Inspiration and Motivation comes from YOU.

I have to admit, lately I have been a little lacking in things. I haven't been on top of all my homework, completely ready for tests, or always prepared in my musical groups. I've felt like life is moving way to fast, but it's really been that I've been moving way to slow. I think I have been lacking the inspiration and motivation to do things. I got a little too comfortable and I started to relax, which is something that you should never do. When I finally woke up from my day dreaming, I realized people had come and snatched my little cushion of comfort out from under me, leaving me dazed and confused. Others have come and occupied the positions that I've grown accustomed to, leaving me feeling as if I'm sitting on the back burner, unnoticed by all except those who are back there with me. I know I can't be upset at them for moving in and taking it from me, I can only be upset at myself for becoming lazy.

I thrive on competition with others, even if it is wrong as you should only be competing with yourself, the competition with others pushes me, and I've realized that. I take advantage of that drive to be better than others because it allows me to be motivated to do the best that I can. I think once I reach a basic level of superiority, and I use that word only as means to show that I think I'm better than others in a certain area, I slack off in it because there is no one to compete with. I turn a blind eye and focus on other areas, which is stupid. That's the reason I am in this hole today, I stopped working once I got to a certain point and others hard work finally paid off and surpassed me. I started writing this blog to make a point that it's ok to use competitive attitude with others to reach a goal and forget about doing it for yourself. Then I remembered something that I've heard my band teacher say many times:

"Good is the enemy of Great."

That is exactly the problem I face. I get good enough at something to be better than others around me and then I stop trying. That is why you NEED to do things for yourself and not others. Though a little rivalry is always healthy and might be a good source motivation and inspiration, you should use it to initiate the motion, not fuel it. If you letter your competitive attitude towards others fuel you, you will eventually peak and flatline the rest of the way. But if you let your competitive attitude towards yourself fuel you, there is no limit to what can be achieved.

So am I going to let these other people fire up my engine? Of course! But this time, I'm racing towards a whole couch full of cushions, not just one puny little cushion, and the only way I can make it is if I am putting the fuel in myself. And no matter where I am in this circuit of life, I'll be right there pushing others along, because influences and support are your wheels in this race.

But that's a topic for a whole other blog some other time.

Holidays and their true Purpose.

I don't get it. I want you to just take a step back and look at our holidays and what they've turned into. All I see is big opportunities for companies to make money, not celebrate anything. A big happy Market-fest, if you will. For example, take a look at July 4th, Independence Day. All that automatically comes to mind is fireworks. Fireworks, fireworks, fireworks. Buying and Selling Fireworks. Not the fact that the day, July 4th, was when the declaration of independence was signed and America declared its freedom from the British Crown, but Fireworks. A visual show is how we commemorate our founding fathers. Tell me one instance when you've remembered the founding fathers on Independence Day. Just One Time. I sure know that I have never thought about it.

Christmas is also just as badly skewed from it's original purpose, though at least the reason for it is well known. Christmas, as we all know, is to celebrate the birth of Jesus. But again, tell me one time that you are thinking about the birth of Jesus when you are opening presents or eating your Christmas Eve/Day meals with your family. Not many memories come to mind, right? Now think about all the times you have thought about what presents you'll be getting, and how you could care less about anything else except that you got what you asked for and how you can't wait to get your hand on those item(s). Too many times to count, huh? Exactly my point. All we think about is the presents or what pop culture today has turned these holidays into, not what they are truly supposed to celebrate.

The last holiday I'm going to bring up is Thanksgiving, which happens to be today. Today is the day we are supposed to GIVE THANKS for all that we have. Pretty weird concept, huh? The other day I heard some one say this, and I thought it was very true. They said that Thanksgiving has turned into a big meal/feast where you store all these carbs, so that you'll have energy the next day to go shopping because Black Friday is THE special occasion. I was blown away when I heard that, but it was more because it was TRUE. Just sit there and let it soak in. Have you noticed how hard Christmas has been pushed this year, if we can even consider it Christmas? I should probably say Black Friday instead, but have you found the radio stations already playing Christmas music about three weeks before Thanksgiving? Have you ever thought of why they don't have music for thanksgiving? If you have, did you realize they don't have quite the market potential? By playing Holiday music on the radio, they are getting you into the "Christmas Season", which gets you thinking about presents, leading to you trying to find the best prices. And when do you get the best prices? Black Friday. It seems like Thanksgiving is trying to be forgotten all together, and Black Friday is the actual holiday.

It just seems to me that all these holidays have turned into are ways for companies to get you to spend your money on useless things. I'm all for the family getting together and having big feasts. It's great! I love the whole atmosphere of everyone coming together to CELEBRATE something. To actually celebrate the holiday itself, and the purpose for which it is held. What I'm not so hot for is the little side stuff. Sure I enjoy the traditions of each different holiday, but not as the reason we have the holidays. That's like saying we celebrate Independence day because that's when fireworks are shot off, Thanksgiving is celebrated to give you energy on Black Friday, and the reason there is Christmas is to receive presents. You know all I see in those statements? Me, Me, Me. What do I get out of this holiday in the moment? It's all about me and how much money I can spend.

Which is why I want to challenge anyone who reads this. Here's my Challenge: For each holiday, celebrate the reason that the holiday is there, not the reason of which pop culture has made it. Especially today, on Thanksgiving Day. I want you to give Thanks to God, or who ever it may be, for all that you have and are blessed with. Then talk about it with your parents, your family, or your friends why it is you are celebrating that holiday and keep it in mind whenever you do the special tradition of that holiday. I know I'll be doing my best to do so.

Zip It Up!: The story of the Zipper (Revised)

Everyday, we use this innovation with out second thought. We use it when we are getting dressed, to help keep us warm, and when we lug objects around in bags where ever it may be. What is this object? The zipper. It has helped make dressing ourselves so much easier and faster, and also made it easier to carry around objects in bags. The creation of the zipper wasn’t just by one man, it took a couple different endeavors to finally create the zipper we know today. And though the idea of the zipper took a while to catch on, when it finally did, it spread everywhere and was loved by everyone.

The idea that was the grandfather to the zipper was the “Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure”. Unlike the zipper we know today, the Automatic Continuous Clothing Closure had no slider, but instead clasps that moved freely along the edges of the joined materials, with each clasp holding two sides together. The clasps were all connected by a string, that when pulled tautly, would cause the clasps to be spread evenly. The only problem was that if you pulled on one side, the clasps would all go to that side, which basically opened the device, making it unpractical and therefore, obsolete.(1)(See Figure A) It was created by the same man who invented the sewing machine, Elias Howe, who received a patent for it in November 25, 1851. Oddly, he never pursued marketing his invention to close clothes, but that was possibly due to the success of his sewing machine.

However fourty-two years later on August 29, 1893, a new clothing closure was created and patented. This new invention, which was very similar to the “Automatic Continuous Clothing Closure” was called the “Clasp Locker”. This Clasp Locker was more like the modern day zipper with the slider, except that the clasps were different. This model was created using the Hook-and-eye principle in which there was a slider that when moved up, would bring the hook through the eye, and were fastened into place unlike the Automatic Continuous Clothing Closure.(2)(See Figure B) It was created by Whitcomb Judson, an inventor who had created numerous objects including the Pneumatic Street Railway. The Clasp Locker was originally created because Judson had a friend who had a stiff back because of his boots.(4) In the 1890’s, boots had to be hooked or buttoned if they didn’t have lengthy laces and were therefore considered tiresome business by many people.(6)

Though the Clasp locker did work, it was somewhat clumsy and frequently jammed.(10) Judson created a company called Universal Fastener along with his business associate Lewis Walker to try and market his invention. The clasp locker was first publicly displayed at the World’s fair held in Chicago in 1893, though it met very little commercial success and was largely ignored by they public. For the next 12 years, the Universal Fastener Company didn’t have much business until 1905, when the clasp lockers were simplified, but weren’t quite there. This simplified version, called the Judson C-curity Fastener, was marketed towards women. It was for skirts and dresses but was bulky and complex to use and install, which made it unpractical and also unpopular.(5)

Fortunately for them, they received a change of luck when they hired swedish immigrant Gideon Sundback, an electrical engineer, who had an eye for the plant managers daughter. Sundback soon invented the Plako fastener, which was a more secure version of Judson’s original design. However, the plako fastener was still unreliable and not flexible enough to maintain closed when bent or twisted. Though, the income they did manage to make by traveling salesmen kept the business going for seven years (1906-1913).(7) During this time, Sundback ended up marrying the plant managers daughter and Judson died, both in the year 1909.(10) Sadly, Sundback’s wife died during child birth in 1911 which sent him in to a 2 year period where he busied himself with work. In December of 1913, Gideon Sundback came up with what is now known as a zipper, but was patented as the Hookless Fastener. The design that finally allowed the zipper to work was a slider that connected interlocking teeth instead of a hook-and-eye. The key was that clasp had to interlock, instead of having male and female, which made it more reliable and streamline.(3)(See Figure C)

Now that Universal Fastener had a working and practical product, it was time to market it. Through the next couple of years, Walker and Sundback faced many problems with getting their product to sell. Many manufacturers didn’t like the hookless fastener, the women didn’t want to wait for their skirts to be changed from hook-and-eye to hookless fastener, some clothes were made out of country, and many other things stopped them from selling the product to manufacturers. They were faced with problems like this until 1918, where they first tasted success when a young tailor bought the hookless fasteners to make a money belt for the navy, selling around twenty-four thousand of them. Soon the navy and air-force began to deal directly with Universal Fasteners during the time of World War I until the war ended. However, once the war ended the demand for the hookless fasteners died down, yet it did expose thousands of Americans who had fought in the war to this handy novelty.(7)

Next came the B.F. Goodrich Company, which coined the term zipper and really started the slow, but sure journey to becoming a fashion trend. In 1921, B.F. Goodrich Company bought 170,000 fasteners to put on mystic boots.(6) Mystic boots were rubber boots with the fasteners, which must to have been very intriguing and exotic.(5) There are two different ways that the term zipper was made. One way is that they got zip from onomatopoeia, like when you fastened them quickly. The other way is that zip was also a slang word for speed and they adopted that.(6) Either way, the slogan for the boots became “zip ‘er up!”, which eventually led to the term zipper.(9) B.F. Goodrich Company than trademarked the term. However, they ended up losing lawsuits when they tried to sue other companies for using “zipper” on the names of other objects, though, they just had the rights over zipper boots.(7)

Despite the success the zipper had with the boots, they never moved on to any other clothes for about 10 years. They were used solely in boots and in carry cases, mainly tobacco pouches.(9) This was the case until a big campaign tried to replace buttons on kids clothes with zippers in 1933 through 1934. They claimed that with the zippers, the kids could get dressed on their on without their parents help and promoted self-reliance. Nevertheless, these clothes were still more expensive than button up clothes and you have to realize that this was also during the worst part of the great depression, so everyone was trying to be as frugal as possible. Ultimately, the clothes failed because the children wanted to dress like “mommy” and “daddy”, which unfortunately was button clothing.(7)

The story that was the supposed reason that zippers becoming fashionable was that the Duke of Windsor decided to go with a zip on his pants instead of buttons.(7) This decision by the Duke then caused all clothing designers who wouldn’t use the zipper, to just start using it and it just became a huge fashion trend. Howbeit, the real reason that the zipper beat buttons in the 1937 “Battle of the Fly” was due to a couple different things. The first was that the zipper was not uncommon to men as it had subtly come to being used on jackets, boots, and carrying cases. Also, it became fashionable because the French Designers started raving and praising the zipper and its practicality.(7) The last reason is that there were intense magazine campaigns in the ones such as The New Yorker and Esquire. It was even declared the “Newest Tailoring Idea for Men” by Esquire with one main reason being that it excluded “The Possibility of Unintentional and Embarrassing Disarray.”(5) However, they must not have yet experienced forgetting to zip up their fly!

From then on, Zippers were a big hit and almost everyone used them. By 1939 about three hundred million zippers were sold by the many zipper making companies. One of these companies is YYK Co. (Yoshida Kogyo Kabushililaisha), and is now one of the largest zipper producers worldwide if not the largest.(4) By 1950, the annual zipper sales exceed a billion, showing that these zippers only became more popular over time.(7)

However, there is one other invention that is the zippers biggest rival that has not replaced it but is used just as much. It is called Velcro, and was created by Georges de Mestral, a swiss engineer. He first had the epiphany for a new type of fastener in 1941 after he came from a walk and had cockleburs stuck to his pants and decided to look into it. He found that these “spiny” burrs were actually hooks and they stuck to the his jeans. De Mestral took about 10 years to finally perfect his product so that it worked and patented it in September 13, 1955. Initial sales were disappointing because many designers thought that it wasn’t fashionable, just like the hookless fastener. And just like the hookless fastener, Velcro became popular by being used by the government agency, NASA, when it was used in space suits for astronauts in the early 1960’s. After velcro was used by NASA, it spread to ski wear, then to scuba diving, and then to children’s clothing, finally becoming popular and trendy.(8) The development and marketing of Velcro was considerably faster than that of the zipper. However, if the zipper would have never broken that barrier years previous by being totally radical and different than anything we have seen, Velcro may have still been invented but would have had a lot tougher of a time being excepted by society. The reason being was that the zipper opened the minds of people across the world to new ideas and taught them that these radical ideas may seem totally exotic at first, but they are actually very practical and useful.

Today, all three clothing closure devices are still used and popular. The button is used on clothing still, but used for a more formal look and sometimes for pant flies. Zippers are the most popular clothing closure and most common. However, velcro is somewhat popular in children’s clothing, but not as much in adults to the simpleness of using it. Yet velcro has many different purposes as it is used in cable management, recreation, and holding items in place.

It took 20 years to finally create the perfect zipper in which it passed through a few different minds along the way. Even though it took 20 more years to get accepted by the fashion world, it was worth it. It simplified everyone’s life by creating a faster and easier way to get dressed and stay warm. Although Whitcomb Judson never got to see the final product and the impact it’s had on the society, he would be proud of the zipper for saving countless people throughout time and world from a stiff back.