the sound of aliens

i want to create a music video. i have no experience or skill in video or music - not a very good start then.... but something is burning inside me, so maybe there is some natural resonance with music video - so maybe i should at least give it a go.
Actually i can strum a few chords on the Uke and youngest daughter has a sweet voice, and we both like quirk (be that musical or visual) so perhaps were not so far off getting something together.... what we dont have though is rhythm (or rather anything that can create a rhythm backing for us) so i thought id have a look on line for a free rhythm generator - Oh what fun! and if you ever need to waste a few hours you couldnt waste them better than playing with online drum looping machines :-)
I particularly liked this one - http://www.zefrank.com/sequencer/ - which is quick and intuitive, and i think will do well for our masterpiece.
if you go to the site you will see that its a simple bit of dragging and droping various elements onto a time line to create a rhythm loop - and a simple rhythm appears to have a simple symetry to the timeline and so i wondered if by starting with a simple symetrical image as the layout for the rhythm elements - would an interesting sound emerge as a result?.... i leave that for you to decide..... and no i wont be using this for our video

Social Networking forever

Im intregued by the all fuss in the media at the moment about the fact that stuff we put on our facebook / Myspace etc might one day come back to haunt us.
Yes i accept that online data may well be stored forever and that postings about your teen drug experiements could technically be dragged up in an interview one day (geez, if that isnt a sign of an employer you dont want to work for and you dont run the heck out of there then you deserve what evers coming to you) - but is it not going to be the case that all other candidates have got some postings of regretable darker past incidents as well? and if they havent got postings of them - why not? are they SO dark that they dare not blog of them?

What i think is interesting is that the people who are creating these scare-mongering stories about past blogs coming back to haunt you might be thinking this from an old world perspective. They are likely to have grown up when "on-line" was something dave lee-travis would have said of his next competition guest, or where your mum kept your favourite brown nylon planet-of-the-apes pants. That was a carefree age when we didnt have to think about our past effecting our future. But today our future might actually depend on our past.
Kids growing up "on-line" today will be the people who will be making the rules of tomorrow - and i dont think they will be fussed by all the data overload nonsense

and so this makes me think a couple of things....
1. If potential employers are going to search our past, might it be wise for us to be writing stuff that actually bigs us up - what? lieing? telling fibs? - and if this is the case then what can an employer really trust about what he reads on us - in the end its all nonsense
2. lets start a data-jamming circle. If we all shared one random bit of information about ourselves, then mixed all the data and applied everyone names to all the data - we'd all appear the same and - in the end its all nonsense
3. If anyone was to search my email - they would clearly see that my orders for drugs have been processed, My money laundering scam has been approved and i now have passwords for some of the hardest porn sites. there is SO much "data" on me, but in the end - its all nonsense

I, for one, am looking forward to the funny funny day when my youngest daughter truly wishes she hadnt posted some of those awful pictures of her posing in the shopping precinct with a bunch of mates, camera held at arms length, pouting overly glossed lips and premark shopping bags in hand

because he can

why would josh want to put so much effort into this? www.joshmillard.com/2007/10/04/retro-histo-making-an-image-fit-your-histogram/

clearly, because he can. And I for one celebrate it :-)

guerilla art

what a lovely idea that we might create small works of public art that has nothing to do with making money, or listening to the ego.
Keri Smith has written a book (or maybe its more of a guide) on the subject of becoming a guerilla artist. check out www.kerismith.com/funstuff/guerilla.htm
I love the idea of leaving little suprises for random strangers and im particularly drawn to the idea of seed bombs - and that people would wake up in spring to find little clusters of lovely flowers growing on their front lawn :-)

mines more of a twig

I am still laughing out loud.
I should be crying - im getting increasingly angry with the amount of spam that i get in my email these days. I remember listening to a "futurist" only 3 years ago who predicted the death of email which would come about due to 1) people feeling overloaded by CC'd tasks, and 2) the increasing torrent of spam. his solution was to charge people to send email. At the time that seemed an outragous proposal as surely the whole idea of email and internet was the freedom and freeness of it all. Sadly i'm starting to agree with his thinking. I wonder what difference would become of our work day if we were charged say 5 pennies for each email sent?
One thing for sure it would dramatically reduce the amount of spam we'd recieve.

I must recieve currently about 50 spam emails per day (and i know some people recieve many more) any suggestions for spam filters gratefully recieved :-) and what confuses me is just how unimaginative it all is. Can it really be true that the only thing that requires spam attention is rolex watches, stocks, software and penis patches? and as for the sales pitch, im guessing that the copy is being thrown together by some dropout schoolboys who dont have english as their first language. And so ive been getting very bored and frustrated with all this garbage coming into my inbox.... until today!.....
At last some spammer somewhere has got a grasp of the situation and engaged me.
His email contained no more than a hyperlink that said "our site" and the best ever one line sentence that is still making me laugh....
"your penis will make more shadow than a tree"

raising my expectations

I made an email enquiry the other day about something fabulous that i want to buy (well, i got some money for my birthday ;-) and i couldn't find the exact details on the website, so i sent them an email......
and then i waited for their response.... 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 10 minutes, half an hour ... what sort of company was this, that didnt respond imeadiately to my email? by the end of the day i still hadnt had a reply from them and had decided that they were clearly a flakey two-bit outfit that obviously werent capable of fulfiling my needs. I really felt quite let down by them

itsnt it interesting how my expectations were so high? was it because i have grown to expect that people sit glued to their laptops and blackberrys or was it because i was so excited about potentially owning something fabulous and i wanted it "NOW"

I had a nice reply from the company the following working day, and they have exactly what im after, so all is cool-in-the-gang again, and i shall order this amazing thing from them.... now lets just look at the delivery date.... "3 DAYS!.. I cant wait THAT long!"

ive been distracted

Im back. I havent made a posting to my blog for nearly 2 months. What does that say about me and my ways? I get easily bored and distracted and i dont break old habits easily.
I could list here all the reasons for not writing, but that would simply sound like i'm trying to excuse myself. There is no excuse, Ive simply been distracted.

The distractions have been very good though :-) i might even draw on some of my new experiences to write about in forthcoming blog entrys :-)

So what have i learnt about myself and blogging during this time?

• Blogging needs time (it might well only need a tiny bit of time, but it nevertheless needs it and it needs it regularly)
• Its very easy to think that you dont have enough time
• when working abroad (or even away from your normal routine) the effort to create blogs is even greater
• Even when simplifying the process by posting entrys by mobile phone txt messages, this is not always as simple as you'd hope. I thinking particulary here about working abroad and in remote places
• Blogging needs to be habitual; a way of life. like trying to do more frequent gym visits, the moment you let your efforts slip, it is all too easy to drift back to your old habits. However...
• Like trying to do more frequent gym visits, you might fail a number of times but you can always start again. and so this is me - recognising that frequent blogging is a tough challenge - starting again

Commenting

It wasn't so long ago that if you wanted to communicate something to another person, you simply had to talk to them. The telephone helped to eliminate the need to be in the same geographical location as that other person. And if talking wasnt an option you could always write a letter.

Mobile phones introduced us to expressions like "text me" and skype created the new verb "to skype", and recently I noted with interest that my youngest teenage daughter was talking about "commenting" her freinds. I enquired further and have learnt that there a whole new world of communicating has evolved.

I thought that when she was on the computer "talking" with freinds that she was using MSN messenger to IM "instant message" (theres another new communication activity), but i now learn that MSN is old hat.... now "we comment each other in MySpace"
MySpace aparently doesnt have an IM feature, so freinds leave comments for each other and converse back and forth from there.

Now, on one hand this seems mad to me. Why dont they use MSN IM if they want to talk? But on the other hand i rather like this idea - it gives people time to reflect on a previous comment and time to think about thier "thoughtful" response.
If only people would take that thinking time in thier real-time conversations, it might just be the case that misunderstandings could be a thing of the past

let the talent free

I thought this was a nice idea - http://www.doodlelong.com/ its the longest continuous doodle in the world! - and you can contribute to it. theres already over 12,000 contributors
I wondered just what might happen to the output? wouldnt it be great if you could unravel it and roll it up into one big ball of doodle - i bet it would be too heavy to carry and certainly too black to see. bet you cant find my contribution

so why do people 1) create these things, and 2) contribute to these things. I guess the answer to both those questions might be "because they can"... and so that makes me wonder why we cant have such enthusiastic and dedicated creators and contributors in our workplace?.. what would happen if we simply allowed people to create something they like for thier work "because they can" and see who joins in "because they can".
There must be so much energy and talent in our workplace that simply doesnt see the light of day while were at work - what a waste

dont do it now

Dont do it now - but have you ever tried clicking on the "next blog" button at the top of a blogger blog?
I used to wonder why they put that click up there - why would anyone want to go to a completely random blog? what on earth would be the point?

Well I did click it - and its opened a new world to me. Not only is it addictive, but its insightful and interesting too. And if we are trying to develop our capability to be more creative,.... and if one way to help that is to gather different experiences and perspectives - then clicking through random blogs is an excellent personal development activity

And so i feel quite comfortable now to spend my working day reading random blogs - "but boss, its good for my personal development - I'll get the strategic plan to when ive finished reading about 'the abstract hand embroidery by Takashi Iwasaki. So free and imaginative!' "

excess living

Ive just come back from the cinema. (if your looking to see a great feel good movie - see 'Hairspray' - i loved it :-) We're regular cinema goers in our family and as such every now and then our loyalty card gives us a "free" something. Todays was a large drink and popcorn. I love popcorn me.

As the vendor gave me my sack of popcorn, she informed me that I could get free unlimited top ups! Free topups? crikey, it was already the size of a sack of potatoes! My imeadiate idea was to go into the cinema theater and announce to the collected audience that the popcorn was on me!... which lead me to wonder how much popcorn could i get to feed the hungry homeless outside the cinema? Now i didnt quite go that far, but it didnt take long to realise that if we pinched some of the paper bags from the pick and mix sweet stand, we could fill individual bags for all our family and go back get a refill and some more bags and give popcorn to our freinds there too. lovely!

Now heres the point of my story..... clearly the popcorn costs next to nothing to the cinema, if they can give it away so freely (so why do they charge so much for it in the first place??) As a result of this, the audience eating it dont value it as much (and dont really need as much as they take) which is clearly evident after the movie is over and the audience has left the auditorium.
I am always slightly disgusted at our species when i see the mess left behind us at the cinema.

Now here REALLY IS my point..... why dont they put bins in cinemas? why are we content to leave / throw our unwanted popcorn (and drinks cartons, sweet papers, nacho boxes etc etc) on the floor or seat? what pigs we are.
So heres a thought.... if I was to invent a nutritious reciepe using popcorn as the main ingredient then it would be in peoples interest to take home their left over popcorn to use in tomorrows dinner!

or maybe the cinema could sell popcorn that would make great garden fertiliser? (hmm might need to think that one through!)

on to something? or on the gravy train?

Is it all simply marketing gobbledegook or is there something in this? http://www.vespanomics.com/index.cfm
Vespa (the moped manufacturer) seem to be onto something here by tapping into the New Yorkers new interest of carbon emissions and all things Gore. VESPANOMICS seems to have all the environmental facts and stats you could ever want, to make you want to buy a Vespa.
But the really interesting thing i think is their investment in providing free parking spaces for vespas.
No longer does Vespa see itself simply as a manufacurer of mopeds, now Vespa is becoming a guardian of the environment..... which im sure they hope will help them sell more Vespas

and i still remember the days when all they had to do to make me drool with aspiration for a Vespa was to have a picture of a cool dude (cigarette essential) propped up against one in the sun while he casually chats up a local Bella in a miniskirt

Now if they can convince our mail service to transport everything in Piaggio Apes - then Im convinced about vespanomics

Applied Creativity / Everyday Creativity

Ask audiences if they are "creative" and in my experience, only about 10 % of people will raise thier hands. Why is this? For some, they think its a little arrogant to think of oneself a "creative" - thats OK I guess, we dont like arrogant people, but i dont see why people cant celebrate their creativity. For the majority of people with their hands still in thier laps, it seems that they REALLY DONT think they are creative.

This must come down to thier personal definition of creativity, and the context within they view their creativity. For sure if you are good freinds with Thomas Heatherwick (designer, among other wonders, of the roll up bridge) http://www.thomasheatherwick.com/ you might find it difficult to consider yourself "creative" like him. But if you think about the way you might get through the day of hassles and niggles - you might start to impress yourself with the way you creatively duck and dive to solve problems and make quick fixes. Your solutions might not get you in the center spreads of the sunday glossys, but there can be no doubt that you are exersicing your everyday creativity as much as Thomas might be.

For me this picture is the very essence of applied everyday creativity - this person had a problem - no hot water to wash his hands in. He didnt moan about it, he did something about it. And this touches on another potential block to our belief that we are not creative.... our belief that solutions must be perfect, that creative people create beautiful solutions.

Lets start the campaign now... "perfection tomorrow - something now"

otherness

Sometimes things are not quite as they seem, and sometimes things are far more than they might seem

I skipped over this photo when i first saw it on http://www.pizdaus.com/ thinking it was just a quirky font style- and then i realised what it was composed of. - look carefully.

Now i dont know if these pictures are genuine or photoshopped, but it did make me think that there must be hundreds of things we see every day, that if only we werent so limited by our "functional fixedness" (our inability to see beyond the original function or purpose) we might be delighted by the wonderful otherness of our surroundings

can you see what it is yet?

can you scribble? sure you can scribble. We ALL can scribble.
All we have to do is put the scribbles in the right places
check out this fabulous display of scribbling



and if you would like to have a go, you might find it interesting to investigate a technique developed by Betty Edwards ( www.seedsofgrowth.com/have-you-tried-turning-it-upside-down )to help us see more clearly what ACTUALLY is, and not what we THINK is.... an absolute fundamental in becoming more creative

SMIRTING

SMIRTING - I think thats what it was called.. apparently its the new flirting opportunity in pubs now that smoking is no longer allowed inside ... Asking if she wants to come out for a ciggi (even if you know she doesnt smoke, its a perfectly plausible way to ... well, quite literally... ask a girl out)

You see, it just goes to prove that out of every change, comes new opportunity if you are quick and alert enough to sieze it

If its not SMIRTING, maybe its FLOKING ?

All talk - No walk?

So for all this thinking about my thinking - am i becoming any more innovative? I am sure that I am becoming more conscious of my internal voice (or is it whittering?) asking me

"why do they do this?..."

or "how do they do that?..."

Often its "Wow, thats great, I wish i could...."

or simply "thats interesting"

Certainly i am becoming more in tune with my thinking (hmm thats an interesting expression as if "I" and "my thinking" are 2 seperate entities, 2 seperate beings?? Spooky. which one is control? and which is the real me?) but for all that... is this improving my creativity or innovation behaviour?

Ive just been chatting with a friend who was interested in my new office. I was explaining the construction and the trials and tribulations over the past few months, when he commented on my desk - its just a work space that i threw together from some scrap materials as i was running out of time and money, and needed to get into the office and get working - his comments made me stop and look afresh at my creation.

Hes right, its pretty cool. Its made of some left over office timber and a redundant robin reliant windscreen. it cost me less than 2 pints of beer and took less time to create than the return trip to Ikea. However in the rush of getting it done and the gabble of conversation going on in my head, i kind of missed the fact that innovation and creativity is manefesting itself all around me

As great as it is to get focused on thinking about your thinking, it might be useful sometimes for that thinking to just "SHADUP!" so that we can sit back in peace and recognise some of our creative outputs

Assumptions and presumptions of the Old World

I remember the time when to renew your passport, you had to get your passport photograph verified as a true likeness of yourself by a respected and trustworthy member of the community; A policeman perhaps or a teacher or doctor.
What a jolt then to our deeply embeded assumptions that a terrorist attack could be lead by a bunch of doctors - as appears the case in the recent Glasgow airport incident.
In this new world, no longer can we simply assume that some people are to be trusted and some not. Maybe this is why Harold Shipman could carry out such a long campaign of horror - maybe no one could accept that a doctor could be capable of carrying out such acts of murder - it simply does not compute in our assumption-lead heads
So if the assumption that a doctor is a person of respect and trustworthyness no longer holds true, what creative opportunity now opens up for some creative thinking individuals?

There is nothing like trying new things and setting yourself a challenge to keep your creative juices on the boil. These new perspectives on the world are the very source of bright new ideas. I wonder how my employer is going to benefit from a bright new idea inspired by my latest new insights????

when does an idea come to being?

I was working with a lady the other day who was great fun and we enjoyed creating some interesting work together. We bounced ideas between us and seemed quite productive.
Later in the day she made a comment that made me think. she said "we make quite a good team, you and I. I come up with the ideas and you develop them"
This suprised me somewhat because I didnt think that she was coming up with "ideas" and nor was i "developing" them. The way I saw the situation was that she was talking about odd things, and I kept finding interesting connections and ideas. She stimulated my thoughts, but i didnt think that she was creating ideas. Interesting!

So if A metions something funny, and B says "Hey! that makes me think of.." is A the ideator and B the developer? or is B the ideator stimulated by a comment of A?

I guess at the end of the day - who cares?! as long as an idea breathed some life for a moment..... but what if B went on to make a million from the idea? Does A have a claim?

a matter of economics

Ive just had to fit a bracket to something; and to do the job well i needed a couple of spacers. After failing to find anything suitable in my garage, my first thought was to dash off down to B&Q and buy a couple of big washers.

.... but then I stopped and thought.....

As much as i love to go to B&Q, it is very expensive.... those 2 washers were bound to be close to a couple of quid, and then there is the petrol cost of getting there. And I was short of time too. I thought about how easily i would accept spending a couple of quid to get me out of a fix.... and then it struck me, a couple of pound coins would do the trick beautifully! and so 2 fat ones were drilled!

Now i know that defacing the queens coinage is against the law... but i figured so was the speed that i was going to have to drive at to get to B&Q in time.... and this way meant no one gets hurt and i save the cost of petrol

You'll always find me in the kitchen at parties

Ive been doing it for years.... and now someone has launched a product and called it "innovative"
http://www.springwise.com/style_design/white_goods_morph_into_whitebo/index.php

fridges make great drywipe communication spaces - and its right there, right now - where all the juicy conversation and debate happens - in the kitchen!
bigger and better than that is the patio windows - great planes of writing space - there simply is no excuse not to scribble out ideas with each other.
And for those ideas on the go, i love to use the windscreen in my car!

a quick word of warning - check that your existing fridge and other whitegoods are drywipe pen compatible - some powder coatings are porus and drywipe pens become permanent! so you'd better make sure its a damn good idea that you scribble up

openness and tolerance encourages creativity

A colleague sent me an email about innovation and creativity (I think originally from
Management Advantage Ltd) ..... I thought the following extract was really interesting

" .......Another researcher has focused on questions of diversity. Richard Florida (Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University) studied major US cities such as San Francisco, New York and Chicago. Using something he called the ‘gay concentration index’, Florida demonstrated a close correlation between tolerance and high-tech firms. This is not because gay people attract technology companies – but rather that a place where the gay community feels comfortable is also a place where a wide variety of people feel comfortable – and it is that tolerant, open atmosphere which encourages creativity.
In a nutshell: “Cities with thriving arts and cultural climates and openness to diversity of all sorts … enjoy higher rates of innovation and high-wage economic growth.”[3] Again, innovation derives from a context, not the clear blue sky. So, if we want to encourage innovation, we should foster cultural, economic and political diversity rather than trying to find a safe haven in a predictable, unchanging and, above all, homogenous, world."

and it made me wonder where we might find these "thriving arts and cultural climates and openess to diversity of all sorts" within our own organisations? might we find these innovation hotspots within other marginalised groups?

MMail Message

(little T bags)Y dont they make half sized tea bags 4 people who like weak tea?

MMail Message

(Fire Fighting)Would fires b put out more quickly if the fire brigade used sparkling water? H2O and CO2 Surely twice as good

MMail Message

(Walk On Glass)I am watching a man walk on glass. apparently he can do it because he has let go of his fear.. I wonde

MMail Message

(Now Will B Our Past)People watching. Dont some people dress funny? Wonder what fashion is going 2 one day define this decade

What a great quote

“I can change. I can live out my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past.”
-- Stephen Covey

So easy to say, so difficult to do..... but not impossible

Incubation time

Incubation. I love incubation time me. I think that being comfortable enough to indulge your self in the luxury of incubation time is a sign of one of the highest levels of self awareness.

Imagine walking away from an unsolved problem confident that at some stage a minor miracle will have occured in your head that will lead you to the solution. I see this the ultimate trust in yourself and the universe.

I have just fixed a domestic electical problem that has been casting a dark shadow over my general happieness for over a week now. Im not an electician, but i can lay and connect wire as good as anyone else, so when the consumer panel RCD started to trip whenever i switched anything on in my office, i was confused and deeply disappointed.... i really didnt need the hassle.
I spent a little time trying to get a clearer overview of the problem, and then i walked away from it. I knew i could trust my head to do some unconsious thinking on the challenge (and I also knew that if i stayed with the frustration, my heart might make me do something regretable or dangerous - or maybe both!)
Although the cloud hung over me during the week, i didnt DO anything about the problem, though I did spend a bit of time learning about how an RCD works.
And so today I calmly walked back to the consumer unit in my garage and looked at the challenge again - this time with less emotion, a bit more knowledge, a lot of incubated thoughts and a whole load of fresh eyes. A bit of rewiring and within half an hour all was fixed. Everything in the office now works and the RCD does what its supposed to do.
Sure its a luxury to take time to think (even more so if youre not even thinking about the challenge at hand) but when you can trust yourself to come up with the solution - and it works - this is a very very sweet way to live your life :-)

..... and now i shall go and incubate on something equally important at the pub!

MMail Message

(Treats)I wonder what the ROI might b of a free-vend ice-cream machine in an organisation of low morale staff?

MMail Message

(Flipcharts)Y dont they make flipchart paper a bit thicker so u can use both sides... Or maybe less inky marker pens?

Doing it with style

Its all very well, understanding the theory intellectually – actually, its hardly intellectual, its more like common sense – but can we really put the theory into practice?
Of course we all understand the importance of being tolerent of people who have different approaches to things than we do; after all, creativity aside, its simply good manners. And when all is sunny in the garden, its quite easy to practice this tolerance.
However, ive noticed that its not such a rosy concept when im in a situation of high stress.

The case in point recently was when working with an associate who was very focused on working out the fine details of a problem, while I was happy to see what might emerge from a more open / chaotic(?) approach. Neither approach was any better or worse than the other and both would have solved the problem quite adequately, and under normal circumstances we would have talked it through and solved the situation in good spirits. However in this case, we were under pressure of the view of the client and a group of stakeholders… time and reputation were at stake.
As the more “relaxed” of the partnership, I sensed that I should back off and let my associate lead and fix the problem (I certainly didn’t want the client to sense a panic or dischord). The sequence of events that followed were a fascinating insight for me into my own style and ability to accommodate the style of others

Even though I had “withdrawn” from the problem in order to minimise the number of cooks who could potentially spoil the broth, I could feel the tension in the air as my associate pressed on to calculate the fine details of a solution and was not going to let go it until complete. The stress was becoming obvious and I was beginning to absorb it. Not only did I not agree with the approach, I was also receiving the stress of someone elses elusive solution in front of our stakeholders! Arrgh!

What should I have done? Well on reflection we should have explicitly acknowledged our differences, taken a deep breath and asked ourselves if there might be a 3rd alternative? A combination of our approaches or a completely new approach?
Styles. They really can get in the way of solving a problem sometimes. And when we are stressed as well… we need to invest great effort in controlling our run-away minds as they naturally and unconsciously try to revert to our natural style

do you want that with options?

Brilliant! ive just booked a hotel in London. I wanted to keep the budget down so was delighted to find "EasyHotels" - i'd never come across this division of the Stelios empire (though on reflection, its a bit daft of me to not have guessed it existed)
I thought £48 for a central london room was a pretty good deal (even if the room is only 6 meters square) and at that rate I could even afford to splash out a bit on the £5 option for the TV remote!

This lead me to think about other service options....
- Perhaps Sainsburys could give away thier cans of beans, and if you ever wanted to eat them you could buy one of their expensive can openers
- maybe a first class stamp could get a letter as far as a delivery office, and for a premium a nice person would actually bring it to your house
- or how about allowing kids to look at all the sweets in the sweetshop, and if they ever wanted to taste one, they could pay for it!

knowing when to give up

ive never been very clear on when i should give up on a bad cause. I admire people who can maintain thier motivation and vision through even the most difficult of times.

I hate that feeling of dispair as you begin to realise that the idea simply isnt going to work, and yet you so much want to find a way to bring it round. And then comes that nagging question of "should I bail out yet?" "should i cut my losses yet?"
There is always someone to remind you of Edison and his thousand ways NOT to make a light bulb or Dyson and his hundereds of prototypes of vacuum cleaners, but you never hear about Norman No-body who dedicated his life to developing rubber nails or glass tyres or coloured air etc etc

So when should I stop persuing a pointless idea? and when should i just go that extra mile?

How do you eat an elephant?

I have a grand plan. the end result of which is going to be brilliant. So brilliant it will be that sometimes i cant sleep at night just thinking about it. This dream, this vision of a completed project is what drives me, it gets me out of bed while i could be snoozing and it keeps me working through my lunch times and late into the evenings.... its all very exciting.

There are parts of this project which if im honest are a bit dull. they are essential to the completed thing, but they are tasks that really dont float my boat. And ive been avoiding them in preference of far more exciting things.... however, the time came this weekend where i couldn't avoid them any longer; the project cannot be completed without these irritating little tasks being addressed. And so this week end was a weekend to focus on the stuff that i'd been avoiding... and if im truthful, I feel quite fulfilled for completing them

the point is, I guess, that whatever we might be engaged in, there is always going to be a scale of very exciting things to do through to dreadfully dull things that need doing. It took some effort on my behalf, but i had to focus myself on the fact that these seemingly dreary tasks were all essential parts of the bigger picture, without my dream could not come true. with this in mind i settled down to a "one step at a time" mentality and methodically progressed myself through the tedious task list. Taken like this each little task became a little challenge in its own right and a joy to complete and tick off.

so how DO you eat an elephant?
.... one slice at a time :-)

Fresh Eyes

As i sit here at my kitchen table, i can see from the kitchen through the hall and into our lounge. Ive sat here many times before - most evenings i'll work at my laptop on the kitchen table, and tonight is no different, other than the fact that i need to write something about discovering my creative self.
I cant think what to write. I havent done or seen anything particularly remarkable today.

As i sit here looking across the floor of the kitchen, hall and lounge, I am suddenly struck by the untidyness and quantity of cables. yes, cables. theyre laying everywhere. From where i am, looking in one direction I can see 7 cables (headphones, laptop powerlead, fairy lights, telephone power, telephone wire, portable CD player, phone charger) And when i really look at the scene, they are really really untidy (and im guessing potentially pretty dangerous!)

I know for a fact that these cables and attached items have been where they are right now for weeks, if not months - none of them are new additions to our world. The thing is; Ive never actually noticed them. I guess ive stepped over them, but ive never really seen them.

This sudden realisation raises 2 questions for me
1) what else am i "blind" to? what am i not noticing around me? what opportunities / problems am i not seeing because im simply "used" to them?
2) I wonder what visitors think of our family when they come into our house? With such mess, they must think we're tramps!

Who'd of thought that trying to learn about my creative self would have me telling the wife to do more tidying up? ;-) (joke) (really, im just joking)