Deep Items
So at this juncture I must consider two things.
- Why I have difficulty brainstorming at a computer.
- Why I have a nasty habit of working till all hours of the day.
Item one. Not quite sure why exactly this one is, but I find if I need to brainstorm about anything, be it a story, procedures, a blog entry, what to write in a paper, or even computer code! It very possible my brainstorming difficulties come from the tools that I am using on the computer. For the most part I don’t usually use the computer with the artistic tools. I know when I get into Photoshop I can get into a creative zone, but even photoshop elicits certain analytical tendencies. When I’m working with art there I’m thinking of developing art in a procedural computer based manner. I’m not feeling the art. For me photoshop isn’t about creating art than it is about translating vision. The art is already done, it just needs to be codified. Photoshop is the final tool that I manipulate for it to fit my inner vision. But it is unlike a paintbrush is to a painter. I find the tool disconnects me from art, it doesn’t connect me to art.
Item two. Which is ironic that I’m considering writing this here while I’m still at work. I think part of stems from I have difficulty from either cutting myself off from the work world, or stopping what I’m working on then restarting it. When I program I program in long stretches often lasting over eight or nine hours. (Mind you I’ve never programmed for pay.) I just finished this reasonably sized project for work that involved writing a bunch of procedures. Its odd but one of the things I needed to do while writing the procedures was to give myself time to just let the procedure stew in my head. I spent some time tonight at a restaurant, staring at the television screen working through the procedures in my head and the different requirements and possibilities that could meet the requirements. If I had gotten a phone call during that time I would’ve been derailed.
My mother once said I was always thinking. I’m not quite sure that’s true. I think it would be more accurate to say when I had a nice chunk of time I stopped and used it to think deeply. When I need to think deeply I need to have a nice chunk of time set aside. Otherwise I might as well not even try.