Creative people sometimes have difficulty finding a target for their creativity. They know they can create really cool stuff that can possibly change the world, but they don't know where to start. They have no direction. The goal of this post is to help you find a direction for your creativity.
Let us imagine that there lives a creative person named Jedidiah. Not only can Jedidiah create nifty websites, but he can also knit toques and play the kazoo. Yet, Jed feels unfulfilled. He spends his waking hours wondering how he can best use his skills.
He builds a website for the kazoo club, and he is happy to do it, but he feels that there is some bigger project out there just waiting for him. He makes dozens of toques emblazoned with the names of his own websites and gives them away to friends and strangers. He gets more traffic on his sites from all that free advertisement, but Jeb still feels that he was put on this planet for a greater purpose. He knows his skills are meant to be used to change the world, at least a little.
Then one day, Jeb comes home from kazoo practice to discover that his house has been robbed! His beautiful 60-inch computer monitor is gone! His collection of vividly-coloured toque yard is no more! And most devastatingly of all, his most treasured kazoo is missing from its display case! That was the kazoo played by Moe "Hummer" Johnston on the award-winning kazoo album, "Live at the Heebie-Jeebie." Jeb had spent years tracking down that famous kazoo, and now it was gone!
As you can well imagine, dear reader, Jeb is devastated. Jeb now has a big problem. Not only is his stuff gone, but he is traumatized. Someone broke into his Fortress of Solitude! Someone violated his personal space! Someone made Jeb feel like a scared little kid.
Yes, Jeb has a big problem. Strangely enough , this big problem is going to help Jeb find creative direction. Because now Jeb really, really cares about something. He knows the pain and trauma of being robbed, and he does not want the same thing to happen to his family, friends and neighbours. Jeb becomes passionate about preventing crime in his neighbourhood.
Jeb remembers some advice his Uncle Zeke once gave him: "Don't get mad, get nerdy!" So, Jeb spends forty days and forty nights building a website for his community's crime-prevention group. (To do this, Jeb has to use his old, outdated 45-inch computer monitor; sometimes life is rough like that).
The site is the best work that Jeb has ever done. The graphics are nifty, the wiki works well, and the site is user-friendly. Why is the site so good? Because Jeb is passionate about cracking down on local crime, and all his web skills finally have a noble focus. His other talents also find their way into Jeb's new passion. Jeb organizes a kazoo concert to raise money for his community's crime-prevention group. Jeb teaches teenage ruffians how to knit toques, diverting dozens of teenagers from lives of crime.
Jeb's problem led him to discover his passion, which allowed him to fully exercise his creativity. I have a friend named Daniele Rossi (http://danielerossi.ca) who is passionate about a lingering problem. He lets his passion guide his creativity, and today he is helping people around the world deal with self-esteem issues related to stuttering. Which is really cool. Check out Dani's site at www.stutteringiscool.com.
My sister and I are calling it the Un-Move.
At 4:30 this morning, my parents left to catch a plane to Nova Scotia, where they are retiring! My sister and I are staying here in Ontario, and we are taking over the rent of the apartment our family has lived in for the last eight years.
I was planning to move into my own place this Fall, but this arrangement is a whole lot nicer for everyone involved. I already know my one roommate (my sister) really well, and a good buddy is going to become our roommate in two weeks. Plus, our parents did not have to run around trying to get rid of all their stuff, and my sister and I did not have to run around buying stuff for the apartment! Do you know how hard it is to find a blender that meets up to my high standards?
No wild partying has occurred since my parents left. :) My sister and I both went to work, had supper together, read from a devotional book, and chatted about life and household stuff. Then our friends Brian and Sarah came over with Dawn of the Dead (the Sarah Polley version) and a bunch of junk food.
Life is good.
I was glum while I was at work today, and part of the reason is that I realized what a big change this is. I am twenty-nine years old, and today is the first day I have not lived with my parents (other than camp and youth group trips, etc.). I miss them already, and I can't wait till my sister and I phone them tomorrow evening. Yet, I am very excited about the Un-Move. I feel like the future is finally moving ahead, with me in tow! Appropriately, tonight's devotional reading from Daily Light included Jeremiah 29:11, my life verse. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD,
thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (NKJV)
The words we choose to use have an affect on us. Thus, when I make a list of things I have to do, I don't call it a to do list anymore. Instead, I write "Ta Da! List" at the top of the page. When I check off a completed task, the Ta Da! at the top of the page reminds me to pat myself on the back. That way, I can have six senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch . . . and the sense of accomplishment!
It took me 6 years (including one year off) to do it, but this morning I graduated with an BA (Honours) in English Literature! My immediate family and most of my close friends were there to see me graduate: Mom, Dad, Joanne, Robin, Steve, Matty and Sarah. Jamie had a medical appointment this morning, but joined us for a wonderful lunch at the North China Buffet! Marjorie had to work, unfortunately.
I ended up with an overall average of 73%. I got 76% for my nine non-major credits, and 71% for my eleven major credits. It was a close thing, but I did get my honours degree! Thanks to God for the strength to persevere, and thanks to God for great, supportive friends. It was a blast to be surrounded today by the people I love!
Today I turned 29! I had a great day. I had planned not to celebrate today, because my two other May birthday friends and I are celebrating together on Saturday. But my family kidnapped me from work and took me to the Mandarin for Chinese food! I got an iTunes Gift card from my sister, two nice shirts from my parents (including a Spider-Man one!), and a home-cooked meal-of-my-choice from my friend Robin, to be redeemed later!
I also got lots of kind Happy Birthday messages from my friends and acquaintances, on my Facebook wall. However, I was very displeased to find the following ad on my Facebook today. Apparently the Facebook advertising program noticed that I was not only 29, but also single! Imagine that! Unheard of! Hear that whimpering sound? That is the sound of the universe imploding because I am 29 and single.
At least I can be grateful that Facebook did not show me pictures of scantily-clad women, like some other high-traffic sites do.
If you want something done right, sometimes you just have to create a steam-powered robot army to do it for you. Not that I don't have loyal followers to do my bidding, but some things are best left to robots. Plus, watching a robot army at work is absolutely inspiring. The way they destroyed the scores of zeppelins sent to hunt me down last year, it almost brought tears to my eyes. I feel more comfortable around robots anyway. People always end up talking about love, mercy and goodness. Give me a robot's blank stare and mechanical heart any day.
When the old robot died, the people did not notice. It died suddenly, the middle of the orchard, its power cells shrieking for a few seconds before its spider-like legs collapsed. The people did not notice when the old robot died, but the robots did. They converged on the spot at dusk, all forty-seven of them, scurrying around on their eight limbs, examining the body, asking questions, remembering. The old robot, they knew, had been the last of the original robots from the colony ship. The old robot had planted the ancient apple tree now dripping blossoms over its body.
My previous post talked about two public webcams in Russia. Well, tonight I looked on Google Maps and found a satellite picture of one of the webcam locations! The webcam labeled Dramatic Theatre shows a pretty distinctive fountain and a garden-like area. It was easy to find it on Google Maps once I had found the city of Novokuznetsk.
Here is a picture from the webcam and another from the Google Maps satellite picture.
(Yeah, that building is definitely the Theatre. I just googled "Novokuznetsk drama theater" and got a Google Map with that building tagged, and a tourist site with a labeled picture of Drama Theatre.)
So, does this make me a virtual tourist, a cyberpunk traveller?
Now I just need to make contact with a web-savvy English-speaking resident of Novokuznetsk. It would be so cool to find a person who would go to that webcam location and communicate with me somehow, maybe by waving, drawing on the sidewalk, holding up a large poster, or sticking their head out a passing bus. Oh, or writing a message on the roof of their car! The speed the cars are moving, I would have about three seconds to see the message and take a screenshot. Maybe I can find a program that takes and saves rapid screenshots.
Ideally, I would find a person who speaks English and works at or near the Drama Theatre. I need to do some research on the city of Novokuznetsk, on the Drama Theatre, and on how easy it would be to find such a person.
Recently, I've been watching public webcams from Russia. Don't ask me why, but I find them fascinating.
The first one I came across was this webcam which shows lots of buses. It must be a bus terminal. A bright electronic billboard distorts much of the picture at night (during my day). I found a nearby link for another webcam without glaring lights. This second place seems to have a large fountain that's not on right now. If you watch long enough, buses will stop for a few seconds to pick up/drop off passengers.
Both webcams seem to be in a city called Novokuznetsk. My friendly neighbourhood Wikipedia pointed me to a photo someone took of the second webcam location. The picture shows the fountain working! Babel Fish told me that that location is the Dramatic Theatre.
Sweet, eh? Did I ever tell you how much I love the Internet? Now I can watch those webcams knowing a tiny bit more about the city!
Remember how I was wondering earlier about where I could travel to? Maybe I should go to Novokuznetsk, find all the webcams, and wave at them!
My friend Robin is encouraging me to travel. She has been to Kenya, Indonesia and England (plus probably a few places I've forgotten). I like the idea of travel; I'm just not very motivated to go anywhere. I was born in South Africa, and twenty-nine years later I have lived in Zimbabwe, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and now Ontario. My whole life has been a really slow trip across the face of the Earth, in a way.
If I did go somewhere, it would probably be to someplace beautiful. I like the majestic landscapes I see in National Geographic or in movies like Lord of the Rings and Narnia. I might eventually want to visit a famous city, but the poet in me would like to travel to someplace less developed first.
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