Doing things just for money will leave you begging for a meaning; for a purpose in life.

When Moments Die

Humans are passionate. Humans are dynamic. When humans reach a point of monotony and self degradation that cannot be handled, we become hopeless. We lose energy. We loose focus. We loose passion. We loose what it is to be human.

There is no telling why this man has ended up begging on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. Regardless, one can assume that he does not feel passionate about his work. He does not feel proud of what he does.

His dynamic character is being diminished to black and white; money and survival. His vision of the future is diminished to each shake of his Big Gulp cup. He is focused on not focusing at all. The moments pass. The cup shakes. The coins drop. He is living paycheck to paycheck. Doing something that he doesn’t love. He is living in the vicious cycle of monotony, survival as the main goal.

There is no telling how he came to this point. Possibly out of tragedy. Possibly from drug abuse. Possibly from a difficult economy. Possibly from lack of motivation. Whatever the reason, the moments of his current life are moments he most likely does not want to remember.

Fill Your Cup With Love.

We all have dreams. We all have futures. Unfortunately, some people’s vision and dreams of their future are nearly impossible to achieve because of circumstances they cannot control (where they were born, etc). Hopefully with access to international education and collaboration via the internet, more and more dreams will be treated equally. More people in places that once we’re removed from the world as a whole will be able to contribute in ways that we can’t even dream of today.

This boy was walking down the beach here in Sri Lanka. He really wanted his picture taken. He had a certain radiance to him. He was highly excited and intensely focused. I just got the feeling that this kid was dreaming big about his future. I hope his dreams have the potential to become a reality just like any other kid in the world.

The images suggests that this boy yields the power of the sun in himself. He can manipulate the power of the sun to create his own impact, his own rays, his on reality. He can put his dreams into practice. He can achieve anything.

Perspective is everything. It is how we understand and create the world around us. For those of us that can see, our eyes provide the visual stimulus to create our holistic understanding of everything we do in life. As we utilize technology more and more in our daily lives, our perspective of the world will change. Our view of what the world looks like and our role in the world will change. It is already changing. You’re viewing this text through the internet…through pixels. Essentially, you’re viewing the (internet) world in squares. Although pixels can be represented through dots and lines, many of the images we view in the digital world are square pixels.

So the question is, what would our vision look like if we used the same method of viewing the world as a computer does? What would we see? What would we look like if we looked into the mirror?

I’ve created an image that is created from a photo of myself, cropped right over both of my eyes. It represents a distortion of our natural visual environment. Our digital vision. As we see the world more and more through pixels, we need to evaluate what impact it may have on our innate, biological visual experience.

Our Vision In Pixels

The image also represents a certain loss of identity…or a re-forming of identity. You’ll notice that the image has several pairs of eyes – this demonstrates the dissonance between our biological ability to see, merging with the digital world we have created. As we interact with digital technology at an exponential rate, we may experience confusion between the physical (‘real’) world, and the digital world we have created.

The several sets of eyes you can see represent our identity crisis/development of our digital perspective. Biology and evolution has taken millions of years to construct the features we use to see the world. The digital technology we use daily has been developed in a much shorter amount of time.

I think it is important to reflect and recognize the changes we are experiencing through these digital mediums. It is about self understanding, perspective, and our view of the world as a whole. We often take the technology we use daily for granted…step back and contemplate how your view of the world has changed with this new vision/perspective of so many things.

Freedom of the press applies to everyone — yes, even bloggers — Tech News and Analysis.

Click the link to check out an article about our freedoms and rights to use technology in public space. I personally believe that if we can see it with our eyes, we can see and record it with our technology. If news corporations can record what they like, we as individuals should be able to have the same power (apparently governments don’t agree).

We have the opportunity to take the technology we have today (twitter, facebook, youtube) and use it as a means of changing the way we interact with global news. We are the news. Each one of us has our own unique perspective on what goes on in the world. We should be able to not only broadcast these perspective of events that we encounter, but also provide our own opinions and spins on what ‘news’ is relevant and important.

The current system of corporations owning most of the news channels in the world is not only problematic, it is dangerous. These media sources base many of their featured news pieces on the stories that will generate the most income. They want viewers to be glued to the screen. How do they do this? Continuous ‘news’ about violence and/or fame.

Our news source has the potential to be every person on this planet. Thanks to Twitter, blogs, Facebook, Youtube, among others; people are the news.

‘News’ should be something that ultimately benefits us in some way upon hearing it. ‘News’ should not be profit driven. ‘News’ should be benefit driven…how can this story benefit someone else in some way?

So I say stand up for your voice in what ‘news’ is and continue to support the use of personal technology for documenting what actually goes on in the world.

Allowing your mind to flow where ever it may go is a vital and rewarding thing. I enjoy creating art and trying to view the world from different perspectives. This was inspired by a photo taken in Sumbawa, Indonesia of a butterfly landing on a flower. Inspiration is also drawn from the overconfidence many people have in their calendars…sometimes things just need to flow.

A butterfly's view of the world.

When we see a butterfly in the sky, there is no pattern, there is no rhythm, there is no path. But what if butterflies do have a path? A plan? A calendar? What would it look like. From this flower to that flower.

This is a look into how a butterfly may see the world from their eyes. They follow the scent of the flowers through the wind, and complete tasks left behind them. They see the sky differently than us, a series of prisms and dots make up the sky. This butterfly has a one track mind. It’s keen sense of smell and innate ability to find the ‘smell jetstream’ of flowers is both impressive and incomprehensible.

This is how the butterfly sees the world; a beautiful, impossible vision of time, space, and focus.

What does your calendar look like?

The excitement one feels when entering an unexplored country is what often keeps people traveling throughout their entire lives. That first step off the plane, that first interaction with the local people, that first taste of the local cuisine, that first mention that ‘Hotel California” is their favorite song of all time, that first mention that you look like Jesus, that first time you pay way too much for something, that first head swivel when talking to you, that first time you begin to understand their view of the world.

I’ve made my made to Sri Lanka, a country many people are familiar with because of the 2004 tsunami that rocked the East and West coast here. It has already been quite the experience.

Upon arrival I made my way straight to the visa office to get an extension for my passport (3 months). Tourists from several countries get a visa on arrival for 30 days, but just to be safe I decided I’d like to give myself more time. The process took about 4 hours. Numbers were called from people that had arrived both before and after me, and it seemed like there was a decent amount of confusion was about in the system in general. In the end, it doesn’t matter. I received my visa extension after paying my dues ($100 usd) and my taxi driver stood patiently the entire time, guarding my bag with every opportunity he could.

Maleen (the taxi driver) had an interesting story. I could tell once I hopped in the cab that he was a good guy…for some reason I’ve been lucky with taxi drivers. His story goes as follows. His father was is a serious accident that left him paralyzed and unable to work. This happened when Maleen was very young.

As time went on, things obviously became very difficult for the family as the income halved. By a strike of good luck, a family from the Netherlands came to explore Sri Lanka. This family ended up particularly fond of Maleen, and when they found of the situation with his father, they decided to change Maleen’s life. They paid for him to have an education from an international school and provide funds to make sure Maleen’s future would be bright.

It is amazing the impact we can all have with a bit of inspiration and kind actions. There is no telling where or what Maleen would be with out the help of this family from the Netherlands.

I love hearing about things that make you realize that if you impact just one person’s life in a positive way, the stories and inspiration can be passed on to another for more great things to happen.

(Maleen works as a taxi driver, hotel concierge, and waiter)

Welcome to my site. I hope to keep this site simple with the main focus being the content that I post. I’m not sure what this will become, but I am excited to see where it all goes.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Greg