Zooiblog

On the topic of practise

When I feel a slight irk in things, I try to find out what the problem is. I mean, there usually is a problem when I feel an irk. I evaluate the problem, think about it a lot, think about a possible solution and then play with ways of solving it. I’ve noticed how improving things in a playful manner pays off a lot more than just “regular” improvement; for my personal satisfaction, it does.

An example. I didn’t like writing. With pen or pencil or whatever. Just plain writing. I just didn’t like it. It was a mess to read and I just couldn’t see myself in it: to put it simply, I hated it. I knew what the problem was. I hadn’t practised writing for myself for quite a while. Best I had were some notes on my desk. I knew that I had to change things, so I looked at the letter shapes the next time I was jotting down things in class. I tried to give them all a consistent size. I gave my ascenders serifs. I added ligatures (I’m a typophile) and special letter combinations and I had lots of fun doing that. You may consider that nerdy, but it was fun. A good two weeks of practice, most of it in class, had made my handwriting pretty neat. I am actually proud of it. I now write a lot, because it’s a heck of a lot of fun to write things that simply look so nice!

There is now an image of it that I drew, then photographed myself!

There is a point in this?

There is a point in this indeed. If something isn’t right, work on it. If solving it doesn’t work as well as you had hoped, try and make it fun. What I did was finally putting my typophile heart in it. I made sure I was working towards something that would be fun to look at, and above all, I made sure I liked to do it. What works for me could work for you.

One thing, though, that still bothers me about my handwriting: my numerals. Anyone has tips regarding numerals in handwriting?

Posted on 2006-06-07 at that ungodly hour.

The Fevered Pitch

When you have an idea that you want to succeed, and you like the idea, you’re halfway. If you need other people for that to happen, you’re gonna have to convince every single one of them. Only then when they believe it is as good as you think it is, you can make it happen. Odds are, you’re enthusiastic about your idea. The enthusiasm that comes with setting up something, or doing something exceptional, or starting your very own start-up, that’s what I’m talking about. Expressing that “fever” is what can pull the others to your side.

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Posted on 2006-05-20 at tea time!

Weblog design sense in three steps

I’m gonna walk through some blog design tips to show that we can turn it into a product that makes sense, without me doing any design work at all. I’m lazy like that. We’ll start off by getting some data together.

It’s an easy trick to consider your weblog a product. If you think “man, I do this for myself,” then ask yourself what you would like to use of the weblog. If you do it with at least an audience in mind, think of what they want to see. Rather, what do you want to show, why do you want to show that, and what should they see first? Write down what you want to show. Having a physical list helps, because writing things down takes a little more of your focus and it could help you consider things better.

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Posted on 2006-05-05 during breakfast.