I’ve put an introduction to Japanese symbols on Japan Club (Japanese Made Simple!). I will, I will, (promise, Mally) put up the full and complete Katakana tutorial stuff again… so you can learn to read Japanese T-shirts.

(Note to newer readers: I started a set of posts a while back teaching the katakana symbols, but it never got completed – I think due to moving house, moving job and things like that).

It will come!

Hey look! It’s a new Kindle… and it’s only £89 at Amazon. I’m still not sure if I’m sold on Kindles… I’m impressed with the display, but I do rather like paper. And being able to flip back and forth between pages. And being able to read in the bath without risking £89.

But if you do want one… there they are… £89. (I think this one’s smaller than the last one)

Here’s a short video giving Danny Wallace and Graham Norton’s view of Loughborough.

The question… is this fair?

The answer… certainly in part. But I think Loughborough, while it is somewhat in ‘the provinces’ does have a noteworthy university. It also has good links to Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, London and Sheffield, so it’s not as backwards as some other places.

I’ve done some business networking around Leicester, and it is interesting to see the difference – there’s a more ‘get on with it’ attitude in Leicester. Less about getting to know your associates, more about getting business done. Who’s right? I don’t know. But I know I prefer the pace of getting to know people without necessarily expecting them to push business my way.

I guess this is always the question to be asked by a business… am I thinking big enough? You have companies in the sticks who move to Loughborough, you have companies in Loughborough who move to Leicester, you have companies in Leicester who move to London. You have companies in Greater London who move to The City, or at least to a better post code.

Naturally, with these moves, the potential client base grows – or the client base on your doorstep does, but the overheads also grow.

So, for now, I shall continue to live and work from Loughborough, put pop my head above the parapet in local cities and see if there’s anything doing (as H’s gran would say).

Speaking of Japan, there’s an exhibition coming up soon where anyone who’s interested in working or studying in Japan can go and see what’s occuring. Japan Club has a link.

It’s just over six months since the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami disaster. This site has pictures of then and now; and while there’s clearly hope, there is still a lot of work to do.

Just because it’s no longer in the news, don’t forget the people affected.

(Thanks to the Catholic and Loving It blog for the link)

It’s a good question… Where is Finland?.

Ok… it’s not an amazing question, but apparantly, globally five million people type ‘where is Finland’ into google each month.

So I thought I had better answer the question… it’s here…

View Larger Map

Yep. All the way up there.

The website for my photography business is now significantly improved.

I’d been weighing up whether to do it by hand, use Joomla or WordPress. And you know what? With WordPress’s latest config and plugins, it was actually very easy to sort it all out. So – thank-you WordPress. You have saved my technologically-atrophed bacon!

What’s more, with Widgets, Plugins and things, I’ve hardly had to lay a finger on the template code. A real breath of fresh air. I’m glad that a wordpress site no longer has to look like a blog – though, you’ll notice under ‘Latest News’ is a pretty standard blog offering.

Love it!

I haven’t used iStock for buying photography for a long time. In fact, the last time I bought any credits was 362 days ago. Therefore in three days time my one remaining credit would have expired.

It’s difficult to find anything you can buy for one credit, but I wasn’t going to let it expire unspent. So I now have this goat in my library.

Goat

What is the most damaging form of prejudice in the world today?

I would put forward the theory that it’s the prejudice that you and I follow with every person we know, every single day. It’s not so much a problem with people you don’t know although there are a huge number of those prejudices too. But people you do know, or think you know…

How often do you find yourself saying…

“Oh he’ll be late… he’s always late.”
“I won’t give that to her, she won’t appreciate it.”
“He’s a loud person.”
“I don’t like him, he’s not very nice.”
“She probably won’t like that.”

When you do that, you’re writing the script for other people. When they go against it, you are put out because they’re not following the script you’ve written. When they follow it, you’re comfortable, but they’re trapped. Imagine being trapped for ever in someone else’s script.

I’ve recently learned about my own script… and I’ve learned that I don’t have to follow it. That’s partly how I’ve managed to start a business; by ignoring my script, putting on my cape and slowly learning to become a super-hero.

If we can stop (an I am as guilty as others) writing other people’s scripts, and stop putting expectations on them to follow the scripts you’ve written for them, and stop following the script that others are writing for us, we can all flourish in ways we never believed possible.

As a friend of mine (may he rest in peace) once said… It’s in you!

He was right.