Inspirations and Oddities - October 13th

This is the first edition of my Second Friday blog posts.  In these I'll be posting links to what inspires me and my work. Blog posts, Wikipedia pages, imagery, books etc etc

So without any delay, here is this month's entry on "Inspirations and Oddities"

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"I’ve written in other venues about the “thrill of the hunt.” And by that, I mean the hunt for that one back issue of a comic series you loved, that old album by the band you loved, or that out of print book by that author you loved. These “hunts” were a big part of my youth, and the very concept is gone now. Everything is easily found on the Internet with a few keystrokes."  -  Monte Cook

The world is filled with inspiring and amazing things to take in. As a child those discoveries led to the worlds of my imagination. We didn't have everything at our fingertips and, as Monte suggests in that quote above, it is now common to find almost anything within moments on the internet. But is that true? I really think there are still untold worlds to discover. Pinterest, for all of it's amazing possibility, seems to narrow the treasure trove based on algorithms that they think shows us what we want to see when beyond those first pages of results one finds a world deeper than the most favorited or popular of images.  Instead, it's when I choose an image, then look at it's similar images and then pick one, repeating the process a half dozen times that I finally come upon something I really want.

I have to dig, search, follow trails and spend time to get there. The best of what is out there is often not found on page one of my search results but buried in the depths.

My news feed is devoid of the glut of negative world events but loaded with National Geographic, Scyfy, Smithsonian etc. I'll download a dozen previews on Ibooks just hoping to find that one self-published or lesser known gem. I want the mystery, the new, the inspiring and the possible.

What I am saying I guess is that I am not certain the thrill of the hunt had been totally removed. . . just that the means to enjoying it are changing with technology. What I worry about is that the DESIRE for the hunt is being lost with the ease modern technology provides.

These days I compare the internet to taking pre-arranged travel tours. Back when I used to travel in my early 20's. I usually had a departure and return date and then filled the between with whatever I was inspired to do or see that day. I only took one arranged, group tour, and that was of Greece and Turkey because it allowed for seeing 5 of the Greek islands and a much desired stop in the ancient ruins of Ephesus. While the entire group often went everywhere together, taking in all of the exact same locations, restaurants and sights, I always set off on my own to find the out of the way places and local cafes.

In Ephesus as they took in all the planned sights along the ancient streets, I spent my time there sitting on the actual communal benI walked along the streets following the wagon and chariot ruts cut into the heavy stone over their ages of use.

In Greece, at the temple of Poseidon, the group all took the usual photo op and hurried out of the wind down to the gift shop while I stood alone facing that stiff wind overlooking the Aegean sea and tried to imagine what it was like to stand at that temple when it was in it's prime.  In Delphi, when they ran off to lunch and gift shopping, I wandered down to the temple of Athena where we had spent all of 10 minutes as a group, so that I could sit there alone and imagine myself coming to Delphi though the olive groves of the valley below, hoping to receive the oracle's wisdom. . .

The whole trip went like that and every time we reconvened on the bus or at the hotels, I'd be asked all sorts of questions about where I went and what I did. Where I ate. What I saw. As if I was on a different tour! 

All I did was go off on my own and explore. . . that's what it takes today to find the "treasures". 

In this monthly post, I hope to share a bit of it with you. :)

Hoping you'll find a little inspiration here! PLEASE feel free to send me links to what inspires YOU! Let's help each other in that hunt for the unusual and the treasures of the internet!

xo

Nicolas

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I use the word paracosm a lot. It perfectly describes my childhood experiences in imagination and also what I strive for daily as an adult. I'm definitely in the world of my making more than not which leads to being a pretty blissed out guy.  I am often asked "Are you ever in a bad mood?" and, of course, the answer is yes. I'm human (really, I AM!) But the smiling face people see most of time is DIRECTLY related to my paracosms and the world I dwell in most of the time.

Much of the outside world is not allowed in. No horrors of the news, no clocks, phone on silent always, no pop-ins from other people. I put strong boundaries around it to keep it safe and it pays off. I get to create, imagine and invent each and every day with little interruption.

Four years ago, one of my favorite bloggers, Andrea over at Falling Ladies created this blog post:

Paracosm  - In the four years since I have returned to that post time and again for a bit of inspiration and just for the magic of the world Andrea hints at there. Often I am hoping to find more of it somewhere that I did not see before. . . that's the power of magic! Thank you Andrea!

Here are a few more for this month:

The Hermit Monks of Karouliya - I needed a remote, hard to access setting for the "monks" of my world. But my world is not very vast and is self contained sooooo . . . this post inspired me greatly. The website, though loaded with active content and ads that sometimes frustrates me and my laptop, is alike a random WOW generator! I go once a month and find at least two or three things in our world that I never knew existed.

The Hama Water Wheels - How about water wheels for moving water in a tech challenged world? I'm a visual person and while I could see waterwheels in my mind quite easily it was nothing as grand as these gasp-worthy structures dating to the Byzantine world.

The Singing Tree  - Need an inspiration for a truly new musical "instrument" or ancient mystery? Oh, it's out there!


And a monthly Book Suggestion too!

I just finished listening to Neil Gaiman read his "The Ocean at the End of the Lane." I'm neither a fan nor a critic of Gaiman's work. It's hot or cold for me. I love some, can't get thru a few chapters of others, but this story may be one of my all time favorites. It's really about that struggle between the worlds of childhood and adulthood and every bit of it is magic. Both Sofie and I agreed that it sounds "true". Like there is no part of it that you can't imagine being possible.  And of course I identify totally with the boy in the story. I was that boy. I had magical encounters of my own and I often returned to them time and again when life seemed overwhelming.  they remain like polestars to me today.

Magic IS everywhere and I just need that reminder sometimes.