So far, I have helped:

• a movie director create a film in Brainerd, Minnesota
• a new social networking platform
• a bakery/blogging business in South Carolina
• a digital storytelling class

The most interesting aspect, IMO, is that I have some form of connection to almost every person that I have funded. For the movie, I knew someone from Brainerd through a conference and he told me about the project. So, a friend of a friend connection. The social networking platform came into my knowledge based on a tweet from someone I respect who had funded it. That influenced my decision. The blogging bakery is being developed is by a WordPress developer who I follow on Twitter and the storytelling class is also a Twitter connection but I have also met him in person at a conference. I think without that Twitter or other connection, I would not be inclined to make a donation to the Kickstarter appeal. So crowdsourcing is an amazing thing but I do see that the crowd has to be connected and willing to share that connection in order to motivate folks to share as well. It actually is more crucial than I first realized.

Now, I need to come up with an idea to put up there for funding!

Visit CheerLights for the details. And, if you don’t have a strand of the CheerLights (like me), then get the Android App! (I will soon)

Maybe I need to learn how to build one of the actual strands…..

I have really only cried when two celebrities died: Roberto Clemente and Jim Croce. I was much younger then, of course, but while I have been saddened by the loss of a favorite singer, actor or other celebrity, I have not really been moved to tears in a long time until I heard this morning about the death of Steve Jobs.

I am an unabashed Apple fangirl and I have been since my first experiences with the Apple II during undergraduate school and the time that a friend brought over this new computer called a Macintosh..it was cute. Small. “Portable”. And this mouse thing was really something else. I was hooked and have been ever since.

Several models later, a few iPods, iPads and so on (except for the iPhone – never had that), I remain brand loyal and a big Steve fan. Yes, he has an ego. Yes, he sometimes pushes things that I don’t think are the best move but by golly, his vision wins and then all of the sudden we realize that we didn’t know we needed (fill in the technology here) but we certainly cannot live with out it now!

His vision of technology is one of beauty, simplicity, power, creativity and fun. How can you not love that?

Some things to share about Steve Jobs:

A nice video tribute from Gizmodo using the text from the Think Different campaign

Lovely tribute photo and text

An oral history interview from the Smithsonian.

11 Best Steve Quotes (via Huffington Post)

His Stanford commencement speech:

Image via Tom Davenport

I was intrigued. In a nutshell, Free-Range Social Media encourages you to share yourself openly, use others for inspiration but not for wholesale copying and not to hide behind the easy to use anonymity that many social media/networking sites allow you to do. You can read more at her FRSM page.

I have shared her TED talk earlier here and I just re-watched it yesterday. It really speaks to me and I think I need to watch it a few times a year just to remind myself of how I need to work on being open and honest. At the first part of her talk, she states that we are all hard-wired for connection. This is the same conclusion that the author of the common book we all read last year at my college drew in his book: The Geography of Bliss. It is all about relationships and connecting.

In this hypertexted/hashtagged world of social networking, I began thinking about how we connect beyond just the basic communication tools like texting, comments, email (oh so 2009) and so on. We also link to each other’s work, pass along URLs via Twitter, post YouTube videos on Facebook, etc.

Brene Brown also links to another person’s badge called Link with Love, which has this badge:

This reminded me of Alan Levine’s definition of “linktribution“, which I latched onto right away, of course, this approach’s definition is much more “feely” so it works on a different level, I suppose. It is about accepting responsibility for what you do online, respecting the intellectual property of others and yourself and protecting those rights.

And, it also seems to ring more true for the connections and relationships. If you choose to link to something, it makes sense to share it in the world appropriately and with respect to whoever created it. You would expect the same from someone else.

I think I have always tried to follow the precepts of the Free-Range Social Media but I will be aware even more.

This is what I have found: to let ourselves be seen, deeply seen, vulnerably seen; to love with our whole hearts, even though there’s no guarantee — and that’s really hard, and I can tell you as a parent, that’s excruciatingly difficult — to practice gratitude and joy in those moments of terror, when we’re wondering, “Can I love you this much? Can I believe in this this passionately? Can I be this fierce about this?” just to be able to stop and, instead of catastrophizing what might happen, to say, “I’m just so grateful, because to feel this vulnerable means I’m alive.” And the last, which I think is probably the most important, is to believe that we’re enough. Because when we work from a place I believe that says, “I’m enough,” then we stop screaming and start listening, we’re kinder and gentler to the people around us, and we’re kinder and gentler to ourselves.

This set of predictions from JWT Intelligence is much more widespread covering fashion, art, food, travel, business, technology and more. It was fascinating.

Some of the predictions were right up the T-F mindset like:

33 – alternative social networking sites to Facebook. Like Diaspora, which I helped fund in its Kickstarter campaign.

59 – the Life in A Day user generated documentary. I participated in that as well. Doubt my footage will be selected but I find the whole idea of collaborative art projects really interesting and a nice mix of the technical with the psychological

83 – Social Objects which will allow folks to scan or otherwise interact with objects merging the digital and the physical. My pals Brandon and Lia are all over this trend with their materialmashup site.

and, of course

93 – tube free toilet paper!! What????? Where will all of those kids find raw materials for their art projects?

Or even the professional artists might have problems with this one…

What do you find most interesting?

Enjoy.

It reminds me of the other science related media that I have loved like:

The Element Song by Tom Leher

And, of course, any Schoolhouse Rock like Electricity (although their science entries were weaker than the math, politics and grammar ones). I was privileged to hear the creators of the series at a conference a few years ago. They related that the idea came from observing that one of their sons could not learn the multiplication tables but could memorize the lyrics for every Jimi Hendrix song.

And, the wonderful tunes from They Might Be Giants:

I took a workshop a few years ago about finding your life’s purpose. It was an appeal to my Feely side and it turned out to be much more beneficial than I dreamed it could be. The end result of the day-long seminar was to create a personal mission statement. It was supposed to be short enough and easy enough to remember if you were being held at gunpoint and asked to recite it. After going through several worksheets to help identify verbs and values that should be included in the statement, I eventually derived this statement:

My life’s purpose is to illuminate, celebrate and participate in the circle of life with friends, family and the Universe.

I like it. The verbs really resonate with me and what I find valuable, useful and important in life- both at work and not. It also was important to me to recognized the Circle of Life as I know it is constantly moving and must be a part of how we live in this world.

Parts of the circle of life are easy for celebration and participation. Birthday parties. Graduation. Weddings. First bike ride. All kinds of things. And, some parts are harder.

Yesterday, I had to participate in one of the hard parts of the circle of life as I said good-bye to my dog, Haleakala. From a post I wrote back during my Project 365:

Back in March 1999, this skinny scared dog showed up in our yard upon returning from a trip to Hawaii. We named her Haleakala and on April 22, 1999 (Earth Day) she came inside the house for the first time. So, we declared Earth Day as her unofficial birth day. She got some treats from a vendor at yesterday’s Earth Fest. She loves them!!!

Saying good-bye to her was one of the hardest things I ever have had to do. She was diagnosed with cancer three months ago and the decline started shortly after that. It is a gift that we can prevent suffering and pain but it is a hard gift to give.

But, I want to celebrate her life and what she gave to me.

I went through my Flickr account and pulled together a slideshow of good, bad and ugly photos of her over the past 4 years or so. You can see what a pretty girl she is.

The Circle of Life keeps moving and so will I as I keep illuminating, celebrating and participating.