Welcome to the fellas

A mini-shout out for you fellas, Actual and Peculiar! I know the song isn't completely a fitting welcome, but I feel like the energy and the song title should suffice, for now. I had a 90s jones I had to satisfy just now, dig?

Looking forward to hearing from you and collaborating with your minds, you evil geniuses.



This is more of a joke than anything else. Half-joke.

This Blog is not ADD compliant, is it?

Some images for the MTV-kid in you:





Just a little fan boy-ing of my brother's photography. Straight skills.

Check him out here.

"Art changes people. People change the world."

"Art changes people. People change the world."

I find this quote to be one of many motivating factors in my life. As with most people, Art has been very prevalent throughout my life in the form of music, album covers, architectural design...you name it: just about everything that we are surrounded by was designed by somebody not only for function, but for aesthetic. By creating things, people create the world around themselves and around others. And, so when people create works of art, whether it is a painting, innovating a style of clothing, a photograph, or any other expression through some media, these creative agents are not only creating some work that exemplifies some depiction of their experience, but also creates a thing that others will learn from (whether consciously or unconsciously), thus creating change in a person. Having recognized that my tastes have been formed through an intricate complex of relationships and experiences, I am motivated to create my own works of art that increase the chances that positive, productive changes occur in the populous.

Increase the chances of positive change to increase the likelihood of a positive world--this is what I would like to one day achieve.

Now, just what exactly is "positive change"?

Do you believe in advertising?

I was browsing the net a couple weeks ago, as I often do in between checking my various e-mails and online networks, and I somehow ended up on a blog I Believe in Advertising. The blog updates regularly with novel advertising ideas that stretch from advertising agencies all over the world.

It's interesting to see what ad campaigns some of these people have come up with. Many of the advertising ideas that I've seen seem to be following a trend of innovating advertising by refining the materials used as the display medium: forget about billboards, or spending money on whole posters--several ads that I have seen go right on the sidewalk, or on top of other ads. I like the idea of making ads more diffuse in our environment since it introduces a new way of thinking for the ad producers. I may not, however, be in as much agreement with the what the ad producers are trying to advertise--but, that's a whole different batch of bananas.

As I wait for my french onion soup to finish in the oven...

It's been a minute since I've taken the time to put up another post. My job, academic adventure, and basketball interests have kept me from being at a computer long enough to empty out the cognitive build up that I withhold throughout the week:

1. My job, which requires I triple as a daycare assistant, recreational leader, and faux older brother, is not always as physically taxing as it can be spiritually draining. I understand the effect that the world has on 12-13 year olds, and I am torn between the reality that my site leader is not as organized as I would hope she could be and wanting to organize exceptionally enriching activities that would require the other leaders at the site to "put their foots down" to a greater extent than everyone has assumed responsibility for. I digress...

2. My class load is not too heavy unit-wise nor material-wise. I am taking three classes spread over the weak (I know it's a typo, but I decided to combo the modifier with the noun) and have been studying with less intensity compared to previous semesters. It could also be that I am simply more organized, and thus more efficiently deal with my scholastic necessities more responsibly. The biggest load that sources from any of my classes comes from my Media of Creativity class--like many humanity classes, the shit's deeper than the sulfur-rich environments of the Atlantic Ocean. This class makes me THINK. With a fucking "G". THINGK.

3. My weekends are basketball prone. I'll usually end up at 24, or some gym working on my game. I'll be joining the adult league in Benicia that begins in April. So, I'm giving myself ample time to prepare.

I intend on diversifying the material of this post by finding friends and relatives who enjoy typing out their experiences, or simply sharing material they think should be dispersed. Hopefully, this will happen sooner than later. But, it will happen.

Cheers

Ill.

Yes, this is my first post--however, I'm not so savvy on the introductions, right now. So, I'll postpone any posts of those sort for whenever I'm feeling more hospitable--I'm not anticipating high amounts of traffic on here, in any case.

Creative ones, especially you designers, engineers and miscellaneous individuals whom have the ability to practically delve into an entrepreneurial career:

If you have not heard of the company IDEO out of Palo Alto, you MUST check them out.

I stumbled upon (and, I don't mean "StumbleUpon", the discover new websites website) the existence of this company via my Media of Creativity class, and was excited to see what IDEO was doing. IDEO is a company consisting of multidisciplinary teams that are divided by IDEO into eleven different specialties that helps companies ... well, INNOVATE. IDEO's eleven teams include (I will name them, but will opt out of going into further detail about them):

Human Factors, Business Factors, Industrial Design, Interaction Design, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing, Software Engineering, Healthcare, Kid-Centric Design and Environments (for more information on functions per team, access ideo.com>about us>teams).

IDEO essentially is a company with resources that make Batman's utility belt look like a child's sock drawer. They help companies in huge variety of markets innovate by obtaining insights derived from understanding people on a first-person basis (Empathy!): IDEO doesn't design without first going through the process of empathizing with those who'd potentially be using the product. Instead of starting at the drawing board and creating countless numbers of designs to see how the public reacts after the fact, IDEO puts humans at the center of the design process (FastCompany.com). In layman's: IDEO innovates things by better accommodating product for humans--NOT by (or, at least minimizing) getting humans to accommodate to a product.

They've made some pretty bad shit.

And, I mean that in the Run DMC sense.

IDEO's website