Last night, after the cotillion I filmed, I had some 'revelations' so-to-speak.

I looked around my room at home (home-home, not apartment). And I thought of weird descriptions for the things I saw around my room.

For example:

Crayons: the medium of childhood.

Haha I know. Freakin' weird. Bear with me I guess. =D

Hmm.. what else.

I'm currently reading this book by Daniel Pink called "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future." I'll spare the details/description of the book for later... but anyway, I guess the book has got me thinking. In strange ways. But it's a really good book - and coming from someone who hasn't read anything substantial other than for schoolwork in a while... yea, that means something.

Anyway, I just read a chapter about how research has been producing other standardized testing besides the usual SATs and stuff. The US is a standardized test -driven country. Sick, no? So I thought of this one:

Number 2 Pencils: Etching in the future of children, one bubble at a time.
(rephrase as need be.. tried to go catchy with that...)

Sorry if others have done these things before; it's insanely hard not to intrude on the cliche nowadays. I mean, it's hard because there are SO many writers out there, so much so that I'm SURE someone has thought of the stupid things I was and am thinking about.

How do we even avoid being cliche? How can we fight to be original? These are some of the premises mentioned in the book I'm reading, so forgive me if I'm just questioning the cliche.

It's like stumbling upon landmines of copyrights and legalities and claims of ownership... Where's the free space that's left to just write originally? What space is left to be original?

See, the world is changing. And I diverge back into topics discussed in this book I'm reading. Yes, the world is changing. Because for the last century or so we've been in the Information Age, where Information was the key to success. Now...? The story is changing. Enter the world of the Conceptual Age, where the key to success will be something other than crunching numbers and logic and simplicity (these things can now be outsourced to India, the Philippines, ANYWHERE there's skilled workers who will work for such a lesser wage; on top of that, any COMPUTER can process menial/tedious info in SECONDS, which leaves regular logic-only people in the dust..).

Guess what? We've got to start thinking for ourselves. The statistics say so.
I could list em all out now, but I'll just recommend the book I'm reading.
So good. The future for us?

Not written in stone. Not mapped out based on standardized test scores that only measure the logistics and tangible numbers, but on what WE as HUMANS can present as ORIGINAL. How we are original is the key to success.

Push for originality. You're not the superstar you see on the big screen, because there's someone else who may fit the stereotypical mold that you fit in (trust me, the film industry can find another YOU who's better, because all they see is a headshot and a resume). You're not just a regular old engineer in the US (whose work can be replaced by an equally smart person off in another country). You're not just a computer programmer (because let's face it. Computers are going to rule us in the LOGIC department sooner than later - they've already created a software to CREATE softwares!).

What we DO have is this: You're the wannabe superstar with a creative edge - like, for instance a video attachment to your resume. You're the engineer with innovation - ahead of the game, because you have the resources available to you, so that you can forge ahead with a NEW technology. You're the computer programmer that knows humans better than computers know humans, so that you can create software that tailors much better to us humans.



WOW, way off tangent.
Anyway, off to go on a kind of 'retreat' away from NJ. Not going far, or for a long time, but.... whatev's. I'll be back and ready for school.

Laters.