Image courtesy of Haags Uitburo

I have a lot of varied interests: art, memory, cooking, judo, typography, rock climbing, genetics, design, tea, sleep, quantum physics… the list goes on. I’ve decided it would be a good idea to focus on a given topic for 30 days, and then formalize/synthesize everything I’ve learned into a thesis paper. I think having the goal will help motivate me, and forcing myself to collect all the disparate info will help me retain it.

Obviously anything interesting I learn will be posted up here so ya’ll can enjoy the fruits of my mania.

My November topic will be Creativity. What is it? What are the biological components of creativity. How is it measured? Can it be increased? All these questions! I also really want to perform a study on the affects of caffeine on creativity. Anyone else smell a craigslist ad for volunteers?

If you’ve got any nagging questions regarding creativity, sound off in the comments and I’ll see what I can do about finding some answers.

I’ll continue to post on other topics, but stay tuned at the end of the month for a report on everything I’ve learned!

-Dan-

I recently got real with myself and performed an honest to goodness fault analysis. Among the myriad flaws I was finally straight with myself about, one in particular stood out from the rest: I leave a lot of things unfinished. Ask my roommate and I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to tell you about the many, many unfinished canvases scattered around the apartment. And let’s not forget about all the various remnants from ideas fully concocted but never fully realized.

This is a common occurrence among anyone with a creative streak. It is inevitable. Some projects will be left on the cutting room floor; not every idea is a good one. Pursuing bad ideas is a waste of time and the most obvious way to evoke the square peg round hole analogy I can think of.

Regardless, having half-finished ideas constantly swirling around you like the rings of Saturn CAN become a bit depressing. It also eventually begins to warp how other’s perceive you, and how you perceive yourself: you become someone who creates a lot of motion, but never has much to show for it. No one wants to be that person.

I recently launched the alpha build of TellMeItSucks.com, a website created to provide critique resources for designers who don’t have a creative department to solicit feedback from. Throughout the process, I discovered three powerful concepts for finishing projects: 1) Strictly Limiting Focus, 2) Leveraging Momentum, and 3) Bucking Perfection.

1) Strict Focus

Having a lot of great and exciting ideas is awesome. Having too many great and exciting ideas is overwhelming. I’ve often been excited by one idea only to get halfway through it and become distracted by some new pursuit. I know I’m not the only one like this. I usually won’t give up on the previous idea either, I’ll just try to work on two projects at the same time, or three… or 13.

Working on more than one infant idea at a time is counter productive. Your endeavors won’t necessarily fail, but with time and attention spread too thinly, there’s no way they can succeed.

Imagine you have a rope tied around your waste and someone is pulling on it from your left. Depending on how hard they’re pulling, you’ll move a certain distance to your left. Now tie on another rope and get pulled forward as well. Now you’re moving diagonally. Strap on another rope and apply force from the right. Now you’re not really moving so much. The forces are competing. Attach a few more ropes (projects) and pull in every which way and you come to a complete standstill.

Don’t let your great ideas compete against each other. Decide which one idea or project is most important to you now, and ONLY pursue that one. That’s not to say you can’t pursue other projects in the near future, but with your entire effort focused on one goal, that project will either fail in record time (because maybe it just wasn’t THAT good to begin with) or it will mature enough so that it can be automated or otherwise require less, active attention. Only then is it safe to turn your focus on a new project.

A properly focused magnifying glass can only light one ant on fire at a time right? Excuse the metaphor, but I think it’s appropriate.

2) Leverage Momentum

Nothing rings the project funeral bells like boredom. Nothing causes boredom better than a stale or stagnant project. There will always be periods in the production process that take longer than others. You must consistently move forward and celebrate the small victories when they come – make sure they come often.

It’s easy to set milestones, realistic or otherwise. The trick is to find milestones that actually excite you. Treat them like stepping stones and celebrate every time you gain sure footing on a new one. Finally finished the design document? Awesome! Go have a beer with a buddy. Actually received an email back (maybe even a rejection) from the editor of an independent fiction rag? Sweet! Treat yourself to some sushi.

Developing this habit will keep you excited about every step, even those that are more mundane than the rest. Constantly rewarding progress (even for failure) is a surefire way to keep a project moving forward.

3) F@ck Perfection

Articles about Perfection Paralysis abound on the web (thought I coined the phrase, guess not). I could probably write a whole post just about this. The lions share of blame for projects not being completed should be firmly placed on the idea that something needs to be perfect before it can be released. Let go of this silly concept.

When I first started working on TellMeItSucks I made lists of feature sets for the website. I made a lot of these lists. In fact, all I did for a very long time was make lists. I wanted to make sure the features were just right – harmonious even. As if getting it right would open up the gates of heaven and angels would sing… Eventually I filled up my poor notebook with lists, and really had nothing to show for it. So, I started designing the 50+ pages of the site that would accommodate all of these “brilliant” features.. Of course I needed another notebook just for the thumbnail sketches that had to also be perfect before moving on.

After a month or so of spinning my wheels and having nothing to show but notebooks full of chicken scratch, I decided something needed to change. I gave myself a 10 hour limit to finish up a design document and get it in front of my developer.

I had to ruthlessly triage my sacred feature sets down to the bare minimum that would allow someone to make use of the site. I also decided that I wouldn’t really “design” the site or logo, as self-initiated design projects are endlessly deep rabbit holes for a graphic designer – to the point of cliché.

Yes, I left a lot of ideas I was really excited about out of the design document. However, this also allowed me to build a simpler site, which required less start-up capital, and will allow me to test my features on early users.

Since a project’s (painting, short story, website, business or otherwise) success or failure will be largely determined by how it is received by the public, you will benefit by releasing it in multiple, unfinished iterations. This will let the public decide the polish, and ultimately yield something they more-thoroughly relate to.

Case in point, the story “Alice in Wonderland” has been published under at least 5 different titles (not counting translations) and was “improved upon” in each iteration.

Obviously you don’t want to release something that is crap, so how do you decide what is “good enough”? The goal is to get whatever you’re working on to the point where you’re intended audience can interact with it in its intended fashion. That is the only goal. If you want to open a gym, all you really need are some free weights in a garage. Don’t feel like you need to get it “just right” the first time out – it won’t happen. There is no way to prevent screw ups, and if you don’t get over them early and quickly, they’ll happen down the line and threaten to wreck what you’ve invested thousands of hours and dollars into.

One last metaphor to illustrate my point. Human beings are incredibly complex organisms, and if you subscribe to the theory of evolution, which I do, our species is a product of billions of years of trial and error testing. Yet we still have a million and one flaws Our species is a 3.5 billion year old prototype! Don’t be afraid of releasing a project that “isn’t quite right yet”, because that’s exactly what you and I are.

It’s my most sincere hope that putting into practice the above three concepts will help you finish whatever you’re working on. They made a world of difference for me.

Sound off: What are you working on, and where are you stuck?

It’s a bit of a secret passion of mine, but I’m kind of a biology geek, particularly the fields of neuroscience and genetics. Memory, the science of creativity, cloning and genetic repair, sleep deprivation, and language acquisition all get my juices flowing.

I’m doing research for a language experiment I’ll be undertaking shortly (learning three languages at once), and  just finished reading “Think Smart: A Neuroscientist’s Prescription for Improving Your Brain’s Performance” by Richard Restak, M.D.. Among the various recommendations, there was a wonderful little pneumonic device used to remember Pi up to 14 decimal places.

The device was conceived by renowned British physicist, astronomer, and mathematician Sir James Jeans. It’s so effective, that it only took me about 4 minutes to memorize Pi to 14 places.

All you have to do is remember the phrase “How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics!”

Once you have that down, simply count the number of letters in each word and you’ve got it down: “How” = 3; “I”=1; “want”=4; “a”=1; “drink”=5…

Continue in this fashion until you get to 3.14159265358979

I don’t often need to know Pi, but if nothing else, it’s a great party trick.

Image courtesy of TheBMag

So I’ve been MIA for a bit and I wanted to address some of the reasons why.

First, all of my computers crashed. Yep! Within two days my desktop and my laptop both died on me. My external is ok, but I hadn’t backed up in awhile (bad Danny Boy). That means that a lot of the content I had been working on, including recipes, art, and locally saved posts went bye bye. In fact, the only photos I have left are whatever was uploaded to Flickr. Argentina: Gone. Thailand: Gone. As you may suspect, I’ve been thoroughly embracing “the cloud” as of late.

I’ve begun tinkering with Dropbox, will only compose in Google Docs, and have made a habit of sending current working files to drop.io. If anyone has any cloud backup recommendations I would love to hear them. My current “system” is a bit ad hoc.

My younger (no longer “little”) brother has also been in town for the majority of the summer. I don’t get to see him as often as I’d like, so i’ve been spending the vast bulk of my time hanging out with him. It has cut down on the already limited amout of time i had at my disposal for posts, which brings me to my next update.

Mobile posting! I had been mucking around with composing posts on my phone (during commute) via Evernote and then making them live once at a bonafide computer, but that workflow left much to be desired. Enter the WordPress iPhone app! This whole post is being composed with it. Admittedly it is my maiden voyage, but so far i’m impressed. I’ll continue to post on the go and provide a further critique in a few weeks or so.

I’ve been painting a lot lately as well (future post). Unfortunately, I also found myself in a state which I now dub “perfection paralysis” (next post), which kept me from completing a few articles. No more!

When I haven’t been hanging out with my brother, I’ve been working on a secret project that is due for alpha release at the end of this week! I’m so excited! I hope you will be too.

-Dan

My first Tea Plant (Camellia Sinensus)

I’ve often dreamt of buying a small plot of land in Asia and starting a little tea plantation. Waking up with the sun, throwing open the shutters and overlooking row after row of tea plant while I paint seems like the kind of existence I could die happy from.

I was at Flora Grubb nursery last weekend looking for a plant to add a little life to my bedroom. I had settled on a small dessert plant (which I’ve since forgotten the name of) when one of the employees asked if she could help me with anything. Without thinking, I asked if she had any tea plants. She thought she might, and hurried off to look. She came back with a lone plant – it was the last one.

I bought it.

I know all I did was shell out five bucks for a tiny tree, but I can’t help but feel as if somehow I’ve taken a significant step towards realizing a dream. You have to start somewhere right?

This is a close-up of a piece from a series I’m currently working on entitled “Identities”.

I made wooden “canvases” a few weeks ago with my buddy Lee. They were cheap, about $6 a piece for 32″ x 24″, and have since given me something new to experiment with. A lot of people paint on wood, but this was my first experience with wood as a canvas. I began to realize how beautiful the grain was and really wanted the identity of the wood to show throw.

I started thinking about how I could accomplish this, and what kind of artistic opportunities were open to me now that I was working with a rigid structure. It dawned on me that I could probably paint something in acrylic, and actually sand it down. My hunch was right.

I painted thick, let it dry, and then applied a few consecutive coats of watered down blacks and browns. The wash settled into the valleys formed by the paint, as well as the small cracks in the wood, which helped to accent the grain.

There are still a few more steps I want to take with this piece, and the series as a whole, but here is another close-up, this time of the center, and the piece as a whole, after sanding.

What do you think?

Hope to see you on Twitter!

There’s no reason for you NOT to prank someone this year.

This is one of my favorite practical jokes for a reason! It’s easy, takes about 5 seconds to set up, and it doesn’t cause any damage – so you can’t really get in trouble. The perfect crime! Happy April Fool’s Day everyone!

Quinoa, up close and personal.

Quinoa (pronounce it ‘keen-wah’ and you’ll sound smart) is an important source of nutrition in much of South America. While not quite a grain, it’s often eaten like rice, either on it’s own or as a side, and can be prepared in a myriad of ways. Recently, it’s become my staple side dish because of it’s high fiber and protein content. 1 cup of cooked quinoa has 5 grams of fiber, and 8 grams of protein (source).

It’s not very well known in the states, so it can be hard to find outside of specialty food stores. However, if you have a Trader Joes near you, you should be in luck; they carry it.

This particular recipe was gifted to me by the chef at Cava de Cano Winery in Mendoza, Argentina (pic). Like all talented chefs, he had no idea how much of each ingredient he put into the dish, so it took a bit of experimenting to get the proportions just right. It’s light and zippy, and pairs especially well with salmon and chicken.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Quinoa
• 2 Cups Water
• 1 Lemon (juice)
• 1 Cup Fresh, Chopped Parsley
• 3 Cloves Garlic, minced.
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• Pepper to taste

Instructions:

Combine Quinoa and water in a small pan and bring to boil. Immediately reduce to very low heat and cover. Cook for 15 minutes (or follow intructions on packaging). Do not stir. While waiting for quinoa to cook, squeeze the lemon juice into a bowl, taking care to remove any seeds, and combine with parsley, garlic, salt and pepper.

When quinoa is finished cooking, stir in lemon mixture, cover, and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

How many of you have tried Quinoa before? I’m curious.

Don’t forget to follow me on twitter! http://twitter.com/dpwalsh

Traditionally, dulce de leche can take anywhere from 2-3 hours – which means a rather large time investment for such a simple yet delicious dessert. I’ve gotten the prep time down to about 20 minutes (less, for most uses). It’s wonderfull what a little experimenting can do!

Cook time: 20 minutes (active) More time for larger batches.

Yield: 8-10 bite size caramels

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Milk
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 4-6 Drops of Vanilla Extract, or Vanilla Bean, to taste.
• Dash of Salt
• Pinch of Baking Powder

Directions

Pour all ingredients into your pot (non-stick) and bring to a rapid boil at high heat. Stir vigorously until the milk starts to condense and darken, 8-10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, and then low as the dulce de leche thickens. Continue to stir throughout to avoid scorching. More time in the pot yeilds a harder candy.

Notes

• The original recipe calls for BAKING SODA, not BAKING POWDER. I substituted to see what would happen, and I liked the results. I would assume using baking powder leads to an end result less dense than mine. Pretty please let me know how it turns out if you make it with baking soda.
• If you want to make dulce de leche sauce, mix in sweetened condensed milk to the final product while it’s still warm.
• Darker dulce de leche has more flavor, but it’s also harder and more dense. Experiment with cook times to find your preference. My cook times lean toward a harder, caramel candy.

Tip

If you want your dulce de leche even faster, start off using sweetened condensed milk right out of the can (make sure to add the baking powder). It tastes a little different, but practically shaves off the rapid boil stage.

I really want to hear about any experiments with, or different ways to make, dulce de leche. A good friend of mine told me her family used to make it by boiling sweetened condensed milk while still in the unopened can. No stirring, but it could explode! WILD!

Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/dpwalsh

I’ve held off on getting mobile internet on my phone for a few reasons. Mostly because I just don’t want to be that connected and available to everyone, and because I really don’t want an email update about my Netflix queu interrupting dinner. Sometimes, however, there are circumstances when it would be nice to have. For those times, I’ve put together a little step-by-step procedure that I’ve found useful as a way to get specific, important emails to my non internet capable phone using SMS.

It’s really easy, and if you don’t have Gmail yet, maybe this will convince you to sign up.

1. Sending email from your phone. Type your message as you usually would, but instead of sending it to a mobile number, send the text message to an email address. It’s that simple. Give it a try and email a text message to your inbox. This will set you up for the next step.

2. Receiving email on your phone. The “from” field of the email/text you just sent should look somewhat familiar. Usually it’s your mobile number@carrier.com or something of the sort. I use AT&T so mine is xxxxxxx@txt.att.net. All mobile carriers have slightly different systems (I think Sprint does some kind of routing thing) so this is the easiest way to discover what your phone’s email address is. Once you have this, you can start forwarding important messages to your phone.

3. Using Gmail to forward emails. It’s all well and good that YOU know how to email your phone, but good luck getting your non-tech savvy significant other to start emailing your cell phone. Luckily, the wizards at Google have you covered.

1. Sign in to Gmail and click “Settings” at the top right.

2. Click on the “Filter” tab.

3. Click “Create a new filter”.

4. In the “From” field, type in an email address. This could be your boss, dentist or even Great Aunt Myrtle, bless her heart. All the emails from the address you put in this field will get forwarded to your phone, so make sure this person A) is important, and B) doesn’t often send you spammy chain letters and other useless emails.

5. Click the “Next Step” button.

6. Check the “Forward To” box, and input your cell phone’s email address into the field.

7. Click the “Create Filter” button and you’re done! Now, all email from that special someone will be pushed right to your phone and you don’t have to pay an extra $30 a month for mobile internet.

Just a few notes:

• Normal text rates apply, so it would be advisable to have unlimited text service.
• As long as you don’t check the “Delete It” box during filter creation, you will still retain a copy off all forwarded emails in your inbox.

The flexibility of Gmail’s filter features can be incredibly powerful, especially when combined with RSS and SMS technology, so I highly encourage you to play around and see what you can come up with. Leave any tips or exciting combinations in the comments.

As always, follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/dpwalsh