Technology is Killing Our Sleep

It would appear that our increased reliance on technology has destroyed our ability to have a good night’s sleep. So says the 2011 Sleep in America poll, which was conducted by the the National Sleep Foundation. Something tells me they would be the guys to go to for all your sleep data needs. The study shows that 95 percent of Americans use a communication device (computer, phone, etc.) in the hour before bedtime, which absolutely wrecks your body’s clock, as it were, thereby preventing you from having a decent night’s sleep.

The study’s primary conclusion is that Americans don’t get enough sleep overall, and that the sleep they do get is largely rubbish. Waking up several times throughout the night, waking up too early, snoring like a truck, etc.
As Ric Flair once asked, what’s causing all this? Blame technology. As mentioned, fully 95 percent of Americans use a communications device in the hour before going to bed. That’s a critical hour, too, since ideally you’d be winding down before going to bed. Texting your friends, trolling Facebook, reading Charlie Sheen tweets, etc. All of this mental stimulation essentially keeps your brain awake, and prevents the release of a
certain hormone that tells your body, “Hey it’s time to go to bed. Get tired.”

Watching Netflix on your iPad may be handy, but it’s not necessarily healthy.

What should you do? If you can, make sure your bedroom is only for sleep. Don’t have an entertainment system in there, and don’t play Angry Birds while in bed. Only go to your bedroom to sleep. And in the hour before going to bed, try to wind down. Turn off the TV, turn down the lights, maybe at most do some light reading (these books would be a great start).

Failing that, you’ll have to put up with rubbish sleep, and not a lot of it.

Why People Secretly Fear Creative Ideas

Why creative ideas are often rejected in favour of conformity and uniformity.

Does society really value creativity? People say they want more creative people, more creative ideas and solutions, but do they really?

For one thing teachers don't generally like creative students. Primary school teachers in one study liked the most creative kids the least (Westby & Dawson, 1995). This isn't an isolated finding in education and probably a result of the fact that creative kids are generally more disruptive; naturally they don't like to follow the rules.

For all the talk of creativity in business, industry and academia, there's evidence that it's implicitly discouraged in these areas as well. Although leaders of organisations say they want creative ideas, the evidence suggests creativity gets rejected in favour of conformity and uniformity (Staw, 1995 cited in Mueller et al., 2011).

An unconscious bias against creativity

 

A recent study has tested this idea that there's a disconnect between what people say about creativity and what they unconsciously think (Mueller et al. 2011).
They used tests that typically assess implicit or unconscious racism. Racism is something that almost everyone knows is wrong, but psychologists have found we can still measure hidden or unconscious racism in some people using this test. Instead, though, it was used to measure a hidden or unconscious bias against creativity.

Across two experiments Mueller and colleagues found that when people felt uncertain they were:

• more likely to have negative thoughts about creative ideas,
• and found it more difficult to recognise creative ideas.
•  

This supports the idea that people don't like creative ideas because they tend to increase uncertainty. The thinking goes like this: we know how to do things we've done before, but new things are mysterious. How will we achieve it? Is it practical? What could go wrong? And so on...



People don't like to feel uncertain; it's an aversive state that generally we try to escape from. Unfortunately creativity requires uncertainty by definition, because we're trying to do something that hasn't been done before.

People deal with the disconnect by saying one thing, "Creativity is good, we want more of it!" but actually rejecting creative ideas for being impractical.

And, the more uncertain people feel, the harder they find it to recognise a truly creative idea. So as a society we end up sticking our heads in the sand and carrying on doing the same old things we've been doing all along, just to avoid feeling uncertain.

Instead we should be embracing uncertainty because it's only when we're unsure that we can be sure we're in new territory.

Image credits: Kristian Niemi & Nicolo Paternoster

What The Eyes Reveal: 10 Messages My Pupils are Sending You

The dilation and constriction of the pupils reveals how hard we're thinking, how excited or disgusted we are and more...

Our pupils, the black holes which let light into the eyes, don't just help us see, they also signal what's going on in our minds.

Here are 10 pieces of psychological research which show how changes in pupil size reveal many aspects of thought.

1. I'm thinking hard

 

Look into my eyes and ask me to name the cigar-smoking founder of psychoanalysis and you won't see much change in my pupil size. The name Sigmund Freud comes easily to my lips.

But ask me to explain the laws of cricket and watch my pupils expand.

That's because research has shown that the harder your brain works, the more your pupils dilate. When Hess and Polt (1964) gave participants more and more difficult tasks to complete, their pupils got bigger and bigger.

2. My brain is overloaded

 

Keep watching my eyes closely and you'll spot the point when explaining the laws of cricket gets too much.
Poock (1973) reported that when participants' minds were loaded to 125% of their capacity, their pupils constricted.

It'll be trying to explain a googly that will do it. (Don't ask).

3. I'm brain damaged

 

The reason doctors and paramedics flash a light in patients' eyes is to check their brains are working normally (and because it's such an easy test to do). They use the acronym PERRL: the Pupils should be Equal, Round and Reactive to Light.

If my brain is broken, say, because I've had a bump on the noggin, you won't see PERRL. There may well be other extremely subtle clues, like the blood pouring from my head.

4. You're holding my interest

 

The size of my pupils can also signal whether I'm interested in what you're saying.

White and Maltzman (1977) had participants listening to excerpts from three books: one was erotic, another involved mutilation while a third was neutral.

Their pupils widened at first for all three. But they only remained wide for the passages that were erotic or involved mutilation.

I'm likely to be interested in anything new, so my pupils will dilate a bit at first, but they'll only stay dilated if I continue to be interested.

5. You're turning me on

 

If things take a sexual turn then our eyes are also involved. Both men and women's pupils expand when they are sexually aroused (e.g. Bernick et al., 1971).

However, not everyone agrees big pupils are a signal of sexual arousal. It tends to get tested by showing nude pictures to people and some argue that we're just really interested in the nude form.

6. You disgust me

 

Just as my pupils increase in size when I'm interested or turned on, so they constrict when I'm disgusted.
Hess (1972) showed people pictures of injured children. First people's pupils dilated because of the shock and then they constricted to try and avoid the troubling images.

7. Whether I'm liberal or conservative

 

Should you happen to be carrying around pictures of politicians you might be able to work out whether I'm a liberal or a conservative just from my pupil size.

Barlow (1969) showed people pictures of Lyndon Johnson, George Wallace and Martin Luther King, Jr.. The liberals' pupils dilated when they saw fellow liberals Johnson and King but constricted when they saw conservative Wallace. Conservatives showed the opposite pattern.

8. I'm in pain

 

If you've had enough of this article now and want to cause me some pain in return, then why not stab me with a pencil? If you're watching closely you'll see my pupils dilate.

Chapman et al. (1999) fired small electric shocks into people's fingertips and measured how much their pupils dilated. At maximum intensity the pupils dilated by about 0.2mm.

But that was only to a relatively tame current. Imagine what you could do to my pupils if you plugged me into the mains.

9. I'm on drugs

 

...and you can narrow down the type by looking at my pupils.

Some drugs, like alcohol and opioids cause the pupils to constrict. Others, like amphetamine, cocaine, LSD and mescaline cause them to dilate.

Police officers know this and some use it as one way of checking if someone is off their face. They generally look for pupils constricted to either less than 3mm or dilated to more than 6.5mm (Richman et al. 2004).

10. My personality

 

This one is not strictly related to pupil dilation, but it's too good to leave out.
If you look closely at the coloured part of my eye, the iris, you might even get some clues as to my personality (Larsson et al., 2007).



Look closely for 'crypts' in my eyes (lines going away from the iris, labelled 1 above) and this suggests I'm a warm, tender-minded person. If you see furrows (labelled 3 above), then, watch out, I'm impulsive.

It seems that the same gene, Pax6, which affects part of the brain associated with approach-related behaviours (the left anterior cingulate cortex, if you really want to know) also induces tissue deficiencies in the iris.

Too small to see?

 

As you'll have noticed, the same pupil response can mean different things, although generally when the pupils dilate it sends a positive message and when they constrict it's a negative one. But exactly what it means depends on the situation (and whether someone has turned on a light).
This is all good fun to know, but can we really detect these tiny changes in people's p
upil size?
According to an fMRI imaging study, change in pupil size may be difficult for us to notice consciously, but we do seem to pick up on these very small changes unconsciously (Demos et al., 2008).

So changes in pupil size may be experienced, along with other verbal and nonverbal signals, as a gut instinct to either approach someone or run like hell.

Whether or not the eyes are windows to the soul, the pupils are certainly windows to the mind.

Image credits: maryaben & Larsson et al. (2007)

8 Psychological Keys to Spending Wisely

In these economic times we could all use a little advice on how to spend our money wisely.

Help comes from a new survey of research on money and happiness gloriously titled 'If Money Doesn't Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren't Spending It Right' (Dunn et al., 2011).


They are trying to explain this paradox:

"Wealthy people don't just have better toys; they have better nutrition and better medical care, more free time and more meaningful labor—more of just about every ingredient in the recipe for a happy life. And yet, they aren’t that much happier than those who have less. If money can buy happiness, then why doesn't it?"

Their answer is that we tend not to maximise our money because the human mind is surprisingly poor at working out what will make it happy. The conclusions they reach aren't just useful for wealthy people, they can help all of us.

Here are the 8 pieces of advice:

1. Why Many Small Pleasures Beat Fewer Larger Ones
2. The Dangers of Comparison Shopping
3. Why Spending Money on Others Promotes Your Happiness
4. Buy More Experiences and Less Stuff
5. Buy Less Insurance
6. How to Get More Pleasure from Your Money
7. The Impressive Power of a Stranger's Advice
8. How to Dodge Buyer’s Remorse

Image credit: iChaz

→ This post is part of a series on the the psychology of money:

• Avoid The Relativity Trap – How Thinking Globally Can Save You Money
• Social Versus Financial Thinking – When Money Makes People Lazy and Selfish
• FREE! But at What Price?
• 6 Quirks of Ownership: How Possessions Bend Our Perceptions
• The 3 Reasons Money Brings Satisfaction But Not Happiness
• Do Big Money Bonuses Really Increase Job Performance?
• Money and Self-Control: The Battle Between Thoughts and Emotions
• Why Money is Part of Human Nature: Money as Both Tool and Drug
• Why We Buy: How to Avoid 10 Costly Cognitive Biases

How to Cope with Rejection at Work

I have a family member who is always clashing with her boss. I wonder if part of the problem is that she takes professional criticism personally. Over Thanksgiving one year, she explained to me that she is rejection sensitive, meaning that she’s attuned to any cue that she is being rebuffed, and has the tendency to react strongly to even the most minor rejection by another person.

Co-workers are like family – but not in a good way

 

 

Experts always talk about how to deal with rejection when you’re looking for a job, but they forget the fact that even when you already have a job, rejection can be toxic. The workplace is the environment where you spend most of your waking hours, and yet the people with whom you share the space didn’t choose to be in such close proximity. They may be very different from you, and they may not think you are the greatest thing since the iPad. While some degree of conflict is perfectly normal, for the rejection sensitive, a workplace can be minefield of hurt feelings.

Pick your poison – manager or co-worker rejection

 

 

The chief culprit is usually the manager. After all, your manager is charged by giving you constructive criticism and commenting positively — or negatively — on your performance. In an ideal world, she would always do so in a highly professional manner, but since it’s not an ideal world and we are all human beings, sometimes she will be harsh or tactless, or won’t think about how her words are coming across.
Co-workers too may not meet our expectations of them as supportive, collaborative friends. A co-worker who ignores you, makes a snide comment about your appearance or behavior, or chooses to go to lunch with someone else may send the rejection sensitive into a tailspin. Suddenly, it can feel like the entire office is operating against you, and you get angry and your opinion of your work sours. This can be dangerous, because if you lash out at work, your reputation and even your job itself may be in jeopardy. Here are a few helpful ways for coping with rejection at work:


Step away:  When someone hurts your feelings, excuse yourself from the situation and go to a private place. Relax and breathe deeply, and return to your office. Try not to see the person again until you’ve calmed down and gained some perspective.Remind yourself about who you’re dealing with:  Managers and co-workers are often assembled at random, and there’s no way you’re going to get along with everyone all the time. This person is not your best friend or a member of your immediate family, so he’s not worth reacting emotionally over.


Be objective about the rejection:  Think through the circumstances leading up to the rejection. Could you have done anything to cause the situation, or did it seemingly come out of nowhere? Is it possible that the other person didn’t mean to reject you at all, or has a completely different perspective on the issue? If your emotions are clouding your judgment, discuss what happened with a mentor or friend whose opinion you trust and value.


Try to let negative feelings go: The rejection sensitive person frequently finds herself the victim of a self-fulfilling prophesy. She feels rejected, and so she adopts an attitude of blame and behaves in a hostile manner toward others, which leads them to further reject her. For this reason, you should acknowledge your feelings of sadness, frustration, and betrayal, and then move on. Remain approachable and friendly even if you feel differently.


Minimize future rejection:  In addition to maintaining a positive attitude, always aim to improve your reputation as a professional, competent, can-do employee.  If someone you trust makes a suggestion, implement it, and if you see a way to go above and beyond the call of duty, do it.  This won’t erase rejection from your life, but it will at least lessen the number of legitimate causes.
Rejection is an unfortunate aspect of daily work life, but like most things, it’s within your power to either sail through it easily, or with a lot of bumps.  Hopefully, by following these tips, you will be able to weather the storms more successfully.


(Photo credit: Bullying in the workplace and office

from Shutterstock)

How to Cope with Rejection at Work

“A Closer Look at Dishonesty”

What they don't know...

So, what are your thoughts on honesty? Do you fib? Often? Do you have honesty rules? If so, where did those rules come from?

Experience? Parents? Church? Your inner voice?


Do you think that sometimes dishonesty is the right thing? The best option in some situations? Could there be a time when dishonesty is the best policy?


Oh, the questions…

We all know that honesty can be painful — and unpopular. It can also be liberating — and rewarding. We know it will end some relationships — and repair others. Sometimes, it shuts doors — and sometimes, it opens them.

Some people want to hear the truth. Some don’t.

Some say they do…but really they don’t.

Lying About Lying

Like it or not, want it or not, lying is an ever-present reality of the world we live in.
Kids do it — and so do grown-ups. Governments do it to protect you and me. Apparently.
(Or maybe they do it to protect themselves.)


Who else does it?

• Businesses
• Wives
• Husbands
• Bosses
• Staff
• Managers
• Leaders

Even those who stand in front of their congregations on the weekend do it.


Not surprisingly, we usually lie about our lying too. And when we do get busted, we inform the Honesty Police that our moral misdemeanor was in fact a ‘white lie’; a well-meaning deception. And, as we all know, white lies are okay.

Degrees of Honesty

Some people talk about the notion of ‘complete’ honesty, but is there any other kind? Surely, if it’s not complete honesty, then it’s dishonesty…right?


“If it ain’t true, then it’s a lie.” Isn’t it? There’s no such thing as ‘telling a bit of a lie’ is there? A ‘half-truth’ (a term we use often) is simply a euphemism for dishonesty, isn’t it? And I guess ‘bending the truth’ sounds more honorable than ‘lying my arse off’. And finally, let’s not forget the very manly art of exaggeration; one of the more socially acceptable forms of lying.


Wow, it’s hard to be honest about our dishonesty isn’t it?


After all, nobody wants to wear the ‘liar’ label. We tend to get a little self-righteous and defensive when it comes to our ‘bending of the truth’ don’t we? Someone recently said to me, “Oh, yes Craig — but there’s lying and there’s lying.” The implication being that there’s acceptable and unacceptable lying.
Interesting.


Selfless and selfish lying, perhaps? Okay, who decides which is which?


The same person told me that she only lies when “she has to” and that “sometimes lying is the kind thing to do”. Can’t say that I totally disagree with her.


So many great questions. But are there any universal answers?

Am Not! You Are!

When questioned, most of us say we’re honest people. It’s what we do. It’s our default setting.
But it’s not true; most of us lie regularly.


Of course, we might lie for ‘noble’ reasons. Like to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. Or to avoid sharing some personal information. Or to avoid a pointless argument or a potentially volatile situation. But surely that kind of dishonesty is okay.


Wouldn’t honesty be an illogical choice in some situations? Which would make the occasional fib totally acceptable when there’s a good reason. Wouldn’t it? Having said that, who decides what a ‘good’ reason is?


Hmm…more questions.


One study revealed that the average person lies three times in a typical ten minute conversation. Notice I didn’t say “the average pathological liar lies three times”. No…I said “the average person”. Clearly, you and

I are not average.


I lie much more.


So, what are your thoughts on honesty? Come on…be honest.


(Photo credit: Businessman Crossing Fingers

via Shutterstock)

A Collection of 30 Free Expressive Funky Fonts

When trying to express the thought of your designs through words, the Fonts you choose becomes one of the most essential elements. There are just times when we want to express things freely and sometimes, it becomes a bit difficult to define it. It just have to be cool. That’s where the Funky Font Styles come in handy… Now let the need cool down with these 30 Really Cool Funky Fonts to set your styles to the real nitty-gritty essence of what you’re trying to express… Click on and get funky!
You may also want to take a look at the following related free font articles:

• Hand Drawn Fonts
• 40 Best Fonts for Better Typography Designs
• Bitmap and Pixel Fonts
• Movie Fonts Themed to Download

Tribal Funk

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Buddha GraphixFunk

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Seventy Flares

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Moulin Rouge

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Maropawi Club

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Rezland

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Aaaiight

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Alfabetix

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Amerika

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Asimov

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Avatar

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Backslash

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Bambino

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Funky

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Funky Deco

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Funky Stoneage

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Pineapple Delight

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Bellbottom Laser

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Action Is

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Square Circle

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Monkey Chunks

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Happy Days

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Origami

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Katy Berry

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Knuckle Down

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Kingthings Slipperylip

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Kyboshed

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LateNite

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It’s indeed one good deal to express what you really think is best for your design especially when it has reached the utmost thought of it. Fonts make it better. Funky Fonts rock it! Have you recently updated your Fonts Collection?

Get Over Your Smartphone Addiction

At dinner with a friend last weekend, we lamented our husband’s incessant use of smartphones while “spending time” with our children. It turns out we are not alone. Smartphones are not just for work. They are for everything, all the time.

A Documented Phenomenon

According to a recent study by the UK-based Ofcoms

 

, smartphone addiction is reaching epidemic proportions.  When asked about the use of their smartphone devices, 37 percent of adult participants admitted they were highly addicted to their devices.Over half of adult respondents claimed they have used their smartphones will socializing with others, nearly a quarter have used them during mealtimes, and over a fifth used them while in the bathroom.
Another study originally published in the Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing concurred that smartphones are taking over some people’s lives. The researchers identified what they call a “checking habit” – when you repetitively look at your device for 30 seconds or less and access a single application. Apparently, this is a habitual response to boredom, and/or the need for constant distraction. It is easy to see how an out-of-control checking habit could result in negative consequences ranging from a traffic accident to a strained relationship with a family member.

And How Does That Make You Feel?

David Greenfield, Ph.D. is a psychologist and the author of Virtual Addiction: Help for Netheads, Cyberfreaks, and Those Who Love Them (non-affiliate link).  In Susan Davis’ article for WebMD

 

,Greenfield is quoted as saying that computer technologies can be addictive because they’re psychoactive, alter mood, and often trigger enjoyable feelings. E-mail in particular gives us satisfaction due to variable ratio reinforcement, meaning that we never know when we’ll get a great e-mail, so we keep checking over and over again.So how do you avoid becoming a slave to your smartphone without throwing the baby out with the bathwater?  Here, some tips:

• Don’t buy the Lexus of phones: There is no need to purchase the most feature-rich, complex device on the market just because it’s available. Select a phone that meets your needs and ignore the bells and whistles that will only serve to confuse you.
•  Don’t go app crazy: The more apps, the slower your phone works, and the faster it runs out of battery. Constantly buzzing and beeping apps can also be distracting. The truth is, most people only use between 5-10 apps regularly
   
  . So stop the downloading madness.
•  Leave the phone in another room: If you constantly have the urge to check your smartphone, leave it in another room so that you aren’t tempted to pick it up. This is especially useful if you have set aside time to do something away from your phone, like finish a report or play a game with your family.
•  If you’re talking to someone, don’t answer it: Unless you are expecting an urgent call, do not allow your phone to interrupt an in-person conversation.  Sneaking peeks at your phone or typing away on it while someone is trying to command your attention will negatively impact your relationships and productivity.

(Photo credit: young businessman playing with his cell

 

from Shutterstock)

 

article from Stepcase Lifehack

Robin Baker Teaching participants to “see” is the primary goal of this Two Day Drawing Workshop . It is to introduce the elements of drawing such as gesture, line, contour, etc. To “look” observe. And see as an artist

We will be using charcoal initially then moving on to other materials such as conte, pen and ink, if time allows. My firm belief is if you can print or write your name you can learn to draw. All you need is the desire to learn. (This is a workshop that I would normally teach over say 6 to 8 weeks , but perhaps a taste to start as an introduction to drawing might be a good start for some people ) It might encourage them to take other courses and workshops you might run .

Following classes will also be available for people that wants to learn more about drawing with Robin Baker. They will be on February 4, 11, 18, 25 




Please call at 613-205-1258 to reserve you seat; space is limited The cost is 220$ and it a 2 day class on Saturday, January 28, 20112

Here is a bit more information on your teacher:

In 1995, through a collaborative project with Carleton University's School of Architecture, a unique building was designed and constructed to serve as Ms. Baker's art studio and as a place for workshops and special events held for the public and artistic community.

When not painting or teaching, Ms.Baker actively works to promote the visual arts through special public awareness exhibits, demonstrations, and lectures. In 1998, Ms. Baker completed a 11' x 14' commission of seven painted masonite panels for the lobby entrance of Mosaid Technologies Incorportated of Kanata, Ont. Robin Baker has since completed several series of works inspired by her travels across Canada, and visits to New Mexico, Portugal, and Morocco.

Robin Baker is a mixed media artist and art instructor, working in oils, encaustics, watercolours, pastels, and pen and ink with subjects ranging from landscapes, the figure, and still life. Abstract works and the human figure remain her special interests. When not painting or teaching, Ms Baker actively works to promote the visual arts through special public awareness exhibits, demonstrations, and lectures. Robin Baker has several series of works inspired by the people and landscapes encountered during her travels across Canada and visits to New Mexico, Portugal, Morocco, Turkey, Costa Rica, and Paris, France.

Education

1968-1973 Centre for Creative Studies, Detroit, Michigan affiliated college with Wayne State University

Solo Exhibitions

Almonte, Detroit, Merrickville, and Windsor

Images of Women: Equalities and Inequalities. Philip K Wood Gallery, 1997

Zen Rocks & Santa Fe Suite. Peter K Wood Gallery, September 1999.

Robin Baker & Robert Hinchley. Peter K Wood Gallery 1998.

Robin's Flight. SAW Video Ottawa Arts Court Feb. 2002

Figurative Classical & Contemporary. Sans Souci Gallery, Oct-No v, 2003

Zen and Now - Green Door Restaurant. Ottawa, June 2005

Moments in Humanity- Atrium Gallery, Ottawa Oct-Nov, 2005

The Reflective Spirit - Cumberland Gallery, Orleans, Nov.-Dec. ,2007

Empowered Women- Moving Forward, Judith Moore Gallery, Merrickville, 2008

Group Exhibits

Almonte, Ann Arbour, Mich., Detroit, Kingston, Merrickville, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa

Vancouver, Wakefield, Westport, & Windsor. Annual: Merrickville Artists' Guild.

Special Exhibits

In Praise of Women's Bodies - World Conference on Breast Cancer, at the National

Congress Centre, Ottawa July 1999

Divinia et Famina III: Sacred Domesticity - Ottawa University, May 2000.

The Mayor's Sweet Heart Lunch for the Arts, Canadian Museum of Nature 2002

Vagina Monologues (set design). Brockville Arts Centre, Brockville 2003

Drawing 2005. 6th Annual Juried Exhibition, John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto 2005

On and Off the Wall. Juror & Exhibitor, Britannia Gallery, Ottawa April 2005

Regeneration - Juried Exhibition, John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto April 2006

3rd Annual "The Print Show" John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto June 2006

Women's Art Festival, Kingston, August 2006, 2007

5th Annual "The Print Show" John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto 2008

Publications

Queen's Quarterly, Queens University, Kingston. Fall 2001; Winter 2003; Fall 2004

Current Galleries

Michalange Gallery, Montreal; Ottawa Art Rental, Ottawa; Judith Moore Gallery, Merrickville

Teaching Experience: has instructed classes in colour, drawing, and other forms of artistic creative expression through art colleges, art galleries, and private workshops. Regularly conducts week-end workshops exploring various aspects of creativity. Also provided specialized workshops for corporations and government managers to stimulate creativity and re-invigorate leaders to think "out of the box."

Cost will be 220 dollars

The Short and Sweet Guide to Being F'N Awesome

You want a purpose to your life? Do You Nee a New-years Resolution?  I got one for ya.

 Written by inoveryourhead

From this day forth, your purpose is to be the most fucking awesome person you can imagine being.

Quick story: in my early 20s I used to hang out with piercers and tattoo artists a lot. It was the 90s, and a bunch of us were getting crazy parts of their bodies pierced.

One day I walked up to my piercer friend, Azl, who was pretty much covered with tattoos. Incidentally, he’s now an amazing poker player with a huge backpiece of a king of diamonds (with an axe in his head). Epic.
Anyway, I walk up to him one day in the studio and I ask: “What is it like to look down at your arms and know that all these tattoos are yours– that this is what your arms look like?”

Pausing for a moment for dramatic effect, he answered: “Julien, It is fucking awesome,” and smiled widely.

That’s pretty much it right there.

What kind of friends do you want to have?

What kind of job do you want?

What kind of life do you want to have?

The answer to all of these is simple: you want friends, work, and everything else to be awesome. The more your life is awesome, the better everything is, and the happier you are, whoo!

Seriously, being awesome should be a fucking religion.

There are three– count ‘em, three– standards for awesome. Here they are, in no particular order of bigness.

1. Yourself

I was thinking about this yesterday while I was taking a break from exploringthis town in Malaysia where I am right now. I sat down and “counted my blessings” or whatever. Here’s some of what I came up with.

• I have an amazing, supportive girlfriend who also happens to be gorgeous.
• I have great friends– the same people I’ve known for close to 20 years, and I meet great new people all the time.
• I co-wrote a bestselling book and am working on another.
• Etc.

If you put this in the context of my 24 year old self, who worked in a call centre, finished at 2am and walked home in the snow, was pretty heavily in debt, and ate nothing but bread and hummus (not kidding), then you realize that pretty much anyone can become more awesome. This means you.

But wait, there’s more! What’s great about the world of awesome is that it’s totally subjective. You don’t have to care about the ways I do it, and I don’t have to like yours. The main judge is yourself, and whether you like yourself more than you did yesterday or last year.

If you do, congratulations! You are becoming, or already are, awesome. But here’s the clincher.

This is only true if you are honest with yourself.

There are a lot of people (people in public relations, or something) who claim that maybe their job is awesome. Or maybe guys that make a lot of money and think that they can be in on this love-fest too.

Wrong.

Doing something prestigious does not equal being awesome. In other words, awesome does not look the same close-up as it does from far away. Which brings us to the next point.

2. Your friends/peers

Who are the people that you care about, and that you work with? For me, that’s people like my family, my close friends, my girlfriend, and people I respect in this industry we call the internet.

People who know you are a great judge of whether or not you are awesome, and also, how to become more awesome. But again, only the people who are willing to tell you the truth.

Yesterday, for example, I got a Facebook message from my friend Jason telling me that Snooki, of Jersey Shore fame, is now a New York Times bestselling author. The kind of person that does this is the kind of person you should be counting on; ie, people that keep you grounded.

So one of the litmus tests for whether you are awesome is the people around you who don’t believe the hype. Hey, speaking of hype, could you tweet out this post right now? Click the button below.

Your peers, btw, can see things you definitely can’t, or won’t. You’re too used to yourself– this is why you think you’re handsome and that your beer belly “doesn’t look that bad.” (Neither of which have anything to do with being awesome, but you get my point.) Other people will always see you better than you can see yourself.

Do you have people around you that you can count on? Then I suggest you go ask them. Find the most awesome people you know and ask them how.

Optionally, ask Twitter. Seriously. A first impression is often just as good as someone who’s known you your whole life (speaking of which, don’t ask your mom).

If you speak to a bunch of people, and they all think you’re great, super!You might be awesome. But, then again, it’s possible that you actually have another problem. See below.

3. Your world

Ok, so first of all, your world is as big as you want it to be, so it’s not important what you choose here, with one condition.

If you are already awesome to everyone in your world, then your world needs to get bigger.
You do this by getting out of the little pond and doing new things, or having a positive influence on people outside of your sphere. You ever notice how people who volunteer (if they’re not self-righteous) tend to be fucking awesome?

I’m pretty sure there’s actually a relationship between how many people you help outside of your sphere and how awesome people inside your sphere think you are. Makes sense right?

My friend Nicole, for example, just told me about a dude she knows who helps children get out of the sex industry in Thailand. How awesome is that guy. And here’s what’s particularly cool about it: if you wanted, you could be him.

Seriously, it’s that easy. You can just decide to become more awesome, whichever way you want, and then look it up on the internet to figure out how. The knowledge automagically makes your world bigger, which makes you more awesome. Then you just go ahead and do that thing, which is easy because you just figured out how. Whoo!

Anyway, what was my point with this? Oh yes. Being awesome is now your new religion. Welcome to the Cult of Awesome. It’s very exclusive, but there are lots of perks.

Your job is now to look out to the wide world, and take a look at what impresses you, at what you find absolutely great, and then find ways to become more like that.

We need more awesome people in this world, and I would like you to be one of them. Please come and tell me how you will be awesome this year

Cool Free Computer Fonts That Will Make You Stand Out

5 Excellent Sources To Download Free Text Fonts. Times New Roman has his hands full while the rest of the font pack squabbles over artsy fonts like Webdings. “˜Superhero’ Comic Sans arrives in the nick of time to save the day.

Aren’t we all a bit like that when we pick and choose fonts for our computer? If you aren’t a designer, I can’t see you straying far from the conservative Arial’s, Times new Roman’s, or a Calibri maybe. Comic Sans is kept for the cutesy emails we tend to write once in a while.

Let’s blame it on the unwritten laws of font usage and those of readability. The lane of common typefaces is narrow indeed. Most of us dare not take the font road that is less travelled.

But what if you really wanted to stand out with your computer fonts; be adventurous, just like painting graffiti on a blank wall? Free computer fonts are easily available. Free fonts that will make you stand out are littered among them thanks to fearless typographic designers.

Mark’s article at the above link is a great place to start. Let’s pick out a few more free computer fonts and their sources. Stand out in style.

1001 Free Fonts

One of the fonts that caught my eye on 1001 Free Fonts is called Chopin Script. It’s a True Type Font that is in the style of Calligraphic fonts. The site lists thousands of fonts for Windows and Macintosh. Most of them are freeware, and some shareware.

AceFreeFonts

How about a trip to hell and back? Well, that’s the name of the font pictured above. Ace Free Fonts groups 20309 true type fonts for Windows and Mac. The fonts are free to download. You can sift through the fonts by category, alphabetically, or use the tags. For your chosen font, you can also checkout the full character map.

Fonts2U

Sometimes you might feel like writing an email in a typical handwritten style. Even though you know that the recipient may not have that font installed on his computer. I know I do, and that’s why I downloaded [ank], a handwriting script font. It is just one of the cool computer fonts that the site hosts. What makes this site standout are the foreign script fonts that are available for download from typeface designers around the world.

The font collection is marked out with licenses (GNU/GPL, freeware, free for personal use, donationware, shareware or demo).

TypeNow

The seven year old typographic website has a small but selective collection. Small equates to 6846 fonts. Selective, corresponds to fonts that are themed on movies, music, and games. If you like any typeface used on a show’s credit, navigate to the Themed Free Fonts section from the dropdown to check it out. How about Star Wars? Though, I went for X-Files.

The collection is selective and it doesn’t seem to be getting updated with new fonts.

Famous Fonts

If you are still searching for themed fonts, then you could score a hit at Famous Fonts. 300 free computer fonts to choose from; all specifically themed on movies, shows, magazines, automobiles, logos etc. The GodFather anyone?

FontSpace

Carnivalee Freakshow is an abstract font that I downloaded from the site. It looks like one of those retro typefaces from an old sepia toned poster. FontSpace has 13,500+ free fonts for you to choose from. The fonts are neatly arranged in categories from the basic to more abstract styles like art deco you can download, unzip and use on your Windows, Mac, or Linux systems. You can test it out on the site itself with your custom text before a download.

Urban Fonts

Urban Fonts is a neat well designed site with 8000 free font files and dingbats. You can browse through the free fonts quite easily. The custom text box lets you see your words getting rendered by all the typefaces listed on a page. Fonts are available for both Windows and Mac. As this site has a large collection of free dingbats, I browsed through that for jazzing up my PowerPoint presentations. The one above is called Retrobats.

Acid Fonts

If you are feeling like going psychedelic with color and grunge for a change”¦try out the Anthology font from Acid Fonts. The site has free fonts for Mac and Windows download arranged neatly in a few categories.

Abstract Fonts

I had once written a post on using drop caps to enhance your text in Microsoft Word. One of the free computer font categories you can visit here relates to that. You can go retro with DecoCaps or stay on the safe side with Media Gothic.

A neat feature of the site is the dropdown that opens up with all font information when you click on a specific typeface. You can also get to similar fonts from here, do custom previews, see the character map, and check the license before your download the font.

exljbris Font Foundry

exljbris is Jos Buivenga’s collection of free fonts. And looking at the selections, you can only admire the handiwork of this type designer from Netherlands. Museo and Calluna are two of his most known typefaces from his font foundry. Some of the styles among his creations are free. For example, the regular Calluna which is a free download.

With fonts, the great thing is that there’s no poverty of choice. You can literally send your browser on a random chase and come up with loads of free fonts. The trick is in knowing which font to use. Design work calls for a tasteful eye”¦wording a document stresses on bulletproof fonts for readability across different computers.

I will leave that choice to you. Whatever your choice, you know you can go wild with your imagination and stand out from the crowd with cool free computer fonts.

Which is your favorite font?

Image credit: stallio

5 Excellent Sources To Download Free Text Fonts

When I was a little innocent computer newbie, still finding my way around a keyboard and gasping with delight at the internet (“WOW!  HOTMAIL!”), I made a few really bad mistakes while learning.   One of them (which I still cringe about to this day) was back in 2000 when I installed 9000 fonts on Microsoft Word and then wondered why it took forever for the damn thing to start up! (“Dear Mr Gates, I’d like to complain about your Word product and its slow startup speed….”)

Even though I have learnt my lesson from that day, I still love fonts and I am always trying out new ones. Art and graphic design were my best subjects at school and calligraphy has always been a big interest of mine as well. So I am always collecting new free online sources for fonts.
Here are the five best ones in my opinion :

What The Font?!

Do you really like a particular poster design or a particular style of font and you would like to duplicate it?   “What The Font” allows you to upload a scanned image of a piece of writing or a font and it will identify the name of the font for you. Or instead of uploading, you can point it to a URL.
It seems to be very accurate and fast. I uploaded a scan of the title of a book I have called “To The Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf. ”What The Font” identified the font seconds later as “Baskerville Old Face”:

DDFont

Some nice fonts here. Not too many to choose from but the ones that ARE available are quite nice. Just click on the one you want, enter the activation code, and it will download to your computer.

 

 

Fonts 500

Claims to be the top 500 free fonts on the web.   Not sure if that is true but nevertheless the fonts on this site are REALLY good.    Each one is in a ZIP file so just click on the ones you want and they will immediately download to your computer.   Then just unzip them.   Some notable ones include Harry Potter, Yahoo, Scrabble letters, Star Wars, Godfather, Terminator, Bon Jovi and Pizza Hut.

TypeNow

Here, they have some movie and TV themed fonts. If you have a favourite movie or TV programme, check here to see if the font is available. TV show-wise, they have things like “Lost” and “Prison Break”, movie-wise, they have ones like Casino Royale and Kill Bill. In other ones, they have the Google font and Estee Lauder, among others. Worth checking out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Search Free Fonts

This excellent site allows you to search through 13,000 free fonts, broken down into various categories.  When you click on a particular font, it then gives you a close up view of that font so you can see what it looks like. You can type in your own text, specify a size up to 72 and preview it in that font so you can decide which font will suit you best before downloading it :

Article from Make use of.com



Where do you find your fonts?  What are your favourite sites for free fonts? please leave your comments bellow.