The Path of Inspiration

It never ends to fascinate me to watch the journey of inspiration from one person to another. I think of this because I have, myself, been inspired and it's interesting to see how I came to this inspiration from where others have been inspired. Example: An associate/friend of mine who is an exceptionally skilled silicone caster was inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean's Davy Jones to recreate him for his halloween costume. The latest part of the puzzle he is in the process of making is the tentacle hand.

 

So with octopi & tentacles fresh on my brain while watching my facebook news feed what should I happen to see? A sketch by one of my favorite artists Laura "Pelick" Siadak, who had just watched Swan Lake. I believe her sketch is supposed to represent feathers or something or the like, but when I looked at it all I saw were tentacles. 

I have been contemplating the idea of learning how to cast Platinum Silicone Rubber for custom costume pieces for a variety of reasons. That idea is now going to be a fact as I have an intense desire to  create the first octopi tentacle tutu seen on the internet. I'm sure it's rather hard to imagine but I can see it clearly and it will be amazing... someday when I have the skill & knowledge to make it.

Unplugged

This weekend I went camping, and it made me realize something I had been thinking about in the back of my mind for a while. When I go out during the weekends, when I stop paying attention to facebook and my email. I'm happier. I am much, much happier. The simple act of turning off the screen and going out and interacting with real people in the real world makes all difference in the world then if I were to have the same exact conversations with the same people at the same time over the internet. Yet when I'm home during the week I find it nearly impossible to get off facebook, to not check my email every five minutes... why is this? I know what's going to happen, the same thing that happens every day. Yet I can't help myself, why? I don't know exactly and I'm certain no one knows the answers for certain I happened upon a TED talk that I found most inspiring. I think from now on I will be spending more time unplugging from my technology and spending more time plugging into the real world, the world I can't control, where I don't know what is going to happen everyday and where there is room for excitement.

The Little Burlesque Mermaid

I wish I knew how to make Youtube video in this blog format larger. You know fill the width of the page instead of being confined to this sad little box. For those wondering this video is a sexy, taste full, burlesque, retelling of the Original Little Mermaid.

On an unrelated side-note it was 65 degrees yesterday. 65! It's still only just March! Normally we are only just starting to defrost our windows. I took advantage of this warm weather to completely clean out my car and vacuum the whole thing. It seemed to take forever but untimely was worth it, I feel like I'm driving a new care again.

Yesterday something else big also happened. I took a chance, a big one in my current situation. I purchased the Mary Kay starter kit and will start training to become an independent Mary Kay beauty consultant. I will start selling ASAP and will keep this blog up to date about all my going ons and what not.

Oh and I finally figured out how I am going to redesign my resume to submit to Porter One Design. I really want to be one of the interns, I didn't make it last quarter (I had a lot to learn) and am hoping to make their interview list again. One thing though is I do not want to send them the same exact hi I'm trying to get this same positions with the same portfolio and resume as last time. So I'm trying to come up with a slight redesign while staying original to myself. I NEED a graphic design internship to graduate and I want to get one for this upcoming quarter and I WANT to do it at Porter One Design.

Speaking of quarters this one will be over after next week (YAY), however I will not get to enjoy my week off as I will be lucky enough to have all four wisdom teeth pulled at the same time the monday after it ends. Though lucky it's after a large scheduled event with friends, and after celebrating my Uncle's birthday.www.marykay.com

Twitter?

I was reading 'How To Get More Mileage Out of Twitter by Repurposing Content' which once more got me to thinking about Twitter and all that it is (or isn't). Can someone please explain to me what exactly the point of twitter is? I really don't understand for the life of me how it all works. It's just like a facebook update except super short and the way to respond to people is confusing and the feed makes no sense, how are you supposed to see when people respond to you? I DON'T GET IT! Seriously it makes no sense what so ever and it seems like the only things that are posted there are either celebrities talking about they're silly lives, companies promoting their next sale or big thing, or people talking about their cats and going to the restroom. The article has some great idea's which I'll probably take into effect someday if I ever actually figure out this whole Twitter thing.

Powerless Day

Well my computer is probably going to die at any moment due to power cord issues I now have no way to charge it. Still, this will certainly help encourage me to finish cleaning the bathroom and maybe even tackle the closest I've been meaning to deal with sense the season change. For now though I shall simply leave you with some links and thoughts I've been having.

1)

Susan Cain: The power of introverts

A brilliant talk about introverts society.

2)

Square Pixel Inventor Tries to Smooth Things Out

The creator of the pixel and how he's trying to change the world again.

“Squares was the logical thing to do,” Kirsch says. “Of course, the logical thing was not the only possibility … but we used squares. It was something very foolish that everyone in the world has been suffering from ever since.”  

3)

Potato Petit Fours for St. Patrick's Day (Recipe)

You cannot steal my cake if you think it's a potato.

Skyrim

I've been playing skyrim a when I have a little free time or when I'm sick and just physically feel like cheese (which unfortunately has been a lot lately) and I just felt like feeling a few screen shots from my newly started game.

Yes this is a giant pile of loot that I am hoarding in game until I could afford a house in game. I want to do a lot of enchanting and potion making and this is everything I'm hanging onto so that when I make the jump into that skill tree I can do it quickly and efficiently. Do you think the Jarls wizard had a problem with junk over flowing behind is random floor wall?

Also I don't know if anyone has had this happen before but there was a dragon in the middle of town. Now around, not close to, it spawned IN THE MIDDLE OF TOWN! I had to reload four times to kill it before it murdered half the town gaurd. Personally I don't like walking around town to a bunch of dead bodies, even if they are char broiled. 

I've also been listening to the Podcast Skyrim: Off the Record on my way to work every day, not only is it informative but it's hilarious!

Anyway that's all for now, just felt like sharing :)

Macaroons

You know what I don't like, Macaroons. I went twenty years without knowing what a Macaroon was and only just this year learned what the weird little sandwich like things were I kept seeing all over the internet and blog world were. Well, all good things must come to an end, for the first time I had a Macaroon courtesy of the culinary students here at Ai (they leave random treats for us in the student lounge from time to time and it's normally tasty). I was so happy there were these little colorful sweet sandwich things I had always wondered what they tasted like as everyone on the blogs I follow praise them from here to high heaven.

{Photo}

So I ate one.

If was horrible! Disgusting! I don't think I have ever had a sweet treat that was so gross. There was way to much sugar, the crisp on the outside what to much like an egg shell, the inside was like raw dough, the only redeeming factor was the chocolate in the middle but there was so little I could barely taste it. It was just gross, just completely gross.

Less is More

Choice! The more the better right? Wrong. According to a recent article I read called Easier Is Better Than Better, choice can actually be the down fall of a brilliant idea. When you really think about it, it makes perfect sense; How many times have stood in the grocery isle trying to choose between a variety of products that all seem to be the same but say different things? Of all the applications you use how many have you changed the settings on? Have you even touched the privacy settings on all of your online profiles? This has gotten me to thinking about how I can improve my writings and design lay outs. People  don't want to think, and it's really that simple.

Though now that I think about it this train of thought leads me to remember what I read in the book Don't Make Me Think. Don't make me think is a book about webpage design, its simple and to the point, while explaining everything clearly and concisely. One of it's major points is to make web designs that are simple and straight forward for the users to navigate and understand. Personally I would highly recommend this book.

Improving Fuel Efficiency

I read the blog The Simple Dollar on a daily basis and today I learned a tip on how to get better MPG to my vehicle. Have it weigh less, it's so simple and it makes so much sense but I never thought about it before. It's also really nice to be able to see concrete numbers on how even an extra ten pounds in the trunk can effect the cars MPG. I would suggest giving it a read, I would also suggest just reading it in general. I've been following The Simple Dollar sense 2009 and the content is always different, useful and informative for more then just saving money and enjoying debt freedom.

Looks like Truck Eater is going to get it's trunk cleaned out.

What Should I Read Next?

What Should I Read Next? Is a spiffy little site to help you find new authors and titles you like based on what you like. I haven't tested it out yet as I have a mountain of books I have to finish before even I get to even think about finding a new one to read. From what I've read it's really intuitive and is excellent at suggesting new find. With a little experimenting I was impressed after typing in the names of my favorite authors and some of my favorite books it linked to other books that I had previously read and enjoyed.

As a bonus to this I don't know about you but I have a HUGE list of books I need to read and I also like keeping track of the books I've read. I did a little looking around and found a wonderful little app called BookLover. It's easy to look up books by their ISB Number so there is minimal typing involved to log your books and it even finds the cover of the book. It's simple, straight forward and best of all it's pretty! I've been working on logging my never ending to read list and past books and it's just such a wonderful little app. For only .99 it's a steal of deal.

The Point

I'm not gonna be fancy, the point of this blog is for all random thoughts and links that neither belong on my process book or Artistic Figure 8s. I have so many things I would love to share, but no where to share them. No one cares on Facebook and the posts and links would get quickly lost. Twitter doesn't let you say hardly anything and I've never really understood its purpose, and I don't want to clutter my other two blogs with things no one is interested in reading. So this is my dump blog, prepare for anything and everything from helpful design tutorials to rants about what I'll do for my someday wedding.