Saturday 18 February 2012

All Of The Planets Wonders


I wrote something in my diary on the 16th of January i thought was sort-of worth typing up here.

I have been listening to a radio series by Josie Long called "All Of The Planets Wonders" in which she talks about some of the same things which she talks about in her stand up DVD "Trying is Good" - the importance of being earnest, self-improvement and the gathering of knowledge. I appreciated this because my new years resolution was to learn more things, become some sort of female Stephen Fry and "expand my mind", and these radio shows were talking about exactly that! There are four shows, one about animals, one about plants, one about stars and one about collecting things. All very good and important things.



Today I spoke to Jamie about how I think sometimes that it is more important to know about Good, Fun things than to collect qualifications but I'm not sure he really got what I meant. He didn't get why someone interviewing you for a job would care if you knew a lot about birds more than about how many A Levels you had, but that wasn't exactly what I was talking about. Life isn't just supposed to be collecting points at school, winning a husband or wife, getting a promotion and squeezing out babies to start over again, it should be about discovery, happiness, creation and learning things because you want to not because you have to. Improving yourself.
Facts are also incredibly comforting. In an awkward situation you can always rely on "did you know..." to cut the silence. You can comfort a friend with "94% of women cry at least once a month." When I'm lonely and lay in bed at night I always feel fuzzy when I think about my favourite animal- sea otters- and the fact that they are the only mammal other than monkeys and humans who use tools to open their food (they smash things on rocks and even sometimes open up tin cans on the sea bed to eat the tiny octopuses inside!!
Another thing about facts is that they can make even the most boring/awful things seem interesting. I mean, sometimes I think I hate the grubby old northern town I live in but at least I know that Warrington Transporter Bridge is one of only 11 of its kind in the world, and was built by the same man who built Tower Bridge. It just makes the place seem a little bit brighter.
I should probably sleep now so that I have the capacity to absorb more information tomorrow. I might even go to the library again and take out books about animals!!! and science!!! If i ever find my card. On Saturday I spent ages in the big library reading "Women Artists" - I found out about a french artist called Gina Pane who buried a ray of sunlight in the ground in 1963. I thought there would probably be a message or meaning behind this but I found nothing! AND ISN'T THAT GREAT!!! It really makes me just want to go and do stuff. I could create things. Knit socks/write songs/join scouts/climb trees/swim the channel (maybe not). But it DOES make me think how much there is to do, people to meet, films to see, music to listen to, books to read and facts to learn, and it's exciting! Stuff is great.

I decided to ask some people on Tumblr what their favourite facts were! I make no promises about their authenticity, mind, or any in the above post, but yno, they're fun to think about!


"Peanuts aren't nuts, they're seeds" - wolf-rayet
"Roald Dahl's favourite chocolate was a Flake" - claregrogan
"For every one minute of kissing you burn 26 calories" - andthemachine
"We all die" - i-keep-the-wolf-from-the-door

Do you have a favourite fact? It would be good if you left me a comment!!!
(I have included lots of links in this post so that you can carry on learning and exploring!!!)


Top tips for experiencing "all of the planets wonders" are: use the Internet properly, research things you don't know about, read more, find out facts about the place you live, your favourite animals or plants, write down information and new facts in a journal, go to your local museum or "local history" section of the library. (some gems I found included information of all of the meetings of a local chess club. HOW AWESOME.)

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