Friday, October 31, 2008

Imagination is more important than knowledge

Anyone know who said that? Anyone?

Remember I loooooove quotes. They are just so darn thought provoking. Well if you didn't get it I'll give you a hint. Theory of relativity or E=MC2 ring a bell?
That's right Albert Einstein.

One of my most favorite people. He was such an interesting guy. He just fascinates me. He was a scientist that had such a respect for imagination, art and God.

I came by this article yesterday that I had ripped out of one of my Wired magazines. The article was called "The World Needs More Rebels Like Albert Einstein." It talks about what a rebel he was and how he struggled so much in school. He was even slow to speak as a child. He had a defiance for authority and strict learning. His school teachers thought he was lazy and stupid. When he was asked how he came up with the theory of relativity this was his response - The ordinary adult never bothers his head about the problems of space and time. But I developed so slowly that I began to wonder about space and time only when I was already grown up.

Apparently there's something to keeping that child-like wonder. When Einstein was 26 he landed a job as a third-class examiner at the swiss patent office. He alienated him self so much from professors he was unable to earn his doctorate or get any kind of self-respecting academic job. But this was the perfect place for him...

This was the launching pad for his theory of relativity... he saw trains rolling by that had been synched with clocks at the nearby train station and the rest is history. Other scientist had come close but they were too blinded by the dogmas of the time. Einstein discarded the notion of absolute time, one of the sacred tenants of classical physics since Newton.

Einstein knew how to think outside the box and because he had imagination he could take his knowledge and come up with something absolutely impossible (or so we thought) !

Here are some other quotes by him. Really interesting fellow. Encourage that child-like wonder in yourself and your children - who knows maybe they will grow up to be geniuses or have names synonymous with the word.

"The only real valuable thing is intuition."

"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."

"God is subtle but he is not malicious."

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."

"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."

"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

More related to this subject later...

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

It's SOAP BOX TIME!

Is everyone else out there as disappointed with this election as I am? I find myself at a crosswords with a decision between two candidates... bad and worse. Should I just pick the lesser of two evils?

Both have shown inconsistencies and want to force me to be generous or in Obama's words "spread the wealth around". But I've earned that money... I went out and worked for it. And now because you think I need to help others you are going to force me to do that. Does that promote generosity or hinder it? No wonder people are stingy when it comes to tithing or giving to charities. The government forces them to give already so there isn't much left. I believe that since FDR the government has tried become "the church" and the church has gladly encouraged it. The government and legislation is the substitute for our morality or our fervor for sharing our convictions.

We have become lazy. The church has become lazy. Why try to convince people that what they are doing is wrong... lets just make a law that forces them to do it! Does it make our society better? Maybe it keeps some people from breaking those laws out of fear. But those that are convinced to do something are going to do it anyway. Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still. I love that quote. We don't try to touch the heart anymore we just want the government to force.

So where does that leave our civil liberties? Do we really have much of them anymore? Our forefathers would be appalled at where we are today.

So we make laws and the church sits on their laurels and gets fat and lazy. No need to do anything... the government will take care of making people be moral. I'm not saying we don't' need laws for some things... but we have gotten legislation crazy. Lets make a law for everything!

so back to the election... I'm still praying about what to do. Either way... these next four years are not going to be in good hands. I'm just glad God presides over it all. But a part of me wonders if this isn't going to be the wake up call this country needs. That's how things changed at the beginning of this country. We were tired of taxation without representation. We were passionate about what we believed, so much so that we would commit treason to fix it. Where has that passion for freedom gone? You know the requirements for the house or the senate was when it was first formed? They must meet at least once a year. Once a year! That's how small they wanted the federal government to be. They knew how dangerous a government can be when it becomes bigger than "We the People"

I'm just very disappointed. God give me wisdom and discernment, because I'm at a loss for what to do.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

It's LIVE!

Yep that's right. The family biz has a website. Blood, sweat, tears, late nights, and messaging between Garren and I every Monday, Tuesday and Friday night until 10 for the past month all made this happen. Go check it out... look around. If you see a mistake I don't want to know!! Just kidding! We still have a few tweaks left but it pretty much there.

american standard

Then keep watching for a billboard out near grovetown and a billboard off pine log road in Aiken.

We have finally arrived... we exist!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Let the bruises begin!

My boy is all boy. He has his first bloody lip and a little bruise on his bum. He's crawling all over, pulling up and walking around. And of course, with all that comes falling down. I try to let him explore as much as he wants (within reason). And I try not to make a big deal when he falls because then he will see it as a big deal and cry more. He's a little trooper and most of the time just picks himself back up and keeps going. He's definitely all boy!

Also Corben got a wonderful present in the mail the other day! A client emailed me last week about some new work and asked how the baby was doing. She wanted to send a gift for him which was really sweet of her. So a few days later I received three wonderful books in the mail.

The first is "Alphabet by Van Fleet which has lots of textures in it for Corben to feel as I read it to him. He loves it! He is so into textures right now. Then there is my favorite little book so far ...
"I love you through and through" by Bernadette Rossetti-shustak. The little boy in the book looks just like Corben and it is just a wonderful little book.

The third was "My first book of numbers" by Eric Carle. The book is divided into two sections and you have to match the number on top with the right amount of different fruits on the bottom. Very good for problem solving skills. This was such a great gift! Its really neat that Corben is beginning to be able to appreciate/use the gifts that are given to him. I'm so excited to see him grow more and sad to see his baby-ness start to fade.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Braggin on my Baby

I haven't posted any pics of Corben and I think that is long overdue...

Boys will be boys!





Telling it like it is :)

Have you ever been called out? Not really intentionally but after you have the conversation you sit back and think... well maybe they are right? Most of the time this kind of statement will come from family... and it did.

As I've said before I have been super busy with the whole family business. I spend my nights on the computer or on the phone or both. Once I was on the phone, IMing, reading, and nursing at the same time. I know ... I'm ridiculous.

So It's Saturday night and where am I? At my computer then making a call to John about text approval for the website. We get talking about other things and he was telling me he was hanging out with his girlfriend and some friends and they just got pizza. Then he chimes in and says... "you know Gifton, you really should be doing something fun on a Saturday night." I laughed it off and blamed it on him being a slave driver. Then he keeps going... "you really should get out more. Tell you what, this band is going to be in town at such and such date and we should go. Okay."

It's really cool that John would invite me to do that. We have always been on the same wavelength personality wise and music wise. We just "get" each other. However, my family doesn't really "do" stuff together outside of family functions like Birthdays and holidays. So it was really cool that we are making an effort to be more proactive in our family relationship.

BUT STILL! I get off the phone and I stare at my computer. Wow, I'm 24 sitting at home on a Saturday night working.... working.... Having a life is a luxury we don't really have right now. You know what we do for fun? Get out of the house and go for walks in the park with our son. Which is great... don't get me wrong! But you know what I would love to be able to say we do on the weekends? The beach (I can't wait for Corben to see the beach for the first time), mountains, concerts, go for drinks with friends, go dancing all night, snowboarding, kayaking, see a play, go to an art gallery, paint in my studio (I would have to have a studio first :) ).

For now this is where we are.. so you know what I'm going to do? View beautiful seascapes and landscapes on my computer, watch a live concert on utube, have a cup of hot cocoa with a little cinnamon for something different, dance in my living room (with no one around to laugh), snowboard on my wii fit, and sketch my dreams on my sketchpad. This is where I am... My dreams are still alive, some are today and some are for tomorrow. I'm just a work in progress.

Friday, October 10, 2008

We are definitely a MAC family now!

That's right my husband is now a full time employee of Peachmac, the new mac retailer opening in the area. He will be a "Mac Specialist" :). He is so excited and I am so excited for him. I might be more excited than he is. Having a husband that loves his job is sooo beneficial for your marriage. I don't know how many years that Chad has not liked the jobs he has been at. It puts a strain on your marriage when you hubby comes home everyday exhausted and unhappy because he has had to be at a place that he can't stand for eight hours. I wouldn't be peachy either! Reminds me of my serving days... eh lets not go there. I think everyone should have to be a server for at least six months during their lifetime. In hopes that it would give everyone perspective and respect for the people that are waiting on them! It is a tough job, especially when half the people treat you like dirt.

Anyway ... I said I wasn't going to go there and I still went there... typical of me :). So Chad is going to be in heaven and is going to get paid for something he does for fun anyway. Just the other day he helped a stranger who needed more info on macs while he was looking around Best Buy. He's such a dork... but hey those are the people most people end up working for. Gosh I need those etsy buttons!

Oh and another tooth update. Corben now has a tooth on the top and there are two more bumps in his mouth. They are coming full force! This last one pushing through wasn't nearly as bad as the first thank goodness. He was really just screaming when the tooth was actually popping through. Poor little guy. My baby is growing up. He has teeth when he smiles... there is just something about that toothless little smile...sigh... now it's not there anymore.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Post Scriptum

Yep that's what P.S. stands for. Do you ever wonder about random stuff like that? Post Scriptum (Latin: Post Script; an additional message after the main body of text in correspondence).

Seems like forever since I've blogged. Things are good, just going with the crazy flow as usual. I just finished watching P.S. I love you. A movie that has been on my list of movies to see for a while. It was sad, funny and inspiring. Love movies like that. And who couldn't love some gruff and lewd irish humor. Isn't it funny how crude humor is so much more palatable when it is being spoken with a thick irish accent? You just expect irish people to be loud, funny, lovable, a little rough around the edges, and people that love their beer. I know it's a little stereotypical.. but that's the person I picture when I think "irish." They actually traveled to Ireland for part of the movie. Some of the shots were so beautiful. I've always wanted to visit. I am part Irish (don't really know how much) and ever since I've known that I wanted to go there and visit. Anyway... loved the movie.

Lately I can't really explain it or why I'm feeling this way but... I'm feeling more like myself. I met a new person and held a wonderfully interesting conversation and felt intellectually stimulated. Normally I would be really shy... but I wasn't. I was completely comfortable in my own skin. It's like all of a sudden "I'm back"? Whatever that means. I don't care how it happened but I'm here.
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