PigPog

Latest Update: NWD have added another post with more pictures.

Ninth Wave Designs is turning into one of the best places to get your Moleskine information, and a great source of artistic inspiration too. They’re actually a Moleskine retailer, and have an online shop where they sell the notebooks, but the attached blog really gives you reason to want the products they sell.

Hugh MacLeod should love these people (person? One person called Lisa, I think, actually). Like his pet project English Cut, they use a blog to turn a simple online store into something much more special. Well, English Cut isn’t a simple online store, but you get the idea. Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes…

• Moleskine Planners for 2007 – the advance info from Ninth Wave Designs.
• More pictures

What other notebooks could get people excited about 2007′s planners in January of 2006?

Inspired by Michael’s article How To Have Ideas.

My Backstory

I’ve been getting more and more frustrated at my lack of ability at taking on a creative project and seeing it through to completion. Since Tat Fest (sorry, the Christmas Market), I’ve not really been in the mood for anything arty, nor have I found anything else worth taking on. I lose interest very quickly, I’m easily distracted, and if a task isn’t going to yield anything of any use (like, for example, an article), I have difficulty staying motivated. This affected my ability to have ideas, and participate in the site in any useful way except writing about stuff other people have created. When I read Michael’s article, it set me off thinking how I could get out of this creative slump by making sure I had a way of quickly capturing ideas and having some kind of output, so that the ideas will keep coming.

A Solution?

I decided to keep a text file, into which I would dump any ideas, flashes of inspiration, or anything else that might trigger a bit of creative activity, to be processed at a later date. Except I got stuck. Then what? What’s the point if there’s no end product? Isn’t it all just going to end up as litter? I needed to develop the idea further, but didn’t know how. And at those times when you have an issue to ponder with no sign of an answer, there’s only one thing to do – have a bath.

A Solution!

A soapy meditation brought me to the following conclusions:

• My interests lie in three areas – art, music and writing.
• They’re all equally important and deserve equal attention.
• I’m still learning about all of them, so maybe they should be studied in more depth and progress recorded in a journal.

So this is what I came up with. Michael talks about tanks in his article, so the first thing I did was make folders on my PC for art, music, and writing, each with a text file, which would act as a ‘tank’. This is where ideas such as “look for Blues Brothers tab” would go. Anything that occured as a fun thing to do goes in the tank, to be looked at when it’s that topic’s turn for attention.

Take it in turns

In order to give each topic the attention it deserves, I thought the best way is to work it in a cycle of art, music, and writing. I started the day playing with watercolour pencils, so after that I played guitar for a while, and then I wrote this article. After that, I’ll do some more doodling. I haven’t set myself any rules on time, other than to move on to the next thing when a task is completed, or I’ve become bored, or my fingers hurt too much to continue.

Output

Last August, I played with the idea of having an art journal. A book where I’d store drawings, and scribble general thoughts about my artistic adventures. I’ve dug that out again with the intention of it being the home for any sketches or paintings I do that aren’t binned or given away. I have a music journal in which I write details of what guitar practice I’ve done, and I have a writing journal, which is just another sounding board for articles and other ideas. So, anything that doesn’t wind up here or on other sites, has a place to be, rather than cluttering up my space as another idea that didn’t go anywhere.

How convenient to have a role model in my own home. And I’m lucky enough to be marrying him. Hey, Michael, ‘tanks’ a bunch, luv!

Hitting a bit of a problem here – we’re finding links to post faster than we can post them. Neve mind, we’ll keep queueing them up. If we build up too many, we’ll just do a big QuickLinks post with lots of links, or post two or three of them in quick succession. It’s handy to have a few saved up for when our brains aren’t working well enough to come up with a new post anyway. Links? Where? Oh, here… * The Power of 1440 – we can’t manage time, it just flows along on its own. There’s only so many minutes in a day. * Man jailed for not killing woman – Boing Boing – he promised he would, too. * Mac Only – HappyNewYear – Make calendars that fit in old CD cases. * Ask MeFi: Notetaking – some excellent ideas for the best ways to take notes. Mainly focussed on notetaking whilst reading books for college assignments, but some useful tips for anyone. * Annotated Workspaces Photo Pool on Flickr. (Via.) Especially Jazzmasterson’s Mobile Workspace – using a moleskine, coin pockets, a folder and a clipboard. * Peeling Bananas – better from the other end, apparently.

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Our first full week as an Engaged Couple With A Wedding To Plan kicked off with discussions on where best to hold post-ceremony celebrations. We thought about pubs and restaurants near the Registry Office, but didn’t find anything that appealed to either of us. Jokingly, I said, “How about Harry Ramsdens?”. For those who don’t know, Harry Ramsdens is a chain of fish & chips restaurants, offering the sort of food you normally get served in paper with little wooden forks, but in really nice surroundings and just about the best tea there is other than the magical brew Michael makes for me every morning. The more we thought about it, the more we realised it was a really good idea, and went off for lunch there just to check . Our ‘Celebration Lunch’ was booked a couple of days later.

The first round of wardrobe dithering kicked off, with me looking at outfit after outfit that looked great on the rod-shaped models wearing them, but wouldn’t look so good on my frame, which is somewhat more circular than most. It was at this point I realised why people were saying “April? This year? Wow, that’s quick!”, because it takes the average bride 2 years to figure out what to wear. I decided to put the outfit-choosing off for a month or two and do the obligatory celery munching bit for a while to coax a few inches from my frame and hopefully broaden my options. Fortunately, at the end of the week, I found every peice of an outfit I’d been admiring reduced, and in my current size. Still munching celery though, just to be on the safe side.

News reached us this weekend that the event that was to be the cornerstone of our honeymoon may not come to pass when expected. At first, I was really disappointed, as I was looking forward to a rock n’ roll honeymoon in London. However, when we talked about it, I realised that, well, I think Homer Simpson put it best – “I thought I had an appetite for destruction, but all I wanted was a club sandwich.” Michael never really liked the idea of going to London from the start, and the more I think about it, the less it appeals to me despite all the fun we might miss if we don’t go. So now the hunt is on for an alternative honeymoon destination, one not far from home, that’s in a nice location. And I’m not at all ashamed to admit that one of the frontrunners is a short break package which offers a tea towel as part of its freebies. Not ashamed at all. I may be an old fart but at least I’m an old fart about to marry the man of my dreams.

Next week, then – giving notice at the Registry Office, and fun up north with the in-laws.

Till then

Bride-to-be Sam “Sorry Jaymz. Please forgive me.” Harris

Our pal Gary over at Thumbrella has posted a list of top ten guitar solos according to a recent survey for a music site.

1. Stairway to heaven – Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)
2. Eruption – Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen)
3. Freebird – Allen Collins and Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
4. Comfortably numb – David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)
5. All along the watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
6. November rain – Slash (Guns N’ Roses)
7. One – Kirk Hammett (Metallica)
8. Hotel California – Don Felder and Joe Walsh (The Eagles)
9. Crazy Train – Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne)
10. Crossroads – Eric Clapton (Cream)

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Interesting to see Slash‘s ‘November Rain’ solo has come out more popular than Kirk Hammett‘s solo from ‘One’. It’s a tough call there but I’d have to agree – especially with that bit in the video.

Made me think what my top ten would be. Now, although I own guitars and occasionally attempt to play them, I am by no means an expert. But these are my top 10 guitar ‘moments’.

1. Fall To Pieces – Slash (Velvet Revolver)
2. Neither Can I – Slash’s Snakepit
3. ‘B’ Movie Box Car Blues – Steve Cropper and Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy (The Blues Brothers – from ‘Briefcase Full of Blues’)
4. One – Kirk Hammett (Metallica)
5. Turn The Page – Kirk Hammett/James Hetfield (Metallica)
6. The Thing That Should Not Let It Be – Krk Hammettson (Beatallica)
7. Love of my Life – Carlos Santana
8. While My Guitar Gently Weeps – George Harrison (The Beatles)
9. Sweet Child O’Mine – Slash (Guns N’Roses)
10. Paradise City – Slash (Guns N’Roses)

Of course, this time next week it could be completely different. You know how these things go. It’s the hormones, you know

Whilst on the topic of Slash, I’ve been going through the articles on the Velvet Revolver fan site I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, and found a great feature from Total Guitar from 2004 in which he talks about how he comes up with solos, riffs, and how he can’t stand people hearing him practice. Read the article here.

Latest Update: Some tips from NowGoCreate – the Namekuji likes water and hates salt. Makes sense. In an odd sort of way.

I’m not sure if it’s stretching a point a little to call this creativity related, but it’s fun. Sand, water, salt and oil pour in from the top, and you can draw surfaces for them to fall over and pile up on. They all behave in pretty much the same way, just different colours. The water doesn’t seem to disolve the salt.

It’s really quite relaxing – I’m not going to admit to how long I spent on this today. * Falling Sand Game

Most of the interface is pretty easy to figure out. Pick what you want, and click to draw with it…

• “WALL” is just drawing the lines to direct the sand around.
• “FIRE” burns oil, plants, cera and the Namekuji.
• “WATER” just puts water into the ‘playing field’.
• “PLANT” draws in green stuff that grows when water touches it.
• “SAND” just puts sand into the playing field.
• “SPOUT” draws blue lines that emit water. Corroded by sand.
• “CERA” seems to be the same as wall, but grey instead of white, and can burn.
• “???” is probably the strangest thing. It makes almost everything vanish in a spread of violent pink. Leaves behind traces of walls, and doesn’t seem to hurt plants. Sometimes it just flashes all over the screen, then goes away. Sometimes, though, it just keeps going, and I can’t work out how to stop it.
• “OIL” just puts oil in the scene.
• “ERASER” erases everything – walls, sand, water, oil…
• “SALT”, rather predictably, puts salt wherever you click.

You can also change the pen size, change the speed of time, and change how quickly the four flowing columns of stuff pour in.

The last option, “NAMEKUJI” is a square, star or lemon-shaped thing that you can set to MOVE, STOP, or VANISH. When moving, it seems to bounce off walls, and damage them when it does, but usually tends to get itself stuck somewhere. Feeds on water – makes it grow and become more active. Salt makes it shrivel up, and eventually dies – another one will appear. (Found this and a few other bits out from this discussion at NowGoCreate.

Those who aren’t easily offended might want to see the interesting work of art someone at B3ta managed to build with it, but be warned – it’s somewhat childish…

• Is it just me?‘s take on this thing

Michael Golembewski had an interesting thought. A flatbed scanner takes an image. The CCD sensor in the back or a digital camera does the same thing. A CCD does it a whole lot faster, and it’s a whole lot smaller, but they’re not far off being the same thing, in a practical sense. So he wondered what would happen if you were to stick a camera body to a flatbed scanner, and scan the camera from the inside.

So he tried it. One large format camera, one cheap scanner, and a lot of duct tape. The results weren’t too bad. But when the subject moved, they became a whole lot more interesting. The thing about a scanner is that it takes it quite a bit of time to take the image, and if the subject moves during that time, the results can be some very weird distortions. Some parts of the subject might show up twice. Some parts might not show up at all.

Oh, just go visit and see some of the sample images…

• ScannerPhotography – only contains links to mirrors at the moment, as the site is a tiny bit on the popular side. Just click one of the ‘Mirror’ links to see the actual content.