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almost home

if i look back, i am lost

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@vickiechan
Take a peak into BMD associate creative director Sarah Foelske’s home on Design*Sponge.
Serpentine: Beautiful Portraits of the World’s Most Deadly Snakes
For the past year LA-based photographer Mark Laita has been traveling to various locations around the U.S. and Central America photographing some of the world’s most deadliest snakes, a series entitled Serpentine. Of the project he says:
The sensual attractiveness of snakes, which coexists with their threatening, unpredictable and mysterious nature is truly unique. This dichotomy, in which their beauty seems to be heightened by their danger, and vice-versa, is what I find so fascinating. Add to these contradictions the rich symbolism of serpents and you have a wonderfully compelling subject.
Laita works with collectors, breeders, zoos, and even anti-venom labs who let him photograph their snake collections. But as you can imagine snake handling can be dangerous work. Just last week on a photo shoot in Costa Rica, he tangoed with a Black Mambo (last photo), the longest venomous snake in Africa that can grow up to 14 feet long. So what kind of risk did you take at work today?
See also his beautiful if somewhat heartbreaking catalog of ornithological specimens entitled Amaranthine, and some exquisite images of sea life. All images courtesy the artist.
Absolutely stunning
ryanpanos:
Architecture Against Death
The architects Arakawa (who goes by his last name only) and Madeline Gins, his wife and long time collaborator, have declared their “intention not to die.” To thatend (or not, as the case may be), they’ve created architectural features that promote “death resistance” by requiring people to navigate unsettling, disorienting, and dangerous but whimsical spaces.
Their eccentrically designed Bioscleave House, in East Hampton, New York – the subject of a sometimes incredulous April 2008 New York Times article by the architecture writer Fred A. Bernstein – features interior elements of topography, texture,color, and light that, taken together, are meant to extend the residents’ life spans. As Bernstein wrote in the Times, “Its architecture makes people use their bodies in unexpected ways to maintain equilibrium, and that, [Gins] said, will stimulate their immune systems.”
wow. I've seen a lot of spaces designed for the dead/celebrate death. But a space against death (that is not a hospital or health related)? This is crazy...
201,480 hours and counting
:)
This was the last supper I had before I hit the 201,480th hour mark.
And I gotta say... It's really good.
My sister almost threw up when she saw the bone marrow. I just completely don't understand. Aren't we suppose to be Chinese?
---
Thank You Father for keeping me alive for 201,480 hours and counting!
And a big big thank you for all your birthday greetings, you make me feel very special ^_^
I hope I can be like a bone marrow this year -----
Strong and healthy, tough to be "broken", very supportive, and definitely regenerative in a good way.
Since the thought of food and bone marrow has been running around in my mind all day, I decided to google-it-up and see what Abba Daddy says about "bones" in the Word.
And then I found this:
"Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit." - Job 10:10-12 (NIV)
Sounds like a good verse for the coming year :)
"insert best feeling here" #30-#34
30. Strolling under the Autumn Sun with leaves slowly falling on your face.
31. Talking to your best friend on the phone and catch up with life stories.
32. Your favourite song on the radio!
33. Opening the envelope of a hand written letter.
34. Feeling the fur of a bunny between your fingers.
35. Realizing someday I will collect all these "best feelings" and make something out of this.
36. Overcoming a fear and feeling accomplished.
37. The cold side of the blanket.
38. Taking off wet shoes and wet socks and drying your feet.
"insert best feeling here" #29
29. Getting a job offer from your favourite firm/company
:D :D
"insert best feeling here" #28
28. GETTING A JOB OFFER
:D
The Balloonhat experience
Since 2008 balloon artist Addi Somekh and photographer Charlie Eckert have traveled to 34 countries and shot over 10,000 photographs of people wearing balloon hats. After focusing more on balloon twisting than homework in college Somekh began working professionally as a balloon artist, charging wealthy executives up to $150 an hour to make elaborate balloon hats. He also donated the same skill to shelters for battered women and their children where he realized something: both groups, the rich and the poor, were laughing and enjoying his work in the same way.
http://www.voicer.me/archives/7671
A Letter from "Mom n Dad"...
A Letter from "Mom n Dad"... My child, When I get old, I hope you understand 'n have patience with me In case I break the plate, or spill soup on the table because I’m losing my eyesight, I hope you don’t yell at me. Older people are sensitive, always having self pity when you yell. When my hearing gets worse 'n I can’t hear what you’re saying, I hope you don’t call me ‘Deaf!’ Please repeat what you said or write it down. I’m sorry, my child. I’m getting older. When my knees get weaker, I hope you have the patience to help me get up. Like how I used to help you while you were little, learning how to walk. Please bear with me, when I keep repeating myself like a broken record, I hope you just keep listening to me. Please don’t make fun of me, or get sick of listening to me. Do you remember when you were little 'n you wanted a ballon? You repeated yourself over 'n over until you get what you wanted. Please also pardon my smell. I smell like an old person.Please don’t force me to shower. My body is weak. Old people get sick easily when they’re cold. I hope I don’t gross you out. Do you remember when you were little? I used to chase you around because you didn’t want to shower. I hope you can be patient with me when I’m always cranky. It’s all part of getting old. You’ll understand when you’re older. 'n if you have spare time, I hope we can talk even for a few minutes. I’m always all by myself all the time, 'n have no one to talk to. I know you’re busy with work. Even if you’re not interested in my stories, please have time for me. Do you remember when you were little? I used to listen to your stories about your teddy bear. When the time comes, 'n I get ill 'n bedridden, I hope you have the patience to take care of me. I’m sorry if I accidentally wet the bed or make a mess. I hope you have the patience to take care of me during the last few moments of my life. I’m not going to last much longer, anyway. When the time of my death comes, I hope you hold my hand 'n give me strength to face death. 'n don’t worry.. When I finally meet our creator, I will whisper in his ear to bless you. Because you loved your Mom 'n Dad. Thank you so much for your care. We love you. ! ♥ "Just Like This Status If You Love It & You Will Never Leave Your Parents At Any Cost"
This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
memorieees:
This may be one of the most amazing things I have seen.
incredible
bjornsrandoms:
Take me here. Now. Please.
this is so awesome!!
SO TRUE. Cannot agree more.
Design is not about you. It's about someone else and to make a difference
Collaborate! Find the right people to work with!
Stop and Think. STOP AND THINK! Do not just rush into a job!
Do not think the decision you make at that moment is going to mark your whole life. You can always change path in the future
Take some time to reflect and then just try something
Get/Find people that are as excited about the idea as you are
Rome is not built in one day
Go travel, go see the world
Read the newspaper
Observe the community
Many people are pressured to jump right into a job when they graduate
Having the patience to stick with a project is a lesson itself
You always have to give up something and compromise... (so true...)
Don't try to fit it too much, be brave!
If you pretend to be someone you are not, you will end up doing something you do not like
Everybody has an opinion about design, about life, about the creative aspect. And you gotta be ready to deal with that in a positive way
Stay focus and be ready to say "No" to stay focused
Go and do something that really matters. Go do something that you are REALLY passionate about, that you can use your skills and your ability to impact the world
Find something that fascinates you!
If you are just chasing the money, you are not gonna have that much fun :P
If you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life (so cliche but so true!)
Take note of things that you should have done better next time, things you should never accept, things you should pay attention to, things that burnt you out and never to do it again
Take time to LEARN. Think about multiple entry ways to your passion!
jesuslovesdesign:
Incredible photo series by Photographer Carli Davidson.
To see the entire series: click here
FANTASTIC.