Here's another place to kick in the learning bug - Wikiversity. With over 10,000 free learning resources, you'll find tons of great instructional materials here.
How about an introduction to Swedish? Or web design? What about learning the basics of film making? Or Observational Astronomy? I think there's scope here for us to go really wild with some new things to learn. This site is definitely going to be on my bookmarks list.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Learning Something New
We live in an age of information. There's a ton of information available to us that was never so easily accessible. Some of it is crap and some of it is gold and the trick is to find resources that are usable and effective. I'm going to do a short series on some sites that can be used to learn some new things or get better at something we know but haven't yet mastered.
I have a lifelong fascination with languages. If I could, I would spend all my time learning new languages and going to the places where I can use them. Alas, I've got a smattering of several languages with varying degrees of fluency. I used to be very fluent in Spanish (when I lived in areas that I used it on a daily basis) but I've lost much of it. So to improve, I have been getting books on tape in Spanish and that's helping me build up my fluency again.
I've also been flirting with French for quite a few years now. At one time, I could read quite a bit but I've never gained spoken fluency and I've lost much of the comprehension that I had. So I've signed up for short time with www.newsinslowfrench.com to work on improving my fluency. For the sake of full disclosure, this is a subscription site but you get transcripts of the recordings as well as the reading in slower speech (though not irritatingly slow) and readings at normal speed. For me, that's helping build the areas that I need the most help on. Since it's not always easy to find spoken French that also has the translation, I was really pleased to find this site.
They have similar sites for Spanish and Italian. I'm using the Intermediate option but they also have a Beginner option so if you've ever wanted to learn a language, this could be a great option for you. Honestly, if you've never learned another language, I would encourage you to start with Spanish as I think it's probably the easiest language to learn (you always pronounce the letters the same way every time and the majority of the verbs are conjugated regularly - that means easier) and it's so widely used, you can most likely use it right away.
I have a lifelong fascination with languages. If I could, I would spend all my time learning new languages and going to the places where I can use them. Alas, I've got a smattering of several languages with varying degrees of fluency. I used to be very fluent in Spanish (when I lived in areas that I used it on a daily basis) but I've lost much of it. So to improve, I have been getting books on tape in Spanish and that's helping me build up my fluency again.
I've also been flirting with French for quite a few years now. At one time, I could read quite a bit but I've never gained spoken fluency and I've lost much of the comprehension that I had. So I've signed up for short time with www.newsinslowfrench.com to work on improving my fluency. For the sake of full disclosure, this is a subscription site but you get transcripts of the recordings as well as the reading in slower speech (though not irritatingly slow) and readings at normal speed. For me, that's helping build the areas that I need the most help on. Since it's not always easy to find spoken French that also has the translation, I was really pleased to find this site.
They have similar sites for Spanish and Italian. I'm using the Intermediate option but they also have a Beginner option so if you've ever wanted to learn a language, this could be a great option for you. Honestly, if you've never learned another language, I would encourage you to start with Spanish as I think it's probably the easiest language to learn (you always pronounce the letters the same way every time and the majority of the verbs are conjugated regularly - that means easier) and it's so widely used, you can most likely use it right away.
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Something new
I was talking to a friend today that was telling me about this new gadget she'd gotten and as she was telling me about how it works, I was reminded about how many obscure interests there are out there that people share and that I didn't even know existed.
Finding out about people or activities you have no knowledge of is kind of random but you can use social media to hit on these kinds of things.
Poke around and join a couple of groups or follow some people and learn about a topic you know nothing or very little about. Pay attention to the vocabulary and the things the practitioners take for granted. What's most surprising about the knowledge they're sharing? How does it compare to your preconceptions? What's something you can take away from their skills or activities?
Here are some random subjects or find your own…
Tatting
Silhouette cutting
An era of history
History reenactment
What went on today in a country you've never visited? (Not necessarily a hot spot, just a random day for ordinary people)
Follow some feeds in a city you've never been in. What are people there caring about today?
Tuba musicians
Architects and architecture
Library science
How does the pancreas work?
What went on at the Black Comic Book Festival today?
How does a camera work?
Friday, January 15, 2016
Creativity and Books
As I was reading the various reactions and posts last week after the passing of David Bowie, two of the things that stood out to me were his enormous creativity and his voracious reading habits. I've never been a huge Bowie fan but I think I can learn a few things from his life. His creativity in multiple spheres speaks for itself.
In 2014, he created a list of 100 of the books that most influenced him. You can find the list in various places, and a Facebook page has been set up to start a book club for those wanting to work through the list, but here's a link to give you a view: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/01/11/david-bowies-top-100-books
This topic also made me start thinking about what would be on my list. Almost every highly innovative, creative person is also a reader. In our environment, that could mean books, online posts, forums, etc. but they read. They fill their mind with new ideas that challenge their perceptions of the world around them and their internal thoughts.
Not that long ago, books were burned because it was assumed they would undermine the status quo. Remember, you can (and I argue you should) read books that present views that you don't agree with. This is where you take a look from the other side of an issue, use your brain to evaluate what you read and then make up your mind.
If you would like to be more creative read, read, read.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
The Creativity of Agatha Christie
I was listening this morning to an Agatha Christie book on tape (you have to listen to the ones recorded by Joan Hickson - she IS Miss Jane Marple) and I was struck at how Miss Marple employed lateral thinking in her deductions.
Lateral thinking - a way of solving problems by rejecting traditional methods and employing unorthodox and apparently illogical means; an unorthodox approach to problem-solving, often looking at problems from other 'sides' rather than head-on.
In the story I was listening to this morning, the victim had been a silly superstitious woman who had met with a medium who told her that when a certain flower on the wall turns blue, she will die. She drew on her previous experience as a nurse to determine that the nurse had used litmus paper to cover the flower on the wall from pink to blue as camouflage to draw attention away from the murder. She also tied the current problems they were having with their district nurse whose attentions were spurned by a resident, which caused her to turn on him and try to blacken his name.
Her solutions were like picking flowers in the garden. She takes one experience that reminds her of some portion of the situation and then another that makes her think of another person who caused problems in another way and so on until she has a bouquet that wraps up the criminal with a bright ribbon. Sometimes it was something to do with gardening, sometimes it was a person she knew from her village, sometimes it was a fact about keeping house, sometimes it was an experience from her past, sometimes it was her knowledge of human nature. It was all grist to her mystery-solving mill.
I encourage you to listen to Miss Marple with new ears. Let her lateral thinking challenge you to stretch your thinking all around your experiences and random facts and knit them together into a fluffy white solution to your mystery.
Today just happens to also be the 40th anniversary of Agatha Christie's death. OED posted today, "12 January is the anniversary of the death of Agatha Christie, a doyenne of the whodunnit, or as the celebrated humorist Ogden Nash put it, a murdermongress. In a career spanning 50 years, she wrote over 60 detective novels, as well as collections of short stories and plays. In addition, she indulged her romantic side by writing a number of novels in the romance genre, under the pseudonyn Mary Westmacott."
RIP Agatha Christie and thanks for sharing your creativity.
Lateral thinking - a way of solving problems by rejecting traditional methods and employing unorthodox and apparently illogical means; an unorthodox approach to problem-solving, often looking at problems from other 'sides' rather than head-on.
In the story I was listening to this morning, the victim had been a silly superstitious woman who had met with a medium who told her that when a certain flower on the wall turns blue, she will die. She drew on her previous experience as a nurse to determine that the nurse had used litmus paper to cover the flower on the wall from pink to blue as camouflage to draw attention away from the murder. She also tied the current problems they were having with their district nurse whose attentions were spurned by a resident, which caused her to turn on him and try to blacken his name.
Her solutions were like picking flowers in the garden. She takes one experience that reminds her of some portion of the situation and then another that makes her think of another person who caused problems in another way and so on until she has a bouquet that wraps up the criminal with a bright ribbon. Sometimes it was something to do with gardening, sometimes it was a person she knew from her village, sometimes it was a fact about keeping house, sometimes it was an experience from her past, sometimes it was her knowledge of human nature. It was all grist to her mystery-solving mill.
I encourage you to listen to Miss Marple with new ears. Let her lateral thinking challenge you to stretch your thinking all around your experiences and random facts and knit them together into a fluffy white solution to your mystery.
Today just happens to also be the 40th anniversary of Agatha Christie's death. OED posted today, "12 January is the anniversary of the death of Agatha Christie, a doyenne of the whodunnit, or as the celebrated humorist Ogden Nash put it, a murdermongress. In a career spanning 50 years, she wrote over 60 detective novels, as well as collections of short stories and plays. In addition, she indulged her romantic side by writing a number of novels in the romance genre, under the pseudonyn Mary Westmacott."
RIP Agatha Christie and thanks for sharing your creativity.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Seasons
We'd all love to be creative all the time, in every circumstance. We would love to have creativity overflowing from our fingertips so that everything we touch explodes into the world. As I sit in my lovely warm house with the temperatures below zero outside and snow laying on the ground, I'm reminded of the seasons. There are seasons in nature and seasons in our lives.
Our temptation is to be continually "on." Our technology allows us to connect with the world around us 24/7 but if we let that mindset run our lives, we'll soon be on empty.
One of the things I've learned in life the hard way is that we have inner resources of energy. When those resources are depleted, everything becomes hard and tiring and wears us down. Even things we would normally be fine with become chores that we do because we have to, not because we want to.
I've talked in an earlier post about how we can identify activities that will help us build these reserves back up but I'd like to add to those activities (for me music and textile arts) the basics of rest and input. To give out, you have to have something to give. To have something to give, you have to take in.
I encourage you to take time to rest (physical, mental and emotional rest) and to take in information that can become fuel for your creative life on purpose. I realize that those things sometimes feel out of reach, especially if you're a new parent or a parent of a special needs child. At those times, you feel like you'll never be rested again. Ever. I don't want to be dismissive of the demands on your time and energy in this season of life and I don't want to be simplistic. You need to understand your season and do what you can to take care of yourself. Or maybe you need to allow others to take care of you. Sometimes, that's the more difficult move.
Our temptation is to be continually "on." Our technology allows us to connect with the world around us 24/7 but if we let that mindset run our lives, we'll soon be on empty.
One of the things I've learned in life the hard way is that we have inner resources of energy. When those resources are depleted, everything becomes hard and tiring and wears us down. Even things we would normally be fine with become chores that we do because we have to, not because we want to.
I've talked in an earlier post about how we can identify activities that will help us build these reserves back up but I'd like to add to those activities (for me music and textile arts) the basics of rest and input. To give out, you have to have something to give. To have something to give, you have to take in.
I encourage you to take time to rest (physical, mental and emotional rest) and to take in information that can become fuel for your creative life on purpose. I realize that those things sometimes feel out of reach, especially if you're a new parent or a parent of a special needs child. At those times, you feel like you'll never be rested again. Ever. I don't want to be dismissive of the demands on your time and energy in this season of life and I don't want to be simplistic. You need to understand your season and do what you can to take care of yourself. Or maybe you need to allow others to take care of you. Sometimes, that's the more difficult move.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Just Start
Thought for the day: Don't wait for the plan or solution to be perfect. Get your bearings, start and then adjust as you go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)