And then we were five – happy birthday !maginality

September 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Five years ago today !maginality was born. It was a simple birth. And since then there have been difficult times and good times. Now five years old it is time for !maginality to step forth into the wide world again.

She has a new song to sing and she’ll be the muse for all our creative needs. So get ready, it’ll soon be time once again to balance inspiration, preparation and perspiration. But first, let’s party…

Happy Birthday !maginality

Bring forth the DJ

Planet Funk – Too Much TV (The Sun Remix) from glowpeak on Vimeo.

Filed Under: news

Such a bad boy

August 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Once again I am hear apologising for not posting. Yes I know that all the top blogs say that an apology is a no no and I agree with their reasons. There is no point having a blog and then apologising all the time for not posting. That doesn’t equate to great content!

Since the last post I seem to have fixed the issue that caused me to lose the site and thankfully the database back-up worked fine. Remember children back-up your sites.

I am almost done with getting the theme I want to use ready, I just need to convince myself that is the route I want to go down. If not I’ll end up using the standard theme, and again upset all the blog a-listers.

In the meantime, be creative it’s what you were born to be.

Filed Under: news

Short hiatus

September 9, 2010 By 1 Comment

!maginality is currently undergoing a revamp. It’ll be back in October with a brand new look and all new content, all crafted with the aim of enabling you to live a wonderful creative life.

In the meantime have a browse of the archive and see the best posts over the past few years. I’ve hand-picked some of the best posts below to get you going.

Enjoy, be creative and I’ll see you soon…

The Top 5 Ingredients of Compelling Writing

5 More Ingredients of Compelling Writing

Coping When it all Gets Too Much

Darren

Filed Under: news, site info

Goodbye 2008, hello 2009

December 31, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I hope and pray that 2008 has been a wonderful and creative year for you all. I hope and pray, even more, that 2009 will push your creativity to new levels. For those reading I thank you for at least visiting once.

There will be a few changes to !maginality in the new year, these will enable me to help you realise your creative potential. We’ll have a new design and layout to give a bit more structure to the site, so if things jump around over the next few days, that is your reason.

So, I wish you all a very happy new year. May all your creative dreams be realised in 2009.
Darren

Filed Under: news

Hello world… we’re back!

April 9, 2008 By 1 Comment

Well I have managed step one, upgrading to WP 2.5, although there was a slight detour via a server migration. I have to say WordPress handled it beautifully. I exported the posts and then imported them into this version. We should be working fine now.

I am using the fantastic sandbox theme, although I will be skinning it for !maginality. I have made the decision to make the skinning a viewable process. The reason being that if I leave it hidden, it will be out of sight and possibly out of mind. This way, if it looks bad, I should do something about it.

All the plugins aren’t fully loaded yet either, I’ll be choosing what ones to use and where soon, so hopefully not too much discomfort for those viewing.

Now let’s get back to being creative.

Filed Under: news, site info, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Another apology but creativety abounds in the zone

November 6, 2007 By Leave a Comment

As you may have noticed by the lack of posts I have been a little busy of late and I don’t see any let up in that in the foreseebale future. However, I will be pressing on with things here.

One thing that often happens with creative poeple is that they get engrossed in what they are doing. The focus is total on the creative task at hand. Whilst this is great for that task, the more routine and mundane tasks that life often demands get left to one side. [Please note that I am not suggesting for one moment that !maginality is a mundane task.] It is no wonder that creative poeople can be hard to live with as they focus on what they are doing rather than the relationships they have.

The danger with such a strict focus is burnout. Creatives will seek the to stay in the zone and the more they cling on the more it can damage. It is all too easy to then look for external stimuli to stay in the zone, excess caffeine and even something a little stronger.

What any creative needs to do is make sure they take downtime, this doesn’t mean they can’t be playing with ideas, taking notes and doodleing, but they should take a break. The batteries need recharging. There is more than one masterpiece in us all.

Filed Under: creativity basics, inspiration, news, perspiration, site info

Another apology

May 29, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I have been ill with a ‘real’ cold. This is worse than ‘man-flu’ the common ailment of western man. A ‘real’ cold actually is an illness. It leaves a man too ill to beg and plead for help unlike ‘man-flu’. However, after conmsuming copious amounts of Beechams’ Cold tablets I am back. Normal service will again be resumed.

Filed Under: news

One apology, several projects and new horizons

April 3, 2007 By 1 Comment

I thought it best to write a little apology about the lack of posts recently. I have been particularly busy with one or two other projects and have not been putting in the required amount of perspiration either. This has meant that several posts remain unfinished at this current time. I could have remained quiet and posted another glorious creative quote but thought it best to share my personal creative journey. All well and good me telling you how to be more creative but why not share my hiccups with you aswell.

I currently have several writing commissions and a couple of design commissions too. These are all due to be completed this month and so, more than ever, I need to make sure my preparation time is constructive. The more I can prepare, the more time I can spend being creative with those projects.

One of the design projects is self-commissioned. Namely, the re-design of the Imaginality site itself. The current layout is fine, but I want to create a little more space. This has meant getting to grips with WordPress and how the templates work within it, and also understanding CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

So, I haven’t been unbusy, but I have neglected sorting out the posts for here. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Filed Under: news, site info

Too much preparation!?!

January 24, 2007 By Leave a Comment

A short apology for the lack of updates recently, and in particular a lack of actually getting Imaginality up and running with any sort of steam. The ethos behind Imaginality as you’ll either know or will realise as we journey here, is that the creative process  can be best realised  by seeing it as three processes:

  • Preparation
  • Inspiration
  • Perspiration

Unfortunately, I have been spending a little too much time in preparation and inspiration mode and have, as you can see, not really broken into any sweat yet. Call it procrastination, or simply being lazy, but what it has shown to me is that the basic ethos of the site is true. In order to realise your creative dreams you need to spend time in all three zones.

Filed Under: creativity basics, news

Prepare…

September 1, 2006 By Leave a Comment

imaginality is here!

No more excuses can be made about not being creative, getting your ideas out of your head and showing all to the world. Now is the time to get prepared, be inspired and perhaps sweat a little.

imaginality will give you tips, advice and solutions to meet all your creative needs, whether you wax lyrically, musically or visually.

imaginality will do this because that is exactly what I have been doing professionally for the last ten years, and personally since I took my first breath. We are all innate creatives and imaginality is here to help you along.

So sit back and enjoy the ride be and create!

Filed Under: news, site info