Saturday, January 7, 2012
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Another inspiring Amy on TED
Like Aimee Mullins, Amy Purdy turns her disability into her super ability!
Kids don't know they're supposed to be sad...
Take a look at this photo:
It's a startling contrast eh? If you ever saw a photo of an adult who'd just had a quadruple amputation to save their life & were in a hospital bandaged & hooked up to machines, they're usually not this jovial. And that's understandable... This child is only a year & a half old. She has no experience to allow her mind to grasp the concept of the difficulties she'll need to face in order to overcome her disabilities. My realist Girlfriend scoffed a bit at my excitement when I showed her the photo, saying; "of COURSE she's happy. She doesn't know how hard her life is going to be." But does it HAVE to be? If the people around her treat her like there's nothing wrong with her, and only expect the best, won't she be more well equipped to rise to that occasion? Rather than being coddled and made to think she needs to feel sorry for herself? There's a certain zen perfection in her smile. A potential that most people rarely see in their own lives. If handled correctly... This girl's disabilities, could become her abilities!
Fast forward several years, and it looks like her family did right by her!
Check out the little Blade Runner!
Her name is Ellie Challis. She's a Scottish, soccer playing, running, laughing child. And she's also the youngest to ever have a pair of custom fitted Carbon Fibre Gazel Legs. She's also an ABOVE THE KNEE amputee, which makes her running achievements even more astounding.
Here she is with Oscar Pistorius. A bellow the knee amputee who's used these carbon super legs to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics... Not the special olympics... the ACTUAL olympics. (the jury is still out on weather he's legally allowed to compete!)
He and Ellie are part of a new breed of amputees who are finally reaching a point where the disability, is becoming a super ability!
Why am I talking about it? Well... for a very long time as some know already, I've had an obsession with the idea of prosthesis design. And lately the idea is becoming so loud in my mind that I can't ignore it. So I'm seeking out inspiration, and this little girl gave me a heaping helping of it today.
You can read more about her story here:
Brave girl plays football with no legs.
Five year old is youngest to ever have carbon flex foot legs.
And also the story of how South African blade runner Oscar Pistorious qualified for London 2012:
It's a startling contrast eh? If you ever saw a photo of an adult who'd just had a quadruple amputation to save their life & were in a hospital bandaged & hooked up to machines, they're usually not this jovial. And that's understandable... This child is only a year & a half old. She has no experience to allow her mind to grasp the concept of the difficulties she'll need to face in order to overcome her disabilities. My realist Girlfriend scoffed a bit at my excitement when I showed her the photo, saying; "of COURSE she's happy. She doesn't know how hard her life is going to be." But does it HAVE to be? If the people around her treat her like there's nothing wrong with her, and only expect the best, won't she be more well equipped to rise to that occasion? Rather than being coddled and made to think she needs to feel sorry for herself? There's a certain zen perfection in her smile. A potential that most people rarely see in their own lives. If handled correctly... This girl's disabilities, could become her abilities!
Fast forward several years, and it looks like her family did right by her!
Check out the little Blade Runner!
Her name is Ellie Challis. She's a Scottish, soccer playing, running, laughing child. And she's also the youngest to ever have a pair of custom fitted Carbon Fibre Gazel Legs. She's also an ABOVE THE KNEE amputee, which makes her running achievements even more astounding.
Here she is with Oscar Pistorius. A bellow the knee amputee who's used these carbon super legs to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics... Not the special olympics... the ACTUAL olympics. (the jury is still out on weather he's legally allowed to compete!)
He and Ellie are part of a new breed of amputees who are finally reaching a point where the disability, is becoming a super ability!
Why am I talking about it? Well... for a very long time as some know already, I've had an obsession with the idea of prosthesis design. And lately the idea is becoming so loud in my mind that I can't ignore it. So I'm seeking out inspiration, and this little girl gave me a heaping helping of it today.
You can read more about her story here:
Brave girl plays football with no legs.
Five year old is youngest to ever have carbon flex foot legs.
And also the story of how South African blade runner Oscar Pistorious qualified for London 2012:
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Oh Boy, it's been a while
Hello there Blogger account.... it's been a while, hasn't it?
Wow. So much to rant about! Is this the right time to write? The write time?
A lot has happened... I won't get too much into it, other than to say, I'm inspired. An old dream that my inner critic tried to kill off a few years ago has resurfaced, and as I've learned: this means it's worth pursuing.
I will design prosthesis. More importantly, I will change the way people think about prosthesis.
As an analytical thinker, who's been through a lot of professional counseling in his life, I am capable of very detailed introspection. I'm able to retrace ideas and thoughts and obsessions back to their root cause. Though much of this introspection, I've come to realize lately, that a great ambition in my life has been fuelled by a pivotal scene in one of my favourite childhood movies: The Empire Strikes Back.
In this scene, the protagonist, Luke Skywalker looses his hand. This hand is later replaced with a prosthetic (robotic) hand. Having my hand replaced by a prosthesis has been a recurring theme in many of my dreams, for as long as I can remember, I used to fear it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, but now conclude the much more innocent and banal reasoning of this movie scene having a powerful impact on my mind in it's formative infancy. (I was only 2 years old when my Father took me to see this movie in Theaters)
Whatever planted the seed: it's flourished in my fertile imagination.
I'm also blessed with a sufferably powerful sense of empathy, and a terrifying curiosity. One that would often see me spellbound by any sort of medical enhancement or prosthesis I would encounter in my life. I used to cringe at the fleshy plastic hearing aid a child would be forced to wear. Or the eerie "doesn't quite match" colour of an artificial hand or foot. Why do we give such consideration to the beauty and charm of an optional enhancement product like an iPod or cellphone, and offer none of these considerations to things seen as necessary artificial components?
Why can't that hearing aid be a gorgeous blue anodized aluminum? Why can't an artificial robot hand be the envy of a classroom full of children? Why doesn't a prosthetic arm have replaceable vanity faceplates?
I'm 30 now. Dreams like this aren't a matter of simple conversation starters. Or the subject of late-night ramblings with captive and willing audience members. This is my purpose. It's my higher calling. And I must pursue it. My life, happiness, future all depend on my heeding the call that my brain has been making in seeming vein to me all these years.
I'm not going to let the excitement of this post eat up too much more of this afternoon. I have things to do. Like calling the Sunnybrook hospital volunteer line again in the hopes of setting up a schedule!
http://sunnybrook.ca/research/content/?page=sri_groups_obl_home
Here's Aimee Mullins, leading the charge:
Wow. So much to rant about! Is this the right time to write? The write time?
A lot has happened... I won't get too much into it, other than to say, I'm inspired. An old dream that my inner critic tried to kill off a few years ago has resurfaced, and as I've learned: this means it's worth pursuing.
I will design prosthesis. More importantly, I will change the way people think about prosthesis.
As an analytical thinker, who's been through a lot of professional counseling in his life, I am capable of very detailed introspection. I'm able to retrace ideas and thoughts and obsessions back to their root cause. Though much of this introspection, I've come to realize lately, that a great ambition in my life has been fuelled by a pivotal scene in one of my favourite childhood movies: The Empire Strikes Back.
In this scene, the protagonist, Luke Skywalker looses his hand. This hand is later replaced with a prosthetic (robotic) hand. Having my hand replaced by a prosthesis has been a recurring theme in many of my dreams, for as long as I can remember, I used to fear it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, but now conclude the much more innocent and banal reasoning of this movie scene having a powerful impact on my mind in it's formative infancy. (I was only 2 years old when my Father took me to see this movie in Theaters)
Whatever planted the seed: it's flourished in my fertile imagination.
I'm also blessed with a sufferably powerful sense of empathy, and a terrifying curiosity. One that would often see me spellbound by any sort of medical enhancement or prosthesis I would encounter in my life. I used to cringe at the fleshy plastic hearing aid a child would be forced to wear. Or the eerie "doesn't quite match" colour of an artificial hand or foot. Why do we give such consideration to the beauty and charm of an optional enhancement product like an iPod or cellphone, and offer none of these considerations to things seen as necessary artificial components?
Why can't that hearing aid be a gorgeous blue anodized aluminum? Why can't an artificial robot hand be the envy of a classroom full of children? Why doesn't a prosthetic arm have replaceable vanity faceplates?
I'm 30 now. Dreams like this aren't a matter of simple conversation starters. Or the subject of late-night ramblings with captive and willing audience members. This is my purpose. It's my higher calling. And I must pursue it. My life, happiness, future all depend on my heeding the call that my brain has been making in seeming vein to me all these years.
I'm not going to let the excitement of this post eat up too much more of this afternoon. I have things to do. Like calling the Sunnybrook hospital volunteer line again in the hopes of setting up a schedule!
http://sunnybrook.ca/research/content/?page=sri_groups_obl_home
Here's Aimee Mullins, leading the charge:
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Today I Learned
Today I learned the value of film photography... I don't know that I could ever get my Digicam to capture a photo of a nuclear explosion.
Today I learned that the first Nuclear Explosion looked like this:
And that the explosions that happened over Nagasaki and Hiroshima occurred mere WEEKS afterwards! (shocked by the naivety of the age)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test)
Today I learned that the Atomic Age [Future]'s genesis was in fact, this explosion. What a poignant photo!
I was also tangentially informed of the existence of a machine called a Cyclotron!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclotron
And finally the fact that surprised me most is that Canada actually had a key role, (along with the U.K. and spearheaded by the U.S. Army) in advancing nuclear physics and the development of the bomb that produced this explosion!
History, and it's internet proliferation, is AWESOME.
Today I learned that the first Nuclear Explosion looked like this:
And that the explosions that happened over Nagasaki and Hiroshima occurred mere WEEKS afterwards! (shocked by the naivety of the age)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test)
Today I learned that the Atomic Age [Future]'s genesis was in fact, this explosion. What a poignant photo!
I was also tangentially informed of the existence of a machine called a Cyclotron!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclotron
And finally the fact that surprised me most is that Canada actually had a key role, (along with the U.K. and spearheaded by the U.S. Army) in advancing nuclear physics and the development of the bomb that produced this explosion!
History, and it's internet proliferation, is AWESOME.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
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