One of the most memorable themes from teacher training was the focus on using names. At most corporate events I’ve attended in the last decade or so, name tags were given out, but not actually honored (as in, no one used them). But during our 3-week summer institute, we all explored our names, wrote about our names, and made the effort to use everyone’s name when speaking to them. In the first week of my first teaching job, my mentor’s biggest note for me was that I needed to use names more.

+++ title = “11” date = 2019 +++ Seeing is the act of processing visual information. Seeing isn’t judging. It’s natural for most people. Looking is a type of seeking. When we look for things, we’re filtering out information to find exactly what we need. Observing is a type of information gathering. We observe to collect data for later analysis. Different types of eye functions for different situations. You need to see when you’re driving.

+++ title = “11” date = 2019 +++ One of the very first pieces of advice that I remember receiving was live by your own rules. It sounds like a good idea. After all, if you don’t live by your own rules, you’re living under the rules of someone else, which can be problematic for a number of reasons. But the advice should have been: figure out how you will decide on your own personal rules.

I write this blog out of my own curiosity, out of a need to document ideas and thoughts. A need to hit publish and ship work every single day. If you’ve read my writing, thanks for hearing me out. I hope I am able to connect with you on occasion, to hear your ideas and thoughts. I want to be influenced and helped by your ideas, in the same way that I hope my ideas are helpful and influential to you.

+++ title = “11” date = 2019 +++ I was obsessed with movies as a kid, but not really with the cinematics. I was obsessed with the editing. The cuts, the fades, the title credits. So much so that I would sometimes escape by imagining my life as a movie that I was directing. Real life scenarios became scenes and I imagined how the cuts would look, and what music I would select to accompany these scenes.