Yes Man? Say No!

Smart people don't need a yes man - very true.
They want someone who can jam with them and help create better ideas.

Asheville

Made a mental note to visit Asheville and spend at least 2-3 days and explore the art in the city. This seems like a very interesting city – something like Austin!
Nice site with lots of information- and interactive too.

Cricket

Had an interesting dinner-time discussion @Cricket and how inconsistent it is! While Sarat maintained that the inconsistency of the playing conditions is what made the game so interesting, I still believe that for any game to be played fair and square (and to be just to the playing sides), the playing ground HAS to be even for the length of the game!
I feel awful for teams which lost because they were playing second and the pitch/weather turned against them!
Sarat and the rest seemed to agree on this.

I however, maintain that if any sort of global ratings are to be maintained, then every team must play on a more or less regimented set of pitches and weathers (as much as possible) – or else we should do away with the ratings system – dunno – can’t place a finger, but something seems wrong – dunno what!

Marinara

Went for dinner with Raoul, Sarat and D – Mellow Mushroom on Glenwood – nice place – had a Veggie Pizza – realized that I really don’t like Marinara Sauce too much – I guess my tolerance for sour stuff has really gone down over the years! Is is the lack of curd?
Had an interesting discussion on Cricket.

Interesting Quotes

that I heard in class - scribbled on my notebook - and want to remember :)
"Elephants going to the graveyard to die" - (Mark Spearce said it) - really don't know what it means, but it sounded nice
Tail starts wagging the dog - (Todd said it) - cool analogy.

Blue Ridge

Drove to Blue Ridge and back – must admit, was not quite the colors I had expected to see – but nevertheless a fun drive with D – had a good time. Visited a nice restaurant with an awesome view – Canyons Of The Blue Ridge with a nice soup :)
Made a mental note to go back someday and have a nice dinner on the patio, with the awesome view!



and it was awesome when we stopped dead on the road to take this pic - an XP wallpaper (credit to D)

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Remember seeing this logo on a highway in California - thought it was very creative - the company name was something with mind in it - like Mindspace or something - very apt - unfortunately can not remember it!

Make an Ass

Be Obscenely Foolish
Nice thing to keep in mind when brainstorming! "Be willing to make an ass of yourself".

Life and Creativity

Creativity should not be a choice - It should be a lifestyle
Very interesting point of view I think ... will endeavor to make that happen.

Library @Home

Always thought that we should always have a study room in our house. Will make it a point to have a house with a study - a library will all kinds of books and a place to relax and rewind.
Although I wonder if the future libraries would be replaced by a single computer - a single machine containing all works of art, all publications, all the encyclopedia out there - all the world books ... in just a single machine.
That would mean that the library would have a lot of empty space ... space for creativity - food for thought!

EPIC

Placeholder for EPIC
And hey – looks like EPIC is becoming more of a reality than ever – base.google.com is about to show up -

Cloudy Days

Beautiful Sunny days -
How often have heard "the sun is out - isn't it a beautiful day - warm and sunny"
Till January if 2002 - this concept was quite alien to me.
Coming from Bombay, where we prpbably have just one season - summer - its more like warm summer, wet summer and cool summer!
And we would rejoice when it would be cloudy - coz we wouldn't have to worry about the harsh sun beating on you!
And monsoon was the best season - I still love it when it rains - of course the rain in Bombay is almost always warm - unlike the freezing rain in the US!
I guess the whole weather thing is a perspective - like most things in life.
So for me its cloudy days and wet rainy days.

Carpet Tiles & Biomimicry

Interface Floring - A Wonderful Company which manufactures "carpet tiles" as opposed to the conventional carpet rolls. And their product concept is truly unique - They employ Organized Chaos to ensure that each tile is different - essentially no two tiles they produce are the same! And this helps them to no only create a truly unique and intelligent product but also helps them circumvent a lot of problems faced by traditional carpet-roll manufacturing companies. Their main concern is the environment and how to reduce waste and some of their practices are truly amazing. In a country of excess, they have successfully learnt to curb waste.
They try and map Nature's designs into everything they do - very very interesting - BioMimicry.

Targeted Advertising

Loved the idea of targeted advertising - Deloitte to Chrysler @ Chrysler - saying how much they know their business.
Todd (CapStrat) was explaining that they also do targeted advertising where they would make like 5 copies of a booklet that they design. These booklets are not mass produced - they are targeted for specific people and may end cost up to $40,000 per booklet to make. The deal is that a Consulting company like Deloitte would say make 5 such booklets on Chrysler and hand it to some of the top management at Chrysler - the booklet would basically be information about Chrysler to Chrysler - essentially showcasing how much Deloitte understands Chrysler's business.
Sweet!

No "tada" moment

Creative work is an iterative process - you don't necessarily need to have a "tada" moment. It is better to involve stakeholders up front so that they understand the creative process and help you build it. This process works way better than the "tada" moment effect that many creative folks strive to achieve!
(Todd Coats from CapStrat kinda went over this)

Lipogram

Interesting stuff I picked up (again) from our Creativity Message board - Wordsmith on Lipogram
I remember reading about this a long long time ago – nice refresher.

Truth-Happens

Placeholder for the awesome RedHat video! here

Build A Personality

Todd (Capstrat) was explaining how they would solve a branding problem for their clients. They think on the following lines --
If the company was a movie, which movie would it be
If the company was a song, which song would it be ... so on and so forth
Really nice idea - building a personality.

Honda Ad

Placeholder for the awesome Honda-Ad that we all saw a few years ago.
here

Creativity On Demand

Todd Coats from CapStrat said - "stay in touch with the child in you"
Creativity On Demand - so true for people like Todd at Capstrat - where they are paid for their creative abilities.
Todd's advice on staying in touch with the child in you, is right on - the child in us helps us go beyond our mental blocks and makes us do things seemingly impossible.

And hey - while you are at the CapStrat website, do remember to peek at the remarkable Elvis made of post-its - outside, the wall, sideways

Machines Playing Music (Not Making!)

with ref. to Mark Spearce (composer - classical music)
For a regimented form of music like classical music, where the musicians are essentially expected to reproduce exactly what is written on the music-sheet, I think that it would be apt to have computers play the instruments.
Something on the lines of the automatic-piano, which plays the piano depending upon your programming for the piece - more like a robot being programmed to play a real piano - as opposed to digital music where a computer creates the sounds.
I guess sooner or later, Classical music orchestras would be replaced by robots/computers playing all the musical instruments - precisely and exactly like how the composer intended.
Interesting how Mark dimply hated the idea of computers making music - he however was referring to computers "composing" music, as opposed to just playing!

Art and War

Art and Mass Thinking
I think that art is closely tied to harsh circumstances - I feel that the best art has always come in times of global unrest and pain - when there has been some common factor affecting large masses of people. And I think that this pain/unrest/suffering is reflective in the works of art of the time. And the collective mindset helps both, the artist as well as the masses to connect better with the art itself.
Some of the examples I can think of are
- The 60's and 70's which saw some of the best music to ever come out.
- The works during the French revolution.
- Recent works of art after 9/11.

Microwaveable tea-stick

Ali's Tea-Stick is a wonderful invention ... but I wonder if we could take it to the next level and make it out of microwaveable plastic.
I have always had this problem in the US - where hot chocolate or hot coffee is never "hot" enough and that’s really annoying for people like me who like their tea/coffee piping hot!

power the lights or surf the internet

Ethernet thru Electricity
This sounds like a really nice concept, since electricity pretty much exists in most places. Avoids the hassles of cable or telephone lines.
Of course it will be interesting to see how the telephone industry and/or the cable industry responds!
This also reminds me of the Power over Ethernet concept that Cisco pioneered last year - wonder how that is doing.

These are truly creative inventions - almost like the safety pin. Unfortunately for them - there is a lot of "investment" which would go bad if these new products succeed!

Comics

I read a lot of comics - I try to read as much as possible and I even have a wall at home dedicated to comic posters. I even have quite a few comic character T-shirts - Wolverine, Hulk, Batman, Superman, GL, JL etc.

I have been called a "freak" by some and have been laughed at by some others - I really don't understand - how come something as intersting as "comics" can be equated to childishness or immaturity! So does someone who reads Ryand or Sagan or the really really fat books automatically become an intellectual?
I'm sorry but I don't subscribe to that point of view.

I read a fair bit - fat books included - and I enjoy reading comics equally.
In fact, there is so much to learn from comics or any kind of medium - I remember reading about the "aurora borealis" or "mount rushmore" or "nanotechnology" first in my comic books - even before I read about them in the newspapers or science journals!
A book is a book - just because it has drawings in it does not mean it is for kids.
In fact some of the graphic novels like "The Dark Knight Returns" speak volumes about the socio-political scene in the nineties (heck some of it is representative of recent times!).
And as for art - do check out the works of "Alex Ross" or "Jim Lee" (again) - now if that is not fantastic artwork then I don't know what is!
And these are only the popular works - stepping outside of the DC and Marvel universe would take one to another parallel universe - but then ...

Interesting car

Saw this egg shaped car being made by Nissan and thought that it was a wonderful idea. Kinda like the cars in sci-fi movies - only real.
OK its is Egg shaped - but as long as it handles well and drives well - I'm not sure that should matter - given that boxy cars are still around!