Want a dose of inspiration?  Check out the TED Conference talks, which you can view online.

Here are some talks from this year’s conference that I found inspiring and fascinating:  “Daniel Kahnman:  The riddle of experience vs. memory“; “Raghava KK:  Five lives of an artist“; “James Cameron:  Before Avatar … a curious boy“; and “Bill Gates on energy:  innovating to zero!” (which you can watch below).

Or

This week PBS is airing a new 3-part series called “This Emotional Life.”  The first part, “Family, Friends & Lovers,” aired last night.  If you missed it, you can watch part 1 online.  Part 2 airs tonight; part 3 airs tomorrow night.

Here’s a description of the series from the website:  “The series opens a window into real lives, exploring ways to improve our social relationships, cope with emotional issues, and become more positive, resilient individuals.”

I watched the first 20 minutes of part 1 and found it very compelling … I thought it was very good.  I plan to watch the rest of part 1 and the rest of the series.

By the way, according to the website, this series is part of a two-year, multi-platform project that aims to create awareness, understanding and solutions surrounding emotional well-being.

This is a very important project, in part because the healthier all of us become emotionally, the more loving this world will become, and the more healing it’ll experience.  Way to go, PBS!

If you watch some of the series, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Last month, on the day the Bears hosted the Steelers, I took the train downtown to rollerblade and snap photos for a few hours.  Enjoy the slideshow below.

Note:  To view the slideshow in full-screen mode, click the play button (the arrow) below, then click the full-screen icon (pictured at left), which is located in the lower right of the slideshow player.

Yesterday I filmed parts of my nephew Christopher’s birthday party.  He turned 8.

I used Windows Movie Maker (which is installed on most PCs) to edit and produce the 5-minute video below. It was my first time using Windows Movie Maker, and I found it very easy to use.  I edited and produced the video in about an hour and a half.

Enjoy this footage of Christopher and my niece Sophia — the two most wonderful kids in the world!

On September 15 (my birthday), on my way home from work, I stopped by Joanne Fabrics.  I bought two buckets of sidewalk chalk.

I talked my roommate Randy into joining me on the sidewalk in front of the house.  Here are the results.

36 is such a curvy number.

I thought about chalking the entire block.

Did I mention I was wearing my birthday suit?

Several months ago Circuit City went out of business, so I went dumpster diving behind the local Circuit City store.  Jackpot!  I scored 3 large Circuit City signs that I plan to use as canvases.

I used one of the Circuit City signs for my painting below.  Before I painted on it with acrylic paint, I slathered 2 coats of white gesso on it.

When it was time to paint, I decided to paint with my hands, not brushes.  (Kindergartners have nothing on me.)

I also decided that I wanted to paint something for the garden, to place in the garden.

Also, I decided that I wanted to screw one of my California license plates into the painting (I wanted to go mixed media, dude).

When I finished painting, I sprayed the painting  with weather-resistant stuff and placed it in the garden.  Here it is:

Oh, California

NPR recently covered the 50th annual Newport Folk Festival, and now you can listen to many of the performances online.  (Thank you, NPR!)

To browse a list of performances, head to NPR’s Folk at Newport home page, and you’ll find the list in the left column.

Enjoy performances from relative folk newbies, such as Iron and Wine, The Decemberists (Colin Meloy of The Decemberists in photo at left), The Avett Brothers, Neko Case and Gillian Welch.  And don’t miss some classics, such as Judy Collins, Joan Baez (Mom, are you reading this?!), Arlo Guthrie, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Pete Seeger.

Finally, as if the performances weren’t enough, you can download for FREE a 12-song “Music at Newport” sampler, which features songs by some of the artisits I listed above.  Again, thank you, NPR.

Enjoy, and let me know which performance you enjoyed most.