Warm and Fuzzy

During college one of my favourite assignments was one where I was assigned to think of a project that could positively impact society through design. I spent a great deal of time thinking about different things that I could design that would accomplish this and ended up going with a website. In general I've found that people who focus more on the positive things and less on the negative are much happier regardless of their situation. The idea of my website was to say thank you and think about the good things that happen on an average day. When we are given a gift it seems obvious to say thank you, but being thankful for smaller things such as having a door held for you or when your roommate does your dishes, can have just as positive of an impact. On the website visitors could write quick thank you notes in an online feed or print cards to give out in person. The project was well received, and I still think that should I come upon a vast amount of free time I could really make it work.

I was reminded of this because of a feel good article I saw on the Daily Heller. Students from Stefan Sagmeister's "Touch Someone's Heart" class completed their project by bringing their final product to New York City bus drivers. Check out the story here or here.

Oh and as a side note, one of my classmates made a fictional company like Bixi, looks like they had the right idea!

Holiday Hopes

With the holidays come stress, tension and sometimes a lack of sleep, but all of that is greatly overshadowed by the fun times I have. My hope for the holidays is that everyone has a fantastic and safe break. To my friends, family, and especially everyone hosting the parties a big thank you for helping me enjoy a great holiday season!

Talking to Ted

Today, like every day, I told myself I would get a ton done and got distracted by other things. I often go to bed regretting wasting my time on Facebook and email, but I need to stop doing that. There is no use regretting things, all of this was summed up nicely in the Ted Talk I watched tonight while I meant to do other things. I find that even if other people may think I am wasting my time, I enjoyed doing whatever it was. I had a nice time knitting, watching a Christmas special, preparing for the holidays and especially watching some new Ted Talks tonight.

For your viewing pleasure, here are a few of my favourite talks from the night

Don't regret regret

(Fun fact, I have a tattoo that I don't regret. Likely because it loosely translates to remember to live, a great reminder that regrets are frivolous.)

Aimee Mullins and her 12 pairs of legs

Eve Ensler: Suddenly my body

Round and Round We Go

I'll admit I'm the first to complain about our dependancy on technology. Of course I love the advances, my job is so much easier with a computer, but sometimes it is too much for me. My friends used to complain all the time about how they couldn't rely on messaging or calling me because I may take hours to get back to them, I've gotten better but not much. I think longingly of the days when people would just called someone at home, or plan to meet with them in person.

All of this brings us neatly around to the newest item on my Christmas wish list, a phone for my phone. I saw this gadget months ago and loved it. Isn't it funny when older technology comes back around.