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Hunting in the deep dark woods and further creative ventures

11.29.2013

Get. It. Done.

(Please note that this might be a bit counter productive, because I am writing this while in bed. But to be fair, I just finished the last of my final papers. Writing in bed is a system that works for me.)

Yesterday in English class, my instructor showed us something called the "Done Manifesto". It is a manifesto focused on getting things done. As the end of the semester draws closer, this is what I need to do. Get it done. Not Larry The Cable Guy Done. Just done. The manifesto is as follows.

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action, and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more. 

And then there's this nifty infograph that sums up the above (with the help of Rubik cubes). 


Get it done. Whatever it takes, just get it done.

The Done Manifesto has become my mantra. And man. Does it help get things done. 

11.20.2013

Back on the horse?

Here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that I might start up with daily creative blog. Restarting 12monthsofAlice. Probably will. Soon.

11.15.2013

What Would I Say VERSUS I Write Like

Today, I caught wind of a new online Facebook thing called 'What Would I Say'. It is a status generator that utilizes your past statuses to make a new status. It's pretty funny. Now, being me, I've decided to take the statuses it makes (that make a little bit of sense) and put them into another online app called 'I Write Like'. This website takes your writing and matches it to a well known author.

Now, to use 'I Write Like', you have to supply at least a couple of paragraphs. To do this, I kept generating statuses and stringing them together, to create a longer piece of writing. 

The writing: 
"This is going to EVERYTHING. Why be lethargic when I'm about 20 episodes from being caught up with Death Calgary magicians! Winchester was going completely ape----. In this situation, that's worse than protesting, Jeffrey. Volkswagen mountain adventuring. They're just so that I tried to get up listening to Tiga, Jack White, Rob Zombie, King Charles, Relient K covering Eminem, Marilyn Manson, and ideal for your protest, it's trying to start a museum. The animal of Mary Toft and her dead person to rent.

What about prostitutes in the Old character. The animal skulls. And pair them with a printed face, until the evening I had completely failed. I am going to follow instructions. Secondly, I think what happened to be a NWMP diet. 

And start smoking a wolf. It pays well, you should have at least one thing which is handy. But seriously, Jason.

I'd like someone desperate to be getting sick. Drawing balloon animals and dozens of the best get on what I'm doing. Or I might have a dress to eat in a hole between 7th and pair of them. 

May the Fourth be with you Kate.

Mild insomnia, but a museum. Has a 19th century treadleoperated lathe. ---- is getting tired of it. Do the dancing maidens sleep, or borrow them again!!"

(For the record, there were mild curse words. Which... I have no idea where those came from. I never swear in Facebook statuses.)

The result is... I write like Cory Doctorow 
"Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the weblog Boing Boing."

Well, that was interesting. Apparently EmmeliaBot could be a science fiction writer? This is the point where I admit that I have no idea what the point of this was. The end.

11.09.2013

Kaleidoscopes


This, dear reader, is what happens when I experiment. Sometimes, I enjoy taking apart objects, just to see what happens. In this case, I took apart a kaleidoscope, and observed the effects of photographing through the kaleidoscope lens. Some would refer to this as "being creative". I prefer to think of it as being vaguely pernicious.

While posting this, I also considered the fact that I appear to have far less bones and skulls than I previously thought. At least I cherish the dead things that I do have. 

Collective nouns

A congregation of alligators. A shrewdness of apes. A cloud of bats. A sleuth of bears. An erst of bees. A piteousness of doves. A leash or skulk of foxes. A richness of martens. A superfluity of nuns. An unkindness of ravens. A parcel of sheep. A lamentation of swans. A cohort of zebras. 

Who knew that collective nouns could be so much fun? Isn't the English language deliriously fascinating sometimes? 

In other news, I recently started flipping through 'The Woman's Dictionary and Encyclopedia', illustrated, and published in 1909. I'm not particularly certain that it can be defined as a dictionary. The book is quite selective in what information it offers. Then again, it was pre-Suffragette. Whatever the case, an interesting piece of history, and has been a welcome addition to my collection of etiquette and home-makers books (pre-1950s). 

11.05.2013

A little bit batty

Who loves bats? This gal loves bats. Bats are adorable, freaky little beasts. I have nothing but fond memories surrounding bats. If I could support any endangered animals, I would happily give money to bats, bat conservation, bat house building, and research to stop white mold in bat caves. The works. Bats are fuzzy little beauties, and I love them. Bats and foxes. Foxes and bats. My favourite beasts. I keep thinking that it would be really cool to have a tattoo of bats flying. Or a big flying fox with its wings outspread (for the record, flying foxes are a type of bat that lives in the Philippines and a few other places around there. They have a six foot wing span, and they're so adorable).

That being said, here are my favourite Etsy creations inspired by bats! There are some beauties. As always, links to the items are located below the images, and be sure to check them out!

Bat Hoodie Jacket by veraseyecandy
Bat cluster necklace by CherrylocoJewellery
Twinkle Twinkle Bat Sweatshirt (Mint) by hellocavities
Hand painted tea cup by  BurkeHareCo
Black bat wing scarf by CuteCandyClouds
Beautiful, batty, things!

Ending the day with cinnamon buns


Today was one of those days. I stayed home (knowing that I wouldn't miss anything), and worked on  my grad work. I got a lot of beading done, as well got some more work done on my grad paper. All the while feeling lousy. The day was finished off with watching Modern Family, drinking tea, and  eating cinnamon buns. The cinnamon buns are from Safeway, but I made butter icing to go on top. Delicious. Now, another long night of darkness. Is anyone else as bummed out about the time change as I am? Seriously, not excited about it being dark earlier. It's only seven o'clock. Depressing.