We made it cap’n – through the eye of the storm!  I can see the light and am coming up for a few quick breaths before plunging back into the deep.  Makes me think I should be wearing a scuba suit and oxygen tank for these long dives into creating!  I’ve passed the stressful bend with my current project.  Scientific diagrams demonstrating my creative process have been painstakingly prepared and appended below…

and don’t forget this one…

Yep, I’ve made it to bullet point #5!  Oh yeah, if you haven’t figured it out I’m talking about a dance I’m creating – Echoes in Rain by Enya.  Well, that’s the one receiving my focus at the moment!  Please do NOT look on my building platforms and judge me!
~ waggles brows, daring ya~
If you show me yours THEN I may show you my…unfinished projects.  A little wine and dining first at least if you were looking for more.   If you can make socks, that’s a bonus

OK, you may have seen those images before, retrieved from the almighty google.  Should it scare me or be a relief that I’m not the only one who gets in this boat?!   I have a plan…yes, a plan!  for streamlining my calendar.  No…it does not include a trip to the Bahamas unless one of you very generous, wonderful people want to spring for an all-inclusive trip?  No?  Actually I’ve begun starting to question WHY I’m creating a dance.  Is it because I can see it, feel it, NEED to do it?  Is it because I feel challenged to try something new or to create something better than I have before?  Or is it because I found a song that fits a dance slot I need to fill?  Know what I realized?  The dances I made just to fill a slot usually end up on my “re-work” pile never to be seen again…and often I rushed one of the first two to start on the one that’s now hidden in the back of the closet.  It’s the first two that feed my creative drive and encourage me to try new things in Photoshop, Blender, spend my family’s inheritance on marketplace.  That’s where I’m refocusing my efforts.

In creating my current dance I also started thinking about inspiration.  Not just for dance, but anything worth doing.  What inspires someone?  How to re-charge when we just don’t really feel the spark to get started or keep going, especially through the “this is crap” moments?   Being the impulsive creature I can be, I packed my bags, hopped a train, and set up a little choreo corner on a beautiful sim.  Just me, a stay pad, huds on my screen, and nothing else in a beautiful naturist sim.  You know what?  It worked!  I pulled out my dusty titler, put “Lost in Dance ~ feel free to watch” over my head and just let ‘er rip.  Well, golly be!  I DID draw a small and very quiet audience as I worked, I DID enjoy and finished roughing out my choreography, and when I came up for breaks I answered questions from non-dancers about the world of dance in SL.  Bonus!  ~channel Wayne’s guitar riff here~

I did mention I was working at a very beautiful naturist sim didn’t I?  Grins.

Lupe’s Magic Forest & Naturist Island
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Magic%20Forest/162/80/3391

Because I looove tools and gadgets…top shelf in my favored gadget closet –

Camera View Save/Setup HUD – OL
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Camera-View-SaveSetup-HUD/5647480

Allows you to save your camera positions so you can easily change views to different areas on a sim.  I keep multiple copies in named folders – one for each venue/sim where it’s helpful.  Bottom row – click and save current camera position to up to 8 view slots.  Top row – change current view to the saved view for whichever view slot you select.  Click again to release your camera view.  If you used your arrows to cam around, use escape to return to the selected camera view.

Misc stray thoughts before I slap my flippers back on and play with fades and movers…

• On-a-Roll is a super addicting game
• Spot On came out with a super cool update to Choreo Designer!  I’m having withdrawal symptoms already, leaving my waypoint calculation spreadsheets behind…  Seriously though, who gets attached to spreadsheets??
• Duck races seem like eons ago!  Time for a new adventure!
• Blender class on Udemy is waiting for me to start it…what wicked things will I be able to create?  Woot!
• Commune, movie, kidnapping besties, and dance coming soon.  Only mint ice cream could make it better!
• ORANGE – Color of the day, and something to contemplate

Will be a great week!  Ride the wave and avoid the sharks!  ~ Eva