Cleaning house… December 22, 2006
Posted by prex in Bitch, blog, Creativity, Ramblings, Rants.add a comment
So I have been working on school stuff for most of the day if you couldn’t tell from the multiple postings in a row….and I needed a break and I really needed to clean my room. I have several things that really need to get done ie school work and cleaning my room that just don’t take priority over oh say playing mom and work and going to class. Which is just all this stuff looming over my head that needs to be done has to be done I want to do, but never any time to do it. SO now here it is crunch time and I am trying to do it all at once. I will let you know when i crash and burn….
So I am cleaning my room while working on a take home final and doing some video editing for the guy I T.A for and start thing about organization. My mom sucks at it, glad i didn’t inherit that from her…and so she hires someone not to clean but to reorganize the house and to do so in a “creative” way. I don’t necessarily know if creative is actual in her job description of what she does but it may be…
SO she comes in and re-organized our entire house for the most part well any part of the house my mom frequents leave the siblings and I’s bedrooms alone. At first you think it is kinda neat we have a rearranged house and it is clean. Like two weeks into it we are all pissed off an annoyed. No one can get into the new way the new way seems less functional and I am sitting here feeling like we got ripped the (*&$#(* off. I think it was more like move stuff around and say it more functional and creative then it really is. I don’t know if that is really the case or me just lashing out when things aren’t where I think they should be or i have to go to the basement to get something i use alot. But the whole concept makes me think about how highly creative things aren’t always the most functional. Reminds me of that guy who used to draw pictures of total creative and funny ways to do really simple projects. Like this…
http://blueballfixed.ytmnd.com/
and then that goes into i think intent and purpose of creativity does that make it anymore or less creative if we don’t understand or appreciate it…
Myspace December 22, 2006
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OK so I admit it. I am addicted and I blame school. Same class I started this blog for had me start up a page…and now look at me a full blown Mystalker. I think I am even asking for a pocket pc so I can myspace on the go. Not really but sort of.
What does this have to do with creativity–honestly not a whole lot. The whole thing is I have several college aged friends and even in the class that had me sign up for Myspace people were ranting about how superior Facebook is to myspace. Now I have an account with each of these communities and in my opinion I totally one hundered percent prefer my myspace to facebook any day.
I find myspace easier to use, a more open community and most of all I love to personalize my page and post interative things, images movies and etc on my space or on my friends spaces. I am into the sights, sounds and colors. Facebook is like the subdivision of Internet communities other then the people inside them they all look the same as far as the eye can see and it is like row housing to me small and boring. Myspace is like Vegas. it is loud and colorful and expressive and interactive .I feel that myspace’s layout is very logical to me and works with the way my brain functions. I like they way the organize information. While I know both are aimed at connecting people and I know that facebook has greatly expanded it’s community. It’s still lame to me.
I can learn so much more about a person on multiple levels quickly just but looking at their myspace then reading through all the crap. I can almost automatically set a buffer of if I don’t like their layout, colors, or music I can move on. -=D Those same aspects can also tell me if I have initial compatibilities with someone and I should look more intently at their page.
I realize that these statement are generally shallow and not always true and I have a lot of friends in real life who’s pages annoy me and I avoid– but yet in life outside mysepace( if there is such a thing) I have a lot in common with and truly enjoy them as people.
If anyone wants to see my myspace just ask.
Feng Shui December 22, 2006
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You know one of the things that I didn’t really see covered in class this semester was the environment of which one is in, and maybe that’s because there is no correlation. But I wonder if certain environments or surroundings make for enhancing creative out put or innovation. I guess I am thinking along the lines of like the same principals of the flow of Chi and Feng Shui principals.
Like right now my room is feeling darker then usually and I feel it is upsetting and stifling my productivity, while that isn’t entirely related to creativity it got me thinking about it. Also things like writers block and how certain people like certain places or elements in which to create.
Running with Scissors….Part II December 21, 2006
Posted by prex in Creativity, Out and About, Ramblings, Rants.add a comment
So I will start with Halloween last year. My sister and I did this race that was around Halloween every year and it was a 5K short three miler and it is done in costume. Now I thought it would be cute to all dress in costumes that run.
I first found Alice a cute puppy dog costume. Adorable when she walked the tail sorta had this wiggle to it.
Then I wanted to dress as a refrigerator but I wasn’t quite sure how to pull that off and still eb able to run. I thought it was a great idea…is your refrigerator running? You better catch it! I then moved on and this was the year all the Run away bride stuff had happened with that woman from Georgia who ran away and made the huge kidnapping lies and crap. So I decided to be a run away bride. Cute enough I thought. I didn’t look to hard but I checked out a few thrift stores and couldn’t find any old wedding dresses so is started looking at Halloween costume shops and you know what i figured out….people my age (20+) don’t want to dress up as Brides for Halloween, they want to dress up as Brides for weddings…it isn’t a popular costume( or made) in adult sizes unless it is a dead corpse bride….so I actually ended up buying a little girls costume with elastic and it worked out great because it was short enough on me i could actually run and not get tangled up, plus bonus it showed off my sexy garter belt!
Then there was my sister. She came up with the costume of running with scissors which i thought was also cleaver and adorable. She made this giant pair of scissors covered them with duct tape so the looked “metal” and fastened them so they really opened and closed. NO ONE got her costume. People kept asking her what she was doing. TWO people unrelated even asked her if she was a stylist. I was shocked at one but TWO people thought she was supposed to be a stylist, I thought that was really dumb, but at the same time clever because in no world would I have thought that and the fact they did kind of astonished me.
Entrepreneurship November 3, 2006
Posted by prex in City, Creativity, Ramblings.add a comment
Yes still sick…so bare with me. I can’t sleep, and I want nothing more then to be asleep right now. I was thinking about the chapter we read on entrepreneurship and business ventures that I have encountered. My favorite was a piece of investment property that my dad and I were looking at. Number were looking good on it and the area it was located in wasn’t to bad a few years off from being prime but it had a lot of potential. However the property also came with some interesting ‘landscaping’ shall we call it.
There were huge amounts of concrete in the back and to the side, encompassing most of the yard. This was an issue because due to the lay out this was a multi-plex facility we really ideally needed to figure out parking. My dad was frustrated because you couldn’t just have it hauled off you would have to have it demolished first and that just seemed to be more work then he wanted to do.
I really was excited about this property. I was the one who found it and did the research and what forth, I had the most time invested in it so far I wasn’t ready to get discouraged quite so quickly.
I keep looking at it and thinking and the whole thing starts to take shape in my head. We need parking, we have this obstacle in our way and it is going to cost money to have it removed. To me the concrete is starting to look an awful like a cubicle parking structure. All we would have to do it touch it up and throw a roof on. Not only would we not have to have it removed but we could charge more for the covered parking spots!
I was quite impressed with myself. Clearly if I am still telling you about it two years later.
I will try and see if I have a photo of it tomorrow.
“Rawful”- ROFL November 2, 2006
Posted by prex in Creativity, Ramblings, Rants.1 comment so far
So first of all I am sick…and in an effort to post more blogs and in an effort to kill time before the tylonal kicks in…here we go.
So I have been thinking about humor and what I think is funny and how that compares to what other people think is funny. How do we go about developing our sense of humor and does that have anything to do with knowledge and creative thinking?
Part of this started from my Tuesday night class, which is by the way is the worst professor I have ever had at WashU. I am most disappointed and I am saying so in his evaluation. But not to get to far off track he is very old and we have very different preferences in humor. I keep finding myself in these situations that the majority of class will be laughing and I don’t have a fricken clue why. I even went so far as to ask the guy next to me…and he tried to explain it to me and all I could think was–”well duh…whats so funny about that..it is obvious” to which the guy next to me said, “you don’t like Seinfield do you?” And this kinda caught me off guard, because no I don’t really. I rarely laugh out loud at the show. I have seen many of the episodes because MOST people DO find it funny and for him to pick up from that one short conversation that I would not like the show kinda intrigued me.
This also got me thinking about what do I find humorous and why. This lead me to thinking that knowledge lead me to finding certain things funny. That understanding of certain things allows for those concepts to be manipulated and twisted. I know that humor is much more complicated then that but I was wondering perhaps what is the link. Because like when people say that a joke “went over someone’s head” that implies that they didn’t have the knowledge or the understanding to comprehend the humor.
I tried to classify what I find humorous and I tend to think that highly creative things tend to catch my attention, as well as off the wall, and or whitty items that take quite a bit of knowledge. Then there is always the dumb humor I can also appreciate and I couldn’t decide if that is a lack of creativity or a complicated manipulation of the understanding of the dynamics of humor.
I read this comic strip daily-sometimes I find it really funny. Today wasn’t really funny but I found it amusing, and it inspired me to blog…. so I share…
[URL="http://www.explosm.net/comics/708/"]
[IMG]http://www.flashasylum.com/db/files/Comics/Dave/comiccaterpillar2.png[/IMG][/URL]
Cyanide & Happiness @ [URL="http://www.explosm.net/"]Explosm.net[/URL]
Red Bull Soap Box Derby October 30, 2006
Posted by prex in City, Creativity, Loop, Out and About, Ramblings, Rants.3 comments
So for all of you that said you were thinking about going or said you thought about going… kick yourselves now. The races were absolutely insane cool. I can not even tell you adequately. That was the coolest thing I have done in a LONG TIME. I was impressed Red Bull did it up right…and not just because I got a VIP pass for the after party (yes feel free to hate me. I will share the details).
http://www.redbullsoapboxusa.com/
The cliff note version- races were not only judged on speed and design but what kind of show they put on before, during and after the race. There was also a peoples choice award (which went to WashU Students team). Cars had to roll on their own no engines ect and they dropped in off a forty foot ramp in the Muny lot in Forest Park.
They had no test runs. I myself knowing some of the drivers was a bit nervouse.
I will share a few of my personal favorites…
Superman-and yes a man layed down on top of him and rode him down. He wiped out and broke the dummy’s hand off but tried did finish but only before making the attempt to push with his feet look obscene. Great idea thought they were professional street luger’s and had a great idea if they hadn’t gotten messed up in the wreck. Another one with the same idea or a street luge that is worth noting– a team from St. Louis I don’t have pictures of was called Lucille. The team all dressed like blues brothers and one guy rode a guitar named Lucille down. They ended up being pretty fast I was impressed.
While I wasn’t impressed with the car initially hence I have no photo’s of the mini pope mobile this team was probably one of the top three best performance wise. They had an awesome skit. The car while seemingly boring white mini pope soap box actually had a level that he pulled and it kicked the car up into wheelie’s and another lever and the car rode on the two side wheels! It was fricken HILARIOUSE! Also he would get out of the car run along side and high five people and get back in! I loved it. AWESOME Job!
These guys were funny, the Drunk Elvis’s they were some semi corporate gig from California. They had some big financial backing, but they were drunk and they were all Elvis and they were funny. There was a wedding going on in the lower Muny lot after words and these guys go and take over the photo shoot. Great! Their car was FAST too.
Here is Big Sharks. While it isn’t as flashy construction wise other teams picked them to win due to the construction of the cart. They had like no show at all- it was more like lets stand around and act cool while everyone else who is cool is making us look like the dorks.
The first team to go literately disintegrated. Here is the picture recap.
Photo credit to Grant HoustonWhen they wrecked they had to spend a half hour cutting a whole out of the ramp putting in new ply wood and recovering it. I about lost it getting nervous after that one! Here is the carnage of the baby carriage…
Since I already borrowed a few of Grant s photo’s here is another few I borrowed and when I say borrowed I mean I am showing you without telling him….yet. love you Grant keep up the good work!
The Pope Mobile!
The People’s Choice Champion and WashU Student team Brainfart!
One of my very few complaints with the day was sure this is cute-but wasn’t very fast wasn’t a great show but won people choice award..why because in my opinion you got to text your vote to rbull 72855 as many times as you liked for free and basically they had everyone they know do it over and over again…and what else better do college students have to do. And while sure any team could have done that I don’t really feel that it was a good representation of the True Peoples choice award.
And while I am ranting my only other complaint on the day was the judges. They picked some pompous wanna bee assholes to sit up there and throw numbers up, they weren’t even paying attention half the time not that the scores really mattered in the end, it was more of a crowd annoyance the judged got boo’d more then anything else. I am telling everyone I know at Red Bull how I thought that whole “judge” thing was a pile of crap. Wanna be B list Celebs and girls who thought they were hot….they sucked I openly boo’d them. And I am done! -=D
You know your in a baseball town when a team makes a derby car of the old Busch Stadium back when the cards weren’t even going to make the Playoffs and then they get to race the day after we become the WORLD CHAMPION SAINT LOUIS CARDINALS!
It was a whole lot of fun for the rest of the race recap visit the WebSite. The guys that one had a pimp first class car. Was called fast food and it was Waylie Coyote chasing the Roadrunner it was SLICK and obviously fast. Cute old men did it! -=D
Big Shark ended up having one of the best wrecks of the day-it will make the commercial for TV-and yes they still managed to cross the line. Here is after carnage…
Thankfully no one was hurt during the course of the day. The whole event ( other then the texting and judges) was first class. Food, Beer Beverages, Sound System, Entertainment. KICK YOURSELF FOR NOT BEING HERE! Seriously! Tons of people came out. Was awesome.
The Vip after party was insane! They brought in red leather couches and flat screens all over the patio at the Muny and had Dj’s Bands and Catering, free food and Open Bar…YOU MISSED OUT!
Feel free to look into next years I hear rumor that it will Be in Seattle so far one a year this was the first ever in the States, there have been two previously in Europe. Flutogg is also worth noting that is the creation of flying machines they take and try to launch off an Air Craft Carrier!
http://www.redbullflugtagusa.com/
and here is Red Bull Wiki for most of what you ever wanted to know and more
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull
I found sweet videos on YouTube check these out this is the best compliation I found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skQkczJYJQ8
and Big Shark Crash:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9_WeOxxvuA
The Pope Mobile doing thier thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcOIDP0gya8
This is a Great Compilation of the trucker- AND I make a cameo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI5ytyDzBQ4
Cute Compliation Shows the winner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p1bzJmIoTI
and the numerator:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJpK7If3mdU
and nice footage:(no pun intended -=x)
Liar Liar October 29, 2006
Posted by prex in Creativity, Ramblings.3 comments
So in the shower the other day ( hey wasnt it in creativity class that i learned that is one of the most inspirational places?) I was thinking liars are probably pretty creative people? And are better liars more creative or less creative?
At first I was thinking a more creative person would be a better liar, because they could really think outside the box, and or have alot of resource and think of different scenarios and angles before lying to make it more believable. Then I was thinking maybe they would be to extravagant and go to far and just be liars that were too out there in their stories to be believable.
Stir Crazy October 15, 2006
Posted by prex in Creativity, Food, Out and About.add a comment
So I love this restaurant I am not sure if you are familiar with it or not here’s the link feel free to check it out—
http://www.stircrazy.com/fresh.htm
I am a big fan of Asian food, and love stir fry. The idea behind this restaurant is you pick your meat you pick rice or noodles what kind of rice what kind of noodles then you get a wok and you go up to a salad bar with everything fresh you can possibly think of and you choose what to put into your stir fry. Any combination of veggies, spices and so on. There are like 8 sauces to choose from you can mix if you want to. Then you hand it to chef who cooks it in front of you adding the meat and whatever else you have chosen.
Now what does this have to do with creativity you might ask? Well stir crazy came to mind back in the beginning of the class and it has resonated true with a few topics we have touched on. Mainly I see links with Knowledge and goodness of fit.
As far as goodness of fit, back in my rant on hair I explained hair is not my gift. Neither is food really. I can follow a recipe, I can make more then the average undomesticated female but I wouldn’t say it is a gift. I could become better if I worked at it, but that is more knowledge and practice and I don’t have the disposition, drive or motivation to do it quite frankly. Same thing with hair. Some people are just born with that “goodness of fit”. I wasn’t born having it for say soccer the way that some of my girl friends growing up were naturally better then me. But I worked and I practiced to be able to play at their level.
Anyways back to stir crazy. One of my best friends from highschool and I used to go to this restaurant together and Dan loved the idea but he wasn’t very knowledgeable of how food and certain “tastes” and or flavors go together or shouldn’t go together he would throw everything he possibly liked into the same wok. And he always hated what he created and wouldn’t eat it.
I like that all the wok always come out different. I like that i get to make my food how I like it. But I posses a limited knowledge of the food I like or I try to get suggestion from people who are more knowledgeable then me on things I should try.
I recommend trying the restaurant. Huge servings kinda a neat experience.
Creativity and Creation September 25, 2006
Posted by prex in Creativity, spirituality.1 comment so far
So going on the Judeo-Christian philosophy that man is created in God’s image and it is a characteristic of God to Create- creating and creativity would be an attribute of God revealed in man. This would also explain man’s since of fulfillment and pleasure through creativity.
