Journal : OpenRoadWorks

I notice over time that my creativity waxes and wanes like an ocean current. Over the course of a month, I might have some tsunamis of prolific creativity - and at other times, desert expanses of scarce output. In between, the swirling swells of creativity dart and dash to either power up or power down.... completely. There seems to be no sense of balance to art; rather, it is this extremes of Mt. Everest peaks and Grand Canyon valleys that define the creative process. It is the method behind the madness, perhaps - but madness all the same. My jagged consistency of writings at this site is a testament to this thought; tracing some of my output over the last three years suggests a proliferation of entries one week, a dearth for the next month, followed by fits and starts of writing clusters and silence. All I'm trying to do is get some consistency, but that simple goal is ellusive. So, here I am, trying to shake a groundswell to get me started again. Just a few creative waves, an...

I'm sneaking in a post before the midnight hour from the office on the upstairs of the house. It's quiet - our heat turns off right at this time to save energy. The house falls into a subtle flow of creaks and ambient noise (usually from the highway - you can check the traffic on the way out the door to work!), and your mind gathers room to wander. It is late, and I am wrapping up for bed; however, I wanted to throw some words on the screen. More of a shovel off my mind to feel better that I wrote something than a real deep reflection of astounding insight. Whatever. It's good enough to keep the mind active and the pen exercised at this point. More to come later. For now, it is a quick hit and then off to bed.

Whatever happened to getting out of the office at 5pm? Tonight, I have to drive to New Jersey on a one-day business trip, a little jaunt that typically takes a bit over three hours; up I-95 and into a lonely stretch of New Jersey Turnpike. A trip that I am not looking forward to take since I am a bit tired after a late night putting together more presentation slides for a strategic initiative. Strategy appears to be for me to hurry up and get out of here - I have a long way to go and a short burst of energy to get there. I hope the remains of the day will carry me there safely.

According to an article in the USA Today that came out last week, Joan Brady is one of the last people in San Francisco without email. A personal chef by day and party clown by night, Joan says, "I just don't need it." Perhaps a bit extreme, but she fits within a category of the population that the Pew Internet & American Life Project calls a "tech-no" - not exactly doomsday-sayers on technology but conscientious objectors to the encroachment of technology. PDAs, tablet PCs, media servers, portable media devices - the others can have them. Because the tech-nos have uncluttered lives, a lot of disconnected time, and peace of mind. A good reflection for someone who works in high technology to think about the tech-nos and their choices in the modern lifestyle. What causes people to choose different options to live their life in their daily customs and communication patterns? How do people interact with each other? What is the daily routine that defines the rh...

I'm trying to loosen up my synapses to pour out some fresh prose, but something seems to interrupt this process. What am I talking about, you ask? As Wendy would tease me, I could expound on what I mean in miles and miles of analytical prose to give you my life's history, background, and contextual understanding of the situation, but suffice to say: I am running low on ideas to write about. Don't get me wrong - my imagination is still thriving. I can dream in brilliant colors (although Wendy takes the cake for quantity and vivid quality of dreams - it seems like one a night!), but I cannot seem to capture the essence of these sogni in a solitary moment. Perhaps the moments scream by, and my moments of solitary plentitude leave nothing but quiet reflection for the writing process. Perhaps these thoughts are only as good as the moment in which they arrive, to be lost forever as the Xanadu of my Samuel Taylor Coleridge existence. Perhaps it is my lack of focus and concentrati...

After holiday merriment and new year's resolutions, I am back at the small screen recording my thoughts. It has been a couple of months of reflecting, decorating, eating, greeting, and traveling to my heart's content before re-entering the "real world" of the day-to-day. So here I am briefly, at the start of a fresh page ready for words to dirty - and what does this year bring? 2007 brings the same hopes and fears for a better life and a better result than the last year; this suggests moving onward and upward. This year also brings new changes, as I am planning a wedding amidst the assumption of more responsibilities at work. I stand at the precipice of seismic changes in moving towards 30, settling into a new house, and becoming more "adult" *gulp*. But it all seems right and feels solid, like childhood dreams of the "responsible life". Such is progress, such is life -and such is the passage of time. Before I know it, this year will be over,...