Just Talking to TED

Recently in my English class we started a unit on public speaking. To begin this unit our teacher introduced us 'TED'. I knew this before hand but I had never really payed any attention to it. What is 'TED' you ask? Well, let's ask TED:

" TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference on the West Coast each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize. " 

What I love about TED is that you can find a speech in any domain you are familiar with and let yourself be convinced by these truly wonderful speeches. As you may have guessed, I am deeply enthusiastic on creativity and consider myself a creative person. Because of this trait I searched up inspiring speeches on creativity. I found two which have truly changed the way I think over a matter or minuets. The way they used their words and how I could use personal experience to connect to them made me feel understood and hopeful. Personally, I don't have the most extraordinary grades and sometimes I feel lost and hopeless. I feel like I have no chance as a successful human being in the future. But because of of Ken Robinson's speech, I felt like there were other people like me, who were experiencing the same thing as me. I obviously knew that I wasn't alone in this world, my friends and family are a huge support, but I honestly felt, well, lost. He also made me realize about how our education "ruins" our creativity which had never struck me before. Through the video I started to realize more and more about how true this was and how my mind has given priority to subjects like maths which should be as equally important as arts. I know that most people who are reading this have no idea what I'm talking about so here's the link to make you a little less confused: 

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html?utm_campaign=&utm_source=t.co&source=twitter&utm_content=addthis-custom&awesm=on.ted.com_iRNE&utm_medium=on.ted.com-twitter#.US5X7Igtqzl.twitter

The second video I watched has probably changed my mind forever because unconsciously  I have begun to experience everything Elizabeth Gilbert said. If you don't know who Elizabeth Gilbert is, (I didn't know who she was before watching this video honestly) she is the author of the very popular book 'Eat, Pray, Love'. She covers many points in her speech but the one that stuck to me most, was when she told the story of an 80 year old poet and how she explained inspiration. The way she explains it is exactly what I feel. I occasionally get this rush, this excitement, and I need to put it down on paper before it's too late. If it's a phrase, a quote, a drawing, an idea; it will only last seconds and I must put it down. I would have never been able to explain this feeling myself, and I was overjoyed that somebody, somewhere, who is like me, has. So, once more, you're probably going "I haven't the blindest idea of what she is talking about. John (because in my mind you're a woman at her computer married to a wonderful man named John. May you have a happy life together) , I think she's gone mad." So to once more, stop all of this confusion, watch this video and reread the paragraph. It will make more sense after. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html?utm_campaign=&utm_source=t.co&source=twitter&utm_content=addthis-custom&awesm=on.ted.com_hRT6&utm_medium=on.ted.com-twitter#.US5YFq6F9u4.twitter

So, I hope after watching these you will feel... different, or have a different perspective of things. I would love it if you could comment below so we can have a friendly conversation on this because I feel like I need to talk to people who are like me and understand what I go through. I would also love if you shared other videos that you watched on TED or anywhere else which have changed you in some way. It doesn't have to have anything related to creativity, art, etc. It can be about science, maths, dance, politics, whatever. I would like to make this post a place where people can connect and talk about these things. This post is also getting very mushy feely (had to find a word that rhymed with mushy and meant feelings at the same time...) so I'm going to wrap it up. If you want to visit the TED homepage/website click on any TED word you see in this paragraph or just click on this link: http://www.ted.com/ 

Once more I hope that one of these speeches will inspire you as they have for me and that you will enjoy them :) Bye!

P.S: Found this picture that I thought might interest some:

New Header!

I finally made the header that I wanted! I've been thinking about it for ages but never actually bothered to do it... but today I did! So let's rejoice by sitting around a table and eating cupcakes while listening to a dolphin playing the lute with its tongue... ew. But still, I do think we should have a celebration on the fact that I actually did something today. Also, I would like to show you the drawing of me that I made for the header. I'm quite proud of it :3

Don't I look just beautiful? ;)

I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE

FINALLY, I'm free! Now that my Christmas post is done I can finally keep you guys up to date on all the stuff that has been happening lately. 

So, where to start? Ah! I know! *looks creepily at computer screen as if she was to murder it... happily... this is getting confusing...*

So (I didn't have any other word to start with, sorry for the repetition) last year during Christmas (uh oh) of 2011, I got a drawing pad that connects to the computer so that you can draw awesome stuff. I loved it, I mean, LOVED it and used it all the time. Unfortunately I quickly got bored of it because I didn't have any good programs on my computer and it was quite challenging to draw on it... BUT recently I discovered an artist named viria13 (here's the link: http://viria13.deviantart.com/ ) who does INCREDIBLE fan art (mostly Harry Potter!!! yay!!!) and is all together an INCREDIBLE artist. I grew very fond of her drawings especially because they're the type of drawings I want/do (though they are not as good). I also learnt a lot from her sketchy tutorials which led me to discover a program that I could download on my computer as a free trial. It. Was. Perfect. It's smooth and clear and easy to use (bit of a poet with my rhymes there). I made numerous drawings on it (most being unsuccessful) and improved my ability to draw on the computer (though I have realized that I prefer using paper. Its more... real... if that makes any sense to you...). Though my drawings look a little sketchy and not as detailed as the ones I'v done on paper, I am, overall, very proud of myself. I learnt a bit more on shading and pleats in clothes (though those skills are still in development) and I could FINALLY put a bit of color in my drawings (fun fact: coloring with pencils/pens/crayons/anything else that can be used to color is MY WORST NIGHTMARE. I hate it. Just hate it. I will usually ask a friend to do it for me. Or just not do it at all. Which is most of the time.) So I think after reading all of this you might want to see these drawings well you can't. Nah I'm just teasing (aren't I just hilarious?), here are the masterpieces.

My Best friend and I
(This one was actually made on a photoshop on a school computer before I found the magic program but I didn't feel like explaining it in the paragraph. So... yeah)

Hiccup from 'How to Train your Dragon'
Wanted to draw Toothless but he failed many times so I decided to replace him with smoke. I shall attempt to draw him some other time.

Some Body parts aren't perfect and the girl's face is a little weird but I still like it :)

And so obviously I didn't only do those, I also did some drawings on paper which shall be displayed below.

Thought it would be interesting to put the original.

Lily Evans and James Potter for all those Potter-heads out there (including me!)

These are actually the same people as the third digital picture. I called them Peter and Penelope :) I am thinking about doing a sort of mini series on them with drawings. It would add something to look forward to and would make me progress in my skillzzzz. Tell me what you guys think about it!

I still have some drawings that I made but I haven't scanned them yet so... yeah... that shall be a plan for the future. Also, if you're wondering about all the kissing, I watched a tutorial on how to draw a kissing couple thingy and I needed practice so voila. Here's the tutorial, Mark Crilley (the artist) is GREAT at drawing and SO useful!!!

AND if you're also wondering about why we have hooves at the end of our arms in the drawing of me and my friend, if you watch 'My Little Pony' then you will know there is a population of people called "Bronys". Even though we're not male we still consider ourselves Bronys AND THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. Seriously, My Little Pony (the new one, not the old ones) is actually not that bad. It's obviously made for little girls but it isn't as kiddy as you think it might be. Call me crazy or whatever but trust me, if you haven't at least watched one episode, you're missing on something BIG. Here's one of the episodes to get ya going:

My favorite characters are Applejack and Rainbow Dash FYI.

Also, to get back to the drawing, we call each other Sosh and Natty which explains the T-Shirts. I'm Natty before any of you ask.

Anyway, I think I pretty much covered everything.... I hope you guys had a nice holiday or you're just having a nice life in general :)

See ya!

P.S: ONE MORE THING, my friend Athena (from the post Accordion Athena)just made a blog and since I'm her friend and a nice person and because I want to, here's the link to it: http://athenasblahblah.blogspot.be/ . It would also be nice and friendly of you to check it out :) Who knows, maybe the Loch ness monster is hiding in there!

P.P.S: (sorry, this is like the third time I'm editing this post) I also have a Deviant art account so if any of you guys are on there go add me :3 I post the same things on this blog though so if you don't add me you won't be missing out on anything. Just wanted to let you guys know. Here it is: http://fetnat.deviantart.com/

And to make a little free advertisement, Deviant art is a great website for any kind of creative person. Writing, drawing, painting, designer, whatever it is, it's a great community and website to join :)

Christmas 2012

So I am finally going to write this post that I think a lot of you have been waiting for... I know, it's already 2013... I'M SORRY! I'm horrible at staying on schedule. I think I should add that as one of my resolutions... I am also a huge procrastinator... ANYWAY here it is:

22nd of December - Prep Day

Daaaaaah!!! Everything is so hectic in this house that you would think you're running a marathon!! Neither of us have eaten a proper meal in the last three days because my Dad doesn't want us eating the ingredients in the fridge and my Mum has been running all around the house vacuuming each room at least five times per day! I feel like I'm not doing anything at all because 

A) My Dad gave me the lovely job of decorating the house ( I looooooved this idea ) but over the week he has forbidden me to decorate certain places of the house before the whole house was off limits to me decorating. That really annoyed me. 

B) My Dad (once again) doesn't want help in cooking because ( in his mind ) I m an immature child who throws food and cuts myself every time I am a meter away from a blunt knife. 

C) I can't just sit down and relax because I am immediately told off by my parents that I'm not doing anything and 

D) Every time I try and help my parents tell me to do something else and get out of their way. It's hard being a teenager. 

Anyway, enough of me whining, let's get back on track. I finally found something to do which was making the first batch of Christmas cookies! With my Mum we decided to make some sugary shortbread biscuits in my brand new gingerbread men mold that I had bought at the Christmas market a few days back. The recipe came from a small book containing recipe's that only had "La Vache Qui Rit" in them. Unfortunately we only had Emmental flavored Vache Qui Rit in our fridge ( *face palm* ) so it added an... interesting flavor. We also added some speculoos crumbs into our biscuits to try and hide the Emmental flavor... When the mixture was done, I hastily stuffed the mold and put it n the freezer so that it could set. I was now, once more, left with nothing to do. I ended up watching TV until the cookies were ready and I dropped all of them and they ALL broke *sad face*. So that's pretty much what happened that day. 

23rd of December - The journey begins! 

On the 23rd my Grandma arrived alone just before lunch and we almost immediately went out to lunch all together to the very refined french restaurant just up the road. We all ordered mussels and fries with alternate sauces and the adults then took a small coffee. When we arrived home we sat and chatted and ate some delicious holiday chocolates (mmm! This time of ear is when they taste the best!). Time passed a bit too quickly and we all realized that it was near the end of the day and there were still presents to be wrapped and cookies to be baked! We immediately took action and started with the cookies. It was exactly the same recipe (yippee, more cheddar tasting cookies) except we had the help of my grandma. Which helped. A LOT. But anyway, while the cookies were cooking we did some speed wrapping and ribbon tying. I would say that out of ten our efficiency and speed put together were a nine and a half. It was as if an elf had come in and wrapped our presents (because everybody knows that elves are amazing at wrapping presents). The cookies were ready and I had the right mind to ask somebody else to take the cookies out of the oven and obviously they didn't drop it (I'm such a clutz). By the end of all that we were all pretty tired (except my Dad who spent his time quietly reading his book. *face palm*) and didn't wait long to go to bed

24th of December - HO HO HO and a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Before they arrived in the morning (which was at 11:00 am FYI) my grandma and I made a second quick batch of cookies so that there would be one each for each person. Luckily we finished them right before they (if you don't know who they are, scroll down and read 'Coming up...' ) arrived (by five minuets no kidding!) and it FINALLY felt like Christmas! I also found out the the unknown girlfriend is called Nada and she is from Thailand but lived in California most of her life and speaks mostly English but also knows some french (enough to communicate with others). She also has a talent for drawing which obviously pleased me. I shared my drawings with her and she commented on them and I was so happy!!! BUT let's get back to where we were, so my cousins overloaded me with their stories and adventures. Thao showed me a great drawing that he made on the train (I'm so proud!) and Thuan just kept talking about anything and everything. You can pretty much have a whole conversation with him if you nod occasionally and do "aaah" and "oooh" noises when it sounds like the end of the sentence. While my Dad was preparing lunch Nada and I decorated the cookies (unfortunately the second batch burnt a little so that looked like they had a good month under the sun) with various icing and decorations. We had an absolutely HUGE goose for lunch which we barely finished but did in the end thank to Pierre Axel who became our human trash can. The rest of the afternoon was slow and lazy (except for the two little ones who were somehow strong enough to carry the weight of their bellies). My Dad bought for the occasion a box of chocolates that was ameter long and about ten centimeters wide from this famous chocolate shop which I can't remember the name of... but we tried them out during our lazy period (we somehow found space deep inside our stomachs to store it)  and oh my word they were AMAZING!!! Truly amazing. When it started to get dark Pierre Axel, Nada, Thao, Thuan  and I went in the garden to light some candles. This was so that Santa could see our garden and know where we were. It was also to help land his sled since it's not always easy finding a parking spot on roof tops. It took several tries (about twenty I would guess) to get all four of them to stay alight all at the same time. The problem was that when we would start heading back to the house, one of them would just die and we would have to go all the way back and try to light it again. Finally we managed to light all of them (at least long enough for us to go back to the house) and convince Thuan that Santa had called Pierre Axel to tell him that he saw the lights and had saved the address on his GPS. Soon enough it was time for the two little ones to go to sleep after another HUGE meal and this was when things got a little more exciting. Everybody went to get their presents out of their bags and in total there was a mountain of wrapped presents waiting to be revealed! We randomly placed them under the tree which made it look stunning. I then took my Dad's crocks and made mud footprints from the garden, into the house, around the tree and back (unfortunately there was no snow so it didn't look as magical *sad face*). My Dad then wrote a note coming from Santz and placed it next to a cup of milk (half of it drank by me) half a cookie and some carrots that have been bitten out of (some were thrown into the garden so it looked more realistic). After that, everything was done and I was anxious to get into my bed and see the faces of my cousins the next morning.

25th of December - Presents!!!!!

Presents!!!!! Lots and Lots of presents!!!! Obviously my cousins were the first ones to find them and ran furiously around the house waking everybody up. When we were all downstairs and somewhat awake ( which I was not ) my cousins opened their presents BUT I must share with you that right before they opened them, Thuan said the most adorable thing which became the highlight of my Christmas. When he saw the santa hat trapped between the door he said " at least this time he left us a clue! " IT WAS SO ADORABLE I felt like I was going to melt into a pond of purple goo :3 But now to continue the story. My cousins opened their presents first while the others watched and obviously loved every single present they got (expecially mine because.... well, it is me! ;) I got Thao a StarWars Lego alorm clock if you must know, here's a pic:  )

Hey guys, I am back from the future and do not want to finish this post (it's the 21st of Febuary and I started this post before Christmas... WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY LIFE?!?) and so I am now going to make a very short list of bullet points so that this post is OVER WITH.

• Went to plaisirs d'Hiver
• Went inside the Ice Monster - Thao and Thuan ran ahead before running back screaming and hiding behind Celine
• Went to see Ernest et Celestine (great movie for any kids!!)
• When going through two buildings the wind was so strong that Thuan "flew" into me
• Another cute quote from Thuan "Olivier looks hard and scary on the outside, but I know in the inside he's a nice person" Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!! Too cute!!!
• Pierre Axel got sick on the last day with Diarrhea and vomiting (yuck!)

So FINALLY this post is done! Sorry for the lack of detail at the end but this just HAD to be finished! Phew, I feel lighter all of a sudden. I am just going to fly away and leave this pit hole of a post once and for all! Ciao!