july 14th, 2004
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9:20pm

working working working on the next anagram :)
been working on it for the past 2 hours.

7:22pm

today started out kind of slow for me. had a tiny bit less energy.
i guess most of what i did was mental.
i put a lot of energy into the artcontest community today in trying to figure out why it was not working and peoiple were not participating. but before i figured it out, and because i asked people their oponions, about 5 people took that window of opportunity to be assholes to me about how i run photocontest, because they were bitter that i told them their photos were over the pixel limit or whatever. psycho people. and they jus have no clue what it is i go through to modertate a community with almost 1,400 people in it. and i wasn't even asking them about photocontest, i was in artcontest talking about artcontest. anyway, so i banned them all from photocontest, artcontest, and my journal because i don't have time for that kind of bullshit, but it ruined my day for a minute there as i was sincrerely trying to make things work in artcontest and then to have that moment be taken advantage of by a bunch of silky whiners from photocontest really irked me.

anyway, i went back and forth on many different ways i could renew artcontest. redoing the rules and userinf page 3 times until it finally dawned on me what to do. and now i feel REALLY energized by my decision. and now it doesn't even matter to me so much if people participate or not, because in my heart, i know the intent and purpose of the community is really really cool and right on track. and so now if people do not see that, i feel less that it is my fault and more that it is the fault of people who don't want to make the effort to try something new.

but artcontest wasn't challenging ME, how could i except it to challenge anyone else?

well, NOW it's gonna get fun, i think i've finally found my niche with that community and i know it's going to grow into something really special.

i just really really LOVE to energize and motivate people to be creative and think in new ways. it really just makes me happy :) i am definitely becoming more of a teacher as i get older.

and it feels good to "feng shui" some of those bad energy vibe people out of there. they had been giving me bad vibes for MONTHS, and so to finally ban them and know i never have to hear from them again was really refreshing :)

anyway...artcontest was really bugging me for so long now...and i'm just so happy that i finally had a breakthrough with it.

so here is what i wrote in there:

"upon further reflection.... [14 Jul 2004|04:46pm]

ana

ok, i am still thinking about how to make this community work and get people involved...

and i think herein lies the problem...people are overthinking these themes. people are saying "i need months to complete my project" or "i have a tendency to only work within THESE types of themes ...i.e. i have a tendency to only do self portraits, etc"

i want this to not be the place where you create your life's work.
your "big masterpiece". i want this to be the place where it gets your creative juices flowing and you LEAVE your safety zone behind.

screw taking months and months or even weeks to complete a project.

just GET IT OUT, TRY IT OUT..bad or good. who cares? just DO it.

be fun, light, and joyful! PLAY.

this will not be the place to create your big masterpiece.

this is now going to be the place where things move FAST. and things are immediate and maybe even a bit disposable.

this is the place where you get OUT of your creative rut and leave all this "big projects" behind.

this place is about SPARKS, sparking you, pricking your water creative water balloon. nudging you...poking you...prodding you...

this place will now have a new theme every TWO DAYS.

one day to think about your piece, and one day to create your piece.

don't strive for perfection. just strive to get up and DO it.

if you don't "finish" your project..who cares? post it anyway, unfinished! and move on!

let it only take 2 days of your time, TOPS..and then boom, it's over with and we all move on.

give it FIVE minutes of your time even, doodle. scream into a microphone, throw paint against a canvas, scribble, who cares? TRY SOMETHING NEW.

this will not be about good or bad. winning or losing.

this is about challenging yourself to just DO it, even if it's just to start it and then get stumped and not even finish it.

DON'T OVERTHINK THIS.
OVERTHINKING KILLS ART.

just play, be, create, don't THINK about it. just DO it!

for today and tomorrow we will have the 4 themes that i picked for july, but by tomorrow night, there will be a new theme, and then there will be a new theme every 2 days.

there will be no voting, there is no right or wrong, there is just GETTING IT OUT, in whatever way you can without thinking!
if you have to think, THINK SMALL.

do a painting which is only 4 inches by 4 inches.
keep everything tiny. do a sculpture with toothpicks. get minimal. get small. do it fast.
use what you have around you. think disposable. think JUST FOR FUN, joy and playfulness!

so go to it! "

 

then after all that, jason got back from work and we went to byerly's and i used my gift card. woo hoo!
i bought strawberries and blueberries and lemonade and baba ganouj (sp?) and all these great indian frozen dinners (YUM!) and frozen enchilada dinners that look so delish! and eggs and butter and rice crackers and flavoured water and cottage cheese and cherries, and i think that's about it. HAPPINESS! thanks H!

and i took some pictures, i'll see if there are any good ones now as i am watching "the next action star" on tv.

and i really did want to get out for a walk but perhaps i will just dance to trance later.