DISQUS

Fantastic news! Lovely design too!

Thought-provoking post in many ways! I enjoy David Brooks but his POV on this topic strikes me as being an entertaining version of that fuddy-duddy complaint about the internet--that it ruins the newer generations' capacity for enjoying truly important content. (Partly because on the 'net the "important" stuff doesn't squeeze out other stuff, and partly because everyone's attention span is supposedly getting shorter, we're reading less, etc.)
I rejoice every day that the 'net leaves more gatekeepers behind in the dust! It collapses corrupt hierarchies! It foils vested interests! It unites the previously disenfranchised! I think the 'net is the best thing to happen to creatives and their works.
As a creative type, Brooks' comment (in your post) has an odd ring to me. I think he has it backwards in fact! I find that creative work finally has a permanent presence thanks to the 'net, whereas buzz comes and goes. Buzz on the 'net is like a flame and it can flare into a wildfire in a day, or extinguish just as fast. Yes, a blaze of buzz becomes permanently recorded on the 'net, but fresh buzz is what matters because it's always on top.

And wouldn't you think some great coffee would do the trick? Sometimes for me if anything it makes it worse GAH!

I deal with a weird phenomenon, which might be like the Vacuum you're talking about, esp. when you distinguish it from garden variety distractibility. I can slide into a very unproductive mode and once I do it's hard to extricate myself. It's like an invisible force. When I'm in It, I think, "What's going on? I'm getting nowhere." Ojectively it might look on the outside like depression but I don't feel depressed on the inside. I actually have lots of drive and creative energy and/or frustration on the inside. So I'm thinking about whether the real issue is that there's this huge gap between my inner and my outer, and to avoid the zombie zone, I need to bridge the two. I could see that being very dynamic. I've also wondered if with creative work there are artistically fertile vs rest/replenish rhythms that I'm ignoring and out of sync with.

I heard about the Intuition Tingle Test and thank godde your tingles are intact and functioning properly.
Yeah!--weren't Doris' swatches so eloquent that the architecture of the universe itself might be revealed if you watched her fold and unfold them wordlessly?

New babies and new yarns go so well together, no? And the great thing about yarn is that if you have an *active* baby, not only does yarn not shatter and break, but it can cushion baby's fall, pad baby's nap, and provide the lanolin fumes that makes the nap last longer!

I have to take sides here. Bell-bottoms and tie-dye are timeless things-o-beauty, no matter how new or old, so they shouldn't be lumped with Big Glasses. I don't recall Big Glasses representing Beauty itself, instead their purpose was to make a statement and counterbalance the wee wire granny glasses (I could produce '70's pics of those too in a court of law). Surely we all agree that Big Glasses make a statement! So: the statement's been made and forever etched in my memory. Future generations will be ok if it's never restated.

:: big exhale ::
I did it Amy and you helped. I can move forward now, less encumbered by the past.

Robyn, be a fire walker! Be the fire! I know it's hard to get past the initial nausea, but I managed to and I feel better for it: http://designingvashti.blogspot.com/2008/05/big...
Thanks Kim :-)

My guy also works at home and it's supposed to be blissful but it's surprising how easy it is for me to get annoyed. I'm not a TV person for example, so I grit my teeth when the TV goes on while I have a design jam happening. My studio/office experience is completely different when I'm alone in the house, but if I'm alone too much I get lonely. I can get work-related lonely even when he's home and sometimes I do a weird restless pacing thing. Actually this happens more often when I'm blocked about a design/problem-solving, or when I'm writing the pattern. I can spend too much time on the 'net as part of this restlessness and/or work-lonely thing. Ultimately I'm not complaining though! I much prefer it over any other job I've had!!