watch tHe skies

Darkness and muffled mechanical noise in equal measures; a brief view of the passenger bay bathed in red light, then back to darkness. No white lights allowed in the war zone at night, not if you want to live. The noise never changes though, whether you are in a transport or short-range scout, the drone from the rotor that keeps us in the air is deafening without ear defenders, and not much better with them. In recent months, I’d grown accustomed to it in a way that makes it almost comforting in its predictability, so much so that I was struggling to stay conscious; images of my house, my wife and, my children began to numb the aches from so much marching and heavy loads. A few more hours and I would have been home, soaking in the tub whilst my entire family simultaneously accounted the happenings of the fours months that I had been away from them.

Four months? So I had missed exactly half of little Ethan’s life!

If only they could see me now, I thought, soaked through, darkened by oil, sweat and dirt, such that the only indication of life in the corner of the bay were the whites of my eyes that stared out at the trees and undergrowth passing some fifty feet below us.

After the previous three hours of monotonous mechanical chatter, I was brought to my senses by a distinct shift in tone and volume. Almost as if someone was dragging a key down the paintwork of my pristine mark one Volkswagen Golf, a high pitched squeak was audible for what seemed like days, before I was jolted in to the air by a sudden change in the transport’s altitude. Forward in the cockpit, the dash was lit like a Christmas tree, and the pilot grabbed desperately at the stick, trying to stop the descent. Another glance outside told me that we were soon going to hit the trees, and fast. I could hear the thumps as the blades cut ever-slower paths through the damp night air.

It is a strange feeling, expecting to die, with no control over your destiny, and nowhere to seek shelter but within the confines of my own mind. So suddenly I was back in the tub, glancing around at the bathroom I had fitted on leave over the summer. My wife had taken nearly a year to find tiles that she was happy with, she had poured over catalogues and magazines, looking for that one tile that she could see in her mind’s eye. Her eventual choice, aptly named “Zen” was a creamy marbled effect, with a carved border that reminded me of Roman baths, and that room became my sanctuary that shut out the bad things I had seen but could never tell my family. Lazing in that bath with my family so pleased to see me, all simultaneously competing for my attention as I eased my aching muscles, all of the marching, the fighting, the memories, somehow seemed worthwhile.

As the transport crashed in to the trees and scorched the earth, at least one of us in that transport had gotten home.

Recently I’ve been reading around the subject of hypnosis. Clearly it is very closely linked to NLP, in particular language patterns, and rapport. During my first practitioner model we practiced taking people in to trance by synchronising our breathing and other natural frequencies with that of the “test subject”, and it is scarily easy to do (with a willing participant).

One of the most regularly discussed hypnotic techniques is that of the instant induction. That is, a technique that takes a subject immediately in to trance. Richard Bandler’s handshake interrupt is a famous example, and can be seen on youtube if you are interested. An even better video is Brian David Phillips’ Arm Pull Induction.

A pattern interrupt is essentially a surprise that interrupts a subject’s habitual framework to initiate a momentary confusion. To use a computer analogy, this surprise causes the subject to go “command line” momentarily whilst he or she regains composure. A skilled hypnotist can use this moment to insert a command that induces trance. Not quite as gentle as standard inductions, but a dramatic example of the power of hypnosis nonetheless.

However, as Spiderman’s Uncle said “with great power comes great responsibility” and this is certainly a skill not to be trifled with (not that I possess it). The risk with using it for fun would be getting a reputation for being the hynotist off Little Britain, and very quickly you would struggle to find anyone who would go to the pub with you!

It’s important to note that a hypnotist can’t get you to do anything that you don’t want to do, so it really is impossible for a stranger to turn you in to a sleeper agent or similar, unless of course you quite fancy a change in career…

When you are looking after an ickle fella only 5 months young, your chances of getting to the cinema are severely limited. So I love it when a movie comes out on DVD in North America before it reaches the silver screen here in Blighty.

And despite Adam Sandler having produced a few turkeys recently, his films are still consistently entertaining enough to warrant a night in with one. So when Click was released on DVD shortly before it hit the big screen here, I nabbed a copy and we settled down to watch.

Starring Sandler as Michael Newman, a workaholic architect whose boss (The Hoffmeister himself) is flogging him to death on the promise of making a partner after the next big job. As a result, Michael’s wife (the highly comely Kate Beckinsale) and his two kids are increasingly sidelined in his life.

In a slightly contrived search for a universal remote control, Newman finds himself in electronics shop of the highly eccentric Morty (played with spacey aplomb by Chrisopher Walken), who offers him a universal remote that controls everything. And I mean everything. Newman soon realises that the remote can do more than mute his nagging wife - it allows him to fast forward through the boring stuff so that he can get his work done.

However, as with similar morality tales, the gift soon becomes a curse as he finds himself jumping enormous periods of his life as if on autopilot, leaving him to rue the big moments of his family’s life that he has passed by.

It’s a funny movie, fairly simple humour, necessary really as the story itself moves at quite a pace. It’s plenty of fun although after a while I “got it” and didn’t really need to see the movie moving in to a future in Bicentennial Man stylee. For a film of this type it carries a strong message; live in the moment, don’t wish your life away looking towards the future, something that perhaps resonates with me now having a little fella to bring up. However there was one aspect of the movie that really annoyed me - Newman fast forwards through things rather than the obvious answer. If you need to get your work done…PAUSE!

Anyhoo one to catch when you get a chance…

Ok so I’ve sold out, so sue me! Actually I noticed that Learning Strategies (the inventors of photoreading) offer a free CD if you recommend the system on your website, so here is my page to recommend said system. Actually it just explains it and recommends it at the end. Go on have a read, you know you want to…

Well the end of season 2 of Galactica almost had me giving up on the show. The ending was naff. However like a sucker I stuck with season 3 and four episodes in we’ve just been gifted the best episode so far, as the nasty Cylons get their butts royally kicked as Pegasus and Galactica return to New Caprica.

Quite where the show is going now I don’t know. All bets are off, just like it used to be…

I realised today that I never did get my free Tony Robbins “Notes From A Friend” book. Clearly the offer was to attract interest in his recent seminars at London Excel, however he still should have sent out the books he promised, yet three months later, no sign of my freebie, boo!.

Now believe me when I say I don’t read the Daily Mail. My mother-in law does, every day, and it is whilst round her house that I perused the daily grumble to find a very negative review of Mr Robbin’s recent event in London. If ever the adage “you get what your focus on” was show to be true, then this article (what else would you expect in this paper) is a great example of the self-fulfilling prophecy in full effect. However I would imagine that those who attended the seminar self-funded (rather than paid for by an Editor looking for a meaty moaning article), attended with a more open attitude and got out of it the same or more than they put in. 

So a few quizzical emails and texts followed my post yesterday regarding the concept of feeling now what you want to feel from where you want to be, to help you get there. So I will try to elaborate more today.

It is surprisingly easy to feel the way you’ll feel when you get what you want, by asking yourself two simple questions. (more…)

So this weekend I attended the first module of my NLP practitioner course. Three days is a lot of information and my head feels a little like your stomach after Christmas dinner - full of stuff that needs to be digested!

We covered lots of really interesting stuff - how to “unstick” people who have developed a hang-up, fast ways to give people back choice where they previously had only habit, and how the best way to help people change is by first accepting them exactly as they are (neat homeopathic analogy there).

Along that line there was one profound concept that I am still turning around in my head. Firstly it was good to spend a weekend with a similarly minded group of people all looking to actively pursue their goals. However each one had varying levels of discontent over the fact that they weren’t yet where they want to be. This was where the Focus Creation Cycle* kicked in. (more…)

I recently read this article on Reuters (the only news site not blocked by SurfNazi at work), which reports the results of a recent study in to internet usage in the US. The results suggest that more than one in eight U.S. adults finds it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time and about one in 11 tries to hide his or her online habit.

I must admit that the thought of being offline for a few days does seem unnatural to me, but is it because I’m addicted to the internet? Or is it that I am addicted to information, and the fastest way to obtain information is through the internet. With RSS feeds, podcasts and my trusty uber gadget the MDA Vario II, i can stay totally up to date with the latest news, get my emails on the go, as well as listen to internet radio stations from all over the world wherever I am. Does this make me an addict or is it a simple case that the internet has become a fundamental part of my operational infrastructure?

I guess that the answer depends on how important you think that the internet is to your life. My wife Jen would probably say that yes I spend too much time on it, whilst personally I’m waiting for someone to invent a wifi antenna for your brain so I can get my emails direct in to my mind just by blinking. Very Doctor Who I know, and I’d want to be sure that I had a good spamfilter installed or I would get some wierd, dark dreams…

As much as it is comforting to hear Ben snoozing in his cot when we go to bed, the comfort we gain is being gradually eroded by the distinct lack of sleep that we are getting as a result of his early morning operatics.

He is definitely teething, and this is causing him to sleep less than he was previously. Unfortunately an early feed only settles him, it doesn’t put him back to sleep. Instead, he likes to sing for an hour or so before dozing off. Whilst the Zombie look I have been sporting recently can amuse work colleagues occasionally, constantly battling the urge to slip in to slumber in meetings makes for a rather stressful working day.

And so Ben is being relocated in to his room from tonight. I am sure that many people move their babies out much earlier than 5 months however it would seem that the time is right for us if we are going to get anywhere near a decent night’s sleep!