You've Got Mail: We Are Here to Make a Contribution

Happy November everyone!
November is a very good month. It is the last month where we have a chance to finish and accomplish all the goals that we made at the beginning of 2012 before December 31st is coming! I love November because it is the month where hopefully once in a year I will be wiser, since my birthday is in November. I am turning 21 this November 11. Isn't exciting? I turned 21 years old in the United States. It must mean something.

This morning I received a very thoughtful email from my dad. He just sent it to me and my brother. Oh, my father also just turned 49 last Tuesday (10/30). His birthday is always a mark that my birthday is coming soon (my birthday is 12 days after his birthday).

The email is an article "We are here to Make a Contribution" by Rick Warren about what our purpose  in life is and how we can contribute. I think it would be really nice to share it with everyone since today is a new beginning of a new month, new day! Have a bless month all!

"It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others." (Ephesians 2:10 LB)
God calls you to a service far beyond anything you could ever imagine. You were put on Earth to make a contribution. You weren’t created just to consume resources — to eat, breath, and take up space. God designed you to make a difference with your life. You were created to add to life on Earth, not just take from it. God wants you to give something back. The Bible says, “In our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10b TEV). These “good deeds” are your service to the world. Whenever you serve others in any way, you are actually serving God and fulfilling one of your purposes (Colossians 3:23-24; Matthew 25:34-45; Ephesians 6:7). What God told Jeremiah is also true for you: “Before I made you in your mother’s womb, I chose you. Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work" (Jeremiah 1:5a NCV). When most people think of this "special work," they think of pastors, priests, and professional clergy, but God says every member of his family is to minister. In the Bible, the words "servant" and "minister" are synonyms, as are service and ministry. If you are a Christian, you are a minister, and when you’re serving, you’re ministering. Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t just immediately take us to Heaven the moment we accept his grace? Why does he leave us in a fallen world? He leaves us here to fulfill his purposes. Once you are saved, God intends to use you for his goals. God has a ministry for you in his Church and a mission for you in the world.

E-card I made for my dad's birthday two days ago.

Kiss and Love,

Rut

Adobe Illustrator: Designs for Menu and Advertisment

These two designs below are my some of the first assignments we did for Graphic Design. We had to make a menu and an ad using Adobe Illustrator. I never knew how to use Adobe Illustrator before until I took this class.  I found the tools in Illustrator are more handy and specified. It is not like Photoshop which allows someone to do more of photo editing. In Illustrator, we could not use it for photo-editing.

The idea of the restaurant is an urban-setting European-fusion cafe. It has to look simple and chic. With the design of the menu, I could definitely see a very cozy monotone architecture with black and white as the colours that dominate the furniture.

The second design is to make an advertisement of an invented-company. As I love creating, designing, writing, my company is a designing company. The idea of the design was inspired by the design for a better life poster (it is on my two previous posts). My professor said it is s really good and attention-getter design. The message is clear.  "We design what you want". The second important thing that has to be appealing is the name of the company, which is ink and print. As we all know, as every company moves toward digital era, all we need is just the website address of the company and its motto -- right below the company name.  The services are the block on the left-top. It is the third message that is wanted to be delivered in the ad.

Using Illustrator is really easy, however there are so many different techniques that can be used for one particular object. It is the role of designer to practice and make themselves comfortable with different tools in Adobe Illustrator.

To Write is to Feel

My life in Waverly, IA, United States is about projects. Project is the term that I use to describe anything I do that is not school related and solely to fulfill my hobby. I have been thinking for such a long time to write a novel. My experience in Italy was more than enough for me to write about it. But I haven't got the big-push yet what to really write about. There were just so many things going on in that two years. There are too many people I met, too many people I like, too many good stories to share -- in a good way.  I do not know what would be the focus of that one. Based on novels I have read so far, in a good love novel, there are only two main characters, the lovers and other supporting characters the ex's lovers, their families and friends.

However though, recently after this summer, I think I got a really break-out inspiration to getting it going. And today, believe it or not, I already got 765 words for the novel. I love creative writing. Sometimes I wish I go to college to just study to be a writer. So that I can just focus on writing. The problem is I have to many interests and hobby and things I want to do in life. It is hard for me to focus now. But, at least I have started today.

This motivation came back again when three weeks ago, I remember what my Bahasa Indonesia teacher in SMA Santa Ursula, Pak Eko, told me that if I want to write a book I have to spend the time at 30 minutes to an hour to do that. And I think I have to start doing it. Plus, I already got a really good characters for the main part of the book.

I already get an abstract about the book. 

"... But, I think you are a character yourself. I do not know whether we are going to meet again near in the future. And this is what makes it more exciting. I will develop my own story and so do you. I hope you are happy now, because I am."

It is basically the reason why this story came up. it is so much influenced by James Patterson's book Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas. And I think that is pretty exciting! Who does not love story about strangers, summer vacation, distance? I like those kind of stories. I want to thank my friend too, Dinda Sekar who keep asking me "Why not making an online novel, a book, a short story?" I told her, I have the a note-book that I sometimes write about. but I don't move it yet to an electronic version. I am getting excited.

Remember from my previous post, my friend has asked me to contribute in her super inspiring website Dream Inc? The article is up. I hope it is inspiring enough for everyone to reach out their dreams!

All the best, 

Rut

Here is the link for the interview.