December 31st, 2008

From The Net - Random Interesting Linkage - 24 More.

random link - winter

I have an organized home. I enjoy clean, minimal workspaces. My computer is filled with data and propels me to even greater efficiency and data-management. All that being said, sometimes its nice to be a little random. Avoid a themed post, with everything fitting as some whole unit. Sometimes its nice not to worry about organizing things, and just trust that people will find what they need. Sometimes its nice to just… go with the flow.

Sometimes some of the best things come from just letting go, so here’s a sampling of things that caught my attention. Enjoy the links :)

a nice chat - a free random 1-to-1 chat with someone else looking for the exact same thing :) i met a chick in the UK named jade who likes tool. note: while on this site it is best to think happy thoughts and attract people with aliases like “beautifullove123″ and “sunshinegirl” while avoiding the “dr. aids69″, “suicideboy” and other less-than-desirables.

cool note from the boss - a creative take on western business practices, i love it.

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December 15th, 2008

All Is Creative: Even Christmas Cookies.

A little holiday creativity from SpiritSentient. (Fonceca cookie-cutting tools pictured.)

_cookies-000-tools All Is Creative: Even Christmas Cookies.

Osho, a (highly controversial) spiritual master, says in his book, Creativity Unleashed:

"Creativity has nothing to do with any activity in particular — with painting, poetry, dancing, singing — it has nothing to do with anything in particular. Anything can be creative; it is you who brings that quality to the activity. Activity itself is neither creative nor uncreative. You can paint in an uncreative way, you can sing in an uncreative way. You can clean the floor in a creative way, you can cook in a creative way. Creativity is the quality that you bring to the activity you are doing. It is an attitude, an inner approach — how you look at things."

I feel he has hit it pretty much spot on. Anything and everything can be creative in every moment, in every breath, even destruction.

I’m going to share a personal family experience, that I always find to be absolutely amazing. Every December, my Mom makes a particular recipe of short-bread dough, with incredible finesse, and then deposits it in front of my siblings, Father and I along with some cookie cutters. The pre-made shapes are merely an appetizer, because we always end up carving our incredibly complex ideas for Christmas cookies out of the simplistic dough.

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December 7th, 2008

A new camera, Greenpeace, and Sonnie Trotter.

rnd-dslr-a300_wvg_lcd_2-294x300 A new camera, Greenpeace, and Sonnie Trotter.just a SpiritSentient update for you all. i recently purchased a new Sony Alpha 350k 14.2 megapixel and it is awesome. my current setup is a tri-pod, green screen, reflectors, etc. and i am ramping up flare and edge portraiture, as demand is increasing rapidly.

what does this mean for you? well, in the near future i will likely be offering a number of free portraits in order to test out the new camera.

what this means for me is i am able to create much higher-quality, higher-resolution works, in even less time.

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i also had a random meeting with two greenpeace staff on the street. leeshai(sp?) and jack. i’ve heard all kinds of opinions on greenpeace and i’m sure everyone has their own experiences about it. in the past i’ve shrugged them off as just some environmental fanatics…

…and they might be :P

but these two people were awesome. not crazy or off-putting or unpleasant in the slightest. in fact, the opposite. i would have gladly chilled with them in a social setting. even when the topic of nuclear power came up (hot button topic in some of my circles) they were really open to it, saying it wasn’t black and white, and that it potentially had huge benefits if it was done right, and demonstrating that greenpeace’s support of other power sources merely stimulates competition which would push both nuclear and say, wind power, to do better and be more efficient.rnd-greenpeace-logo-300x206 A new camera, Greenpeace, and Sonnie Trotter.

they made it clear that they were doing big things and they were not a corporation selling stuff to make profit, but that they were supported by a large body of volunteers / the public, which i found extremely interesting. at the end of it all, i chose not to become a member at the time, and they were totally cool with that, but i do feel they’ve given me some inspiration and an interesting new direction for my art to explore, so we’ll see.

i just finished up two commissions, one of which has to remain unshown on spiritsentient due to privacy concerns, which i feel will change, because its absolutely beautiful, and have some other wonderful projects on the go.

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on another note, you may be aware that i am a huge proponent of taking creative risks in life, learning new disciplines and skills, and breaking out of comfort zones.

after years of leaving it on the back-burner, i finally went rock-climbing (indoor only so far), and it was amazing. what a wonderful experience. a new found awareness ofmy own strength, weight, and balance. my flexibility and energy are increased, and its an awesome feeling clinging to something high off the ground. i can see it bringing people closer, depending on who one decides to climb with.

i could feel life guiding me to the experience. many of my friends have gone / invited me over the years. then more recently, my friend neel sent me a link to a video of sonnie trotter engaged in different (impressive) training exercises for climbing.

i could not stop showing that video (and others, of sonnie making the first ascent of cobra crack or attempting other intense routes) to my family and friends; i felt inspired. i had a very strong feeling that it was the time to try some climbing.

rnd-sonnie_play_001-225x300 A new camera, Greenpeace, and Sonnie Trotter.sonnie is a climber/writer/photographer hailing from bc. he is tremendously accomplished, very creative, and an absolute pleasure to associate with, and for me, extremely inspirational. i feel he has vision and direction (which is a topic that relates heavily to creativity) and i’m more than happy to link to his official site, wikipedia’s article about him and a couple videos.