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Another post on the WEDDING and BACHELOR PARTY coming up, but this has been sitting here for quite some time and I feel SO OUT OF TOUCH with people, especially since I barely have MENTIONED the wedding...
So I'm kinda puttering about here today, and I've been kinda left alone with my thoughts, and I've been thinking that I should write up a bit to try to find some direction in my life.
Don't get me wrong, "Willy Wonka" is a pretty sweet title to have (no pun intended). But While I should be living "in the now", I've been thinking to the future (I keep thinking about Legacy and what I will leave behind) and so I want to see what really interests me and who inspires me.
I also was wondering why no-one had responded to this post only to discover that I had never posted it!
So, without further ado, here's my list of people who inspire me :)
Alton Brown (Category: Food)
When it comes to food geekery, this man is the ultimate nerd. The host of Good Eats has 10 seasons under his belt, and now is the colour commentary on Iron Chef America. He has a world of scientific knowledge under his belt and he is my go-to when looking into trying new foods. If I want to try a new recipe, I'll look up "Good eats _____" and see if he has anything on the subject. I love learning and I find that watching Good Eats not only fuels my belly with hunger, but it also leaves me wanting more for my brain to gnaw on. Using the scientific method to understand what's going on really makes me understand the world a little bit more.
Gordon Ramsay (Category: Food)
Christine and I have recently been mainlining MasterChef Season 4, and we've come to realize that it's almost not about the food that these home chefs are making, but a lot about the people themselves and the harships that they've gone through. Ramsey has done so many shows that he's like the Simon Cowell of food shows, but I've found that he's gotten softer with time. n MasterChef, he's the middleman since there's a seriously hard-edged judge on that show. (Don't let that smile fool you!) Nonetheless, Ramsey has come so far since his TV start with Kitchen Nightmares in England (if that is his first TV show).
Buddy "Cake Boss" Valastro (Category: Food/Management)
At one point, I was fascinated with watching Ace of Cakes, but once Cake Boss came on the air, I found that it was a much better learning experience for me. Before I started with COBS, Buddy was showing me a lot of the ins-and-outs of running a popular cake shop as well as the tricks that he was dreaming up to make his specialty cakes (like using poppy seeds to simulate tar on a rooftop). I looked to his show and saw how stressed - and yet, how pleased - he was with his business. He inherited the bakery from his father, and right now he has managed to expand the business to include a warehouse where people can order cakes online. This was documented in the TV show, and when I found out about it, I was so proud of him. To build a business and work hard, that was something I could take away from his show and his business. (When we were in New York, I wanted to visit, but they only had a located in Hoboken at the time. Now he has a cafe in Times Square, so maybe that will be something to look at for a future visit.)
Tim Schafer (Category: Programming/Games)
One of the creators of Monkey Island, an adventure game that everyone has at least heard of (if they haven't played it), Schafer has gone on to create his own independent game studio Double Fine, which has created numerous classic titles such as Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, and most recently is working on Broken Age, an adventure game that was Kickstarted and they managed to raise 7.5x the amount they were aiming for - a whopping $3 Million dollars. Some of his games have been great successes, some have been unfortunately not as popular as expected, but he has a following. He's obviously doing something right. ;) I have a game idea, and I want to develop it and bring it to the world. I see friends around me programming (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ravenworks and davidn, I'm looking at you) and it inspires me to learn programming just so that I can get the game out of my head. Someday! Here's an Inspiration-Driven Development tweet that, while I look back at it now, doesn't explain a lot, but I do like seeing the instant-response result from the internet nowadays. It does make you feel that you can get critiques instantly as well as inspiration from practically anywhere. :)
Guillermo Del Toro (category: Movies)
I'm finally starting to find enjoyment in movies again recently. Back in my Bell days, the last thing I would want to do after encoding movies was to sit at home and watch more movies. However, I've come to realize with the incredible popularity of Pacific Rim that I've really liked Guillermo Del Toro's recent films, particularly ones with fantastical creatures in them -- Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, and now Pacific Rim. I also liked the Troublemaker Studios films as of late (Sin City, Grindhouse, even the Spy Kids films). It's nice to see some films that are deviations from the norm and willing to try new things. Apparently Del Toro has a notebook that is a pseudo-bible for the movie he's currently working on, and now a lot of his pages are being collected into a book, something I would love to pore over. :D
I'm curious. These are only the few that have jumped to mind since I started thinking about these things. I must have more people who I see as inspiring to me. Feel free to ask about any category and I'll look into my memorybanks to see if I have someone who I look up to!
So I'm kinda puttering about here today, and I've been kinda left alone with my thoughts, and I've been thinking that I should write up a bit to try to find some direction in my life.
Don't get me wrong, "Willy Wonka" is a pretty sweet title to have (no pun intended). But While I should be living "in the now", I've been thinking to the future (I keep thinking about Legacy and what I will leave behind) and so I want to see what really interests me and who inspires me.
I also was wondering why no-one had responded to this post only to discover that I had never posted it!
So, without further ado, here's my list of people who inspire me :)
Alton Brown (Category: Food)
When it comes to food geekery, this man is the ultimate nerd. The host of Good Eats has 10 seasons under his belt, and now is the colour commentary on Iron Chef America. He has a world of scientific knowledge under his belt and he is my go-to when looking into trying new foods. If I want to try a new recipe, I'll look up "Good eats _____" and see if he has anything on the subject. I love learning and I find that watching Good Eats not only fuels my belly with hunger, but it also leaves me wanting more for my brain to gnaw on. Using the scientific method to understand what's going on really makes me understand the world a little bit more.
Gordon Ramsay (Category: Food)
Christine and I have recently been mainlining MasterChef Season 4, and we've come to realize that it's almost not about the food that these home chefs are making, but a lot about the people themselves and the harships that they've gone through. Ramsey has done so many shows that he's like the Simon Cowell of food shows, but I've found that he's gotten softer with time. n MasterChef, he's the middleman since there's a seriously hard-edged judge on that show. (Don't let that smile fool you!) Nonetheless, Ramsey has come so far since his TV start with Kitchen Nightmares in England (if that is his first TV show).
Buddy "Cake Boss" Valastro (Category: Food/Management)
At one point, I was fascinated with watching Ace of Cakes, but once Cake Boss came on the air, I found that it was a much better learning experience for me. Before I started with COBS, Buddy was showing me a lot of the ins-and-outs of running a popular cake shop as well as the tricks that he was dreaming up to make his specialty cakes (like using poppy seeds to simulate tar on a rooftop). I looked to his show and saw how stressed - and yet, how pleased - he was with his business. He inherited the bakery from his father, and right now he has managed to expand the business to include a warehouse where people can order cakes online. This was documented in the TV show, and when I found out about it, I was so proud of him. To build a business and work hard, that was something I could take away from his show and his business. (When we were in New York, I wanted to visit, but they only had a located in Hoboken at the time. Now he has a cafe in Times Square, so maybe that will be something to look at for a future visit.)
Tim Schafer (Category: Programming/Games)
One of the creators of Monkey Island, an adventure game that everyone has at least heard of (if they haven't played it), Schafer has gone on to create his own independent game studio Double Fine, which has created numerous classic titles such as Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, and most recently is working on Broken Age, an adventure game that was Kickstarted and they managed to raise 7.5x the amount they were aiming for - a whopping $3 Million dollars. Some of his games have been great successes, some have been unfortunately not as popular as expected, but he has a following. He's obviously doing something right. ;) I have a game idea, and I want to develop it and bring it to the world. I see friends around me programming (
ravenworks and davidn, I'm looking at you) and it inspires me to learn programming just so that I can get the game out of my head. Someday! Here's an Inspiration-Driven Development tweet that, while I look back at it now, doesn't explain a lot, but I do like seeing the instant-response result from the internet nowadays. It does make you feel that you can get critiques instantly as well as inspiration from practically anywhere. :)Guillermo Del Toro (category: Movies)
I'm finally starting to find enjoyment in movies again recently. Back in my Bell days, the last thing I would want to do after encoding movies was to sit at home and watch more movies. However, I've come to realize with the incredible popularity of Pacific Rim that I've really liked Guillermo Del Toro's recent films, particularly ones with fantastical creatures in them -- Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, and now Pacific Rim. I also liked the Troublemaker Studios films as of late (Sin City, Grindhouse, even the Spy Kids films). It's nice to see some films that are deviations from the norm and willing to try new things. Apparently Del Toro has a notebook that is a pseudo-bible for the movie he's currently working on, and now a lot of his pages are being collected into a book, something I would love to pore over. :D
I'm curious. These are only the few that have jumped to mind since I started thinking about these things. I must have more people who I see as inspiring to me. Feel free to ask about any category and I'll look into my memorybanks to see if I have someone who I look up to!