Made the HBJ with my school

So… My school got a nice write-up in the Hartford Business Journal, with an article about the design thinking program there.  Is the news about the kind of program we’re running, getting out to the public?  Yes.  Is it being noticed? Apparently, though it never hurts to draw a little additional attention to it.  Is it serving the goal of getting our program noticed, and getting more students and parents and families in the door?  Remains to be seen.

All the same, I’d be lying if I didn’t get a little excited about this.

The Independent Day School of Middlefield is the state’s first institution to adopt a new problem solving initiative called design thinking.

Design thinking is a method of problem solving that promotes leadership, creativity, and teamwork. Students, educators, and employees have found the process of researching, brainstorming, visualizing, and creating to be beneficial when working toward accomplishing a goal. Nearly all problems can be solved, but they require recognition that the solution often involves a degree of positive thinking.

“Failures and challenges are things to be overcome instead of expected boundaries,” said Andrew Watt, director of the school’s design lab. “The core of design thinking involves this philosophy.”

Taiji Day 149: Tricep, or Flab?

There’s a mirror over the old fireplace in my office.  Setting a fire in that fireplace would probably ruin my day, because I don’t think the chimney actually works. I’d smoke myself out of house and home, or worse.  But the mirror over the mantle is nice — I can look at myself while I’m pondering the big questions of the day (“button-down? Or polo shirt?  Tie? No tie?”).

There’s one exercise during Eight Pieces of Silk, which I did after the form and five golden coins, where the arms are circling from left to right, and then the hands are rising and sinking from the head, and then the arms circle from right to left.  It’s very repetitive, and there are more than a few snap-crackle-pops as the rice-krispies exit my joints and keep my early morning routine a little noisy (though they’re loud enough to me, it’s unlikely that anyone else hears them…. when your joints crack or snap or pop, do the people around you notice?)

This morning I was looking in the mirror, doing this exercise, when a thought popped into my head… wait, am I looking at flab? Or am I looking at my tricep? And my brain actually sort-of responded through the early morning fog, “what, you mean, that thing hanging from the underside of your arm? That’s flab. It’s always been flab, it’ll always be flab… hang on a minute, what’s this?”

And the flab twitched.  So I tensed my triceps. And the flab sort-of tightened up into a tricep.  In both arms.  So there was this very nice, hard, solid, curving bicep on top, and an equally-nice looking triceps underneath my arms.  My arms. Attached to that face, that was me, in the mirror.

I relaxed my arms.  The flab came back.  I tensed my arms. The triceps returned.

Page from a Memory notebook

Page from a notebook

Originally uploaded by anselm23

Zentangle… is a style of artwork based on repetitive patterns and designs. By combining it with both traditional and non-traditional calligraphy, things like this Mandala emerge.

Talking with a friend tonight, we discussed the ways in which image can be combined usefully with text in order to “key in” our memories with specific places in a book. I decided to put this theory to the test in a book to consist of texts and images that I would like to remember. Here are the four “Resh” texts, or greetings to the Sun at the gates of the day — dawn, noon, dusk, and midnight — surrounding a sun mandala that also depicts Earth, Air, Fire and Water. I think it’s beautiful and elegant… my girlfriend thinks it’s beautiful, but slightly OCD.

Via Flickr:
I learned two things from this — I need more practice drawing flames, and I love making mandala shapes. I haven’t decided whether to color it or not, yet.

Taiji day 148: do it

I’ve been very conscious of my arms as they move through space these days. They’re more solid and more real to me at the moment than when I wasn’t practicing tai chi daily. My kinesthetic sense is very alert to where they’re hanging and what they’re doing. I realize it sounds crazy to say that to people who don’t practice martial arts every day — how can you be more aware of your arms? They’re attached to you! —but it’s like the Zen koan – first there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is a mountain. I’m possibly misinterpreting it, but my arms and legs and other body parts like my ankles are currently hyper-sensitive: it’s like I’ve installed broadband nerves after having only a dial up connection for decades. I am getting more information back about my body’s condition, and my brain is paying more attention to those signals.

But it didn’t happen all at once. It happened in fits and starts, slow degrees, by deciding to do Taiji everyday. My friend C is struggling with motivation right now, and all I can really say is do it. All the rewards of a daily practice come from the slow build-up of capacity and skill; not from springing full-grown from the Head of Zeus, like Athena. Some stuff will spring fully-grown, of course — but daily practice is about enriching the soil.

Taiji day 147: when shadows fall

I did tai chi my usual way today: in the living room, right after my first bathroom visit of the day — five golden coins, eight pieces of silk, and the form. Even after almost 150 days, some days, like today, I feel like a cheater. This is not heavy exercise; it’s a little bit of stretching and a little bit of movement to start my day. It’s not much more than that. It rarely takes me a halfhour. I’m just not that slow at doing this yet.

But the lights are off, and the curtains in the living room are partly drawn, and it’s early morning. Shadows are thick this morning, and everyone else is asleep. As my arms twist into the punches of Punch down with angry face, it’s hard not to notice the thickening cables of muscle in my arms, the way shadows fall into nooks and crannies that weren’t there six months ago.

Oh, no doubt. I’m no hardbody of the Men’s Olympic gymnastics team. But I have defined biceps and triceps now, and pockets of fat in my arms are melting away like Antarctic pack ice — slowly enough that it’s difficult to notice; fast enough that people who haven’t seen me in a while notice remarkable change.

I could wish that it was faster. I could wish that it was easier. I could wish for immediate dietary fixes, too. Oh well. It is what it is — a slow process of deliberate change, powered by my own reluctant rising from bed to do the forms in the early-dawn light.

Taiji Day 146: moving posts about daily practice?

This morning, I did the form first, followed by five golden coins, followed by eight pieces of silk. It wasn’t as effective as yesterday for making me sweat, but it did raise a lot of energy.

On Thursday I ran into a former student from my old school, and he was startled. “You’ve lost weight, or at least changed how you stand.” Truth is, I haven’t lost weight, but how I stand has indeed changed quite a bit.

Peregrin, over at the Magic of the Ordinary, has a blog post about boundaries, and I’m wondering if these daily posts are proving useful to anyone besides myself. I have another blog, and I’ve been thinking about shifting posts about daily practice over to that site, and keeping this for teaching stuff. Do the readers have any opinions about that?

Taiji Day 145: Switching Order

Hey, what do you know??

Today, I did my three forms in reverse order — eight pieces of silk, the form, and five golden coins.  Awesome. I was sweating and getting a ‘serious’ workout for once, as my body adjusted to the fact that things were being done the ‘wrong way around’.  I wasn’t putting out any more effort to do the movements than usual, and I wasn’t doing them any more forcefully than usual… just doing them at the normal pace, in the normal energetic flow, aware of the energy cascading through me… but a little bit backwards (and doing each set ‘frontways’… not even reversing order within each procedure.  And the result?

An almost completely different workout.  I love that.

 

Kavad 4.8 — six of the seven governors

Kavad 4.8 — the seven governors

Originally uploaded by anselm23

The Seven Governors are the seven ‘princes’ or ‘potentates’ under God, who help rule our cosmos. They’re represented by the seven planets, and they’re the seven forces that govern all human activity in Hermetic thought… or at least, they’re the governors of the angels and other spirits that manage the seven major forces… it’s complicated. Let’s just call them the Sevne Governors for now, and note their associations with the seven visible planets:

The Sun – the mighty Titan, whose power overwhelms everything else. Here depicted in sketch form as a Sun-worshipping muscle guy… a big fellow, with a genial smile but warning eyebrows. Be on his good side, don’t mess with him.

Saturn – usually an old man with a scythe, but I’ve depicted as an old woman with a scythe, uncertainly watching time pass, waiting for the right moment to strike the fatal cut.

Mars – The warrior, ready to cut down in justice or dispense unrighteous anger.

Jupiter, the kindly king on his throne.

Mercury, the scientist with his lists and his symbols and his labcoat, the very picture of open intellect and mastery of the realms of humanity’s formal knowledge.

Venus – the lover, the beloved, playing in the green garden. Symbol of fertility of several kinds, naked and yet not completely without armaments or charms.

… And…

The Moon. Heck if I know what to put here. The moon is the realm of dreams and illusions, and I’m stuck wondering what should be here — the painter in plein air, the sculptor carving, the pregnant mother, the high priestess in the temple balanced between columns of light and darkness, the triple-faced goddess… Diana with her bow… There’s quite a wide range of symbols and signs that could cover the Moon, and while they’re not mutually exclusive — neither are they entirely compatible. In the next physical build model, I could put “three moon” windows here… waxing moon, full moon, waning moon….

But it feels like a bit of a cop-out. So I’m going to do what any good creative professional like myself would do, and ask a bunch of people what they think.

Now, you may be thinking THAT’S not what creatives do!?, and wondering why I dare consult with other people. But in truth, there’s a long tradition of both giving and accepting help in the design process. Michelangelo had some students and hated them, Titian had many and loved them (some more deeply than others). Schools of artists grow up in certain neighborhoods (like Boetti and his friends in Turin and Milan, and then later in Rome and Afghanistan), or around certain concepts or styles of artistry, as Art Nouveau flourished in Palermo Siciliy, Paris, Barcelona Prague and London more or less all at the same time. It was a style that all came together at once.

So, please… If you think you know what form the image of the Moon should take, I’d appreciate some feedback or opinion.

3D Printing progress

3D Printing progress

Originally uploaded by anselm23

I’m building a gear-sphere. It’s eight interlocking gears that is sometimes a sphere, sometimes an ovoid, and sometimes a weird, oddly-shaped blobby thingie. I’m not sure why I’m making it, except a) to test my patience, and b) to begin to get a feel for how a 3D printer works.

In between building gear-parts for this sphere (there are 9 of them, as you can see), I’ve printed out a few other things on the 3D printer. Currently I’m working on a whistle. Because, hey, who doesn’t want a whistle that you printed yourself? I’ve also got a couple more bottle openers made — two I’ve given away to people who I think are likely to talk up our program at school, and a Celtic-like knot-thingy.

The printer functions MUCH better with the filament guide that I printed out, but heaven forfend if my computer goes to sleep mid-build. Then it’s Katie-bar-the-door! because there’s no telling what will happen when the computer comes back online… blobby plastic and ugly lumps? Or a functioning print that’s likely to finish.

Oh, yeah, and the kavad. I had an insight this morning that I was delaying working on the kavad because the initial feedback was so good on my art. I was afraid to wreck the work. Then I realized: HEY! I’m making a prototype so that I don’t feel badly about wrecking the work! I need to just get back to making pictures and not worry about what they look like!. So I’ve been doing that, while the 3D printer grinds away….

Look for the seven governors of the celestial spheres later this evening.

Taiji Day 144: Different Exercises

Today I changed up the order in which I did the exercises.  I did Five Golden Coins first.  Then, instead of doing Eight Pieces of Silk next, I did the form. And then I did the Eight Pieces of Silk.

Doing the three exercises in a different order totally changed the quality of the exercise I got this morning! Five Golden Coins was a very simple warm-up.  But I was able to get my leg up to the height of the left hand, and touch the right hand with my toes, during Windmill Kick.  I missed the starting toes-to-left-hand part of the posture, but there was definite progress after only two days of attentiveness.

But the real change was in Eight Pieces of Silk.  Usually, I hear no crackles in my joints or in my body during this set of exercises.  I’ve just limbered up, after all… I should be pretty ‘clear’ of obstructions.  Except that, when I did it last, I had just done the form… so there were a whole new set of motions that had crackled.  And now the Eight Pieces of Silk were involved in ‘clearing’ those crackles, rather than going over the ground that Five Golden Coins had just stretched and opened.

Tomorrow, form first.  Then the two ‘warm-up’ exercises. Let’s see what happens.