—Ernest Hemingway, (1889-1961)

Winnipeg, Canada

It’s been a while since I’ve sported a moustache… so this should be fun. Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in Canada and around the world, during the month of November.

With their “Mo’s,” these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer. On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face. For the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts. Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Through their actions and words, they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

At the end of the month, Mo Bros and Mo Sistas celebrate their gallantry and valor by either throwing their own Movember party or attending one of the infamous Gala Partés held around the world by Movember, for Movember.

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…for some new glasses and a Movember moustache…

Winnipeg, Manitoba

My colleague Adrian and I just met this Giant Water Bug (Lethocerus americanus) on the sidewalk about a block from our downtown office. Frankly, I was shocked that I have never before encountered its ilk in the 38 years I have spent in Canada (including lots of time in swamps and on streams and ponds)… apparently they are also known as Toe Biters (for the painful bites they can inflict on swimmers). Their normal diet consists of insects, tadpoles, salamander, small fish, and snails—and they themselves are a popular food in Thailand.

Who knew?

—René Daumal (1908-1944), para-surrealist writer

—Albert Einstein

Winnipeg, Manitoba

As I usually do, early yesterday morning I checked my email, and I was delighted to find a friendly message from the optometrist who recently checked my eyes in advance of my ordering some new reading glasses (let’s just call him “Gary” as I’m not sure he’s really supposed to provide me with these files); as per my request he sent me the retina photos that he took during my checkup (large, screen-filling, with incredible detail). As a visual designer, I’ve always been fascinated with the function of vision—which I mentioned to him as he was putting me through the optical steeplechase—but until now I’ve never been able to “peer into my own eyes,” as it were.

The pics he sent are shot through the pupil (the dark, size-changing hole in the center of the iris, which is the structure that gives the eye color and works like a shutter in a camera). After passing through the iris, the light rays strike the eye’s crystalline lens, a clear, flexible structure that works much like the lens in a camera, shortening and lengthening its width in order to focus light rays properly; the light rays then pass through the vitreous, a clear, jelly-like substance that fills the globe of the eyeball (the vitreous humor helps the eye hold its spherical shape), before landing and coming into sharp focus (if you’re lucky (-: on the retina. The bright/orange spot you see is the optic nerve (a bundle of over a million nerve fibers, to be more accurate) which acts as sort of an extension of and connection to the brain, where one actually interprets an “image.”

Pretty cool, eh? Thanks “Gary!”

—Friedrich Nietzsche  (1844-1900)

Jakarta, Indonesia

I’ve recently become acquainted with a remarkable fellow: Bambang P. Eryanto (thanks to the vagaries of the Internet). Artist, engineer, entrepreneur, visionary… Bambang graduated with a degree in Science in 1998, at which time he left his hometown for the capital of Indonesia… “supposedly promising jobs and an exciting career,” some 500km from his home village, armed with a mere Rp 50.000  (less than USD $6), given to him by his parents.

In Bambang’s own delightful ESL parlance: “In my heart I promise I will not go home until I was quite successful. Long story short I experienced a lot of work, until finally I stood alone and own a business in the field of electrical and construction, has been almost 10 years I wrestle this field there is a feeling saturated, but I can not leave this business, because many are related, such as employees, family and many who rely on this business, also the suppliers who have to sell the goods to us. At the moment getting fed up that I began to delegate to others who can help my leadership, step by step moving towards success.”

“From here I went back to my hobby rather (than) lie fallow, that is painting. Actually painting hobby I’ve lived since the year 1976, when it I was only 16 years old.  Although it was a hobby but I do professionally, and several times exhibitions, including solo exhibition, this achievement that makes me happy, because I was self-taught painter. But I knew painted does not involve a lot of people, all I can do myself, I realize living in developing countries, I met a lot of unemployed, homeless, beggars, people who are not school. If I just paint, I’m very selfish, and there is a feeling of sin is still a lot to see my people suffer. My Country which is too limited, there is no unemployment benefits, no medical benefits and education fee is very expensive for the average person. On the other hand I also can not build a new company and hold them to pay, because companies need time to build, capital and skills that are not small. While they need to eat right away.”

“Apparently God Allmighty—knowing will be his people who want to help others, not much in the environment and power grid construction projects in my company. There are many things I find stuff like the rest of the project, iron pipes, Polycarbonate, PVC pipe, various bottles, wire, etc. Year 2005, from here I began encouraging because things I found was actually new, though it rest. And the most appalling is the number of pvc pipes are sometimes thrown away, and we know plastic decompose in the ground it took more than 100 years. Wire, bottles and crumpled Polycarbonate also granted, sometimes just thrown in the trash.”

You likely get the picture. Bambang re-purposes discarded materials to create employment for others as well as delightful one-of-a-kind artifacts that are useful, emotionally engaging, and in an odd sense… redemptive. Visit his website to learn more, here.

Images: A selection of the delightfully functional assemblages that Bambang et al put together… rock on, Bambang!