Creative Lifestyle...................by Gord Young

Sparks: How Youth Thrive.

2011-10-11T15:22:00.001-07:00

The Human Spark: Kids Have it. At what point can we lose it?

Creative Folks Are Doodlers and That is a Good Thing

2011-10-02T19:47:00.000-07:00

Do you doodle?
Do you like doodling?
Have you ever been made to feel guilty for doodling?

Lies Deception and Self Deception

2011-08-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

Marco Tempest: The magic of truth and lies

(and iPods)

Ken Robinson On The Principles Of Creative Leadership | Fast Company

2011-07-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

"Creativity is not some exotic, optional extra...It's a strategic issue."

Ken Robinson On The Principles Of Creative Leadership | Fast Company: "Sir Ken Robinson is among the world's elite thinkers when it comes to creativity and innovation. The author of Out of Minds: Learning to be Creative, a 10th anniversary edition of which was published in March, and The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, Robinson has dedicated much of his professional life to helping governments, educational systems and businesses understand that creativity is not a fanciful luxury.

'Creativity is not some exotic, optional extra. It's a strategic issue,' said Robinson while in Cannes where he was invited to speak about the necessity for creativity in innovation. 'So what people are faced with is having to think very different about how to run organizations.'

Here Robinson talks about making creativity a priority, his disdain for the term creative industries, leadership from the middle, and why in times of economic crisis creativity is an urgent imperative."
read full story... click here

The role of a creative leader is not to have all the ideas; it's to create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel that they're valued. So it's much more about creating climates. I think it's a big shift for a lot of people.

Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. It is a process; it's not random. Part of what I get people to think about is, we all occasionally have a good idea, but if you're running a business or a school or university, you don't want to have the occasional good idea, you want to have them all the time, routinely, and have a system and way of doing it.

To think of it as an afterthought or in conflict of the core purposes, is a misconception of what creativity is. Creative leaders get that. And if they don't they will.

Alan Watts - "Music and Life"

2011-04-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

Designing Your Creative Lifestyle

2011-03-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

How Do You Design For Creativity?

View more presentations from Bud Caddell

Sir Ken

2010-12-06T19:55:00.000-08:00

Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law

2010-11-20T11:49:00.000-08:00

Being an Entrepreneur Means Being Creative

2010-06-18T22:40:00.000-07:00

Cameron Herold: Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs

Welcome to My Creative Lifestyle Blog

2010-03-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

A playful one you are.
I'd guess you would take the red pill.
CLICK HERE if you would choose the red pill.
Or do nothing (take the blue pill) and return to your safe little world.

Mondeus from The Eggman913

2009-12-14T14:19:00.000-08:00

The eggman913 - Philip Scott Johnson has done it again.
The master of morph has created a morph of mountain landscapes
set to some incredible music.

Mountain Landscapes: by Philip Scott Johnson
0:03 - Mount Ararat - Turkey
0:20 - Pico de Orizaba - Mexico
0:35 - Denali (Mount McKinley) - Alaska, U.S.A.
0:51 - Mount Wilson - Nevada, U.S.A.
1:05 - Mount Kilimanjaro - Tanzania
1:20 - Ailsa Craig - Scotland
1:35 - Nevado Huaguruncho - Peru
1:50 - Mount Temetiu - French Polynesia
2:05 - Masada - Israel
2:20 - Uluru (Ayers Rock) - Austrailia
2:35 - Herdubreid - Iceland
2:50 - Peitlerkofel - Italy
3:08 - Mount Fuji - Japan
3:25 - Mount Everest - China/Nepal
3:41 - Cathederal Peak - South Africa
3:56 - Atwell Peak - Canada
4:12 - Lanin Volcano - Argentina/Chile

Music:
"Ikindija"
written and performed by AlmaNova
from the album "After Hours"
Magnatune Records available at After Hours by AlmaNova

The Creative Class -Richard Florida

2009-12-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

Richard Florida is an economist and author of the global best seller The Rise of the Creative Class. His latest book, Who's Your City?, is also a national and international best seller.

Florida’s works have paved the way for his provocative looks at how creativity is revolutionizing the global economy.

He is a regular correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and a regular columnist for The Globe and Mail. He has written for many publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and The Harvard Business Review. He has also been featured as an expert on MSNBC, CNN, BBC, NPR and CBS to name just a few.

About Todays Webcast

How the Creative Class is Affecting the Way Businesses Think.
Now more than ever, companies need unconventional thinking to work within the new rules set by the economic recession. Richard Florida has persuasively demonstrated how artists, scientists, engineers, writers, musicians and more can revitalize an entire city from urban decay. With today’s companies in a similar situation, what can members of the Creative Class do for businesses? We will discuss where your new hires might come from and the impact they can make.

Overview

The term "creative class" does not refer to art school graduates working day jobs in coffee shops. And while it does include creative pros, such as art directors and designers, the "creative class" is more than a creative department. It’s what social theorist Richard Florida describes as "people in design, education, arts, music and entertainment, whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology and/or creative content."

In the recession-minded "new normal" economy, business leaders may want to look to the creative class – and its talent for creative problem solving – for lessons about how to add value, save resources and improve quality.

The Creative Class in the 'New Normal' Engaging the Client

According to Wharton marketing professor Jerry Wind, creativity is something that can be learned and enhanced. “Companies can actually enhance the creativity of their people. And leadership can do a lot of things to create a creative culture – one that encourages people to take risks and find creative solutions. It requires encouraging experiments and lessons from failure. Employees should be encouraged to take risks, and know that it's ok to fail as long as you learn from this.”

Adam M. Grant, professor of management at Wharton and an organizational psychologist, says, “Most creative professionals have a particular end user in mind.” Often the end user is a client of the business, he says, but the end user could be a coworker or anyone else who uses the product. “When you connect creative professionals to the end users,” says Grant, “when they hear the needs those end users have, that encourages the creative professionals to empathize with the end users and find practical ways to help them.” The satisfaction gained from finding a solution to the end user’s problem is often a reward unto itself.

But making that connection isn’t always easy. According to Grant, a lot of creative people don't get to see the impact of their work or meet the end user. And that’s unfortunate. He offers an example from the technology realm. “If I am designing software programs, one of the things I need to do is gain an understanding of the user’s perspective, watch how they use software and tailor my design to how the end user actually works. But a lot of organizations don't establish that connection between employees and end users.” Establish that connection, he says, and designers will add value by creating more useful products.

Open Innovation and Technology

Professor Wind adds that a great deal of a company’s creative class innovation may come from the outside. “You realize from the beginning that not all ideas will come from inside. So you open yourself to the outside – including customers – in solution design.” He calls P&G a pioneer in open innovation. “They get about 50% of their products from outside P&G. It used to be much smaller. Even with a 9,000-person R&D group they could not deliver the innovations they needed.”

Wind points to another example of open innovation, this one in advertising: “Look at what's happening in user-generated content.” Wind says that the most effective TV commercial of the last Super Bowl was the ad for Doritos, which was developed by consumers. “This came from a culture of innovation,” he says. “The more you create such a culture, the more you engage customers in the solution, then the higher the likelihood of coming up with more valuable solutions to them and to the company as well.”

Innovation in technology is especially important in the U.S., says Wind. “We historically believe we have the dominance in R&D and innovation. But we're losing that dominance. In China and India they are developing sophisticated high-tech products. Singapore has a government office of creativity. It focuses on innovation, communication and creativity.”

Identifying and Optimizing Creative People

Creative people breathe life into their organizations. They inspire those around them. So, how can management learn to identify and tap an organization’s creative problem solvers? According to Darren Rowse, vice president at blogging network b5media, highly creative people display a number of traits – curiosity, for one. Creative people tend to ask how, why, and what if? Creative people tend to confront challenges, not run from them. They believe that no challenge is too big to be overcome. And creative people persevere. When the going gets tough, creative people keep going.

Rowse and other creative professionals believe that smart managers should look for these traits among their people. When creative people are identified they should be given more opportunities to solve problems. Whether making difficult tasks easier, dangerous jobs safer, or complicated programs simpler, creative problem solving can add value to practically any organization, especially today.

According to Adam Grant, “We're moving from an information age to a conceptual age. We need more creative professionals who can identify new problems and solve them in ways that haven’t been considered before. “Research by Teresa Amabile at Harvard and Sigal Barsade and Jennifer Mueller at Wharton shows that positive emotions can drive creativity. Enthusiasm and excitement often drive good ideas; these emotions make us more cognitively flexible. We tend to make more connections between different kinds of ideas, and see things from different angles.”

The Creative Process - Art & Copy

2009-08-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

Art & Copy.................directed by Doug Pray

This film looks at the best and the brightest in the field of advertising.

In this, his second entry into the Sundance Film Festival, Doug Pray
looks at advertising as a real craft. He says that when you remove the
commerce from it advertising is the same as any other art.

It is meant to move the observer and grab their attention.

Like any artform including, writing, design, film production, painting, music, he
says the goal is to refine it until the core concept or message is condensed down
to the simplest form.

ART & COPY Trailer

Thoughts on creativity by Doug Pray.

Sundance 2009: Doug Pray, Director of "Art & Copy"

It's About the Music

2009-08-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

Did You Know?

2009-07-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

Within Temptation

2009-05-31T02:18:00.000-07:00

I found this with a search for "mother earth" and it blew me away. It is
now my new favorite music video and I wanted to share it here.
It is so creative and the music awesome.

We Can Create the World We Choose

2009-05-04T19:36:00.000-07:00

A choice for humanity, Love or Fear. What do you choose?
http://ichooselove.org/

I CHOOSE LOVE!

Creative Harmonics

2009-03-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

Dr. Rowena Pattee Kryder is an artist-visionary who has integrated multiple wisdom traditions on the planet and published numerous books and extraordinary visionary art.

Creative Harmonics

Men In Film

2008-05-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

The "Eggman913" has done it again. I have mentioned in previous posts the wonderful morphs that he does. The first was "Women In Film" which is still my favorite.

Here is a new one..."Men In Film"

It is truly well done!

See if you can put names to all of the faces.

Creative Canadian Caring and Sharing

2008-03-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

"The change starts with each one of us. And ends only when all children are free to be children"................Craig Kielburger

The Canadian Museum For Human Rights
http://www.humanrightsmuseum.ca

The Intro
http://www.humanrightsmuseum.ca/index.cfm?pageID=13&lang=en

Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller~~Creative Genius

2008-02-13T22:29:00.000-08:00

An American visionary, designer, architect, poet, author, and inventor. He was the second president of Mensa
(July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983)

This is from his last book, Cosmography:

"All children are born geniuses, but are swiftly 'degeniused' by their elders' harsh or dull dismissal of the child's intuitive sense of what could be relevant."

"Children spontaneously weigh all information from their immediate experience and try to relate it to other experiences of some time before. The incipient geniuses must somehow weather, year after year, the barrage of admonitions to ignore what they spontaneously think, instead only paying attention to what others think and are trying to teach."

"The human mind inherently seeks comprehension of the topological interrelationships of all experiences. Geniuses discover, speak out on, and mathematically formulate the generalized principles they find underlying all experience."

from Wikipedia;
Throughout his life, Fuller was concerned with the question "Does humanity have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how?" Considering himself an average individual without special monetary means or academic degree,he chose to devote his life to this question, trying to find out what an individual like him could do to improve humanity's condition that large organizations, governments, or private enterprises inherently could not do.

Pursuing this lifelong experiment, Fuller wrote more than thirty books, coining and popularizing terms such as "spaceship earth", ephemeralization, and synergetics. He also worked in the development of numerous inventions, chiefly in the fields of design and architecture, the best known of which is the geodesic dome. Carbon molecules known as fullerenes or buckyballs were named for their resemblance to a geodesic sphere.

Late in his life, after working on his concepts for several decades, Fuller had achieved considerable public visibility. He traveled the world giving lectures, and received numerous honorary doctorates. Most of his inventions, however, never made it into production, and he was strongly criticized in most fields he tried to influence such as architecture, or simply dismissed as a hopeless utopian. Fuller's proponents, on the other hand, claim that his work has not yet received the attention that it deserves. According to philosopher N.J.Slabbert, Fuller had an obscure writing style which has impeded the circulation of his ideas.

I intend to explore those ideas...stay tuned!

Creative Morph of Masterworks

2008-01-12T22:07:00.000-08:00

I just love this morphing video below and others by "eggman913" on YouTube.
If you have an account at YouTube you would do well to subscribe to his channel.
I featured another of his videos ("Picasso") back in October...it is a morphing compilation of works by the master.
Check it by clicking here.

About This Video
by Philip Scott Johnson

Added: (to YoutTube) November 21, 2007

A collection of famous art pieces from around the world and through the ages.

Music: Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 in F Major - 2nd Movement - Allegretto Scherzando performed by Philharmonia Baroque.

Happy Hogmanay!

2007-12-31T21:36:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!!

Wishing all a World of peace and happiness.

Happy Hogmanany!

A Vision of Students Today

2007-12-21T22:38:00.000-08:00

Todays children are bewildered when they enter a 19th century environment that still
characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and
structured by fragmented, classified patterns, subjects and schedules.
......................................................Marshall McLuhan 1967

Politically Correct...Merry Christmas!!!

2007-12-16T01:09:00.000-08:00

The Night Before A Non-Denominational Winter Holiday

Merry Christmas!!!

2007-12-16T01:06:00.000-08:00

Take The Red Pill

2007-12-08T01:40:00.000-08:00

Do you believe in fate?
Or do you believe that you have some control over your destiny?

You know something...what it is you can't explain but you've known it
all your life.

The blue pill offers peace of mind...you can believe what you want.

The "red pill" offers the truth.

Can you handle the truth?

Crazy Creative Nonconformists

2007-12-07T09:41:00.000-08:00

Think Different

Do schools kill creativity?

2007-12-04T22:52:00.000-08:00

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.

"We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says.

...we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies -- far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity -- are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences.

In this video he makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people

Today is the Best Day of Your Life

2007-11-28T09:13:00.000-08:00

Remember to play today and have some fun. :)

The Venus Project

2007-11-18T02:16:00.000-08:00

What is the Venus Project?

The Venus Project is an educational think tank operating out of a 25-acre Research Center located in Venus, Florida.

When one considers the enormity of the challenges facing society today, we can safely conclude that the time is long overdue for us to re-examine our values, and to reflect upon and evaluate some of the underlying issues and assumptions we have as a society. This self-analysis calls into question the very nature of what it means to be human, what it means to be a member of a "civilization," and what choices we can make today to ensure a prosperous future for all the world's people.

At present we are left with very few alternatives. The answers of yesterday are no longer relevant. Either we continue as we have been with our outmoded social customs and habits of thought, in which case our future will be threatened, or we can apply a more appropriate set of values that are relevant to an emergent society.

Experience tells us that human behavior can be modified, either toward constructive or destructive activity. This is what The Venus Project is all about - directing our technology and resources toward the positive, for the maximum benefit of people and planet and seeking out new ways of thinking and living that emphasize and celebrate the vast potential of the human spirit. We have the tools at hand to design - and build - a future that is worthy of the human potential. The Venus Project presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. What follows is not an attempt to predict what will be done - only what could be done. The responsibility for our future is in our hands, and depends on the decisions that we make today. The greatest resource that is available today is our own ingenuity.

While social reformers and think tanks formulate strategies that treat only superficial symptoms, without touching the basic social operation, The Venus Project approaches these problems somewhat differently. We feel we cannot eliminate these problems within the framework of the present political and monetary establishment. It would take too many years to accomplish any significant change. Most likely they would be watered down and thinned out to such an extent that the changes would be indistinguishable

The Venus Project advocates an alternative vision for a sustainable new world civilization unlike any social system that has gone before. Although this description is highly condensed, it is based upon years of study and experimental research by many, many people from many scientific disciplines.

The Venus Project proposes a fresh approach--one that is dedicated to human and environmental concerns. It is an attainable vision of a bright and better future, one that is appropriate to the times in which we live, and both practical and feasible for a positive future for all the world's people.

The Venus Project calls for a straightforward approach to the redesign of a culture, in which the age-old inadequacies of war, poverty, hunger, debt, environmental degradation and unnecessary human suffering are viewed not only as avoidable, but totally unacceptable.

One of the basic premises of The Venus Project is that we work towards having all of the Earth's resources as the common heritage of all the world's people. Anything less will simply result in a continuation of the same catalog of problems inherent in the present system.

Read more here........The Venus Project

Synchronicity

2007-11-17T22:22:00.000-08:00

Synchronicity is one of my favorite words...it is what occurs when you focus on something and the universe seems to respond with related messages and surprises.

I think those messages are always there but go un-noticed until you have the focus or intent. This is especially so if the intent is a positive one.

Wow! This wonderful painting was found abandoned on a street by a friend of mine. Of course, she took it home and gave it the love it deserves.

It fit so well with what she is all about that it is hard to believe anything other than this painting was meant to be with her.

It is as though God or the universe saw this beautiful creation abandoned and sought
to find the perfect home for it.

This is not unlike the story of my now beloved cat. I found him in my shed one day in a very emaciated state after he had wondered the neighborhood for weeks.

Synchronicity?

I think it so.

Hear the story from Oza herself by clicking here. Good Vibrations

Children Of Bipolar Parents Score Higher On Creativity Test

2007-11-16T23:30:00.001-08:00

Children Of Bipolar Parents Score Higher On Creativity Test, Stanford Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2005) — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown for the first time that a sample of children who either have or are at high risk for bipolar disorder score higher on a creativity index than healthy children. The findings add to existing evidence that a link exists between mood disorders and creativity.
See also:
Health & Medicine

* Attention Deficit Disorder
* Children's Health
* Mental Health Research

Mind & Brain

* Psychiatry
* Bipolar Disorder
* Depression

Reference

* Psychosis
* Adult attention-deficit disorder
* Bipolar disorder
* Pyromania

The small study, published in the November issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research, compared creativity test scores of children of healthy parents with the scores of children of bipolar parents. Children with the bipolar parents - even those who were not bipolar themselves - scored higher than the healthy children.

"I think it's fascinating," said Kiki Chang, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and co-author of the paper. "There is a reason that many people who have bipolar disorder become very successful, and these findings address the positive aspects of having this illness."

Many scientists believe that a relationship exists between creativity and bipolar disorder, which was formerly called manic-depressive illness and is marked by dramatic shifts in a person's mood, energy and ability to function. Numerous studies have examined this link; several have shown that artists and writers may have two to three times more incidences of psychosis, mood disorders or suicide when compared with people in less creative professions.

Terence Ketter, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a study co-author, said he became interested in the link between mental illness and creativity after noticing that patients who came through the bipolar clinic, despite having problems, were extraordinarily bright, motivated people who "tended to lead interesting lives." He began a scholarly pursuit of this link and in 2002 published a study that showed healthy artists were more similar in personality to individuals with bipolar disorder (the majority of whom were on medication) than to healthy people in the general population.

Some researchers believe that bipolar disorder or mania, a defining symptom of the disease, causes creative activity. Ketter said he believes that bipolar patients' creativity stems from their mobilizing energy that results from negative emotion to initiate some sort of solution to their problems. "In this case, discontent is the mother of invention," he said.

The researchers point out that creativity and bipolar may have important genetic components that are transmitted together inter-generationally. There have only been limited studies investigating this; the Stanford study is the first to specifically examine creativity in the offspring of bipolar parents.

During the study, the researchers looked at creative characteristics in 40 bipolar patients and 40 offspring, comparing them with 18 healthy adults and 18 healthy offspring. The children in the study ranged in age from 10 to 18. Half of the children of bipolar patients also had bipolar disorder; the other half had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD, which appears to be an early sign of bipolar disorder in offspring of parents with the condition. The majority of participants with bipolar or ADHD were on medication.

The researchers included children with ADHD so they could study creativity before the onset of full bipolar disorder. "We wanted to see whether having a manic episode is necessary for this sort of creativity," said Chang, who also directs the Pediatric Bipolar Disorders Program at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

Study participants were given psychiatric evaluations and then completed the Barron-Welsh Art Scale, or BWAS, a test that seeks to provide an objective measure of creativity. The scoring is based on "like" and "dislike" responses to figures of varying complexity and symmetry; past studies suggest that creative people tend to dislike the simple and symmetric symbols.

The researchers found that the bipolar parents had 120 percent higher BWAS "dislike" scores than the healthy parents. The children with bipolar and the children with ADHD had, respectively, 107 and 91 percent higher BWAS dislike scores than the healthy children.

"The results of this study support an association between bipolar disease and creativity and contribute to a better understanding of possible mechanisms of transmission of creativity in families with genetic susceptibility for bipolar disease," the researchers wrote in their paper.

The researchers had hypothesized that the scores of children with ADHD would differ significantly from the scores of bipolar children so they were surprised when the scores did not. Chang said this indicates that mania is not what is fueling the creativity. "The kids with ADHD who hadn't been manic yet still had very high levels of creativity," he said.

The researchers also found a link between the length of a bipolar child's illness and creativity: the longer a child was sick or manic, the lower the BWAS dislike score. It makes sense, Chang said, that this illness could, over time, erode one's creativity. "After awhile you aren't able to function and you can't access your creativity," he explained.

BWAS dislike scores tend to decrease with age even in healthy individuals, so more research is needed, Ketter said. Further studies are also needed to assess the role of genetic and environmental factors in creativity and bipolar, he added. The team plans to next examine whether the degree of creativity in parents correlates with the degree of creativity in their children.

###

This study was funded by the Heinz C. Prechter Fund for Manic Depression, a NAR-SAD Young Investigators Award, a Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation Fellowship and the National Institutes of Health.

Adapted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center.

A Child of Enthusiasm

2007-11-11T20:07:00.000-08:00

Bindi Irwin is the daughter of Steve Irwin

Steve Irwin lived a life of passion and the enthusiasm for what he did was genuine and fueled by his love of wildlife.

He was a man that had found what really moved him.

Bindi has inherited this enthusiasm for life and animals and will no doubt carry on with the great work that her father began.

It is important to note that Bindi wrote every word herself and in large print as she did not want to make a mistake.

You can see her little finger following the lines of print as she reads...

To date there is about 40 million dollars into the zoo from the proceeds of the filming of "The Crocadile Hunter"

The Irwins vowed to put 100% of the proceeds back into the zoo and wildlife conservation and for the first 4 years of filming that was easy as there was no profit.

Childlike Enthusiasm

2007-11-10T21:03:00.000-08:00

I hope I won't get in trouble here but the following is a copy and paste of a web page that I found by doing a "Google Search" for "childlike enthusiasm"

I did not seek permission to copy it here but suspect that the author will not mind me sharing with the world, her very inspirational poem.

Upon reading her poem, I felt as though I knew her and connected with what it is she feels. I am now inspired to learn more about this woman and will share more in future posts.

This search was inspired by my Friend Oza (aka Mudd)....she is my happiness mentor and the person who helps me remember to enjoy life and never lose that "childlike enthusiasm" (More about her in another post)

This post is about the Number one result from Google for "childlike enthusiasm"

Don'tcha just love this stuff? (Web 2.0)

The following is a beautiful poem that requires no explantion but led me to want to learn much more about the creative soul that wrote it.

Her name is Nora Naranjo-Morse

Childlike Enthusiasm
Nora Naranjo-Morse

It is not sophisticated technique or exact skill

but childlike enthusiasm,
timeless concentration
and pure devotion that feed this clay to life for me.

Knowing this as my hands work slower than my desire to create,
feeling this on frigid winter mornings when clay spirits are
cold and so am I.

Laughing in J. C. Penney's when I notice there is still clay
stubbornly stuck under my fingernails,
as I pass a free manicure display.

Dreaming up new shapes and stories for brown
earth and me, as I secretly call myself
Mud Woman.

Indulging in limitless, creative possibilities.
How lucky I am to know this clay.

Put Creative Enthusiasm In What You Do

2007-11-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”
~~Albert Einstein

Don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. ~~ Harold Whitman

Now here is a fellow (a soccer referee) who is very enthusiastic about his work and has found what makes him come alive.

Creative People Do It "All Night Long"

2007-11-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

Once you get started, you can't sit down.
Come join the fun it's a merry-go-round.
Everyone dancing their troubles away.
Come join our party and see how we play...

These are some lines from one of my all time favorite songs. People scoff when I tell them I love this Lionel Ritchie song but I was somewhat gratified when they chose this song for the opening ceremonies at the Olympic Games in L.A.

Peace, love and fun folks.

Betcha can't keep your toes from tappin' at least.

Timothy Ferris is Back and the World's Still Turnin'

2007-10-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

Experiments in Lifestyle By Design

Tim's back from his "mini retirement" through London, Scotland, Sardinia, Slovak Republic, Austria, Amsterdam, and Japan.

Some unpleasant surprises awaited him when he checked in on the evil e-mail inbox.~~ Why?~~~ He let them happen.

He always does.(and so do I)

He met with his Japanese publisher, Seishisha (Tel: 03-5574-8511) and had media interviews in Tokyo, where the 4HWW is now #1 in several of the largest chains.

He took a complete 10-day media fast and felt like he’d had a two-year vacation from computers.

-He attended the Tokyo International Film Festival and hung out with one of his heroes, the producer of the Planet Earth television series.

Tim says;

"Once you realize that you can turn off the noise without the world ending, you’re liberated in a way that few people ever know."

"Just remember: if you don’t have attention, you don’t have time. Did I have time to check e-mail and voicemail? Sure. It might take 10 minutes. Did I have the attention to risk fishing for crises in those 10 minutes? Not at all."

"As tempting as it is to “just check e-mail for one minute,” I didn’t do it. I know from experience that any problem found in the inbox will linger on the brain for hours or days after you shut-down the computer, rendering “free time” useless with preoccupation. It’s the worst of states, where you experience neither relaxation nor productivity. Be focused on work or focused on something else, never in-between."

"Time without attention is worthless, so value attention over time."

Timothy Ferris is a genius and the inspiration for this blog.
You must read the rest of this article here!
...The Art of Letting Bad Things Happen

Quit Flapping and Ride Your Thermals

2007-10-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from a great article by...Dewitt Jones

.....Wait, it’s not an apparition, it’s real. A Frigate bird, huge with black wings motionless, rising like a Harrier jet straight up from below the cliff edge, levitating into my vision and consciousness. For one breathless moment his gaze meets my own. Then the wind sweeps him higher. Another takes his place, then another, and another until eleven have soared past me. All in silence. All without a beat of their wings. All without effort, rising on the invisible turbulence beneath them.

Higher and higher they soar on that indiscernible funnel of air. Did I say indiscernible? Not for them. I watch the subtle movements of their wings. Never a full stroke, simply tiny adjustments to bring them back to the place of maximum lift. Higher and higher… without struggle.

Finally they are just sable specks among the clouds. Then as if to some inaudible command, they trim their wings, break their upward spiral, and set a course for the island of Oahu some 40 miles distant. It’s clear they’ll make it without a single wing beat.

I am thunderstruck. I fall into the grass with a force that reminds me only too clearly that I do not have wings. I sit staring into the sky where the birds have been. It was much too powerful not to have meaning. Slowly words coalesce in my head, words that make me smile, “Quit your flapping and ride your thermals!”

Oh, how true!

Read the full article here.......Dewitt Jones

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

2007-10-10T23:23:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Seagull was not a follower of the flock.
He was a "one in a million gull."

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a fable about a gull who
is bored with the daily squabbles over food and
seized by a passion to explore his ability for flight.

"I want to fly where no seagull has flown before ~
I want to know what there is to know about life!"
Caring little about eating and consumed with his passion,
he pushes himself, learning everything he can about flying,
until finally his unwillingness to conform results in his
expulsion from his flock.

An outcast, he continues to learn, becoming increasingly
pleased with his abilities as he leads his idyllic life.

"You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now -
and nothing can stand in your way!" ____________Jonathan L. Seagull

...and remember...never lose your Childlike Creativity!

Speaking of Lemmings, Sheep and Lynch Mobs...

2007-10-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

In a bizarre mishap that conservationists describe as "heartbreaking," an estimated 10,000 wildebeest have drowned while attempting to cross Kenya's Mara River during an annual migration.

Following the herd mentality.

Get the rest of this sad story here...National Geographic

Gord Young

Nonconformists

2007-10-06T22:11:00.000-07:00

"There's a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause." - PJ O'Rourke

I liked this quote because of the implied message that people tend to "join up"
or follow the flow because it is the current and most conspicuous issue of the day.

I've recently joined a cause to support the Monks and the people of Burma in their fight for democracy and opposition to the oppressive government there. Their cause is getting much support in the "free world" at this time because of the media attention.

However, there are many injustices in the world that do not get such publicity and thus continue on without the outside world taking any notice.

This post is not about political issues, nor causes.

It is my hope that anyone reading this blog is an individual thinking, nonconformist
who will make up his or her own mind about what they stand for and not just be a follower.

Gord Young

Here is another related quote.

"The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close political cohesion." Albert Einstein

Philip Straub

2007-10-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Philip Straub or seen his work?

I just stumbled on his site and loved the vibrant colors and dramatic lighting of his paintings.

Here is his website...enjoy it for yourself.
http://www.philipstraub.com/Bio.htm

Picasso

2007-10-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

Simon Says; He Can't Stay Angry

2007-09-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

From: "Britains Got Talent * 6 Year Old Connie WOWs Simon Cowell !!!"
This little girl really nails it with "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and
if you are at all sentimental (like me), watching this might bring a little
tear to your eye.

Now That's Creative!

2007-09-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

I stumbled on this in "Trendhunter" magazine. Fashion designer Hussein Chalayan transforms dresses again. Last October, Trend Hunter featured designer Hussein Chalayan’s transformer dresses. The dresses, which literally transform on the catwalk, are quite miraculous to watch. They even change colour! Check out the video, and be sure to take a look at how his line has evolved from last year’s collection.
Transformer Dress

Mild warning. There is a bit of nudity at the end but it's not distasteful.

The World is Your Playground

2007-09-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives..........................Albert Einstein

Childlike Creativity...Never Lose It

2007-09-15T23:41:00.000-07:00

It is my observation that we are all inherently creative souls but that we tend to become less creative as we get older.

If we observe children they are very creative and have a youthful and unrestrained creativity that is free from concern about what others might think.

They allow their imaginations free rein in their play and their drawing, coloring and singing and dancing.

They set no limitations on their imaginations.

They plan exciting futures full of fun, excitement and thrills without a second thought about why they might not be able to achieve these things.

It is only as we get older and are told that it is not practical to think this way that we begin to lose our enthusiasm and thus, we use our creativity less and less.

I have always tried to encourage my two children to remain creative and never lose that childlike enthusiasm.

So far it seems to be working.

If you have found that you have lost the passion you once had for drawing or singing or playing or dancing or whatever is fun...then I suggest you schedule some time (perhaps today) and just enjoy yourself.

Let us never lose our childlike creativity.