Cork, Ireland from 4 floors up.

HOW was loads of fun. I met some amazing folks, attended some great events, lost some posters, saw John Vanderslice and his new band (got to sing “Keep The Dream Alive”, just like these folks did in Orlando a couple years ago, but we had a flute, and more of the FLA folks seemed to know the song), went to Emo’s, . Of course, I picked up a few books: Zombie Haiku, Away We Go, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

I wasn’t into the conference at first, but it grew on me. There were a number of talks about creativity, organization, and passion for what you do, and how you interact with the customers, projects, and people in your daily sphere. What there wasn’t a lot of was talk about understanding people, or even being understood, but that’s not something this conference was about.  That’s what I was there for, as a writer and a filmmaker first, and a graphic designer second, I felt a little out of place, or at least pushed myself away, and made it like that, comfortable not fitting in to the crowd.

As soon as I dropped the stigma of not being a wholly passionate graphic designer, I loosened up enough to realize I was surrounded by loads of creative people, who just wanted to be around other creative people. That’s all I wanted too. When I understood that, the conference opened up to me like the nearly cloudless sky above Texas.

It has been raining on and off all day. I have a scene in a short story that explores part of the experience of not doing what you’d like to be doing and not knowing why you’re not accomplishing what you know you should be. The difference is, I know why I haven’t gotten to edit this short yet: I’ve got a live event to shoot tomorrow, and since I’m heading to Austin on Tuesday. Maybe on the plane I’ll be able to review and refresh.  I hope I can get to it before then.

Tomorrow is going to be fun, and worth all the stress. In the long term, will it be worth interrupting my writing?  Perhaps. I’m worried about not being able to jump right back into my writing, into my editing, to be where I was when I was writing every day.  I need that.  I found out some lovely info about myself again.  Writing not only calms me down, but evens me out, clears my head, and makes me happier. I want to do more of it, and to write every day, regardless of the films or music I’m recording.

Maybe I should take a cue from Wes Anderson and Quentin Tarantino. I do carry a notebook around, but I use it for notes, not for writing and drawing, simply because it isn’t big enough, and my handwriting isn’t that great.  Maybe I need to rethink this, and maybe I need to refresh myself over at 43 Folders and review my GTD book. Maybe I’ll even develop better handwriting.  Maybe.

The official name of my Director’s new GPS is Gabriella. Gabby for short, and she’s good at giving directions.  Oh how I hate driving in SoCal.