I don't know about you, but every now and then I need a little boost in my self confidence. So today's inspirational post is Dr.Ivan Joseph's TEDx talk about this subject. Enjoy!

~Ally

     If you're an artist striving to find your place in the art world like me, you should totally watch this. His book is my new Bible. Enough said!

~Ally

      If you're familiar with Lewis Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" you've most certainly already stumbled upon the marvelous drawings of John Tenniel. But one thing I didn't know about him is that he was blind in one eye! So here are a couple more facts about him.
    John Tenniel was the third son of John Baptist Tenniel (1793–1879), a dancing-master, was born in London on 28th February, 1820. His biographer, Lewis Perry Curtis, has pointed out: "Living in genteel poverty in Kensington, his parents could not afford much formal education for their six children. Tenniel, the third son, attended a local primary school and then became the pupil of his athletic father, who taught him fencing, dancing, riding, and other gentlemanly arts. At the age of twenty, while fencing with his father, the button of his opponent's foil fell off and he suffered a cut that blinded his right eye - an injury that he concealed from his father for the rest of his life in order to spare him any pangs of guilt."
    Tenniel attended the Royal Academy but left in disgust at the quantity of teaching he received. When Tenniel was sixteen he began having his paintings exhibited at the Suffolk Street Galleries. He was soon recognised as a talented artist and he received several commissions, including the production of a fresco for the House of Lords.
     He also had a photographic memory and never used models or photographs when drawing. He wrote: "I have a wonderful memory of observation - not for dates, but anything I see I remember. Well, I get my subject on Wednesday night; I think it out carefully on Thursday, and make my rough sketch; on Friday morning I begin, and stick to it all day, with my nose well down on the block. By means of tracing-paper I transfer my design to the wood and draw on that. Well, the block being finished, it is handed over to Swain's boy (Joseph Swain was the engraver) at about 6.30 to 7 o'clock, who has been waiting for it for an hour or so, and at 7.30 it is put in hand for engraving. That is completed on the following night, and on Monday night I receive by post the copy of next Wednesday's paper. Although I have never the courage to open the packet. I always leave it to my sister, who opens it and hands it across to me, when I just take a glance at it, and receive my weekly pang." When possible, he arranged meetings with the leading politicians so that he could obtain a close look at the subjects of his drawings.

~Ally

      If you, like me, are a big fan of heroines in all medias - books, television series, movies, history, etcetera -, you'll sure like this text by Claire Legrand. It really gets you wondering. And, although "Girl Power" isn't so in vogue anymore, I'll still risk my "reputation" stating it here: GRRRRRRRRRL POWEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRR!!!!

~Ally

     I don't know a single person who hasn't heard about or seen a movie from the legendary Bruce Lee. His skills and Kung Fu style were so incredible it makes me a little jealous! What I didn't know about him is that he had a very interesting life philosophy. And you can check out some of it in the video above. Enjoy!

~Ally

      This wasn't meant to be a personal blog, but today's post is a little bit closer to my heart than any other has been so far.
     For the past year, I've been strugling with myself trying to figure out the question: "what should I do with my life now I've graduated from college?" So far, the answer has taken many shapes, and several of them didn't appeal to me at all, so I'm still trying to figure out what it is I really want to do with my life, since I'm currently not happy being a Biologist. I believe this is a question many of us face in our mid-twenties, but not that many people bother to talk about it.
     You might be thinking "ok, too bad for you, but what does Alan Watts has to do with it?", and here is your answer: today I read a comic by ZEN PENCILS (a very inspiring comic site, which my friend Leo very gently recommended me) and the comic  number 98, published in january 8th, 2013, caught my eye. It was based in one of the many works of Alan Watts.
     Mr. Watts was an English philosopher and writer who played a large part in popularising Zen Buddhism in the Western part of the world. He gained a wide following after moving to the United States where he published numerous books on Zen and Eastern philosophy. During the 60s and 70s he toured extensively on the college lecture circuit and became a celebrity among the growing youth movement. He also has over 25 books published and more than 400 lectures recorded, many of which are available freely on YouTube.
     If you are facing the same troubles I am, I really recommend you read the comic. Even if you don't, it is a nice and inspiring way to brighten your day.

~Ally

     Today's post is an inspirational video by Tanya Davis, teching us that being alone is okay. Not only okay, being alone can be awesome, if you know how to enjoy your time with yourself. Gives us somethings to think about, especially when we consider that society these days has been making a huge effort to keep us with company at all times. To be afraid of being by yourself for a long time makes no sense. Watch this video and maybe you'll understand why.

~Ally

     After watching the new Disney movie "Frozen" a couple of times, I found out that one of my favorite songs in it (called "Vuelie") were based on chants from the Saami people. So I decided to dig a little deeper about their history and traditions. Oh boy... Amazing folks.
     Saami (also referred to as Sami) in Scandinavia can be compared to many other indigenous peoples. They now live in relative harmony with the mainstream population, but the relationship has by no means been one without conflict. In the past the Sami have been known as Lapps, though this term is now widely considered to be derogatory. The giant area named Sapmi, which covers all land north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Russian Kola Peninsula, as well as south into Jämtland and Dalarna in the northwest part of Sweden near the Norwegian border, is partly recognized as a Sami nation in all these countries. In Sweden, the Sami homeland area covers more than 150 000 square kilometers, around 35 percent of the countries' total area. There are Sami political, cultural and youth organizations in all four countries and a Sami parliament in each of the three Nordic countries. The Sametingslag, the Swedish Sami Parliament was established on January 1, 1993.
     Through the years many efforts have been made to assimilate the Sami into the mainstream culture of Sweden with the hard custody of Sami peoples resulting in a great loss of their culture. The Sami still bear the consequences of language and culture loss related to generations of them being taken to missionary and/or state-run boarding schools, and the legacy of laws that were created to deny their rights. Yoiking, drumming and scarification have been regarded as "magic" or "sorcery", and banned during various periods of history. The Sami language has been forbidden in schools. In 1913-1920, the Swedish race-segregation policy created an institute which collected research material from living people and graves. Sami women were sterilized under the auspices of a programme that was in existence until 1975. In the 1990s the Swedish government revoked the Sami exclusive right for hunting within their communities and created a new law permitting non-Sami people to fish in lakes previously reserved for the Sami. Throughout history, settlers have been en-couraged to move to the northern regions through incentives such as land - and water - rights, tax-allowances, and military exemptions. Strong economic development in the form of mines and railways has led to a weakening of status and economy for the Saami. In 1998 Sweden formally apologized for the wrongs committed against the Sami and the authorities have been making an effort to build up Sami cultural institutions and promote Sami culture and language to make up for past suppression. But economic development, like the world's largest onshore wind farm being built where the Eastern Kikkejaure village has its winter reindeer pastures, are a cause of concern for the Sami.
     Though they have, in most aspects, been fully assimilated in modern Swedish society, the Sami still proudly and energetically retain their traditional culture and lifestyle. A large majority of the Sami live in permanent urban and rural settings but an element of their traditional nomadic lifestyle remains as the reindeer herders and their families follow the herds over huge areas, from the forests in winter to the mountain highlands in summer, though today they use modern equipment such as snowmobiles, motorcycles and helicopters, rather than skis and dogs. The traditional Sami tepee is still used.

~Ally

      Today I learned and started to admire the life and work of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, who would have been 107 today. It’s very difficult to imagine, as I sit here reading about her on the internet, that people used to use things like paper and pencils and chalk and slide rules to solve (and often not solve) complicated problems.
      Some awesome stuff she did: Grace Hopper developed first compiler, allowing computer calculations to move beyond simple arithmetic and into more complex problems. She also developed first standardized computer language, COBOL, which laid the groundwork for all the languages we use today.
     One day she found a dead moth disrupting one of the electronic relays in the Mark 1 computer, and upon removing it (and fixing the computer), the term “debugging" was born. Awesome! And beyond that, she was a charming scientific communicator, and possessed a marvelous ability to make people, and remember this was in a time when almost no one owned their own computer, truly appreciate both the importance and the complexity of computing technology.

~Ally

     An excellent TED talk. Seriously.

~Ally