So, the holidays are over and I am back in the office. Are you? Coming back from summer holidays is for me like starting a new year. Maybe this is caused by the fact that my school years started after summer and my mother bought new clothes, shoes, pencils and stuff and everything felt new. Every year I started with new resolutions like “this year I will memorize my latin verbs day by day and not the day before the exams” (didn’t work so good). So September felt like a new year, fresh start. And it still does: I still start with new resolutions (this time it’s not latin verbs, but equally annoying stuff), the urge to buy new clothes, shoes and above all pencils. My desk gets dusted and I try to make the most possible clean start. I started with a new Avatar: get yours at faceyourmanga. This site makes Avatars with a lot of features like piercings and tattoos, but as well the possibility to make your Avatar look older than 20 years, which a lot of us will appreciate. ;-)
Some weeks ago I was writing about seizing the day by doing something creative every day or on a very regular basis. This idea isn’t really new, Plinius the elder put it in these words: Nulla dies sine linea (no day without line). I am coming back on this subject because after my post I discovered two people who do the same, first is Julianna Parr. She has drawn/painted/collaged postcards since 1998. There is an on-line gallery that lets you browse all the cards and search them by keyword. Awesome! Fun!
Kyle T. Webster has started a daily figure drawing blog, which is outstanding.
I cannot look long enough at his drawings, maybe they are really the best possible realization of Plinius’ “line”.
Just to finish the week with something that made me already laugh out loud three times:
Gardening can have as many forms as there are ways of thinking. The range goes from zen gardens made to concentrate and find calm, to gardens that have living purpose. I am so impressed by the following movie. It's awesome.
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” Cicero [I would add a bottle of good red wine]
If you are without garden, then you must go for your balcony or a park. I recently "discovered" the park next to my office, it is really awesome. I can go there to relax, I even tried to run (will pick this up after the holidays again).
"Our happiness in life can indeed be said to be proportional to the extent and intimacy of our interaction with nature." - Daisaku Ikeda
Just to change subject now, there is as well a good reason to stay inside the house: the Olympics open today. I am not a big sport-watcher, BUT I love Olympic games openings, my earliest memory going back to 1984 when I saw the rocket man. I doubt I will see the opening today, I will be in the office, working. Aw, sad.
Imagery by Jamie Hewlett, the Tank Girl genius.
Have a good Friday and a better weekend, Belle
Freitag, 1. August 2008
I start with some music. Just click, let go and read. Enjoy!
Did you ever experienced time flying away? No, I don’t mean the time that passes quickly because you are doing something nice, I mean the time that passes without being noticed. And then I say “oh my! The day/week/month/year is already gone. How?” Well, I heard a nice theory about this: the more your days are similar, the lesser you experience them. Which is, for me and 90% of normal adults the normality: get up, go to work, work a lot, go home. Every day is alike, over and over the same thing. One day equals the other and in our mind they become a blurry single memory: months fly by like days. I am not the one who jumps to the big-shot conclusion and says: ok – then I’ll just have a world-trip and squeeze out of my day every drop I can. We all know that this is impossible. But there is another thing I noticed: every day happens something worthy to remember, we just need to notice it.
"Each day provides its own gifts." ~ Marcus Aurelius
More than a year ago I started to make a little scribble for every day. I was far too lazy to write a diary and I found that a little picture about the most important/funniest/saddest moment recalls a whole story. I got addicted to it, I am happy that I started and I am sure I will go on with it for quite a while.
For August I uploaded a template you can use by yourself. Try it! Do whatever you want. If you are one of these persons that cannot draw, try stick figures. Or write - a Haiku maybe?
Every day is a little bit different; I am different every day, even what I like is different every day. One morning, while my pc was heating up I took my Pantone Guide and flipped through it, wondering what color would represent the current moment. It was pantone 213: a bright Pink. Soon I got into the habit, every day I pick a Pantone Color. The most interesting thing is that normally I don’t like any more the color I picked the previous day. So weird. Summing them up in the last five weeks (only working days) I noticed that somehow I have a pattern. Dark doesn’t mean dark mood and red doesn’t necessarily mean angry or vibrant. I just pick a color. A color that somehow appeals to me in this very single moment, it can be any color, even one I don’t like personally. I should check it out after some months.
So, I started to value my days, it was more something I didn’t choose, but something that just happened. With my new job I started to write down all the different things I did during the day to monitor my progress. Soon I started to add personal thoughts and ideas and now I have something similar to a work - diary.
Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. M. Scott Peck
I personally love my little black notebook, that keeps track of everything. If you want you can start with a little pocketmod, which you can personalize as you like. I am very impressed by "Franklin's Virtues" that you can add to your pocket mod. It's a very nice little thing with endless possibilities.
Are you a “lister”? I keep listing everything, specially because I cannot keep all the stuff I need to do in my mind. Lists are helpful and it a personal satisfaction to cross out one task after the other. “Now do this” is the virtual list. Awesome.
This was my wednesday - more or less. I didn't put all the calls and mails and discussions. But it's cool to see how your day evolves.
So, finally it's friday and in Italy a lot of people leave for their holidays this weekend. August is the month you don't work, basta. If you are leaving, too, keep in mind to fill yourself with happiness. So much that you can make your Happy Book! (via Molly)
