racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

If you have a taste for the finer things in life, then you should get yourself a Moleskine notebook. It’s the Macintosh of notebooks. It’s the Rolls Royce of notebooks. It’s not only about the price or the visual appeal. It’s all about the sensual experience that you get from using these beautiful pieces of work. Hey, that’s why I use a Mac for my writing work. And when I’m off the grid, ordinary pen-and-paper just won’t do. My Moleskine notebooks helps me get the most out of my disconnected moment, whenever needed.

Creative types work best with good tools and a conducive environment. So if you’re serious about your art or craft—be it writing, drawing, or maybe even taking notes—do something about it. Make sure you come up with the best output by using the right tools and being at the right state of mind.

Moleskine notebooks were previously unavailable in the Philippines, but now moleskineph.com is distributing locally. They don’t have a brick-and-mortar store, though, so you have to check out their online catalog and order by email. Prices range from PhP 750 to PhP 900 for the small notebooks (sets of three or so) and PhP 1,250 for the big ones. Not bad, since these usually retail in the US for about US$ 15 to US$ 20.

With Christmas nearing, I think a Moleskine would make for an excellent gift for your loved ones—a good alternative if you can’t just afford a MacBook Pro for each of them just yet.

Problogging—and the non-income generating kind of blogging, for that matter—is like writing a book or painting, or sculpting. You need to get yourself in that state where you feel most creative. You need to be in the zone. You need to get into the flow. Get your head in the game.

When I was working at NEDA, I used to drive my pawis steering* Mitsubishi Lancer to work every morning, and then to grad school class in the mid-afternoon, and then back to the office again to wrap up some work before returning home. It was a round-trip, actually since my place was near UP Diliman. When I wasn’t driving, I took the MRT—I walked the half kilometer distance between the Shaw MRT station to our Amber drive office back and forth.

When I moved to dotPH, I walked the half kilometer (or was it) distance between the Ortigas MRT station and Emerald Avenue both ways every day—lugging my eight-pound ThinkPad at that! It was also at dotPH where I learned to drink water instead of juice and coffee, and to eat packed lunch instead of the greasy, fatty fastfood or canteen fare.

When I quit the corporate grind to be a freelancer and a problogger, I usually stayed at home when I didn’t have meetings and events to attend—which are actually quite infrequent and irregular. I found myself going out only once in a while to do my banking transactions—those I couldn’t do online—and to take the wife and kids out during weekends. And then there are the cupboard raids for sugary and salty snacks, and of course the unlimited supply of coffee.

In short, turning problogger has caused me to live a sedentary lifestyle, compared to the relatively mobile and healthy daily routine I had before. I watched my waistline grow a couple of inches from its usual. I also sometimes feel sluggish because my muscles have atrophied from non-use! (Okay, exaggerating here.) The only muscles I get to exercise these days are my typing fingers and my coffee mug-lifting arm.

*Pawis Steering: A play on “power steering,” intended for cars without this feature. Pawis is a Filipino term for sweat, hence the phrase implies that the driver exerts so much effort in steering. Yes, the tropical climate, plus sometimes malfunctioning airconditioning systems and the wide 15-inch wheel rims makes one sweat at times.

Working Out

During our college days, Caren and I used to work out at a small gym near our respective homes. It was great. We felt healthy and happy. We didn’t get to achieve those ancient Greek god physiques, but we were active enough to keep our bodies and minds healhty. And just recently, we did what we’ve been wanting to for a long time now—we signed up for membership at a nearby gym! And we just started working out (again).

It’s a both an achievement and a challenge. I’ve always thought that if I ceased to follow the demands of the bundy clock, I would have more time to attend to life’s niceties. But working independent and having no time to follow might sometimes mean working all the time, actually. And this can sometimes be stifling to one’s creativity (and on one’s personal life), particularly if you set no boundaries between work and personal life.

Activity Begets Creativity

Boy, am I glad we took this first step to doing something out of the ordinary. Perhaps this way I’ll get to boost my creativity and productivity. Pumping healthy blood into my brain would sure help get me those fresh ideas!

I’ve always believed we become more creative the more we get to immerse ourselves in reality. Art imitates life. The more we experience life, the more interesting ideas and perspectives we get out of it, even from the most mundane of things.

So if you’re thinking of going into the problogging business, don’t think you can just sit around all day sifting through your RSS feeds and doing the click-copy-paste routine. Again, go out and live life!

There comes a time in your life as a blogger when you can’t write s#!t. You want to be productive. You want to have some interesting output, whether on your personal blogs or other blogs (if you blog for network or team blogs). But you’ve squeezed out every ounce of creativity into your last masterpiece. You’ve tried and tried to outdo yourself this time, but to no avail.

Well, yes, there is always the temptation to just put up one-liners with links and blockquotes like those “hey, this is cool, check this out,” posts. Lately, though, I’ve been avoiding doing this, or else I would probably just be echoing everyone else on the blogosphere without adding value to the conversation (i.e., at least my unequivocal, principled personal opinion on something). You can do the citations from other sources, too, with some added commentary, but hey, isn’t something substantial and original better (at least in terms of the style and point of view, but maybe not always the content)? Don’t we aim to be different from the rest?

Stop and smell the flowers

In our desire to be more productive, we end up over-exerting ourselves.

This is probably the anathema of creativity. Forcing yourself to be creative would only push you to come up with crap and then you’d feel bad about it later on. Yes, pressure is good at times. But when your motivation for doing something is because you have to do it, rather than want to, it would sure be less fun. And that takes the kick out of doing anything, doesn’t it? And it’s one way to ensure that whatever you come up with would be far from the beautiful oeuvre you would’ve been able to create had you been the inspired, passionate little fellow.

You get things done, but do you get them done right?

Sometimes you have to pause awhile and experience life to recharge.

Go read a book. Go watch a movie. Go visit an art gallery. Go out and play with your kids, date your wife, walk your dog, chat with your cute next-door-neighbor, execute that excellent practical joke you’ve been dying to try on your gullible sister.

Go and do anything worthwhile. Let life happen. Live life.

This is when your next big idea will likely pop up in your mind. Don’t forget to write it down. Better yet, start conceptualizing, start working on it as soon as you can (not in the middle of that date, mind you). Life’s made up of many small interesting streams of thought, and only a few big ideas worth losing sleep on. Capitalize on that big idea. Work on that idea. Be passionate about that big idea.

The small ideas—your everyday stuff—are okay, but it’s the great, big ideas that change the world.

Hey, Archimedes was taking a bath when he had that Eureka! moment (or so legend says).

Read, read, read

Fellow blogger Clair reads and reads.

Writing for a living has trained me to write anything – no matter what. But of course. it is tougher. Writing three blog entries a day and editing other people’s entries (grammar, etc) could be quite painful too.
...
I read and talk about things that got me interested. If not about the article itself but maybe the circumstances around it, the person who wrote it, how I could relate, etc.

I try to read a lot, too, and I try my best to learn from what I read. My readings don’t necessarily have to be about the topics that I write about (mostly tech). In fact, I prefer reading literary pieces because this is where I learn about style, usage, context, and exposition. Most of the time, the way I write is influenced by what I’m currently reading at a given time.

I read juvenile books (e.g., Lois Lowry), light American classics (e.g., Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn series), heavy novels with morality issues (e.g., Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo), and even Dan Brown stuff (not much for good narrative and exposition, but storylines are more or less OK). Oh yes, I’ve been fond of reading up on my newest favorite writer of late (though I’m in want of more, more, more!).

My mood and style of writing are usually influenced by what I’m into at any given time. For instance, I’m now midway into Monte Cristo, and you may be sensing dark undertones in my postings. Or perhaps it’s because I’m currently feeling low and moody, anyway. Or maybe I’m feeling low because of the book in the first place.

At any rate, reading is good. It expands your vocabulary. It takes up your horizon to new heights. It brings you closer to worlds (and words) previously-unknown. You’re likely to also get into the groove of writing, and even get that big idea you’ve been wanting to come up with to have for the longest time.

Live life. Read up.

So here’s to that Eureka! moment!

Being the nocturnal person, where I am (or at least perceive myself to be) more productive during the wee hours of midnight to early morn when everyone else is in their various stages of sleep, this is usually my message signing off when friends, colleagues or some sprit of the night say their good-byes in (sometimes productive, sometimes counter-productive, always interesting) instant messenger conversations. Last man standing, I usually consider myself.

No sleep for the weary.

I usually try to ponder the meaning and significance of this line time and again. I’ve come to realize that this line is usually preceded by “There is …” and then followed by “... until …” Ergo, this would mean my firm resolve to finish whatever it is that I am trying to finish, and not rest—even when burdened by troubles and weariness—until I have satisfied myself that I have done my best for the day, and must henceforth retire, rest, and perchance sleep, in order that I can face the next with further renewed energy and undying exuberance.

Passion, Perspiration, and a bit of Inspiration

Sometimes I succeed, and sometimes I do not. That usually depends not just on my level of energy (for energy can be misdirected and misspent), but on the passion and commitment I have put into my task. Yes, sometimes it does take a bit of inspiration to follow through with my efforts, but it mostly depends on perspiration (success after all is 99% this, with the former constituting the remaining one percent).

What inspires me to do well, then? First and foremost, there’s the feeling of accomplishment and pride with what I do. And then of course there are the financial considerations.

Sex & Cash

In the Sex & Cash theory parlance of gapingvoid,

The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task in hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended.

My profession and current line of work involves both the sex and the cash aspect of that duality, most of the time. Knowing that I get to accomplish both needs at the same time—sex being the need for a sexy job that I can be passionate about, and cash being the job that pays the bills—I could usually retire for the day knowing I have accomplished something good.

Sometimes, though, it’s good to keep the sex and cash separate from one another, that I may pursue undertakings that are of pure passion and glory in nature. And that’s where stuff like this blog falls under, and also potentially great things, like Go-Ogle and other budding startups I’m dreaming up in my mind (and hope to turn from ether into reality soon).

How to Be Creative

For now, I leave you with this article from Hugh MacLeod’s gapingvoid, with interesting pointers on how to be creative. You’ll get bold statements such as Ignore everybody, Dying young is overrated, and Power is never given. Power is taken.

This is not exactly new, but I do hope those in need of a boost in their creativity whether in the arts, business, or in anything, would find this piece helpful—enlightening and entertaining in the same light.

Now A Word From Our (Former) Sponsors

A usual co-conspirator, fellow Man-blogger Mike Villar, asked me to help spread the word about the soft-launch of version 2 of Calliope, the engine that powers i.PH (used to be my baby back at dotPH). Lots of good stuff added. I have to admit, though, that it’s not really for me (for I love to be in full control, and I’d rather go for our free com . ph domain offering, the initial batch of which we’re actually registering today), but Calliope would appeal to you if you’re looking for an all-in-one package that’s easy to manage without necessarily having techie skills.

So adieu for now! Remember, there is no spoon!*

*Another favorite sign-off line.