The birth of a new project

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Last Friday I made a few decisions which led to this Twitter thread, the contents of which I post here for your convenience.

  • I'm committing to a new creative project, and Lichtenbergians will understand my first dilemma: selecting the best WASTE BOOK from the *dozens* of blank candidates I have on hand.

  • (Because if you don't have the best WASTE BOOK, then how can you possible [sic] succeed?)

  • The winning candidate, w/ dot grid paper and numbered pages. (I used the same brand for As You Like It back in 2020.)

  • Lichtenbergians will also understand when I say that this new project will require a complete reorganization of my desk (which is a glorious antique 4x8 oak library table).

  • The decision to start the new project also triggers the other projects that have been waiting to be started, and as all Lichtenbergians know, this is exciting: it means I will have valid TASK AVOIDANCE projects to switch back and forth on.

This also involved trying to track down the As You Like It notebook for the very stupid reason to see if I used ink or pencil… (Then not being able to find it because I’ve been TOTALLY REORGANIZING THE STUDY.)

And of course, creating a label for the new notebook, which involved searching the exact right font out of the hundreds I have available to me.

Eventually I got the left half of my desk completely cleaned off and reorganized, and this morning I decided on a method to structure my TASK AVOIDANCE: I took one of the “idea cards” from my old note card bleachers (from Levengers) and wrote the no-more-than-five projects that I will allow myself to focus on during my work time. In other words, if I get stymied or bored with whatever it is I’m working on, I’m allowed to switch only to one of these other projects, not Facebook or Twitter.

What are these projects, you ask? I am wary of saying too much about any of them, since my past is littered with unfinished compositions (Symphony in G, Seven Dreams of Falling, A Day in the Moonlight) and burn art projects (“Sit Here and Think About What You’ve Done”).

However, I will say that I have started an online course to learn how to use Ableton Live for the express purpose of a new music project; that’s NoiseLab and Meditations. The 20-2-2 Project will be a communal performance piece for Alchemy. And Young Person’s Guide to Lichtenbergianism (formerly known as Lichtenbergianism for Kids) is ::sigh:: self-explanatory.

Onward!

Pro tip: When you’re trying this kind of discipline, set your pomodoro timer. (websites here, here, here, or apps here.)

An update on the status of my old HyperCard stack, “The Adventure”: The Internet Archive has a way to upload your old stacks to them, and an emulator to run them. I thought I remembered how infuriatingly addictive that game was, but let me tell you it’s way beyond that. Check it out, but know that you’re going to need a large sheet of paper to map those caves. (I honestly don’t remember if there are loops or tricks or what the deal is, and I can’t find any old paper files to help me out. I’m currently as lost as you will be.)