Typography Quotes

I bumped into an album full of inspiring quotes by one of my friend in facebook and it gets me into searching for more. I ended up spending two hours exploring the web, feasting my eyes and mind with this astoundingly written quote, and the artistic presentation adds even more impact to whatever the message is. Love it. Just wanted to share them. Sometimes we need words-of-encouragement and words-of-affirmation. I find this helpful. See which one moves you and stick with you the most and leave comment. =)

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Love as an Action

Love. Are we missing its essence? We say love in expressing our deepest affection. We say love as well very conveniently for the sake of ending a sentence, spicing it up, cute-ing it up, rephrasing it to a <3 or xoxo. I’m pretty sure we all mean it when we say it though it gets confusing when we use it in many different times. I love my dogs. I love my iPhone. I love my dad. I looove the new Kate Spade. And so on. But, love ain’t just words.

Try to define love. Go to Webster’s online (www.m-w.com) you’ll find how many definitions for love as ‘noun’, yet very little for love as ‘verb’. Coincidence? See, this is what I have in mind. Could it be that generations behind and ours now has been putting the spotlight to love as a feeling (therefore the ‘noun’)? Seeking instant pleasure from that butterfly-feeling? Could it be that we’ve been finding it hard to explain love more than just simply a feeling? Could it be that we’ve come further away from realizing that (in Gary Chapman words) “love is not merely an emotion that comes over us”? See, if we think of love as a feeling, we shall be frustrated when we can’t always work up that feeling. When we realize that love is primarily an action, we are ready to use the tools we have to love better.

Love is primarily an action.

This is not new. It’s there since the start, but how many of us missed the point. Love the ‘noun’ – the feeling – is the result of love the ‘verb’ – the action. So I took the initiative to take a short-simple survey on how people define love. I tweeted this “tweets, im writing a piece for a blog. simply help by answering this 'in your own words' (not quotes): Love is _________ *thanks =)” And here some of the hand-picked replies. I’m going to the conclusion after.

Love is when a friend got hurt bcause I'm not sensitive,but she chose to send me a letter and much much of ice-cream,rather than mad at me :) (KB, Jakarta)

Love is when dad voluntarily gave a ride to mom to bandung, coz she was craving for bola2 ubi (KB, Jakarta)

Love is when my sister save her money to give me the present that I've been drooling to (KB, Jakarta)

Love is parental guidance :) and love is me and my sis missing each other all the time even tho we live together. (ES, Sydney)

Love is waking up 5 am in the morning to write birthday wishes on the pavement in the rain, just to brighten up her day.

Love is believing in someone even when everyone else thinks u're jz wasting ur time :) (AC, Jakarta)

Love is wen sme1 wna watch a movie he has watchd 2times b4 cuz d most important thing isnt d movie but being wid d girl he loves (PP, Jakarta)

Love is my sister staying up late until 2.am to open the front door for me, knowing my mom wouldn't, and be very mad even if she would (JM, Jakarta)

Love is when some1 wna sleep in the car in front of my house so that d next day we can be together d whole day ;) (PP, Jakarta)

I believe by now, you get the idea I’m trying to put across here. Verb? Action? Notice them? Now see how blunt it can be when we describe love as a feeling, and no, this is not the reflection of the person stating it, but I think this is as far as everyone can go in trying to explain love – the feeling:  

Love is the feeling that give us happiness. I guess. Haha (S, Medan)

Love is a drug, hahaha (M, Melbourne)

(photo courtesy of axioo)

Receiving love is the beautiful result of loving others. Bear in mind that line and that “love is primarily an action” when you’re starting a relationship. And I’m speaking about courtship mainly. Don’t, please don’t get carried away by that butterfly feeling, but know that love takes something more than that. Love takes an effort. Be knowledgeable, so that you don’t have to face the common difficulties in your relationship after the first-couple-months-of-bliss pass away.

And even when you do face them, my heart burdened to share this. When you start losing that ‘happi-as-a-hippo-moments’, when he seems distant, when she lose track in busyness, instead of falling into “This starts to get like a routine” or “I’m sorry I just don’t love you no more” , dwell into actions. Start doing love, instead of craving for that feeling. Learn from the simple tweets above. Receiving love is the beautiful result of loving others. Love – the feeling – is a fruit of love the verb. Love is a value that is actualized through loving actions.

So the good news at the end is … love, the feeling, can be recaptured.

How Can I Change The World?

Everyday you wake up in the morning thinking "how can I change the world?" Not knowing that the question should be "how can I change me?". Because once you do, the world will be taken care of by itself. How often do we lose joy for trying so hard to change whatever circumstances around us. Start with you and what you have. Have a blessed day. =)

All About Life Campaign

Its only thirty seconds, but the message hits me.

http://www.youtube.com/v/4-jGnTQDQj4&hl=en&fs=1

The Monk & The Riddle

 

“Imagine I have an egg and I want to drop the egg three feet without breaking it. How do I do that?”

The riddle started the book and got me thinking while reading it, wishing to find something within the lines to decipher it. However, it didn’t come to me until the end of the story. We’ll get to that later.

The topic of entrepreneurship always interests me, and this book has been a delightful read, thoughtful and inspiring. It takes you throughout the journey of Lenny, an entrepreneur scraping his way to breathe his venture into life. Along the way, he bump into many walls, but then again, they are there to teach him, they are there to show how badly somebody wants something. And indeed, he pushes his way to finally win the funding from a VC.

In between, he learned that though a start-up is made surely to earn profit, he needed something more than just money as the fuel to keep him fired up. A business is merely a financial institution. There must be something more, a purpose that will sustain him when things look bleakest. Something worthy of the immense time and energy, even if it fails. It’s not only the finance, it’s the romance.

In essence, the book inspire me about process. That our primary measure of success should be our excellence – not simply the spoils that come with good fortune. Or in Komisar’s words: “You don’t want to entrust your satisfaction and sense of fulfillment to circumstances outside your control. Instead, base them on you’re the quality of what you do, and who you are, not the success of the business per se.”

Because, when all is said and done, the journey is the reward. There is nothing else. Reaching the end is, well, the end.

"If the egg must fall three feet without a crack, simply extend the trip to four."

Picasso

there is a story about, I think, Picasso.
a visitor to his studio saw a huge block of stone inside sitting in the middle of the studio, and asked the master what it was to be.
a lion. came to the reply.
and how, Picasso, pressed the visitor, will you make a lion out of this unknown stone block?
it's easy, said Picasso.
simply get a chisel and chip away anything that doesn't look like a lion.

what's in it for me:
to focus is to sacrifice.
what you choose not to do defines who you are and what you vision really is.

what's in it for you? 

 

The Green & The Blue

dear you
the history doesn't rings true
i am losing out
and the mystery leaves more doubt

so much been misunderstood
cause the cracks hardly reveal the truth
what you've seen wasn't merely me
once or twice is never enough to peek

dear love, dear blue
dreaming dreams and thoughts overdue
colored in green, i wish i could sing
months without happiness that only you can bring

these pictures are proof
those melodies are proof
those writings are proof
and this heart might still the same love-fool
cause it seeks the same heart-you

 

Supersampling Europe

And so I got my first-ever-Lomo, it's a Supersampler. Bought it brand new from local shop called Lomonesia for about $70. I was all pumped up. Excited on taking all the shots. So I bought 5 extra rolls for my one-month-trip to Europe. I wish it was a holiday, but it wasn't, I was in France for three weeks of student exchange, then the extra four days I spent it all in Belgium and Netherlands. Now, these some of the shots I consider good enough to post. Have a look =) They are available on flickr.com/captainemergency as well. Feel free to leave 'em comments.

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