this is the blog where we talk about the stuff.

When I was a kid, The Phantom Tollbooth was one of my favorite books.  The hero of our story, Milo, finds a mysterious tollbooth in his room (I’d say any tollbooth in my room would be mysterious) and uses it to go on an adventure to the Lands Beyond.  When he first arrives, he stops paying attention to where he’s going and ends up in the Doldrums.  The Doldrums is basically a place where no one thinks and everyone is sleepy.

Internets, here’s the deal:

I am in the Creative Doldrums.  I can’t think.  And I’m very sleepy.

Before I get on a roll about this, let me just preface by saying: I love my job.  I can’t believe I get to do what I do.  If my 9th grade self could see me now, I know she’d be FLIPPING OUT.  She’d say: “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you work for Student Life!  Do you know Travis?”  And then I’d tell my 9th grade self that I DO, in fact, know Travis and that sometimes we even grill hot dogs at his house and she would promptly faint from SHEER DELIGHT.

Anyway, I really like my job and enjoy it, for the most part.  I am actually using my degree (which was THEATER, so…that’s incredible) and could my parents be more proud of this fact?  No, they could not.  Lately, however, I’ve noticed a slight change taking place in my daily workload.  There’s a script I should be writing and there’s also some mundane administrative duty I need to perform.  Normally, I would slough off the admin task, as admin tasks are boring and I would rather die.  But not lately.  Lately, the admin task seems more appealing.  The looming script deadline hangs ever over my head, but boy, have I made some spreadsheets!  You simply would not believe the spreadsheets.

I know what this means for me.  It means I’m stuck.  I stare at assignments and NOTHING comes to my mind.  I get up, walk around the building, see the baby, get some tea, and I’m stuck.  The fingers fly over the keyboard for the spreadsheets, but not for the scripts.

I pretty much know why I’m stuck.  Here are a couple of reasons:
There’s a baby.  She’s cute and cuddly, but also a sleep sucker.
I have no creative outlet outside of work.

It’s really that last one.  Even my free time is mostly spent writing freelance, so still work.  It’s very fun work and I enjoy it, but my brain is at maximum capacity.

So, I’ve got to find a cure.  I mean, this is my job.  My job is 10% spreadsheets, and people will get suspicious if all these spreadsheets start popping up everywhere.

I trolled the internets for some solutions.  It seems many people have this problem.  Art-Slam says I need to change the scenery and flip the script.  John Cleese says I need to go on auto-pilot for awhile and see where my whims take me.   E-How (yes, I have stooped to E-How) tells me to write down my goals, do something different, and not be afraid of support.

In The Phantom Tollbooth, Milo is rescued from the Doldrums by a dog with a ginormo clock embedded into his side named Tock.  So I’ve got to figure out what my Tock is.  Any suggestions on getting out of these old, sleepy Doldrums?

I’m all ears, internets.

This morning, Kinsley, Monte, Andy, and I were in a Creative Team meeting for the Bible study for the company we work for (that was a good amount of prepositional phrases; my apologies). We tend to get a little punch-drunk during these meetings, and today was no exception.

I’m notoriously bad at forming complete ideas in Creative Team, as well as usually being the one to knock us off topic. I had some vague idea for an activity and when Monte pressed me to be more specific, I said something to the effect of, “Can’t the teachers just come up with that part?” Andy remarked (sarcastically, I might add) that this was a great new idea for a Bible Study, just giving general suggestions. Kinsley christened our new idea “Mere Suggestions.” And we decided to have a blog contest to see who could come up with the best lesson for “Mere Suggestions.” Below is my lesson:

Mere Suggestions Bible Study
Lesson 3, John’s Revelation (or something)
Biblical Verse: Just pick a verse in Revelation. A couple of verses if you’re feeling crazy.
Learning Goal:

• Students will learn about stuff

Biblical Context: John hung out with Jesus, but he also lived on an island for some reason. Some stuff happened on the island, and now we know how it’s all gonna go down when Jesus comes back. We want the students to know about that part.

Connect Activity:
Make some crazy stuff or do something crazy. Either one will work. Say: There’s some crazy stuff in this Revelation book, and today, we’re gonna talk about it.

The Key Study:
Read the verse(s) you picked out from Revelation. Maybe you want to ask the students what they think about it. For example, if you chose Revelation 9:5, which reads: “They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man,” then you could ask the students what they think that means, if you want. It’s up to you. Then say: This is pretty kooky, but the important thing to remember is that the good guys win.

Transform:
Have the students write some stuff down while some song plays. If it’s about the verse that you talked about, awesome. If not, no biggie. Then, pray.