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?
The nature of my situation dictates that I am always at a point where I must make an important decision. No week goes by without having encountered such a situation. I assume this has more than a lot to do with becoming older, thinking harder and more and pondering bigger things. Maybe that is why: my decisions carry more weight as I follow the line of ageing1 and growing. Everything I do is of a constantly growing significance. This is why I am embracing new approaches, picking up things I left behind for whatever reason and, most importantly, I am changing some of my ways of thinking about myself and what I do.
I think I am pretty good at what I do, but I’m not good enough. I think I can improve, a lot. I think that I should make sure others know that I am and can. I think very good of myself, but am not satisfied: that is the gist of it, and I’m pretty sure the process towards an increasingly better me will be visible. I am starting here, right now, with conventions in writing. I’ve attached my first footnote ever, taking the syntax from John Gruber—it is, after all, pretty good. I am changing my attitude as well: this should be evident as it comes along.
I hope to be able to pull the Zooiblog along with my improvements and certainly hope you as a reader will find this as enjoyable as I do.
- This being, of course, a painfully relative thing: I turned 18 only a good two months ago. ←
It would seem that even my Flickr stream is more “where the party’s at” than my very weblog. That hurts no one, as there are some nice photos there (my hair is featured prominently). I have, however, planned to participate in Adam’s CSS Reboot under a fitting alias. I guess that should force me into at least some activity. If you’re also in, holler!
My stats application tells me I get bazillions of referrals from a previous client, which is cool. I hope they all see that I actually also do things next to nothing, as a look at my weblog would lead one to conclude. On that note, I have been doing things. A community-ish website is coming up (running a slightly public test phase as we speak) and I’m doing a very nice, fun design for a to-be weblog. I’ll post about those things when they launch. Work includes logo design, identity work, hacking apart and together web applications and general web design. Good fun!
I’ve been more eclectic than usual these past few weeks/months, having regained my interest in Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Foucault, Paaltjens, pencils, gouache and moleskines, to name several items I can waste my time on blissfully. Related product placement: I so badly want Painter that it hurts. Ray will understand.
Oh! Oh! I will be trading in my age badge next week! It will be my 18th birthday on the 15th of March! I will be attempting some CAR DRIVING. I can legally drink whisk(e)y. I can vote for ridiculous political parties just because I can.
Boy oh boy, what an eventful coming of age! Oh, and just a snarky by the way, gifts are welcome, congratulations come in a close second.
Now to grab a painkiller. Headaches and gastroenteritis aren’t beneficial to one’s state.
Zooiblog