Okay, so I haven’t posted in a while. When you try to be creative in every aspect of your life, it can really get overwhelming, and you find yourself letting go of activities that are the extra-curriculars. So, in one way this is a good thing, it means that I’m keeping a blog because it’s fun, and putting work into it is actually more like playing. In another way, it’s not so great, because it’s just another way that I cut out things that help me grow and learn and breathe in order to do the soul-crushing things that stunt creativity and cause heart palpitations. Is it obvious that we’ve reached mid-term?

Last spring I took a course with the advertising department on the subject of curiosity. (What it is, how we get it, and how we can harness it to do great things in our field.) It was one of the most interesting courses I’ve taken in college, the kind of class that you know is preparing you for more than a test, or final project, or even just to get a job once you graduate, but is actually preparing you for LIFE. It taught me that in order to make something interesting for other people, I need to make it interesting for myself, and the way to do that is to have an insatiable sense of curiosity. Anyway, we had a term-long project to research and present on any subject imaginable, as long as we were curious about it.

My project was on the Hindu faith, and I chose to present with a sequence of images and facts.

Quick Facts:

World’s Third largest religion

started in Indian subcontinent

oldest practiced religion- 8500 years old

Belief in rebirth, reincarnation. Life is cyclical, soul is born into many bodies

The main texts are the vedas, the mahabharata, the bagadvad gita.

But what does this really mean?

panthiesm: many gods

henothiesm: many gods, but one worshipped as your special diety

trimurti: brahma, vishnu, shiva

monothiesm: Brahman, the one supreme being, existing everywhere.

But Hinduism is considered to be all of

these things, yet none at the same time.

The richness of storytelling and importance

of mythologies in the Hindu faith can be

expressed through an example found in the

the story of Ganesha, who takes the form

of a man with the head of an elephant.

Born of Devi, the consort to Shiva the destroyer while he was away. Because offspring of the gods are born within a day of conception, Ganesha came somewhat as a surprise to Devi. She decided, like any mother would, to take a break and get in the bath, and told Ganesha to guard the door, ordering him that no one should enter. In the meantime, Ganesha’s father Shiva returns, sees a strange man at his house, and is justifiably suspicious. He demands entrance. Because neither knew the other for what they were, Ganesha refused to let his father in, and Shiva grew angry and decapitated him. Devi hears the commotion, runs out, only to find her son beheaded and the father standing over him. She explains the situation to Shiva, and begs him to bring their son back to life. Shiva, now realizing his mistake, returns him to life, giving him the head of the first animal he saw-the elephant.

learn the tenents of hinduism, which are:

dharma- duty

artha- economic prosperity

kama- senses, pleasure.

moksha-liberation from samsara, the cycle of rebirth.

At this point, your soul is joined with brahman.

But what is the personal interaction between

a person who practices Hinduism and their faith?

arts

a temple.

Flowers at rajghat- site of a cremation memorial for Ghandi

Hinduism, like any religion, will mean

something different to every different

person who practices it.

“If I know Hinduism at all, it is essentially inclusive and ever-growing, ever-responsive. It gives the freest scope to imagination, speculation and reason.”

-Ghandi

These chocolates are the bomb. I first heard of them through a copywriting class I took with Ann Maxwell. They were our “clients” in writing long newspaper copy, and I will forever be grateful to Ann for bringing in sample chocolates for the whole class.

The main appeal of these chocolates is the blending of unusual and often conflicting flavors to create a very unique taste. Some examples are Thai Curry, a blend of chili curry and lemongrass, or Smoky Blue, which combines Rogue Creamery’s Smoky Blue cheese with chocolate and chipotle chili.

So I wrote individual descriptions of some of the chocolates to showcase their unique flavor, emphasizing that there is a journey within each chocolate. The tagline, redeFINE chocolate, plays with the fact that though this is a fine chocolate, is goes beyond the boundaries of what one would describe as chocolate to become something uniquely different. Here’s some copy I wrote for a couple of the specialty chocolates:

Colombian Fruttato:

Find a place where cultures

combine. Dig your feet into

the cool sands of Trinidad,

your senses overcome by

the warm breeze playing

across your skin, the scent of

fruit in the air. Feel the

smoldering heat of a Tuscan

sunset, your nostrils full of

the aroma of crushed wild

grasses as you make your

way back to the villa.

Earl Grey’s Blues:

Return to an age of savory teas.

Calling to mind the time of

empires, of silk roads and spice

shipments, the rich bouquet

of exotic spices mingle with

the sharp flavor of bergamot

orange. Add a dash of cream,

and remember to hold out

your pinky as you sip.

Habanero Tequila:

Spicy habanero peppers,

baked in the scorching

amazonian sun. The fiery

burn of Mexican tequila

thrown down your gullet.

Add a spicy Ecuadorean

chocolate and just a hint

of the sweltering heat of

Tahiti encased in a

sun-ripened lime. Not your

ordinary hot chocolate.ate.