Born out of an ongoing discussion I've had with asvdveen about trying something new every day. I have been eating at new restaurants, listening to new music and attempting (with mixed results) new approaches to making music.
I took my first ever tennis lesson last week, that was pretty cool. This week I would like to try to bake something new. I've taken some new steps professionally that are really exciting and a bit scary.
What have you done that was new to you?
-stock photo specifically for b_b
Thanks! I recently tried drumming for the first time since middle school. We were jamming at a friends house and there was a full drumset but nobody really knew how to drum, and I just gave it a shot and it went pretty good! We had a lot of fun making music, especially making death metal versions out of sad songs (Mad World by Gary Jules suddenly got a lot better!). To summarize our conversation here: I started writing a journal, with basic entries of what I did every day. Appaled by how little I could remember from last Tuesday, I wanted to preserve the moments I usually forget. The thing that struck me was that I remembered the days I did something new much better, and that doing the same routine every day made me forget about individual days. So I try to do new things whenever I can. It is when you stray off the beaten path where you find new ideas, environments and people.
Communist. I will pray for you. Mad World is by Tears For Fears and when it isn't sung by a whining pussy it's vastly better.Mad World by Gary Jules suddenly got a lot better!
Started practicing Calligraphy. I thought I would suck at it, because I'm a lousy artist, and I kinda do. But after a week I suck a little less than I did at first.
This is awesome! How did you get started? What inspired you? Did you have real life friends that helped you in buying the right tools or people online? I would really LOVE to see the progression from the first couple ones you did to now. Can you post some of your work? I've been thinking about getting into calligraphy (like I have the time) but have no idea where to start. It just looks so cool!
God I wish I had taken pictures now that you mention it. And I just got a fountain pen, some lined paper, and a book from Barnes & Noble and started scribbling. I'm definitely going to start documenting it, it would be neat to see the progression. I'll post something if you guys like, but keep in mind it's been less than a month.
Also, just an FYI that you can embed images in comments.
Good question, upload them to imgur and then click on the link and copy and paste it and you are all set.
You should really save everything. I deleted a lot of my "bad" projects when I first started designing and regret it now. Now I try to treat my designs like ideas now and save them all, even the bad ones. I keep to revisit weeks or months later to see if there is anything I can pull from it. Plus looking and seeing how you've grown is really fun and makes you feel great, even if the first renditions are horrible. The creative process is a process and the only way you can make something worthwhile is making something really bad over and over and over again. I would really love to see it. Plus you can post again in another month or 6 months and blow us all away!
I recall reading that Steve Jobs studied calligraphy and attributed much of his aesthetic to it. Good luck with it! You should post an example of your work, I'd be glad to see it.But after a week I suck a little less than I did at first.
That's the way to look at new endeavors. If you compare yourself to others you will likely stop.
Super late to this, but I finally have something to contribute to this question. Today, for the first time ever, I got together with some friends and did some Home Brewing. I'm super excited to see how it turns out after we age it a bit.
This is an appropriate question for September 1. Remember when September brought a new classroom, new teachers, and new courses every year as we all would "level up" - (ha ha, I've been waiting for a non-gaming reason to use that phrase). I am about to start teaching a new course in a new program in a new school. Does that count?
I made pie crust. That was pretty cool. But it was just pie crust. I coulda done better. Need to get that secret recipe passed down from mother to daughter etc etc etc from my wife. My mom didn't bake and when she did it was traumatic. Lately I've been forced to adopt SoundMiner, the crazy-expensive, crazy-ugly sound design librarian that only like 1000 people in the world need but when you need it, it's f'in dope. But until you figure it out it's kind of a bitch. I also had a crisis of faith with my Kyma rig, when it decided to be a little bitch and not play nice with Pro Tools. So I decided to sell it, so I decided to check prices on eBay, where I saw a screamin' deal on a more fully-loaded Capybara than what I got, so I bid on it, but it went for more than I wanted to spend, so all in all win-win because now I'm more fully committed to getting the platform to behave and I didn't even have to spend money. ...which is also sort of a long, round-about way to say "pie crust."
I have a friend who swears by vodka in place of water in a pie crust, since the alcohol evaporates much quicker than water in the oven. I've never tried it, but I'm intrigued. I so rarely make any kind of pastry that I doubt I'll ever do it. If you try the pie crust again, give it some thought.
I decided to start to learn to code, about 4 days ago. I've been going through the Python course on Code Academy, trying my hand at some problems from Project Euler. Code Academy is pretty damn good, but it has some issues with telling you what exactly you're doing wrong. It will tell you that you've done something wrong, but you're never told what is wrong, and why it's wrong. I also found that just going through the source code from game jams and just screwing around with it until it does something interesting. So far it's been pretty rewarding, but occasionally I'll run into problems and trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong is particularly brutal.
I've been doing the Codecademy course as well, but I'm kinda hesitant to continue as I feel like I'm starting to lose hold of the material. I'm not at the point where I need to look everything up to get an answer remotely right, and since I'm often not told what's wrong it can get really frustrating.
It annoys me that there is no "Show answer" option on Code Academy. They've tried to go the handholding route by giving you subtle hints when you mess up, and creating a dedicated forum to answer questions. But often the subtle hints fail, and an "official" annotated answer would be really damn helpful.
I (sort of) started a company. I'm participating in a neat little program this fall at university where a few of us combine our various skills and create, market and sell a product to whatever target audience we choose. Next week we're taking out a loan and getting started with our product surveys. All proceeds profits go to charity and in return we get some credit hours. Very excited.
Last year I started playing stringed instruments, guitar and eventually ukulele, not that receant I know but I fell in love. More receantly I travelled to Slovakia, my first time crossing the pond, a real culture shock but I'm enjoying the simplicity and I'm still here.
It sounds like a really exciting time for you. I too am a musician and play primarily stringed instruments. I too fell in love and have been playing for over 20 years. -That's crazy to write. How do you like Slovakia thus far?
I am originally from California, about and hour outside LA without traffic. I'm staying in a small town in the northeast with my girlfriends family. We came out here to deal with things related to the death of her grandfather on her mothers side. It has been like nothing I've ever experienced, having spent a month here, I've definitely acquired a new found appreciation for the simplicity of life that I have had the opportunity to observe as well as be a part of. Also the natural beauty of this place is for lack of a better word awesome. Finally I've had to shut my mouth and listen for the first time in a long time which is in itself a humbling experience. Not to mention the food and beer is as good as it is cheap always a plus.
Sorry to hear about your girlfriends grandfather. It sounds like you are in an interesting place and are truly experiencing "new" things. I hope you are able to make the most of it. Many people, myself included, get stuck in routines and never get a chance to experience new things on that scale. -I'm envious of that aspect of your situation, though I'm sorry it was death that brought it to you. Enjoy that food and beer!
I'm playing this Tuesday with a guy that is in great shape and played growing up and on his high school team. Should be interesting. It's fun getting better at something.Maybe we can play some time
I'd like that. Next time you come down you will have to bring your racket. Maybe by then I will actually be good enough to not bore you. Right now I'm still a beginner. I had been looking forward to tonight all week because I was supposed to play with 3 other friends. We've been starting off playing a set of doubles and then playing singles, first to three and rotating winner vs winner etc. -Unfortunately it rained and we had to cancel. Such a bummer.