Saturday, Oct. 22, 2005 - 7:39 a.m.

I did a lot of laundry yesterday, and made lemon bread. Read a lot about predicates, and came up with half an idea for the new paper. It just needs a little expanding and I'll be good to go, I think.

I said to someone the other day that the process of finding an interesting problem to work on is a lot like the creative process. You can have the technical skills necessary to execute the analysis/ piece of art once you have the concept, but coming up with the right concept in the first place is where the brilliance lies, and it's that that makes all the difference between someone who can draw a damn fine still life with cabbage if it's handed to them by their art teacher and [insert famous artist of choice]. And it's not really something you can rush. It's serendipitous; no amount of nose-to-the-grindstone will get it for you if you lack the spark. What can I do with these materials? What is something new to say?

The encouraging thing is that I did finally manage to have that moment with my own craft, when I figured out the jewelry thing. Once I have my angle of attack, I can generate a large number of projects based on the same 'question'. I just need to find that for linguistics, and I'll be set.

It's cold. I hope there's cider at the farmer's market today.

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