Great Ideas

"Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings."- C. D. Jackson

New ideas are rarely all that new. Usually, they are new combinations of concepts or adaptations of old ideas. One of the best ways to come up with new ideas is to collect ideas from other people. Mark Twain said, "All ideas are second hand, consciously or unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources and used by the creative person with pride and satisfaction."

Thomas Edison kept a file of his own ideas and those of others that he thought he could adapt. Author and creativity expert Michael Michalko offers the following techniques for adapting ideas:

• What can be SUBSTITUTED? (Who else? What else? Other ingredient? Other process? Other power? Other place? Other approach? Can you change the rules?)
• What can be COMBINED? (How about a blend, an alloy, an assortment, an ensemble? Combine units? Combine purposes with something else? Combine appeals? Combine ideas?)
• What can I ADAPT from something else to the idea? (What else is like this? What other idea does this suggest? Does the past offer a parallel? What could I copy? Whom could I emulate?)
• What can I MAGNIFY? (What can be added? More time? Stronger? Higher? Longer? Extra value? Extra features? Duplicate? Multiply? Exaggerate?)
• What can I MODIFY or change? (What can be altered? New twist? Change meaning, color, motion, sound, odor, form, shape? What other changes can be made?)
• Can I PUT the idea TO OTHER USES? (New ways to use as? Other uses if modified? Can you make it do more things? Other extensions? Other spin-off? Other markets?)
• What can be ELIMINATED? (What to subtract? Smaller? Condensed? Miniature? Lower? Shorter? Lighter? Omit? Streamline? Split up? Understate?)
• What can be REARRANGED the parts? (What other arrangement might be better? Interchange components? Other pattern? Other layout? Other sequence? Transpose cause and effect? Change pace? Change schedule?)
• Can it be REVERSED? (Transpose positive and negative? How about opposites? Turn it upside down? Reverse roles? Consider it backwards? What if you did the unexpected?)

Start your own idea file. It can be a paper file of newspaper and magazine articles, a collection of index files or a doorful of Post-it notes.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

The Artist Date

“Your only assignment is to replenish the well.”

Sarah Ban Breathnach

The artist date is a basic tool for awakening your creativity, according to Julia Cameron’s classic book, The Artist’s Way. It’s a solitary excursion or play date with your inner artist. Visit an art gallery, take a hike in the mountains, explore a junk store or watch an old movie. The choice of an activity is entirely yours. The purpose is to fill the well of your creative resources.

A couple of weeks ago, I took myself to the Ben Franklin: In Search of a Better World exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. This tercentenary celebration of the birth of one of most beloved founding fathers will leave Denver on May 20 and travel to Atlanta and finish the year and the tour in Paris.

Printer, inventor, diplomat, writer and philanthropist, Ben Franklin accomplished an amazing number of feats in his lifetime. In addition to discovering that lightning contained electricity, signing the declaration of independence, and inventing bifocals, he also:

• Created an early form of swim fins
• Experimented with wind surfing
• Wrote one of the earliest autobigraphies (which, in almost 300 years has never gone out of print
• Established the first franchise
• Served as Postmaster General
• Co-founded the first public hospital and circulating library in the U.S.
• Founded the University of Pennsylvania
• Printed some of the earliest paper money and solved the problem of counterfeiting by including pictures of leaves which could not be duplicated
• Invented a musical instrument, the glass armonica
• Mapped the gulf stream

The scope of his accomplishments is at once astonishing and inspirational. If you can’t make it to the exhibit, check out the website or watch the PBS video of his life.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

A Few of My Favorite Things

“You live and learn. At any rate, you live.”
Douglas Adams

After seeing several lists of all-time favorite books, I thought I’d give it a try. The following lists are works in progress.

Favorite Novels

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

All My Friends are Going to Be Strangers by Larry McMurtry

The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols

Lamb by Christopher Moore

Angle of Repost by Wallace Stegner

Favorite Nonfiction

Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott

No High Adobe by Dorothy Pillsbury

Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton

Working by Studs Terkel

A Different Woman by Jane Howard

The Autobiographies of Maya Angelou

Favorite Authors

Barbara Kingsolver

Anne Lamott

Sue Grafton

Tony Hillerman

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Calling Future Rock Stars

"Be your own rock." Prudential slogan

Paul Green wanted to be the best. Since he couldn’t be the world’s best guitarist, he invented something new so he could be best at that. What he invented has grown into more than 40 locations across the country and was the subject of a critically acclaimed documentary in 2005. An after school program in Philadelphia established in 1999, The Paul Green School of Rock Music trains kids aged 7-18 to be rock musicians.

Students receive private lessons on the instrument of their choice and also participate in weekly rehearsals to prepare them for the main event, THE SHOW! Past shows have included tributes to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, and the Beatles. The movie details the preparations and performance of shows featuring the music of Black Sabbath and Frank Zappa. The goal is to make the students into amazing musicians.

It looks like they’re succeeding. The movie, Rock School, is a hoot, although the harsh language Paul uses with some of the kids is a bit shocking. Seeing 12-year old prodigy CJ playing Santana’s Black Magic Woman on the guitar is well worth the price of the movie rental.

Green says he’s a natural teacher, who teaches all the time. We all have a gift—something we’re better at than almost anybody else. Finding a way to build our lives around using our gifts is a worthy goal.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Amen to That

"The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking."
- John Kenneth Galbraith

Next week, in honor of Earth Day, my church is celebrating Evolution Sunday. When I told a friend about it, explaining that unlike right-wing fundamentalist churches, we believe in evolution, she looked shocked.

“You think we came from monkeys?” she asked incredulously.

“Well,” I replied, “not exactly.”

My friend Barbara, another member of my church family, said the appropriate response to that question is “Apparently you’ve never spent much time around a two-year old or you would have no doubt that we descended from monkeys.”

The oversimplification that evolution means we came from monkeys is one of those false arguments put forth by the religious right that fosters ignorance and blind obedience. As Pastor Kerry explained during our worship service yesterday when she announced next week’s program, “This is a church where you don’t have to check your brain at the door.” Yes, contrary to what the media would have you believe, you can be both a Christian and a critical thinker.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Time to Reflect

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” Mark Twain

Where do you get your best ideas? Mine seem to come when I’m taking a bath or walking or driving, all times when our brains switch into automatic pilot. There’s a reason for that.

Step three of the creative process (after defining the problem and searching for options) is incubation. It’s one of the steps that distinguishes the creative process from the problem-solving process. In the latter, you define the problem, brainstorm possible solutions, evaluation the options and implement the best one.

The creative process, on the other hand, requires time after the first two steps to let your subconscious go to work and make odd connections among unrelated subjects.

The story of Archimedes illustrates this. Given the problem of assessing the purity of a gold crown, he realized while bathing that objects displace water. He could calculate the volume of the crown by measuring the volume of water it displaced when submerged and thereby calculate the purity of the gold. He reportedly ran naked through the streets of ancient Syracuse shouting Eureka! (I have found it).

His Aha! moment (step 4 in the creative process) would not have come if he hadn’t already been working on the problem. Incubation requires preparation and then letting go. Daydreaming alone probably won’t do it.

There’s always a catch.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

I, Creator

"Creating the work that nourishes your life is one of the most rewarding paths to self-expression and joy." Salli Rasberry and Padi Selwyn, Living Your Life Out Loud

I’ve been rediscovering my need to be creative this week. Last Sunday, I went to a workshop at the downtown library to learn how to make an 8-page travel journal/collage out of one large sheet of paper. The instructor was Gail Lindley, owner of The Denver Bookbinding Company, somebody who knows everything there is to know about bookbinding because she has been in the business all her life. Her grandparents started the company.

I got interested in making handbound books a few years ago when I interviewed Gail for my column in the North Denver News. Since then, I have attended several classes on different kinds of handbound journals and have a stack of close to ten books on the subject on my dining room table as I write. When I got a Barnes and Noble gift card for my birthday, I spent it on handbound leather journals that I want to copy.

In one of the library books, I found a project for a little 3-D picture and I made a similar one using a picture of my dad in his army air corps uniform in 1942, his dad about 12 years later and a 1921 Model T, just like one my grandfather owned. It was fun to make and everybody admired my handiwork, which is also fun. I’ve also decided to make personal handmade birthday cards instead of sending mass-produced ones from the card shop.

I find that these creative outlets relax me and give me a feeling of accomplishment like almost nothing else I do. They also make me want to use more of my creative juices on my day-to-day work, which can only be a good thing.

My pastor once explained to me that the concept that we are made in God’s image doesn’t mean we look like God, but that we are born creators. I believe that. I know that the more creativity I can put into my everyday life, the happier I am.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Restating the Problem

The first step in the creative process is to define the problem. This seems pretty straightforward, even obvious, so most people neglect this step. That is unfortunate because it may be the most important step in the process. How you define the problem determines how you solve the problem.

As in the Fable of the Two Steves, if you define the problem as needing money, then the solution involves getting more money. There are always alternate ways to define a problem, but they can be very difficult to see. Here are some techniques from Morgan D. Jones’ The Thinker’s Toolkit to help:

1. Paraphrase: Restate the problem using different words without losing the original meaning.

Initial statement: How can we limit congestion on the roads?

Paraphrase: How can we keep road congestion from growing?

2. 180 degrees: Turn the problem on its head.

Initial statement: How can we get employees to come to the company picnic?

180 degrees: How can we discourage employees from attending the picnic?

3. Broaden the focus: Restate the Problem in a larger context.

Initial statement: Should I change jobs?

Broaden focus: How can I achieve job security?

4. Redirect the focus: Boldly, consciously change the focus.

Initial Statement: How can we boost sales?

Redirected focus: How can we cut costs?

5. Ask “Why”: As “why” of the initial problem statement. Then formulate a new problem statement based on the answer. Then ask “why” again, and again restate the problem based on the answer. Repeat this process a number of times until the essence of the “real” problem emerges.

Initial Statement: How can we market our in-house multimedia products?

Why? Because many of our internal customers are outsourcing their multimedia projects.

Restatement: How can we keep internal customers from outsourcing their multimedia projects?

Why? Because it should be our mandate to do all of the organization’s multimedia.

Restatement: How can we establish a mandate to do all of the organization’s multimedia?

Why? Because we need to broaden our customer base.

Restatement: How can we broaden our customer base?

Why? Because we need a larger base in order to be cost effective.

Restatement: How can we become more cost effective?

Why? Because our profit margin is diminishing.

Restatement: How can we increase our profit margin?

A principle problem has emerged: How to obtain a mandate to do all of the organization’s multimedia projects.

You might find that looking at your problem from a slightly different perspective will lead to solutions you would never have otherwise considered.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Traits of Creative People

"All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea."
Napoleon hill

Creativity may become one of the most desired traits (or skills) of the 21^st century. A year ago, Kennesaw State University study found that while only 29% of MBA and EMBA programs offer courses in creativity and innovation, nearly 92% of the others expect to offer one in the next five years. That’s great news for those of us who teach creativity and value a generalist approach to business.

Here’s a list of 32 traits of creative people, compiled by Dr. Robert Alan Black.

sensitive

not motivated by money

sense of destiny

adaptable

tolerant of ambiguity

observant

perceive world differently

see possibilities

question asker

can synthesize correctly often intuitively

able to fantasize

flexible

fluent

imaginative

intuitive

ingenious

original

energetic

sense of humor

self-actualizing

self-disciplined

self-knowledgeable

specific interests

divergent thinker

curious

open-ended

independent

severely critical

non-conforming

confident

risk taker

persistent

How many do you possess?

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Fable of the Two Steves

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." Albert Einstein

Here’s a fable about creative problem solving. Once upon a time, back at the dawn of the computer age, lived two guys named Steve. Both Steves were what would become known as computer geeks and they desperately wanted a computer. In that era, a kit was available to build your own computer; it cost $500. The Steves didn't have $500. How would you define their problem?

Most people would say their problem was how to get $500. How do you get $500? You get a job and earn it or, if you're less conventional, you beg borrow or steal it. You sell a small, insignificant body part or something to which you are less attached. These days, you charge it to one of your many credit cards and worry about paying it later.

The two Steves, however, didn't define their problem that way. They decided that what they needed to do was find a way to get a computer without having $500. Friends who worked in the incipient electronics industry donated spare parts, and the Steves designed their own computer, which they named Apple. If they had defined their problem in the conventional way, we might not today have the endless debate about which is best: Mac or PC?

The moral of this story is:

__a. There is more than one way to define your problem.

__b. How you define the problem determines the solution.

__c. Money isn't always the answer.

__d. Small changes in thinking can produce big changes in the world.

__e. All of the above.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

How to Kill Creativity

In fact, most people are being squeezed in their little cubicle, and their creativity is forced out elsewhere, because the company can't use it. The company is organized to get rid of variants." Scott Adams

I’ve been sick with flu and pneumonia for the past couple of weeks and haven’t had the energy to do much of anything, including writing here. I’m feeling better now and am starting to feel alive again. My focus this week is creativity because I’m preparing to give a corporate workshop on the topic next week.

Here’s a list I found (author unknown) of phrases that kill creativity:

Our place is different

We tried that before.

It costs too much.

That's not my job.

They're too busy to do that.

We don't have the time.

Not enough help.

It's too radical a change.

The staff will never buy it.

It's against company policy.

The union will scream.

That will run up our overhead.

We don't have the authority.

Let's get back to reality

That's not our problem.

I don't like the idea.

I'm not saying you're wrong but...

You're two years ahead of your time.

Now's not the right time.

It isn't in the budget.

Can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Good thought, but impractical.

Let's give it more thought.

We'll be the laughingstock of the industry.

Not that again.

Where'd you dig that one up?

We did alright without it before.

It's never been tried.

Let's put that one on the back burner for now.

Let's form a committee.

It won't work in our place.

The executive committee will never go for it.

I don't see the connection.

Let's all sleep on it.

It can't be done.

It's too much trouble to change.

It won't pay for itself.

It's impossible.

I know a person who tried it and got fired.

We've always done it this way.

We'd lose money in the long run.

Don't rock the boat.

That's what we can expect from the staff.

Has anyone else ever tried it?

Let's look into it further.

We'll have to answer to the stockholders.

Quit dreaming.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

That's too much ivory tower.

It's too much work.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Sometimes Reality Really Does Bite

I can handle reality in small doses, but as a lifestyle, it's much too confining. Lily Tomlin

Where to start? This has been an interesting week, which accounts for my lack of posts. First my cable modem went out. I’m in the middle of teaching an online class, so I had to take my laptop elsewhere to work with my students. While there, I discovered an irate letter from a reader of my newspaper column who accused me of being a racist because of things I never said, but he assumed I must mean. It just shows that critical thinking is an extremely rare commodity.

Normally, I am online dozens of times during the day. I rely on the internet for news, email, shopping, my library and bank accounts, and the television schedule. I was lost without it. Luckily, Comcast sent a technician on Sunday, who fixed it in less than half an hour. He is my new hero.

Monday, I had lunch with my old friend Barb Lundy. She is a poet and advocate for the disabled with whom I had lost touch almost thirty years ago. With some people, the years don’t seem to matter. Even after all that time, we struck up a conversation as if we had seen each other the previous week. She is now a certified hypnotherapist and gave me a session on abundance before we went out to eat and then for a walk. The day was an island of grace in the middle of a chaotic week.

Tuesday was my day for running errands, grading papers and preparing for class.

Wednesday, I took my parents to see my dad’s doctor. The arrogant asshole kept my 89-year-old diabetic father waiting for two hours. By the time he finally showed up, we had arranged to change doctors. I’m glad we never have to see him again. Doctors have never been on my list of favorite people, and this one just confirmed my impression of them as smug, self-important jerks (although I’m sure there must be one or two nice ones out there.)

Today I get to catch up on all the things I haven’t had time for, like this blog. I have movies to watch and get returned to the library, and I hope the weather is nice enough to go for a walk because the forecast for the next four days calls for more snow. This will be our eighth week in a row of snow. We’re praying for an early spring. I’d settle for one week of calm serenity.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

So Many Books, So Little Time

"For those of us with a bookish bent, reading is a reflexive response to everything. This is how we deal with the world and anything new that comes our way. We have always known that there is a book for every occasion and every obsession. When in doubt, we are always looking things up."

Diane Schoemperlen, Our Lady of the Lost and Found

My Indian name is Nose in a Book. While I wasn’t exactly born reading, I dragged a dictionary around with me when other toddlers had a blankie. I still have that dictionary, much the worse for wear.

One of my resolutions this year is to read less because my addiction just about took over my life last year. I read 120 books, ten per month. One of the books I read was about a woman who spent a year reading a book a week and her friends thought she was crazy for undertaking such an impossible task. Lightweight. I’d like to keep my reading down to one book a week.

The reason I take baths instead of showers is because you can’t read in the shower. I read as I eat my meals, watch TV or anytime I have a few spare minutes. It adds up to a minimum of two hours per day.

One of the reasons things got so out of control last year is because I started listening to books on CD in the car. At first I listened to seminars and non-fiction books only. Then I got an audio book by mistake from the library. I thought I had ordered the book not the CD book, but I decided to give it a try and I loved it. Now I can’t drive without listening to a book.

Yesterday, I finished listening to Jodi Picoult’s Vanishing Acts and immediately started Dana Stabenow’s A Deeper Sleep. This one is only six discs, so I need to line up another audio book so I don’t miss a beat when I finish this one.

As for my resolution, I’m making a little progress. I read eight books in January. Here’s what makes me crazy: Close to 200,000 books are published in the U.S. every year, and I can only read 100 of them. That means that every year there are 199,900 more books I can’t read.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Constant Learning in Action

“Learning a little every day soon puts you far behind whoever’s learning a lot every day.” Ashleigh Brilliant

It’s snowing again, for the SEVENTH week in a row, and the high temperature today will be 20˚. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we are all sick of this nasty weather, yet we are becoming strangely acclimated. The cold and snow don’t keep us from doing what we want to do.

Yesterday, which was cold but sunny, I had my final birthday lunch of the year. My birthday was three weeks ago, but this was the first time my friend Sheila and I had been able to get together. We met at a Thai restaurant in south central Denver, and she gave me a bookstore gift card—a GREAT gift for a book junkie like me.

Last night I started teaching a writing class at the university. One of my students, Martin Kaufman, owns OrthoPets, a company that manufactures custom orthotic and prosthetic devices for pets. It’s been several months since I last had Martin in class and in that time he has moved the business out of his garage and hired his first employees. He used his UOP classes in a very smart way. In almost every class, he used his growing business as the subject of his class projects, learning how to apply his new knowledge directly to his business. Improving his writing skills will help him to write clear emails to his customers in other parts of the world.

Although he graduates next month, I’m sure he will continue to learn and grow throughout his life. For some people, lifelong learning is more than a nice concept; it’s a way of life.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Taking it to the Streets

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

After an unheard of six straight weeks of snow and cold weather, the news this morning features a man in East Denver who took matters into his own hands. Armed with an ice pick, he started breaking up and clearing his street of the thick ice that remains on all the residential streets in Denver. Neighbors followed his lead and soon they had clean pavement again.

The moral of this story—that we can’t rely on someone else to take care of everything, even (or especially) when that someone else is the government. My friend, Chris, sent the following message and link about a group of citizens who undertook a rescue that official agencies were unable to complete:

“You may have heard about the herd of horses that were trapped for 3 days on a tiny piece of land in wind and rain in the Netherlands a short while ago? They were trapped on a small piece of land, surrounded by water. Their natural instincts kept them from swimming to solid land, from their tiny perch. There were about 100 horses huddled together against the wind and water. The Nation was mesmerized watching this drama as 18 of the horses perished, while others were slowly weakening.
First the fire department, then the Dutch army, tried to rescue them - both efforts were unsuccessful. Then, with a break in the weather, the water level went down and four women hatched a plan to attempt a rescue by luring the horses into the water.
Here's a video of the successful rescue. I was very touched as I watched the video of these magnificent animals being saved. I hope you enjoy this uplifting video.”

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

“I used to run with the wolves. Now I nap with the cats” saying on a button

Next to reading, napping is my favorite activity. That sentence should read that napping is my favorite inactivity. Whatever. I like to take naps and working at home allows me to do that whenever I want to. I nap in my recliner, on my bed and in an Adirondack chair on my patio, where on nice days I read in the sunshine after lunch. Science tells us that our natural biorhythms dip in the early afternoon, and anyone who has ever had to attend a meeting or class at 1 p.m. can corroborate the research.

Many famous people have been nappers, including John F. Kennedy, Thomas Edison, Leonardo DaVinci, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Gene Autry.

A new book, Take a Nap! Change Your Life by Dr. Sara C. Mednick claims that a short nap can boost your productivity by 34 percent. According to Dr. Mednick, a complete sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes. Therefore, the benefit derived from napping depends on how long you sleep. Twenty minutes takes you to Stage 2 sleep, which increases alertness and motor skills. Forty minutes, results in slow wave sleep, which improves memory. Sleep for a whole 90-minute cycle, and you will experience deep sleep and increase your creativity.

According to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2000 Poll, 67% of Americans are sleep-deprived. Sleeping too little can cause irritability, memory loss, depression, weight gain and even diabetes.

The lesson is simple. Stop reading and go take a nap. You’ll thank me for it later.
©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Honest Business: An Oxymoron?

“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” Socrates

I once had a business student plagiarize a paper about ethics. Think about it. When I confronted him, his excuse was, “I didn’t know what ethics was.” I thought that was pretty obvious. Therefore, I wasn’t surprised to read that MBA students were the most likely of all graduate students to cheat in class. The survey, conducted by the Academy of Management Learning & Education found that 56 percent of graduate business school students cheated last year, compared to a mere (?) 47 percent of other graduate school students. These are our leaders of tomorrow.

The result of this lack of integrity and, in some cases, common sense is apparent in the recent list of 101 Dumbest Moments from Business compiled by Business 2.0 magazine. My personal favorite is #11, the Starbucks email coupon fiasco.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Creative Toolkit

“While we have the gift of life, it seems to me the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die -- whether it is our spirit, our creativity or our glorious uniqueness.” Gilda Radner

I’m not a traveler. I’d rather read a book about a place than actually go there. I like to take care of my cats, sleep in my own bed and have my things around me, all things that are not possible (unless you’re in a motor home) when traveling.

It is odd, therefore, that an ebook called a Creative Toolkit for Travelers caught my eye. Written and sold by Cynthia Morris, a writing and creativity coach based in Boulder, CO. I’ve subscribed to her newsletter for several years and enjoyed her book, Create Your Writer’s Life, which is a visual delight as well as a source of information and inspiration. I figured I could benefit from using her tools for travelers right here in Denver as I wander the city.

The ebook didn’t disappoint me. The first tool I want to use is a postcards, in fact dozens of postcards. These days of email overload, everybody I know is thrilled to get an actual physical letter or card in the mail. You can make your own cards or use commercial cards.

Another tool she recommends is the Moleskin Japanese Accordion book. You can buy one for $9.95 at Amazon, but I think I’ll make my own. It’s all part of the creative process.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Discovering Fun

“All I want to do is have some fun. I’ve got a feeling I’m not the only one.” Sheryl Crow

Stumbleupon.com is the best website I’ve run across in years. I learned about it at Barbara Sher’s message board for scanners. Scanners are people (like moi) who have too many interests to focus on just one. This website adds a tool to your browser. You enter a list of your interests, and when you click the button, it takes you to a website based on one of your interests. I just started using it over the weekend (our fifth weekend of snow and cold weather) and I’ve found sites of funny cat pictures, a site that recommends new books based on previous books I’ve liked and an online MP3 player. Very cool.

When I first started surfing the internet, I could spend hours exploring websites. Lately, though, I seem to go to the same old places day after day. StumbleUpon takes me back to the good old days when the internet was a source of constant wonder and entertainment. Great stuff.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

A Little Help from my Friends

1. Be discoverers. 2. Be ready helpers. 3. Be friend makers.

The Brownie "B's” (Girl Scouts)

I’ve been trying to get together with my friends Kathy and Jane for over a month, and the crappy weather or our weird schedules have kept us from meeting. Until yesterday. The sun was shining on the snow-covered mountains as I drove northwest to the Mimi’s Café at Flat Irons mall. I look forward to these meetings because they are always fun, the food is good and we swap information and ideas for our various businesses. Kathy is a trainer in conflict management and juggler; Jane is a software engineer and filmmaker; I’m a writer and teacher.

In addition to my buttermilk spice muffin, I got an idea from Jane for my next newspaper column. She was showing a short film last night at the Bug Theater Emerging Filmmakers Project and suggested that, since it is in my neighborhood, I could write about that. Great idea, Jane. I hope your viewing went well last night. Kathy was feeling overwhelmed by her book project and had realized that it would help to start at the end goal and work backwards. Jane and I told her about Barbara Sher’s backward planning flowchart from the book, Refuse to Choose. I made sure Jane knew about the new reality show, On the Lot, for filmmakers, created by Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg.

We left fortified by the friendship and inspiration and looking forward to our next time together.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Fun With Work and Learning

"By being flexible, open, creative, and downright audacious, you may find that life has more to offer than you ever dreamed." Susan Sully The Late Bloomer's Guide to Success at Any Age

I just finished teaching my best class in a long time. This was the first time I had taught cultural diversity and I was dreading it for two reasons:

1. It is always a lot of work to prepare for and teach a new class, and this one straddled the Christmas season which added more stress.

2. I had talked to another teacher, whom I greatly admire, about the class and she warned me that it wasn’t a very good one.

I admit that it wasn’t much fun at first, but I had a remarkable group of students who pushed me to be creative. I dreamed up some classroom activities that everybody enjoyed and changed their final project from the typical paper and presentation into a game they would design and demonstrate to the class. We even had a potluck in the last class where everybody brought food from their culture. They brought tamales, homemade pizza, lefsa, and a wonderful Chinese stuffed chicken dish. For dessert we had a Black Forest torte, homemade macadamia nut ice cream (from a Hawaiian woman), chocolate chip cookies and a Puerto Rican ice treat.

The games they designed were patterned after Family Feud, Jeopardy, 1 vs. 100 and Go Fish. They were all fun learning experiences and provided me with great resources for the next time I teach this class.

I learned as much from my students as they did from me, and that’s what makes teaching a fun job. We all contributed something. The students pushed me by telling me when they thought something was boring, and I was flexible enough to change directions mid-stream. A good time was had by all.

When you do anything for as long as I have been teaching (20+ years) things can get stale and you need to shake it up a little. This class reminded me that my work is a creative outlet, not just a way to pay the bills. We should all be so lucky.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Organization Woman

"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."

Immanuel Kant

I switched to a computer calendar several years ago and it works great. The recurring appointment feature makes it very easy to schedule my classes and other regular activities, and the reminder feature comes in very handy. I don’t have to carry a big clunky paper calendar around with me, which lightens my purse or briefcase considerably.

For my contacts, though, I still use a good old-fashioned Rolodex. It is much faster to access a phone number or address on my (real) desktop than having to click through several options to reach them on my computer. I have a special little hole punch that lets me fit business cards into the rolodex and I also use it to record my usernames and passwords for various websites.

Periodically, I go through it and remove out-of-date or no longer needed cards. January is National Organization Month, so it may be time to do that again. It’s also time to buy a new package of blank cards for all the new contacts I will make this year.

In the spirit of getting organized, I am also cleaning out closets and getting rid of unused Christmas ornaments, old clothes and linens. The hardest thing for me to part with is books, although I have made great progress in using the library instead of buying every book I want to read. It’s been so long since I bought a book of fiction that my Amazon account no longer recommends them to me.

People tell me that being organized brings greater freedom, so I’m giving it a try. Wish me luck.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Just Call Me Crafty

"The best hope of success lies in having numerous projects percolating at once; this ups the odds of one of them boiling over." Tom Peters, The Pursuit of Wow

I’ll bet you’ve been wondering what you can do with all those old floppy disks that no longer fit into your computer, right? WikiHow to the rescue. Turn a floppy disk into a starship with these directions. This site will also tell you how to turn a CD into a coaster, but that’s a no brainer. Simply glue felt or cork on one side and voilà, it’s a coaster. I prefer the projects at HGTV, where you can learn to turn a CD into a clock or, with higher level skills, a lapel pin.

These projects interest me because I have finally set up my long-neglected back bedroom as a craft room. The room isn’t finished yet, but I used it last night to start a handmade book. Collages are another big interest of mine and I have been collecting bits of ephemera to use in collages and handmade cards for years. Maybe now I will finally use some of that stuff.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

The Creativity Muscle

"For the longest time I didn't realize I was creative—I just thought I was strange. Diane Ackerman

Creativity, like any other skill, needs both practice and intention to improve. If you think you are not creative, chances are, you’re right. As author Richard Bach said in his classic book, Illusions, “Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they’re yours.”

You can change things, though, by changing your thinking. The Bible tells us that we were created in God’s image, and God is, above all, a creator. So we were born to create. In fact, we do create, whether we acknowledge it or not. We have all created our lives, be they fabulous or miserable.

Nita Leland’s book, The Creative Artist, suggests several ways to increase your creativity.

Emphasize the joy of creating, rather than the achievement of results. You don’t have to be a best-selling author to enjoy writing. Every activity doesn’t have to make money to be successful. You can take pleasure in making art that nobody else will ever see.

Develop your skills. Practice and take classes. Almost communities offer short adult education classes in drawing, painting, photography, woodworking, knitting or just about anything else you might want to pursue. You can find classes in local schools, colleges and shops. You could also read a book, subscribe to a magazine, join a club, or apprentice yourself to a master.

Expand your horizons. Check out galleries, museums, and crafts fairs. Don’t limit your curiosity to the discipline you want to study. You can learn about composition from paintings and apply that knowledge to photographs. You can learn how to tell a story by watching a movie or listening to your family and friends at the dinner table. Venture outside your normal scope of interests by browsing the magazines at a newsstand.

Make creative thinking a part of your daily life. Turn off the television and stretch those creative muscles. Vary your routines. Try something new. For a whole day, say Yes to everything instead of No.

Smash creative blocks. When you run into a dead end, try looking at your dilemma from a different perspective. How would Benjamin Franklin solve your problem? How is it like an egg? Pretend that it is the best thing that could happen to you and make a list of the gifts you receive by having this problem.

Remember the well-known Abraham Maslow quotation, "When all you own is a hammer, every problem starts looking like a nail." Make sure you have plenty of tools in your toolbox.

©2007 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved