TED Talk: A Tale of Two Americans

When I dropped out of college I like to say that is when my real education began.  I began to pick and choose what I wanted to learn and I have noticed it has had a great impact on my knowledge base.  I no longer have to learn and splurge for a test or assignment that I know I will not remember the second I walk out of a classroom.  

One of the ways I continue to educate myself is by watching TED talks.  I think they are a great resource and even with their popularity, I still think they are slept on.  I new section of my blog will include my TED talk recommendations.  These are a collection of TED talks that caused me to pause and think.

For the first TED talk I picked A Tale of Two Americans by Anand Giridharadas.  In this TED talk Anand talks about America post 9/11 and second chances in America.  This one struck a cord. 

(Also I kept thinking this guy has the same jaw as Kayne West.  Am I wrong?)

I have an itch to write and I’m about to scratch it

35mm Film Photo taken in 2014

The summer before college started I found a book called The Artist’s Way.  It is a book to help with one’s creativity.  It’s a 10 week course that involves taking your “inner creative” out on dates and working with it to maximize it or to help unblock it.  Like most things I did it for a little while but then fell off.  Well, I guess I could say I didn’t fall off and more or less decided I was finished!  One thing I did pull successfully from The Artist’s Way is a practice called “Morning Pages”.  Basically the idea is that each morning you wake up and the first thing you do before going to the bathroom, eating, or brushing your teeth is to write three full pages of longhand writing.

I took this practice and ran with it for about two years.  It was wonderful and made writing one of the easiest things in my life.  Whenever I had a college essay I could now fly through it because thanks to morning pages writing three pages was like breathing to me.  Breath in and out and then I’m done!  

Over the past six months I have fallen off the Morning Pages boat, but I don’t want to fall off of writing. Over the past month I have been having an itch to write and I have started acting on it.  This time it is different in that I have begun to focus my writing more on topics that interest me instead of just random thoughts.   I plan to put my writing on Made By Spencer from now on. 

The writing will not be professional or grammatically perfect for that matter.  It will more or less be writing that falls somewhere between a personal journal and something you would say in a conversation to a friend. It’s going to be very informal and raw.  

Here we go!

Video: Getting Lost in Mexico

I'm in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for work. We had a day off, so a couple of us went out and rented ATVs to explore the town.  We got into a little trouble.

Thanks to:
Music Supervisor: Ziggy Gonzalez

Vlog: My First Cronut

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Amy Winehouse- Rehab (Tom Misch Remix)
https://soundcloud.com/tommisch/amy-winehouse-rehab-tom-misch-remix