RATIONALE

RATIONALE

AIM:

The aim of my blog was to try and cover several topics and subjects of interest to me, that I come across with in my daily life. As time goes by so quickly, I sometimes forget to stop and take a moment to cherish what I see, benefit from whom I meet, and feel inspired from these things that  I love. This blog has helped me to stop and take that moment to talk about life's passion and my own inspirations.

INSPIRATIONS:

Cultural Experience

People among us come from many other countries, either far away or close. Yet still contribute to a single common aspect, each country has its own cultural associates, and traditions to hold on too. So, whenever I meet a person from a different country I make sure I learn something about their country. Whether it is simple questions like what sorts of food they eat? or what type of clothes they wear? Each aspect accounts to something remarkable for that person, it is their lifestyle after all. I enjoy traveling and I learn a lot from these trips of entering a place strange to me, yet home to others. This summer I went to visit Morocco for the very first time. I have shown and expressed a lot about Morocco in my blogs, as it is truly a country filled with architectural masterpieces and tremendous designs and culture. Each city had so much to offer me and my eyes were always open to more, as I felt very interested and inspired constantly. Simple objects like doors were beautifully carved and designed, which made me love the effort the country's people put in to create them. It is funny when I think in comparison how plain the house doors look like here in Britain. However, that is what i mean with, every country provides something different. The doors in Morrocco looked different to the norm, and that made them so special. In general the whole Morocco trip was truly inspiring to me. Having lived in Saudi Arabia before, I also went to visit the country before the trip to Morocco. I  respect the Saudis traditions and culture, as they take into account the Islamic traditions, which is my religion too. I have written about the female cultural dress, the Abayah which covers the female silhouette fully. There are so many various designs nowadays for the abayah, that no one seems to be wearing plain black anymore, I like how it has become like a fashion garment they wear while they carry out the function of covering properly at the same time. However, there could be several objectives there as well, as it could become an issue if it carries out to change more into a silhouette form or too colorful. The Saudi laws can be quite strict at times to some, and that takes me to the topic and research of my dissertation project.

Dissertation Project

A Saudi woman behind the veil-the capability of the woman power which has been held down. It is of interest to me because i have spent several years living in the country, and socializing with the Saudis too. It is a finding I want to research more about, because I have been living among an environment where women do not hold much power, yet they are equally able to in comparison to the other gender in the field. They are very strong women that I wish to have their voices heard. I will take this source into great account for my project.

Interests

My source of inspiration comes from anything that I think has a sense of individuality to itself, whether it is an artist or architectural building, I like something that comes across as 'different' and that what I believe makes something unique. For example, a dress sense could show individuality when someone wears certain type of clothes that others usually do not. I think it is important to be different as differences are based upon ones influences. That is how i see it. I think in school, children and teenagers face difficulties and bullying when being different, as it is not seen as being the norm, and that is where inspirations become limited as teenagers care too much about what their other peers might think of them when they express their own views and opinions.

I look up to artists, who express what they love through a beautiful talent they possess and share to the world. I have a list of artists that I would loved to have written about them and described their talent, but I aimed to have a list of various subjects covered and not focus about a certain type of area. However, the artists i have mention come from different countries, different age groups and provide us with different talents.

Being interested in advertising, I come across so many measures of advertising just walking anywhere, i do not even have to think about it, because it is always there and available- it causes me to think about them and appreciate, whether it is videos seen on YouTube or campaigns seen on adverts, I have included some that i find unique and well thought of and planned. I really enjoy humorous adverts, that make you smile. My favorite video adverts must be the nandos, and Tmobile adverts I've shared in my blog.

Blogging

Keeping an updated blog throughout the summer has been a 'fun thing' to me. I got to read about other peers inspirations and findings, and I could not help but feel amused. I have never had a blog before, so writing and sharing my own inspirations and experiences that I usually do not share so much in conversations has been truly great. I think I am going to continue keeping an inspirational blog for the future, it does not kill to share what you like and benefit from.

My favourite quotes

I am a big fan of well thought of words......words that combine together to form quotes with tremendous meanings. Here's some of my most favourite quotes by some amazing individuals:

Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.
t.s.eliot
There is no failure, except in no longer trying; no defeat, except from within; no insurmountable barrier, except our own inherent weakness of purpose.
Unknownymous
How can you be a failure, when you've never tried anything?
Andy Capp
As far as I'm concerned, people who think they fear failure have got it wrong. They really fear success. If you really feared failure, you'd be very successful. People who truly fear anything stay as far away from it as possible.
Barbara Sher
Intelligence is not to make any mistakes, but to see quickly how to make them good.
Bertolt Brecht
You may be disappointed if you fail but you are doomed if you don't try.
Beverly Sills
Many of our fears are tissue paper thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them.
Brendan Francis Behan
You're less likely to lose too often than to quit too soon.
Dave Wienbaum
If you have the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.
David Viscott
Aim for success not perfection... Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person.
Dr. David Burns
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
Elbert Hubbard
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, I have lived through this horror. I can take the next think that comes along. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt
You wouldn't worry so much about what other people thought if you realized how seldom they do.
Eleanor Roosevelt.
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
Erica Jong
The only limits to our realizations of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
George Bernard Shaw
I'd rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate.
George Burns
Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourself a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.
Helen Keller
Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
Henry Van Dyke
It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.
Herodotus (485 - 425BC)
A fear of commitment is perhaps the most deadly sin of all, because it's not simply your failure to commit to yourself, your dreams, your hopes. Underlying a lack of commitment is a low self-esteem. To be successful, you have to believe that you deserve success. You have to have an image of yourself so tangible that you can reach out and touch
it. Peller Marion
He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His every thought is allied with power, and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome. Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force.
James Allen
Fear is a reaction, courage is a decision.
Joe Tye
Failures are divided into two classes - those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought.
John Charles Salak.
There is only one real failure in life that is possible, and that is, not to be true to the best one knows.
John Farrar
Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.
Kahil Gibran
Failure is a success if we learn from it.
Malcolm Forbes
Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is freedom.
Marilyn Ferguson
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear.
Mark Twain
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain
You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call “failure” is not the falling down, but the staying down.
Mary Pickford
Who feareth to suffer, suffereth already, because he feareth.
Michel de Montaigne
Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong.
Peter T. Mcintyre
Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.
Pope John XXIII
The purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things
Rainer Maria Rilke
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Robert F. Kennedy

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat. 

Theodore Roosevelt
With every victory over adversity, you grow in wisdom, stature and experience. You become a better, bigger person each time you meet a problem.
W. Clement Stone
The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything
William Connor Magee
The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear.
William Jennings Bryan
Sometimes you just have to take the leap, and build your wings on the way down.
Yobi Yamada  

GIANT floor advert

I came across this very large advert, when I was looking at interesting and unique ads. Saatchi & saatchi are behind this amusing advert in Jakarta, Indonesia. This one aims for Jakarta's pet emporium, JAKPETZ.

What's amusing is that, it has been displayed on the floor in a mall in Jakarta, and the way to view it is from above looking down. So people on the stairs and escalators on the upper floors, will understand what this advert is about.

It has an image of a dog scratching his ear, and beside it is a slogan saying 'get them off your dog'. Now, the people walking throughout the advert will look and resemble the fleas on the dog from above. I think it is an very interesting concept and the way they covered the subject is really clever. what a great way to prove a point.

Braille

I decided to look more into braille- which is the method used by blinds as a means of communication to read and write. It has been recognised since 1821, and it's great that the blind have not been restricted from reading and writing, and that's why I think this system is so great. 

Letters and numbers

A, 1	B, 2	C, 3	D, 4
E, 5	F, 6	G, 7	H, 8
I, 9	J, 10	K, 11	L, 12
M, 13	N, 14	O, 15	P, 16
Q, 17	R, 18	S, 19	T, 20
U, 21	V, 22	W, 23	X, 24
Y, 25	Z, 26

I looked into what type of designs there's been made with braille, as I thought they must have their own sets of designs in their language. I found interesting t-shirts and jewlerry, which made me glad to see, because I find this little things important. Here's some images of some of the items I in particularly liked:           

                        

hope                           

                                                                              

                                           LOVE

Macro photography

Brian Valentine is a macro photographer, he became interested in the field when he bought his first SLR camera, and starting taking macro images. He developed his hobbie further along and has become aware with all the fascinations and fine details macro photography can produce. His flickr photos are so beautiful, and largely contains photos of nature, and what nature brings along, insects. The photos make you feel like the subject you see is right next to you, because of its great detail. I have found a short interview, where he answers what type of camera he uses to capture his photos, I am sure many of you out there are wondering what camera he uses to capture the tremendous images, which takes you to a place you've never seen so close. Brian states 'I use canon dslr bodies with either a sigma 105mm EX lens or a canon MPE-65 (high power macro lens), I often use flash. I tend to hunt for subjects so a tripod is not really an option so i hand hold the camera often with the aid of a bean pole for stabilization. I also use focus stacking to increase the DOF of photographs'. 

Its surprising how a macro insect such as a fly and flower can produce such vibrant and colourful contrasts on a photo. I especially like his photos, which contain the vast zoom of the raindrops and the refractions they produce in the images. I am sure it takes a lot of patience to capture such beautiful outcomes.

Flash of genius

Robert Kearns is a a Father of six children and happily married to his wife Phyllis. One day while he was driving his car, he paid more attention to the wind blades for his car, while the rain was pouring down. He realised how irritating the wind blades were with their constant movement, and how it did not make it easy for him at all to see the road in front of him. Being an engineer, he takes it into consideration and starts coming up with ideas and ways to develop the wind blades further. His basement becomes his workshop, which he uses on a daily basis to work on his wind blades. He successful develops a set of wind blades which move every few seconds, and not continuously like they have normally been used to function. 

He realises that all cars could take advantage of these wind blades, and decided to take his invention to Ford's company, to demonstrates what he has achieved. Ford became quite impressed with what Robert had to offer, and was willing to plan to contribute his secrets to them for a deal. Ford requests for a list of manufacturing objects which helped developing these wind blades and a costs unit for each. Robert is told to wait for a reply from ford.

However time passes by, and Robert never hears from Ford again. After a couple of years,while driving his car, and stopping at the traffic lights, he notices a ford related car passing by in the opposite lane with the same wind blade function as his. He becomes Impatient and frustrated, and decides to go to the ford dealers convention to see what is going on. He suddenly realises that Ford had stolen his wind wiper idea for their new car models without providing him any credit/benefit or deal payment. He becomes very disturbed from what he saw and discovered. He starts so set up legal attributes.....and from there you would have to watch the movie in order to find out the ending. It is a movie based on real life, which makes it more interesting too. It is quite funny how you can find out how certain major manufacturers steal another's idea without making a deal with them and giving them credit for it. It is sad to hear news like this, but what can i say it happens, and it makes us humans more careful about our ideas and developments that we acquire.

Abayah designs

Having lived in saudi Arabia for almost seven years, I have got in experience a different culture to my own and most interesting, lifestyle. The abayah, being the ordinary garment that all women and teenagers tend to wear whenever they are being exposed to the opposite gender, is a daily clothing item that they wear. It is black, and quiet looks like a robe, that you put on top of your clothes that your wearing. It is function is to hide the silhouette of the female body and it keeps them looking reserved which is very ideal for them, living in Saudi Arabia.
A few years back, I don't think many western people had ever heard of the abayah but recently it's become something people witness and understand normally, when talking about the country or visiting it. To my surprise there's even been fashion shows held specifically for abayahs, and top major brands such Christian Dior and Nina Ricci, as are taking part in creating beautifully abayahs. It is becoming a more internationally recognised piece f clothing item, which I believe is really good. (Summer, 2009) The french fashion show called the Saks Fifth Avenue Riyadh and Jeddah was held in Paris, France, with elegant models walking the runway with the designed abayahs. 21 designers took part in designing the abayahs. They served the purpose abayahs were supposed to serve, cover the female body, yet displaying an element of nice designs which would serve as a fashion garment for the many Saudi women. No one said it needs to be all black.....