Jewelty TeaCup Tower

I've had the idea of:

SNOW - each piece unique
Samantha Najarro's Original Works

for quite some time. Then when I found Etsy.com I knew it was finally going to happen.
I've had the idea of this tower for a few months now and I'm happy to say it's finished, photo's have been taken and it's been priced and up on the site.
Yay!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SamanthaNajarro

5% only

1st off, Happy October 1st!

After reading about dark energy and dark matter in the universe from Nasa.
I am slightly disturbed, moderately relieved but mainly intrigued.
The gist according to me...
Even if you learned everything there is to possible learn in the whole wide world, it would only account for about 5% of everything in the universe there is to know. So the next time something seems impossible just think that there's a 95% chance that you're wrong. There's a whole 95% that's unexplained and unseen.

If there is so much that we haven't seen and don't know how can we be 100% of what we do know?

When I only know one side of a story I feel that I don't know much at all. If science knows that they're not seeing the whole picture how can they be sure they're describing what they do see accurately?

If you see one bead are you sure you know what the whole necklace looks like?

Are we doing that on a regular basis?

Buying a necklace based on one bead?

Accepting a theory based on one known truth?

Am I stretching this a little far with that analogy?

hehe all the best and cheer's to a great weekend.

Filing is Sexy

The sexiest thing I thought of this morning was a filing system for my ideas.
I have been thinking about this for quite sometime.

Before I was trying to categorize and alphabetize but as the names and concepts are always adapting and molding this method quickly became futile.

This morning it all came together.

Organize by date of conception.

Then make a table to cross reference

The 'name's/working titles' of my idea's are always changing. An alphabetized table listing all the names and what date and number they correspond to can be checked before looking into a file.

Then of course have the same system set up on my computer.

There are always a bajillion ways to do something but this seems like the most efficient way for now.

Wow, ideas on organizing a system for ideas... yup, that's pretty up there on my sexy-o-meter.


PS. While doing this post I looked up photos for 'Nerd Alert' obviously And I happened upon a BAND called NERD ALERT
They're punk/punk/punk and only have three songs up. Check It!

PSS. Saying 'Check It!' makes me think of
"The Dominant View" by King Prawn

This has to be my favorite photo

Sometimes, I feel like this...

Happy Wednesday everybody!

Society and Suicide

This morning I read about another gay teen that comitted suicide.
It really made my blood boil.

I usually like to start off all my arguments with "maybe I'm wrong" so I can talk freely about whatever comes to mind without offense...

My Belief: Society causes suicide.
 
When a society is oppressive it leads to outcasts. When an outcast is bullied and tormented because they are stretching the limits of the social structure in which they live; they act in one of two ways. They rebel, so strong in character, so fearless, so determined they take action and expose who they are. Second choice, and probably a first thought, is suicide. Removing yourself from the society that has made it clear wants you ejected. 
Our society is sick.

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Our global society is sick and so sick only because nobody cares.
What would wake up the world to treat everyone with respect and kindness?

I feel when I take the views of our society or the views of the vocal majority I am not being a true caring and compassionate person. I am merely living out of fear and complacency because I desperately want to be accepted. It's when I see myself as an individual with my own values holding onto all the truths I have come to know, that is when each of my actions represents me. Only then am I able to act with strength, honesty and compassion.

The prime rule and teaching of our current society is to be accepted. That need is ingrained before all else. That rules us and our actions. Maybe that is to simple...
When we are accepted its easier for us to move around and it feels good.
Is that the best feeling?
In what ways are we taught that acceptance is the best thing?
Is acceptance a necessary goal of every moment?
Is that the root cause of every 'weak' step we take?
Could it be really as simple as teaching 'acceptance doesn't matter'?
Would that eliminate the root of all fear?

Being accepted causes great confusion.
I want to be accepted by he who screams the loudest because I don't want to be screamed at and I want to be protected by he who screams the loudest.
BUT
I want to be accepted by he who shows the most love and compassion because that is what resonates the most with me and makes me feel strongest.

Is acceptance of self the greatest strength you can posses?
When I know my truth I am able to draw on strength that allows me to talk with respect and kindness to those screaming the loudest...
I'm thinking of personal examples where I've had to say calmly "Don't scream and don't swear" to someone who is screaming and swearing.

hrmmm...

So perhapse teaching to accept yourself as you are first and then accept everyone as they are. As well as hold a zero tolerance policy for those who are actively intolerant.
...I'm scratching my head now...
Is it possible to only be intolerant of intolerance, oppressiveness, violence and crulty?
AND to make the mission even more intricate, treat those perpetrators with kindness and respect so you yourself do not fall into one of those actions...

If you can treat yourself and everyone you encounter with respect and kindness I think that is all it would take.
But then again...
Maybe I'm wrong.

"Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle" - Plato

Aviation Inspiration

I just can't get enough of this footage.

The first ever human powered air craft.

Made and flown right here in Ontario.

They're waiting for their official world record.

I can't wait to fly in one! It actually looks like a Giant bird the wings flap and everything!

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/864633--bird-plane-a-flying-first

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM9GJ3JOJv0

The perfect job

Yesterday I spent a lot of time praying and daydreaming. This explains perfectly how I feel when I take a moment to think on things:

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be." ~ PATANJALI YOGA (c. 200 BC)

My Hero's

Artists, creatives, visionaries and line-steppers are among my favorite hero's. My mentors have legacies I marvel at. Here are a few...

Pablo Picasso,
"I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else."
"You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea."
"Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not."

"The chief enemy of creativity is "good" sense."

"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
"Action is the foundational key to all success."
"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone."
"Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success."
"Give me a museum and I'll fill it."
"God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things."
"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
"My mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.' Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso."

Amelia Earhart

"I want to do it because I want to do it."
"Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done."

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself."

"My ambition is to have this wonderful gift produce practical results for the future of commercial flying and for the women who may want to fly tomorrow's planes."
"No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves."

Salvador Dali

"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."
"I have Dalinian thought: the one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous"
"There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction."
"Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure - that of being Salvador Dali."
"When I was three years old, I wanted to be a cook. When I was five, I wanted to be Napoleon. My ambition has done nothing but grown, and now I only want to be Salvador Dalí and nothing more."

Antoni Gaudi

"Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the creator."

He may not be as quotable but his work speaks for itself Click to link

Stumbled upon where the obsession started

I was looking for I can't quite remember what, and it brought me to journals from a few years back. Where I stumbled upon journal entries with "the Louvre" in big letters. Sketches of the Eiffel tower. "Live in Paris" written over and over. I have been drawing this out for four years+. I know I really fell in love with the Louvre after watching something on TV.

During World War II the museum was cleared of most absolutly everything (except things that were too heavy) and put in secret hiding places all around the world. After the war everything was returned!

I just thought that was so absolutely beautiful. All of that art was saved by the virtue of so many people in such a ferociously destructive time. And not only was it preserved it all was returned! I just have to sit there and feel that space. That is a level of trust and harmony that is not often achieved.

Then, there's the volume of pieces! If you spent one minute. Only a minute on each piece it would still take you a year to see everything (that's only factoring in time to sleep). That many pieces put into hiding and all returned. It's not ten of your closest friends holding onto your most valuable possessions, but the whole world.

Come on, that's awesome.

Paris B*TCHES!

I met a gay guy last night who said Biches a lot. It feels a little foreign for me to say but totally relevant to the situation.

I, Samantha Najarro, am going to Paris in January. That's right.

I might have a two bedroom apartment right across from the Louvre.

I've said for a few years now that I wanted to live in Paris. I've been there twice now and didn't love it but still had this obsessive feeling that I neeeeeed to be there. I want to study art. Visit the Louvre everyday. Paint, write. Learn what it means to be a Parisian. Eat lunch on the lawn of the Tour Eiffel. Dress up, go for walks, go to museums, go to art auctions and flea markets. Drink wine. Travel to other parts of France on the weekends. Crush grapes with my feet. And, best of all speak French like I live there.

I still can recount the exact moment I realized I was listening to French, spoken by the French. I was on my first trip to Spain with just my Dad. He wanted to take me to see his family and spend longer then 4 days a month together. I was 11 and my Grandmother had wrapped a bunch of trinkets to open on the plane, sure I would be board. We had down time in the airport so I started unwrapping and together we'd laugh at the ridiculousness of the random gifts. My Dad being a seasoned traveler shook his head at the amount of unnecessary baggage he now had to carry. I started looking around with my ears, I would point to people speaking another language and my Dad would name it. Dutch, Italian, Portuguese.
Then the voices of two women floated over to me and captivated me. I've always had a wild imagination and to me, if there was magical people like faeries that's the language they would speak. Spoken so quickly but not rushed and so soft. The word I associate with it most is 'Secret'. That language was like a soft, light gold, secret that I wanted in on. In awe I asked what they were speaking. "French, you're mother speaks French perfectly" I was surprised that that's what French sounded like. I had been learning Quebecois in school since gr. 3 and this did not resemble anything that my teachers or classmates said. Hearing that my Mom spoke French and that I wouldn't be able to ask her about it for a whole month reminded me about what she had said the previous day: I should only go away for two weeks. (I learned later she was terrified that my Dad would never bring me back) So I brought up to my dad, "what if I don't go for a month what if we only go for two weeks?" Not realizing that plane tickets cost a thousand dollars each (if not more) and thinking it was as simple as getting into a car and going home. There was some tension in his face then he took a breath I could see him choosing his words "Okay, we'll see. We'll go, see how you like it and when two weeks has passed we can go home."
That had to have been the fastest two weeks of my life. We we're sitting on the beach and the sun was getting hot. We were playing cards and it was almost time for a huge lunch made by Abuela. A daily contest in which I impressed everyone by being a bottomless pit. Pialla, Fresh fish, poucheros, the best tasting food after a long morning of swimming and having fun in the sun. "Okay" sighed my Dad "Tomorrow, we go home." I took a sharp inhale "WHAT!?! NO!" I was in shock. "Well," He said "It's been two weeks, I thought you wanted to just come for two weeks" I quickly replied "No, no no no no" He laughed and we talked about how the only way to travel was to go somewhere for a month. That you can't really get to know a place till you stay for at least a month.
That's when the poison of the travel bug went from sitting on my skin to being absorbed by my pores. I already decided from that trip I needed to go back and see more of Spain. See where my parents met, see France, and Switzerland, Norway, England. The Russia and Poland my Grandparents in Canada spoke of became more real.

And it begins again

Just thought I should insert: Since my last post I went to London, France, Mexico, Mexico again, the States. Whateves.