Video | Chocolate Mints In a Jar

Yo-Yo Mania

Having access to a great public library when I was a kid allowed me to open doors and windows to worlds I never thought possible ( and the ability to read the whole Asterix series ). One of those was Yo-yoing. I love yo-yos and always have a couple in my desk drawer. They are relaxing and a way to release stress and have fun at the same time. I never managed to become a really great yo-yo-er but I managed to learn a few tricks.

But none as good as these.

Double Dutch

Double Dutch is rope jumping game, sounds juvenile right? It started out as a street game, where two people turned two ropes and two other people would jump and skip to the rhythm. When I was a child I used to think that they were magical and wished that I could learn how to do it, that and doing cartwheels. I never learned either, but managed to learn lots of other useful and totally useful things, so not all is lost. Now it is more like an organized sport played worldwide with lots of competition.

Impressed? Interested?

Learn how to play Double Dutch [Wiki-How]

Corporate Responsibility

Something totally different this post. I came across Bill Gates’s speech at the world economic forum in Davos on YouTube where he talks about corporate responsibilty or as he named it “Creative Capitalism” and how we should think in a more socially respobsible matter.

I beleive social responsibility is not only something unique to big corporations but should be in everyones thoughts. Big companies like Microsoft have alot to offer like the ability to use their research and development centers to solve problems, or give away software and hardware to poorer nations. But social responsibility affects all of us.

Employees should be encouraged to come up with ideas to help the community. Every business can help and should. Even entities which are not profit oriented can help and need help. Schools can offer education for illiterate people which can be sponsored by big publishers. It’s a win-win situation, with more people who can read, more books can be sold and everyone is happy. I used to work for a software company that sponsored University Graduation projects, it helps steer the students towards the real job market and helps us tap into the future job applicant pool before they have even jumped in it. Again it is a win-win situation. I can think of so many other great examples.

How about on the smaller scale? I think as individuals our responsibility comes in the form of charitable work, giving money, being more environmentally friendly, volunteering time to help with needy causes and the most important one of all is parenting. Parenting is a social responsibility, raising children which are more aware of their responsibilities towards the rest of the world.

In today’s capitalist world, the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. What are you or your company doing to help, I really would love to know, please leave a comment and let me know.

Bill Gates’s Speech

Transcript

World Economic Forum Website

A wedding proposal

I loved this! Deciding on wedding invitations took 2 weeks, if only I had thought of this.

“Love Letters”the description from YouTube says:

I produced this animation as a way of proposing to my girlfriend (now wife) Natasha. I assembled a team of 20 animators to assist me, including co-workers, as well as students from my 3D character animation class at the Art Institute of California-San Francisco. We created more than four minutes of animation in just three months. When it was completed, I surprised Natasha by bringing her to the Parkway Movie Theater in Oakland, where they played the animation on the big screen in front of over 100 of our friends and family. The entire event was filmed for the TLC television show “A Perfect Proposal.”

“The Invitation” and the description from YouTube:

A sequel to last year’s “Love Letters.” This time Natasha is the star as she tries to come up with the perfect wedding invitation.

We burned this animation onto DVD’s and sent it out as our actual wedding invitation. It took nine months to complete, and was produced entirely as part of a group project class at the Art Institute of California – San Francisco where I’m an instructor of animation.

Growing up

I went through five years of Engineering thinking that they would never end. My last year passed so slowly that it felt like someone else kept deliberately hitting the Pause button on the remote control of my life. Getting my certificate felt like the biggest key to the door that opened to the rest of my life. I have since realised that graduating was very easy and simple compared to having a job, getting married or having a baby. It is funny how things change. Since I am now a stay at home mom, with a 4 month old who still has not yet learned to move from where she is ( yaaay for me ) I have a couple of hours each day where I can do what I totally please and recently that has been watching commencement speeches on YouTube, talks from TED and other inspiring videos. I think I have grown up or matured in some way that now I actually can make use of other people’s advice and have the real ability to think deeply about other peoples ideas. For some reason I now think that it is so great learning from other people’s mistakes versus having to make my own and learning from them. Now I find myself remembering many of my mother’s advice and reflecting on it, sometimes realising how wonderfully true she was and how much time I could have saved myself. Here is a list of inspiring yet very funny videos I’ve seen recently that are worth seeing:

Oprah’s Commencement Speech – A typical Oprah style talk with lots of encouragement and self-insight

JK Rowling’s Commencement Speech – Amazingly and magically spun by the author of the Harry Potter Books

Ken Robinson for TED – An educator and a Knight but definitely a simple and very funny and fatherly figure who wants children to be creative, talented and successful.

Jill Bolte for TED – A brain scientist, a stroke and the once in a life chance to learn about it from the inside out.

The last lecture

You would think that a dying man would be more interested in himself and would want to talk about cures, medicine and chemotherapy, or complain about how bad it is for him. Not Randy Pausch, a 47 year old proffessor who was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Randy gave what he called “The Last Lecture” or what was renamed to “Realizing your childhood dreams” lecture to his students and friends in Carnegie Mellon. The last time I heard anyone speak and felt so inspired was back in ’05 when I attended a lecture by Paolo Coehlo. Not only is he hilarious and charismatic he says it exactly like it is. My personal conclusion from this lecture was the realization that brick walls are there for a reason and that there is always a way to achieve what we really want to.

It is an hour and 15 minutes but well worth your time.

I love the world

Discovery Channel’s new promo for Earth day says it just right

The century of the self

I enjoy watching documentaries, I prefer the factual programs to soaps, dramas, silly movies and reality TV. I find it educational intellectual entertainment. I came across The Century of the Self completely by chance. It is a four part documentary by Adam Curtis. In his own words the series is “about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy”.

I have always known that the media, politics and business do not just happen to market their ideas and products but they actively try to control what we think so we buy, vote or believe more of what they have. The documentary shows how this came to be, and how Freud’s ideas and theories were interpreted and used to manipulate the crowds.

Reminds me of the Arabic phrase “waraya ya kherfan” translation; “behind me you sheep”.

Watch the series on Google video.