Entrepreneurs

Had a long brainstorming session with chums from my high school about a project to help the impoverished in the Bacolod province of the Philippines. If this plan works we will train the locals to fabricate parts and machinery for industrial use. We will teach kids how to make CAD (Computer Aided Designs) to be outputted in 3D Printers. One exciting idea led to another.

This is what I do. This is what I enjoy. I want you to experience that too. I know this isn’t for everyone but many who are never thought they’d be an entrepreneur. If you are employed and have marketable skills, and willing to get out of your comfort zone — let’s bring out the creative entrepreneur in you.

I used to be employed and was hidden in the back office cave. My social skills were never encouraged. My boss kept me ignorant and enjoyed the spotlight with the clients. He spoke as if he was the creator. It was only when I started my own business that I was forced to speak in public and learned to express myself. So if you’re one of those “back-office” people, let me share that work (accomplishing something) does not have to be a 9 to 5 job (getting paid for your service).

I’ve been to several of these early project stages that grew into “something big.” It normally starts with an awareness of the talent in the room and then ideas bounce like heated pop corn. It’s great when elements fuse together among like-minded people. Don’t be like some people who are too pragmatic and are blinded by the monumental task and fail to see the benefits. Be the opposite of that. Enjoy the process and delight in the creative gears fitting in place.

My Dad was an entrepreneur and he passed that trait to me. I learned to question a lot. I discovered how things work by destroying quite a few toys and appliances while growing up. I learned to make do with the little that I had. Learned to cook with only the ingredients at hand. If this sounds like you, you might want to start your own business.

This is what it means to be an entrepreneur. Of course you need to pray about it. Get feedback from people you trust and align with people who will accompany you in your journey. You’ll need these friends because it’s going to be a rough ride. I’m currently advising Violet (not her real name), a young lady who started a catering business. Her capital is small but she’s determined. And so far, her lunch packs have sold out with every venture. She is a victim of many unfortunate incidents so she needs the extra income to lift herself out of her debt. Please pray for Violet. And if you’d like to help contribute to her meager capital, please get in touch with me.

In my world, the person who makes the most money doesn’t win. It’s the one who has lived the most and helped more people — that person’s the real winner.

TGIF people!

Raoul

Joke of the Week

Thanks to Bob of Baltimore for this joke.

Video of the Week

Thanks to Arthur of Singapore for this video

Parting Shots

Thanks to Tom of Pasadena, CA

Thanks to Naomi of N Hollywood, CA

I found these.

The post Pronouns appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Banff Avenue in the roaring heat, in the town of the same name, in the summer of 2012. Vacationers paraded up and down the finely-swept sidewalks. They wore shorts, pushed double-strollers, devoured ice cream and took photos of the cranky mountain peaks. While scrambling to replace camera batteries, parents and their teenagers looked for bison burgers or killed time until a $75-dollar fondue extravaganza of snake and alligator. A seemingly endless traffic jam of car-jeep-crossovers-green, maroon, black, red or blue-but all very outdoorsy-looking and many with canoes or kayaks strapped to their tops, honked every two seconds, each making illegal left turns or looking for parking where there wasn’t any.

Yet the cranky mountain peaks oversaw everything, especially in the back streets, where I stole a glimpse. I too snapped a few shots.

Cyclists appeared everywhere too. Spandex-clad athletes, either in packs or just resting in the public spaces, were omnipresent. One gray-haired cyclist from Calgary, a guy about 50, covered in multicolored spandex, asked the woman at the information booth if there was a Quiznos sandwich place anywhere near here. She said no, only Subway, so he settled for instructions on how to find it. Harumph, he said.

Behind us, the cranky mountain peaks seemed to know they would outlast all the tourists. And the cyclists. And the car-jeep crossovers.

I wound up a block down the street, to the sound of a steel drummer doing Brahms and the earthy aroma of burning hickory in a sidewalk display-fireplace while I scoped out a public artwork: Three raven sculptures, each on a thin 30-foot-tall pedestal, surrounded a large cement area, circular and open. You know the Maltese Falcon, the jade bird Bogey gunned for in that flick? That’s what the ravens looked like. The hardened detail. The austere menacing profile, both ominous and delicate. One raven stared downward from his post, one gazed forward, and the third one looked upward, although slightly hidden by a few tree branches.

It didn’t feel like I ‘discovered’ the ravens. On one hand, yes, I asked the woman at the info booth after reading about the ravens in her brochure, but it felt like the birds discovered me instead. This wasn’t easy. The third raven, for example, found me as I was looking for the other two. The brochure hadn’t described the birds, just that three of them stared down on Banff’s Heritage Square, which, turned out, sat right behind the steel drummer and the smell of burning hickory.

Among a slew of other things, ravens represented the Jungian Shadow, the darker side of the psyche. Writers inspired by serendipity often insisted on a life of travel for precisely this reason: to weave separate contexts together; to experience a heightened sense of awareness; to discover their own multidimensional selves. And the raven was a symbol of creativity, magic and finding balance — perfect for a traveler on Banff Avenue.

Raven imagery followed me for the rest of the trip. Creativity shifted into high gear and dominated the scene, beginning with the Three Ravens Restaurant, just one component of the Banff Centre, a world-renowned collaborative arts incubator and conference facility luring creative types from all over the world. Steeped in First Nations iconography, the landscape of this place inspired anyone who visited. It was a multidimensional, experiential vortex, a synesthetic interaction of different creative disciplines. Dancers collaborated with sound artists. Composers pooled resources with Processing programmers. Painters, sculptors and ceramicists set up shop and reaped influence from the staggering scenery enveloping the entire campus.

For example, music students coming here for work-study programs could even utilize “practice huts” integrated into the wilderness across the parking lot from the music building. As I skulked around the area, I heard students practicing trombone, piano and cello. A deer sauntered by for half a second. At more than one moment, a raven flew overhead.

The Banff Centre hosted numerous artist residencies all year long. Creative types made their way here and thrived in a visionary environment that placed them in constant contact with other artists, writers, researchers and other passionate, focused people. I was envious of anyone with passion and focus, so maybe that’s why I was here.

But categories didn’t matter. Creativity did. Everyone seemed to play off each other’s presence.

The aptly titled Kinnear Centre for Creativity & Innovation opened two years ago. On the wall inside the Maclab Bistro were the words, “May creativity, collaboration and friendship flourish in this place.” Even the employee vans were crafted with the tagline: Inspiring Creativity.

The Three Ravens restaurant, I was told, opened in 2008. The name was chosen from a staff contest. Maybe the raven watched over the Banff Centre in ways only the indigenous masters would understand. It was a magical, inspiring place. Roaming this campus, one was destined to create. The muses of serendipity would emerge, helping anyone to resolve his or her inner conflicts through creativity-precisely the mechanisms ravens tended to catalyze, according to the ancient archetypes.

Speaking of archetypes, during one particular aimless drift, I randomly ascended the staircase in the Paul D. Fleck Library & Archives, only to see a complete set of Carl Gustav Jung’s works, right there, at the top of the stairs. My gaze went straight to it. I had made the ascent, arrived at the top, and there he was. Jung. All of him. Talk about symbolism. I couldn’t have planned it better. I couldn’t have planned it at all.

The Banff Centre integrated me into its interdisciplinary arts and innovation vortex for what seemed like only a few brief days, but during my short experience, so much transpired behind every door, I couldn’t keep track of it all: A group bus tour of 50 seniors stopped by to eat and explore. The audio designer Shawn Murphy was lecturing in the Film & Media department. I infiltrated opera rehearsals for both Don Giovanni and the Secret Garden. In another building, a week-long leadership development program was unfolding.

All around me, there existed master classes, workshops, gatherings, research and collective theorizing. At nighttime, over in the theater building, The Club, a 180-capacity Cabaret-style venue, was rocking and jammed to the gills.

All the while, a special Banff Centre extension of dOCUMENTA (13), the provocative contemporary art exhibition in Kassel, Germany, also unfolded around me, as part of the Banff Research in Culture (BRiC) residency program. Scholars, radicals and cultural theorists exchanged ideas in all formats.

I departed the Banff Centre totally inspired, but I needed a coda, a final section of the symphony. Thus entered the Canmore Folk Festival, just down the highway, where I happened to witness a huge raven tearing up a dead animal in the middle of the road. The ravens in Alberta were gigantic, longer than my forearm.

At the festival, the legendary Ian Tyson talked on stage about his new album, The Raven Singer.

I’m not making this up. Neither did I know about this ahead of time, nor did I plan in advance to visit Second Story Books and randomly pluck a Mordecai Richler book off the shelf, only to see a raven on the cover. As I departed, I noticed the building next door was called Ravens Court.

I loved this stuff, worshiped this stuff, adored this stuff. Synchronicities were evidence of the muses at work. I was in the right place.

Even after I left Alberta proper, the ravens were with me everywhere. They were my friends, my brothers, my inspiration.

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Color Chemistry Lab Set

The Crayola Color Chemistry Set for kids is filled with pages of super cool experiments exploring your favorite subject — color! This set includes an instruction booklet that’s packed with 50 colorful science-y activities to try out at home. Create and blow up a volcano, learn about the color wheel and what colors create other colors. There are endless creative possibilities and bottom line — kids have fun.

3 Doodler Pens

3Doodler pens are a creative and affordable way to delve into 3D printing. They are a cool way to create structures and bring storybook pictures to life.

There are a treasure trove of stencils, projects and DIY ideas on 3Doodler.com (or YouTube) to keep one busy for weeks on end. They even have a mobile app that allows you to draw on-screen too!

The post Create, Build and Design; Activities for the Kids appeared first on Traveling Archive.