Put winter behind
Ansel Adams Michigan
Fresh palette for spring
 -Sherry Wood

Dress up, try in vain
 To hide a toxic attitude.
Toxicity oozing out the pores,
Exposing an uneducated,
 Pathetic existance
Of the walking, talking suit
That has no heart & no soul.
-by Sherry Wood
Essential Now!

The Greek language denotes two distinct principles of  time, Chronos (not the Klingon home world) and Kairos. The former refers to  numeric, or chronological, time. The latter, literally "the right or opportune  moment", relates specifically to metaphysical or divine time. In theology,  Kairos is qualitative, as opposed to quantitative.Qualitative denotes events or things that can be seen but not measured, a color or a feeling, the level of beauty seen by one’s eyes (the beauty is in the eyes of the beholder), smells, tastes, while
Qualitative events can be measured, enumerated and duplicated.

The measurement of time and how time is used can be both Chronos and Kairos with both having a substantive effect on how we view and
manage time.“A watched pot never boils” giving us an indication that time is subjective to mental stress and anticipation.Einstein’s relativity
suggests that time and space should be considered together and in relation to each other.Watching a clock makes time move less rapidly, but we all know that Chronos time is not subject to  interpretation, a minute is a minute but the mind can and often does modify our  perception of time giving us the opinion of differences in time allocations, “time passes quickly when you’re having fun”; maybe it really does?

As time is counted in days and weeks, months and years many  try to salvage time lost by creating promises to better themselves.These goals, these resolutions attempt to alter our past perceptions and mistakes by altering our hopes for the future.Losing weight is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions and the one most failed.The time lost during the past year  overeating, not exercising, indulging in unhealthful activities falls within the  category of Kairos time, it’s all subjective but ooh so real to those who have  wasted the given opportunities that time allowed.

Most look forward to the New Year as a new beginning, a time to start over, remove bad habits and improve our lives.We set goals and with a fervor and passion  step heavily onto the treadmills of life pushing hard against the ingrained  weights and deviations of our own desires, trying with all our might to  forestall the bad with the new found idea of good, knowing that time is our  enemy, our nemesis. Most will fall, crawling on bended knee, asking forgiveness  for even trying, inclined to admit our failures but realizing our mistake was in  thinking we could control time and overcome what we had become.

Time however is not the problem; time is not our enemy.Time is only a level of measurement, a method of gauging one moment from the next, of discerning one event from another.Time is a gift.In conjunction with our conscience time allows everyone the ability to restart, rebuild, redo or undo what was done,  rethink what was thought, change, completely change who and what we are into  what we think we want to be.Time gives to us the perception that all is possible and that even though time was wasted in the past it is a forever potential, an eternal continuum of never ending possibilities.
 
Each New Year we look inward at what we’ve become and gauge  our development against the societal measures that define acceptability and  success and rethink our path, reload our expectation and revise our Kairos within the preset Chronos in order to achieve the impossible.
 
Knowing how to use time is perhaps the most difficult of all processes.With a perceived abundance of time, an abundance that dwindles as our life’s time is reduced by age or circumstance, leading us to make drastic choices based on unrealistic demands on our own vision of what we wished would be.Like a losing gambler at a high stakes game  we double down, taking unnecessary risks to overcome the self-induced deficits  imposed by a life time of regret.Resolutions very rarely succeed when desperate efforts supersede time  proven methods of change.

 The beauty of time is that it’s never too late to change.We may not have enough time to complete the transformation from Ogre to Prince but we do have the time to start.We always have the time to take the right step, change direction and move in the right direction.Time
allows us the opportunity to alter our  destiny and our perception of any given period, but with that opportunity comes  the responsibility to continue the process.

 You will never be given the same time again, once time is used it’s gone but time continues to give each of us an unlimited array of
possibilities.  Choose wisely the choices  given by time and each and every choice will result in a daily chance for  continuous change, change is good but “time is of the essence”.

Re-posted with permission from Richard Taylor

Reach high. You will achieve. Don't let anyone try to force your dreams into a cage of their reality. Be an artist, an inventor, change the world in your own unique way. Manifest your destiny & create your own reality.

There is no past, there is no future, there is only an essential now.

Thanks!

Stop being average and stop using cookie cutter template designs. You want results? You need to stand out & get a professional to do the job. Would I roof my own house? Hell, no! Would I put in a bathroom? Hell, no! What I do great is design. Website and graphic design. Now if you want something done right, you should hire me. If you don't, I reserve the right to tell you your stuff looks like Hell.
Stop polluting the www e-way. Be responsible.

Pangram.

History The earliest known appearance of the phrase is from The Michigan School Moderator, a journal that provided teachers with education-related news and suggestions for lessons.[1] In an article titled "Interesting Notes" in the March 14, 1885 issue, the phrase is given as a suggestion for writing practice: "The following sentence makes a good copy for practice, as it contains every letter of the alphabet: 'A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.'"[2] Note that the phrase in this case begins with the word "A" rather than "The". Several other early sources also use this variation.

As the use of typewriters grew in the late 19th century, the phrase began appearing in typing and stenography lesson books as a practice sentence. Early examples of publications which utilized the phrase include Illustrative Shorthand by Linda Bronson (1888),[3] How to Become Expert in Typewriting: A Complete Instructor Designed Especially for the Remington Typewriter (1890),[4] and Typewriting Instructor and Stenographer's Hand-book (1892). By the turn of the 20th century, the phrase had become widely known. In the January 10, 1903, issue of Pitman's Phonetic Journal, it is referred to as "the well known memorized typing line embracing all the letters of the alphabet".[5] Robert Baden-Powell's book Scouting for Boys (1908) uses the phrase as a practice sentence for signalling.[6]

During the 20th century, technicians tested typewriters and teleprinters with repeated lines of "THE QUICK BROWN FOX..." sentence

Welcome to the Era of Design Adam Swann, gyro All businesses, no matter what they make or sell, should recognize the power and financial value of good design.

Obviously, there are many different types of design: graphic, brand, packaging, product, process, interior, interaction/user experience, Web and service design, to name but a few.

In this post, I am referring to design as a broad and deliberately applied discipline, with the aim of creating simpler, more meaningful, rewarding experiences for customers.

You see, expecting great design is no longer the preserve of a picky design-obsessed urban elite—that aesthetically sensitive clique who‘d never dare leave the house without their Philippe Starck eyewear and turtleneck sweaters and buy only the right kind of Scandinavian furniture. Instead, there’s a new, mass expectation of good design: that products and services will be better thought through, simplified, made more intuitive, elegant and more enjoyable to use.

Design has finally become democratized, and we marketers find ourselves with new standards to meet in this new “era of design.” To illustrate, Apple, the epitome of a design-led organization, now has a market capitalization of $570 billion, larger than the GDP of Switzerland. Its revenue is double Microsoft’s, a similar type of technology organization but one not truly led by design (just compare Microsoft Windows with Apple’s Lion operating system).

Every day my Twitter feed populates with astounding growth facts about the likes of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Pinterest and the more recent travel site, AirBnB. It is no coincidence that these successful brands seem to really value design and utilize it to secure a competitive advantage.

Even the UK government has issued its “design principles,” naturally on a clean, easy-to-navigate website.

But why have people become so design sensitive? Why does that credit card mailer look so bad and dated now? Why can’t you access my account details? Why does airport signage seem so unhelpful? Why doesn’t that technology plug and play?

Perhaps Apple’s global dominance has elevated our design expectations, or Ikea’s vision to bring great design at affordable prices to everyone on the planet has finally taken effect, or perhaps the Internet has taught us what well-designed user experiences and good design really are. Likely, it is a combination of all.

What is certain is that the design bar has been raised and design-oriented businesses are winning.

Think how swiftly and strongly a design experience shapes our opinion of that brand, company or store, for good or bad. For instance, we know quickly when a website is bad. And we associate that feeling of frustration, or worse, disappointment with that brand.

Design-oriented organizations invest in thinking this stuff through. They put design at the heart of their company to guide innovation and to continually improve products, service and marketing. They recognize that a great design leads to differentiation, customer loyalty and higher profits.

First Direct, a UK bank, has designed all its service touchpoints so carefully that it has become the most referred financial brand in the UK, with over 82 percent of customers happy to recommend it to friends. It’s a joy to use via any channel, and despite being a bank, I’d happily recommend it.

When you buy Apple Care, instead of receiving the standard bland letter or email, you receive a nicely designed box containing the paperwork, guidance and all the information you need. You have questions? No problem. There are clear user diagrams and a simple section on the website to help you.

The impact on brand is that customers see these brands as both progressive and customer-centric. Thoughtful and innovative design makes us feel good. It is no surprise that we are happy to advocate them, talk about them in social media and can be fiercely brand loyal.

As Michael Eisner, former CEO of Disney, once said, “A brand is a living entity—and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures.” That thinking still holds true, but it all happens a lot faster now. Thanks to the Internet and a hyperconnected, social-media-fueled society, brands can be instantly undermined and that experience shared with millions.

So this is a call to action for executives to recognize this new era and make the effort to transform even a mundane product or service into something more rewarding and more memorable. Try to assess each element of your service or product and better it—to see design not just as a marketing thing but as a genuine source of competitive advantage, customer and employee satisfaction and, lastly, a route to higher profits.

Adam Swann is head of strategy at gyro New York