Inspiration and Motivation for People with Big Dreams
21 seems like only yesterday.
Today is my 22nd birthday and I want to thank my readers, subscribers, commenters, nay-sayers, lurkers, members, praisers, people who are much more successful than I, people who are much less successful than I, and people who are relatively just as successful as I. For every word and every line helps the community grow, learn, and find their own path.
So, thanks!
And now, 22 things that happened on this day in history:
As you might have noticed, the blog got a bit of a facelift. Hi. That’s me.
After 3 months, I thought it was about time some more personality was added to the look of the blog. I’ve been putting off completely redesigning for awhile, but I think this new look will make you very happy. It makes me happy, anyway.
On a monthly basis I’ll be changing the header image to a new wacky photo of myself to keep things fresh. If you have any suggestions as to what pose or what I should wear in a photo, I might be open to ideas.
I want this blog to be a fun and entertaining experience and if you learn something, then great. I love that my readers share their insights and opinions. Rarely do I turn away a comment unless it’s an outright flame. It’s good to hear truth more than it is to hear praise (not that it’s not appreciated), but I like to think of blogging as a conversation with my readers.
Finally, I don’t really think anyone has all the answers — I know I certainly don’t. As big dreamers it’s nice to know we’re all on the same road looking for a big break, a way to the top, or just some form of happiness. The road to success isn’t as lonely as you think.
I want to thank you all for reading and hope that you continue to enjoy, share, and succeed.
Now go own the world.
Every man of steel has his kryptonite.
Some can be defeated with common household items.
Yes, even with all of the superpowers in the world, there are still things that can easily destroy these superhumans. Whether you read comics or not, I think you’ll be able to appreciate this list.
Banshee |
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| Power: Sonic scream |
Natural enemy: A cave |
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Catwoman |
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| Power: Cat-like reflexes |
Natural enemy: Water |
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Gambit |
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| Power: Manipulating Kinetic Energy Hypnotically charm people |
Natural enemy: Rosie O’Donnell |
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Human Torch |
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| Power: Flame Body |
Natural enemy: A room full of gas |
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Wolverine |
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| Power: Adamantium Skeleton Healing Power Claws |
Natural enemy: Appalachian State University |
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Cyclops |
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| Power: Psionic Blast |
Natural enemy: His own reflection |
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Thing |
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| Power: Superhuman strength Withstands extreme environments |
Natural enemy: Women |
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Sabretooth |
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| Power: Superhuman strength Superhuman smell Superhuman reflexes |
Natural enemy: Everlasting Gobstoppers |
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Spiderman |
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| Power: Spider-sense Web-shooting |
Natural enemy: Shoes, newspapers, and other blunt objects |
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The Hulk |
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| Power: Superhuman Strength |
Natural enemy: Nalgene water bottles |
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Rogue |
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| Power: Drain other’s powers |
Natural enemy: Conformity |
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Invisible Woman |
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| Power: Turn invisible |
Natural enemy: Clothes |
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Professor X |
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| Power: Mind Reading Telepathy |
Natural enemy: Jessica Simpson |
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Watcher |
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| Power: Cosmic Awareness |
Natural enemy: Hats |
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There you go. A bunch of superpeople defeated by everyday things. Gives hope to the rest of us, doesn’t it?
Now go own the world.
Tired of spending thousands of dollars on ever increasing tuition (when you don’t have to)? I’m with you. The answer is simple:
Take classes at a local community college. This is the easiest way to save tons of money on college. Most big universities have a community college just down the road that can be less than a quarter of the price. For example, a Michigan State University credit hour for Fall 2007 is $280 (Source: MSU Controller’s Office). Less than 10 minutes away (if you drive slowly), a Lansing Community College credit hour is $73 (Source: LCC Tuition and Fees) and almost 100% of the credits are transferable. When you’re taking 120 credits over your college career and only 60% of the classes have to be taken from the college you’re graduating from, you could be saving almost $10,000. Now just imagine how much more you would save if you go to a more expensive university. Yeah, that’s a lot.
Now, that’s not to say you shouldn’t be taking classes at the prestigious college you’re attending, but the basic classes are almost word for word the same no matter where you go. Why not get them out of the way as inexpensively as possible? Plus, they are probably a LOT easier and take up less of your time so you can focus on more difficult subjects (Like drinking? No. Well, maybe.) In your undergrad, most accredited universities supply very similar classes. Anything starting with Intro to or Overview of is just a meat and potatoes class you can take anywhere that houses your major. It’s the upper-level classes that you’ll want to make sure you’re getting the best education for. So figure out what you need and save a load of money on the classes you have to trudge through.
Don’t be afraid of the community college, it’s only there to help. Go try a few classes and see how much you save in time and money. You’ll thank yourself during and after college.
Now go own the world.Welcome to 2007. Where we don’t have flying cars, teleportation isn’t possible, the apocalypse hasn’t consumed Earth, and we are still designing for 800 x 600.
While all of the cutting edge websites are designing for 1024 x 768 and above, big industries are still focused on the ugly half-brother (ok, 3/4-brother) for usability. However, even from a usability standpoint, the likelihood of someone running 800 x 600 and having the capability to run their snazzy flash banner is very unlikely. They are probably using IE4 on a Pentium III trying to barrel through their text-only version browsing experience wondering, “Where are all the frames and animated gifs?” They just don’t make the internet like they used to. Instead, we have expandable websites, SVGs, and flash. Scrolling isn’t the problem either since most people expect to scroll in a Web 2.0 environment (more information on, statistics about, and knowledge of a “foldless” internet can be found here)
That’s not to say I don’t understand that resolution is a factor when designing for certain platforms or demographics. Yes, the iPhone is cool, can browse the web, and is tiny. That’s why Apple included the two-finger zoom feature (which is the coolest thing on the phone anyway). I know you’re thinking, “but what about the people who have bad vision?” Enter eyeglasses. Enter resizable fonts. Enter screen readers. Exit bad design. Grandma shouldn’t be on MySpace anyway.
Yes, I love my big font Web 2.0 styles. Yes, I love clean and simple design. Yes, I love standards. But most of all, I love standards and design that evolve to cope with the new generation of their audience and user base. So stop designing for 800 x 600 and start making beautiful websites for those obnoxiously high resolutions of the future.
Now go own the world.No matter what it is that you desire, you can have it. Easily. All you have to do is really, passionately, truthfully want it and be willing to do what it takes to get it. Following these simple steps you will be on the path to getting whatever you want, from your smallest to biggest dream.
1. Make sure you know what you want. People are a lot less likely to help you if you can’t come up with a specific goal. You have to be confident in wanting a $20,000 per year raise. If you just say “I want a raise,” your boss can give you any amount of money they want. Even $0. Once you have a complete goal in mind you can fully use your resources collectively to achieve it. You have to know for yourself what you want before other people will care about what you want.
2. Know what they want. If you plan on getting something, you’d better know what the price is. What you can trade to get what you want depends on what people value. You have to know your target audience and what it is they desire that is of equal value to whatever it is you desire. It is even possible that what they value is of little to no value to you, which means you’ve hit the jackpot. All you have to do is to provide them something that you are willing to trade for the thing you desire. How do you know what they value? All you have to do is…
3. Listen. People love to talk about themselves and what they love. Sometimes all they want is someone to listen to them. This phenomena is the driving force behind blogging, postsecret, flickr, book discussions, forums, and relatively anything social. You can find out anything you want to know about a person if you just listen long enough. With just a little time and a little insight and you can pretty much figure out what someone really values.
4. Make them want to give you what you want. Whether it’s your offer or they just feel bad for you, the only way you’re going to get what you want is if they want to give it to you. Of course you could take it by force, but the repercussions can usually be less than positive. When people are willing to give something to you with a smile on their face, they are even more likely to give you what you want in the future. So offer them something they want (which should be easy since you followed steps 2 and 3) and you will get whatever it is that you want. Sometimes you can even get what you want for free. Or, what you would consider free in terms of what you value and what they value. Sometimes it’s even easier if you…
5. Give them something for nothing. Don’t stop reading. I know it sounds like you are having to sacrifice something for nothing at all, which is the exact opposite reason you’re reading this. However, I’m not talking about sacrificing things you value. A smile, a kind word, or the last half of your candy bar (ok, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but if you were full or something) is all it takes to get the person to open up to you and what you want. You are asking them to go out of their way to give you something. That’s the “something” they are giving you for “nothing.” So, in return, you can repay them with a simple gesture of kindness or amiable manner. If they see that you are willing to go out of your way for them, they’re likely to repay the favor ten fold.
6. Ask. Speak up. No one is going to know what you want until you make an attempt to let it out to the world. Don’t sit in the back of class and never ask the girl of your dreams on date. Let them know what you want and what you’re willing to do for it. You never know what could come of a simple question until you ask it. The response could be even better than you ever dreamed. The absolute worst case scenario is the word “no,” in which case you’re right back where you started. There is no negative outcome, only positive or none at all. So stop fearing the unknown, follow these easy steps, and you can get anything you want.
Now go own the world.Day 1. Here it is. The big day that you decided you want to get out there and be the best at something. Or, at least good enough that people will notice your awesomeness. So the first thing you have to do is know everything there is to know about what you want to be good at. The easiest way to do this is to use your resources. Whether it’s Wikipedia, books from the library, your neighbor, magazines, Youtube, specialized websites or blogs, the national food eating competition footage, Google, or even the old guy at the park; you need all the knowledge you can get. Between the knowledge and research, go try the thing you want to be good at. Whatever it is, you’ll need to practice it and have some first-hand experience. Even if it’s something you can’t actually practice before you have to do it, pretend the situation is exactly the way it is going to be when you’re going to do it. Imagine you’re doing it (and doing it well) and that feeling will boost your actual performance when the time comes to perform.
Now go sleep and think about what you want to be good at. You may end up dreaming about it which help even more.
Day 2. Congratulations! You’re already better than most people at whatever it is you want to be good at. Ok, enough celebrating, get back to the research. Find out what the best people have done to achieve greatness at the activity, what they do now when they do the activity, or what theories could be applied to make it easier. This day will be a little less research and a little more practice. Again, just thinking about what you have to do will make you better, even if you can’t do it at the moment. Use your newly acquired knowledge to fuel your skill and your confidence and it will become easier and easier to achieve your goal. The more confident you are that you will do well, the more likely you are to continue that positive feeling and encourage your aptitude to grow.
Time to relax and sleep on it, knowing you’re almost there.
Day 3. The most important day. This day is all about practice and figuring out how everything works best for you. This is where you add your own flare to your activity, something no one else has done or does the same way that you do. While you’re practicing, find something about the activity that you’re particularly good at naturally. Exploit this aspect and continue to build the rest of your skill in the area around that. Still do at least some research on this day too. You will always have the edge over people if you keep learning about the subject while they only practice. You can steer the car but somethings got to press the gas to move you forward.
By the end of the day you’ve practiced more and you know more than most people about the subject and you’re feeling good about your ability in it. Great! Now, even if other people who are good at the same subject see your work at it, they will notice the individualistic flare. The style that makes you stand out. No matter what, you will always be the BEST at being yourself. No one else can be better than you at being you.
Now go own the world.Need a kick-start to your creative process? While the other guy might be steaming and frustrated with a creative block, you can take charge and use some of these easy and effective tips to super-charge your imagination.
1. Go take some pictures. No, not of your dog or your friends at a party, but of things you don’t normally take pictures of. Try shooting different angles you normally wouldn’t. Hold the camera upside-down or if you’re able to change the focus of your camera manually, try shooting things completely out of focus. The main objective here is to see things in a new light and finding simple beauty. Here are a bunch of examples in my own work when I did this.
2. Squiggle. Yeah, you heard me. Squiggle. This is a fun and easy game to play with yourself or a friend anywhere as long as you have a pen or pencil and something to write on (I dare you to find something fun to write on). The first person draws a squiggle — a random line going in any direction, just let it free flow, without picking up his or her pencil. Then, the second person uses the base line, without changing it, to draw a picture. Whatever comes to your head just draw, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be imaginative.
3. Look at magazines. Now this is easy and something you’re already likely to do. Instead of just reading the latest gossip column about Victoria Beckham’s controversial chest, take a look at the ads and the layout of the magazine, some kind of thought went into the design of all of it. I like to go to the book store and read Advertising magazines (however backwards that may sound) to see the best creative minds out there working for big corporations. There, you not only see what is trendy in art but also how messaging and ideas can be conceived, developed, and delivered. Take a look at Archive or Communication Arts.
4. Go back to see the future. As most great creatives will tell you, history repeats itself. Design has never really gone anywhere new but just taken different elements and tweaked them to fit whatever deliverable package they happen to be on. So take a look at some old photos of classic cars, watch a movie from the 50s, go to your local museum, or rummage through your grandmother’s closet (on second thought, scratch that). I know you’ve seen fashion come back through time, but some of it needs to die and stay dead (yes, I’m talking to you The 80s). It’s important to look back at what creatives thought in the past because a lot of the same principles apply to today. Take a look at some of the great artists like Salvador Dali or Monet.
5. Do nothing. I know it sounds counterintuitive but stay with me. Take a breather, go relax, have some nothing time set aside every day. As soon as you do nothing and stop worrying about things your mind will jump to ideas that have been waiting in the wings for you to just acknowledge them. That’s why when you’re in the shower ideas just come to you. You’ve already got the idea, you just have to let it out.
7. Play. Go outside. Do something creatively unfocused. Try actively doing something that is completely unrelated to anything you have to work on. Have some fun, shoot the breeze about movies, do whatever you want. Just make sure you’re interacting and not mindlessly oozing in front of the television. Try some creative outlets online like Mr. Picasso Head.
The most important thing is just to get your brain flowing together with your thoughts. Being distracted by worries and negative things isn’t going to help. Just relax, do something you love, and you’ll be flowing with creativity in no time.
Now go own the world.You are currently browsing the Ravi Vora weblog archives for the Ravi Vora category.
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