Creative Process

I found these questions over at Our Creative Community and thought they would be a great way to explore this topic a little bit.

I’m a little bit behind the game for their challenge, but it’s better late than never :)

I’ve never been creative in the traditional sense, at least how I see it.  I find that it’s hard for me to make things that are aesthetically pleasing, I’m more the functional type of person.  I enjoy creating things that are functional, that accomplish a goal, and hopefully do it efficiently.

What ignites that flame inside you to create?

It would have to be the feeling of accomplishment that is felt when the job is done. Sometimes the project may be long, tedious, and stressful, but in the end when you type the last command, layout the last piece of the design, or play the last chord in a period of just playing music there is a great sense of accomplishing something.

What sparks that passion inside you?

Right now it is the things that I learn as I work through the process of working with different tools, learning different coding techniques.  It is also the release that happens during a period of just sitting down and playing whatever comes into my head when I press the piano keys.

How do you channel your creativity into a finished product?

This is most likely the hardest aspect of creativity for me.  The times when I am actually able to work with the ideas that I have are very few, so when I get an idea I have to at least write it down, or sketch the design.  Designing is not one of my strong suits by any means, but I enjoy creating things that are functional and work, that seems to be where things go.  When I play the piano I usually don’t write down the things that I come up with, it isn’t really the purpose for why I play.  Playing piano is more of an intimate time for me, just being able to play.

What do you do when you struggle to create?

To be honest this happens quite a bit, since I am not a creator by trade I usually just put whatever I am working on down, and then when I have the motivation or the desire I will come back to it with a fresh look.  A lot of times I will get distracted by something else, or just have a block, but leaving and coming back usually allows me to continue where I left off.

How do you celebrate your wins?

There isn’t usually a lot of celebrating when I finish something.  Yeah, sure, I may show it off to a few people but that is about the extent of it.  I am quite content with the feeling that I get when I complete something.

Do you enjoy your creative process?

Most of the time yes, but a lot of the times it is frustrating.  The process of getting from the initial idea to the finished product is usually a series of trials and errors as I learn things about what I am doing.  I have not been programming tools, or designing web elements for very long and everything that I do is a learning process.  The learning is the part of the process that I enjoy, I enjoy learning and the knowledge that comes from it.  I’m not sure if that answered the question or not???

How do you share your creative elements with others?

I’ve just recently gotten in to designing for the web, so there has not been much room to share there.  I make a lot of tools and utilities for my job which I share with my coworkers.  These tools are usually nothing that is ground breaking, but I try to make them things that will make the job easier, whatever it is.  I am lucky to be someplace that I able to do this.

That’s where I’m at right now with the whole creativity thing, hopefully I will continue to learn, and in the process find more creativity.  Head over to Our Creative Community and check some of their stuff out, there’s some great people talking over there.

Filed under: Life , challenge, creativity, functional, process

Use It As It Was Designed

I’ve been working on a project at work that involved looking at a software package to see how it can be used to solve some problems.  I’ve learned several things but the driving point is that no matter what the software is you cannot use it for something that it is not designed to do.  When the writer(s) of the software started to work on it, they went in with a vision of what they needed to accomplish with it, and in turn, designed it for that purpose(s).

Now, I know that it should go without saying, but a lot of times this is attempted and almost every time it fails, or at least ends up with a lot of unhappy people.  The first step needs to be determining the intended use and building off of that.  Once that is done an accurate view can be taken as to how it can be used.

By using a product for what it was designed, it will not only save time, but also frustration that comes with using something for something other than it was designed.  I don’t usually write about this side of things, but it has been dominating the projects that I’ve been working on.

What’s your take on this?

Filed under: Technology , design, implementation, software, testing

Falling Into Place

So, plans are finally falling into place for our annual anniversary vacation, most likely because I’ve actually started working on them :)  Anyway here is the view from the room that we just booked.

Filed under: Family , anniversary, mackinac island, michigan, vacation

Birdwatching

Yesterday my father in-law and I decided to go do a little bird watching in Goosepond FWA.  This is something that I really enjoy doing when I’m down in that area.  It is hard to believe that there were people that actually protested the creation of that area a few years ago, that’s not my point though.  Every year thousands of Sandhill Cranes flock to the marshland and make it their temporary home.  If you have not seen thousands of these birds in one group it is truly a site to see.

We had gotten a tip that there were some Whooping Cranes in there as well.  If you don’t know what they look like here it is: They are one of the most amazing birds I’ve ever seen. They were near extinction and are now divided into two groups in North America, one west of the Rocky Mountains, and one of roughly 100 birds east of the Rock Mountains, this was the flock that the ones that we saw were apart of, even though we only saw 3 of them.  These birds were first guided on their migration path by an ultralight aircraft all the way from Canada to Florida.  Each of the birds are banded and are able to be tracked through the reporting of the sightings by birdwatchers.  Seeing these birds created a sense of awe in me.

After we moved on from that location we drove on up the road to where a Bald Eagle had had its nest a couple of years ago, but hadn’t returned because of the encroachment on the nest by people trying to cause trouble.  Much to our surprise we were looking at the nest and saw something sitting on top of it, sure enough, the eagle was back!  That was just the icing on the cake, the bird was perched on top of the nest just like you would see in a picture.

My lesson for the day:  These wildlife areas are there for you so get out and enjoy them.  I would bet that you will enjoy the stillness of nature and watching these creatures.  They truly are a sight to be seen.

I’d love to hear about some places like this in your area, so leave me a comment telling me about it.

[photo #1 by ulisesgirl]

[photo #2 by ariseandrejoice]

[photo #3 by art photo]

Filed under: Nature , bald eagle, cranes, eagle, goosepond, marsh, migration, nest, sandhill cranes, whooping cranes, wildlife

It’s Been A Year

The past couple of days I have been looking  through some old entries in my Life Journal and noticed that as of this very minute (March 10th @ 6:54 AM) I’ve been life journaling for a year.  It is a bit of a milestone for me, I’ll explain a little bit why.

Now, I can’t even begin to list the ways that I’ve been changed over the past year, but I do know that this last year was the first that I could say that God has actually been leading me through His word.

Another thing that I noticed is how my writing style has changed.  “Things get better with time,” comes to mind.  I’m not a good writer and I never plan to claim that I am, but I can tell a difference.  This was one of my goals for this year, and I think that I am well on my way.

If you are interested in learning more about Life Journaling check this page, or this one, or leave a comment, it is truly worth your time.

[image by derian]

Filed under: Faith, Life , bible, goal, God, life journal, milestone, word, writing