I was reading about some research done recently http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130806091817.htm
which apparently did not necessarily prove the truth of the old saying that a tidy desk/house equalled a tidy mind.
Really? Someone really got paid zillions of pounds just to study that concept? I could have told them that for free!
Tidiness is all very well but personally I think you can get so carried away with it that you leave little time for anything else in your life. Of course that's just my opinion but I will stick to my annual thorough clean and just muddle through the rest of the year. After all a few cobwebs and the odd bit of dust never hurt the Bronte sisters or Tolkien, now did it? ;)
Happy Reading!
Friday, 25 July 2014
Check out my second interview on my interview page. It is with author Hayley J. Lawson. I'm sure you will join me in wishing her the greatest success!
I have another couple of very interesting interviews coming up soon, so keep checking back with me!
In addition to the above I have reviews, exciting news and general things to post but in between looking after the kids who are now on holiday, walking the dogs and spring [ok, summer then!] cleaning my entire house, I'm a bit pushed for time so please bear with me!
Until then - HAPPY READING!
I have another couple of very interesting interviews coming up soon, so keep checking back with me!
In addition to the above I have reviews, exciting news and general things to post but in between looking after the kids who are now on holiday, walking the dogs and spring [ok, summer then!] cleaning my entire house, I'm a bit pushed for time so please bear with me!
Until then - HAPPY READING!
Tuesday, 22 July 2014
What do I think? Well, listen then...
You may remember that I was recently asked to contribute to the question raised by The Society For Curious Though of what makes a fair society.
It is something that I would like to expound upon later when I have a little more time but for now I will leave you with this :-
http://thesocietyforcuriousthought.com/a-fair-society/carmen-capuano/
I am going to be completely honest with you - I was intending to leave this brief post above and come back to it at a later date. I even went so far as to publish it in that form. But I could not leave it at that and had to log back in. You see this is something I know a little about.
What I wrote in the link above was this:-
"A fair society is one where each and every voice carries equal weight; each opinion is considered as carefully as the next; every consideration is extended impartially to every citizen and where neither creed, colour, affluence, influence or intelligence dictate a divide."
Sounds great, doesn't it? Sounds like Utopia I think. But it is certainly not a reflection of the world we live in!
Believe me when I say that I am no politician - their endless streams of words which say a lot but mean nothing, tie me up in knots and bamboozle me. Nor am I a true anthropologist - my study of humans is for one reason only, to feed the nature of humanity and the human condition into my characters and books. But I know people. And I know that what I have stated above is as likely to happen as mankind landing upon the sun.
Human beings have a built in competitive streak, it is that which makes us mean and nasty but also makes us brilliant and unique. In the animal kingdom wild animals [and even domesticated ones] prowl and mark their territory, defining the boundaries so that no other cat/dog/ lion/ tiger impinges upon their stomping ground.
But us humans, what do we do? We plant shaped privet hedges, install fancy curved walls or high trellis fencing which we then bedeck with hanging baskets and the like. That's not a demarcation of a boundary, it's the shrill clarion call of a challenge, an invitation to 'look at me. Isn't my wall/fence/ house/ garden/ life better than yours?'
And me? Well I am exactly the same as everyone else!
But imagine for one moment life without that competitiveness? Who would strive to implement new procedures, invent new technologies, develop new medicine, win races and medals? Who would strive to be the best, the very best at their game? No-one.
So we need a competitive streak. But does this necessitate the suppression of others? I think not. And that was the point I was trying to make above.
You see if we had a fairer society where opportunities were accessible for all, the cream would still surely rise to the top and by that I mean the most able for every occupation and profession, not those with the most money or social standing or pushy parents behind them. Indeed, I have seen children who were in my opinion intelligent enough to have gone to University unable to do so, due to the crippling tuition fees.
Likewise I have seen people be deemed to be too educated/intelligent to do a job they were interested in doing. In both of these cases someone else decided the individual's fate and removed from them the opportunity which should have been theirs for the taking.
Ah but there is the paradox. Examine my words again if you please, especially this bit - where neither creed, colour, affluence, influence or intelligence dictate a divide.
Wouldn't the implementation of such a society of equal opportunity create a society where intelligence created a divide? Is a divide inevitable?
Again, I don't think so. It comes down to the way we look at things. A brain surgeon is infinitely more respected that a toilet cleaner. Why is this?
Granted a brain surgeon saves lives by his skill. But 99.9% of us will require the services of a good public toilet cleaner far, far more than we ever will a brain surgeon. Indeed a clean public toilet is not just a nicety, it is the frontline in disease control!
Is the cleaner therefore, assuming that he or she completes their tasks to the very best of their abilities, not as worthy of our admiration as the surgeon? Of course she/he is ...or at least she/he should be.
And that is exactly what is wrong with our society. We place too much value on some things and occupations and not enough on others which should be of equal or greater value.
So to recap, what I am saying is this:- we cannot and should not strive to change human nature for it is what makes us, us. What we should do is seek to hold each other in high esteem, for the individual value we hold in society. For without the humble toilet cleaner, the brain surgeon would be laid up in bed with dysentery or cholera...
THIS POST HAS BEEN WRITTEN LIVE TO LET YOU SEE IT DEVELP AS YOU READ IT. 10.25 22/07/14
Watch out for my interview page where I shall be listing some very interesting interviews over the coming weeks.
Until then, happy summer holiday reading!
It is something that I would like to expound upon later when I have a little more time but for now I will leave you with this :-
http://thesocietyforcuriousthought.com/a-fair-society/carmen-capuano/
I am going to be completely honest with you - I was intending to leave this brief post above and come back to it at a later date. I even went so far as to publish it in that form. But I could not leave it at that and had to log back in. You see this is something I know a little about.
What I wrote in the link above was this:-
"A fair society is one where each and every voice carries equal weight; each opinion is considered as carefully as the next; every consideration is extended impartially to every citizen and where neither creed, colour, affluence, influence or intelligence dictate a divide."
Sounds great, doesn't it? Sounds like Utopia I think. But it is certainly not a reflection of the world we live in!
Believe me when I say that I am no politician - their endless streams of words which say a lot but mean nothing, tie me up in knots and bamboozle me. Nor am I a true anthropologist - my study of humans is for one reason only, to feed the nature of humanity and the human condition into my characters and books. But I know people. And I know that what I have stated above is as likely to happen as mankind landing upon the sun.
Human beings have a built in competitive streak, it is that which makes us mean and nasty but also makes us brilliant and unique. In the animal kingdom wild animals [and even domesticated ones] prowl and mark their territory, defining the boundaries so that no other cat/dog/ lion/ tiger impinges upon their stomping ground.
But us humans, what do we do? We plant shaped privet hedges, install fancy curved walls or high trellis fencing which we then bedeck with hanging baskets and the like. That's not a demarcation of a boundary, it's the shrill clarion call of a challenge, an invitation to 'look at me. Isn't my wall/fence/ house/ garden/ life better than yours?'
And me? Well I am exactly the same as everyone else!
But imagine for one moment life without that competitiveness? Who would strive to implement new procedures, invent new technologies, develop new medicine, win races and medals? Who would strive to be the best, the very best at their game? No-one.
So we need a competitive streak. But does this necessitate the suppression of others? I think not. And that was the point I was trying to make above.
You see if we had a fairer society where opportunities were accessible for all, the cream would still surely rise to the top and by that I mean the most able for every occupation and profession, not those with the most money or social standing or pushy parents behind them. Indeed, I have seen children who were in my opinion intelligent enough to have gone to University unable to do so, due to the crippling tuition fees.
Likewise I have seen people be deemed to be too educated/intelligent to do a job they were interested in doing. In both of these cases someone else decided the individual's fate and removed from them the opportunity which should have been theirs for the taking.
Ah but there is the paradox. Examine my words again if you please, especially this bit - where neither creed, colour, affluence, influence or intelligence dictate a divide.
Wouldn't the implementation of such a society of equal opportunity create a society where intelligence created a divide? Is a divide inevitable?
Again, I don't think so. It comes down to the way we look at things. A brain surgeon is infinitely more respected that a toilet cleaner. Why is this?
Granted a brain surgeon saves lives by his skill. But 99.9% of us will require the services of a good public toilet cleaner far, far more than we ever will a brain surgeon. Indeed a clean public toilet is not just a nicety, it is the frontline in disease control!
Is the cleaner therefore, assuming that he or she completes their tasks to the very best of their abilities, not as worthy of our admiration as the surgeon? Of course she/he is ...or at least she/he should be.
And that is exactly what is wrong with our society. We place too much value on some things and occupations and not enough on others which should be of equal or greater value.
So to recap, what I am saying is this:- we cannot and should not strive to change human nature for it is what makes us, us. What we should do is seek to hold each other in high esteem, for the individual value we hold in society. For without the humble toilet cleaner, the brain surgeon would be laid up in bed with dysentery or cholera...
THIS POST HAS BEEN WRITTEN LIVE TO LET YOU SEE IT DEVELP AS YOU READ IT. 10.25 22/07/14
Watch out for my interview page where I shall be listing some very interesting interviews over the coming weeks.
Until then, happy summer holiday reading!
Monday, 21 July 2014
Dancing Queen? ME?
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be able to sashay across a dance floor in perfect synchronisation with your partner? To be able to rotate your hips and step out in time with the music? To feel that Latin beat ignite a fire in your soul? I know I have!
If you are a keen reader of this blog you will know that I love to dance. But try as I might, I have never quite acquired that level of elegance that makes watching me gyrate even remotely bearable. Until a few days ago that is, when I attended a Ladies Only event in Birmingham and had a thoroughly good time learning to salsa dance.
One of the things that struck me about this sort of dancing was that it is a social leveller. It no longer mattered that the women ranged in age from early twenties to mid-fifties, or whether they were lawyers or cleaners...the music erased all of that and returned us to the state of simply being...just women enjoying themselves.
In the sway of a hip, it no longer mattered how many letters each woman had after her name; in the elongating of a thigh on a forward move, it didn't matter how big or small their incomes; and on the dizzying thrill of a spin, it didn't matter who drove the fastest car or sported the biggest diamond. Instead it was about the fire in our souls, the desire in our hearts and the passion of our spirits.
As an author [and therefore a sneaky observer of human nature] I took a moment out to look at my fellow women. Every one of them was smiling and laughing! The hard, glossy, professional exteriors were gone - and in their place were softer, kinder, truer expressions, as if the dancing had ripped off a protective veneer to expose the real women beneath.
The routine we were taught consisted of a basic Mambo which was then paired with a variety of spins to achieve something that was so much more than the sum of its parts. This I think was a reflection of the Dance Instructor himself.
John-James http://www.newsalsa-salsa.co.uk/classes.htm is a master of the dance and its instruction, making it all look so effortlessly easy.
A former cruise-ship entertainer, he is a showman through and through and recently won fourth place in a prestigious international dance competition at the world renowned Salsa Cafe in Havana. Moreover he has run salsa classes all over Cuba! What better recommendation could a dancer have?
But perhaps it wasn't just the hypnotic tempo of the music and the rhythmic forward and back movement which had performed a miracle after all.
For in addition to the above, John-James is also a practising mind magician, blending auto-suggestion and psychology to great effect. So maybe there was more going on to the enjoyment of the day than met the eye! ;)
But there is a serious side to the man and his talents too, I found. John-James is a qualified hypnotherapist, psychotherapist and a certified practitioner of neuro linguistic programming. He runs therapy sessions to help people to quit smoking or lose weight amongst other things and has a wealth of success stories behind him http://thenewlifepractice.co.uk/default.html.
And no, he didn't hypnotise me into writing this blog post...I though of it all my myself, honest! ;)
John-James is available for private and corporate event bookings and I would personally recommend him. What more can you ask for?
Happy reading!
Carmen. x
If you are a keen reader of this blog you will know that I love to dance. But try as I might, I have never quite acquired that level of elegance that makes watching me gyrate even remotely bearable. Until a few days ago that is, when I attended a Ladies Only event in Birmingham and had a thoroughly good time learning to salsa dance.
One of the things that struck me about this sort of dancing was that it is a social leveller. It no longer mattered that the women ranged in age from early twenties to mid-fifties, or whether they were lawyers or cleaners...the music erased all of that and returned us to the state of simply being...just women enjoying themselves.
In the sway of a hip, it no longer mattered how many letters each woman had after her name; in the elongating of a thigh on a forward move, it didn't matter how big or small their incomes; and on the dizzying thrill of a spin, it didn't matter who drove the fastest car or sported the biggest diamond. Instead it was about the fire in our souls, the desire in our hearts and the passion of our spirits.
As an author [and therefore a sneaky observer of human nature] I took a moment out to look at my fellow women. Every one of them was smiling and laughing! The hard, glossy, professional exteriors were gone - and in their place were softer, kinder, truer expressions, as if the dancing had ripped off a protective veneer to expose the real women beneath.
The routine we were taught consisted of a basic Mambo which was then paired with a variety of spins to achieve something that was so much more than the sum of its parts. This I think was a reflection of the Dance Instructor himself.
John-James http://www.newsalsa-salsa.co.uk/classes.htm is a master of the dance and its instruction, making it all look so effortlessly easy.
A former cruise-ship entertainer, he is a showman through and through and recently won fourth place in a prestigious international dance competition at the world renowned Salsa Cafe in Havana. Moreover he has run salsa classes all over Cuba! What better recommendation could a dancer have?
But perhaps it wasn't just the hypnotic tempo of the music and the rhythmic forward and back movement which had performed a miracle after all.
For in addition to the above, John-James is also a practising mind magician, blending auto-suggestion and psychology to great effect. So maybe there was more going on to the enjoyment of the day than met the eye! ;)
But there is a serious side to the man and his talents too, I found. John-James is a qualified hypnotherapist, psychotherapist and a certified practitioner of neuro linguistic programming. He runs therapy sessions to help people to quit smoking or lose weight amongst other things and has a wealth of success stories behind him http://thenewlifepractice.co.uk/default.html.
And no, he didn't hypnotise me into writing this blog post...I though of it all my myself, honest! ;)
John-James is available for private and corporate event bookings and I would personally recommend him. What more can you ask for?
Happy reading!
Carmen. x
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