Fancy seeing what COSMO looks like in motion? What she sounds like? Click play on the video above and enjoy!
If you like it, spread it around! Tell parents, those you know interested in space, astronomy, science or just simply those who love fun children’s television. Maybe even show it to your children and see if they like it. And, as always, feel free to leave a comment below.
Hope you enjoy it!
This website turned one year old last week. So I thought I’d do a little stock take, see what’s working and so on. Find out what I can do more of, or better.
For that, I need your input.
So if you’d like to be involved, I’d love to hear a little about who you are and what brings you here. What are you interested in? What do you like or dislike? Does a specific topic bring you back? Did any particular post resonate with you?
And what am I missing? Is there anything you’d like me to cover or would like views on that I haven’t yet touched on?
Please feel free to leave a comment below or get in touch directly via the little ‘contact’ section above. I’d love to hear from you and get your views, so that my little site becomes, well, still a little site but a better little site.
Thanks so much to all who have visited over the last year and especially those who have left comments (thanks Andy!) or who got in contact through other means. Questions, views etc. are always welcome, any time of year.
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It was a quick year but, wow, a lot has happened. At Monster Animation, we made Punky, a little show about a girl with Down Syndrome. I put my all into developing Cosmo and, with the help of some amazing talent, put together a presentation for the Cartoon Forum. I gave a talk for Pegbar on Creative Disobedience, the one common trait in all my career jumps. My father passed away, which kind of sucked and still sucks. I wrote some articles for the excellent parenting website, Dad.ie and one about princesses and the messages we send to girls really took hold. It’s clear that is an issue a lot of people care about, mothers and fathers alike.
And, through it all, I spent time with my two amazing little girls – Daisy and Alice. They can wind me up something rotten and then make me double over with laughter. They inform what I do and always remind me how big a responsibility we have when we make anything for children. As I said in one of my earliest articles on this site, EVERYTHING is educational. I see that every single day with my girls.
Yes, a packed year in uncertain times. I enjoyed sharing some of my thoughts with all of you here on the site and I hope you enjoyed some of them too. Here are a few posts I particularly enjoyed getting out of my system and onto a (virtual) page:
Junk food and television: why we should be doing better.
The value of NO: the importance of saying ‘no’ and what it can do for you.
Are we really qualified to teach children?: on recognising what children often do better than us.
All screen time is not equal: the flaw in lumping all ‘screen time’ together.
“Daddy! I’m watching ads!”: children are targeted by ads. What can you do about it?
Thanks for popping by the site and, if you have the time, please do leave a comment or get in touch with feedback.
Tags: anniversary, parenting
Being a parent of two little girls means not just doing what I can to prepare them for the world, but also looking at the world and asking – is the world right for them? And, if not, what can I do to make it better?
And yet, all things considered, my girls are very lucky to have been born where they were.
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Girls living in poverty around the world face far, far greater challenges. And yet they can make a huge difference to their families and communities. For example, in studies, it has been seen in developing countries that women who are educated earn considerably more and reinvest 90% of what they earn back into their own families. Fantastic, right?
Well it would be. But around one quarter of girls are not in school at all. Out of the 170 million young people not in school worldwide, 70% are girls. And the challenges aren’t just in education. 14 million girls aged 15-19 give birth in developing countries each year, with almost 40% married before they are 18 and many before they are even 15. Pregnancy-related complications are a leading cause of death for girls in developing countries.
And 75% of young people aged 15-24 with HIV in Africa are female.
Doesn’t quite seem right, does it? Well, let’s do something about it. Here’s how you can help -
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GIVE
Here at this link, you can give money to help make things better for girls and balance the equation a little (apparently right now, girls get less than 2 cents out of every aid dollar). You can even donate to specific programmes around the world.
TALK ABOUT IT
Tell people, write about it, blog about it and send people to the Girl Effect to learn more at this link. When you’ve posted about it, link to this page here to let more people see your post and read what others are saying about it too.
Let’s help make this world better not just for our girls (and boys!), but every girl.
Tags: girl effect
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Creative people are everywhere. In today’s world, it’s often an essential quality, no matter what business you’re in. And creative people are rarely, if ever, creative in one field only. You’ll find painters are also musicians, writers are performers, animators are sculptors and so on. Often those who seem to have most creative potential have, and need, the most outlets for their creativity.
This is a problem.
It’s a problem because, to be great what you do, you have to work at it, learn, improve, refine. You need focus. The vision and drive to just keep doing one thing until you’ve cracked it.
That focus isn’t easy. For a start, it assumes you know exactly where you’re going (many of us don’t and, for a long time, I certainly had no clue). And it requires you resist some of those urges pulling you in different creative directions. The good news is that focus breeds more focus but I find it a good idea to ask some questions on a pretty regular basis.
If I could only achieve one aim, and no more, what would it be?
And then, every time I’m working on something:
Is this working towards my goal? Or pulling me away from it?
If it’s the latter, STOP! Recognise it for what it is – an indulgence. A sign you’re not focusing. Something that won’t bring you to where you want to go. Would that time be better spent doing something that will contribute directly to your aim?
BUT! But, but, but, but…
At times, there’s nothing wrong with those indulgences, to keep ourselves open and fulfilled. Those creative outlets allow us to let ourselves go, just have fun. Do things just for ourselves. And it does happen that one of those indulgences leads to a happy accident, something that points us in a new direction or brings something we can pull back towards our real aim. It happens. But, until it does, be honest about what they are – indulgences. And prioritise them as such. Recognise them for what they are and, if you still choose to pursue them, make that an active choice. This is my playtime.
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Most people who happen upon this little site will know what my aim is. But below, you’ll find just a few of my indulgences. Those things I do just for fun. Mostly, just for me.
There you have it. Just a few of my indulgences. Add video games, gadgets and a serious amount of music-listening and that about completes the list. So what are your indulgences? And if you had to choose just one aim, letting go of everything else, what would it be?
Tags: animation, creative disobedience, indulgences, writing
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