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2/22/2006 Artistic Habitus In our day, natural gift is lightly taken for art itself, especially if it is covered over with facile faking and a voluptuous medley of colors. However, natural gift is only a prerequisite condition for art, or again a rough outline of the artistic habitus. This inborn disposition is clearly indispensable; but without cultivation and a discipline which, as the ancient held, should be long and patient and honest, it will never develop into art properly speaking. Thus art, like love, proceeds from a spontaneous instinct, and it must be cultivated like friendship; for it is a virtue like friendship.Saint Thomas points out that the natural dispositions through which one individual differs from another have their root in the physical dispositions of the body; they concern our sense faculties, in particular the imagination, the chief purveyor of art—which thus appears as the gift par excellence by which the artist is born—and which the actresses gladly make their main faculty, because it is so intimately bound up with the activity of the creative intellect that it is difficult in the concrete to distinguish the one from the other. But the virtue of art involves an improvement of the mind; moreover, it imprints on the human being an incomparably deeper quality than do the natural dispositions. 2/16/2006 Women's Wearable Spring Fashion Trends You already know dresses are key for special events and after-five, but this season you'll want to turn to dresses for everything from work to weekend wear.
See More...Leading the dress pack is the shirt dress, an easy look for most offices and universally flattering (the collar and button-front draw attention to your face, the belted waist gives you shape, and the full skirt hides a heavy lower body). Jersey knit dresses are another great look for spring and summer. The beautiful drape of jersey allows dresses to caress your body without being skintight. With jersey, you'll need to eliminate seams and pantylines because bumps and lumps do show; try a one-piece bodyslimmer or seamless lingerie.
Shorts Shorts rule for warm weather, and they even take on casual work places when worn with matching jackets. Longer-length shorts -- a.k.a. bermudas, walking shorts, skimmers -- look best in a slim cut (beware cuffs: they add weight). ……
2/8/2006 11 Steps For Updating Your CreativityIf you want your life to have some changes, I think these suggestions are helpful.
 1. Listen to music by Johann Sebastian Bach. If Bach doesn't make you more creative, you should probably see your doctor—or your brain surgeon if you are also troubled by headaches, hallucinations or strange urges in the middle of the night.2. Brainstorm. If properly carried out, brainstorming can help you not only come up with sacks full of new ideas, but can also help you decide which is best.
3. Regular Fresh Input. The mind needs stimulation. How do we get new input? Do something new each day. Listion to different radio stations, read or borrow different magazines, take a stroll through a shopping centre. Keep your eyes and ears open, and taste, touch and smell things.
4. Always carry a small notebook and a pen or pencil around with you. That way, if you are struck by an idea, you can quickly note it down. Upon rereading your notes, you may discover about 90% of your ideas are draft. Don't worry, that's normal. What are important are the 10% that are brilliant.
5. If you're stuck for an idea, open a dictionary, randomly select a word and then try to formulate ideas incorporating this word. You'd be surprised how well this works. The concept is based on a simple but little known truth: freedom inhibits creativity. There is nothing like restrictions to get you thinking.
6. Define your problem. Grab a sheet of paper, electronic notebook, computer or whatever you use to make notes, and define your problem in detail. You'll probably find ideas positively spewing out once you've done this.
7. If you can't think, go for a walk. It's important to give yourself time to unwind and let your subconscious mind do its work. A change of atmosphere is good for you and gentle exercise helps shake up the brain cells.
8. Don't watch TV. Experiments have showed that watching TV causes your brain to slowly trickle out your ears and/or nose. It's not pretty, but it happens.
 9. Adopt a genius. You can benefit by learning from the lives, ideas and actions of the great geniuses of history. Adopt a role model—maybe Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Einstein, T. S. Eliot, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Donald Trump and Hannibal(not Lecter!).
10. Read as much as you can about everything possible. Books exercise your brain, provide inspiration and fill you with information that allows you to make creative connections easily.
11. Exercise your brain. Brains, like bodies, need exercise to keep fit. If you don't exercise your brain, it will get flabby and useless. Exercise your brain by reading a lot(see above), talking to clever people and disagreeing with people—arguing can be a terrific way to give your brain cells a wokout. But note, arguing about politics or film directors is good for you, bickering over who should clean the dishes is not.
Quoted from CE VOL.54
2/2/2006 Be Rich or Be ThinNo woman can be too rich or too thin. This saying often attributed to the late Duchess of Windsor embodies much of the odd spirit of our times.
Today we have shifted to thinness as our new mark of virtue. The result is that being fat——or even only somewhat overweight——is bad because it implies a lack of moral strength.
 Our obsession with thinness is also fueled by health concerns. It is true that in this country we have more over weight people than ever before, and that, in many cases, being overweight correlates with an increased risk if heart and blood vessel disease. These diseases, however, may have as much to do with our way of life and our high-fat diets as with excess weight. And the associated risk of cancer in the digestive system may be more of a dietary problem——too much fat and a lack of fiber——than a weight problem.
The real concern, then, is not that we weigh too much, but that we neither exercise enough nor eat well. Exercise is necessary for strong bones and heart and lung health. A balanced diet without a lot of fat can also help the body avoid many diseases. It is acturally hazardous if those who get(or already are) thin think they are automatically health and thus free from paying attention to their overall life-style. Thinness can be pure vainglory. |
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