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Unsolicited Advice for Life, Work, Work/Life and Lifework 
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January 8, 2010

PIC: A promise over KL @dyap38 @gypsyque3n @siewlian

Daniel, Janet and I held our iPhones out of AGENDA's 6th floor window to capture shots of yesterday's rainbow - on the day of the church arsons.
Not Lennie, though - she held her DSLR out the 6th floor window ;P.

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Filed under  //   Federal Territory Mosque   inspiration   Kuala Lumpur   Petronas Twin Towers   rainbow  

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November 21, 2009

How to "Power Through" Writer's Block

Focus. 

Yea. That’s one way. Keep whacking away at it. 

Writer’s block? Just keep whacking away at it. 

Or: 

Take a different trail. 

Got stuck with your murder mystery? What do you feel like doing? Maybe your muse is whispering about a lost space transport in a parallel dimension of time that appears in the 1980s that we knew. Maybe you should go with that. The murder mystery will still be there when you’re done with that. (Or get stuck with that.) 

What if you’re working on deadline? All the more reason to trail off on a tangent. On two tangents. On three tangents. As many as possible, as quickly as possible. Keep iterating, iterating, iterating, till you come back to the murder mystery. And the problem will be solved. 

Hey, the tangent you need might even be to go do your accounts. 

The thinking behind this theory is thin-slicing, is adaptability, is rapid iterations. In other words: ready, fire, aim. 

It is a legitimate technique used by many famous people. (So you know it’s solid.) It’s what they mean when they talk about putting your nose to the grindstone. It’s what they mean when they talk about DOING THE WORK. It’s what they mean when they talk about putting in the hours. 

Somerset Maugham and his “inspiration always strikes at precisely 9 am every day”. It’s The War of Art guy’s sitting down and “invoking the muses”. It’s that other guy’s saying that “good art is simply good work”. 

Yea, you’ve gotta work, but you can’t sit at the computer and stare at the blinking cursor. You’ve gotta write something. And if you can’t write what you need to write, write something else. Just write. It’ll work itself out eventually. 

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Filed under  //   art   how to   inspiration   rapid iteration   thin-slicing   writer's block   writing  

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November 2, 2009

What if technology could make you feel... like buying a MacBook? @adsoftheworld

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via adsoftheworld.com

A beautiful, beautiful tvc. Absolutely evocative shots cutting in one after another.

Then the last shot reveals that they're selling a MacBook knock-off.

It's not, of course. It's a Sony Vaio. I have great respect for Vaio. (On a related note, I think the Vaio logo rationale makes it one of the most amazing logos around.) If you were to put a gun to my head and yell, "Buy a Windows machine! Buy it! Buy it now!" I'd buy a Vaio. (Contrary to what you might have heard, I won't die for Apple.)

Why then did its designers see fit to take design cues from MacBook and MacBook Pro? It doesn't do justice to Vaio, to this tvc, to humanity, to the divinity of art.

Stop the insanity. Invent something new.

On the other hand, it is crazily difficult to improve on minimalist designs. (Perhaps that's the genius of Apple design.) But it's still possible to differentiate. Remember when all computers were beige boxes? Remember what Apple did with the juicy, fruity iMacs?

("Yum.")

They look gaudy in hindsight, but they *differentiated*. They *innovated*. They *created*.

Now, non-Apple designers, please, go do the same. It's been 11 years since the iMac, after all.

...

A similar rant on HP:
http://alphalim.me/pix-hp-confirms-it-i-scream-you-scream-we-all

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Filed under  //   Apple   design   differentiation   inspiration   knock-offs   MacBook   MacBook Pro   marketing   originality   rant   Sony   tvc   Vaio  

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October 28, 2009

Isn't it strange how the unconscious can seem so conscious, sometimes?

Okay, it's 8:27 pm and my brain seems to be saying, "Go lie down." And my stomach responds, "Jolly rum idea, old chap." 

Who was I reading yesterday? Was it Leo Babauta again, writing about NaNoWriMo? Yes, it was Leo Babauta again, writing about NaNoWriMo. He said to write *every day*, *in the morning*. That's not a law, he impressed, but a good rule of thumb. The way my eyes are heavy and my mind is mushy, I think it's a pretty good rule of thumb. Somehow, the grogginess of awaking from sleep is preferable to the grogginess of approaching slumber. 

A friend of mine recently spoke of how he always has a notebook (paper) with him at all times - even by his bed. Sometimes he awakes in the deep of night and jots down earth-shattering ideas in his notebook. Then he rises in the morning and looks at those crazy scribblings with incredulousness. (But real gems are unearthed in this subliminal way by him as well.)

Bill Bryson told a story of an old-time genius who had this same practice. This genius was exploring the meaning of the universe and all life, but was frustrated at the threshold of a revelation. So, with nothing to be done about it, he went to bed. And awoke in the middle of the night with the answer, a flash of inspiration. He wrote it down and returned to it in the light of the morning. And this is what he had recorded: 

"A smell of petroleum pervades throughout." 

When I was a kid, I used to have whole conversations with my mom, in the morning, before she left for work and before I had to get up to go to school in the afternoon. She would go into extensive detail about what dishes she had prepared for my lunch and where I could find them - the microwave or the fridge or under the food cover on the dining table. Then I would drop back into unconsciousness. And wake up later, throw a slice of cheese between two crusts of bread, wolf it down and catch the bus to school. 

She'd come back in the afternoon and query me about the uneaten vegetables on the table, the eggs in the microwave, the stir-fried beef in the fridge... And at that moment, the whole early-morning conversation would come back to me, clear as a VHS movie. 

It was always a cause of consternation to me. At the moment of conversing with her, I'd be certain that I was awake. She would talk to me as one fully aware - not groggy or drifting away was I. Yet, the entire exchange would be erased from my mind until we came home again in the evening; me from school and she from work. Very curious. 

I blame aliens. 

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Filed under  //   consciousness   funny   inspiration   psychology   subconscious   subliminal   unconscious   unthought known   weird  

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October 25, 2009

My community of faith inspires me.

Quick Thoughts!
As I prepare for bed...
Being a recollection of inspirations that waltzed through my mind during this morning's worship gathering at blc.

Joanna - the steadiest percussionist I know personally. I've told her so enough times to embarrass her, I think ;).

It is inspiring to see people worship wholeheartedly.

It is inspiring to see cutesy-wutesy babies in the worship gathering.

It is inspiring to hear the strains of the violin.

It is inspiring to see people worship.
When you know their stories. When you know the pain they feel and the trouble they face.
And when you see them worship anyway - it is inspiring.

It is inspiring to see people behind the scenes, keeping things up front running well.


My community of faith inspires me.
http://blc.net.my/

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Filed under  //   Bangsar   blc   church   community   friends   household of faith   inspiration   Lutheran   worship  

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