Lifestyle Archives | Page 26 of 33

Attention, photographers: Here’s the chance to work with JW Anderson

Whether you’re a rookie photographer waiting for your big break in the creative world or a seasoned veteran on the lookout for a new and exciting project, renowned fashion designer JW Anderson wants to see your work and give you a possible shot at working with him for his next campaign. Known for working with the industry’s leading photographers in fashion, the designer is scouting for some rising talent aged 18-30 years old.

There’s pretty much no rules involved. All you’ve got to do is submit 6 original photos you’ve taken yourself of practically anything under the sun–people, landscapes, objects, whichever you’ve got. Just make sure they weren’t published before.

February 7, 2018

We brought our dark and tainted souls into The Dessert Museum

“You’re in black again.”

This the most common sentence I’ve heard describing my sense of style. I don’t like wearing much colors–it’s just easier and more convenient to grab some black pants and a black top and manage to look effortlessly stylish without all the hard work of trying to decide which shade goes with what.

I guess it also doesn’t help that I grew up in an era where My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy were all the rage, where my angst-ridden teenage self wrote poetry and songs about thorned roses (don’t laugh at me). And then there’s the fact that I’ve always had a resting bitch face.

Although I’d like to think I grew out of that phase a long time ago, I still like dressing in dark colors and frowning.

February 6, 2018

On graduating university and why you shouldn’t take your college life for granted

You expect a nice homecoming when you show up back in college after moving on into the real world. The young folk recognize you and excitedly greet you, as you track down still studying buddies—of course they cut class to have a snack at your favorite eating spot because, hey, you’re back!—then a favorite professor will show up and you proceed to talk as mature, working equals, which is pretty rad and mature. You leave and you’re filled with a sense of achievement because 1) you managed not to become a total bum post grad, and 2) now everyone knows it and they look up to you as a shining beacon of millennial achievement. Having the total opposite occur is a nightmare, filling you with existential dread or perhaps moderately aging you at best. I would know because it happened to me.

During my last visit to my alma mater, I didn’t see anyone I know. Considering all the people you meet and keep during the best years of your life, not spotting a single one is pretty tragic. No moldy old professors. No overstaying students who flaunted the maximum residency rule by constantly shifting courses. No vaguely remembered faces from the freshman batch of nameless org applicants circa grad year. And, most tellingly, no hallowed human institutions like the building janitor or security guard. Even the buildings look different. If you cut me open in that moment, you would have seen my human tree rings rapidly multiplying.

February 6, 2018

Enumerating the life lessons we can learn from plants

In college I had a Botany professor who ended all her exams with a question: Have you thanked a plant today? That always made me smile. As I said a silent “Thank you” to the chlorophyll-laden species of the world, I thought about how the world will not function without plants. For starters, the energy from the sun will not be harnessed to enter living systems. There will be significantly less oxygen and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The planet’s temperature will be higher. Water will not cycle.

Plants have been in our midst ever since we have gained consciousness as a species. Sometime in the Quaternary, one of our ancestors plucked a healthy-looking leaf and started chewing on it, and thus began a relationship—a dependence, really—with them. Plants have since been present in every aspect of our existence: in food, clothing (your favorite sweater is probably cotton), medicine (some potent ones are derived from plant chemicals), and even romance (that rose bouquet you gave last Valentine’s Day.)

As an ecologist who studies plants and their interaction with one another and their environment, I reflect on the existence of these sturdy beings. Though seemingly benign, there is exciting movement in them. We fail to see this because they live in a timescale much slower than ours. The longer you observe them, the more you’ll see how they respond to the same stimuli that we do. There are parallelisms in our actions, but a difference in reactions.

February 6, 2018

Gone to the Dogs: How to understand our pets better

I hate walking my dogs in our neighborhood.

Where our family lives in the south, we’re among a relatively few people who understand that dogs need to be free, and they actually need to be walked. That makes for an environment in which you either can’t go far without setting off neighbors’ leashed and/or caged dogs, or encounter someone who is deathly afraid of your dog—even if he’s just a curious puppy, or a little sausage who isn’t growling at you. Sometimes I wish I lived somewhere better.

It always baffled me that people were afraid of dogs. Or, at the very least, didn’t respect them enough, because they all feed into this vicious cycle where they come out looking like mere beasts. If you don’t treat them well—as souls with physical and psychological needs—and just keep them leashed or caged, they’re going to act out their territorial instincts. That means they’re going to be fierce and fearsome, barking and biting at anyone who even barely violates the turf they’ve claimed as their own. All that, in turn, feed into people’s natural fears. (Especially if they’ve been bitten by a dog before, even though one biting incident doesn’t really say much about a dog’s nature.)

But all that is conjecture I’ve had walking the streets with my pets. No matter how close I might be, I don’t actually know the real, official reason why we humans are cruel to them. So I went around and asked the people who have a better understanding of man’s best friend.

February 1, 2018

LOOK: Here’s how Chadwick Boseman trained for ‘Black Panther’

How to go from ordinary man to Wakandan king? Lots of martial arts training

February 1, 2018

All the right words: Overcoming my stutter

My fondness for words began at a young age, around the same time I developed a stutter. It is odd since I’d just discovered the beauty of the written word only to get inhibited verbally. Noticing this discouraged me to speak. As much as I tried to appear as a normal child, my silences became more frequent to the point that my family began to notice. So that I’d be comfortable, they learned to adapt to my pace.

Slowly, things around the household began to change. It became a game of who could say the least words per day. Mornings became dedicated to quiet goodbyes and silent car rides to school. Gesturing became commonplace, as we sat down to eat our family dinners in stark silence. I was learning to be comfortable in silence, and this continued as I grew up.

When I first started school, it became clear to me that it was a different environment. People here would remember first impressions. Keeping up appearances was a must. I dreaded the day I had to go to the front of the classroom and introduce myself. I remember having a hard time getting words across. I felt like drowning after the ordeal, every time.

Ironically, it would be words that kept me company throughout my schooling. My love of reading began when I discovered a few tattered short story collections lying around the house. The Gift was one of the stories I vividly remember from that time. The tale recalled a man and his wife who exchanged Christmas gifts knowing that they can’t afford to buy presents for each other. The man proceeds to sell his gold watch to buy an ornamented hair clip for his wife. The wife sells her hair to finance a gold chain for his watch. The themes of the story are acceptance and sacrifice, both of which I had to undergo due to my lack of words.

January 31, 2018

How I went from couch potato to marathon runner

It was the spring of 2009. I was backpacking across Europe, and my train had arrived in Wien Hauptbahnhof. As I walked out of the station and into the streets of Vienna, the air felt charged with energy. Classical music was blasting from speakers. Spectators were clapping and cheering. Banners were being waved, high-fives were being given. And there in the middle of everything, people clad in moisture-wicking shirts and spandex were running.

With a rucksack slung over my shoulders and without anything urgent in my itinerary, I followed the crowd and the noise. Eventually, it lead me to the finish line of the 26th Vienna City Marathon in historic Heldenplatz. There was madness there, the good kind. Men and women, young and old were crossing the finish line after running for a long time. They were met by family, friends, and strangers with hugs and words of congratulations. Finding myself smiling and clapping and cheering along, I thought, “Some day. I will do this some day.”

But as things often go, life got in the way, and this dream was shelved. It wasn’t until three years later that I actually began to run. Inspired by a friend who finished a marathon, I revisited the shelf, wiped the dust off this dream, and took literal steps to turn it into reality. After doing some research on the most humane way to get into running, I started a program called Couch-to-5K. As its name suggests, the program was designed to take you from being a couch potato to running a 5K in 9 weeks through structured run-walk intervals.

January 31, 2018

Young, dumb, and broke no more: 8 ways to make extra money online

Let’s face it–Khalid’s “Young Dumb & Broke” has got to be one of the most relatable songs in this era. The title says it all; it’s basically about being young, making bad decisions, and obviously being broke, which I think is a trademark of most financially struggling millennials. However, since we were all are born into a technology-driven world, there are actually countless ways to earn some money online, from something as simple as selling your preloved clothes on Carousel to taking paid surveys to vlogging on Youtube. If you don’t know where to start, here are some tips and tricks you can use to get additional bucks with the help of the internet:

January 29, 2018