Let me start with a big “My bad” for the whole, not updating this thing, and then saying I’m updating this thing, and then still not updating this thing…thing.  However, I was suffering from something that I’m sure you all have experience–a lack of inspiration.  A really bad spell of it.  But before I get deep into my awesome new plan to stay inspired, let me give you a brief update of what I’ve been doing for the past month or so.

1) I have almost beaten Dragon Age: Origins.  I got to the last boss, and I haven’t been able to kill that bitch.  However, I have to either A: quit, B: cheat, or C: not write my thesis so that I CAN KILL THAT BITCH!

2) I have completely re-aligned my research efforts…this seems a trifle worrying because of the whole, I need to have a draft in a month-and-a-half, thing.  However, it’s not.  Here is why:

As you can see, there was a point in time where I was really into my first topic, and I had a lot of momentum.  But then, that period ended with the holidays.  From that point, I had no momentum, and no inspiration.  I stayed in this state for quite a while, and things looked really bad.  I refer to this period as the “interregnum of despair.”  However, as I was floundering, the growing inspiration from topic number 2 suddenly, and quite miraculously, converged with topic one (aptly labeled as the point of convergence).  Since this point I have gone from strength-to-strength, and the momentum is looking good.  Had I not made this transition, surely I’d still be stuck.  I wish I could say I’d done more than play Dragon Age: Origins and flounder in my research in the last month, but that’s pretty much it. 

However, this fantastic little diagram does lead me directly into discussion of my new inspiration campaign.  You’ve probably seen or heard of the “Creative Everyday Campaign,” and if you’re like me, you thought: “That’s pretty cool” and gone about your life.  In the midst of my inspiration-less interregnum of despair, the inherent value of such a simple exercise became very clear to me.  In order to stay inspired, I need to set aside a certain amount of time daily to do something creative to maintain and foster my creative spirit. While my predecessors tend to focus on visual creation, I will not limit myself to one media or sense.  Some days I’ll have remixes for you, some days I’ll have “Swov Sessions” for you to grind out your homework.  I’m going to come at your senses like a spider monkey!

Without further adieu, I give to you the first day of said exercise manifested in a quick and dirty illustrated diagram of my thesis research and writing process.

Cheers mates!  Here’s to fostering your creativity and imagination, daily!