Mensa asked me the other day why what is inside our new tablet case is the best choice currently on the market. She also wanted to know if there was any ethical consciousness involved in my selection, which of course there was!!! :]
Here’s the breakdown on why my new Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 is the best out there! Firstly, it has an android system, open source love, the best screen and processor, and it is lighter than an iPad. It’s also fast as lightning and reasonably priced.
Next, the company is Taiwan-based. Free China. Taiwan is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, and human development. I’m just saying. :]
Also the environment is another factor for me,
Asus even developed a special proprietary chip, the EPU (Energy Processing Unit), in order to coordinate and manage power usage in all of a computer’s major components. In fact, all Asus notebook computers are designed to be Energy-Star compliant. Furthermore, when it comes to the materials used to make Asus products, Asus has made a special effort to be green. There is a company directive that restricts the use of certain known hazardous materials in Asus products, and the list is actually more restrictive than that imposed on manufacturing by the European Union. In recent years, Asus has been developing hardware that can be more easily recycled, as well as offering its own take-back and recycling programs. (source: http://www.roc-taiwan-hn.com/asus.php)
The best part though is how cute it looks its new, glittery case!
This is our most recent creation. A tablet case. Wooden buttons, hemp string and felt made from recycled plastic bottles! Perfect… Except for the tablet that could potentially goes inside…
I will let Mushpa (aka IT Phenomenon) take over on what makes tablets and other technological goodies a choice of ethical consciousness.
I have been guilty of buying into the Apple craze, but my iPod did not come from the best of the environments, and the workers that made my little music player work, have not been treated too well either…
So Mushpa, do you mind filling us in on why it is that inside this new case there should be, according to current research, the best choice of tablet currently in the market?
Meanwhile, check out our new product at our Etsy store, and remember, we can always custom make you case with your colors of choice!
Let’s start like this, I made a commitment to write one entry a day, everyday in the Mushpa y Mensa blog. It isn’t that hard. It doesn’t really have to be about anything specific, just vaguely related to Mushpa y Mensa’s philosophy, ideology or really just the general vibe, so why is it that days have gone by and I have not done one entry? This lead me to the question, what is it that holds people back from being successful? More specifically, what is holding me back from being successful? Am I really stopping myself from what I want to do to go to an arbitrary 9-5 job? What is the point? What am I trying to prove? Why is it for others I can go above and beyond? Why can I make other people successful, rich, enlightened, but not for myself? I have better ideas, I will do better things for humanity, I have the skills and ability to do anything, and I am charming, so what gives? Is it the fact that for the formative years of my life I went to school and was brainwashed into believing that success is based on not only my career choice, but on my monetary value? Is it really so simple in its complexity?
I was saying to Mensa last night, what if we couldn’t get a job working for anyone? What if we had to work for ourselves to make money to survive? If this was our only option to have food, shelter, and comfort, well then I know Mushpa y Mensa would already be on Forbes 50 Most Innovative (and profitable) Companies’ list! Question is, why does it seem that I can’t make it successful without the fear of starvation and homelessness?
When we are children we are told and believe that we can do anything we want, that we can become anything we want. Then as we mature we are made to believe that this is a dangerous way of thinking. The funny thing is it is not dangerous for us to believe, it is dangerous for those wanting to make and control the majority of wealth in the world. Greedy children who never learned how to share. I want the American Dream I was promised. I want what I deserve and the only way I am going to get it is to believe not only in myself, but that if I do the work, if I do the right thing and have faith in this universe, I will attain this…happiness…success…serenity. I want to live my life, not just survive it. I don’t want to get to the end of the road and think, “Is that all there is?”, so today guess what?
So I was originally going to post about how art has become this disgusting multi-billion dollar industry, where the privileged use their extra cents to buy and sell pieces of art, old and new, and how it is such a disheartening and sad sad thing that is happening to the world of art.
And then Mushpa says, with a cute smile on her face … “Well hey, I’ll sell my pig for 8 billion dollars!!!”
Well, if someone will buy it for that amount, why wouldn’t we sell it?
So here is my dilemma… Which walks do we walk when we talk certain talks?
If I trash talk the art industry because it is a classist, capitalist, white male driven industry, this means I should do whatever it is my power to stand against it, right? As this guy Christian Viveros-Faune points in his article “How Uptown Money Kills Downtown Art”, all artist should form communities and stand together for an anti-capitalist/occupy-art social movement.
I am not going to lie…I often day dream about the day this happens. I day dream about artist organizing themselves into boycotting sales of art for profit, and painting true art over all advertisements that use art in order to sell a product for, you guessed it, profits. I daydream of New York City subways being covered with free-and-from-the-people-to-the-people-art. Wouldn’t that be badass?!? To fill every corner of this concrete city with colors, installations, sculptures, photographs and multitudes of other visual stimulants that fill us and do exactly what art should do: To feel something. Not sell a phone or insurance. And the best part about it is that it would be free, for EVERYBODY’s enjoyment.
Mermaid Drawing selling for $120 million!
But it’s more complicated than that of course. Nothing is that simple. To deconstruct this complex mafia-like art industry would be the task of everyone, and not just a group of artist motivated to change and make some noise. It would be deconstructing the whole system, along with its multitudes of problems.
The real issue comes in when we asks artist who have the reputation of either being lucky because they are successful, or just plain poor, to sacrifice for the sake of art. So when somebody comes and offers you a once in a lifetime opportunity to sell a sketch for a million dollars, wouldn’t you take it?
Accepting that money would be accepting that art has become a business transaction, rather than what I do, and many artists do art for, which is to let that explosion of creativity boiling up in your brain out into the world. Selling out would not be an option for me. Neither will be starving though. And neither will be letting go of art to pursue a job that will feed me and pay my bills.
What it comes down to though, is that as artist and artist communities, WE need to dictate how and for how much our art should be sold. Do I believe that my mermaid drawing is worth $120 million? Probably not… Just like I would hope Edvard Munch wouldn’t think that his drawing of “The Scream” is worth that same amount, even if a group of privileged folks over at Sotheby’s though it was.
So what to do!? Fellow artist, we need to agree on this one. How much do we think our drawings, paintings, sculptures and other fantastical pieces are worth? 10 bucks? $3,000? A fa-fillion dollars? Free?
Ms. Mensa and I needed a little fashion inspiration for some new shirts we are about to design, so we thought where better to go then New York Fashion Week! We choose the Vaute show to start off with, by designer Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart, one because it was the first all vegan fashion label to show in NYFW and two because her stuff is mad cute. That’s what we are talking about people! :] Anyway, all her fashions are made from organic, recycled materials. The photo above is the Moleskin Quilted Emily Coat with Zip Off Hood modeled by Mary Kate from Mix. It’s vegan, eco-conscious, constructed locally in NYC. The fabrics are all recycled, 100% vegan shell lined with recycled satin liner and engraved tagua nut buttons, which is pretty badass. Check out the Vaute site to read more on her ethical, eco clothing line.
The show was sponsored by The Humane Society and Badass Brooklyn Rescue, so in the show were fashionable, adoptable furry friends. The models make-up was all vegan and done by the DeVita team, all vegan hair done by Salon Champu, amazing women’s shoes by designer Monisha Raja of Love is Mighty and the men’s shoes by Joshua Katcher who is righteous as well as fashionable at Brave Gentleman.
Below is the greatest vegan Tiramisu by Vegan Treats. We loved it!
Hello, my name is Elephant the Pig. I was born with my elephant birthmark which just confirms even more that I am an elephant trapped in a pig’s body. I love to eat leaves and foliage all day long. I am a herbivore through and through. I never met my parents, so who is to say I am a pig and not an elephant? Well, my body says I am a pig but my heart and soul knows different. I am looking for a home with a person, people, family that will accept me for who I am, not who they want me to be, not for whom I seem to be. If you are that person, people, or family then I am ready to come home.
Remember, there is only one of me in all the known and unknown universes, just like you.
First off let me apologize for the delay in response to this post and the fact that it has been a minute since I have posted any entry at all. Life has been crazy!
I love the logo so far Mensa! I can’t wait for you to finish. :] I will make sure to put it up all over our blog, Twitter, Etsy store and the like. I am so glad you finally saw the light of digital editing and art. Life is a balance between the organic and mechanic. Point is Photoshop is addicting in an OCD type of way and I love it!
On to me and my endeavors. I am working on a my little piggie (see above). I have no real idea how she is going to turn out, but I am almost done with what I consider to be a black canvas of pig to work on. Watch out world here she comes!!! This is the first of many little creatures…
