Minimalism: To Live Simply & Meaningfully

Props to minimalism: I fell in love with the minimalism when I was in school studying to be a designer. Now I live in a 400 square foot apartment in Korea. In design, I love things that maintain simplicity in their geometry, shape, material, and color. Things seem truer and purer this way. The challenge, the real sticky wicket of designing something to look like this, is that every detail becomes glaringly important to an item’s function. Everything on that product or thing has to have meaning. What good is a product that doesn’t do its job—even if it does look cool?

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Goodwill? More like Greatwill…

I’m not sure if it’s the colorful women’s blouse section or the semi to heavily used furniture that makes me instantly feel at home when I step into this unique smelling store. Blacks, Whites, Asians, Americans, people of the world: This is a place that knows no judgment. Whether you are buying clothes for your next Halloween party or legitimately updating your wardrobe, I’m sure Macklemore will meet you somewhere in between with nothing but encouragement…

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Randy Moss: The Freak

November 26, 1998 was the day that my love for sports was flipped upside down. I was in the fourth grade and just started playing tackle football. I began showing interest in watching Professional Football. I was at my Uncle’s house to celebrate the annual holiday of giving thanks (props) when we settled in to watch the Dallas Cowboys host the Minnesota Vikings. One minute into the game Randall Cunningham chucked the pigskin deep down the field and a purple flash ran under it and trotted into the end zone. At the end of the first quarter, I experienced déjà vu as once again Cunningham hurled the ball deep to the lanky receiver wearing the number 84 for another fifty-yard touchdown. Finally, as the third quarter was winding down, that same receiver caught a screen pass at midfield and literally ran past every member of the Cowboys defense for a fifty-six yard score.

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The Gospel of Peyton Manning

Our Peyton who art in Denver, hallowed be thy name. Thy passes come, thy will be done, on Earth as it was in Indy. Give us this day our daily touchdowns, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive Irsay for trespassing against you. Lead us all into amazement and deliver us from Brady… Amen.

Ladies and Gentlemen, members of the congregation; today I read to you from the Gospel according to Peyton.

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I Wish that I Could Be Like the Cool Kids

I’ve never considered myself “cool”. I’ve always had a skewed image of myself. Feeling inferior and unworthy has been a part of my DNA since I was little. Call it being overly humble or just being in serious need of expensive therapy. Whatever you want to label it, cool was a label that would never describe me. Smart and responsible, maybe. Cool? Hell no.

I’m sure we all went to school where cliques not only existed but they were encouraged. You had the jocks, the geeks, the artsy fartsies, the goths, and the cool kids. Ahhh, the cool kids- didn’t it seem like they had some type of imaginary, shining halo around them at all times? Life just seemed better on that side of school. We all wanted to be them but very few of us knew the secret password to get on the inside. But somewhere along the way the cool ones started to seem like the mean ones. The ones we despised. The ones we loathed but secretly wanted to be best friends with. If we could only get them to notice us…

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Starbucks

Smooth and brown, soft when it touches your lips. The perfect way to start your morning, and the only thing that could possibly interrupt anything you’ve been working on. “What would you do without it?”, they ask. “Why do you love it so much?”. Well, Starbucks, I don’t know. And that is why I give you props. You keep us coming back for more as if we’re fiending for our greatest addiction. Of course we can spend $.50 at our local gas station, but guess what, it’s the secret recipe that has our brains overlooking the overpriced beverage. You’ve succeeded… Congrats.

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Tips for Traveling the World on a Budget

Italy, Spain, Morocco, Ireland, England, France, Belgium, Switzerland… the list of the places I’ve seen goes on and on. I want to give props to traveling, specifically, traveling in your 20’s. People have given several different props to picking up and moving to a new place on a whim; my passion, my joy comes from something similar, but it’s picking up and traveling to those unknown places and experiencing a new city, a new culture, and making new memories.

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Why Everyone Needs Work Friends

There’s the family you chose and the family that chose you… in a sense. What I’m here to recognize most admirably are your work friends and your social friends and the wonderful difference. There is a great and vast difference between the way you and your work crew operate and the operations of yourself and your social circle. Outside of work you befriend people that have common interests, lifestyles and humor. At work, you befriend people mostly because the cube farm can’t operate without some level of camaraderie; I beg you to look deeper.

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The Blood Moon 2014

I woke up early this morning to witness a celestial wonder: a lunar eclipse. But not just any lunar eclipse, a full 1. And not just any full lunar eclipse, but a red 1. AND not just any red full lunar eclipse, but 1 that’s part of a tetrad – an uncommon series of 4 lunar eclipses that occur over a 2-year period. AND (last 1 I swear) not only was it a red full lunar eclipse included in a tetrad, but it also participated in a scarcely seen event called a selenelion- the opportunity to view a blood moon and sunrise simultaneously.

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