Get Creative

This is going to be part of a series of three posts about what I'm doing as of February 1st to get back on track with various things.  I wrote about it last week if you'd like to read more. 

Get Creative. 

This is the last part of my so-called life reboot.  It's not as important as the first two (Get Healthy/Get Organized), but I think it fits in with the others.  This is a pretty wide-reaching goal, but I've narrowed it down to two things.

Read more.  

I used to read all the time.  Last year I barely got anything read.  I just didn't make the time for it.  Now, I'll make some time for reading every day, even if it's only a little bit.

Write more. 

It doesn't matter whether it's non-fiction or fiction, private or public, I just need to write more.  The goal is to write a little bit each day as well.

Other minor stuff that aren't as paramount to this...
- Keep updating my podcast (Alternative Airwaves)
- Actually, that's about it.

OK, so in 2 months...I'll have an update on everything and what I'm doing to accomplish each goal.  It'll be a lot more condensed so only one post, instead of 3.

Odd Collections

Project 52: 7/52

For some reason I had the urge the other night to collect obscure NHL player trading cards, bought cheaply at Dollarama. The idea would be to buy these packs - which presumably are leftovers, misprints, etc that the trading card company deigned not to include in the "real" packs - and sort through, collecting players who are virtually unknown to the common fan. There would be bonus cards as well for players in the wrong uniform for the current season (see: Rick Nash in a Columbus jersey - or Radek Bonk).

To be honest, I have no idea why this urge washed over me. I know when it came: I saw a package of extra hockey card inserts at Wal-Mart. Naturally my first thought was, "gee, I would love to collect hockey cards nobody wants!"

In hindsight it's completely silly. I know this. But even now I still kind of want to do it. What would I do with these cards?  I feel like I would most likely start a blog and post about these obscure players in a "where are they now" vein.

This is intriguing me even more, now. It's grown from a completely ironic idea to a legitimate idea. Obviously this means someone has already done this, no doubt. Don't expect to see anything from me too quickly.

Here's the one example that started the thought process of all of this:

Project 52

The common yearly project upon which most people embark is what's known as a "Project 365".  If you're not familiar with the concept, the basic idea is that you do something every day of the year: take a photo, read a book (yes, I've heard of people trying this), and so forth. The other variant is "52": the same idea, but replace every day with every week.

This is the project I will be undertaking for 2013; for 52 weeks, I will write at least one thing per week. I'm not concerned with the actual content of what I write (for instance, this totally counts), just that I write minimally once per week.

I will hold myself accountable by just posting everything here. If it pertains to this blog it will be an article here; otherwise you'll get a link to the content.

I realize that we're already 5 weeks into the year, which means I will need to catch up. So there should be at least 5 weeks with double posts. Theoretically.

This project is inspired by The No Format Podcast and the great Ira Glass.

[Fun fact! I'm typing this on my Android phone using the "Hacker's Keyboard".  I mistyped "per" as "oer", which was automatically corrected to o'er. What a great phone!]

A Problem With Being Creative

Here's the thing.  There are currently a lot of things going on in my head creatively, and I find I am thinking about them constantly.  This is both a blessing and a curse (and not one of those cool superhero curse type of things); on the one hand, this is way better than being in a creative funk where you can't think of anything.

On the other hand, I feel sometimes that I've put too much on my plate.  There's so much that I'm trying to do, when I probably should be doing One Thing, and putting my focus on that.  Ostensibly, that One Thing should be my Podcast, but I think I should be trying to relegate that back into hobby territory.*

I don't mind that I'm working on several things at once.  What I would prefer is to set aside specific times in the week where I can just switch this on, rather than be thinking about it all the time and become frustrated when I can't do anything about it, or have no time to work on it.  Also, I have a lot of things going on at work right now, and I probably should be focusing on that, you know?  Instead, I am writing a random blog post to eat up some time at work.

Once again this comes back to time management.  I think I made that a resolution at the start of the year?  I'm not sure.  In any case I'm not going to re-visit my resolutions until June.  In the meantime, I plan on watching the first DVD of my "DVD Survivor" series soon...I just need to find some time in my week to do it.

* - This will help in my feelings of "wow this is not nearly as good as it could/should be" re: the Podcast.

DVD Survivor, Baseball, + Other Creative Stuff

Today's post isn't really meant to be thought-provoking, unless it provokes the thought of "why does he think we care?"  Anyway it's another "update" post of things I'm working on / will be working on.  Or you may want to call it, "Things I'm Writing That Aren't Actually Stories".  Or "This is What I Write Instead of Fiction".

DVD Survivor
I'm not actually working on this yet, but it's an idea I had while (of course) on my lunch time stroll around the block at work.  The basic premise is this: I have a bunch of DVDs that I bought a long time ago; in most cases these were movies I hadn't seen before, and rather than rent them, I bought them.  In most cases, I probably ended up liking the movie; but in some, I haven't watched since.

We recently got an HDTV; even more recently, a Blu-Ray player.  I'm going to want to be buying some new movies - some as replacements for movies I already own on DVD (Star Wars, Back to the Future, and a few others).  Obviously those DVD copies will be out the door once they're replaced.  But we'll also be picking up new copies of Blu-Ray movies we don't own, and we really don't want to run out of space.  This is where we get to "DVD Survivor".

This isn't going to be something where I pit inanimate objects on Britannia Beach or something.  "Survivor" is just a catchy name to me.  I will watch each movie that is on the chopping block, and decide on each viewing whether to keep or toss said movie.  I don't have a full list of what movies I'll be watching, but I can tell you it includes Hero(2002), The Last Samurai(2003), Lost in Translation(2003), Taxi Driver(1976), Good Night and Good Luck(2005), and Syriana(2005).  I can tell you I can picture myself keeping at least three of those movies (I won't tell you which!).  And of that list, there is only ONE which I haven't even watched yet.

I don't know when I'm starting this, but I do know these things: 1) It will be soon 2) I will be watching the movies in alphabetical order.

Baseball
Oh, baseball.  The pre-season matchups kick off next month as teams across the league try to figure out how their roster will shape up for the 2012 season while pretending that they're really not enjoying the beautiful weather in Arizona and Florida.

I am a "regular" writer at my brother's Blue Jays blog, Blue Jays Luddite.  Well, I was "regular" last year, but I think I'm going to make an effort to give him some more contributions.  So if you like baseball, or at the very least want to read about the Blue Jays, be sure to keep an eye out next month for what's sure to be exciting training camp stories.

Other Creative Stuff
I think I've been letting all of this stuff take over my work on Alternative Airwaves, but I feel like it's okay.  At the moment I don't feel overwhelmed, so I'm going to take that as a good thing.  You see, it wasn't too long ago I was complaining about wanting to do something creative but not knowing what to do.  I won't take it as a bad thing that now I have tons of ideas and they're all flowing.

I think the favourite thing I'm doing right now is my page-by-page review of Planet X, a Star Trek: The Next Generation / X-Men crossover novel written in 1998.  I found it in Value Village, and I had to buy it.  You can read it over at tngxmen.tumblr.com.  I have a friend, Xyloart, who is doing the illustrations.  And they are awesome; probably way better than my writing.

Speaking of Alternative Airwaves, as I said I've been stagnating a little.  I'm coming up to the 50th episode (that'll be in May), and I'd like to put a bit more work into it to get it sounding really great.  We'll see what I can come up with, but mostly the work will involve putting more time into finding music than anything else.  Too often lately I've been picking music last-minute and only from 1 or 2 sources.  Something I need to work on.