Playing With Yourself (Dating Tips)

Hello, friends. Today's post was going to be about Motivation, but as I drafted and edited, I zipped right past 2500 words and closed in on 3000 without really breaking a sweat. To be fair, the air conditioning was on. But still, It dawned on me that this was exiting blog territory and reaching essay territory. With  some additions, it could easily creep into manifesto territory. It certainly had that passion.

Manifesto? Really? 


Well, with no small amount of panic I tabled that for another day. It's now four to five blog posts at least. And if I break it up, that means I'll only write more on each topic. Until it's 100 pages. A Manifesto.
Weird.

So tonight I want to talk about something else. This really should come after dealing with motivation, but I am particularly right brain tonight. So the after comes before. get it? Good.

As an artist ( and you are an artist, your art my be as precise as machine tolerances, but it's still an art) you need to date yourself. I don't mean take yourself to dinner and demand sex because you paid for lobster. I mean take yourself and do something enjoyable. Play in the mud in your brain and see what's stirred up

Artists need play. I believe everyone has an inner artist, and inner soul, and that soul needs to play. Don't worry if this waxes pseudo-mystical, like I said, I'm right braining it write now. bear with it. You need to take out the proverbial crayons, stuff hands full, and draw on the walls. Let it create, combining things and making a big ol' mess until something comes up. Till the soil. There more metaphors for this than I can count. And counting is left brain. If I start to try I'll come up with "Banana" and then Banana fallout will make me sick. Then the Banana Protection Agency will come in their nuclear, banana, and chemical suits and take me away.

I apologize, totally uncalled for. I shall give my right brain a proper spanking for that.

I want to suggest every one do it. Honestly, successful artists already do something like it. Artists with that certain spark most definitely must. This is how you restock your creative well. This is how you find more material. By playing; by being silly.

I certainly seemed silly tonight. I sort of wandered Bastille days. I hadn't planned on it, but one shop was selling paintings. In particular a monochromatic Paris scene caught my intention. It was impressionist, the heads of the strollers being not much more than dots, hats blotches and brushstrokes underlining them. But it captured vibrancy - without even being vibrant. The second was a abstract panting of squares and triangles in muted reds and yellows. All sharp angles on an cream-orange background. As I stood transfixed, I gradually saw a woman, powerful, magnificent, motherly. Sharp angles are not feminine, but with them the artist captured a woman's power. It was magnificent. If only I could have bought it.

When I slide into flow, the world (forgive me, more pseudo-mysticism) plays with you. When I look at people with my inner artist eye everyone becomes beautiful. It is as the old masters discussed. The golden "true" or "heavenly" ki becomes apparent. The man with skin burned brown by the sun with the cheap bear and the big gut, in the gray wife-beater becomes as noble to me as the well-proportioned Greek statues. His body becomes interesting, A thing to exalt. But the universe also plays. Patterns emerge in the way people move, and you can sense the connections. It is as if the subconscious of everyone reveals to me it's connection, like lines of filament racing between people. I am certain this makes me sound mad. The right brain is mad. You feel connected.

I wandered Bastille days. The shops did not interest me, save as back drop. A poem popped through the haze. It was transcendental. Anyone who has read about Kaballah will understand the Kether's soft hum and, bubbling from the pleasant fog came fragments, phrases, a poem. In part. Everywhere I look I saw subjects to paint. The man staring glassy eyed at a stage, the woman slapping her husband, laughing at his roguish joke. The three women sitting, base and classless, legs splayed ungainly and unconcerned. The almost desperate, predatory glance of the vendor looking for one last sale. The bored folk singer, unhappy that he was billed at 7pm on a Sunday.

The artist date is for everyone. But not my artist date. I see patterns and shapes. When I stood at the lake front near the Milwaukee Art Museum, all I could see were vistas needing to be painted. Every where I turned my view split into geometric shapes and proportions, ratios and colors: Bone and Coral white, Slate blue and midnight, Dark green and a brown so vivid you'd swear it black. The artist date is play and practice What you do when you play shows you who you are. I looked at the waves and knew intuitively the patter on the sea. I like big, complex patterns.

I use the term Artist Date, but people who don't believe they are artists can benefit from these sorts of dates. My friend Adam is a Physics genius. To him, these vistas are not very exciting. But a circuit board, or problem electronic piano, are his play. My friend Eric finds his play in the endless possibilities that simple bechemel creates. I only imagine Anne digging madly in the dirt surrounded by verdant plants. These things touch the deepest core of them and make them giddy. And perhaps Adam looks as foolish grinning over neon green printed circuit board, and Eric in chef whites with a lobster on his head,  and Anne peering thoughtfully into a microscope, lips pursed and brow furrowed and coat smeared with dirt, as I do holding my thumb out and mumbling ratios, but it doesn't matter. This is play that touches your core purpose, and it's serious business.

I highly recommend everyone take an Artist Date. If you want more information about it, I refer you to Julia Cameron's "The Artist Way." That's where I got the term.  Don't let the term spiritual throw you off. It is perfectly useful to us contended atheists.

From this one hour stroll, three things may develop. I have decided on two of the three skills I want to gain competency in: Oil Painting (It's been so long, i have to start from scratch), and Fencing (I met a local fencing team, they were awesome, i gushed like a fanboy). Second, a poem is being constructed, slowly, in my mind. Finally, I may paint or at least, build a portable easel so I may carry it to the lakefront.

This was not meant to be long. Perhaps I shall add it to my manifesto. I wish I could take credit for coming up with the idea. I can only hope I sufficiently encourage you to go out and play.

So tell me. If you've experienced the utter lightness of being that comes with core play, tell me in the comments section. If you haven't, go out and try it and see what happens, then tell me about it below or send me an email.

What was the point?

Hello, Kittens and Kits, another update, so near to the last one.
Be still your hearts, lest they seize up in shock!

I recently dug the Art of Nonconformity out of my closet. I do not recommend the book. It's a self-aggrandizing piece of schlock. the sort of self-help book that shows how bad ass the author can be.  It's terribly uninspiring. Or maybe I am difficult to inspire.

But it does have ONE important part. That is the "Cheaper grad degree."

As posted here, this was what started my adventure. I wanted to get the education of a graduate degree without actually paying an egregious price for a grad degree. Well, as you can see, that post is from nearly a year ago. Seems longer to me. Of course, on the Internet, a year might as well be one thousand.

So I had big ambitions. Too big, I am afraid.

So let's take a look at what we've done so far:

For those keeping track, here is a link to the list.

You clicked on the link, didn't you, you silly goose! I list it her as well!

• Subscribe to the Economist and read every issue religiously. Cost: $97 + 60 minutes each week.
• Well, I lived for 2-3 months after this with a gentleman who actually received the economist, so I would score his copies. Now I don't. Unfortunately my current employment situation doesn't allow me to order it. Anybody want to mail me copies? 
• Memorize the names of every country, world capital, and current president or prime minister in the world. Cost: $0 + 3-4 hours once.
• Uh... Gurahnakakiztan?  I suspect you should sense a theme here. This one is particularly shameful. It would take a little longer than 3-4 hours, but not much more. 
• Buy a round-the-world plane ticket or use frequent flyer miles to travel to several major world regions, including somewhere in Africa and somewhere in Asia. Cost: variable, but plan on $4,000.=
• The point of this blog was to do this on the cheap. I still haven't saved up enough for my grand adventure. To be honest, my retirement plan is pretty bad. Have you guessed the theme yet?
• Read the basic texts of the major world religions: the Torah, the New Testament, the Koran, and the teachings of Buddha. Visit a church, a mosque, a synagogue, and a temple. Cost: materials can be obtained free online or in the mail (or for less than $50) + 20 hours.
• I forgot about this one. I'll get on it. 
• Subscribe to a language-learning podcast and listen to each 20-minute episode, five times a week, for the entire year. Attend a local language club once a week to practice. Cost: $0 + 87 hours.
• Well, assuming I stay where I am (and I hope I do) I live very close to the Serb hall. I suspect that Serbian, whilst difficult to learn, would be made easier when playing lawn bowling with old men. This appeals to me, as I am a very old man at heart. 
• Loan money to an entrepreneur through Kiva.org and arrange to visit him or her while you’re abroad on your big trip. Cost: likely $0 in the end, since 98% of loans are repaid.
• Well, I am too broke to do this, but I know of a very deserving entrepreneur you can donate to 
• Acquire at least three new skills during your year. Suggestion: photography, skydiving, computer programming, martial arts. The key is not to become an expert in any of them, but to become functionally proficient. Cost: variable, but each skill is probably less than three credits of tuition would be a university.
• Again, I failed at this. Seems I am very terrible at keeping up on tasks. But We shall reorient and retry, I suppose 
• Read at least 30 nonfiction books and 20 classic novels. Cost: approximately $750 (can be reduced or eliminated by using the library).
• I've read, I think, 3 nonfiction books to date. So 10% done! Woo hoo, time for a break!
• Join a gym or health club to keep fit during your rigorous independent studies. Cost: $25-$75 a month.
• I one0upped Mr. Guillebeau. I got myself a "ghetto gym." All the work out equipment I need, and it cost about 70 bucks so far. It's missing a few things, but even with those it will come in under $125. That's less than 6 months a gym I'd never go to anyway. 
• Become comfortable with basic presentation and public speaking skills. Join your local Toastmasters club to get constructive, structured help that is beginner-friendly. Cost: $25 once + 2 hours a week for 10 weeks.
• Well, Toastmasters costs 52 dollars for 2 weeks. I set out to join when I lived in Florida. had a blast, loved it. it was too far to walk but by bike it wasn't bad. Then a car had the misfortune of hitting me. Then I was relieved of my status as a roommate.  It occurs to me that this happens a lot. 
• Start a blog, create a basic posting schedule, and stick with it for the entire year. You can get a free blog at WordPress.org. One tip: don’t try to write every day. Set a weekly or biweekly schedule for a while, and if you’re still enjoying it after three months, pick up the pace. Cost: $0. 
• DONE and DONE! 
• Set your home page to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Randompage. Over the next year, every time you open your browser, you’ll see a different, random Wikipedia page. Read it. Cost: $0.
• I really don't open my browser that much. Does reddit count? 
• Learn to write by listening to the Grammar Girl podcast on iTunes and buying Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Cost: $0 for Grammar Girl, $14 for Anne Lamott.
• I believe I am signed up for this. I haven't checked in a while
• Instead of reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, read The Know-It-All by A. J. Jacobs, a good summary. Cost: $15.
• Another one I forgot. See, this is why it's good to go back and check one's goals. I suppose I could argue that I spent a good long time moving and getting back on my feet (which, honestly, I am still not actually on).

There we go kiddies. an update as to what was supposed to be done this year. Instead there was a lot of screaming, crying, and crap-your-pants terror. May have been some thumb sucking in the corner. Six months were spent recovering from disaster. Seriously, it's one after another around here. 

This wasn't meant to be particularly profound, just reminding myself what the point of these shenanigans were.

Until next time, my kitlin's! 


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