Creativity and entertainment
Aug. 2nd, 2009 10:46 am![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mwbworldSo my vacation comes to an end today and I return to work tomorrow, but strangely enough I actually think I accomplished something significant internally. And because of it, I'm starting to try to change some things in my life to align better to what I'd actually like to do.
The short version was realizing how badly I match what I spend my time doing with what I actually enjoy doing.
Random example: I actually would enjoy reading a book by an author I like hugely more than reading endless poorly written and reasoned comments on discussion boards and on a lot of blogs.
So why was I spending time doing the later (and many days more time!) than the former? Because it's way easy to flit from blog to blog or discussion board to discussion board and consume them mindlessly like so much candy corn.
So no more of that, switched most of my blog following to just skimming the RSS feeds and only reading the ones that actually interest me and limit the reading of discussion boards to every couple of weeks at most.
It's also part of the reason I decided to switch my main public blog to a less frequent schedule. I'd rather put less my time doing posts that don't interest me as much as ones that take more effort but are more interesting to me. It's way better to spend an hour or so over several days or a week doing a longer post I like than spending smaller chunks of time each day just to have a bunch of hey look at this video (even if I like that video.)
I've been toying with spending my time doing some longer term things that I've been interested in and have flirted with for years like write more seriously (working more seriously at it rather than writing something serious per se), play with art and learn to draw. I've had a fairly substantial skeleton for a web comic floating in my head partially formed for years now. It a matter of upping my drawing skills more and working on it.
Does anything I produce have to be professional? I'm trying to detach mentally from that sort of thinking. And think of writing and art for my own sake and as a way of expressing my own creativity. And if it gets to the point I think it worth sharing, then why not. Now that doesn't mean that I can't try to improve it regularly and build my skills.
I sometimes think we've become veal shoved into our little lives with a steady stream of junk media shoved down our throats and we just passively and unthinkingly consume the torrent of crap thrown at us.
I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with light entertainment, be it watching TV, viewing videos, reading, etc. It's the amount of it and the balance in our lives that is bothering me. Snacks, treats and dessert are great as long as you eat them as part of a balanced diet. The light entertainment is fine as long as you balance it with other more substantial fare. But here's the related point.
Just like most of America has become obese physically by eating too much and exercising too little, I'm starting to think we've become obese mentally by consuming too much (and too much empty calorie entertainment) while no longer creating anything. That creating and expression is the exercise that balances just consuming.
In modern urban life you can live your life in a steady state of consumption without actually producing anything you value yourself. I suspect that is part of the vague unhappiness that so many seem to have unvoiced in their lives. They buy pre-made food, clothing, furniture, entertainment, etc. forming a passive sort of bland consumer self.
I think the antidote to that is to start spending some of your time doing the opposite - creating and producing. Be it dance, music, art, writing, sewing, cooking (for pleasure not just to eat), soap making, furniture making, etc. It doesn't matter as long as it is something you enjoy doing and you do it.
Once again it's not about throwing yourself into extremes going from consuming all the time to only producing things yourself. It's about fighting that tide of just laying back and consuming blindly. It's about starting to do things yourself that you make yourself as way of expressing yourself. And I'm making no claim there's a magic percentage of time that works for everyone. Where the balance is and what feels best depends.
It's about breaking the cycle, even by a bit, of just living one's life by only working to have money, so you can buy things and passively consuming them without you being present and involved.
That's what I've been thinking about on my vacation and am trying to change things in my life to go in that direction.
Just my own insane .02
The short version was realizing how badly I match what I spend my time doing with what I actually enjoy doing.
Random example: I actually would enjoy reading a book by an author I like hugely more than reading endless poorly written and reasoned comments on discussion boards and on a lot of blogs.
So why was I spending time doing the later (and many days more time!) than the former? Because it's way easy to flit from blog to blog or discussion board to discussion board and consume them mindlessly like so much candy corn.
So no more of that, switched most of my blog following to just skimming the RSS feeds and only reading the ones that actually interest me and limit the reading of discussion boards to every couple of weeks at most.
It's also part of the reason I decided to switch my main public blog to a less frequent schedule. I'd rather put less my time doing posts that don't interest me as much as ones that take more effort but are more interesting to me. It's way better to spend an hour or so over several days or a week doing a longer post I like than spending smaller chunks of time each day just to have a bunch of hey look at this video (even if I like that video.)
I've been toying with spending my time doing some longer term things that I've been interested in and have flirted with for years like write more seriously (working more seriously at it rather than writing something serious per se), play with art and learn to draw. I've had a fairly substantial skeleton for a web comic floating in my head partially formed for years now. It a matter of upping my drawing skills more and working on it.
Does anything I produce have to be professional? I'm trying to detach mentally from that sort of thinking. And think of writing and art for my own sake and as a way of expressing my own creativity. And if it gets to the point I think it worth sharing, then why not. Now that doesn't mean that I can't try to improve it regularly and build my skills.
I sometimes think we've become veal shoved into our little lives with a steady stream of junk media shoved down our throats and we just passively and unthinkingly consume the torrent of crap thrown at us.
I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with light entertainment, be it watching TV, viewing videos, reading, etc. It's the amount of it and the balance in our lives that is bothering me. Snacks, treats and dessert are great as long as you eat them as part of a balanced diet. The light entertainment is fine as long as you balance it with other more substantial fare. But here's the related point.
Just like most of America has become obese physically by eating too much and exercising too little, I'm starting to think we've become obese mentally by consuming too much (and too much empty calorie entertainment) while no longer creating anything. That creating and expression is the exercise that balances just consuming.
In modern urban life you can live your life in a steady state of consumption without actually producing anything you value yourself. I suspect that is part of the vague unhappiness that so many seem to have unvoiced in their lives. They buy pre-made food, clothing, furniture, entertainment, etc. forming a passive sort of bland consumer self.
I think the antidote to that is to start spending some of your time doing the opposite - creating and producing. Be it dance, music, art, writing, sewing, cooking (for pleasure not just to eat), soap making, furniture making, etc. It doesn't matter as long as it is something you enjoy doing and you do it.
Once again it's not about throwing yourself into extremes going from consuming all the time to only producing things yourself. It's about fighting that tide of just laying back and consuming blindly. It's about starting to do things yourself that you make yourself as way of expressing yourself. And I'm making no claim there's a magic percentage of time that works for everyone. Where the balance is and what feels best depends.
It's about breaking the cycle, even by a bit, of just living one's life by only working to have money, so you can buy things and passively consuming them without you being present and involved.
That's what I've been thinking about on my vacation and am trying to change things in my life to go in that direction.
Just my own insane .02