This popped up on TED.com this morning – a rant by Clay Shirky an expert in “technology as a force for good” (who I’ve interviewed previously and just loved his energy) . Here he rants about how our excess brain energy – we have a trillion spare brain hours up for grabs, apparently – can be used for good online. Do watch it.

His basic premise is that we have a lot of spare brain power and that we’re putting it to use in generous ways online. Wikipedia is an example. No one gets paid for the input. But it’s emerged as a resource that’s all about sharing excess information. Ditto LOLcats and ask.com, etc Ditto all the advice we all share online with each other on blogs like this one you’re reading right now.

I like his slant and it impacts on why I blog…cos sometimes I wonder why the hell I do.

These are just four things I’ve come across that I think might help your life right now, it being such cold and fluey times. (Here in Sydney it was the coldest June morning since 1983!).

1. Too-cosy jumpers. My mate B has this label Banjo & Matilda…pretty cashmere jumpers galore.

2.. A Doona Suit!! Says it all really. Stay toasty at night in this pooffy zip-up hooded goodness by Australian company Lazypatch, “an evolution in couchwear”.

I read this on Gala Darling today, an open letter to men by Christina Hendricks from Mad Men. I hope Gala doesn’t mind my replicating it here. I found it such a compassionate bunch of intimate insights that I really do think men would enjoy hearing. We should share these things. I’ve added my comments in pink!

Dear Men,

We love your body. If we’re in love with you, we love your body. Your potbelly, everything. Even if you’re insecure about something, we love your body. You feel like you’re not this or that? We love your body. We embrace everything. Because it’s you.

Speaking of your body, you don’t understand the power of your own smell. Any woman who is currently with a man is with him partly because she loves the way he smells. And if we haven’t smelled you for a day or two and then we suddenly are within inches of you, we swoon. We get light-headed. It’s intoxicating. It’s heady.

Ohhhh, yes. I can’t really love a man until his smell has totally washed over me. Until I know it. That bit on the inside of a men’s neck, and either side of the nose is the best place for accessing that light-headed, pheremonal rhapsody. I find.

This week I get godmotherly.

Hands up if you’re a godparent. Leave your hand up if you’re a good (as in, functioning) godparent. You know, you impart upon your respective godchildren sage spiritual wisdoms from time to time, send a card on their birthday…heck, you even know their birthday!

Hmmm, thought so.

I’m godmother to Jamie. Jamie is a great kid. Actually he’s a fully-fledged adult now. I know what he’s up to because he friended me on Facebook and I read his updates. This is mostly how I know he’s an adult now. In one of his wall photos he’s drinking beer. And has a moustache. I’d feel worse about my godmotherly failings except James’ dad is my godfather. And let’s just say, well, we know each other is still alive.

Yesterday was surreal. I was caught between two worlds. And, in fact, yesterday was a classic example of the professional balancing act I walk most days. On the one hand I was absorbed by what was going down. I was totally stunned by the fact WE HAVE A NEW PM! And listened to commentary all day on radio (my favourite medium).

enough with the red hair/Strine accent/dress sense/hairdresser boyfriend references already? (Today's cover of the Illawarra Mercury)

I was doing this while getting ready for the ASTRA awards, held last night. I presented one of the awards (alongside Selling Houses’ Andrew Winter who cleaned up the awards last night) and had to slide into my other “role”, the one that involves getting dressed up and donning a certain public persona. Not that this persona is false, it’s just that it contrasts so starkly with the everyday me. So much so, most of the world doesn’t recognise me from one role to the other. Which I rather like.

Anyway, as I was getting my hair and makeup done yesterday, I listened to ABC radio and was online, checking out commentary. So, a few thoughts and links I came upon that you might want to bone up on for some engaged discussion over the weekend.

* How can a “spill” like this happen? Julia Cowdroy wrote a helpful rundown on the anatomy of a “spill” on Mia Freedman’s blog yesterday.

* Do you know if you’re properly enrolled to vote?  Do it now in, like, 2 minutes here. DO IT NOW BECAUSE YOU ONLY HAVE A FEW DAYS TO DO IT ONCE THE ELECTION IS CALLED. This is an election we must all have a say in!!!

I think I’m going to start a series of posts of recommendations. Stuff that works for me, that I use/eat/refer to/get inspired by. I’ve had a number of emails asking me to share this kind of thing. Let’s make it a Thursday thing for a while. Yes.

Just as a note, if you’re looking for this stuff later, it will be filed on the “recommendations” page.

So, this week: what I use when my gut is playing up. I have a litany of stomach issues, many stemming from my auto-immune issues, some from just being an over-eater. It’s been called IBS over the years. I just don’t buy the IBS thing. Nobody just has a cranky gut. As in, it’s just cranky for the fun of it. There’s always something else behind it – a stress issue, an adrenal issue, a sugar addiction, an overly acidic system. Or, in my case, all of the above.

Now, I was going to apologise to anyone who’s eating. But if you’re reading this, you’re probably in my same boat – more interested in finding fixes for your pain than dancing around polite euphemisms. So…. shit, poo, week, diarrhea, squirts, farts… let’s get it out there.

Here’s my arsenal for my various crappy stomach states. Of course, I’m not prescribing anything here. I’m just saying, after much experimenting, the below tricks have come to work for me:

1. For when you’re bloated and gassy like Michelin Man: Mintec. These are capsules filled with peppermint oil that you can buy over the counter at all pharmacies and health food shops.

Busyness. It’s a persistent theme in my life, tapping me on the shoulder, demanding to be dealt with in a new way. With some freshness. Some softness. Sigh… some softness.  I like being busy. But too busy and I ricochet off away from myself. Away from my heart.

Problem is, I’m so used to being busy that sometimes I manufacture “too busy”, because that’s what I’m used to. I’m used to responding, reacting, coping with busyness. It’s my default position. Or it was.

In the past few days I’ve been really aware of how often I freak out about being too busy…I take a breath, return to my heart and, watching my frenzied self flinging off into outer space to attend to all my crazy crap, I realise this doesn’t have to be “too busy”. It can be just busy enough. And I can smile at it. And stay close to my heart.

How was your weekend? Mine was great. I finished my detox and celebrated by going for a morning sand run on Bondi and then heading to Longrain and eating a meal cooked with much love by Marty Boetz. As an FYI…Marty recently changed his entire menu to reflect his organic/locivore values. He changed chicken suppliers, his oils and uses biodynamic brown rice.

Then I went to The Commons in Darlinghurst. Such a cute place:

This week I queue in New York*

(You might want to play this while you read!)

My Friday went like this: ensconced in a blunt, jet-lagged haze I wound my way through Manhattan’s Central Park to the Museum of Modern Art on 53^rd. , whereupon I queued for five hours to sit opposite performance artist Marina Abramović. And stare at her.

This Friday marked Abramović’s 72^nd full day of sitting and staring at strangers, one at a time, not moving even to eat or wee. In total, 1500 New Yorkers have queued – most of them from 4am – for this peculiar experience. Including, yes, Bjork. Marina is the one in white, below. Stacks of people cried, by the way. It was a big, beautiful experience to be in the room.

A while back I did a juice detox…and this week I was invited to take part in another one. Disclaimer: I didn’t pay for this detox, but my comments are freely my own. So, the Lucky You Cleanse, is a five-day deal where you consume nothing but freshly pressed organic juices and coconut water, and a whole stack of water.

The deal: 6 x juices, plus a shot of aloe vera, are delivered to your door each morning for 5 days. It begins with an aloe vera elixir followed by a green smoothie (banana and chia and kale…not so good on the page, but amazing in the gob).  Then comes a range of  fruit/veg juices that use high-nutrient ingredients only, plus a “spicy lemonade” made of lemons, cayenne pepper, apple, stevia and celtic sea salt.