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9 March 2010

#69 Read peoples thoughts

Every black dot is a thought-book. But they are in more places in town so stay tuned.

Every black dot is a thought-book. But they are in more places in town so stay tuned.

... and this is what they look like. Find them, open them and write down your innermost thoughts in them.

 

Today’s guest blogger is Matilda Melin and thinks a lot. She is 19 years and has lived in Hisingen all her life. Once, she spread out 100 blank books all over Gothenburg. It was the start of 365's thought book project.

"Cogito, ergo sum," said René Descartes. I say the same. "I think, therefore I exist."

I remember I watched a lot of Anders and Måns because they always brought up such interesting issues in their program and I like questions.

I think a lot, almost constantly, about everything imaginable, and many thoughts are just questions. One day, I wondered where all the thoughts go that we don’t write down or remember. I assumed, and still assume that these thoughts leave the brain as fast as they got there (the majority). I was somewhat struck with panic thinking that so many great ideas, challenging questions and smart answers are thought of only to be forgotten! I wanted to save my thoughts and thus needed a thought-book.

I watched Anders and Måns when I went my second year in high school.

Every day at school consisted of the same things and it was such a dreary April day a few years ago that the first public thought-book saw the light of day. Made from torn out notebook paper and a stapler we stole from art class, we stapled together little notebooks during math class. Then me and my friends snuck out of the classroom and put our books in the school toilets. After a few weeks, students scribbled them full of insightful (and some not so insightful) thoughts. It worked!

Then we had three tests a week until the summer holidays to deal with and the thought-books were put on hold.

But an idea like the thought-book can’t just be forgotten like that, and when I started reading 365 Things You Can Do the idea popped up again in my head and now I am sitting here writing a guest post.

In the city of Gothenburg, 100 books have now been released. At cafes, libraries, museums and other places. They are here for everyone to write in. So do it now, think and write. Empty yourself and maybe you can enlighten someone else with new insights, approaches or answers to questions.

Most of us have at sometime wished that they could read someone else's thoughts. Now I’m giving everyone the chance to. Literally.

 

Required time: 
One to two weeks depending on how effective it is.
Cost: 
Ranging from zero to 200 euro or more. Find good sponsors and you don’t pay a dime.
Cons: 
You may become tired. Frustrated. Maybe no one writes in your books, or the books disappear. You can get treated in the most horrible ways whilst planting your books.
Pros: 
All hassle and effort is worth it when you peer in at the cafe you pass every morning and see your thought book through the window. When people write in the books, you’ve achieved something really big and valuable.
Taggar: thought books, mind reading, Matilda Melin
8 March 2010

#68 Play music on a tram

http://tramsessions.blogspot.com

Required time: 
Five minutes.
Cost: 
Zero.
Cons: 
People might be annoyed on their trip.
Pros: 
People might feel joy and inspiration.
Taggar: tramsessions, navid modiri och gudarna, music
7 March 2010

#67 Mix food and politics

I wish you were edible Che, preferably in the form of a bun.

I wish you were edible Che, preferably in the form of a bun.

I want to eat candy while being political.

So how about chewing gum in the form of Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela and small little pink Gandhis. Liquorice or chewing gum in the form of Hitler, Margaret Thatcher and George W. Bush, with a bitter taste.

One can proceed with other snacks. Potato chips, for example.

Che Gue Varritos, strong as hell with revolutionary dip. Is it just me getting a kick out of this? Everything else we do and listen to reflect what we think, so why not also our snacks and candy habits?

Communist Buns. The hammer and sickle in cinnamon. Or how about really dark Fascist Chocolate, 80-percent cocoa, really rough chocolate. Liberal Milkshake with freedom vermicelli.

Bonus: Once you have your brilliant idea, don’t forget to take out a patent at the Patent and Registration Office - www.prv.se

Required time: 
Two hours. You need a project plan and a prototype sketch. If you come up with anything really good, you can also add an hour to register on the Patent and Trademark Office.
Cost: 
It costs a few hundred to register a patent. But if you have a pen and paper at home and perhaps a ruler, the sketch doesn’t cost anything at all.
Cons: 
You may be ticked off when you realize someone else had an idea before you. But when you’ve established that, you can move on and try something else.
Pros: 
Imagine a place in history as the person who came up with the Che Gue Varritos. It must be much more fun than not doing it.
Taggar: politics, hybrid, food, che guevara, business opportunity
6 March 2010

#66 Write your own acceptance speech

You don’t have to wait until the day you get an Oscar, turn 50 or receive the Nobel Peace Prize to hold an acceptance speech. There will be a thousand times before that when you have the opportunity to show gratitude for the shoulders that have carried you here, including your own. Furthermore, it is a good opportunity to practice for the day when you stand in front of the acting elite or the family and say thank you. Now you have the opportunity to practice, to get the ingredients right, giving the audience goose bumps, making a tear form in the corner of their eye and causing scattered cheers and shouts as you read peoples’ names from your place in the spotlight.

A good acceptance speech is humble but strong. You shouldn’t make the world think it’s because of them you got where you are. But it is important to thank them for believing in you and backing you in your struggle. Ingredients that are important to fit in there in terms of content are:

- Thanking yourself and patting yourself on the shoulder. 
- Your family, if they have supported you. 
- Your closest friends, if they have supported you. 
- Your enemies that have spurred you on. 
- God, if you believe there is such a thing.

Then there are quite a few proven tricks you can use to get the right feeling in your speech:

- Pause and look at the audience. 
- Change the tempo, tone and volume. 
- Excuse yourself to wipe a tear or catch your breath. 
- Finish with a scream and raise your arms to the sky.

A good thing you can do is to study skilled rhetoricians in the form of politicians and actors holding acceptance speeches at an awards show, or other charismatic people who have held an acceptance speech. Think about what they say, how they move their body and hands and how they work with the eyes and facial movements.

Required time: 
Four hours. Add two hours to write and edit text. But do not forget the two most important hours when you practice in front of the mirror to sync your body with the text and hopefully learn it by heart.
Cost: 
Free.
Cons: 
People might think that you are self-righteous for writing an acceptance speech for no reason. But people can sometimes be boring as shit.
Pros: 
By thinking about things and people to whom we are grateful, it often makes us become a more humble person. It also makes you think of things that are good in your life and it can make you look at your life with a lighter camera. In addition, you can make those around you happy when you read the speech. If those around you hear thanks linked to their names they feel appreciated and will be happy for days to come.
Taggar: rhetoric, be prepared, acceptance speech
5 March 2010

#65 Lend people money

Become someone's minibank - it is not harder than giving up a couple of tens of euros.

Become someone's minibank - it is not harder than giving up a couple of tens of euros.

Today’s guest blogger is named Jesper Larsson; he runs Next Century Modern design company and is also the Gothenburg Ambassador of the showcase event Pecha Kucha. On his Kiva.org page, you can see what dreamers he’s chosen to lend money to.

It is said that the world has become increasingly global. Globalization is all over the place and there is talk about global warming, a global media environment and a global economy. The latter became very evident during last autumn's financial crisis, where bad mortgages from the U.S. spread like an financial virus throughout the world. And since then there’s been a constant nagging about boring things like crisis and depression. Therefore, I thought I’d tell you about a fun activity which I think is the cherry on top of this globalized world: Using the Internet to lend money to poor dreamers in the third world through so-called microcredit.

Microlending involves giving people a chance at receiving an unsecured loan and therefore a better life. It is aimed at people who can’t get a conventional bank loan. What I like is that it’s not welfare, but simply letting poorer entrepreneurs play with your money at zero interest. A brilliant little idea that among other things has been awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize.

And combining microcredit and the Internet makes it even better. Naturally I fell head over heels for the service Kiva.org, which could be described as a cross-fertilization of Facebook, peer-to-peer, SMS-loans and aid-work.

At Kiva.org all applicants for loans are presented with a picture and reason for applying for a loan. You choose who you want to lend to at a individual level. Perhaps you’re caught by someone's life story, or you think it's just cool that someone sells Ghetto Blasters in Nigeria, or you can simply lend out money for your own sake. Studies have shown that we feel good to do good deeds and that the same pleasure centers that get kicks out of food, sex and drugs are activated in the brain. I recommend you skip the drugs and go straight micro-lending instead.

And don’t worry about you starting a new financial crisis by your loans. Unlike the Americans the world's poor are incredibly good at repaying their loans. All I have lent has been paid back, and globally the payout rate for all the million of borrowers is over 90 percent. It is rather fantastic.

So click here now and sign up for Kiva.org directly and do a good deed that makes you and the world a bit better.

Required time: 
Not more than a visit to Facebook.
Cost: 
From $25 and up (but you just lend out your money so it's not a cost, by definition). You can pay by Paypal or with major credit cards.
Cons: 
I don’t see any immediate drawbacks to lending money to poor entrepreneurs, but one should bear in mind doing this doesn’t replace other forms of assistance. There will always be people who are so vulnerable that a loan isn’t enough, and they will still require other forms of assistance. So if you are currently supporting other organizations, you shouldn’t stop there.
Pros: 
You do a classic good deed where you choose who to lend to. You get your money back when the loan is repaid. It's easier than running around with a collection plate or binders in town.
Taggar: minibank, making the world a better place, kiva.org, jesper larsson, helping others
4 March 2010

#64 Document your block

When I was six I decided that I was going to become a writer. I would be one of those persons whose name was on the great books I borrowed from the library in Kärra. The books I read under my bed covers long after bedtime. Picture books and comic books later became books with chapters. Books for young adults turned into Stephen King and Franz Kafka. Surrealism, magic realism and horror. I loved the big stories. I loved the feeling of them, their weight in my hands when I held them. The weight of the characters inside me, how I missed them when the book was finished.

So now that I work with storytelling in everything I do isn’t surprising. I can’t explain how a washing machine works to a five year old, but I can tell a story about how my guy friends at primary school once locked a hamster in a dryer. The hamster survived and its hair became fluffy. I know it has nothing to do with how a washing machine works but I can’t help it. The stories are there. Connected to words and images.

Nowadays, I always have a notepad and a pen with me. Or I write down words or sentences in my phone. It’s everywhere. But usually right in front of me. In my neighborhood. I could talk for hours about the details, people and things that have happened on the way home, just outside the apartment or in the yard. But I’ve chosen a few favorites so that I won’t tire you.

My favorite is Abbas, who owns the local shop. A civil engineer from Afghanistan who’s working his ass off when he’s not taking care of his two young children. Behind the counter with feta cheese, cashew nuts and candy is a worn black laptop, where he’s writing a medical dictionary in Swedish, English, German, Parsis and Dari. Sometimes when he happens to move so that the sleeves of his shirt go up, his scars from the torture in his home country become visible. Abbas knows everything about everyone in the neighborhood. If two people are in there at the same time it takes two seconds before he presents them to each other. He always calls me Mister Modiri. He is the only person who calls me that. I think it's nice.

Then we have Leo's hole. Leo is the fat yellow cat in our family. Leo has a hole in the tarmac in front of the house that he usually guards. I've never seen anything go in or out of the hole but when I look out the window in the study Leo sits there and watches. Head bent forward. Body taut as a spring.

Then there’s the time when I accidentally locked a person in a dark laundry room and ran away because I was so scared. The neighbor in the second staircase, who pointed out the loudness of us having sex. Or our neighbor who hasn’t bought new furniture since 1972. Or the neighbor that plays double bass when he‘s angry. The headmaster of the school below that sound-checked a microphone before graduation one morning. How I woke up to him testing the sound of the mike.

- "One two. One two. You shouldn’t think that… Yes it sounds good."

Required time: 
Start by adding two hours to collect materials and two hours to compile it. It takes a little longer with video than writing does. Or if you're a perfectionist and then it takes twice the time.
Cost: 
Pen and paper cost little. There are video editing tools you can download for free, and the camera you can borrow or buy depending on what ambitions you have for the future.
Cons: 
Some people might not want to be seen or be uncomfortable that their names are included. Make sure to be nice and give people a chance to choose.
Pros: 
You realize you are surrounded by stories and people and not just voices and nameplates on the fronts of doors.
Taggar: neighbors, get to know, friendly, block
3 March 2010

#63 Do what you want

I’m standing in front of the toothpaste shelf at the super market and am trying to tell myself that I possess free will. I'm the bumblebee that technically can’t fly but still buzz those small wings anyway and my heavy body lifts off the ground. I'm trying to trick my subconscious. I'm trying to trick my old philosophy teacher who said that people don’t really have a free will of their own, that we are slaves to both fate and advertising. I’m holding two different tubes of toothpaste, one in each hand, trying to choose the opposite of my first impulse.

But as I leave the store with my tube of Colgate in my left pocket, I feel so cheated. How can I tell if it was really my choice? That it wasn’t made by internal psychological mechanisms following years of advertising bombarding us with messages that the company pumped into our collective veins? I have no idea. Toothpaste is toothpaste. Fuck it.

It's the same thing when I'm trying to figure out what I really want to do. Whether it's the choice of career, home, girlfriend, friends, clothes, gadgets, what books I should read or what music I should listen to. Is it me who chooses what I do or is it a result of wanting to live up to the expections of certain people in the flock? Which signals I want to send out. How I want to be perceived.

There are various ways of finding out what you want to do. One way is by buying a large sheet of paper, colored pencils, making a big pot of tea and then calling a person who knows you well. Sit down at your kitchen table. Lay out the large paper. Take out the colored pencils. Now let your friend interview you under the following headings:

- What did you want to be when you were little?

- Which of all professions in the world would you have today if you could choose quite freely?

- If all food was wholesome and good for you, what would you like to eat for a week?

- If all music was hip and in, which bands would you listen to?

- If you knew you would die in a year, what would you do with your life?

- If you were financially independent, what would you dedicate your life to?

Continue with similar topics. Think of some yourself and let your friend think of at least three. Let it take time. Some answers you can draw, others you can write, but make sure to fill the large sheet with as much as you possibly can.

When the tea is over thank your friend and ask him to go home.

When you have the interview material as you sit down by yourself and think about what you need to do to achieve everything you've written down. Make a time schedule and find out how much energy, money and other things are needed to be able to make it happen.

Then stand up.

And do it.

Now.

Required time: 
Two hours.
Cost: 
5 Euro for paper and pencils.
Cons: 
Being a person who does what he wants provokes others because your action holds a mirror to their sad and cowardly life.
Pros: 
You don’t have the anxiety that comes with you doing things you don’t really want to. Less often will you end up in situations where you ask yourself, "How the hell did I get into this mess... I don't even like charter."
Taggar: risky business, make your own choices, initiative, follow your heart
2 March 2010

#62 Feed birds

For the birds

For the birds

I sometimes travel to different cities in Sweden. Sometimes to cities that are located in the inland of the country. Some mornings I wake up with a feeling that something is wrong. A sound is missing. I get out of bed to have some coffee and a sandwich with Tartex and butter. I pop my ears. My eardrums aren't vibrating like they usually do, because there's a missing ingredient. It can take a hour or sometimes more until I realize what's wrong. There are no sounds of seagulls.

I'm born and raised on the westcoast. Every day in my life I have woken up to the sound of seagulls. Maybe not in the wintertime, but then my ears are so frost-bitten that they don't work anyways.

Then there's other birds that I like. I don't know their names. But I like the fact that they're there. Right outside my field of vision, like dots in the sky or like boomerangs that fliy in and out of the treetops, chasing each other across the yard. Certain crows that search for treasure in wastebaskets. I once spotted a hummingbird when I was abroad. It was a very special moment.

I'm not even going to try to come up with an argument that would pass in a debate. Buy bird food and feed birds now. You haven't got any real counter-arguments to come up with anyways.

Required time: 
Ten minutes. Five minutes to buy bird food. Five minutes to hang it out.
Cost: 
2 Euro.
Cons: 
Janitors and sulky old people can become even more sulky. They may think that it would attract even more birds that don't belong. And there could be a whole lot of bird poop.
Pros: 
Birds are a nice feature in the world. And they need food. It can be difficult to find food in the winter so you can see this as a kind of assistance. A thanks to nature for letting us be a part of it. Here's a little bit back.
Taggar: feed, birds
1 March 2010

#61 Start an online T-shirt store

Sometimes the only thing that stands in your way is a little image of yourself that you have in your head. When I was younger, I was lousy at all sports. I was in terrible shape and I couldn’t throw things far. All that ball kicking wasn’t my thing. The self-image was etched in my head as a child. I'm bad at doing physical things.

Today I am 26 and run eight kilometers three times a week, I have done boxing, yoga and other types of fitness. I am an incredibly physical individual and I love to keep going. But the image remains. I see myself as the guy who was chosen last for sports during recess at school.

A bit of the same goes for most things. And if I get a good idea for a T-shirt print, a bunch of voices appear in my head. They laugh at me and say that I’m not some designer, that it costs money to print T-shirts or to start a clothing line or a t-shirt collection. So I discard the idea I had for a stylish t-shirt  and go watch TV instead. But here I press pause.

Sometimes the only thing that stands in your way is a little image of yourself you have in your head. Insert the index finger and a thumb into your head and grab the little boy standing on the gravel and pull him out of through the ear, it’ll work because he is very small. Then, put him in a small box of candy cars. Done. The image is gone from your head. It's your choice.

And about printing T-shirts, I have a plan. There is something called print on demand. You go to a website and upload your T-shirt print in the form of a graphic image or photograph or you can design T-shirt on the page with a T-shirt editor. When the print is finished, upload it to your own online store. It won’t cost you a thing. And when people find your store and see your beautiful print they can buy a few copies of the shirt and you get some of the money.

A print on demand site I can recommend is www.spreadshirt.com.

Required time: 
Five minutes to start the store and register it. Two minutes to upload your print. Then you can add several hours of designing your print so that it’s as great as you want it to be.
Cost: 
Free.
Cons: 
None.
Pros: 
You may be the next big T-shirt designer without spending a penny in initial investments.
Taggar: tee, t-shirt, store, own business, e-commerce
28 February 2010

#60 Combine two things

What happens if you combine a rabbit with an elephant?

What happens if you combine a rabbit with an elephant?

Now and then I visit my parents home in Hisingen. To tell this story, I will begin by lighting the big yellow light against the pale-blue wallpapered wall. Then I'll put the two main characters on a balcony six floors above ground and a thousand stories below the sky. Below them are terraced houses, small semidetached houses and large green lawns. Insert a coffee cup in each of their hands. There's steam rising from the coffee. There. And turn the time forward to 09:30. I am one of the persons. My mother is the other one. There. Go.

I look down across the lawn, and feel that something is missing. I ask my mom where all the wild rabbits have gone. When I was a kid they were everywhere. In bushes, in staircases and on the playground. Now there isn't a single one.

Mom says that just around the time I left home the janitors had had enough. Perhaps it was the sorrow that I had moved that caused them to make such a drastic decision, or they had small children at home and slept badly which affected their mood. No matter the reason, this story, and the stories of thousands of rabbits, ended with white powder lines being placed in the bushes. It was the end of the empire of hares.

But then one day... My mom tells me this while pouring more coffee. The sun is still there and everything beneath it as well. But then one day, my mothers co-worker's white pet bunny Bosse ran away. He disapeared into thin air. The co-worker's kids were grief-stricken. They had loved the fat bunny who casually looked at them every time they came home from school. Suddenly bunnies began to pop up on the lawns again. The janitors had either been in a better mood, or realized that it was impossible to stop the invasion. It was ment to be. Bushes and playgrounds were filled with wild spotted hares. Bosse's heritage adorned forests and allotments.

Required time: 
Spend an evening thinking about what two things you want to combine. It can be difficult to think of something because there are already thousands of combinations. It could be be about you as an Iranian mating with a person from Skåne, but it can also mean something as simple as making a pie with marshmallows and bananas. So anything between five minutes and nine months.
Cost: 
It doesn't cost anything if you already have the things. Sometimes you need a diplomatic ingredient, a so called bridge where the two things can stick together or meet.
Cons: 
The combination could be crap. Some things don't go together.
Pros: 
You could invent something totally new. You may be lucky and the baby can get your eyes and her lips.
Taggar: reproduce, hybrid, hisingen, best of two worlds, babies