creatures of habit

"A simple change to the design of the gallon milk jug, adopted by Wal-Mart and Costco, seems made for the times. The jugs are cheaper to ship and better for the environment, the milk is fresher when it arrives in stores, and it costs less.
What’s not to like? Plenty, as it turns out." (nytimes)

even though this milk jug redesign (created by greenblue) is meeting a lot of consumer resistance, walmart isn't backing down. instead they are doing something very smart; retraining their customers on how to pour milk.

people are used to the way they do things. people for the most part aren't willing to relearn simple habits such as unplugging outlets when they are not in use or carpooling to work. and people are DEFINITELY not willing to relearn how to pour milk.

but that is precisely what we need to do. we need to relearn how to do things. our habits are what got us into this mess in the first place.

this redesign is one of the first of many to come in the future:

"The redesign of the gallon milk jug, experts say, is an example of the changes likely to play out in the American economy over the next two decades. In an era of soaring global demand and higher costs for energy and materials, virtually every aspect of the economy needs to be re-examined, they say, and many products must be redesigned for greater efficiency."

and that my friends is where we come in. we are the "re-designers" of products, services, strategy, technology and everything else that society is dependent on. so lets go out there and redesign some awesome shit shall we?

new times call for new measures

i started another blog, but i shall be updating both :)

to one of my favorites

happy day of birth elise :) you're kinda old now, but at least by the age of 23 you can say that you've lived and worked in another country ;) yay for aiesec and macKDaddy!

i love this picture of us, so i use it as my tribute to you and your incredible 23 years of life. now go celebrate.

like father like daughter

i was getting into my car to run some errands, and once i opened the car door and sat in it i all of a sudden couldn't find my keys. i literally pulled apart my bag, looked all around my (messy) floor, in between the seats, even the driver's seat visor. i then preceeded to search on the ground outside my car and under my tires. after this was unsuccessful i got off the floor feeling defeated when all of a sudden i see them...in the keyhole to the driver's side door.

these kinds of days seem to be hereditary.

you know you're kinda cool when...

for his final project a classmate creates a rothko inspired portrait of you :) this is corey taking pictures during our team's simulation on mozart's creative process:
he's an exchange student from hong kong who is just plain amazing. he's one of those people that whenever you see him you can't help but smile from ear to ear. for our final project for my dancing mind/thinking heart class we were assigned to create "takeaways" for everyone in the class to help inspire us during times of creative need. most of the class created 15 copies of the same thing, but corey took it a step further. during his explanation he told us that this class was what made him really love cornell and that getting to know all of us personally was the part of his abroad experience he treasured most. he then proceeded to distribute to each of us personal portraits he made of each in abstract rothko inspired watercolor. here is his one to me (mind you it was finals week and therefore my hair was neglected and subsequently rebelled):

see the resemblance? when he handed all of these out i legitimately almost began to cry. the fact that corey took time to sit down and think about each of us and how to represent how he saw us through such a personal medium just filled me with emotion. no matter the cynicism and this annoying american behavior of not showing others how you feel, there are people like corey in the world who truly understand the value and necessity of the human connection.

thanks corey for just being you :)

the power of design...again.

they should have done this a long time ago. it may have been cheaper for airlines to have gone with their earlier, less fuel-efficient models before, but now they are paying the price and it aint cheap no more. if they had been investing more in fuel efficient models rather than just "dabbling" in it for the past few years instead of just going with what they knew they would have saved themselves so much money, time, effort, and headache its unbelievable. This "comfort in the familiar" phenomenon that is known to be the ultimate innovation killer in the design world and at this point will cost airlines millions if not billions. i think the airlines' mentality as well as america's as a whole is best summed up in this comic:
we gotta start doing things differently. the first step is design.

html and css online sources needed!

i need recommendations on good online tutorial sites for teaching myself HTML and then CSS! ive found these two sites and theyve proven helpful, but i definitely need others. what do you recommend?

which path to follow?

college is about figuring out who you are, your strengths and weaknesses, and where your passions lie (well, thats how it was for me anyway). if youre lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at the challenge), these personal attributes translate very well into the working "real world". unfortunately for me i do NOT translate neatly into the "real world", which brings me to the dilemma i am struggling with now...

which part of myself do i explore and pursue first? i have three distinct rabbit holes: 1. living and working in colombia to satiate my " i need to adopt a foreign culture as my own" side, 2. working for a strategic design/innovation firm to satiate my applied creative side, and 3. working for a non-profit that specializes in social entrepreneurship to satiate my "save the world" side. i know that i need to experience all of these in my lifetime to become the person i am striving to be and start my future entrepreneurial venture (which will be a combination of the latter two) i am striving to start, but which one do i do first?!

i have been struggling with this concept for a few weeks now, so much in fact that it brought me to a breaking point. on thursday i all of a sudden had this overwhelming fellling that i had to leave ithaca and go home because i literally felt my brain on the verge of imploding...and i did just that.

turned out to be the best decision ever.

the verdict? about 85% vida latina, all because of jk rowling, her incredible life perspective, and this quote:

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

post college realization numero uno

this whole packing thing is way more emotional than i was expecting. putting my desk lamp that doubles as a pencil holder into a box almost reduced me to tears, a huge surprise seeing as i havent cried once even though ive said bye to friends i may never see again. this handy piece of furniture has been with me since the beginning of college, and now has pretty much no use in life after it. some other things that are necessary in college but obsolete in the "after-life": id-card holders, concrete brick "bed risers", those awkward hanging closet shelves that break after a year, shower caddies.