Hello folks! I’m Holly, a twenty-something web designer from England and this is my part of the web. Little bit of professional info, little bit of social info, and perhaps some emptying of thoughts when I get round to it…

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1. August 23rd

   1. Shared 12 Logo Design Mistakes To Avoid.

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   2. Holly is now back from a lovely weekend away, what a lovely birthday present :-).

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   3. Shared Intentional Difficulty.

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   4. Shared 30 Amazing Blog Header Designs For Inspiration.

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   7. Shared 30+ Informative Typography Related Blogs.

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   8. Shared A Design Is Only As Deep As It Is Usable.

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   9. Shared Beautiful Mac App Web Design Showcase & Trends.

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2. August 22nd

   1. Shared Wallpaper of the Week #113 by Perttu Murto.

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I am a great fan of people watching. I tend to do it most on the many train journeys that I undertake. I have been doing a lot of research into why people behave the way they do and it’s interesting to see this demonstrated in reality. For example, if someone comes onto a platform at a train station and waits for a train, they will head for a seat and not just any seat. The seat is chosen by a subconcious psychological process depending on the seats available and any people occupying surrounding seats. I have quite accurately been able to pick the place the next person will sit when they arrive.

We all do it, imagine you’re sitting on a bus and you’re the only person on it, when the next person gets on you would feel uncomfortable if they chose to sat next to you with the array of other seats available, yet if the bus was full, the subconcious makes it acceptable to sit next to someone you don’t know.

We all have our personal space safety zones and if someone intrudes it then the natural response is to reorganise the situation so the safety zone is not breaches. Like for example, a pair of business men standing in an office talking, facing each other. If one of the men moves too close to the other, the other man will step backwards to reassert his personal space. This can be applied to many social situations and it is very intrerestong to people watch at train stations, shopping centres, parties, etc as you can tell a lot more
from peoples body language than from what they say. You can tell what a person really thinks of someone, which may be opposite to what they say, just from their body language.

Next time you’re in a public place, keep an eye out for any couples. The way they hold hands is a big indicator of the dominant one in the relationship. More often than not the male is holding hands so his hand is on top and the palm is facing back and so the female’s palm is facing the direction they are walking. If it is the other way round, you can almost guarantee that she is the one that wears the trousers…

I’ve been thinking a little bit lately about my tolerance to things. When I was younger I had a very high patience level and I think I still do to an extent, but this has dwindled a little while I’ve been growing up. I would say my patience with other people is still quite high, but patience with myself is pretty low.

I am also very pedantic, for example I have now deleted this post that I am writing three times to start it again just because what I was writing didn’t ‘feel right’. My attention span is pretty low, if I am concentrating I can concentrate enough to get a job done but if I don’t focus then I find it hard to get into something and end up getting distracted. I procrastinate a lot, I admit that.

I also hate routine, I noticed this a lot at university where I would walk into and back from lectures and finding myself really bored of doing the same thing day in and day out. Back then I thought it was because I wanted to get out of university and into the real world, but I am finding myself thinking the same things now. I like to have a varied lifestyle because otherwise I get bored and depressed of it. My evenings are quite active and normally I go out somewhere or do something new. The other thing I have noticed is that if I decide I want something, I have to have it immediately, I have no patience to wait for it to be delivered longer than it has to be. I have tried to restrain myself a bit on this lately as express delivery all the time gets expensive! I hate my pedanticness, as I mentioned already I think (or at least it was in a bit I deleted!) and I think I’m a little OCD about it. I like to be organised, and I would be really anally organised if it wasn’t for the lazy side of me getting in the way and overriding the ‘must have everything lined up in the right order categorically by size’ side. If I do something a quick way and know there is a better way to do it I normally pause for thought then go back and have to redo it the better way, otherwise it niggles at me. If I write letters I usually start them about 10 times until I’ve found the right pen and my handwriting is neat enough, they get restarted until the point that I’ve written too much that my hand is hurting to much to restart it again or there is enough text on the paper for me to feel too lazy to write it out again. I recently wrote out a card to my boyfriend and I find myself *still* niggled by the fact I don’t think I wrote it out neat enough. I do like being organised, but I get frustrated by the time I have to waste correcting things to be just right to make myself feel at ease.

Getting back to the point – thinking about tolerance has made me wonder how tolerant other people are to the wonders of life. I would guess that I probably have quite a high tolerance level in comparison to most, I seem to go about in life trying not to be a bother to other people so they don’t have to ‘tolerate’ me.. thinking about I guess this also ties in with selfish/less-ness. Generally I more often than not put others before myself, but I think its because I see myself suffering as not as great as theirs. I’d rather suffer than watch others suffer for sure. So this has made me ask a question..

Does ‘tolerating people’ mean than you see them as less than you?

Discuss. [Answers on a postcard!]

I have revived my blog, again. Reasons this time was I was reading a blog earlier and I thought I’m missing out on the blogging community, so thought I’d give it a[nother] go. Might get round to doing my own design at some stage, just haven’t the time at present! It’s also currently 4am and so I am thinking I should probably get some shut eye.

Sitting watching my mum do some housekeeping on her mothers grave. I remember a few years ago when I used to help her thinking that I was dreading it when I was older and would have to do the same for my parents. Really didn’t think I’d be doing it at the age of 20.

As I walk around the graveyard I read the inscriptions… ‘In loving memory of..’ it’s all just words but behind them is so much emotion that no one ever knows about. Memories are so much more than words. When I look at my own fathers gravestone I don’t see just words, I see experiences and emotions that I’ll never forget but nor will anyone else ever know about. Everyone has different memories. My point is that as I walk around the gravestones and I see reference to so many memories, you have no idea how much heartache and love is behind every person. It makes me ask what I want out of life. I think I have a pretty good idea actually, without specifics.

Losing my father was a truly devastating experience but taking the good points from it as I do, it has put so much into perspective. I went into a bad spell after he died finding it hard to socialise because everything seemed so trivial. Now I won’t do something unless I see the worth in it. Life is too short, as we often hear people say, but I often wonder whether the people that say it know what they are saying. Some don’t, and often take things for granted. This is something I try very hard not to do. Make the most of opportunity and appreciate what you have.