Shear Boredom is a Good Thing…Sometimes

I recently had plans to meet my mom for coffee, and while I got there on time, she was running late. That left me waiting alone with some extra time on my hands, so I plucked a notebook and pen from my bag and started sketching ideas.

Every so often I find great motivation in boredom. When I’m waiting for someone or something I’m given the (often unwanted) gift of time, and this can force me to think about projects without extraneous distractions. There are two routes I’ll consider when thinking about a project, the concept (or the “what's the overall idea?”) and the method (as in “how do I put this all together and make it work?”).

Concepts usually come to me in a sudden burst of inspiration—I may see something or remember something that sparks my imagination (like wanting to use my memory of the Estate Game to create something). It’s often more subconscious; I may be doing something mundane and then an idea just pops into my head. On the flip side, I often have to actively think about the methods I’ll use in a project; this tends to be a slower more methodical process (especially if there’s special construction issues to take into consideration).

So I generally try to use my waiting time wisely. It’s not that I’m excited to be bored, because I’m not. But sometimes boredom can make you want to do something; it can nudge you to think and create and to be productive.

It’s a Pun—Japanese Style

I love wordplay. It amuses me to see words used in an interesting manner. While my understanding of Japanese in limited, when I “get” a pun it makes me smile. Here are a few cute (animal-related) products using Japanese puns:

Letterpress Cards Too Cute to Use

I love the look and feel of letterpress cards—the thick soft paper beautifully pressed with ink makes me smile in appreciation. So much so that I once took a one-day “Introduction to Letterpress” class (that lasted about six hours), and I quickly learned that doing letterpress was not for me. Why? Because you really have to carve out hours of time to do letterpress, and the impatient person in me just wants to be able to create letterpress pieces without the set up and clean up part (which of course isn’t going to happen). So if I’m not going to create my own letterpress pieces, then that leaves buying pieces instead.

The Estate Game Pad

Growing up, my family often trekked out during the height of summer to visit relatives in California. We went by car, and as children this was an especially long drive. Being cooped up in a small space isn’t really pleasant for anyone, and there were certainly bouts of whining and complaining by my brother and me (mostly about the heat since we didn’t have air conditioning in the car for many years).

Car games could amuse us for a bit, and one of the games my brother and I would play was the “Estate Game”. We would take turns and select the possessions we wanted when our parents died. (A cheery game, I know. And don’t worry, our parents were not offended by this game—I dare say that it amused them.) Inspired by this childhood memory, I decided to create a game pad for this game.

My Brother the Marshmallow

I’ve compared my brother to a marshmallow on several occasions (of course to his face). Why a marshmallow? That’s pretty self-explanatory—he’s soft on the outside, soft on the inside and sweet all the way through. (Yeah, there’s no deep reasoning or amusing story for this, just an apt comparison.)