On 29th December 2006, I made some important goals for 2006. I've already modified and developed them, which is great because it's important to keep re-evaluating, so I'll be doing this once monthly.
My big goal for 2007: Escape with Courage
In 2006, I said it was Debt-free by December 2007 (excluding student loan). However, on reflection, this is a negative goal because it focuses on something I don't want, namely, debt. So, I've re-worded it to concentrate on something I do want, in the right spirit too: Financial abundance.
2007 is my year of independence
Financial abundance and all kinds of independence
Spatial independence, financial independence, personal independence. For this I need courage, so I'm doing things a courageous person would do. I'm going on my first mini-break without my parents next weekend. Scary & exciting.
I've succeeded in not buying clothing this January (not including my uniform, which I overlooked when setting goals) and am continuing to avoid spending on clothes and clutter in to February. Hurrah!
Student frugality
Being more frugal when it comes to eating out remains a challenge. However, my awareness of how much I'm spending is definitely growing and I feel more uncomfortable when spending a lot on food. I've even taken a packed lunch in this week!
KathleenBright.com
I'm working on exactly what kind of work I want to do, in addition to entrepreneurship: My thinking is that I want to raise capital via consultancy services etc before launching my business as planned upon completion on my postgraduate degree. To that end, at the end of February I implement, and in March I launch, KathleenBright.com. Exciting!
How to be vegan
I have a new challenge for February – becoming vegan. One of the things I want to be true this time next year is this: I'm a vegan healthnut. All I can do to achieve this it to act now, so I am. I'm currently vegetarian, by March I'll be vegan too. Wish me luck!
In addition, increased awareness about what I'm eating helps to keep me on the right path of a) spending reasonable amounts on food, especially when eating out and b) eating healthily. Brilliant when goals come together like that.
Beginners' steps, by a newbie vegan wannabe
Stop eating and drinking obviously non-vegan products Yes, lots of things have dairy and eggs in (like cakes) and it take a lot more effort to avoid those, so start with the easy things, like cheese.
Use dairy-free & egg-free alternatives and substitutes (e.g. soya milk, tofu instead of egg). Use the Internet to get help from a variety of helpful resources, e.g. VegFamily Magazine
Go to restaurants that specify what's vegan – vegetarian restaurants tend to be very good at this, e.g. Food for Thought.
6 essays, 27th February
Studying & my MA Ethics & Philosophy of Religion
It's still difficult, but I do want to succeed, so I'm just getting on with it. I've started actually writing my first essay too, so that's all good. My goal here is to continue as I've started: Forging ahead with dedication and conscientiousness.
If you're struggling to face your fears then you clearly need more courage, just as I do. But how do you get to be courageous?
Start doing things a courageous person would do. (For the moral philosophers amongst you, this is the kind of thing Rosalind Hursthouse suggests in On Virtue Ethics).
On a related note, I explored fear-based decision-making earlier this year. So, if that's what you're worrying about, do read that entry and let me know how you get on.
Steve Pavlina: Identity shift required (podcast): In order to get to where you want to be, you probably need to change. If you didn't need to change, you'd already be there. Start now! Just take the first step.
Some fears are reasonable and necessary. It's important to be aware whether the ones you're worrying about are good ones or not. The distinction is similar to that between good & bad procrastination
Accept your increased probability of success and come to terms with the consequences of succeeding.
In my next entry, I'm sharing my review of my goals for the year: I've modified my intentions significantly already! My biggest fears at the moment revolve around my essays and my business; I'm tackling them by playing big! Check back on Saturday for details in my latest entry or subscribe to the web feed so you don't miss out.
I'm writing about education, yet again and with good reason.
My essay deadlines are creeping closer and closer. This time procrastination will lead to failure (er, again). So, I'm tackling my tendency to procrastinate.
My two main areas of focus at the moment: Studying and Entrepreneurship. Each has its challenges, for example, I'm working on breaking down the massive goal of 'doing Ethical Beads' in to daily tasks. Each has its rewards: Writing for All Things Bright is a reward in itself, knowing I'm helping people is brilliant and getting feedback makes me grin inanely. :)
The biggest challenges? Time and fear, which are intimately connected, especially as I tend to procrastinate out of fear, thus leaving myself less time. Doh!
Lately being cold has been enough to stop me from acting. This is actually a big problem for me, as my parents switch the heating off when they go to bed, but I tend to work better at night. Aagh! I'm tackling it by slowly adapting to working earlier (e.g. by going to bed earlier to ensure I get enough sleep), although it's cold in the mornings too – roll on Spring! Isn't that terrible though? To let being cold defeat me.
So, what I need to do is, well, just get on with it – there are no shortcuts. In the long run, getting on with it now will mean I save time anyway, so better get to it.
Essay-writing, what's to love?
Well, quite a lot really. I've chosen topics in which I'm genuinely interested. For example, virtue ethics is about working out the best way/s of living one's life, how to be a better person and becoming wise – fascinating! These are all topics I explore, out of choice, at All Things Bright. So, I'm going to synchronise the two activities (essay-writing and blogging) more and thus cut down on the amount of work and 'work'.
Update: I almost forgot to mention that in my next entry I'll be bringing you up-to-date on my goals, which will also serve to give me something to measure my success against. 27 Jan
Lessons from life or, Things I've learnt this year
Fear is a motivating factor in many of my actions, or rather, in many of my reasons & excuses not to act.
Action points
Continue self-awareness of when I'm feeling fear and why.
Change goals and actions in the face of rational fears to address valid reasons for not acting.
Act in the face of irrational fears to diminish fear and accomplish my goals. [link: see Shyness post].
Dreams: Over-arching aims & big goals for next year
Debt-free by December 2007 (excluding student loan)
Because financial independence is something I dream about and it's the one thing that would make the most positive difference to my life.
Difficulties
Clothes: I love shopping, especially with all those sales! I acknowledge that sale shopping is about the positive feelings in finding bargains and 'winning' against shops (especially over-priced ones). However, I don't want to spend all my money on clothing, there is much more to life! So, spend in the sales, fine, but no spending on clothes at all for the first 30 days of January.
Eating out: Represents more to me than just food; it's socialising, spending time with friends, meeting new people, trying something new, having something familiar… I don't want to stop eating out, so I think the aim is to discover interesting and reasonably-priced places and return. For example, I liked the Mongolian Barbeque restaurant, so I should definitely go back there. In addition, there's a vegetarian restaurant I love, Food For Thought, which I've been reluctant to write about because it's already so popular that it's often over-crowded (victim of its own success) and my review would be positive, possibly making it more so!
Goals: Action points
Save: Nurture passion for student frugality & saving As a full-time student, I have good reason for being poor and for not splashing out. When will I next have excuse to be stingy?!
Change attitude to money On one level I know that money is not all-important, that wealth is something one creates, that money has merely exchange value etc. I need to gather these thoughts in to a single coherent, all-encompassing & empowering belief about money, something that inspires me to save and not spend.
Change attitude to shopping Buying clothes for myself means I have less money for eating out and therefore for spending money on myself and others (spending money on others because they thereby get the benefit of my company). So, eating out is more desirable all-round.
Focus on more important things Like my MA, my business (Ethical Beads), friends, good living (i.e. above all things meaningful living, but also happiness for others: giving/ethical/benevolent, happiness for me: pleasant/enjoyable/healthy – in doing all these at once, I achieve the ultimate end of life).
Studying & my MA Ethics & Philosophy of Religion
Difficulties
Procrastinating. Out of fear? Fear of failure? Laziness?
It's hard!
Essay-writing, blah
Goals: Action points
Change attitude to writing essays, on some level I want to write essays… bring that out more.
Just get on with it! Start earlier too.
More self-awareness (reading & reflecting) to identify and face my fears.
Entrepreneurship & professional blogging
Difficulties
Making time
Facing my fears of failure & success
Goals: Action points
Work on All Things Bright & Ethical Beads. For details, see my forthcoming entry on Sunday, New Year's Eve. Update: Review of design & content, 31 Jan
I'm considering changing the design for All Things Bright.
I love the current theme (especially the proliferation of pink!) and I've made some changes recently to make the design simpler and clearer.
Are the changes enough or would you like to see something new?
What do you like to read here?
What kind of content do you want from All Things Bright? What kind of topics do you expect? Should there be more about entrepreneurship? Less? What about ethics, philosophy, studying? Do you like my personal entries?
Please do let me know.
Teasers or full entries?
When you go to the homepage of All Things Bright, at the moment you see five full entries, then excerpts for the next five entries, then a linked list of the next ten entries.
This means that the homepage is really really long and may be intimidating.
Apparently, using excerpts linking to the full entries would improve my front page. But what do you think?
Some of these thoughts emerged in my entry How to be happy, or Why you're sad and how to fix it, which explores, "why I'm sad, how to be happy and my thoughts about what I want to do in my life, where I want to go and how I want to get there".
This entry takes a step back from happiness per se, to consider the second part of that discussion more closely; considering my ideas about my life in conjunction with what it might mean to live a fulfilled life.
I've included lots of links to Steve Pavlina in case you're interested in particular ideas I've mentioned and want to pursue them. I find Steve's writing to be really clear and helpful; I hope you do too.
Firstly, I want my life to have meaning
I want the areas of my life to cohere in to a pattern with an overarching aim, vision or mission. I want my decisions to have a non-arbitrary basis. I don't want pursuing my desires to be a random mess of conflicting actions. See Living Congruently, Steve Pavlina.
Some ideas I've considered
Existentialism: Creating meaning for oneself
I was particularly enamoured with this when I was studying my undergraduate degree. Existentialism is something I will explore in future entries I'm sure. In the meantime, if you're interested, Wikipedia: Existentialism has some pointers and references for where to find out more.
Kant on free will
Immanuel Kant helped me a lot today, especially with Peter's exegesis. Read Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (book, currently £9.99 new, £5 used), because it's clear & convincing. Plus, it's something I'll explore in future entries, so if you read it now you'll be ready to discuss it when I write about it here. It's the only course book on my wishlist; aw, Peter would be so proud. :)
I now have a way of thinking about free will that neither sounds completely implausible to me (Compatibilism & Libertarianism), nor includes discomforting counter-intuitiveness (Determinism). Instead, it soothes me. (Yes, Kant, soothing!)
Secondly, I'm in pursuit of happiness
Currently, a big chunk of this is my being in pursuit of healthiness (mentally, physically & spirituality). I'm achieving this in a number of ways:
Re-evaluating my life, in particular my attitudes to studying, following less than phenomenal experiences writing the essays. (The Christmas break is coming at an excellent time, giving me some much needed time to sort myself out).
Dancing, I do love it. What really makes one happy is to dance! It's so true. Well, it's true for me, dancing certainly makes me feel great. I love watching dancing too. (In fact, if you ever see any good dancing on YouTube, please recommend it to me by tagging it with for:inspirewithhope at del.icio.us. Thanks! Oh, and do you know of any daytime dance classes in London? Let me know, cheers).
Being good. Or, rather, thinking about what it means to be good. Chris' classes have always had a profound effect on me. He's leading our Ethics seminars, therefore I'm thinking about morality.
'What is Goodness?' is connected with 'What is Reality?'
Steve's thought about subjective reality speak to me. So that, whilst I espouse a realist view (sorry, I can't think of a straightforward summary), I think, in a sense, I create (my) reality. Subjective reality is fascinating, something else I should write about!
In the meantime, definitely read Steve Pavlina on Subjective Reality, as that's what I'll be responding to: "Subjective reality is an integrated belief system where consciousness and awareness are primary. They are the container in which everything else exists. And I do mean EVERYTHING."
Yes, I realise those views (realism and subjective reality) are complete opposites, but it makes sense in my head!
Thirdly, happiness is located in happiness for myself & happiness for others
Cue entrepreneurship (for me) and social enterprise (for others), united. Brilliant. This is something I'm doing a lot of thinking about at the moment and it's going to occupy an increasingly large part of my life. Interested? See How Selfish Are You? Steve Pavlina.
Ooh, another soundbite from Steve; this one's really motivating:
Getting past a 7 [your comfort zone] is hard. It can take more effort to get past a 7 than it takes to reach a 7 in the first place. Some people would complain that it takes too long to get past a 7. But the truth is that the time is going to pass anyway. Even if it takes 5-10 years, you might as well get yourself to a higher level within that time, since the years are going to pass anyway…
You might get a bit scratched and bruised along the way. You might mess up your current relationship, your career, or your lifestyle. You won't be able to see very far in front of you because everything will be moving faster than you're used to. Sometimes you'll just have to take it one day at a time and guess at the best direction. You might even hit a wall now and then.
Bruises just come with the territory. But getting moving again is far better than remaining stuck. The wounds will heal, and I've always found an exciting new path to explore. It sure beats dying a slow death while waiting for the vultures to swoop down…
If you want to experience deep fulfillment, take lots and lots of action. Action can be physical, mental, social — even spiritual.
So, what difference does all this thinking make? Looking to the future…
So, next steps?
I had a lot of brilliant ideas today about things I want to do in the future. Now I just need to decide what I'm doing now to make that future happen.
Over the Christmas holidays, I'll be studying and working on my main business idea. I'll be meeting up with my study buddies (uniting business & pleasure is an excellent way to be motivated) and, of course, doing some more thinking. Stay tuned to All Things Bright for more every-other-day updates and let me know what you think, because I love hearing from my readers.
On Monday, studying began in earnest. I saw my tutor, armed myself with a comprehensive booklist (well, a jolly good start anyway) and headed off to the library.
Books, to borrow or buy – coming soon
I'm going to start my own online library & book sale, incidentally. Partly because I've just acquired (more) free books and partly because I'm in charge of organising a book sale for my department. So, I thought I'd add another dimension in the form of some online marketing at All Things Bright. Hurrah!
If you have any books to lend or sell, please do let me know, as I'm always at least cursorily interested. Just leave a comment or send me an email. Thanks in advance!
Interest topics
This list is to give you an idea of my main interests, but please don't let it restrict you if you have books in other subject areas.
Well, my first week as an MA student is drawing to a close and I have a few insights. (At this rate, I'll be writing publishable material any time now!)
What I love most about being a postgraduate is that it's exactly how I was hoping my undergraduate degree would be like, in that there are just spontaneous philosophical discussions with fellow students. In addition, as the class sizes are smaller, tutors treat you more like adults.
Discussion, facilitated
Anyway, to that end, I created a forum for all the students on my course. Hurrah! I hope they like it. Not sure if I'll do one for students & staff too or what.
Dissertation ideas
I've already had a few ideas for a dissertation, varying plausibility and creativity (indirectly proportionate, I fear). Actually, I had another couple today:
The Ethics of Desire
What can we say about God?
Contemporary Virtue Ethics
Reading
As anticipated, lots of books to read! Which is excellent, because I love reading.
My year off
As I've mentioned before, I've learnt so much in my year off. I've managed to break with my school note-taking habits, whereby I attempted to write down everything the teacher said. Instead, now I'm able to follow advice I always knew, intellectually, to be useful: Summarise the important bits. Still some way way to go, but I'm getting there.
Attending lectures is so much more important as a postgraduate than as an undergraduate. (NB: Obviously all lectures are important). Mainly because of the discursive nature of classes (not really lectures any more), it's impossible to write everything down and it wouldn't help very much either.
So, now, if you were to miss a lecture, you've missed out on the dialogue, on the cut and thrust of argument. You know? Bah, someone help me out on this one – I'm not explaining it properly.
Anyways, suffice to say, I'm really enjoying it so far (even more than I thought I would). Hurrah!
So, finally All Things Bright is going to start getting a little more intellectual, a little more academic, a little more philosophical.
I've been thinking about dissertation topics.
It's strange, a few months ago I was really worried because I had no idea about what to write about. Now I have all sorts of weird & wonderful ideas. I want to do something that is relevant to an area inside my life, outside of Philosophy of Religion directly. Chris (one of my lecturers) inspired me when he was talking about how we should read outside the discipline (as well as inside it). That's when the first idea struck, I just thought, of course, it's so simple! I doubt they would authorise it though, far too eclectic.
Here are a few, I would dearly love to hear your thoughts about these, so please do let me know!
Ethics: Evangelism Versus Marketing
Feminist Philosophy of Religion
Suffering & God
Oh, okay, that's not a very helpful list really, is it? No detail. Well, okay, I'll explore the first idea.
In essence, it feeds on Seth Godin's article, "Is it possible to hold a marketer morally responsible?", which I commented on in my previous post, Ethics, or Why I’m back at uni to study MA Ethics & Philosophy of Religion. I realised that both evangelism and marketing are attempts to convince people to buy or buy in to something.
Guy Kawaski's previous job brings these twin fields of evangelism and marketing together, as he puts it, "I evangelized Macintosh to software and hardware". See? It's not just some craziness that exists in my head, this is a real world example!
The essay would be in two parts: A smaller chunk linking evangelism and marketing and a larger chunk discussing the ethical considerations of each, how discussions and conclusions about one affect the other & such the like.
So, what do you think??? Just leave a comment or two. Thanks!
PS I've just written a review of the excellent book, Don't Take It Personally! by Elayne Savage. You could win a free copy of the book, by commenting to that post – I'll choose the most deserving commentor.
Ethics is a field that is on the up; it's currently popular & fashionable to 'do' ethics.
When I started studying ethics formally four years ago, people often asked me why I was studying it. Why? Because it's important, because I want to understand the various theories, because it's so closely related to actions, motivations, emotions…
Marketing works… Your marketing changes the way people act… The morality of marketing is this: you need to be able to stand up and acknowledge that you're doing what you're doing… We're responsible for what we sell and how we sell it. We're responsible for the effects (and the side effects) of our actions… It is our decision. Whatever the decision is, you need to own it. If you can't look that decision in the mirror, market something else.
I started Ethical Beads because I learnt of a few of the many issues with bead manufacture and I didn't want to be perpetuating the problem with my own jewellery crafting, especially as I had started selling my jewellery and was hoping to launch a profitable business.
Well, the hobby business is over and the real one is in development. Wish me luck and if you'd like to help in any way, please do let me know – I'd love to have you on board.
Interestingly, separately from thinking about this entry I had the brainwave of comparing marketing & evangelism and commenting on the ethics of each for my dissertation. What do you reckon?
Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) has made me re-evaluate what I hope to achieve here and why I reference him & Steve (Steve Pavlina) so much. Well, I do it because their ideas are amazing, genius, even. (Although, I definitely need to be more actively linking to lesser known sources too). I don't expect that my readers will necessarily start reading their blogs just because I've linked to them: After all, my target audience is people who want to know about me.
Notoriety; Kathleen: Virtual celebrity
I was talking to one of my friends last night and realised I've neglected to share the main aim of All Things Bright, as it has evolved to be: The clue was always in the name – All Things Bright – really. As I told Dave, the purpose of All Things Bright is to make me a virtual celebrity. Some people like to go on 'reality' tv for their five minutes of fame, some like to go on talk shows to tell the world their dirty secrets, some like to go in to acting or music. Not me.
It girl of the IT world
I want to be the 'it' girl of the IT world. Famous for being famous, but in the blogosphere (i.e. the whole network of online journals) and cyberspace, not in 'Real Life'.
I updated Projects today, so have a look to get an overview of my current activities.
Ethics; Kathleen: Social entrepreneur
I want to use my creativity to help people too. Hence the launch of Change Things Now! – my site to make feminism mainstream, building on my involvement with local feminist groups. I started Refresh London, an initiative to rejuvenate web professionalism and help those starting out.
Ethical Beads
My latest product, one which merges vitally important ideals about humanity & social justice with e-commerce is Ethical Beads. Ethical Beads bridges two sites – EthicalBeads.org, directory for info & resources about ethical beads and EthicalBeads.com, store for bead & jewellery shopping.
Ethical Beads is in development, I recently completed the designs for both sites (just tweaking left now) and am focusing on research. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, now as always, I welcome all links to related news & articles about working practices, environmental effects etc. of beads & jewellery. Thanks!
Change the world
You can change the world by joining me at any of these sites. I am always looking for people to help. Just sending me some related links makes a world of difference, that way I can share your knowledge with others. Please do email me with feedback, links etc. Much appreciated.
So far, I'm not doing great with that. However, I am making a special effort to relax. I do a fair bit of travelling each day and my working day is long (8am – I fall asleep (past midnight), although that's by no means continuous working), so it is important. This week I've managed to watch the entire first series of Futurama, very funny. It's by the same guy who does/did The Simpsons.
I simultaneously noticed that it's been challenging knowing what to write about recently and that I've yet to write anything personal. These can easily cancel each other out – this week I'll be experimenting with more personal articles. Do let me know what you think.
Younger brother now in Mexico; life suddenly emptier
Today my brother flew off to Mexico, where he's going to be teaching English for nine months. My mum & myself are missing him terribly already and confessed that we've been 'emotional'. It's weird, because I saw him fewer than 12 hours ago and we've hardly spent any time together lately.
We did have a good time on Friday though – I took him out to Haagen Dazs, which I promised him about four years ago.
Business, money & ethics
An excellent thing I've done today is securing three months of free advertising with Ethical Weddings, for my emergent business Ethical Beads.
Ethical Weddings is (or, will be) "a searchable database of ethical wedding services and products which give you the chance to celebrate your wedding the way you want while giving others something to celebrate too", which I think is an excellent idea. I found the site as part of my regular research for ethical products; I'm excited about this opportunity because Ethical Beads – as an ethical beads & jewellery store – fits really well in that area. If you decide to join Ethical Weddings, please mention Ethical Beads.
Creative observation & the Genius! list
I have a Genius! list, which I want to share. Steve Pavlina is top of the list, you should listen to his latest podcast (over an hour long, mind; well worth it): The True Nature of Reality.
I find it difficult to take on the subjective reality perception. I want to, because it sounds amazing, but it is challenging. I find it encouraging how passionate Steve is about this (especially evident from his podcasts), especially in conjunction with how he has difficulty with this sometimes as well.
Blogging
It is definitely challenging to maintain frequent & regular updates. Sometimes it's really easy to know what to post about, other times, not so much. Will just have to see how it continues to develop. I'm very positive about the whole thing because I love writing, I love the topics I write about and I love doing the research.
Entrepreneurship
I've had some difficulty trying to explain to my friends what it is I do and what I'm attempting to achieve, even though (I thought) I have this straight in my own mind. So, my next blog post will be about what entrepreneurship means to me. Look out for it on Wednesday!
This page is here for archival purposes only. Some information about Inspire With Hope is still relevant… I do plan to update the About section here, but for now, here it is as it was.
Inspire With Hope & me
2000: My first site, my personal site, Kathleen Galbina Ayeley's Site
2003: My first blog, my personal online journal, Little World of Kx
2006, Summer: Site & blog merged at inspirewithhope.com 2006, 2nd August: All Things Bright official launch
2007, October: Renamed Inspire With Hope (previously All Things Bright)
Kathleen Bright: Who am I?
Kathleen 'inspirewithhope' Bright: Web professional, entrepreneur, geek, perpetual student, creative. Keep reading to find out more about me. Skip to content
The official profile for Kathleen Bright, updated as and when necessary, includes information about me, my motivations & goals, my career development, my hobbies & interests, what I'm up to at the moment etc. In attempting to reduce the length of this page, I instead managed to increase it from 1161 words to 1574, then again to 1667! Oops. However, it's definitely much better organised now and includes pictures.
Last updated: January 2007
Inspire With Hope: What is it?
Personal entrepreneurship: I, Kathleen, write about my experiences with entrepreneurship.
I publish my thoughts on what's important to me, affectionately known as my projects. My areas of interest change & develop over time and All Things Bright reflects that. Currently, I focus particularly on creativity & marketing.
Projects: Entrepreneurship, marketing, professional blogging
blogging, web design & development (including Web 2.0)
brainstorming, creative thinking, thinking out of the box
ethics, feminism, human rights
learning, institutionalised & studenthood: further education: Ethics & Philosophy of Religion (postgraduate)
personal development & lifehacks, especially time management
technology (web applications, Mac software & hardware)
Kathleen Bright, creative intellectual with a conscience
Inspiration · Drive · Passion
Snapshot of Kathleen 'inspirewithhope' Bright: Feminist, HTML Queen and entrepreneur
I love blogging, web design/development and also reading, philosophy, jewellery craft & anything creative. In my spare time, I learn more about various aspects of the web and write poetry. I'm energetic & enthusiastic, I love getting involved in a variety of projects.
I believe a) women and men are equal, and b) should therefore be treated as equals, but c) they aren't yet; d) I want to abolish the inequality and e) convince others to do the same. I love writing and manipulating HTML & CSS. Yes, I'm a geek. I have three blogs, all of which revolve around some aspect of entrpreneurship:
All Things Bright :Â My projects & personal experiences with these and other entrepreneurial ventures
Make More Mistakes :Â Entrepreneurship, business & technology advice blog, based on my experiences
My Bright Ideas :Â I give away my ideas to aspiring entrepreneurs, in order to share the creative fragments of my feverishly busy mind
Random fact: I'm addicted to the Internet, searching on Google for my handle returns over 1500 results for me.
As the financial director in my last job says, "if you want something done, give it to a busy person".
My head is always buzzing with new ideas for me to implement; consequently, I'm always busy. Such circumstances have led me to develop my time management skills.
Until roughly six months, my self-knowledge was astronomical, then it went in to decline. Recently I've realised what happened and it's on the up again. As I'm a student, I can't afford to abandon the world for a trek in India or Thailand to 'find myself'. But that's okay; I have the Internet. :)
My ultimate goal is to be happy and make others happy too.
I'd like to head my own web professionals company. On the way, I'm starting my own businesses & other projects, including Ethical Beads.
Of my current positions, the one most closely aligned with my aims is being Creative Director at Night Island (software & consultancy start-up), where my responsibilities include being in charge of, and accountable for, all ideation and implementation in the creative areas and inspiring colleagues & clients to greatness. I've been working in the fashion retail industry since 2003. I've worked for the Home Office, AccountAbility & Next.
My future plans: When I finish my MA, I plan to make tonnes of money. Next time someone asks me, I'll say so.
My creations
When I informed friends & colleagues about my 10 websites, the first thing they always asked was "what are they about?!" So, I outlined all of them, along with descriptions. I keep the list up-to-date too. See My Projects. (NB: I no longer have 10, but 8).
Hobbies, interests, education
Spare time? What spare time?!
I love writing, reading, socialising… all the usual things. Lately, I've been socialising a lot and have discovered that it doesn't sit easily with studying hard. Consequently, I'm developing my time management skills more & again! I used to play Neopets for stress relief (though it's inane & overrun with adverts), but now I don't have time for that kind of nonsense.
Most of the time, I'm working on my web sites: Writing, improving pages, doing research, implementing new features etc.
I love learning, so I'm often teaching myself new things (mainly more geeky stuff, marketing or feminism) or studying.
I've been chastised for writing 'too cleverly' in the past, which I thought was a bit unfair, but there you go. As John Rawls would say, it's all moral luck: I can't help being intelligent any more than you can help being er… …
2002 – 2005: Completed academic qualification BA Religion, Philosophy & Ethics (2:1) & AKC
2005 – 2006: Studying NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Telematics (Web Entrepreneurship)
2006 – present: Reading MA Ethics & Philosophy of Religion
Music
I love all sorts of music – there's at least one song I like in every genre I've come across. Generally, I prefer vocalists, alternative, alternative rock, metal…
Vocalists, especially Lily Allen, Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Lene Marlin, Suzanne Vega, Sarah McLachlan, Damien Rice, Pink
Alternative/rock/metal, especially HIM, Placebo, Marilyn Manson — people are always surprised by the death metal (which is how I classify Manson)
I really dislike catchy songs with harmful or hateful lyrics, e.g. practically everything by the Pussycat Dolls (most, if not all raunch culture pop), some Eminem stuff (actually, popular 'urban' music generally) etc. Because I tend to end up singing along and then feeling terrible about it.
Most played artists
Year's fave songs
NB: Last.fm & Pandora automatically update these lists. I very highly recommend PandoraFM (Last.fm & Pandora combined).
Pandora is excellent for finding & listening to music you'll love online – you enter a song or artist you like & it recommends similar songs, it works really well. Must be heard to be believed! Last.fm is great for listing what you've listened to & for connecting to other music lovers. Together, they are simply amazing and it's all free. Big up the Internet!
Entrepreneurship, projects, startups
All Things Bright: Personal Entrepreneurship Blogger
Lots of people don't know that feminism is about gaining equality for women & liberation for everyone, for the good of all. Well, my preferred brand of feminism is. I like reading radical feminist blogs, I find they help cohesion amongst women. However, they can also be very alienating to men, which doesn't help.
Change Things Now! Dedicated to making feminism mainstream. Contributors always welcome.
Kathleen always arrives early. She is willing to do additional hours where possible and is very helpful to both managers & colleagues. Kathleen is very approachable and friendly towards customers, providing fast and efficient service at all times.
~ Management, Next Retail Ltd; March 2006
Kathleen has an excellent sense of style. She understands how websites ought to be built and is thus able to make them easier for everybody to use and modify.
Kathleen has inherent understanding of efficiency of pages & usability issues, creating pixel perfect designs and eschewing inappropriate 'special effects'. Kathleen has an amazing ability to learn new technologies and use them appropriately. She is obviously keen to learn, enthusiastic & passionate about design – and that's a great thing!
~ Ian Wellock, Night Island (founder); January 2006
Stick to what you feel is right. I think that's one of the things that makes Kathleen's blog unique. It means I can guarantee that if she's writing about something that's mentioned a lot elsewhere, it's because she has something unique to say about it. I like that, a lot.
~ Ian Wellock, Showcase (creator); September 2006
I do enjoy reading Kathleen's site, and not simply because I know the author.
