In this video Seth Godin talks about how the information society allows people with minority interest connect with other like minded people, no matter where they are in the world.

The movie The Mouse on the Moon inspired me as a boy and as a man I followed the two aspects of micronationality and Space Travel in Founding The Kingdom of Tycho.

In another cosmic coincidence Leonard Wibberley, who wrote the novel the movie is baised on, and I also share the same birth place of Dublin, Ireland.

The Salvage 1 team had two main things working for them:

• Firstly they had a brilliant new fuel that was so powerful it could fly a small rocket to the moon (think of the rocket ship from the 1930’s Flash Gorden serials) so they wouldn’t have to build a huge Saturn 5 or space shuttle.
• And secondly they were prepared to take more risks, rather having backups to backups with more backups added for safety like NASA, they designed a simpler and cheaper system.

At the time I thought it was great fun, but we didn’t need to build our own rockets out of scrap/surplus because the Space Shuttle was just around the corner and was going to give us regularly scheduled flights into orbit ever two weeks, or maybe even more frequently!

Around the same time I saw a documentary on TV about a guy who had a similar plan. He was going to fly himself into space using surplus  rocket parts. I didn’t remember his name or know what became of him. Obviously he didn’t succeed in building his rocket – but the Space Shuttle is not going to fly me to the Moon so maybe I will have to search for some rocket scientists to build me my own rocket.

In the meantime here is a YouTube video of some Salvage 1 clips set to “Space Cowboy” by NSYNC.

Don’t you just love those cheap 1970’s TV special effects

And for me taking that first step is the easiest thing in the world to. It is taking the second step, and the third step and the fourth step, step after step, day after day, even year after year, that is the hard part.
I have taken so many first steps that I’ve probably completed 1,000 “1,000 mile journeys”. But because they have all been first steps I have completed relatively little. I have just walked 1,000 little steps around and around in a circle. An uneven staggered circle as a burst of enthusiasm propels me in one direction, and then the next big idea propels me in the opposite.
And so at the start of each journey I resolve to myself that this time I will complete my journey. I will make a map, a plan of what I want to archive. I will list my goals. I will do a to-do list. I will take all the necessary steps needed to complete my journey.
But even then I don’t want to take all those little steps. I want efficiency. I want speed. I want instant gratification.
I don’t want 1,000 little steps. I want one great leap forward. One giant step to take me right to the end. One lotto win that will make my life perfect.
I have started so many journeys not looking at all the little steps, but looking only at the result. “I am looking at the big picture,” I tell myself. I visualise myself standing on the summit of the mountain, not bothering with all the rivers and gullies that stand in my way.
I look for one burst of enthusiasm, one big jump that will take me over all those little rivers and gullies. And then I will magically find myself at the rainbow’s end.
But all those big giant steps look so big. Each one is such a big leap. Each one such a irrevocable commitment. Each one so momentous that I just can’t make myself take the plunge. I just stand, tethering on the edge, until my next brilliant idea takes me back in the opposite direction.
But now I have realised that they are all the same journey. All those false starts are my journey. I have only one life, there is only one journey and each day I take another step, regardless of whether or not I wish it. Each day I am one step closer to the end. I get no choice in whether or not to take each step. But I do get a choice of what direction I take. Each day I get a choice of doing what I want with that day.
Now I no longer look for that great leap forward. I no longer want to suddenly be transported to the end. I want to take one little step forward: write one post on my blog, write one page on my novel, help my children discover one new, exciting thing about the wonderful life they are leading.
And that is all I need to do. Just take one little step in the direction I want to go in. And enjoy each and every moment of this wonderful life that I am privileged to live.
And in due time I will reach the end of my journey, as all journeys must come to an end. But in the meantime I intend to enjoy as many of those little steps as I can possibly squeeze in to my life.

While children’s TV shows and movies, especially those featuring superheros and supervillains, are primarily aimed at entertainment, they do have some educational qualities to redeem them.
For instance take the good role model that the evil villain gives to young impressionable children.
Week after week the evil villain tries to take over the world. He (occasionally she) thinks up some evil scheme, invests lots of time and money building advanced machines and working out to the last detailed how to neutralise the superhero, who is the only person who stands between them and total world domination.
Week after week the supervillain gets off to a great start. Catching the superhero by surprise he defeats him once, twice, even three times. The evil villain believes that this time he has got it right, he has left no stone unturned, he has thought of every angle, there is no loophole for the superhero to escape.
But week after week just as the evil villain is about to achieve his victory, just as total power is within his grasp, the superhero bounces back and in one unexpected, cataclysmic plot twist, the superhero defeats the villain at the eleventh hour.
On the surface this might seem to be a simplistic, even stereotypical, story of good versus evil.
But from the evil villain’s point of view it is a story, week after week, encouraging him to never give up on his dream. The evil villain pursues his dream of total world power week after week with dogged persistence.
Remember the “hero” has to win every week, the evil villain only has to win once. By that I do not mean to imply some prophecy of doom. What I mean is while you might fail 99 times, as long as you have worked hard, followed your dream and given it your best shot you are not a failure.
In the end you only have to succeed once to be a success.
So take a leaf from Dr. Evil’s super-villain’s handbook and never give up. As long as you can see your goal you can reach it.

Believe it. Achieve it.

One of the reasons I have been reluctant to publicise TKoT is for fear of being regarded as a crackpot. Not so much for myself, but because there is little to substantiate TKoT at the moment and, as one never gets a second chance to make a first impression, I would not like a large number of people to think that TKoT was a worthless scheme.

At the moment TKoT is basically a “one man band”. And I, and TKoT through me, am going be considered at best an eccentric and at worst a complete crackpot.

However sometimes poor people, if they are true to themselves and strong enough, become eccentrics(Emperor Norton I). And sometimes “crackpots” become rich(Erich von Däniken).