Oliver the Geek…City of Dreams

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Growing up I had a vivid imagination. I would create and tell stories about places that I had made up. I would imagine worlds that would be all my own and no one else’s. This worlds that I created where places that have been created from my mind from the travels that my mom and dad would take my sister and I on. I would also get ideas for these places from books and tv.

Dreaming up these place would keep me occupied for hours. I would spend countless afternoons and evenings trying to create the world I see in my head. The only things that would stop me would me my mom and dad telling me that dinner was ready and if it was time for bed. Those two things alone would stop me dead in my tracks. I loved it that much.

After hours of playing and planning these fantastic places with my toys and the furniture I would create little story lines for the place I created. I would tell of the sorry why a particular city had formed on a high mountain top aka the coach’s arm rest. It would because the founders of the town wanted to have a view and wanted to seen for many miles around.  I would usually keep these stories to myself.  But it was the fact that I was creating and developing these worlds.  There’s a saying that you got to create the worlds that you want if they don’t exist.

Once I a moved up the creative city building ladder from hot wheels and matchbox cities, I entered the realm of computer.  It was in this realm that I was introduce to Simcity.

Simcity is a simulation game, where mayors; you the user; develop and design the city of your dreams.  You are in charge of every aspect from power, transportation, to water, it is up to you decided how you want your city to run.

Playing simcity as a kid was a dream come true early.  Not only were you able to manage your own city you go to plan and design it.  You had an opportunity to do some civic duty young when you where told you couldn’t do something.  This is where the roots of me being a civil engineer were born.  I link my current career path and thought process here.

The thing that simcity has taught me over the years is this: cities are meant to be designed to help other achieve their dreams.  As mayor or leader of anything you have to put the people first.  Take responsibility of their overall well being and help them achieve whatever it is they want to achieve.  Therefore cities must be design to allow people to live and to live happily.

Outside of ensuring that people are happy.  I have also designed my cities with real elements that I see in real life.  For example, I love to have my cities designed like the “City Beautiful” movement.  A movement in the late 1890s and early 1900s where cities were designed to be beautiful and with grand buildings and monuments.  One example is Washington DC.  I would use elements that I would read and learn about in the many books and documentaries that I could get my hands on to learn about cities.

Now after years of playing Simcity, I still play it to this day.  Currently it is in 5th version.  There are actually more than 5 versions but a few of them differed so much from the game as it was intended.  Today the game has advance so much so that you can practically do almost everything that you want to do in designing your city.  If you do play Simcity and want to play along with me, I can be found here:

User Name: olasis
Server: North America West 4

Simcity has been one of those things that to this day I still haven’t met a lot of people that play it. However I know there are hundreds out there. I guess I just haven’t found you guys.

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Oliver the Writer…Motivational Action

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A few days ago I reading a post about how motivation and basically everything related to motivation has been an addiction of sorts. Looking at the landscape of media especially places like Facebook and Twitter, it is easy to find anything motivational and positive. It’s apparent that there is a market for this. And just like most things it over saturated and in my humblest opinion it does get overly routine and non remarkable.

I’m totally guilty of this too. If you are a friend of mine on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, you know everyday that I do a “Good Morning World” message. And all my good morning world messages are a positive, thoughtful, and motivational quote or idea to help start your day on a good note. So as you can see, I do add the influx of motivational things you see everyday.

However, I would like to say, that there is absolutely nothing wrong with spreading positive motivational things to friends and family. My point is that, you can’t just receive it, read it, and then share it, just like that. I think that too many people just take it face value and do nothing more than collect and share.

I think and know that the best thing to do with the motivational energy that you get from these is to take action with them. Actually get out of your seat, stop browsing Facebook and Twitter, and take some steps to getting something done. It is a better use of your time to do something for yourself to help you get one step closer to a career goal, scratch out another item on your bucket-list, and or make time to build and nurture great relationships.

I totally understand that it is easy to get caught in reading motivational blog after motivational blog but just doing that will not alone make you a better person. I have been there and I have done that. What have learned from there is that hoarding the information and sharing it doesn’t get you anything if you don’t do anything with it. It is better to share AND help others with it. What this gets you is twofold; first you ensure that you understand what you are reading and learning and second and most important of all; you are helping another person and or community gain a set of tools to build the world that they want to create and live in. It’s been said time and time again but remember this; whatever it is that you do, love it, share it, and do it not for yourself but for your community. It is NOT about YOU! It is about the COMMUNITY that nurtures and fosters you.

So enjoy the motivational quotes and ideas that you see everyday, but do yourself a favor and the people around you and take ACTION with it. Help make and create a community that will nurture and foster more positive and motivational karma.

Oliver the photographer…Photographing

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A picture is worth a thousand words.

To me pictures are worth a thousand words and a whole lot more emotion. Photographs to me are about emotion and feeling. When I’m out photographing either a landscape or a couple on their first day as husband and wife. There is an emotional investment that I put into it. Like most photographers I know, we take our work personally. We each have our favorites, we have our own idea of how to photograph the day and tell the story. I know that my favorite thing to do when I’m out photographing is to be present.

Being present, gives me the opportunity to be a guest and photographer and makes the experience so much more richer than if I was just a photographer. The photography takes care of itself when I’m present I feel. I know longer have to coach a client to do something or do much post work on an image to make it look like how I want it. Rather I just let it happen and document it knowing that this is how it’s going to be.

The biggest take away I have learned throughout the years that has helped is knowing your vision for what you are going to capture. I have found mentally preparing has helped make the process go easy. I’ve gone as far as mediate and imagine the day as it is happen. I envisioned in my head everything that I can see. Doing this easies my stress and gives me my game plan. And allows me to direct any of my associates that are helping me that day.

Before all this, I was the photographer that wasn’t sure. I was the photographer that didn’t know what to do. I practically was a nervous wreak. As much as I tried it just didn’t come naturally or as easy. I had to do the work. And boy did I work. It was one of those sweat, blood, and restless nights things that you have to go through. I don’t care for the people that say it just happened. Because it just doesn’t happen like that. It seriously happens with a lot and I mean a lot of work. And with that also come with realizing that you are not as good as you think you are however you know that with enough effort, work, and time you will make it happen. You will create the world that you want to create and live in.

And just like that; YOU HAVE TO CREATE THE WORLD YOU WANT TO HAVE AND LIVE IN. I have learned those that have the earned success have created the opportunities that have lead to their ultimate success. And equally as important; WORK HARD AND STAY HUMBLE.

So we come back to where we are now. Today I’m in the middle of a whole rebrand and process in my photography. I declare now that I am a landscape and wedding photographer. I am a specialist in this fields. I approach both in similar ways that allow me to be a tailored and outdoorsy geek. I am part of a group of 6, that have called ourselves the Bauman Six, together we work together and come together to help on another to succeed in our vision of our photography.

I will soon retire the Oliver Henry Photography brand of the business and restart them as Oliver Asis Photography for the landscape work and Oliver Asis Weddings for the wedding photography.

Oliver the Geek…And Geeking out

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I know it is safe to say that everyone has one thing in their life that they love and if given a chance to tell someone about it, they would.  Excitement enters the voice and the energy changes.  The gears in the head begin to turn and crank until they hit a fever pitch.  And for the most part, the person or person receiving and or listening to the talk now is nodding their heads as they listen carefully to what is being said.

This is what happens to me when I “Geek Out.”

Geeking out is one of those things that I throughly enjoy.  If you have followed this blog you have notice that it’s everywhere.  I guess you would find that in a personal journal blog.  But geeking out with friends to one of my favorite activities.  Geeking out doesn’t happen often but when it does it seriously makes the time fly.  It is what you would find in those romantic movies, where the guy an girl talk well into the night and before they know it is morning and the only thing that is stopping them from talking more is that their bodies are telling them they have to go to sleep.  And that is what geeking out is like to me.

Earlier this week, I met up with two friends from Washington.  They were here in San Diego visiting.  Originally from here, they moved up north about a year ago.  Luckily we started a friendship while they where still here.  In starting that friendship, I found out that we have a lot of common interest that we like to talk about to each other.  So when we hung out we always talked about the most random topics.  I don’t know about you but I love it when I can talk about random topics with friends.

I find calm and comfort in these talks.  It is in these talks that I know that I’m not alone.

Growing up I usually played by myself.  I found comfort in the hot wheels and matchbox.  They where my companions.  And it didn’t seem a lot of the kids my age where playing with them or even had an interest in them.  Most of the kids where either interested in guns or action figures.  And I wasn’t into that.  So I always thought that I was alone in my love of these little cars.

The first time that I remember geeking out with a friend was in junior high school.  My friend happen to be my 8th grade english teacher.  Almost everyday after school I would hang out and talk about things with my teacher until it started getting late, well like 3:30pm, I still had to bike home.  But it was occasions like this that I got lost in conversation.

Conversation is one of those things that if you first meet me, I’m totally shy and quiet.  I don’t usually talk at first.  The reason for that is that I’m trying to figure you out.  I’m trying to find if there is something that we can talk about together.  I’m always looking for the subject that you seem to be super interested and passionate about that we can talk about.    I don’t just base it on the subject itself but I also what your body language, are you genuinely interested in it or are you just using that topic to get to the next.  So I look out for that.

The biggest fear that I have about talking to people about something that I enjoy or are really interested in finding out that they are not too interested in it.  It interest them but it not really them.  That happens more often than finding someone with a similar passion.  I guess  talking transportation, city design, architecture, simcity, etc, etc, isn’t topics that most people like to talk about.

But none the less, I’m going to continue to find people that do like to talk about such things.  Hopefully when we meet we can “geek” out.  There’s nothing more than wanting to connect over something that we both are interested in.  To me it is the best way to start a friendship.

So let me know what you are passionate about.  What do you like to talk about hours and hours on end with others?  Have you been in situations where people said they are interested in topic and turns out they are not?  Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for reading.  I appreciate it.

Oliver the Ideamaker…Originality

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Originality? What is it? How do you find it? And how do you define it?

These are some of the questions I have been pondering lately. Over the last few weeks, I have heard discussions about people copying materials and ideas, copying what others have been doing and then passing it as theirs; without an mention of where it came from or influenced from.

So the pondering question has been, how do you find and make original material?

The quick answer is do it yourself and make it from scratch. Don’t look towards others for influence and also don’t pay attention to what others are doing. But if you think about it; that is easier said than done. In this day and age it is so easy to see what others do and the ease of acquiring knowledge it makes it almost impossible to avoid any influence. And chances are you have already been influenced in one form or another.

For example, this blog that you are reading isn’t the most original of ideas. There are thousands of blogs out there and there are countless personal ones that talk about normal daily life like the ones I have written here so far. And this topic alone, I’m sure has been discussed and posted previously by others.

So then how do you create original material.

One idea is to “steal” it from many artist. Last week on Chase Jarvis LIVE guest Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist, discussed the idea of; Stealing like an Artist. The idea at first seems far fetched.  What?! Steal?! The idea doesn’t really mean to just steal without reason. Taking from one artist is stealing but taking from many artist is research! The reason for this is easy to see and understand. It means that sometimes you need that extra push and understanding to get you to the next step. Learn a skill that you didn’t know before. Borrow. Learn. Create.

Another however more extreme idea is to go on a trek of self discovery. Disconnect…find yourself…leave what is familiar to you, and let the unknown and journey help you to find the next idea. And then pray that the idea is original.

But here comes the problem; you can’t completely disconnect from the situation because you have already been influenced by other things that you carry with you always even if you disconnect from the world. From when you are born you have already been influenced.

See the problem? So how do you make original content? Yes that’s a repeat.

Here’s my idea. You make original content by ALWAYS KEEPING A NOTEBOOK WITH YOU. Have a stream of conscience and document. No matter how small or far fetch the idea. Just write down, let it stew, and then when you know the timing and feeling is right. Do something with it. Simple right. Well I’m imagining that this is not so,etching that happens overnight or over a couple of days. This kind of thing will take place over weeks, months, and even years. You need the different influences to be your guiding principles and let that guide and lead you to the next step. It seriously is about the journey not your destination that is important. Yes that has been beat to the bones over time but it is true!