Saturday, February 28, 2009

Building a Sustainable Environment...for yourself

You may have heard much talk about living a sustainable life in terms of the world and environment. That is a very great thing... and something I believe in. But, that is not what I'll be talking about here.

I love the book "The Little Prince", so we'll pull that in as an example. In the story the little prince lives on a small planet in which not much goes on, and not much grows except the occasional bothersome baobob. And if you don't know what a baobob is, I think it's time for you to take some time and google it. Because baobobs do have the capacity to rip apart any planet, and therefore should be deemed very important by any such standard.

So, back to my point. The little prince saw a little bud come up, and watched it to see if it was a baobob, or something else. He had the patience enough to watch the small bud turn into a rose, the very first and only one on his small and unique planet. He took great care of his rose, would water it, talk to it, place a glass globe over it during the cold nights, and place a screen to protect her from the wind. It was only in this kind of loving environment could this rose blossom, survive and show her true beauty.
Each person needs to find that kind of sustainable environment where they can be properly nutured in order to reach their full potential. If you can't find your full potential where you are in your life, what can you do to better the environment around you? The little prince left his planet to explore the universe around him. In the end he finally realized that his small planet is where he wanted to be and belonged, and yet the only way he was able to realize this, was by exploring other lands.


Thursday, February 26, 2009

Another Blog Update...with even more Fate!

October 5, 2008 I wrote the post: ANOTHER BIT OF FATE! :-) . That post told of a series of events that lead me to the website of a Stanford lecture that let me hear Tom Kelley of IDEO lecture, and let me meet with him at the end. Well, I had read about Stanford's (design school) online, and I was interested to explore it. It seemed like a university version of IDEO, because it was founded by David Kelley (Founder of IDEO) himself.

I've been checking out the online periodically, and since I was already planning on checking out the startup job fair on campus on Tuesday I figured it would also be a good opportunity to finally step foot in the I walked in and asked the receptionist if it was fine to walk around and check it out, and referenced David Kelley and IDEO, and she nonchalantly also mentioned that he happened to be sitting right behind me.

I took the opportunity to talk with him and told him of my IDEO inspired journey out to California, it was pretty cool. So, even if your dreams don't come to you right away, if you get close enough to the positive energy, and take advantage of the opportunities presented, it will happen.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Blog Updates: Intuition 2, Corporate decisions 0

US Airways

On January 4th, I wrote an entry titled: US Airways- Short term vs Long term decisions , talking about how on a recent US Airways flight I had been charged for water on a 6 hour cross continental domestic flight. My stance was that it was a horrible move for the airline to demand money for water on a cramped flight where there was no readily accessible drinking water. Especially when customers had each paid good money for their flight, and had all of the time in the world to complain to each other during the time in the air. Well, it seems like US Airways have finally gotten the message and have changed their ways. They were hoping the other airlines would follow suite and also decide to charge for drinks, when they didn't, they alone were crouching in the corner in shame. I think if they had thought about their decision a little more before becoming so money hungry they would have avoided the disaster, but I guess better late than never!

US Airways won't charge for sodas after all: US Airways says soda, juice and coffee will be free again for domestic coach passengers


I hadn't mentioned this one in my blog, but in a conversation with my mom we were commenting on how ugly the new Tropicana packaging was. The printing on the carton was even questionable with faded orange colors, and a glass of orange juice that didn't look more than a faded orange shape on the label. The once decent looking packaging looked more like an unappealing generic container with a major identity crisis. I was surprised the design of the container even made it out the door. Well, it looks like Tropicana finally got the message on that one:

Never Mind! Pepsi Pulls Much-loathed Tropicana Packaging

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Acting like you deserve it

Time is an interesting thing. When one actually has time to think instead of do, a million thoughts can come racing into the mind, and then cause paralysis of the limbs. By thinking too much you can reason yourself in and out of thoughts, and then hesitate at the thought of any action because of all the consequences of actions. But what about the consequence of inaction?

Too many times people get scolded for not thinking abou ttheir actions. Though by not acting nothing, nothing would get done. People with extreme levels of self confidence rarely think much before acting because they are so sure of themselves that they figure, how could they be wrong? So, they take action, before thinking twice of it. Maybe at the lack of their thought, and quickness of their action they are able to succeed by just getting there before everyone else and to be able to make mistakes, and quickly correct them before going too noticed. Failure can only really occur if people can notice before they take action to correct. And, even at that point they are acknowledged for taking action.

When I was a kid, I remember coming home and telling my mom that I was upset because no one would play with me. I would watch kids playing a game, and either ask to play, or wait to get asked to play, and would become upset when they would either ignore or say no. My mom's conclusion? Don't ask, just play. I never truly understood that, I always thought, well what if the other kids don't want me to play with them, and started role reversing in my head, and figured it would not be a good idea. Other kids would just jump in and start playing without asking, just figuring that they already had a spot to play in.

I'm starting to think that my mom is right. Don't ask, just play. Don't think too much, just do. There are a 1,000 reasons why not to do something, maybe life is about finding the 1 reason why to do something. Don't wonder if you deserve something, just keep going and act like you do deserve it. Life actually has no rules, all there are are perceptions of them.