In an interstellar burst I am back to save the universe
Well, because of a mysterious problem with my WordPress ‘app’, that blog from last night disappeared without trace. It’s the second time that it’s happened. Basically you try to post it, but then your internet fails, and somehow it doesn’t save the original draft. Ooh, it’s frustrating when it occurs. I’m afraid, looking back, it is entirely possible that I was a bit pissed last night, and some would undoubtedly say that was a contributing factor. But I angrily reject any such suggestions. Anyway, thanks to my late dash, we got away with it once more. I’m touched that some people were on Twitter exchanging worried messages as they waited for it to appear. Although it’s slightly alarming to think that the will-he-won’t-he drama of the blog is becoming more entertaining than a lot of the entries. I can imagine when I post this at about 9pm, a few people feeling just ever-so-slightly let down that it wasn’t four minutes to midnight. But optimism won’t allow that thought to crystallise.
Plus, tonight’s blog is going to be excellent, because it is a (belated) roundup of the efforts made by people to change the world while I went to Portugal the other week. You may remember I set this open-ended but daunting challenge to keep you occupied while I was gone, stressing the fact that it wasn’t about doing something spectacular, just something small and meaningful, because every act is meaningful – the theme of my book Eleven and something of an obsession of mine. (Thanks for the continued campaign of Amazon reviews by the way, and to everyone who’s tweeted me about the book. I’ve never before published a book which attracted instant feedback like this, because we didn’t use to have Twitter and the blog and so forth – it’s pretty exhilarating.)
So anyway, a summary of some tiny world-changing endeavours, some of them in extracts from Comments, and some with links to more substantial accounts. Sorry if I missed anyone out; I did read everyone’s posts, naturally. As ever.
Anji My world changing contribution. Tonight my puppy (11 months 360 days old) passed her Bronze good citizen award!
Anna Not sure if this counts as changing the world, but today I went to a garden centre (woo, rock and roll…) and bought lots of bee attracting plants. I’m also going to buy a bee house to put next to the plants.
I’m trying to do my bit to help the bee population, because, basically, if bees die out, we’re all buggered. (Mark adds: Jane also saved two bees from death.)
Madeleine Alright, I’ve done something. Don’t know if it counts.
I have a half brother (Finn) who lives with his mother (I live with mine). When his mum and our dad were together, they fought pretty much all the time, she is not a nice woman and their 5 years together were pretty horrible for both me and Finn. I got to go and live with my mum though but he’s stuck with his every day. To make matters worse, she’s hooked up with quite a nasty guy. He’s not abusing Finn, but it’s still a bad environment. I’ve always (cowardly) tried to stay out of the whole situation, but have sadly missed out on spending much time with my brother so I wouldn’t have to deal with his mum.
This week I had him over to my house, took him out to dinner and just generally hung out. I’ve also promised myself that I will make a much greater effort to get him out of that house and spend more time with him. This could not count, cause it’s only changing one kid’s world a little bit, but this challenge has given me the kick in the butt to do something I should have been doing for a long time.
Laura We got to the top and were gazing out at the scenery at the edge… when my friend, Mike, tripped, and nearly fell over the side, but I grabbed his jacket and yanked…
Megan I fired an employee who had been harassing/abusing his coworkers inside and outside of work, in cluding using racist, sexist, and homophobic language (which he doesn’t ‘remember’ doing or says was a joke). I actually let him go based on human rights law/our obligation to provide a safe work environment. Hoo boy.
In smaller news, I stopped a bus from pulling away from a stop so that a woman who had mobility problems (and was shouting ’stop that bus!’ from half a block away) could get on it.
Heather I found an inspirational youtube video by following a link tweeted by Richard Wiseman – it’s a short animation illustration (by the South Park boys) of a segment of a lecture by a british philosopher I’ve never heard of, called Alan Watts.
I’m hoping as many people as possible will click and have a look and find that it makes a difference to how they (you) view life, or confirmation/ restrengthened resolve to view it this way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoTmNU_5A0&feature=player_embedded
Charlie I helped a blind man to the sorting office in Ealing. I was walking along the Green and heard a man asking for some help. I turned around and there was lots of people ignoring him and I thought to myself: Do they actually think he doesn’t know they are there? that the ever busy walk way is deserted on the particular day he needs some help? I could see he was getting annoyed so strolled over and told him to walk with me as I was going that way anyway and told the blithering bunch it was just over here on the right if they ever needed to find it in the future. I had a lovely chat with the man who was very kind and said sometimes he just gets ignored but normally people are kind. I will change the world by telling everyone to help out people on the street if they ask!
Marie Not a big thing, and it probably helped me out as much, but I donated three bags of clothes to charity…
Helen signed up to give blood today been planning to for ages but this made me finally go for it. (Mark adds: Ally also came close to giving blood, but couldn’t quite face up to the needles. Next time, Ally!)
And now some particularly impressive and well-documented efforts.
http://howliesblogthing.blogspot.com/2010/07/small-things.html – Misha did a load of different things.
http://kirstylawrenz.blogspot.com/2010/07/super-secret-cookie-recipe-revealed.html – Kirsty made public, for the good of the world, a killer recipe which she had previous, understandably, kept to herself.
http://fuckyeahnothingmuch.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-to-change-world.html – Aislinn did something really amazing to do with Patrick the Incurable Optimist. As well as contacting loads of people on Facebook to see how they were. Read her blog.
http://is.gd/dqSZj – resourceful twins Rachel and Helen deserve a huge round of applause for posting dozens of notes all over their home town of Kettering. This is brilliant. Again, you should definitely look it up.
http://i32.tinypic.com/2ynglk0.jpg – …and last of all, this made me laugh – Josh took the idea of ‘changing the world’ a little bit too literally….
I’m enormously proud of everyone who did something. You don’t know what the knock-on effects will be of doing something for charity, helping a blind man, firing a bastard, saving a bee, or just cheering someone up. But you can be pretty sure they’ll reach dozens of people, and then dozens more. And all because of you. Nice work.
I love you people.
And so, at 8.30pm, up goes the blog. No panic. This isn’t even on my phone, it’s on my lovely, shiny new computer. So it should almost certainly work. Kit’s asleep. Emily is watching shows. I’m in a very good mood.
Tomorrow’s blog will be a hastier, more worried-sounding affair, posted some time in the afternoon before I go to do my first show. It will probably take the form of an invitation for you to boost my confidence. Until then, well done everyone.
Posted by ChrisP on August 6, 2010
2 days later after one of those those moments of revelation you only get in movies, I realise that it was Airbag and not Paranoid Android but Hannah has already corrected that so thank you to her
Posted by Juliet on August 6, 2010
You love us all when you’re happy haha, I’m really glad you’re doing fine
To Josh, you made Argentina (where I live) a much bigger country haha, just thinking how much more of a mess this country would be if it really was like that, you made me laugh AND think. xx
Posted by JoC on August 5, 2010
Hello! I’ve just been catching up on the last months worth of blogs. I was reading this religiously, but have just moved from Melbourne to Manchester (via three week holiday in Europe) so have been offline for far too long. Hope you didn’t miss me! Anyway, just wanted to say that I still love reading your blog and it always puts me in a happier mood. Since I’ve been reading a months worth in one sitting, I’m actually quite thankful for the tough time you’ve been having with Kit/technology/EdFringe preparations/life which has resulted in the odd short blog. Even the short ones are fantastic. Looking forward to your Manchester show in October!
Posted by Anna on August 5, 2010
I have to confess that I haven’t changed the world as much as I intended to, as I still don’t have a bee box. I asked for one (along with a bird table) for my birthday, and instead received a foot spa, a slanket, and a new pair of boots. Which are all ace, but won’t really help with increasing the bee population of Essex. Still, my brother hasn’t bought me a present, so there’s still a chance. Though as he still owes me a pressie from 2 years ago, I’m not holding out much hope…
Hope the first show is going/has gone well. I’m sure you will be/were magnificent.
Posted by Lydia on August 5, 2010
This was amazing to read. It really makes you think about stuff (eloquent, I know).
It’s very self absorbed, but I think I’m about to do something that will change my world quite a lot and I’m scared, so I figured I would share. I don’t know why standing up for yourself has to be so difficult.
I’m sure there will be plenty of confidence boosters. Good luck x
Posted by Rachael on August 5, 2010
I spend most of that week checking for enviromental hazards at latitude but I didn’t want to say in case any of you came across any that hadn’t been rectified!
Posted by Marbles on August 5, 2010
Max – your comment did make me chuckle
Bet those old ladies were cute!
Megan – you get adoub;ewhammy of making the world better as when you employ a new person you’ll have helped them out too!
Mark – you’ll be awesome tomorrow as ever. Can’t wait to see the show later in the year!
Posted by Max on August 5, 2010
Oh, I forgot to add that I did change the lives of some people this past weekend. In a banal, slightly meaningless way, yes… but still.
I spent the weekend in Amsterdam cause an old friend came to the netherlands to visit me (and, well… let’s face it, the first place tourists want to go while in NL is the ‘dam…) and while waiting for her to get out of the rijksmuseum, three different groups of people approached me (even though I had my camera in my hand and a huge touristy backpack… I must have the airs of a native, which I’m not… but i digress) with three different, quite stereotypical problems I helped solving.
Group #1. Two American, twenty-something, males.
They were wondering if the dutch law allows for marijuana to be smoked on the street, or if it has to be limited to the inside of coffeeshops.
I told them not to be idiots and smoke with tourists and kids around but that they wouldn’t get arrested. I think they just heard the last part, as they already had the lighter in their hands.
Group #2. Five tweenage girls. Unkown origin.
Looking for the Heineken brewery. Which is like 2 blocks away and HUGE. Anyway, I gave them a nice explanation and fought very hard against my urge of personally accompanying them and forget about my friend.
I spend most of my time trying to convince my friends that the ‘dam is a beautiful city, with lots of things to discover other than weed and beer… but it looks like an uphill battle.
Luckily for me, we have the third group whose saturday I changed for the best:
Group #3. Two american females in their 60′s.
This was actually really cute. They’ve been told that the canal cruise (the little boats that take you around the canals) “stop” was in front of the rijksmuseum. The museum has one side overlooking a big canal while the other side overlooks a park… They were looking for the boat “stop” in the park.
I directed them to the other side, where the water actually is
It was a good weekend, I guess. Baby steps.
Posted by A lot of Rach[a]els on August 5, 2010
the worried state is never as good as your blog but it does bring us together in the world of twitter, so it’s a lovely addition to the blog.
Loved reading what everyone got up to. Big massive well done to all.
Hope your show goes well later on
Posted by Max on August 5, 2010
We will never be disappointed by your entries Mark!!!
Technology often conspires against the best of us… Specially things like blogs and text-entry boxes.
I’ve seen many -mostly irrelevant, but dear to me- comments being swallowed by the great black hole that is the internet.
A small piece of advice that I usually use: Just before posting a comment, right click it (or tap on it if you are using your phone) and copy it! So, if things go wrong you can just paste it and continue with your life.
Posted by Hannah on August 5, 2010
Hi everyone!
I’ve just discovered this, you lot are fantastic, this has really cheered me up (especially the post-it notes), I haven’t really done much but I’m starting volunteer work in Oxfam in the next few weeks (sorting books into alphabetial order may not be on the scale of major world change but I suppose it’s something).
@ChrisP The title’s off Airbag not Paranoid Android (sorry, music geek)
Posted by amycool on August 5, 2010
I’m going to be creating some new worlds tomorrow. With papier mache and 30 children, most of whom I have never met. This is in addition to doing storytime with a load of toddlers. I bet I’ll get a headache tomorrow.
It’s lovely to read everyone’s efforts and nice to think of all the positive little changes to the rest of the world.
Summer is a good world-changing time for libraries because we can lure all the kids into loving books with the help of prizes and stickers.
Posted by Spencer on August 5, 2010
Give it beans Mark!
Heather – cheers for the link. Quality.
Posted by Laurs on August 5, 2010
People here never cease to amaze me with their amazing determination to make the world a better place. Well done to all!
And Mark, two things, one – tomorrow will be fabulous, but will send you lots of good luck vibes anyway! And secondly, am watching you on Dave Ja Vu on Argumental now, just brilliant! Much needed laughter after a crappy end to an evening! x
Posted by Kathryn on August 5, 2010
I don’t feel I contributed much to the “changing the world” challenge. I was on holiday and forgot about it.
BUT instead of coming to see you in Edinburgh I’m going to Kosovo to work with disadvantaged children for a week. I couldn’t afford to do both. I didn’t want to be self-righteous and bang on about it in a look-at-me sort of way but I thought I would mention it. And it reduces my guilt at feeling selfish for not helping people in July.
Posted by Alice on August 4, 2010
Love the Dick Barton in Space titles. Recommend Blogbooster for the iPhone though it is necessary to save all drafts.
Amazing what people have done in a small space of time, especially loving Megan’s post having worked with enough charmless gits ad members of the ‘PC gone mad’ brigade.
Posted by Corey on August 4, 2010
Fantastic world changing by the gang. I don’t claim to have changed the world with my efforts recently which is why I didn’t enter….but I have been trying to change my own destiny. I have signed up for a London based course to give me a change of direction as well as seeing a specialist ‘trainer’ who is helping me change my way of thinking and turning me into a full time confident person rather than the part-time confident self I am at the moment.
Amazon still don’t want me to write a review even though I’ve ordered from their website so I’ve submitted on Waterstone’s instead………
Posted by DeborahF on August 4, 2010
@Rick – The Office by Ricky Gervais
@Mark I will be on stand by with positive vibes for the show tomorrow and for the rest of them. Not sure if they’ll travel to Edinburgh from Derby in time so I’ll start now…
Remember, the audience have chosen to come and see you and are wanting you to succeed. You will be ace, the show will be a success and you’ll wonder what you were panicking about
Posted by ChrisP on August 4, 2010
I also tried to learn to speak Spanish but forgot to mention it.
All that has stuck so far is ‘como estas’ which means ‘how are you?’ and a couple of other phrases but no real deeper understanding of the language. But that’s not the point I was just trying to brake down a barrier between me and half of the world population, the smallest bit of effort goes a long way with these things and if they don’t understand you can always say it slower and louder and they will simply love that.
Congrats to everybody who have all done things significantly more impressive than me.
oooooooooooooooo Megan pick me pick me! I’d love to work in a cinema can I do it from home at all? I love film.
In a weeks time I will be packing my bags for the Fringe at what point I will write on here the date of what gig I’m going to (I have forgotten for the time being) but will hang about at then end of gig and say hello to all so you know what variety of Muppet writes all this stuff.
Paranoid Android is a great song off a very impressive album.
Posted by Rick on August 4, 2010
Well done all everyone – pats on backs all round I’d say (my own personal fave would be “Operation Post-It” by Helen and Rachel – told you MW would love it, ladies).
As for me, I didn’t leave a comment on the original post – I didn’t really feel like I did anything particularly notable enough (which I wouldn’t otherwise have been doing anyway) – however, this quote came to mind at the time, which has always made me feel good about this kind of thing:
“A philosopher once wrote, you need three things to have a good life. One, a meaningful relationship; two, a decent job of work; three, to make a difference. It was always that third one that stressed me, to make a difference. Then I realised, I do, every day. We all do. It’s how we interact with our fellow man.”
Now then – who knows (or can guess) where this is from? In some ways it’s a kinda unlikely source, I reckon – but then again, it’s not. Any ideas? Answers on a postcard please – or alternatively, in a comment here…
Posted by hornseygirl on August 4, 2010
I am liking these extended blog titles!
Good to hear that all’s well in Edinburgh; sending positive good luck vibes for tomorrow.
Harking back to one of your previous blogs, I overheard the following phone conversation in Noho today, “…the mess is under control”. I wondered if this was a contradiction in terms. Anyway, it made me think of that blog.
Posted by Anji on August 4, 2010
How you’ve cheered me up! I’ve had a poorly 24 hours and to be blunt feel like shit.
Seeing me and missy mentioned made me smile and feel proud.
If you met my hyper pup, she’d probably a) lick you fairly close to death and b) leave you wondering how she passed anything!
I’m rambling – I will look up the last few bits when I feel better and the world makes a bit more sense. Thanks Mark you really are the best.
Posted by Misha on August 4, 2010
Josh’s made me smile.
I’m sure the show will go excellently, I’m really looking forward to seeing it sunday. Interestingly, I realised on holiday (following on from a weird dream about waitressing with Sammy J in which you bought us whiskey, i digress) that this will be the first time i’ve seen a full proper show of yours. Rather than a preview, shambolic “thing” etc.
Exciting eh?
(not really).
Posted by Megan on August 4, 2010
Firing a bastard has made a lot of difference in cinema world, believe me. Of course, now we’re short-staffed, so I have to interview/hire at least one non-bastard. Being in charge is no fun sometimes. (But hey, my boss was so impressed that he sent me a long, supportive email while I was on holiday – though not, unfortunately, until day three when I was already in full-blown panic.)
Break a (figurative) leg tomorrow, Mr Watson! I’m sure it’ll be grand.
(Also, I started writing more – not sure how world-changing that is, but yeah, I did a travel blog. Still struggling with writing about London.)
Posted by Heather on August 4, 2010
People are awesome. I love some of the stuff people have done. Well done to everyone for changing the world and being amazing.
I was having a conversation with my stepdad, the other day, about books we’ve read and how many piles of them we have sitting gathering dust in our respective homes. I have always been quite wary of getting rid of them, because I wasn’t sure what the best way to so so would be. But we decided between us that we would write a nice wee note, in the front of each book, and leave it somewhere for someone else to find and enjoy. The idea being that, while some people don’t necessarily have the money to go and buy a good book, we have lots and we know how amazing the memories attached to them are. So it’s nice to pass that on.
This decision was made post-change-the-world blog, so I never mentioned it. But that’s how we’re gonna make a difference. I told my stepdad I would mention his involvement too, haha.
I’m sure you’ll be fantastic tomorrow evening. And even better on Friday, right? I am very much looking forward to it.
Posted by Rachel/Pandora on August 4, 2010
Glad you liked our entry Mark, we had fun with the post-it notes anyway, so we made our worlds better, for an afternoon anyway.
And we can DEFINITELY do confidence boosting tomorrow. The show will be excellent, I’m sure. I might even write something happy on a post-it…. xx