Graduation Ceremony/Dinner Photos

 

Come on, you know you want some ;)

 

Me and my fans!

My aunt and my mom

Me having a drink

 

After the ceremony

More photos can be found at my Flickr page.

6 Reasons to Hire a Physically Disabled Person

As an employer, you might find yourself faced with the reality of thinking about hiring a physically disabled person. You think, if I could hire someone with the same skills, but without handicap, why should I pick the disabled person? I will give you six good reasons to do so, in no particular order.

1. Financially beneficial. In most countries, the government offers a substantial amount of discounts and bonuses to employers who take on a disabled person. The government will also pay the disabled person's wages, should the person fall ill, or should they be unable to perform their tasks due to their disability.
2. Motivation. It is very often the case that disabled people are highly motivated. They have worked hard to get where they are and have a tendency to want to preform well.
3. Skill. People with disabilities are often very good at what they do. Because of the physical limitations they have had in their lives, they very often focus on something they are really good at.
4. Practicality. Disabled people often find very practical ways of doing their job, making them very structured.
5. Efficiency. One of the biggest issues is that disabled people are believed to work slower than your average employee. True is some cases, false in others. Either way, most people with disabilities are aware of this and will find ways to be as efficient as possible.
6. Image. Hiring a disabled person makes your company look really good. There's no getting around it and it's not sad.
   

Convinced? Good. Now please hire me.

Harry Potter Portrait

Blood Red Shoes Painting

Finally, after months and months, It's done. Portrait of a band called Blood Red Shoes. Done as a commission.

Friends of Glass Update

I know it's been a while since I updated you guys on my progress in the Friends of Glass project. For those of you that are new to my blog or have simply forgotten:

Friends of Glass is a project that hopes to raise awareness towards the environmental profits of recycling, you guessed it, glass. In this project, several people have been chosen to broadcast ther ideas on the subject, and I happen to be one of them.

Now, in the past, I've not been very actively involved. This mainly comes down to me having to graduate, and not finding time to devote myself to the cause. Now that I've graduated, least I can do is promote the project's latest venture:

Friends of glass is trying to recycle enough bottles to (hypothetically) light up London for five minutes. Every country involves in this project (there are quite a lot), is reporting their progress via Twitter. To read more on how to partcipate, read the official blogpost.

Why should I help, I hear you thinking. You might feel rather indifferent toward nature. You might not be an environmentalist. God knows I'm not. The reason I still promote the cause is because there are very clear result and because recycling glass, lets face it, is easy!

All you have to do, is instead of throwing your bottles into your trash, deposit them. Depositing is easy, most of the time you can find a glass deposit right next to your local supermarket. You don't even have to make an extra trip for it. Not to mentioned the things you can do with bottles to brighten up your home. Bottles make great vases. Jars are very good for storage, you can paint them up all nicely. In other words, with a little creativity (I know you have it), recycling glass is fun!

Oh, Hank is also sending an S.O.S. to the world (Sorry to steal your line, Mr. Sting, Sir):

I am graduated!

It took me a while to realise that there are people who read my blog that I don't talk to on a regular basis, if at all. A bit unfair of me then maybe, to ommit something good from my blog.

On Monday the 22nd of June, I got the happy message that I am entitled to my diploma. Four years of Communication and Multimedia Design have gone by in a flash. It was alltogether a nice time of learning, having fun and exploring the bounderies of my vivid imagination. I've not got my precious piece of paper yet, but I promise you photographs when I do get it.

That said, ending one chapter of my life leaves room for starting the next. I have big dreams, but I'm taking it one step at the time. At the moment, this means finishing on outstanding commissions and tying up loose ends. Like my personal website. As a soon to be young professional, I need some form of establishment on the WWW other than blogs and art galleries. I'm designing, something simple for the time being, because I want to be able to properly build it myself.

Other exciting things, like finding a job, are high on the agenda. I've updated my resume, and well soon provide my website with an international version. If you think you want to offer me a job, let me know.

So, on my wish/to-do list:

• Build my website
• Finish outstanding commisssions
• Write my book
• Go job hunting
• Start my own business

I'm sure there is more, but I can't think of it right now. Future, here I come.

Disney Ariel Painting