muhleanuh.

This piece was presented as Kurt Vonnegut’s commencement address at MIT in 1997. It’s great stuff, but apparently it wasn’t written or delivered by Vonnegut. It’s still a beautiful piece…

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Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ‘97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Thinking like a genius

Problem solving: creative solutions

“Even if you’re not a genius, you can use the same strategies as Aristotle and Einstein to harness the power of your creative mind and better manage your future.”

The following strategies encourage you to think productively, 
rather than reproductively, in order to arrive at solutions to problems. “These strategies are common to the thinking styles of creative geniuses in science, art, and industry throughout history.”

Nine approaches to creative problem solving:

1. Rethink! Look at problems in many different ways.
2. Visualize! Utilize diagrams and imagery to analyze your dilemma.
3. Produce! Genius is productive.
4. Combine! Make novel combinations…
5. Form! Form relationships.
6. Opposite! Think in opposites.
7. Metaphor/simile! Think metaphorically.
8. Failure! Learning from your mistakes is one example of using failure.
9. Patience! Don’t confuse inspiration with ideas.

Nine approaches to creative problem solving:

1. Rethink!
   Look at problems in many different ways.
   Find new perspectives that no one else has taken.
   Solutions example: Finding a job or internship:
   1. Ask friends or colleagues for potential leads
   2. Over-sell yourself
      Send samples of your work or portfolio to anyone that might respond.
   3. Check local resources like Craigslist or your school’s job search
   4. Broaden your target audience.
      What other fields could you specialize in?
2. Visualize!
   Utilize diagrams and imagery to analyze your dilemma.
   1. How can you use pictures, images, graphs, etc. in your studies?
3. Visit guides on concept or mind maps, picturing vocabulary, flashcards, etc.
   1. Write out one example of how you can use imagery, then print and post it in your study area.
4. Produce!
   Genius is productive.
   1. Perhaps originality is not the key, but rather constant application of thought and tools to arrive a solutions.
   2. Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same as what they most want to do. 
      W. H. Auden (1907–1973) Anglo-American poet
   3. Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience. 
      George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1707–1788) French naturalist
5. Combine!
   Make novel combinations… 
   Combine and recombine ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual.
6. Form!
   Form relationships. Make connections between dissimilar subjects.
   1. This doesn’t always apply to objects: form relationships with people and ask them questions!
   2. Get to know people in your field that can help you excel to the best of your ability.
   3. Write down one person that you could get in contact with, why you think this person can help, and print/post it for reference!
7. Opposite!
   Think in opposites. Don’t always stick with the obvious solutions.
   Get outside of your comfort zone.
   1. “Opposites” bring two approaches to a situation but they do share a basic similarity. 
      Example: “right” and “left” are both directions, but which is the right choice?
   2. The Sesame Street Muppet Elmo teaches small children the concept of opposites!
8. Metaphor/simile!
   Think metaphorically.
   1. Metaphors are connections that are unusual or not an ordinary way of thinking:
      A sea of troubles; the heart of a lion; raining cats and dogs.
   2. Similes use “like” or “as” to illustrate
      The boy was as agile as a monkey. The miner’s face was like coal.
      The task was as easy as ABC. Dry like a raisin in the sun.
9. Failure!
   Learning from your mistakes is one example of using failure.
   1. As strange as it seems the human brain is failure machine: it generates models of reality, acts on them, and adjusts or creates new, successful models based on failures.
   2. From Daniel Coyle’s the Talent Code on Adam Bryant’s weekly interview: “every single CEO shares the same nugget of wisdom: the crucial importance of mistakes, failures, and setbacks… mistakes create unique conditions of high-velocity learning that cannot be matched by more stable, “successful” situations.”
10. Patience!
    Don’t confuse inspiration with ideas.
    Apply your ideas with patience for the reward they may deserve.

(Source: )

i really hope that Skins US surprises me..

Numa Numa.

 - Chorus 1 (4 times) -Ma-ia-hii
Ma-ia-huu
Ma-ia-hoo
Ma-ia-hahaMiya-hee
Miya-hoo
Miya-ho
Miya-haha
[These are just sounds.]-

Verse 2 -Alo, Salut, sunt eu, un haiduc,
Si te rog, iubirea mea, primeste fericirea.
Alo, alo, sunt eu Picasso,
Ti-am dat beep, si sunt voinic,
Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic.

Hello [on a cellphone], greetings, it’s me, an outlaw,
I ask you, my love, to accept happiness.
Hello, hello, it’s me, Picasso,
I sent you a beep [cellphone signal], and I’m brave [or strong],
But you should know that I’m not asking for anything from you.-

Chorus 3 (2 times) -Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma, nu ma iei,
Nu ma, nu ma iei, nu ma, nu ma, nu ma iei.
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei,
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.

You want to leave but you don’t want don’t want to take me, don’t want don’t want to take me, don’t want don’t want don’t want to take me.
Your face and the love from the linden trees,
And I remember your eyes.-

Verse 4 -Te sun, sa-ti spun, ce simt acum,
Alo, iubirea mea, sunt eu, fericirea.
Alo, alo, sunt iarasi eu, Picasso,
Ti-am dat beep, si sunt voinic,
Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic.

I call you [over the phone], to tell you what I feel right now,
Hello, my love, it’s me, your happiness.
Hello, hello, it’s me again, Picasso,
I sent you a beep [cellphone signal] and I’m brave [or strong],
But you should know that I’m not asking for anything from you.