My resolution to cut down on my TV (ok, laptop) viewing just may have suffered a fatal blow.

Here’s what happened.

I was online trying to find a book that my friend had recommended to me so I could recommend it to another friend. But, of course, I couldn’t remember the title or the author, only that the book was written by a scientist (or was it a physicist? or a psychologist?) who suffered a stroke (or amnesia? or aneurism?) and wrote a book (article? essay? novel?).

Thanks to the optimization of search engines, within minutes of searching for “stroke + autobiography,” I find it: My Stroke of Insight, a book written by a brain scientist about her stroke. (Hey, I was pretty close!) I begin to forward the info to my friend.

But, wait …

I’d better make sure this is the book my other friend told me about. I think she said she saw it on TV? …

Well, next thing you know, I’m at the web site TED — that’s Technology, Education and Design (it’s ok, I didn’t know either) watching a video by the book’s author, Jill Bolte Taylor and it’s amusing, emotional and captivating.

Long story, short — I spend the next two hours at TED. The site is like youtube on gingko bilboa. I watched talks given by folks I know (Jane Goodall, Isabelle Allende) and folks I don’t (Jill Bolte Taylor, Benjamin Zander) on subjects ranging from conservation to creativity to chimpanzees. And more relevant to you and me, lectures about music and the creative process.

You can meet TED  here. (But don’t say I didn’t warn you.)