When you’re a third culture kid you live an interesting life. You try to make friends and fit in on one side of the globe and you find yourself lost. Then you try another part of the globe and for a second you thought you found yourself again, but then you realize you’re still lost. In the end you accept that you’ll never fit in anywhere and that’s just the kind of life you have to lead. Well that until you meet other third culture kids. Sometimes that’s when connections happen at the speed of light and you forget everything else around you and you find yourself again. Only it’s not really you. It’s either him or her, and you’re only seeing the reflection of what you were, in them.
I’m not even sure where I’m going with this but it’s really a mad confusing world out there, and I’m starting to think that there’s never going to be a place for me, ever.
Every movie has a story. Some stories are good, some are plain bad. Most people watch movies for entertainment, but it depends on how you define entertainment. I was born with a logical mind. I’m a natural problem solver. A mathmatician. A cryptographer. Call it whatever you want. I believe the mind is a powerful machine. I believe most of the world’s problems can be solved in an instant if everybody decide to harness the power of their mind. For most people watching movies is a time to sit back and relax. To let the mind rest in idle and let information sink in at random, accepting every bit of lie and truth. In my definition, that’s plain lazy. To me entertainment is a mean to exercise the mind. I would find entertainment fulfilling if it can spark curiosity and get the mind to work. Most people approach entertainment, subconsciously, as a dulling experience. Instead I look for patterns. Signs. Hints. Clues. Movie directors put a lot of these within the scenes, whether they meant it or not. These subtle hints unravel the whole story before your eyes, giving away the rest of the movie. It’s like a game. A split second game. You look for those certain facial expressions, those hints of betrayal, the smell of passion and connections between the frames. You sit there and watch but your mind is in motion to figure out the rest of the story before it reaches the end. When you develop your skills you can tell what’s going to happen faster. Every movie is its own puzzle. Some movies are easy and some are hard. Hard movies are the most fun. You never know what’s going to happen and you feel stupid. It doesn’t matter though. In the end you always know that you’re one step smarter than the rest of the audience because you exercised your mind while others simply maintained their stagnant neurons.
There’s a good article here based on this article here about productivity, and I really should learn a thing or two from it, procrastinator that I am.
Productivity blogger Bert Webb says using a timer while working on a task helps you get stuff done, because it imposes a deadline, like the day before you leave the office for vacation.
By setting the timer for 15 minutes to allow us to complete a task, it seems easy to focus and weed out the unimportant. When I use this technique, I get much more work done and I hear myself telling others, “Call me back in 30 minutes. I’m in the middle of something!” Productivity soars.
I’m sitting here looking at the timer I hijacked from the kitchen and use for my own purposes. Whenever I have a huge project to work on, I set it for 60 minutes and Go! until it beeps, when I can take a well-earned break. My housemates know when the timer’s ticking I’m unavailable. Sounds slightly obsessive and dorky, but hey, it works. Long live the work timer!
Ok it’s 8 minutes past my bedtime. Find me again in 8 hours.
Reading or writing a niche blog is fun. Until you realize you’re just one speck in the blogosphere. Niche blogging (and reading niche blogs) used to be special but it ain’t so special anymore if everyone’s doing it, is it? Anyway I’m writing this out of frustration in trying to find a niche where I can appeal. I suck at writing, I suck at researching, and I suck at marketing. How the fuck am I suppose to make money blogging? I quit being dillusional a long time ago, and I’ve stuck to keeping jermexpress.com as a personal blog, but a dude’s gotta do what a dude’s gotta do, right? I gotta eat. I gotta find me a hot date. I gotta buy me a Porsche. Well maybe not a Porsche but I need wheels. And if blogging ain’t gonna cut it what is? I tried webdesign, I tried hosting, I even tried hooking. LOL. Ugh I just got cut off. Lee came online and now I don’t feel so shitty anymore, but I also don’t feel like trashing this post so there!! My little frustration despite my new life. I guess my demons hid in my suitcase and tagged along. I cast you all into the fire. Good night.
What’s your definition of a good website/blog design? From the spectator’s point of view it would be something that pleases the eyes, a layout that’s easy to navigate and looks that compliment the content of the website/blog. Being an artist, however, sometimes I (or most of us artists) don’t care much about what people think. The carelessness gives our work its personality, its touch. But the attitude doesn’t always work if you have a public display, like blogs, which kind of forces you to please your audience/readers as well. It’s a tough job. Then there’s always that third element. Artists need to eat too. In attempt to keep the balance some compromise. At the end of the day we’ll have our stomachs full but sometimes we’d feel like little whores.
So how is it that one can create a good design, pleasing oneself, pleasing the audience, and feeding oneself at the same time?
I think the answer is progress.
Any work in progress is due to change. It is flexible. It bites. It communicates. It demands feedback from the audience while maintaining the artist’s personal desires. It can suck one day and become a masterpiece the next day. It can suck again the next day after, but it will never suck forever, nor will it ever be perfect. Because if you wait for perfect you may as well not ever do anything. Nothing is perfect. Only God is.
So, consider this blog a continuous work in progress. Sometimes you’ll see imediate changes day by day, sometimes you won’t notice anything different for a whole year, but know that you can always share your ideas and thoughts to help make this place a better place. Sometimes I’ll listen to you. Sometimes I won’t. But we’ll keep experimenting with art and design, and we will have a good time together.
PS: I take back my word on personality from my last post. I will stick with my personality as it is the life of this place. Sorry for the confusion. It was a foolish train of thought from a fool. Depression is my excuse.
Hi my name is JErm and this is my blog. I'm just a simple guy living a simple life on a simple island.
