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I just realised no-one answered this. I believe the traditional responses are:

  • Cleansing fire
  • Take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

I answered this! Did you not see my "die screaming" suggestion?

Anyway, in response to TP, what she said isn't really the important part. Just the fact that we were able to have a mature and adult discussion about the serious possibility of having sex with people outside the relationship was weirdly reassuring that we may be emotionally capable of dealing with things. Further update: Main partner wants to know potential second partner better before things go forward, so some group board game nights and such have been organized for the purpose of my partner and very close friend getting to know each other mostly to determine if they can share a partner (me). That is weird to me. I've wanted them to be friends for a while, just because they're both important people to me, but these new circumstances are catching me off guard. Nothing is bad, it's just all strange and new for me. So yeah, life.

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Current/common use of "affair" in English means you're schtupping someone else while you're married or in an otherwise-monogamous relationship without the consent of the other person in your relationship. For example: "Ray's wife had an affair with the milkman while he was out of town. Now she's pregnant and doesn't know who the father is."

If that's what's going on with you, there's probably a very good reason she's not contacting you. Because she's in a relationship with someone else and you were her bit on the side.

Nah, just a poor choice of words. And anyway, that post wasn't about what her reasons could have been (I don't need that spelled out for me), just me spilling my guts for a bit because I felt silly.

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A board game evening as a sort of vetting procedure. Man, I would not know how I'd react to that.

The word schtupping is amazing and I always think about Bluth Sr. lamenting that his asshole brother is "schtupping my wife!"

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A board game evening as a sort of vetting procedure. Man, I would not know how I'd react to that.

Ask if they have Arkham Horror. If yes, flee.

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I think it'd make a terrific one-room play.

A board game evening as a sort of vetting procedure. Man, I would not know how I'd react to that.

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Got the keys to my own home today. The walls new a new layer of paint, but other than that there's not much that needs work. There are a few things I want to change in the near future.

Anyway, this weekend I'll be busy preparing for the move I'm going to do next weekend. Still need to do a low of packing and dismantling. Not looking forward to this.

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Got the keys to my own home today. [...] Not looking forward to this.

Sorry to hear it bro :(

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I'm becoming a dab hand at filling out these JobVite forms. This time it's for OpenDNS. Thought about bragging that I saved Doug in The Walking Dead, but realised the chances that anyone reading my application would "get" that would be sort of low.

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Ask if they have Arkham Horror. If yes, flee.

I'm hosting, and I do own that game. Flee, I guess? That's not really a good game to use on people who are still getting into board games though. I'd considered Pandemic, but even that is probably too complicated. It'll probably just be something light like Carcassonne or Ticket to Ride. I do find it kind of funny that the specific board game is now a matter of discussion though.

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Pandemic could work if it runs quickly enough. I'd say Ticket to Ride, honestly.

I was mostly joking about Arkham Horror because it's the sort of game where the mechanics create the atmosphere rather than it being a good story device or anything like that, so you have to be crazy to appreciate it.

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I am so hungover. My friend is manager of a club and we were there will 7. Oh god why.

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I've got a question for all of you who create; how do you "get creative?"

Right now I'm struggling with my inspiration, while in rare moments I get flashes from reading or watching to something brilliant it quickly fades away and I can rarely capture it. On the occasion I think of something novel or interesting it is gone by the time I'm trying to write it down or capture it.

It isn't connected to any practical inconvenience, notebook and such is readily available, it's something else more ephemeral that I can't get a handle on and it's annoying the hell out of me.

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Creativity is a concept invented by managers to describe solving problems they can't understand. You always hear about the "magic" "the creatives" do or whatever. Like most structures that come out of contemporary business thinking, it is super bureaucratic in as far that it invents a caste of people singularly responsible for a part of the process ("the creatives" are in charge of "making shit up"), and shortchanges everyone else who may have something to add.

It is all about learning how to probe ideas that you do have, find out what it is that is awesome about them, and implement them. These are individual and separate laborious processes that require developing their own individual sets of skills. The longer I spend creating shit, the less I believe there is such a thing as talent. I mentioned this to a neurophysiologist of sorts and she was positively outraged that I would so flippantly throw nature (as opposed to nurture) out of the picture, so maybe I am full of shit. Maybe some people are predisposed to the kinds of observation and rumination that result in creative output. In any case, talent alone is nothing.

You don't have to completely open up what it is that is awesome about an idea, just discover an interesting conundrum, riddle, or just a strong sensation that SOMETHING interesting is going on there. The more you re-digest a specific idea by implementing it multiple times (as sketches or versions or whatever), the more you come to discover what it is that it is hinting at. The process of developing ideas into tangible things is just as important as the initial spark—if not moreso. The conversation between the creator and the creation is ongoing. You never sit down with a fully-formed idea in mind and plop it out exactly as imagined. If your process is like this, you will be very frustrated and—more often than not—not make anything.

My ideas come in form of sentences or little blurbs. I write them all down in a series of notebooks that I have been dragging around since high school, and then I let them be. When I want to make something or need a wrench to throw into whatever project I am currently working on, I look through my old ideas and see if anything bites.

This is somehow tangentially relevant maybe. Every now and again, I go back and reread the whole WHAT IS ART semi-spinoff discussion.

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Maybe they could use a good junior artist willing to go the extra mile? http://www.renegadekid.com/company.htm Their job page suggests they're not hiring, but it's never a bad idea to get into contact, leave a portfolio, etc.

Hmm, I've sent my resume and portfolio to those guys twice before, but that was last year. I didn't get a response and I haven't met anyone at that company, but if they are still alive as you seem to say, then they would definitely be a great choice. I was actually really hoping for some response from them if I remember.

I know some people at Twisted Pixel now, but I don't have enough of the 3D skills to get around. They hired an amazing character artists and painter about 2 or so years ago that is very skilled and doesn't really need the help, so any niche I ever dreamed of at that company in terms of concept is kind of out the window unless that guy quits.

It will require quite a bit of will and organization to evolve yo self artistically when you also must job full-timely on the side. I don't think it is impossible. Austin has a fair bit of handy events and clubs that can help you hone your skills, stuff like Dr Sketchy or Austin Drink 'n' Draw. Those two are figure drawing oriented thingers. Maybe people at these events can direct you further.

Yeah I've been meaning to do Dr. Sketchy here. They had a few in Houston going a few years back that were helpful, but they stopped holding them there and I think the Austin one just recently started up again. I do go to a sketch night place every week here with a group of people who mostly seem to work at King's Isle and one or two Vigil guys sometimes, but I decided to stop going last week because it was just kind of place to hang out with other artists and shoot the shit rather than seriously improve your art.

Drink 'n' Draw is new to me, I'll check it out. Weird I haven't heard of it since I'm already at Mister Tramps every other week for the networking stuff for video game companies. I know they also how a 3D tutorial and get together thing at the same bar one night a week. It's also a balance to figure out how much I need to actually refine in 3D that's of any use to me.

Thanks guys :)

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Another day, another rejection e-mail. I suppose it builds character.

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Are you doing the thing where you go «WHY DIDN'T I GET THE JOB???» I hear that's a good idea.

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I've got a question for all of you who create; how do you "get creative?"

Right now I'm struggling with my inspiration, while in rare moments I get flashes from reading or watching to something brilliant it quickly fades away and I can rarely capture it. On the occasion I think of something novel or interesting it is gone by the time I'm trying to write it down or capture it.

It isn't connected to any practical inconvenience, notebook and such is readily available, it's something else more ephemeral that I can't get a handle on and it's annoying the hell out of me.

Go to a park, walk around. Just walking helps a lot, walk walk walk.

Also, I've been doing well enough to look into applying for a patent. Patent attorneys charge A LOT, but it seems they do so for a decent reason. Lawyer-ese turns out to be very hard to write in. It's the most literal and yet broad description English (or I assume any other language) allows you to use for each and every single word, carefully constructed such that each sentence is simultaneously as broad and yet literal as possible.

Just look at this stuff: http://patft.uspto.g...uery=PN/6997384

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I think the main reasons is the GIANT talent pool in SF - the ton of out of work nerds looking for any available tech job, and my relatively poor qualifications (6 years in the same job - a generalist "many hats" position that's hard to describe on a resume, NDA-ed so I don't have much to show).

Plus: I'm rubbish!

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Creativity is a concept invented by managers to describe solving problems they can't understand. You always hear about the "magic" "the creatives" do or whatever. Like most structures that come out of contemporary business thinking, it is super bureaucratic in as far that it invents a caste of people singularly responsible for a part of the process ("the creatives" are in charge of "making shit up"), and shortchanges everyone else who may have something to add.

Creativity is a word to make tangible a process or mode, and I think it works as well as any other word when it comes to making discussion of this possible.

It is all about learning how to probe ideas that you do have, find out what it is that is awesome about them, and implement them. These are individual and separate laborious processes that require developing their own individual sets of skills. The longer I spend creating shit, the less I believe there is such a thing as talent. I mentioned this to a neurophysiologist of sorts and she was positively outraged that I would so flippantly throw nature (as opposed to nurture) out of the picture, so maybe I am full of shit. Maybe some people are predisposed to the kinds of observation and rumination that result in creative output. In any case, talent alone is nothing.

You don't have to completely open up what it is that is awesome about an idea, just discover an interesting conundrum, riddle, or just a strong sensation that SOMETHING interesting is going on there. The more you re-digest a specific idea by implementing it multiple times (as sketches or versions or whatever), the more you come to discover what it is that it is hinting at. The process of developing ideas into tangible things is just as important as the initial spark—if not moreso. The conversation between the creator and the creation is ongoing. You never sit down with a fully-formed idea in mind and plop it out exactly as imagined. If your process is like this, you will be very frustrated and—more often than not—not make anything.

My ideas come in form of sentences or little blurbs. I write them all down in a series of notebooks that I have been dragging around since high school, and then I let them be. When I want to make something or need a wrench to throw into whatever project I am currently working on, I look through my old ideas and see if anything bites.

This is very interesting, but my problem is rather translating what I've got going in my head down to paper. When I try to express my ideas or thoughts, most of them drain of fertility and the process of writing them down reduced or limit what they can mean. This is hugely disturbing to me, as I don't have the discipline to maintain the same thought for long and writing them down simply doesn't work out. See as a problem of part vs. whole, the whole is unspecifiable and unexpressable but by putting just one part under the microscope the whole and it's qualities are lost.

I'm not sure if you understand what I'm trying to say, my English isn't perfect and I might not express what I'm feeling sufficiently.

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Creativity is a word to make tangible a process or mode, and I think it works as well as any other word when it comes to making discussion of this possible.

People sometimes talk about creativity as a domain of certain professions or talents or whatever—I just wanted to nix this notion as we're talking in abstract vagaries. I don't know where you're coming from, so I kindof plugged in something as a starting point.

What are we talking about here, anyway? Like, visual ideas, aural ideas, narrative ideas? Is it just a matter of not having a technical jargon specific enough for your purposes? Have you tried quickly rambling your mind into an audio recorder? Trying to explaining your idea to someone, until you boil it down to its essence? Free association writing?

The only time I have had ideas that leave that quickly and are lost without a trace is on drugs. Those ideas were probably not that great anyway (either way, writing down stuff SHOULD help regardless :shifty:).

A lot of the time ideas lose their luster when they're banally flattened on the page—I dunno if it is experience or what that I use to figure out which ones are good and which ones are shit in that form. Sometimes the flattened version retains enough information to remind one where it is going, sometimes it doesn't. If it is a vague idea and the vagary is what appeals to me, I will try to describe all of these vague different aspects of something. I find that structure helps, I dunno... this may be getting too low level or something... may need to think about it. Maybe there is something important in there that I take for granted and can't see clearly from where I'm standing...

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Yes I realized that, and figured I'd clarify what I mean. Sorry to be curt. It'd be easier for me to give you an example, like when I was reading about slave-politics in pre-civil war Boston and about how common people didn't want to end slavery because local industry relied on raw material harvested by slaves down south, shipped north to be manufactured into goods to be sold and the intellectual climate surrounding that (in Boston). I found this very interesting, how politics/social issues intersect with philosophical/moral/sociological ones. Or when reading on a classical poet, how his poesy was limited by material considerations and their affect on one another, which also is very interesting and something that rarely comes up when reading criticism.

Perhaps I'm asking for the impossible here, but I just feel that there is something that could be attainable but I currently don't have. I'm going to experiment a bit more and try working with some of your suggestions.

P. S. What do you create?

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As a musician creating a piece is a slow process, marked by constant repetition and exploration. I play segments that have the same tone or flow and try to put them together in a way that creates an arc throughout, or has several markedly different sections. I'm very young and inexperienced though and I've done almost no independent research and very little formal instruction so my creative process is uninformed.

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