A limit to my creativiti

At work in May I set as a craft, fan-making for June 11. Then I let it go, secure that the internet would teach me how to teach my residents how to make one.

And there were some good ideas but they required too much specific craft stuff or were too childish (Note: my 'resident's are residents of a Long Term Care Home, largely older than I am). I took some ideas and put them together into a pretty good practical creation, I think.

I had planned to use tongue depressors but it turned out at work we only had popsicle sticks, far too small to be useful. I did find a set of painter's plaques, maybe 14 cm by 24 cm, I guess. Wait, in cutting them to useful sizes, I know the short side was 16 cm. Anyway, I measured out 1.5 cm sections and cut them in a guillotine. This worked well. Then I took them plus some nuts and bolts I had bought to the maintenance room. 

There I amazed myself. I have used tools before but this time I picked up all the tools I needed, organized them and used them exactly as planned! Usually, I am trying to make a slot screwdriver work in a philips head. I drilled the plaques four at a time, then threaded the bolt through. I tightened the nut as far as I could then cut the excess with a hacksaw. Then, I smashed the cut end with a hammer, spreading the cut threads and making sure the nut could not come off. Genius, I say!

I found paper of close to the right size and meet my residents so we could make fans. Here is one.

You can see how the paper overlaps which is not ideal, but you can also see the fingers or plaque pieces of the fan.

So far, pretty good stuff. I planned ahead and thought about how things would fit together and I am mostly proud.

But then a resident asked how to add a string so she could hang the fan on her wall. I had given no thought to display at all. I hadn't thought about the fans as art. This was not tragic but it is pretty good example of my relative skill at figuring out the small picture but not the larger picture.

TWIC: research, comedy, organization

At Quora, a look at different levels of creativity. Joe Velikovsky offered this graph:

Explanation for his 5 Cs at the link.
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Norm MacDonald, comedy genius.
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I belong to a writing group on Facebook. A colleague asked how best to manage the following word count - I have removed identifying content:

1) 6000 words a month- I have 80,000 words I aim to finish by next Sept - this is my PhD and is of absolute priority.
2) 4000 words a month (1000 words a week) - this is for my blog and to keep my writing sharp and varied
3) 1750 a month (2500 words over 2 months) - these are magazine articles I write for some overseas publications
4) 1000-2000 words a month - these will be for academic journals and are a relatively high priority for an academic. Articles are about 8-10,000 words.
5) 500-1000 words a month - this is for creative writing. 

 For the blog and magazines, he writes in part for publicity - "get my name out there"
I don't have an answer for him but I find his desire to write in different genres and his attempt to be organized at it to be admirable.
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A similar question came up on Quora: How do you manage your time when you need creativity to get work done?
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adsf

TWIC: World building, animation, infographics, note-taking, Gangwon animals,

Man! I read a post at Tor on authors who were great world-builders and decided I wanted to introduce the subject by mentioning Zelazny's alien religion that allowed avatars to create worlds but actually finding the name of the religion or the aliens took a long time. Zelazny wasn't on the list of world-builders, by the way and the religion and/or the aliens were Pei'ans.
Anyway, the article would be better described as Five Classic Female Authors Who Were Great at World Building and it is a great list. I now want to go back to the stories by these authors I read in the eighties.
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Animation and Disney's Multi-plane camera. I have heard of animation cells but didn't know how they worked. This usage of them is wonderfully ingenious while also appearing totally obvious. I love the confluence of "That's amazing" and "That clearly follows".
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I was interested in trying to make an infographic or two last year and found the exercise more difficult that I had imagined. Lining up words and explanation with a coherent image is not easy. Nat Geo's infographics and Best Maps of 2016. A chunk of one from the first link:

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An interview with Al Jaffee.

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Not entirely related to creativity but definitely to curiosity. Why build a fort in a star shape?
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This subject could be a full post and may be at some time. For now, I am busy at an ESL and science camp and don't have the time.  At Quora, someone asked about the best distraction-free and minimalist writing tool. So far, a few software tools have been offered. The third, suggestion was, obviously, pen and paper. This made me think about my own actual writing (as opposed to typing) and the posts I've seen in several places for Bullet Journals. That link offers the best rundown on what they are although this one might have more in-depth information - I have a terrible internet connection here so there is a lot I can't see.  That latter link describes it as an analog system for the digital age.

From this site (the second one in the paragraph above) comes a quick intro to Bullet Journaling:

Bullet journal: a method of journaling and note-taking that uses bullet points as the core structure
Index: a table of contents that you update as you go
Daily Log: shit you did and/or need to do today (+ other observations)
Monthly Log: traditional month calendar + shit you need to do that month + shit you forgot to do last month
Rapid Logging: symbols that help you get that shit done
Future Log: year-at-a-glance calendar where you can put events, goals, and long-term shit you need to do

You can use any journal or notebook you want. You deliberately lock a few pages into 'modules' or specific uses. The common or required ones are: index and various calendars (year and month) but I might also devote a set number of pages to Running and Book Notes. 'Camp' is too big a subject and handier for me to take those notes as the need arises. The system also includes various symbols so that you to-do lists carry more information with fewer characters (this is the 'rapid logging' mentioned above).

I have always kept my journal as a sort of commonplace book. That is, I am now more aware of what a Bullet Journal is than I ever was of the specifics of a commonplace book. Indeed, that Wikipedia link, which I have just read more closely, quotes John Locke: " Commonplace books, it must be stressed, are not journals, which are chronological and introspective."  Mine is mostly chronological and the only connection I now see with a formal commonplace book is the wide variety of material I include in them.

More on Commonplace Books:

[The author is giving an example of a historic event he found interesting] He [an Athenian general] continued to interrupt and contradict the other generals. Finally, the Spartan general threatened to strike Themistocles if he didn’t shut up and stop. “Strike!” Themistocles shouted back, “But listen!”
When I read this, I immediately began a ritual that I have practiced for many years–and that others have done for centuries before me–I marked down the passage and later transferred it to my “commonplace book.” Why? Because it’s a great line and it stood out to me. I wrote it down I’ll want to have it around for later reference, for potentially using it in my writing or work, or for possible inspiration at some point in the future.
In other posts, we’ve talked about how to read more, which books to read, how to read books above your level and how to write. Well, the commonplace book is a thread that runs through all those ideas. It what ties those efforts together and makes you better at each one of them.

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Since I mentioned I am working at a science camp, here is a little cutie we found in the forest:

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Stephen King's ten rules for success (video).

After my discussion above, he is anti-notebook.
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Harvard's digital photo photo course (free).
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Creator of Zelda games discusses how he designs games.

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Organizations and other goals for 2017

I don't know much about K M Weiland, but I follow her on Twitter.  I have been Kindle-less for a few months now so perhaps it is not strange that I have not once bothered to check out her books at Amazon. Or maybe Twitter posts don't do all that much to drive sales. Or, I am only one person so my actions may not be typical.

Anyway, she recently asked:

Writing Question of the Day: How will you be better organized in 2017? #WQOTD

— K.M. Weiland (@KMWeiland) December 27, 2016

and received a few responses:

• Three are going to work on being more organized 
• One is trying to improve motivation
• One will read Weiland's books
• Three will work on workspace/desk improvement

I must admit I have simplified the responses so the answer "I will work on being more organized" was better written and less circuitous in the original.

My son and I will travel to an academic camp I am working at on January first, so we are already thinking about goal-setting. I'll touch on our plans briefly but most do not directly fit the theme of this blog.

The first thing we did was think about the range of plans - that is, not merely five goals for one area of our lives. Exercise, diet, reading, writing, care for the dog, travel, education and environmental activism were the main ones we shared. I need to work further on cooking and domestic chores as well.

In 2015, I ran more than 1000 km and had to stop due to some kind of hip injury which has since healed or faded. My original goal was to run on average every other day for more than 5km.  I started late - the weather wasn't conducive to comfortable running - and often ran four or five times a week to catch up. I once ran for 9 consecutive days. As I became more comfortable running, the distance increased to 5.4km to 6.7km to 7.2km (these distances are based on the peculiarities of my running loop and make sense in context). To catch up on both distance and total number of runs, I often ran nearly every day and after I took a few days rest, I would run far, managing a few fifteen-plus km routes.
Look at me. I claimed that I would not go into detail on non-creativity subjects. To wrap it up, in 2017, I want to start earlier in the year and aim for 6.7 km (or whatever handy distance is close) 150 times. That will put me over 1000 km for the year.
To stay on this subject for one more moment and connect it to goal setting, I found myself behind at the start of the year - I started running in March so I had to catch up 30 runs - and the need to make up the difference motivated me. I was sure I could do it, but it was always in my mind, to a nearly uncomfortable degree. And when I caught up, I thought about the nightmarish humid summers here and also about bad weather coming up in November and December so that drove me to add runs to my total as a cushion for future bad luck.

I need to set strict, challenging goals that are also achievable. Falling a little behind is okay because it motivates me to improve.

Finally back to Weiland's question about writing organization goals.

I dream of having a workspace specific to my creative needs.

We moved to a smaller apartment and plan to immigrate to Canada in 2018 so we are not going to buy stuff for this place. But I expect to return to a university teaching position and so will have a desk, maybe even a private office, there. The workspace forces the other organizational changes. I wrote Nanowrimo at my kitchen table and with the computer on my lap in bed but I would prefer a desk. But in previous university work, my time around classes was spent on preparing for class or grading and also on being social with coworkers. That latter allocation can certainly be improved upon but do recall that I live in a country where few people speak my language so only at work can I easily chat. Chatting at work is more valuable to me than drinking and chatting on Friday nights, for example.  Anyway, I plan to make my office workspace my writing workspace and will organize my desk for that. That pretty much takes care of time management as well.