My Word with Douglas E. Welch

Trying to create some flocking behaviour, and getting a little distracted by spirals along the way…

We were doing one of our “virtual drinks and dinner” with friends from Denver last night and, as always, our conversation turned to what shows we were watching. I created this list for them and figured I would share it here, too. The first section is Netflix and the second are some of my favorite YouTube channels. — Douglas

• Midnight Diner
• Abstract
• The Repair Shop
• Call My Agent
• The Good Place
• Sweet Toothed Salaryman
• Grace and Frankie
• Movies That Made Us
•  
• Gresham College Lectures
• World War II week-by-week
• History Matters
• Lockpicking Lawyer
• Tom Scott
• Computerphile
• Jun’s Kitchen
• The 8-Bit Guy

Another great presentation from Gresham College. Their YouTube channel is full of great talks on a wide variety of topics. I am always finding something interesting and enlightening. — Douglas

On YouTube: The Criminal Mind: The relationships between criminology and psychology – Professor Gwen Adshead via Gresham College

Professor Gwen Adshead explores violence, offenders and the criminal personality through the perspective of psychology and psychiatry. A discussion of how the study of psychology and psychiatry relates to the study of criminology. Historically criminals have been defined as a group who are seen as “other” to non-criminals. However, modern thinking has moved away from this with developments in the psychology of criminal rule-breaking and discussions of how individual psychology can assist the understanding of criminal rule-breaking and risk; including approaches to rehabilitation and behavioural change. Professor Adshead suggests that these different discourses have much to offer one another.

Watch other lectures and Subscribe to Gresham College on YouTube

A great presentation on sign language and the power it can bring to artistic expression and life in general. – Douglas

Physical Communication is Universal | Andy Dexterity | TEDxSydney

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Andy Dexterity offers a glimpse into the ways humans communicate and interact using just our physicality. He also loves translating music and song into movement and finishes with an epic performance to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody at TEDxSydney 2017.

Thanks to Queen for permission to use the song.

Animation by Brendan Harwood.

Andy Dexterity is a Green Room Award-nominated performance maker primarily recognised for his unique brand of movement, fusing dance, physical theatre and signed languages. Andy is fascinated by the way we communicate and interact as a species and creates work with the intention to connect and empower.

Hailing from a theatre background, Andy has performed roles in award-winning shows for Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Opera Australia and Belvoir Street Theatre, including the Australian premieres of Urinetown and Altarboyz.

Andy conceived original “signdance” choreography for Grammy Award-winning pop singer, Kimbra, conducted the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for The Wiggles Meet The Orchestra, was special guest in the 2014 Outgames Opening Ceremony, performed “signdancing” with Tina Arena and opened the 2015 Australian Dance Awards at The Sydney Opera House. As a choreographer, he devised en-masse “signdancing” for the opening ceremony of the 2015 World Netball Cup, choreographed the Australian revival of RENT – the musical and You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, both for The Hayes Theatre Company and is currently coordinating and conducting The Sydney Auslan Ensemble for The Sydney Philharmonia’s production of Elijah. As artistic director of the 2016 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, Andy’s main focus was festival accessibility, incorporating Auslan (Australian Sign Language) into as many aspects as possible, including a sign language spectacular for the opening ceremony.

Andy is also an ambassador for Deaf Australia, teaching Auslan (Australian Sign Language) as a part of this role. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. 

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Jun’s Kitchen is a great cooking show out of Japan, the food is amazing and his – oh, so well behaved kitties — are a joy to watch. I have been subscribed for a few months and love seeing his shows pop up in my daily viewing list.

This udon noodle recipe caught my eye as we love udon here and I think it would be great to have a supply of fresh noodles for soup whenever we want. It’s not exactly easy, but seems doable.

Tempura Udon Noodles via Jun’s Kitchen

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【Ingredients serves 3】
－Udon Noodles－
300g flour
140ml water
15g salt

－Tempura (batter)－
110g flour
200ml (1 egg + water combined)
+ Any ingredients you want
I used shredded carrots, eggplants, okra, and shrimp.

－Soup－
900ml water
10g kombu
20g dried Sardines
20g thick bonito flakes
5g thin bonito flakes

Learn more about udon noodles with this book

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!

#4 Discovering what you want to create and following where it leads you

So now that you have, hopefully, decided to do something special this year and made space and time for creating, you are ready to get started on actually creating something new. Of course, that then raises the question — what to you want to create?

Capture your thoughts and ideas

For me, I often capture ideas about items, programs, photographs, podcasts and more that I want to create in my handwritten journal. You do have a journal, right? How are you going to capture the important thoughts and ideas in your life if you don’t have somewhere to capture them? While I am a technology lover, I find that capturing raw, fleeting ideas is best done with a pen and paper. If you know me personally, you will nearly always see me with my journal in hand. Years ago I started carrying a purse and one of the biggest reasons for that was so I could carry all my technology AND my paper journal. You don’t have to use paper, of course. It is far more important to keep a journal rather than worrying about how you keep it. Use your phone, your computer, the back of your hand, whatever, but capture the ideas.

For more information on how I use my paper journal, check out this Snapguide on the topic

How to use a paper journal effectively – my first Snapguide

Now, what do you need to learn?

Once you start collecting ideas, you are sure to come across ideas that require a bit more learning to make them happen. Maybe you need to learn a bit more about watercolor technique, or how to us a CNC machine or 3-D Printer. Perhaps you need a bit more research into a historical novel you are writing or want to better understand how and why encryption can and should be used in today’s high-tech world.

We you are presented with questions related to your project, do what I do. Immediately start researching the topic on the Internet AND at your local library. Take 5 minutes to follow your interests and you will be greatly rewarded. You don’t have to dedicate hours to your research, but dive in and see what resources might be out there. I find that this research always spurs me on to more action — exactly what you need to create more in your life.

Two of my biggest sources for research are probably the most common for everyone — Google (or your other favorite search engine) and YouTube. Yes, that’s right, YouTube — source of mindless cat videos and screaming pranksters, right? Wrong! YouTube is one of the finest sources available today to help you learn nearly everything. Do many people dismiss it, often because they have never really engaged in the wealth of resources it holds.

When I started to learn about Arduino and Raspberry Pi computers I found tutorial after tutorial to help speed my on my way to actually using the devices. The best videos are like having a friend take you through a lesson, step-by-step, leaving you with something completed and concrete at the end. Even the worst videos can contain a tidbit of information or links that might lead you to even better sources elsewhere. Do not underestimate the power of YouTube to jumpstart your creativity and education, whether you want to learn about knitting, leatherwork, Raspberry Pi computers or raspberry Pie (the actual pie!) (LAUGH) I simply cannot quantify how much I have learned there over the years.

Go where they lead you

The other phenomenonal power of Google, YouTube and other online resources is that they can trigger creative thoughts and start you on a creative journey that perhaps you have never contemplated. I subscribe to a variety of YouTube channels so that I get a notification of each new video the channel creator release. While I might not watch every video, everything in their channel — and in my subscriptions — is potentially something I might like to watch. In many ways, along with Netflix and a few other video sources, YouTube has become the bulk of my daily video viewing.

An example of my channel subscriptions on YouTube

My subscriptions and viewing habits also means that YouTube can suggest other videos, from other creators, that I might find interesting. Nearly every day this leads me into another area of creativity. Recently, YouTube turned up videos on paper marbling, based on some other videos I had watch on artistic procedures. After watching a few of these videos, I am planning on trying my hand at paper marbling, at least in some small way. There are simple water and ink methods that you can do with just a few supplies, so it is easy to try it out and see what happens. I love this serendipetous discovery of new and amazing areas of knowledge and creativity and they simply pop up in my YouTube feed each day.

Once I find a YouTube Channel, web site or blog that I like, I can then use another tool to constantly monitor that source for new material and ideas. I use Feedly to subscribe to hundreds of blogs and websites from around the world. Feedly has replaced my daily newspaper and magazine reading much in the same way that YouTube has replaced network television. Each day I turn to my Feedly feed and find a host of new articles, photographs,projects and ideas. If you follow my blogs, you have probably seen me share some of the best of these blog posts there.

Why reading apps and a page from Feedly

(Another great source I use is Flipboard which presents similar information in a magazine style format. You’ll also find my own blogs on Flipboard.)

An example story from my Clipboard reading an My Flipboard Magazines

Further, whenever I am rambling about the Internet via links or a search engine, when I find a particularly great blog, I add it to my Feedly feeds, so it becomes part of my own, daily, customized newspaper or magazine, along with all my other sources. In this way I don’t even really have to go out searching for new information and ideas. Instead, it arrives in an easily readable (and shareable) form right on my phone, tablet and computer. Without Feedly and the blogs I follow, I would much less well informed about the world and miss many new ideas to further my own creativity.

Follow wherever your creativity and your sources lead you. You never know what amazing things you might find there!

Previously on Do It!:

• #3 Making Time for Your Making, Doing and Creating!
• #2 Make Space and Time for Your Making, Doing and Creating!
• #1 A Year of Making, Doing, Creating, and more!

Blue Microphones Snowball USB Microphone

This is one of the first microphones I recommend to anyone looking to begin audio podcasting or looking for a step up in the audio for their video podcasts. As a USB microphone, it doesn’t require a mixing board or cables to use. You simply connect it to any USB port on your computer and start recording. It has a great warm sound that makes almost anyone sound better in their recordings. In fact, if you regularly think you don’t like the sound of your own, recorded, voice, a microphone like the Blue Snowball might just change your mind.

For even better recording results with this or other microphones, add a pop filter to reduce the sounds of your “popping P’s”

More 2012 Gift Guide Items:

1. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield

I have been moving away from mainstream broadcast and cable programming for a while and switching over to watching a lot of stuff on YouTube. My son, Joseph, has switched almost entirely to YouTube Channels for his entertainment viewing.

I realized today that I should be highlighting some of the YouTube Channels I subscribe to for my daily entertainment (and educational viewing).

Today’s new subscription is the PBS Idea Channel. This is a great collection of education and entertaining video on a variety of topics. I found the channel when I came across a blog post linking to their show on Minecraft, Makerbot and the Post Scarcity Economy.

Below you will find a link to a playlist of all their videos. I highly recommend subscribing on YouTube so that you will be notified of each new video as it appears.

* Just a reminder…you can also subscribe to my own YouTube Channel for videos on gardening, careers, technology, new media and more!

Don’t see the video playlist above? Check out PBS Idea Channel on Youtube.