) features a great editorial piece on Troy Carter, who's best known as Lady Gaga’s manager. His knowledge and thoughts on social media made her the sensation that she is today. What surprised me was his big focus on data. He really wants to understand how and why people buy records and what they do with it. In this data rich age, this type of data is not available to record companies. They can’t build a complete picture or the fan who follows the tweets and downloads the records.

Anyway, go and enjoy it for yourself before I spoil the rest of it for you!

Got some thoughts? Share your comments with me! I’m always up for a good discussion.

Cheers,
Originalsteve

My week of ponders - W/C 7th May 2012

Thoughts and design should always be about the future, not just about the now

Why do women wear ballerina shoes in wet weather? Do they not get wet feet?

Brilliant! A new Superman Annual >>> http://bit.ly/J5S1t1 

I'm still in love with Jon Hamm -

Why don't tube stations give you more information? Like the weather outside?

Have I succumbed to a stereotype by having a Superman cover for my iPhone?

Some times you just have to say "fuck it" and agree to an adventure!

The people who touch your life the most are the ones you see occasionally but can chat for hours to.

Trying to predict the future is hard

What is better…paper to digital comics?

When the sun is out, the hotties come out of the wood work.

I am totally in love with Hanna Hart - she needs to do a drunk kitchen in my flat - Her YouTube Channel  >>> http://bit.ly/ISh1kJ

These are just a few thoughts that have crossed my mind this week and are no way meant to offend. If you want to discuss these further or want to make your opinion heard, please drop a comment below.

Thanks!

Originalsteve

My week of ponders - W/C 30th April 2012

Just a few thoughts from my little mind...

• It is illegal to honk your car horn in the US
• A citizen of the net is called a 'Netizan'
• People never read emails…well properly 
• Should I ditch live TV for a while and just watch catch up TV and listen to the radio?
• I'm excited for the downloading the new Spotify iPad app - http://bit.ly/Jca0xr
• I need to download this also - http://bit.ly/IB1NBA
• The Sun newspaper has the biggest readership in the UK...no wonder the country has problems
• Why was the polling station quiet this morning?
• If people aren't voting..shouldn't we look into why they are not voting instead of having a go at them?
• You all need to watch this...http://youtu.be/gx-WBaSNrTQ
• I need to remember to read this - http://on.mash.to/Jcafsh
• Life is better when you share more and tweet more!
• You can actually buy happiness…but by things in small dosses instead of big, one off purchases.
• This is an awesome project happening in New York - http://dubnewyork.org/
• After reading about this project in WIRED, I will now be investigating it - http://thebullitts.com/
• I really need to finish reading this months WIRED magazine...

Make Summer Amazing

This week has been glorious, let's just hope that this is the weather will be back in time for summer?!

But, even if the weather is bad, I want to make this summer amazing and I need your help!

I want to pull together a playlist of great summer songs. You know what I mean, those songs that make your want to dance around and throw your hands in the air, that song that makes you smile on your morning commute or that song that would make your evening BBQ absolutely perfect.

Please get involved by adding your tracks to my collaborative Spotify playlist >>> Make Summer Amazing. Why not get your friends involved too, so please share the playlist!

Go on, spread the summer love and #makesummeramazing