Computer Bilingual

General Geekiness

This is prompted by the little poll on the WP log in page. PC or Mac? There was no option for both; annoying for those of us who use both with equal skill.

A couple of weeks ago, I was speaking with a fellow college student, trying to help her use a Mac. Apart from the fact that the machine was on its final legs, she had never used a Mac before.

Astonishing. The first computers I used were Macs. Yeah, the old school box ones, followed by iMacs. In fact, my pre-high school computer training was entirely on Apple products (following that, PCs until Commercial Art).

At home, I use PCs, so I built my knowledge of Windows around that.

Switching between computers has always been easy for me; I suppose it is like speaking two languages. Now, as a graphic design student, it comes in handy. I use Photoshop on both PC and Mac. I don’t care which computers are available in the school labs; I can jump onto either and work away.

So, WordPress Poll. What about those of us who are computer bilingual?

Pine, Crab, Tree

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

The third and final piece of advice from the Lehrer lecture was simple: Learn to relax. Simple, right?

This ties in pretty well with daydreaming. As a whole, some of my best ideas occur when my mind is blank. I’m not searching for answers at all; they just appear. Like doing insight problems. Take the word association type games. Three words, and only one connects with all three. Pine, crab, tree. What is it?

The answer makes itself apparent not when over thinking, but when the mind is perfectly and totally relaxed.

As I’m not a neuroscience-y person, I’m not even going to attempt to explain how a relaxed mind produces better results. Something about alpha waves being present in a relaxed state of mind.

But when calm, we can direct our thoughts inward and come up with less obvious answers. Maybe a character or scene is being particularly obnoxious. By not forcing oneself to think about it, a creative solution may make itself obvious. It won’t happen right away, but maybe it’ll hit. That divine thunderbolt.

While I haven’t had any of those moments in terms of writing fiction, I’ve had my ‘a-ha!’ moments while writing papers for school. My favorite? A paper on the benefits of crime.

Daydreaming…

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

On to part two of the advice I got from the Lehrer lecture, the lesson was daydreaming.

Lehrer suggested taking twenty minutes a day and just zoning out. Of course, he also included the important detail of not daydreaming while a) a work or b) in class.

Daydreaming recharges creativity. Simple as it sounds, I really needed to be told to daydream. The first few weeks of the semester had me stressed, so being reminded that just zoning out and letting my mind wander is good for me. Nay, great.

I’m sure the Swiffer people daydreamed a bit.

Wandering away (physically or mentally) is a good way for me to recharge, slip away, and come back with ideas for plots, characters, and just feeling more relaxed. The state of “chill” works wonders. When I daydream, sometimes good stuff pops into my head. Its when I’m most relaxed (except for when right before falling asleep…and that’s when I do most of my writing), and that’s when my best ideas show up.

I just need to remember to actually set time aside and daydream.

Thinking Like an Outsider

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

This week, I attended a speech given by Jonah Lehrer, an author and scientist. I didn’t expect to be entertained much, nor did I expect to start taking notes! Lehrer had some really interesting things to say, but he also gave three pieces of advice. As I listened to him, I realized that these three suggestions could be applied in terms of creation, writing specifically. Given the length of things, I’m splitting up his advice into three posts. One today, one tomorrow, and one the next.

Think Like an Outsider

Lehrer began by telling the story of the invention of the Swiffer. Procter & Gamble attempted to create a better soap to use with a mop. Nothing worked. They then shipped out the task to another company (whose name escapes me). This company spent nine months watching videos of people cleaning and realized that mopping a) took too long and b) spread dirty water everywhere. They thought a disposable cleaning sheet would be just the thing. A stronger soap wasn’t need; the mop was the problem. And so the Swiffer was born.

Lehrer also mentioned a website where the world’s top companies post their problems for other people to solve (you are apparently rewarded handsomely). This is for when the biochemists can’t figure something out because they’re going about it in a biochemistry way. Maybe a physicist, an outsider on the problem, can see the best solution.

And where does creating come in?

While I was working on a brief comic prologue for my Electronic Media class (and that old faithful, The Continent), I discussed parts of it with my roommate, particularly in terms of my characters’ costumes. I was pretty confused. I had all this backstory and a scene I wanted to illustrate. As I was so embedded in my story, I kept hitting a wall when it came to actually drawing the pictures.

My roommate, completely removed from the situation (only having to deal with my griping), had me describe my characters’ personalities and lives to her.  Through all this, she came up with costume ideas (which I ended up using, to an extent) and one wonderful suggestion to my story:

Why don’t you just tell the backstory?

In that immediate instant, I didn’t. But I worked on The Continent for a good portion of the summer and found myself doing just that: telling part of the backstory as the first act.

Why Alexander Dumas is Ready to Rise from the Dead.

General Geekiness

The other day while watching TV, a horrifying commercial came on: an advertisement for Barbie and The Three Musketeers.

I kid you not.

The technicolor world of Barbie just doesn’t mesh with the political intrigue of Dumas’ original work. I’m sure its stock full of girl power and all that jazz, but really? Do you really need to change a work of literature to bend it to Barbie’s ways?

Fortunately, the plot sounds completely different from the book. I wonder how Barbie would tackle Richelieu. In this world, would he wear a florescent pink robe and try to steal all the kittens?

I’m not sure how I stand on the whole “murdering retelling classics for the sake of our children” thing. I grew up watching Wishbone, which I adored, but I see that as a little different. Wishbone kept as faithfully to the stories as a thirty minute kids’ program could (with a talking dog to boot!), but this program really stood for getting kids to read the classics by introducing them in such a way that they were relatable.

View at own discretion. I advise not.