Inspiration : TED Talks

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On Body Language & Making Changes
by Amy Cuddy

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The Art of Asking

by Amanda Palmer 

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Future of Learning : The School in the Cloud

by Sugata Mitra

PS : I really love the idea of the Future of Leaning by Sugata Mitra. 

We should make this happen !

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Book : The Reader's Voice

I happened to learn about the reader's voice from Cornelia Funke's trilogy : Inkheart. 

Mortimer Folchart or Mo, is a book binder.  He got this ability to bring characters from books to the real world. What I loved about Mo other than having a full-time job to treat books everyday is and his powerful reader's voice. The writer beautifully explained how some people have the ability to let written words alive. So I imagined how Mo's powerful story-telling would be in real life. 

Mo could paint the air with his voice alone.

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Some people do have the reader's voice. It captures your attention, it makes you listen. Some politicians have this ability, some public speakers need to learn this skill. I strongly believe that if your job is to speak to people, you need to know about this. Or else, many people, including me, would not listen to you while you speak. Not as an act of rudeness, we will just choose to avoid any possibilities of having to listen to you.

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Anyhow, in finding people with great reader's voice, I came across the famous celebrity writer : Neil Gaiman. I keep on having a strong feeling that being a celebrity writer makes you less a writer but he keeps on showing me that I am wrong. Not only did he wrote so many books, published novel graphics,  gave such an inspiring commencement speech last year, got a beautiful little library and a very a classic house with such beautiful dogs, and many more things that too good to be true as a writer, he also has a strong reader's voice.

From the speech he gave last year, I found out that he is one of the people with the ability to make people listen to him. You can listen to him reading one of his book : The Graveyard Book, or from his current project with Blackberry : A Calendar of Tales.

Being a writer and a reader both at the same time, that is more than enough. 

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Book : Being Normal from The Winner Stands Alone

This is taken from the current book I am reading by Paulo Coelho : The Winner Stands Alone. I was in the train, on my way to work when I read this two pages of list on what being normal means. A successful rich man asked his bodyguard, and when his bodyguard couldn't give him any satisfying answers, he took out a folded paper that he brings everywhere to :

" What does being normal mean ? "
" I always have this with me and I add to it all the time ".

1. Anything that makes us forget who we are and what we want; that way we can work in order to produce, reproduce, and earn money.
2. Setting out rules for waging war (the Geneva Convention).
3. Spending years studying at university only to find out at the end of it all that you're unemployable.
4. Working from 9 till 5 every day at something that gives you no pleasure just so that, after thirty years, you can retire.
5. Retiring and discovering that you no longer have enough energy to enjoy life and dying a few years out of sheer boredom.
6. Using Botox.
7. Believing that power is much more important than money and that money is much more important than happiness.
8. Making fun of anyone who seeks happiness rather than money and accusing them of "lacking ambition."
9. Comparing objects like cars, houses, clothes, and defining life according to those comparisons, instead of trying to discover the real reason for being alive.
10. Never talking to strangers. Saying nasty things about the neighbors.

Inspiration : May Ann Licudine

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So, the legendary May Ann Licudine produced another 101 original ACEO cards last month. She made a double of her last year's 50 original ACEO cards, which was such an inspiration. The original idea was to make affordable original pieces, and yes I want it so bad - because I can't afford her other remarkable beautiful drawings. So when she put a notice about it several days before they are available on her online shop, I was so excited! 

I counted the day. On that day, my boss asked me to follow him for work-related event. 

I was 1/2 hour late. I got onlined right away using my phone, and looked through what was left of those 101 cards. Only around 9 pieces left ! In 1/2 hour ! Impressive.

I chose one, and paid for it right away.  Even though I didn't get what I really aimed for - which were so many, I feel so happy nonetheless. Less than a week later, I checked my mail box and there there ! :

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A postcard, a name card, ACEO card and a note :

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I loved it !

So much.

Doodle : Finding Inspiration

I read an article by Leo Babauta from ZenHabits on Finding Inspiration and took a visual note on it. Here :

Ignore some misspells :D

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My ways of finding inspiration :

1. Surrounding

This is by what I see, what I experience, small incidents, items on my desk, random ideas and such.

2. Blog walking

Famous way to feel inspired is by seeing other people doing so well in finding theirs. I use bloglovin+ to follow blog's updates.

3. StumbleUpon

4. Comic & Graphic Novel

I took a pleasure in buying other people's artwork, in stories, in comics, in painting, etc. Sometimes I secretly buy a graphic novel and hide it. Huhaha. 

5. Quotation

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Doodle : Oh doodles me more!

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Hello !

I have a habit of taking notes & doodle when I hear or saw any interesting things that I want to remember. As a human, I know I have a brain of a goldfish, I forget things so easily! So I take notes on things in my various notebooks. Quotes, interesting sayings, inspirations, items around me, and such. Here are some of them :

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A logo for a cafe in Moscow by Sergey Shapiro

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This is Dominick Verstoep's logo by Lecart 

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Various of Drinks

I remember sketching this at an Iranian Restaurant on a tissue paper.

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Sleep dear Sleep

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Inspiration : Neil Gaiman

This is really good!

Be wise because the world needs more wisdom.
And if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise and just behave like they would.
Go and make interesting mistakes. Make amazing mistakes. Make glorious and fantastic mistakes.
Break rules. Make good art. - Neil Gaiman

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Book : The Red Tree

On my birthday last month, I received a surprising presents !
My fifth Shaun Tan's book : The Red Tree and an empty sketch book with Shaun's illustration on it :D I am very thankful and I really really really loved it. It smelt perfect!

Past posts on : The Bird King , The Arrival & Lost and Found.

I can't wait to read these books to my children someday.

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Ah !

5 books and 1 sketch book.

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Lesson 1 : Search for Happiness

It's still new year and I'm aiming for 25 books to read by the end of 2012. I'm putting reading slot for my daily routine, in hope of giving some chances to reading once again - no matter how occupied I am with works. 

I just finished reading Jodi Picoult's - Sing You Home last night, after keeping those last 2 chapters for a month. Now, I'm currently reading Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord.

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Taken points from his book, I'm going to share his findings :

Lesson 1 :

Making comparisons can spoil your happiness.

I think it's obvious, when we keep on comparing our lives with others, our achievements, money, fame, houses, phones, cars, and all those things - we will feel less fortunate in life. Sometimes it is hard to remember that we have to be thankful all the time. And comparing yourself with others will only make us feel bad. 

Creating happiness should be personal. You don't have to share it with others if you don't feel like it. Because it's different and subjective for each people. It can't be measured. So, stop comparing. 

If you feel happy living in a small flat being surrounded by all your action figures and comics, don't let anyone else make you feel bad about it. It's your way of being happy.

If you feel happy spending hours every night watching Korean dramas, then it's okay.

If you feel happy learning foreign language without any specific reason other than improving your knowledge on languages, then be it! 

Ignore those people that say : you are not living your life. As long as you are happy, then that's good enough. Don't spoil it by comparing it with anyone else.

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Inspiration : No Choice

No Choice by Seth Godin :

"I had no choice, I just couldn't get out of bed."

"I had no choice, it was the best program I could get into."

"I had no choice, he told me to do it..."

Really?

It's probably more accurate to say, "the short-term benefit/satisfaction/risk avoidance was a lot higher than anything else, so I chose to do what I did."

Remarkable work often comes from making choices when everyone else feels as though there is no choice. Difficult choices involve painful sacrifices, advance planning or just plain guts.

Saying you have no choice cuts off all options, absolves responsibility and is the dream killer.

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PS : How many times did you use those excuses? You keep on finding someone/something else to blame. Should stop making excuses. Start living responsibly. 

My.Inspiration : Astronautboys

Aha, I went on a short vacation to Bandung a couple of days ago * just got back! 

Being in Bandung gave me a chance to meet my A-list inspiration : Astronautboys. I've been adoring his works for years and meeting him was a dream come true! 

And we promised to exchange artworks, I totally forgot to bring mine *will post it soon, I promise! I love his originality, I know I can identify his strokes just by looking at it. And the simplicity of being monochromatic is more than enough. 

I can't thank him enough!

So, the least I can do is, ask you to check out his super awesome works :)

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Read :

10 things I learned in Bandung

My.Inspiration : Cecelia Hidayat

Cecelia Hidayat is an illustrator from Indonesia.
I found her blog last year and been following her work ever since, I enjoy her colourful cute illustrations a lot! Yesterday, I received a very dear letter from her !

I was super excited :

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I love the efforts she put in making people smile !

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Thanks a LOT!

and Merry Christmas Cecil :D

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Book : Confetti

Another guilty pleasure : Confetti by Brittney Lee

Bought this book from her etsy shop 2 weeks ago. It arrived yesterday !
She is one of the artist for Tangled : Rapunzel. My favorite ever Disney animation.

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Here goes :

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Doodle spotted!

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Digital illustrations & sketches :

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She is a really great Paper Cut artist :

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A little pricey for me,

considering I need to convert it to RM.

But, ah well!

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Ghibli Animation Film

I grew up with Hayao's animated film. I remember watching Kiki's Delivery Service when I was very young. I can remember the tape from our parents' friend in Japan and we watched it over and over again using my dad's VCR player. Although we hardly understood what they were saying, due to some lack of exposure in maintaining our Japanese language knowledge, we can understand the storyline just fine. Afterall, children do learn from observation, and they can relate to the real world quite easily.

One of my favorite character is Susuwatari, a hairy big-eyed dust spirit that floats around in the movie : Totoro. They have also appeared in Spirited Away as the Bath House's slaves, with such long thin legs and eat colored star candies. I was excited by the sight of those star candies, it reminded me of my childhood years. Star candies are called konpeitō in Japanese. 

* Susuwatari eats Konpeito *

I've watched a bundle of Hayao's animated films : Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Laputa, Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies - to name a few. Last 2 weeks I bought The Borrower's Arriety's DVD. Ahh, such pleasure. The background illustrations were super overwhelming :

How can I not watch a 2D animation when these beauties are still exist?

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