fair

words of inspiration

We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
-Aristotle, 384 BC-322 BC

reliable

detached

nachos!

quick and easy, and tasty:

assertive

twofold transformation

post from the great blog engendering equality:

I wanted to share this Ted Talk from Layli Miller-Muro, founder of the Tahirih Justice Center, as she discusses the importance of transforming ourselves and our institutions as a means of achieving the equality of women and men. Sometimes in the process of trying to engender equality we can forget that it will take more than just changing our own views or the views of those around us. We really have to change systems and laws which are so much apart of the perpetuation of inequality. Its not enough to simply promote equality within these broken systems and processes. Also the importance of doing this, as Miller-Muro points out, is something that necessarily involves both men and women.

strong

considerate

how to talk to girls

this article from the huffington post is so very important in trying to elevate conversation and steer us away from our usual instincts in when we meet girls.

Little Maya was all curly brown hair, doe-like dark eyes, and adorable in her shiny pink nightgown. I wanted to squeal, "Maya, you're so cute! Look at you! Turn around and model that pretty ruffled gown, you gorgeous thing!"

But I didn't. I squelched myself. As I always bite my tongue when I meet little girls, restraining myself from my first impulse, which is to tell them how darn cute/pretty/beautiful/well-dressed/well-manicured/well-coiffed they are.

so what should we do instead of focusing on their looks?

Try this the next time you meet a little girl. She may be surprised and unsure at first, because few ask her about her mind, but be patient and stick with it. Ask her what she's reading. What does she like and dislike, and why? There are no wrong answers. You're just generating an intelligent conversation that respects her brain. For older girls, ask her about current events issues: pollution, wars, school budgets slashed. What bothers her out there in the world? How would she fix it if she had a magic wand? You may get some intriguing answers. Tell her about your ideas and accomplishments and your favorite books. Model for her what a thinking woman says and does.

it's well worth a read, to avoid promoting the focus on looks and appearance in the world.

forgiving

sunrise, sunrise!

I got up at 5 am today to play football. luckily, I had a beautiful dawn to go with it. I snapped two shots, but they don't make justice to the beauty of it at all:

cheerful

regrets of the dying

very interesting post, I'm copying the whole thing from here:

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives.

People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learnt never to underestimate someone's capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.

It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.


2. I wish I didn't work so hard.

This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.


3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.

We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.


4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.


5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.

When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.



Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.

orderly

creative food days!

I've had three days of food-related creativity, and am finally able to post pictures for it!

first one was a sushi dinner we made happen... brought together some friends, made the whole thing ourselves, and ate and enjoyed it. this is what the table looked like before:

(unfortunately I have no after pictures!)

the next event was a dinner at home. it was slightly pot-luck, but we ended up making salad, rice + meat, and dessert. this is the ever so delicious chocolate mousse being made:

I can tell you it was yummy!!!

finally we went out to a café last night with a group of friends, and these lamps were among the coolest I've seen:

if it's not clear, those are spoons being woven into it!

honest

joyful

responsible

open

young men postponing adulthood

the vancouver sun has a very interesting article about young men postponing adulthood - basically refusing to "grow up". the article is here, and is well worth a read. there were also some very interesting points at the end, regarding talent vs. effort:

The second is a cultural bias based on the "entity theory of ability," which means a predetermined competence in an area.

"Most of us are steeped in a culture which says we're born with this competence; in North America we have a love affair with talent," he says.

The truth, however, looks more like "incremental theory," which states we can improve how well we do a task given a concerted effort. "It's known as 'deliberate practice.'" he says. "We love hearing stories of Mozart and Rafael, but we forget they practised!"

The media will extol the talents of a hockey player or rock singer, only looking at the end of the equation, he says. So a young person starting a new job, for instance, is much more likely to give up if it's difficult, choosing to do nothing until he finds something he's good at — "instead of saying, 'Hey, the research says that if I practise, I will develop competencies.'"

Practice makes talent, D'Alessandro says. So even someone with no innate talent, with enough practice can bridge the gap, become better, even become expert.

"Avoiding exposing oneself to opportunities to practise, say, demanding new job tasks, deprives oneself of the opportunity to experience competence feedback, to increase self-esteem."

caring

fill right/down

anyone who's had a lot of tedious work filling out excel sheets is going to love this! filling out cells with adjacent data, done so easily:

ctrl-r: fill right

ctrl-d: fill down

can't believe I didn't know about it until now!

decisive

appreciative

30 days of creativity, day 15: moon eclipse haiku

eclipse of the moon
like veils covering your eyes
burn them with your love

wind tunnels look cool!

hopeful

random rock poem

today is day 14 of 30 days of creativity! here's a random piece of poetry that I saw on a rock on the street, couldn't help but take a picture of it:

it seems to say:

An angel face smiles to me
Wader (?) a hidlight (?) of tragedy
That smile used to give me warmth
Farewell, no words to say beside the mark on your grave
And the lord's forever burning candles

after a bit of googling, it seems to be a song by nightwish, angels fall first:



and here are the lyrics:

An angelface smiles to me
Under a headline of tragedy
That smile used to give me warmth
Farewell - no words to say
beside the cross on your grave
and those forever burning candles

helpful

few bits of advice

from daniel akerson:

Acknowledge your mistakes, learn from them and move on.
Don’t be afraid of new ideas; be afraid of old ones.
Be faithful to your family and friends. You’ll get the same in return.
Tell the truth and always play by the rules.
If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.

source.

confident

money and people

things we forget is a simple blog that puts up small post-its with deep messages. here are two recent ones that I think were very poignant:

where are your priorities?

kitchen haiku

30 days of creativity, day 11:

refrigerators
are more than just keeping cool
a kitchen haiku!

inspired by threadless t-shirt

kind

tagxedo!

tag clouds are fun to create, especially when you can make them in different shapes and forms. tagxedo allows you to do exactly that. here's one for this blog:

make one you too!

beautiful

new uses of the violin

who said the violin should only be used to play classical music? here's a creative example of other things that can be done:

accepting

on creativity

righteous

human tetris

brilliant concept, beautifully done!

generous

pick-up line of the day

girl: my grammar is good
guy: my vocabulary is good; do you want to get together and make some sentences?

courtesy of sahar, believe it or not....

enduring

steadfast

diligent

30 days of creativity, day #4 - picture!

a picture of a hibiscus:

committed

30 days of creativity, day #3 - creative cooking!

today I followed up on my first day of creativity, where I was cooking. this time I was aware enough of what I was doing and took pictures. I made a simple but very tasty sandwich with onions, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, some cheese, mayonnaise and mustard. this is what it all looked like:

step 1: chop up some onions and mushrooms and fry them. (I used the oil from the sundried tomatoes)

step 2: chop up some sundried tomatoes and add to the mix.

step 3: add a slice of cheese and stir it around

step 4: this is what it'll look like - a bit messy, but oh so tasty!

step 5: prepare a pita with some mayonnaise and mustard

step 6: slice of cheese, and then the mixture on top of it

step 7: slice up some feta cheese and eat!

my first bite was an explosion of epic taste in my mouth. yumm!!!

how amazingly brilliant

combining cello and beat-boxing, producing such an amazing result:

30 days of creativty, day #2!

a picture through a wrist warmer, giving a cool homing effect:

serving

fortitude

30 days of creativity, day #1!

30 days of creativity is a social initiative encouraging people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days in june. I decided to join, and so every day I'm going to try on doing something... day 1 was making a sandwich!

ingredients:

• mushrooms
• sun dried tomatoes
• slice of cheese
• baguette
• red onion
• fresh tomato
• feta cheese

fry mushrooms + onion + sun dried tomato + fresh tomato. cut the baguette in half, put everything in, warm up the oven, put it in. eat. enjoy.

unfortunately I forgot to take a picture. but it was good!

interest and motivation

very interesting post from signal versus noise:

I have a very hard to impossible time forcing myself to do things that I don’t want to do.

When I feel that lack of motivation, there’s always a reason. I instinctually know whatever I’m working on is not actually worth it — that all this effort I’m about to put in is not going to pay off. Or maybe I’m just not good at what I’m trying to do. Either way, it feels like a waste of time.

Plus, I find it hard to have a wide array of things that I’m interested in at the same time. I usually pick one thing and I get really interested in solving that. Any other task that doesn’t fall under that banner has a hard time capturing my imagination and getting done. I just put that on the back burner until whatever I’m naturally interested in gets completed or my motivation runs out.

When you have a natural interest in something, your productivity goes through the roof. Even though whatever I’m naturally interested in might not, from an objective point of view, be the most important thing to work on at that time, it is the most important thing to work on because of the productivity gains I get out of just being super fired-up about it. I have to get that out of my system. And I wind up doing things really quickly.

When you’re not working on something you’re inspired by, your efficiency is so much lower. You find more moments in the day to let yourself be distracted by email or reading on the Web or something else. That’s usually the key smell I detect when I’m working on something I don’t really want to be working on: I check email much more frequently and I engage in chats about things that aren’t related to what I should be working on.

On the flip side, when I’m working on something I’m really fired up about, I couldn’t care less about new posts on Twitter or whatever. Instead, I get whatever I’m working on done right away.