Boxes

I wish we could keep the imagination and innocence we had as children. I recently just walked into a FedEx store and saw all these boxes... nothing to them right? They are just cardboard boxes. However, then I remembered if I saw this as a kid, this would be awesome! I could build the coolest, largest fort ever!

We see the world differently as a child and sometimes even more creatively. Why is it that we lose our ability to create things out of nothing as we get older? I mean it obviously still happens, but we have a whole process to go about finding that "one idea". As a child this "process" would be as easy as breathing. What happens to our ability to be free thinkers as we get older? Is it the pressure of conforming to society and not being an outsider? In my view, brilliant ideas come from uncontrolled thoughts.

From the perspective of a tree:

    At the very start of my life I was happy-- level with my surroundings, taken care of by the rain, but also very delicate in the first few years of my life. I could observe the vast plains surrounding me. Empty, bare, and beautiful. The air was clean and my only fear was the occasionally temperamental weather.

As I grew and my branches extended, the space around me became smaller. However, it wasn't because I was growing, but because of the world transforming beneath me. I can now see houses being built nearby, a small factory to my left billowing dark colored smoke and the taste of pollution running through my veins. My lungs are working harder and harder to breathe with every rise of the sun and I'm starting to feel as if the ground in which my roots relied on for nutrients is now feeding me toxins. As I patiently wait for the slightest breeze of fresh air, I begin to feel the earth shake beneath my branches. Men with shovels start digging away my familiar and loved surroundings. The flowers, the grass, and the tiny ant hill that has been with me since the last rainfall have all been destroyed. I as I stand there in agony, I suddenly feel a stab to my heart when an ax cuts right through me to make way for a new road.

From the Stork

            As a little girl my parents used to joke around that I got my blue eyes from the “mailman” since both of them have hazel-brown colored eyes. I also remember that I used to believe a stork dropped me off on my parent’s doorstep when I was born. I look back and laugh about it now, but its funny because when we’re kids we tend to believe anything that comes out of someone’s mouth. The common belief is that if someone says its true, then it has to be true. The concept of lying is just to much for us to consider and so we take the route with less cognitive work. When we grow older our capacity for cognitive thinking increases and we finally learn that, unfortunately, babies don’t come from storks. It used to be so simple, but of course babies don’t appear out of thin air and get dropped of by storks… there’s a long process to it. 

Wake up!

Alarm clocks are super annoying. Especially the ones that sound like a siren is going off and you practically wake up with a jolt thinking your house is on fire. At least I've made use of the "harp" sound on my iPhone to make waking up more pleasant.

But just when I thought I have had enough I came across this... A pillow that VIBRATES to wake you up in the morning! How simple, yet pure genius is this? Why didn't I think of this?  All you have to do is pull the pink tag out to however many hours you are going to sleep that night and when it reaches the end it will start to slowly vibrate to wake you up from a nice sleep. And apparently if you don't wake up your head weight acts as the "snooze trigger." No more annoying sirens and harps waking me up in the morning anymore!

What makes Starbucks so Popular?

I just registered a Starbucks gift-card online that my dad gave me around a week ago and I was so excited to hear that I only needed 5 more stars to reach "Green Level" ... 30 for "Gold Level!!"
Everyone says that there is nothing special about Starbucks coffee, but then why does everyone always flock here to get their morning, afternoon, and late-night java fix? Some have even stopped saying the word coffee.. now it's.. "I'm gonna grab a Starbucks." If it was really just regular old coffee, then why do I make the effort to drive all the way over there in the morning even if I have my own coffee a couple steps away from my bed!

They really know how to sell this place.. it has a personality. I come here to study or have a quick "coffee break" with a friend. Not to mention, the new online system where you can collect 'stars' and reach different levels only makes me want to come back even more! (so clever...)

stumble upon

If you havn't heard of stumble upon or stumbled a little yourself, you are definitely missing out.
It is one of the most ingenious websites I have ever come across! It gives you the internet's best of the best and some of the most noteworthy unknown websites.
You can check little boxes of whatever interests you and then you are ready to stumble!
It is extremely engaging because you can go from stumbling across street art by Banksy to hidden wonders of world to soon to be sensational viral videos! The possibilities are endless and not to mention extremely addicting.

Go check it out and create a profile!
www.stumbleupon.com

making lists, doodling, and photographic memories

I tend to make a list out of everything. Why? I don't know. I'm not the uptight/on-schedule type of person... as a matter of fact, I'm very spacey, always day-dreaming, and forgetting things here and there. I seem to have embraced my inner pisces.
Even though I usually end up losing the lists I make, I think its the mere fact of writing it down that helps me remember. Through the years I've learned I have somewhat of a photographic memory. I tend to use 5 different colored highlighters when I take notes or study for this very reason. I can look over something and remember the smallest details, exactly where something was on the page, and a mental image of the exact color of the word I needed to memorize. With this I can usually remember the color, then where it was in my notes, and then use logical reasoning from there!
I got in trouble in my Rhetoric class freshman year for doodling while the professor was lecturing. But I can't not doodle! It helps me concentrate... I obviously wasn't going to say that back, but I was really tempted to send him this article I found online that proved that doodling was actually a way of concentrating for something. Also, I can also remember the notes/lecture better by what I was doodling when the professor is talking about a certain subject!
Check out the article in Time Magazine...

Doodling Helps Studying!