Letting life unfold as it will…

What will happen, will happen and we can do nothing about it because we don’t have any control despite the illusion that we do.

This, to my understanding is the way of life. We live an illusion that we make decisions about all manner of things but the reality is every decision we make is based on the sum total of experiences that we’ve had in our life. At the most fundamental level we are our genetics and our totality of experiences, nothing more. And those two criteria are all that we are and every decision is based on those things. We make our decisions based on this criteria but who are we, if not our genetics and our experiences which drive our decisions?

Todays Your Story Addendum episode is from the departure gate just prior to boarding my flight to Europe.

I’m off on a trip to Europe for 2.5 months. Initially I’ll be in Megève in the French Alps as a guest of my sister and her family then I’ll be heading north to spend a couple of months in Berlin.

Did I make the decision to go?

On My Way to Europe

Well, I may think and feel like I did but the reality is I simply reacted to the situations as they presented themselves with the final upshot being I’m now on my way as I write this somewhere over Indonesia. But more to the point this trip is about creating situations that could provoke opportunity.

In my everyday life I have a routine of situations and people who are a constant with little variation and without breaking away from the status quo I’ll continue to have the same opportunities.

It’s crunch time!

For five years now I’ve been working on Your Story and Create Your Life Story, to learn the skills and develop the sites to where they may be able viable as more than just hobbies. I’ve tried a few things to develop them but to date these things haven’t worked and it’s time to see if there may be some other opportunities that I haven’t considered.

Staying in my home environment will maintain a similar situation to what’s been the case for these last five years but travelling to Europe may, just may, create an environment that is different and present opportunities that I couldn’t find at home.

Everyone who’s had any level of success will be the first to credit the good fortune in their lives that has lead to them becoming who they are (actually that’s the same for all of us, good and bad), and that good fortune could turn up anywhere. It’s just that if you get around, meet more people and be in different situations there is a greater chance of that good fortune turning up.

It isn’t choosing anything!

For me this is just about putting myself out there where opportunity may arise and allowing things to unfold. When we think about it, that’s how life is for all of us.

I don’t know or can’t imagine what may come of this trip. Maybe something, maybe nothing but as I said when I started on this adventure of learning how to podcast I’d rather give a red hot go, than stay in the certainty of routine.

What may come.

I’ve a few ideas for content for Your Story. We may get to revisit some past stories to see how they’ve developed over the last few years and I’m sure we’ll discover a few new stories. I’m hoping to produce both video and audio content and I’ll be putting it out in all the usual channels.

Since my last trip social networks have continued to develop and with the power of my new iPhone 4S along with the video, photo, audio sharing networks there is an opportunity for me to put out a variety of content through multiple channels.

If you want to find all the major social channels that I use go to About.me/IanKath where you can link across to see all that I produce over the next many weeks.

If you have any ideas for people to meet of place to visit in Berlin please let me know using the contacts above.

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

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Some people have a passion for food that goes beyond what most of us have.

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Do you love food?
I mean really love it, in all the different ways that it can mean. The history, the preparation, the eating, the sharing! Or do you just eat food because you have to, as the cooking is more of a task that has to be put up with in order to eat.

Charmaine O'Brien

For some people food is more than just simple sustenance and for Charmaine O’Brien food is far more than just that!

We all eat but it’s rare to find someone who embodies food in more than just the simplest body nurturing way. Occasionally I come across someone who eats, breathes and sleeps food, and recently at the Oral History Association of Australia conference in Melbourne, I had the good fortune to meet and ask Charmaine to come onto the show and tell us about her interest in food, based on the stimulating presentation and menu she prepared for the dinner.

What’s on the menu? – 100 years ago!

It’s not often that we get to taste a historical menu from post colonial, Australian cookbooks and discover that food reproduced from 100+ years ago is not just boiled mutton and lard with damper.

As we discuss on this episode of Your Story, the meal was a wonderful blend of different ingredients that we no longer think of using and a surprise to realise how well the people of Victorian Australia ate, despite the challenges of preparing food without all the modern appliances that we now take for granted.

Presentation @OHAA

Charmaine opened my eyes to how well they ate in the 19th century and some of the reasons for how things have changed over the last 120 years.

Her website is CharmaineObrien.com
Her email is Charmaine@CharmaineObrien.com

When have you meet someone or done something that goes beyond the norm of what most people think of food?

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

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Music is from

← If you want to record the Life Stories of others, listen to my other podcast at Create Your Life Story.com or on iTunes.
…Or have a look at some other great shows available at LifeStyle Pod Network→

Music is from

Argy
“Peace Of Me feat. POSH! The Prince” (mp3)
from “Fundamentals”
(Ibadan Records)
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

David Starfire
“Indian Fever” (mp3)
from “Bombay Beatz”
(Six Degrees Records)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

Tycho
“Hours” (mp3)
from “Dive”
(Ghostly International)

Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

 

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door – NOT!

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**BLAM!… Out of nowhere you have the inspiration of a great idea.
You’ve just dreamed up a new and novel way of doing something that everyone will want and now all you have to do is show it to the world for the fame and fortune to be yours. Too easy! Now to make it happen…

How many times have you heard or thought this yourself?

OTTO Espresso

Good ideas are like grains of sand on the beach, very few will ever find their way to an oyster to become a pearl.

Craig Hiron

Craig Hiron has learned the lesson, that there are four main steps to making a raging success, while developing one of the hardest design tasks around in the OTTO Espresso.

• The easiest aspect of any new project is the inspiration, where everyone has a good idea…
• But of the millions of good ideas, few make it to the serious design phase, where the reality of the idea will normally fall by the wayside…
• Leaving few, to move on and deal with the challenges of  manufacturing…
• Then only to be left on the shelf without great marketing.

By the time an idea has been through each part of this process, with sometimes hundreds of thousands of steps, dealing with multiple complication of ideas, people, finance and business, very few ever survive to become a viable success. And then you have to measure success?

The Classic Atomic and the OTTO

Craig tells us of his journey to create, from the inspired classic form of the Atomic Stove Top Cappuccino Maker, something that takes 21st century technologies and creates the ultimate portable cook top espresso maker.

When the OTTO Espresso was released I immediately ordered one because of my love for my Atomic and it’s classic form but also with full regard for the challenges of manufacturing the OTTO. My unboxing video is below.

Craig explains in detail in this episode of Your Story the challenges of finding a product to develop, all the way through the design, manufacturing and marketing process.

Bringing the inspired idea to fruition is is a tale of determination to overcome the pitfalls and a great lesson for anyone interested in product design, manufacturing and marketing.

If you’re a student of industrial design this is a must listen to episode of Your Story.

His website is OttoEspresso.com

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

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Here is my un-boxing video of the OTTO…

Music is from

The Black Seeds
“Sometimes Enough” (mp3)
from “Into the Dojo”
(LOOP)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

The Airmen of Note
“Blues for Mundy” (mp3)
from “Today”
(Altissimo!)
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Stream from Rhapsody
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More On This Album

 

Using their pleasure for tango to help others who desperately need it

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We’ve all had the experience where we’ve gained so much value from people or an activity that we feel a need to return something. It called reciprocity  – the desire to do something in return.

Cheryl & John

In this episode of  Your Story we talk to John and Cheryl Lowry about how they have fulfilled this desire in themselves for all the pleasure that they’ve had from being involved in learning and dancing tango. They’ve returned the favour not to the greater tango community but by using that communities desire to dance tango socially as a means of generating income to support disadvantaged children in Argentina by setting up Para Los Niños children’s charity.

Internationally supported

The charity is supported internationally to enable income to be generated through milongas (tango dances) which is then used in Argentina to support many desperately in need children to have what we would call the necessities of life.

Here is an example of one of the Milongas that has been orginised in aid of Para Los Niños.

The charity website for Para Los Niños is paralosninos.net

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

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.

Music is from

Che Papusa
“La Milonga” (mp3)
from “Buenos Aires Tango Dance”
(Suramusic S.R.L)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Rhapsody
Stream from Rhapsody
More On This Album

Juanjo Hermida and Gabriel Merlino
“Sauvage” (mp3)
from “Tangos En Duo”
(Suramusic S.R.L)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic
Stream from Rhapsody
More On This Album

 

This is how to tell a good story?

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Daryll Bellingham

Many people live a life in the arts. Sometimes it’s through choice or circumstances but it’s always a life that is lived independent of many of the norms of Western Society, using their resources to work in a variety of fields within the art that is their choice. The performing arts are much like this. In today’s Episode 61 of Your Story we talk to Daryll Bellingham about his life as a professional storyteller.

Through examples, Daryll shares with us some of his personal life stories of how he expresses himself using his skills as well as some of the advantages for adults in communicating better with family and colleagues using these storytelling skills. Daryll mentions how the use of storytelling has given his community and himself some of the greatest gifts that people can give each other – the sharing of stories.

Daryll has a huge understanding of both sides of the storytelling world both as performer and teacher of storytelling as a communication tool for individuals and corporates, as well as being an oral historian and digital storyteller of other people’s lives.

How do you make a living as a professional storyteller? By being as skilled as Daryll Bellingham is, in many aspects of this oral art form.

Daryll’s  website is Storytell.com.au
His email is mail@Storytell.com.au

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here.
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Music is from

Das Kamileon

“Detroit Taxi” (mp3)
from “Lovn Cruzn”
(e.y.e. Label)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
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More On This Album

Swanken
“Lose The Man” (mp3)
from “Break Out”
(Musical Missionary)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic Delivery
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

Helios
“South Tree” (mp3)
from “Unleft”
(Circle Into Square Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

Mint
“Personal Spaces” (mp3)
from “Glued, Stapled, Remixed”
(Boltfish Recordings)

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Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

 

Walking to the other path through life

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Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be the opposite gender?

Or have you ever wondered how it is for someone who isn’t just curious but identifies with being the opposite sex?

I like many people have wondered these things from time to time. I’m happily a heterosexual male but I realise that there are some people in our community who feel different about their body and would love to have the opposite gender. What is that like and how does someone deal with it?

Lorelei

Today we talk with Lorelei, originally from Northern New South Wales but now living in Brisbane who is 18 months into transitioning from being a male electrician working in a sugar mill to a female natural therapist.

Now that must be some journey!

Lorelei and I talk about her early memories as a boy with some different feelings, then becoming and working with blokes but with a feminine twist,  eventually to migrating to a supporting community as she transitions to become one of the girls, including dealing with hormones, possible medical procedures and relationships. What a journey this must be.

Thanks for being so open in sharing Your Story, Lorelei.

Website is EverQuestingMind.wordpress.com
Email is on her site’s Contacts Page

Do you know someone who has been through similar experiences in their life? Please comment below.

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here.
If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here.

Support Your Story by commenting on this episode with one of the social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes.

Music is from

Che Papusa
“La Milonga” (mp3)
from “Buenos Aires Tango Dance”
(Suramusic S.R.L)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

Kevin Selfe and the Tornadoes
“Playing the Game” (mp3)
from “Playing the Game”
(Blue Skunk Music)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

 

One of the best Episodes Re-Published

It’s a rare world that we live in. I don’t mean you… I’m thinking of a few rare people that I meet from time to time and myself.

Stories of Our City

Most people are worried about what I call the noise of life. You know what I mean… All the stuff that is out there that we’re told to be afraid of or we need to be entertained by. Look at the news channels and reality TV, it’s all there… The Noise of life.

But there are a few of us who look for the substance of more important things. The stories that are real and live in everyone. “But normal people are boring”, I hear you say. NO! You’re the normal people and you have amazing stories. We all just need to take the time to turn off the damn idiot box and listen to the real stories that live in everyone around us.

That’s what I’m doing here on Your Story and what I’m encouraging others to do on Create Your Life Story. Get into real stories, not the media beat up that we’re familuar with.

It’s rare that I meet someone who has similar ideals in this regard. Sure, many people pay lip service to it but few (and I mean very few), actually do something about it. But there are a few…!

…and she has the personality to match the smile

Recently one of the previous episodes was picked up by another podcast. To my joy Stories of Our City has republished an edited version of the Episode 48 : Tiffany. Infidelity Investigator. It’s a brief example of what we’re doing here at Your Story and I encourage you to see what Katy is doing with Stories of Our City and listen to some of the other stories that she has published maybe even on iTunes, they’re eye opening to the life that she observes in the middle east.

Katy is one of us dear reader/listener. She knows the power of stories and how sharing them makes all of us much better to the greater world.

 

Ramblings or real understanding from your dreams

Ever woken in the morning and wondered what that dream meant? Sure you may be able to second guess what it’s all about if the dream was similar to what’s going on in your day life but we’ve all had those dreams that confound any sense of meaning. And even if we did have some understanding, can we really trust those supposed meanings. Aren’t they, after all, just the random mumblings of our subconscious mind and not important anyway?

Jane Teresa Anderson

Or are they?

Maybe we can guess or ask someone who “supposedly” knows what they may mean, for some real insight but aren’t they just as clueless as us? Well maybe not everyone…

The filters we look life through

Jane Teresa Anderson is one of those people who can help with our understanding of our dream-life but with a twist. She comes to dream interpretation, not from the esoteric fields of connecting with your hidden spirit guide, while dancing amongst the flowers, where everything is touchy-feely but from the world of hard core science.

Trained in the UK with a Honours Degree in Zoology, specialising in developmental biology with some neurophysiological research, Jane Teresa had taken her analytical scientific approach into the world of understanding dreams, their meanings and how they influence our lives.

She knows that with an understanding of our dreams we can not only understand our current lives but we can also impact on what we want to achieve in our daily experiences. Dream interpretation is a real diagnostic tool to better live our lives and help us understand how we are evolving in our personal life towards achieving what we want for ourselves.

In this Episode 59 of Your Story Jane Teresa gives us an overview of her journey through the sciences to end up in this, not so science recognised field of understanding. She also has an hour long weekly podcast with invited guests discussing their dreams and their meanings along with private coaching and professional services.

Her website is dream.net.au and contact email is JaneTeresa@dream.net.au

.

.

What are dream interpretation experiences have you had? Post a comment below and let us know.

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Music is from

Urban Legend
“The World Keeps Spinning (feat. Chana)” (mp3)
from “Tropical Techniques”
(Blind Lemon Music)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

Swanken
“Lose The Man” (mp3)
from “Break Out”
(Musical Missionary)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic Delivery
More On This Album

Kevin Selfe and the Tornadoes
“Pulled Pork” (mp3)
from “Playing the Game”
(Blue Skunk Music)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

 

What is a Producer of Marketing and Distribution? – PMD

Welcome back everyone!

…And welcome back to Adam Daniel Mezei who we last heard of back in Episode 25 while mid-way through his 5 year European sojourn, living in Prague. I had decided to take up his invitation and drop in on this crazy Canuck who I meet on Twitter while I was spending a couple months in Europe back in 2008.

Adam at Toronto International Film Festival

As I mentioned back then, I had a wonderful three days with Adam as he showed me around the sights of Prague, looking after my every need as a tourist wanting to understand the city but also to understand this Canadian ex-pat making a go of it in the Czech Republic.

We’ve stayed in touch over the last 2.5 years since I was there through Twitter and Facebook and I knew he had returned to his home city of Toronto to chase down his new dream as a PMD for Hire, helping film industry professionals to grasp the dynamics of marketing and distributing films in this new era where the old systems aren’t holding up to the dynamic flux being created by the internet.

This is the same skill-set that Adam used in Prague, in a trivial way, to organise me to settle immediately and get to see the sights of the Golden City. The same skills he had been honing in networking to satisfy the desires of other ex-pats as clients who wanted to do business in The Czech Republic and didn’t know where to start. These skills of creating a network is what he’s bringing to film makers who don’t know the new playing field of marketing and distributing their films.

Bringing a new marketing skill set to Film Makers

Adam is the “Mr Wolf from Pulp Fiction“, who is called in to sort out the Marketing Issues for movie makers overwhelmed by the demand to be noticed amongst the white noise generated by many great movies that are never noticed and simply fade away to the discount bins where they can never return their funding.

In this Episode 58 of Your Story, Adam and I catch up (sadly not in person but on Skype) about what he’s been up to, why he left Europe and how he’s resettled into Toronto. We chat about the importance of family to him and the advantages of being in North America for his PMD work and what he can do for clients.

His website is PMDforhire.com

Email is info@pmdforhire.com

Here is a video of Adam with a little bit of philosophy on life…

ADM Videoblog #188 — “Don’t Bring Yesterday’s Garbage Into Today” from Adam Daniel Mezei | ADMTV on Vimeo.

…and if you want an opinionated Adam as a PMD about the importance of using more than just Facebook and Twitter:

ADM Videoblog #210 — “A Facebook page and a Twitter handle is not a marketing strategy!” from Adam Daniel Mezei | ADMTV on Vimeo.

…or watch the videos on his blog

Ian and Adam in Prague in 2008

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

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Support Your Story by commenting on this episode with one of the social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes

Music is from

Heyoka

“Micron” (mp3)

from “Marklar”

(Muti Music)

Buy at iTunes Music Store

Buy at Amazon MP3

More On This Album

Panik

“Their Unforgetable Things” (mp3)

from “Panik #5 Instrumentals”

(Molemen Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store

Stream from Rhapsody

Buy at Amazon MP3

More On This Album

 

I’ve been a Tad Busy with a Flood

I want to bring you up to speed in this episode 26 of Your Story Addendum to help you understand what’s been happening, particularly in the last three weeks with the flooding of the Brisbane River and it’s impacted on me.

This Episode 26 Recorded Here in the Foreground

If you would like to understand my experience I’ve written a post about the Brisbane Flood 2011, on my personal blog about what it was like to prepare and make the most of a community flood but in this episode I just want to explain and remind you that all is still good and I’m still here although maybe a little busy dealing with my other podcast Create Your Life Story and a few of the issues that come up from time to time

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”
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Talent, hard work and good fortune this is what made the success for John Birmingham

Sometimes we can read a book that has a significant impact on our understanding of things. To come to an understanding of what Sydney is… it’s history and personality, I needed to read Leviathan : The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney and get under it’s hem stained skirt to really understand just what Sydney was really like and how it got to be like that. Leviathan then gave me a whole new understand of this city by the harbour as I live there back in 2001.

John Birmingham

Leviathan was my introduction to John Birmingham and his writing style. A style that is entertaining while still immensely informative, pulling no punches from telling it as it is but with humour all the way, albeit sometimes a very dark humour. John is a local Brisbane lad, who grew up in Ipswich after migrating from the UK with his family in the ’70′s. He’s one of the  better known writers in Australia initially for his 1994 share house exposé, He Died with a Felafel in His Hand that later went onto stage shows and a film but now his notoriety is for his columns and articles in numerous publications including Brisbane Times and an ever extending long list of published novels and researched non-fiction.

In recent years he’s written the Axis of Time trilogy and is now two books into the Without Warning trilogy with the final book in the series due for publication in 2011. He’s currently rewriting a 10 anniversary update of Leviathan and is working on numerous other publications.

This man is a writing machine with a work ethic setting a constant budget of 2000 words a day five days a week all year. One book, one started,  columns and articles. If you want to understand how to write this is how you do it. You write!

His website is CheeseburgerGothic,com

He writes for Brisbane Times

Give his books a go, they’re a bloody good read Here is a link to his Amazon Page.

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

Check out my other podcast Create Your Life Story about how easy it is to record yourself or someone you know.

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Music is from

The Black Seeds
“Sometimes Enough” (mp3)
from “Into the Dojo”
(LOOP)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon MP3
More On This Album

Kalpataru Tree
“Elliptical Sequence” (mp3)
from “Preverberations From The Infinite Future”
(Cyberset Music)

More On This Album

 

What is needed to make it in music?

Sarah Collyer

How may people are performing, working their craft, doing all they can to be seen and heard, to make it in this world as an artist? How do they get noticed amongst all the noise and what do they have to do in the mean time until it’s their turn, if they ever have the chance?

Today on Your Story we chat with Sara Collyer about her world as a jazz singer. How she studied music and voice and her motivations along the way. We talk about what she has to do to be noticed and what she does between performances and her music.

Take the time to check out her website at SarahCollyer.com where you can listen to some of the music and purchase her EP This Way or on iTunes.

I reckon it great (just my biased opinion)

Cover Art – This Way

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You have the idea but how/who to write the book!

Have you ever wanted to write a book? Have you had a great idea that you need to get out there? Do you have life experiences or know someone who you would like to write about? Maybe you have already started writing? Do you have:

Ghost Writer Michael Collins

• An Idea – Inspiration of what needs to be said
• Notes – A series of concepts written down
• Rough – Already written a considerable amount
• Draft – Written the overall story
• Manuscript – The finished book that needs editing
• Book – But maybe it needs re-writing

Writing a book is a huge task and in this Episode 55 or Your Story we talk to Michael Collins about the art and skill of ghost writing and what he has done for many people to help them get their stories out there.

Michael as a professional Ghost Writer has the skills to understand a person, to get under their skin and realise their dreams so they can get the story that lives inside them onto the page while maintaining their voice and their own original personality. It doesn’t have to be a book written from the beginning but ghost writing can and often is a form of editing. He is editing a persons ideas and voice into text or editing a finished manuscript into a final form for publication. As Michael explains ghost writing is a very personal, specialised form of book editing where he, as the ghost writer, in order to write as that other person has to know them and their personality and not just edit the text that is written on the page.

Michael has the wit of the storyteller and the ability to show it in this episode of Your Story of how he came to writing and ghost writing in particular but also the skills to write about his interests on his personal web site. It’s worth taking the time to read some of his interesting anecdotes and see his writing style in action

Michael’s website is Your-GhostWriter.com

…and his email is ghostwritermc@gmail.com

**UPDATE: 4/10/11 – Michael has just published his latests thriller The Last Book
on Amazon **

I’ve also mentioned on this episode and edited part of it for my other podcast Create Your Life Story as Ghost Writing happens to be the perfect mechanism for writing a personal biography using transcripts form audio recordings. If you’re unable to write for yourself or need someone to add that critical eye over what you’ve already written it may well be worth taking the time to contact a Ghost Writer such as Michael. To find out more on how to record, edit and share your life story check out Create Your Life Story.

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

Join the Your Story Facebook group.
Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here.
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If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here.

Support Your Story by commenting on this episode with one of the social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes

Music is from

Di Johnston

“Fascinator” (mp3)

from “Fascinator”

(Undercover Culture Music)

Buy at Amazon MP3

More On This Album

Luis Garcia

“Paper Birds” (mp3)

from “Between Walks”

(Audiomoves)

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Today’s Episode 54 of Your Story is about looking at what we are told regarding domestic solar power generation and how viable it is as an environmental and economic alternative to base load power generation such as coal, gas, hydro, geothermal and nuclear.

From a personal interest in energy and a desire to share what he knows with society in general and other members of the University of The Third Age (U3A), Ken Harrison has set about looking at the viability of solar generation and has come up with some surprising and disturbing facts relating to the viability of using grid connected domestic solar panels to augment and replace power generated by the coal fired power stations in New South Wales.

Ken’s interest in managing power developed while he was responsible for strategising the energy usage of the Australian National University immediately after the first energy crisis in the 1970′s. Because of his hard work,  ideas and understanding of the use of power around the university he was able to reduce the ANU’s energy costs and consumption by elimination its usage of fuel oil in favour of electricity and by computer controlling that usage in the most cost effective and efficient manner. This hands-on understanding of energy usage in actual situations is the foundation of his interest in wanting to understand how the new system will work and how efficient it will be.

To my surprise, despite what we are told, the introduction of such systems does not have any guaranteed effect on reducing carbon dioxide production and could very easily make the electricity grid unworkable if the scheme is extended to the levels envisaged by some of its proponents. The scheme will also increase the cost of power in direct proportion to the extent of its adoption. They are only a waste of money that could be used in better ways. Ken suggests that spending the same amounts of money on stand alone, off the grid domestic power generation would have the positive financial and carbon benefits that are desired

If you would like to read his papers or wish to contact Ken send an email to chat@yourstorypodcast.com and I’ll pass it along to him for a reply.

In summation of his paper Ken recommends the following:

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

There is no way that any of the renewable energy systems can replace our coal fired steam turbine generators.

There are only two options that can do this, namely gas fired steam turbine generators or nuclear powered steam turbine generators. The latter is the complete answer to carbon dioxide emissions as well as any other nasty emissions at the point of generation; however, there is some CO2 release through the mining and processing phases. Its only drawback is the very serious one of waste management.

Geosequestration seems unlikely to be a solution for NSW even if it is ultimately shown to be viable. IGCC is the only developing technology that may be useful to NSW.

NSW has to do something about future generation very shortly – it is possibly already beyond the critical time for planning to be complete.

Since I have no expectation that any government will do the right thing I set out for your consideration what I would do if I were a dictator.

1. Introduce a scheme to eliminate or, at least, severely reduce our wastage of electricity. This would give a breathing space of several years with reduction of emissions to levels lower than any mentioned so far at Kyoto or Copenhagen.
2. Withdraw the present subsidy scheme on domestic photovoltaic generation and replace it with one that offers a generous subsidy for anyone prepared to go off the grid entirely i.e. a “stand alone” system.
3. Continue with research and the introduction of renewable energy generation wherever it has some engineering viability.
4. Build our first nuclear reactor as a matter of some urgency.
5. Plan the longer-term close down of coal-fired plant replacing it with nuclear where alternative systems couldn’t do the job.
6. Fund infrastructure schemes that can make good use of the skills of those who would become redundant with the demise of the coal industry.
7. Modify the ETS to give it real power to achieve emission reduction.
8. Scrap our existing financial system and replace it with something based on more rational considerations than the fear and greed, of an extreme minority, that characterises our present system.
9. Introduce methods toward achieving zero population growth by 2015.

K.W.Harrison
March, 2010

What do you think?  Write a comment below and share your thoughts on what Ken has mentioned.

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Music is from

The Airmen of Note
“Blues for Mundy” (mp3)
from “Today”
(Altissimo!)

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Welcome To Episode 53 of Your Story.

In June 2009 I had the good fortune to travel to Buenos Aires to experience all that you can in such a short time and to partake of some of the Tango Scene from the city where Argentine Tango originated.

While I was there I spent some time with Tango teachers and performers Fabrizio Forti and Celi Arias in their home El Sol that is a tango studio and tourist accommodation for travellers to this city of 13 million people.  I’ve already produced several episodes of my time in Buenos Aires while I was there but lately Fab and Celi were here in Brisbane and I thought that this was a good time to talk to them about the life they have in Buenos Aires, travelling and teaching and some things about the wonderful dance that is tango and how it is different to most of the other dance forms.

They were here in Australia conducting workshops and classes followed by a trip to Wellington for the new Zealand Tango Festival.  I hope to get a copy of their performance for the Kiwis to show you very soon but in the mean time here is a video from last years festival.

Website is elsoldesantelmo.com
Email is elsolst@gmail.com

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Music is from

Chocolate
“Libertango” (mp3)
from “Chocolate 3″
(WorldAnd)

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Gitano Experience & Friends
“Tango No2″ (mp3)
from “Gitano Flamenco”
(TOOST Music)

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Beau Bledsoe
“Histoire du Tango” (mp3)
from “¡Olé! ¡Che!”
(Tzigane Music)

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It’s funny how people who have similar interests keep revolving around each other and are constantly mixing in the same circles.  Even if they don’t necessarily know that they each exist.

Andrew and Trash Video

When I started Your Story on 2007 I modelled myself on Australian Story and Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope but before too long I started hearing about Richard Fidler’s Conversation Hour on Brisbane’s 612ABC radio. To my surprise I discovered that Richard and I are doing basically the same thing, conversations with people about their lives.

I have only listened to a few of his shows but I know that we happen to have had some of the same people on our shows.  Frankly with the resources of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation including a producer to help it’s not surprising that he has harvested all the interesting people who live in our city.  To that end, as I poke around to find some of the interesting people with my limited resources we are going to cover the same territory.  Today is one of those situations.

As I write this I am listening to Richard interview Andrew Leavold from one of the most enjoyable episodes that I’ve had the pleasure to produce.  You may remember Andrew as the passionate, hyperactive cult film video store owner, Trash Video here in West End where I live.

If you want to listen to my podcast with Andrew this is the episode and if you want to listen to Richard’s interview with him it is here on the ABC site.

 

It’s been a long time but welcome to Episode 25 of Your Story Addendum.

I was chatting to you from by the river.

I thought it was time to get you up to speed on what I’ve been up to with Your Story and the new podcast Create Your Life Story.  This is 18 minutes of me filling you in on developments over the last couple of months so you know that I haven’t abandoned Your Story and what I’m hoping to achieve in the next few months.

Create Your Life Story

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Support Your Story by giving it a Digg or Stumble from the links underneath and writing a review on iTunes

 

Over the last few weeks there have been quite a buzz in the skydiving community of Australia with the 50th Anniversary of the Australian Parachute Federation(APF) and Newcastle Sport Parachute Club(NSPC).

The latest APF National Conference is underway and a few weeks back NSPC had a huge week end of celebrations for their 50th.

Podcast Episode with Claude Gillard

Last night I was looking at a lot of images on the Facebook fan page for the APF and was reminded of the podcast episode I did with Claude Gillard two years ago. Claude was one of the early pioneers in parachuting in the late 50′s and president of the APF for 30 odd years.

If your interested in some stories of the early days of Australian parachuting when skydiving was a truly dangerous activity please go to the post and listen to what Claude has to say.

I’ve always had a huge respect for the early pioneers in all fields and as skydiving was once one of my great passions in life I have read a great deal of those early days. Today many people entering the sport or doing recreational tandems jumps don’t realise the grand adventure that was parachuting in the late 50′s and 60′s.

I encourage you to go and listen to one of the great story tellers of Australian Skydiving talk of those days.

Remember you can comment below.

 

Inspired from Your Story a New Podcast is now Online.

I’ve been very quiet these many months here on Your Story.  I’ve been busy putting a few things in place, starting a new podcast and site.  I have been a little bit head down getting everything done so to speak.

I mentioned that I recently spent some time with my uncle, Bill Kath where I recorded our conversations and published them on his own site to share his Life Story with our family and anyone who may come along from the greater community.

This inspired me to start a new podcast to help explain how the average person can now record, edit and publish an audio Life Story, then share that story with family and the world if they choose.

I have always said that Your Story is a personal passion and I would love, one day to travel a lot more and record stories from around the world.  For three years now I have been learning and developing the skills needed to converse and produce audio while slowly going backwards financially.  With Create Your Life Story I hope to create a podcast to allow me to develop an income that will give me the ability to continue to produce Your Story while helping others to gain some of the amazing benefits that I have seen from sharing personal Life Stories.

The premise of Create Your Life Story is simple.  There are people who want to capture the Life Story of someone they know or there are people who wish to record their own personal Life Story.  These stories are interesting initially for family but also for the greater community, if only they can be recorded and made available, before they are lost, as has happened for all of human history.

I now have the knowledge from producing Your Story and several other versions of audio Life Stories to share with anyone who is interested in learning how easy and available it is for them to do the same.

It’s very early days but I have already produced a considerable amount of content to share that will give a lot of people a good start.  I have even produced a free e-Book to help you get started.

Please come over to Create Your Life Story and if you know of anyone who may be interested in learning to record and share a life story, either their own or someone else’s, please share this information.

 

Welcome To Episode 51 of Your Story.

Why do we have to live our life the way people and society says? Why can’t we make our own rules and if we’re happy with the results of our decisions isn’t that all that matters?

Ian Pettet has decided to live an unorthodox lifestyle. Not only is he studying Electrical Engineering at Queensland University of Technology in his 50′s but he has also chosen to live on a side street to the City Gardens that adjoin the Uni sleeping on his motorbike and living with his dog out of the trailer attached to the rear of the bike. Not what is normally thought of as student accommodation. This is the life style that Ian has chosen for the freedom that he gets from not requiring a high income and responsibilities that most of us feel that we can’t do without.

Most people would find this lifestyle challenging but Ian embraces it and with happiness and joy leaving me wondering if maybe there are some lessons here about what makes some of us truly happy.

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Music is from

Music is Bye Bye Blackbird From Music Ninja

 

Welcome To Episode 51 of Your Story.

If what you know from your childhood and career is violence it would seem natural to work in a similar violent environment. That though doesn’t automatically mean that you’re destined to be violent yourself, maybe you just understand violence.

Earl Morris came from a childhood surrounded with violence, then a career in the US military.

An obvious career path would be to slip into the traditional forms of civilian work including protection and security work that is available through private military, police agencies and security services.

Earl came from the military into this traditional career path also but what he brought with him from his life has evolved into something quite different to direct security work. In talking to Earl I discovered that  he has taken the inverse spin on his life experiences to apply them to education and understanding. To work with people to mitigate the possibility of any violence through removing the threat. This involves the different aspects of human behaviour that he has studied and has evolved into courses for companies and particularly youth groups.

Now an Australian citizen and loving life in Australia with his wife and children he is using his understanding of a violent world to help others with protection against it but also to empower them so that the violence never develops in the first place. Earl has taken what he has learnt to create methods that make the world a better place.

His website is lifeforceoneinternational.com
email is earl@lifeforceoneinternational.com

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Music is from

Omni
“Bang the Drum” (mp3)
from “Batterie Instrumentals”
(NatAural High LLC)

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Welcome To Episode 50 of Your Story.

I invited Kate Foy to come and share with us the world of a professional theatre actor and all that it means. What was the theatre industry like in the early 1970′s when the Queensland Theatre Company was just getting underway, what do you need and how hard is it to succeed in this art but also what is it like to have nearly 40 years experience in the different areas as a professional theatre actor and academic.

Kate is one of those people that I meet through my interactions on twitter and other new media social platforms. Like a few, Kate has become one of my twitter friends and we’ve had many 140 character conversations with each other. What a surprise it was for me, that afterwards while doing some research in preparation for some audio recordings for the Oral History Project at Queensland Theatre Company, I discovered she has a deep involvement both as the Chair of the QTC Board but also with the theatre community in general.

Kate mentions her latest passion to gather theatre professionals together in a way that hasn’t been possible in the past by establishing Greenroom. Unlike with the past physical publications, now using a web site she hopes to form a portal for people to gather and create a community around shared interests in theatre.

Her website is KateFoy.com and  ActorsGreenRoom.net.

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Music is from

Nick Hollywood
“Deep Henderson” (mp3)
from “White Mink : Black Cotton (Electro Swing vs Speakeasy Jazz)”
(Freshly Squeezed Music)

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I’ve recently been having some issues over the last few months with the podcasting plugin(PodPress) that I use to post the show. Because it hasn’t been correctly updated in two years it’s been throwing up all sorts of issues lately including completely stopping the feed or sending the wrong files to iTunes. Most of the time it’s been okay if you play or download direct from the site but it’s been getting very spotting over at the other podcast catchers(iTunes).

This has finally led me to have to change the plugin and that had a couple of issues in bringing the files across but I’m pleased to say that as of this morning when I look at all the files on iTunes it seems that everything is now as it’s supposed to be.

Cheers

The good thing about using the BlueBerry PowerPress plugin is that I can now put additional content up on the site with it’s own player and it won’t go out on the feed to iTunes. This has been something that I’ve been wanting to do for some time and I’ve resorted to doing alternative things that were not as neat as I wanted. This now means that the recent Episode 47 about Cliff which had the incorrect audio being sent to iTunes is now resolved.

If you heard the unintential additional content on iTunes for Episode 47 simply do this to get the correct audio of the show.

• Delete – YS Ep 47 : Cliff. Food Allergies and Cancer Treatment from a Life in Science.
• Un-subscribe
• Re-subscribe
• Right/control Click on the header – Your Story : How We Play the Game of Life and select Update Podcast

That will refresh the podcast feed instantly and the now missing Ep 47 should start downloading the correct file that was originally intended to be the episode.

Sorry about these issues but I’m learning as I’m doing and it sometimes takes a while to get the knowledge to sort out these problems.

Thanks to my daughter mentioning that the feed in her iTunes was not the correct file I was made aware of these issues and fix the problem. If you notice anything that is incorrect or needs improving please let me know as it sometimes takes a while for me to notice issues. Thanks in advance.

 

Welcome To Episode 49 of Your Story.

In a pub recently it was mentioned that I should sit and talk with Gemma-Rose as she has a passion for photography and has managed to make a career of what many would love to do for a living.

Gemma

Not only do we learn of the early days of learning photography in high school but the advantage of coming into it with a little more maturity has paid off along with working as a photojournalist and doing some of the more unpleasant aspects of the job.

Now Gemma is off to Melbourne to work with St Kilda Gatehouse to enable street sex workers and substance dependent people to find a new way to express themselves and to tell their stories. Gemma has a more oblique way of looking at the world and recently undertook and explains her ongoing project, Show Us Ya Tits to show the differences of women and their worlds.

Her website is gemmarose.com.au
email is info@gemmarose.com.au

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

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Support Your Story by commenting on this episode with one of the social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes

Music

iodaPROMONET

Vodovoz
“Mantra” (mp3)
from “Mantra”
(Night Drive Music)

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Welcome To Episode 48 of Your Story.

What would you do if you had suspicions of your partner having an affair? Could you confront them and have a discussion? Even then how would you know that what you were being told is the truth? What if you were told that nothing was happening but despite that reassurances you still had it eating away inside of you saying something wasn’t right? Would it be good to find out for certain one way or other, or are you just being insecure?

Tiffany Bond has discovered that not only is there still a demand for infidelity investigation but business is booming as the times may change but people don’t and there is a constant stream of husbands and wives contacting her, seeking information and advice to settle their concerns and suspicion of their partner having an affair.

Tiffany’s talent revealed itself when she used her training with her own relationship, leading her friends to suggest that she could help others, as she was helped, by finding the truth and slaying her own demons.  Starting her private investigation business the Detection Group she has added to previous experiences to tell many more stories written about in her first book Confessions of a Female Private Investigator.

The book is really a series of short stories of her adventures as a debt collector, police officer and private investigator and the experiences that she and her clients find themselves in with suspicion, discovery and resolution of some of the more disappointing aspects of peoples relationships. It’s actually a bit of a page turner in it’s simple short format story telling style forcing me to drag myself away to get this episode published rather than while away the day indulging in the voyeurism of peoples behaviours.

This is not all about the grime and the sordid underbelly of society but much like Episode 40 Grace. Prostitution – More than you Think, in that, in this story we find someone who is driven to help others to take responsibility, heal and move on by finding out the information that has been eating away at them with suspicion. It’s more than just catching people out, it’s about helping people who’s relationships have devolved and aiding them to move their relationships forward.

Tiffany’s Contacts are:

Phone:

• 1300 780 833
• +61(0)458 600 638

Website:

• DetectionGroup.com.au
• TiffanyBond.com.au

Email:

• enquiry@DetectionGroup.com.au

Social:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Linked In

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Music is from iodaPROMONET

Urban Legend
“The World Keeps Spinning (feat. Chana)” (mp3)
from “Tropical Techniques”
(Blind Lemon Music)

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