Well, after losing a week at NAGC in Albuquerque, it is time to get back to our theme of LOST with this quote from Anaïs Nin which emphasizes the importance of exploring the unknown. If we always know where we are, then we may never take the time to deepen our understanding. Instead, let's get lost and enjoy the process of finding ourselves while we discover the world and all of its riches. 

Inspired by this month's theme for CreativeMorning of LOST. I decided to start with the first quote that popped into my head on the subject. "All those who wander are not lost" is the subject of many bumper stickers, t-shirts, and tattoos, but I am going to guess that the vast majority of the general population can not name the source or recite the entire poem that it is part of. Here is the quote in its entirety with a photo of a first edition of The Lord of the Fellowship. 

Today on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights, we end our weeklong exploration of IMAGINATION with this quote from Carl Sagan. The image is of the legendary Golden Record that was a part of the Voyager missions and was intended to carry a message to communicate the story of our world with any extraterrestrials that it might encounter that were able to decipher the code and play the record with the attached needle. Carl Sagan chaired the committee that selected the 115 images and audio recordings. You can listen to the the Golden Record's Greetings in 55 Languages, Greetings from the U.N., Whale Greetings, and Sounds of Earth on Spotify. A full playlist of the musical selections sent into space is also available on Spotify. 

FUN FOLLOW UPS: Assemble a committee of students and ask them what they would want to include on a Golden Record.
OR Imagine you are an alien, listen Greetings and Sounds of the Earth. What you think of this planet? 

What better way to celebrate Halloween and this week's theme of IMAGINATION on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights than with this quote from the 1971 film classic Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. I used the Willy Wonka font for the quote. I love the expression on Gene Wilder's face as he temptingly offers the Everlasting Gobstopper. Which by the way, seems like a really awful idea for a candy. At least for me, the real satisfaction with a hard candy like this comes when you actually get to crack it into pieces. The Everlasting Gobstopper sounds like pure torture if you ask me. Not to mention accepting it voids your contract and you lose out on a lifetime supply of chocolate. 

Got the song Pure Imagination stuck in your head? Watch it HERE. If you want to view something really bizarre? Check out Pure Imagination Backwards! Because you can find anything on YouTube. 

Today on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights, Alice Walker reminds us to fall in love with our imagination for it will allow us to go anywhere and accomplish anything. This photo is from 1989 around the time that I first encountered the work of Alice Walker. As a Georgia author, I have always felt a special kinship with her. I searched for an image that would allow enough blank space to insert a quote. To maximize the font size for visibility, I used Avenir Next Condensed. 

For this quote from Mark Twain, I wanted to avoid using photograph of him and instead play with the meaning behind the quote. At first I searched for an out of focus eye chart, but I could not find an image that would really work with the whole slide. I then stumbled into the wonderful world of bokeh photography. It turns out that images like this one that are out of focus have a name! Enjoy the full collection of quotes on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights.

This week on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights is all about IMAGINATION! We start with one of Albert Einstein's more famous quotes regarding imagination and knowledge. I really wanted to try to do something different with this slide and saw it as my opportunity to use this image of Einstein's office at Princeton University on the day that he died. There is a lot to notice and wonder about here. I used the Bebas Neue font to maximize the size and constricted the text to fit inside of the box. I spaced the lines so that "Knowledge is limited." is separated slightly from the imagination sentences. 

Closing out the week of play quotes on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights is this one from Carl Jung that reminds use that creativity is less about our intelligence and more about our ability and willingness to play. To echo the chalkboard feeling of the photo, I used the outline feature in Keynote for the text and set the weight of the line to 10. This gives the font a fuzzy feeling without being overly cartoony. Next week, we will explore five brand new slides related to imagination. 

For this quote from George Bernard Shaw, I searched for an image of an old person playing with a kid. I could not find the right one, and then I searched for "kid dressed as old person". I was not disappointed! This image comes from advertising photographer Zachary Scott and is part of a series of kids dressed as old people. A second series of the photos was part of a Miracle Whip ad campaign.