by Kracke

by Kracke

Bill Kracke  //  Bill Kracke (profile) is a graphic designer and web developer (BillKracke.com), a technology coach (I am that Geek), husband and father, hobbyist, and writer.

I am a dedicated researcher and collector of all kinds of information, which I love to share and spread around. byKracke.com is the central hub for everything.

You can also find me online on Twitter, Facebook, and Delicious.

Mar 8 / 6:55am

Artist's Way - Week One

So a good friend of mine recently invited a bunch of her friends to work through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way in a little online group. A brief summary of my experience so far:

  • I am the only male among the dozen or so of us. 
  • The previous point regularly flip-flops between "no big deal" and "biggish deal" for reasons I do not yet understand
  • Daily Pages are just as hard as I remember them being

And why am I telling you this? Because I am subjecting you, my readers, (yes, all 5 of you ... hi mom) to part of my weekly check in! I will be unpacking my experience here because it seems appropriate somehow.

Week One  - Restoring a Sense of Safety

I had naively hoped that I could ease into this book, this little group of creative folk. I made the assumption that all self-help books first educate their reader: "This is the problem you face, in detail." Then, the authors lay out their solution: "This is why you bought the book. Five steps to overcome problem." Not so with Julia Cameron. Right away, I am being asked to face and deal with issues that sneak around the core of my heart with barely a warning.

So I was surprised, which is pretty funny, because I've read this book before.

Twice.

But here I am, shocked and horrified that this woman I don't know is asking me to look at my internal dialog and see what it has to say about me. Personally, I found myself relating to Paul, a student of Cameron's, and his experience with his internal "Censor". In short, I treat myself with very little respect or hope. I have given my "Censor's" voice free reign in my head and it gets ugly in there.

"I am a pretender."
"My only real talent is my ability to be mediocre at everything.
"I've got no sense of visual composition or color."
"I'm good at solving problems, not at creating."
"I am certainly no artist."
"My writing is atrocious."
...

And so on. The language Cameron uses to describe this stream of thought is "blurts" - negative judgments or core beliefs that poluute our own thinking. Her cure is to use affirmations to turn blurts on their heads. Using the same list above:

"I am genuinely gifted."
"I am blessed with broad interests and skills"
"I know what good design looks like and create it in my work."
"My problem-solving skills are children of my innate creativity. Everything is an opportunity for creative thought."
"I am an artist that utilizes varied medium"
"My writing is authentic, honest, and draws people in"
...

If you could only hear the protests in my head -- accusations of lying, calling Cameron into question on any number of issues, analysis on the insanity of 'positive thinking'. This simple exercise is grueling for me. Finding positive things to say about myself, about my abilities and desires to create, is an exhausting uphill climb. But rather than being a Sisyphean nightmare (+1 for Greek mythology reference), this climb feels like it may be leading somewhere. I can make progress on this thing.

I think that this practice of changing my Blurts to Affirmations is a practice I need to carry with me into the weeks that follow. I am battling years of self-condemnation (self-loathing? self-flagellation? self-degradation? Probably, yes on all counts) and for the sake of my soul I need to start fighting back.

Here's hoping Week 2 doesn't kill me.

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Mar 2 / 9:31am

Must-Read: Misguided Christian Outrage

They're afraid this is indicative of the secularization of American pop culture, and that there should be a Christian backlash.



Not much to say, other than read this:

http://theresurgence.com/misguided_christian_outrage

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Feb 24 / 4:31pm

The History of Lego

A visual timeline of the best toy ever.

A few of my personal highlights:
- I remember those 1974 Lego people ... I never had enough bricks or room to make anything cool for them
- I owned the Galaxy Explorer set. Red Astronauts!
- I miss the yellow castle (predates Lego Castle)
- It's true - Lego and Star Wars, two great tastes that go great together

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Filed under  //  fun   infographics   Lego  

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Feb 23 / 8:30am

Not so much ashamed of the gospel, but maybe ashamed of the church

It’s not so much for the sake of my husband or myself but for our young children. We found by experience that if we were truthful about not being regular church attenders, the play dates suddenly ended. Thus started the faking of the religious funk.

This is a quote from the Freakonomics blog (link above -- great book) that highlights a recent internal debate of mine: Am I being too overtly "Christian" or not nearly enough?

As I searched my own heart, I quickly realized that the word "Christian" can be used to describe both a belief system and a social culture, and that those two things aren't even remotely the same in many cases. The situation outlined above proves the point. It could be argued that Jesus would encourage his followers to mingle freely with others, as he often did (friend of sinners and all that). The counter argument is to be "in the world, but not of it", to keep oneself pure of the polluting influences of the world. I don't think I am going to resolve that tension in a blog post.

But I am curious: am I the only one who struggles with these thoughts and feelings? When I "play down" my beliefs and act as if "it's no big deal" what others believe, guilt creeps in as I wonder if I am, in fact, ashamed of the gospel. And yet, when I am more outspoken I feel very much like a Pharisee and fear that I have missed the heart of God.

I am grateful that I go to a church that is trying to be more about the heart of Jesus and less about "Christian culture", but this article got me thinking. Are there areas of my life where I am pretending so that I can make my life easier? Is the solution to find my own individual way and live it with courage, consequences be damned?

I'm still thinking and wondering. How about you?

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Filed under  //  faith   my-thoughts  

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Feb 22 / 7:27am

Great Infographic: The Mariana Trench To Scale

Maybe it's because I am a Navy brat, or that I grew up near the Mystic Marinelife Aquarium, or that I was young enough to kind of like "SeaQuest DSV" when it was on TV, but whatever the reason, this graphic reinforces my suspicion that the oceans will be more a "final frontier" than space.

Engineering to withstand the harshness of a vacuum is one thing. Try engineering to withstand over 1000 atmospheres of constant pressure!

[via kottke.org ]

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Filed under  //  amazing   infographics   science  

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Feb 19 / 6:40am

The Making Of: Best Old Spice Commercial Ever

OK, so I love the "look at your man, now back at me, now back at your man, now back to me" commercial. I smile every time and love the punchline on the end ("I'm on a horse"). And there is this great 20 minute video of how it was made ...

I sooooooo want to post a spoiler, but I won't. You will have to watch for yourself.

"I'm on a horse."

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Filed under  //  advertising   awesome   funny   video  

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Feb 17 / 9:06am

Color Me Surprised: CGI technologies on TV

I'm still in a state of semi-shock (semi-state of shock?) after watching this video. I knew what was possible with green screens and CGI technology, but I had no idea that it was so widely used for television. This was a real eye-opener.

via http://kottke.org/10/02/green-screened

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Feb 17 / 8:53am

Fascinating: The Mega Crystals of Naica Mine

The article referenced above is worth a read, if only to find out that the chamber above is heated by nearby magma and those are gypsum crystals. Amazing photos, and an opportunity to appreciate the simple beauty of crystal formation.

[via @jessebdylan | http://www.twitter.com/jessebdylan ]

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Feb 14 / 12:57pm

Mandelbrot Fractal Set Trip To e214 HD

Basically, I just need my friend Andrew to see this, because he will understand the impact of "e.214 magnification". As the article puts it, "'Mathematical Porn' is a better description."

For you aspiring nerds, this is a fractal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal), more specifically, the Mandelbrot set. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set) It took a desktop computer one month to generate all of the images in the film. Lots and lots of math which I grasp only conceptually, for now.

But it's math! Math and some music of questionable worth.

(If this made your inner geek happy, visit http://hd-fractals.com)

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Feb 13 / 7:17am

Almost Like Being There: The 2010 Winter Olympics - The Opening Ceremony

Just a panoramic shot of the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

The effects/production was pretty amazing, but I only watched part so far. Recorded it to watch with the kids later today.

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