<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"><channel><title><![CDATA[jadedkitty.dev]]></title><description><![CDATA[Ramblings of a logical creative.]]></description><link>https://jadedkitty.dev/</link><image><url>https://jadedkitty.dev/favicon.png</url><title>jadedkitty.dev</title><link>https://jadedkitty.dev/</link></image><generator>Ghost 2.9</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 21 May 2020 08:00:31 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://jadedkitty.dev/rss/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><ttl>60</ttl><item><title><![CDATA[On “The Zone”]]></title><description><![CDATA[What is “The Zone”? How do we “get in” it? How can we be ready for creativity?]]></description><link>https://jadedkitty.net/the-zone/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5ec6300520e0301089599470</guid><category><![CDATA[Thoughts]]></category><category><![CDATA[Essays]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma Maguire]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2020 07:50:28 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://jadedkitty.net/content/images/2020/05/E2B09D1E-3ED7-4DE3-B14D-B901C582AC32.jpeg" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://jadedkitty.net/content/images/2020/05/E2B09D1E-3ED7-4DE3-B14D-B901C582AC32.jpeg" alt="On “The Zone”"/><p>Most people will have heard of a concept called “The Zone”, perhaps even said something along the lines of “Don’t bother me, I’m in <em>the zone</em>” while writing. It’s not an uncommon idea, however I have a special love for it and watching it happen in creative contexts, primarily music. I am many things, but one thing I love is composing music. There is something so exciting, as with any creative endeavor, about creating a piece of music that you are proud of. But sometimes, something amazing and exceptionally exciting happens. Sometimes it feels as though you are not writing the music, rather it feels as though you are <em>discovering</em> it.</p><blockquote>I describe “The Zone” as being: a state where the flow of creativity surpasses the effort required to use it.</blockquote><h3 id="so-what-is-it">So what is it?</h3><p>Several days ago, I heard a song in my head. This happens often, I nearly always have some sort of music in my head. This time, though not unique, was special. I immediately went to my computer and began attempting to bring this song I could hear so clearly in my mind’s ear to life. I added a chord progression (one I’m particularly proud of), then played it back. When playing it back, I heard something in my head along side the chords that I had not yet written. I then worked to add what I heard into the song, and it fit perfectly. This happened over and over again during the production of that song, until what I had created seemed less like I had written it and more like I had transcribed a song that had already been written, piece by piece. This experience is what I describe “The Zone” as being: a state where the flow of creativity surpasses the effort required to use it. When in “The Zone”, it feels as though you are a zero-resistance conduit for your ideas and you are easily able to transform them into whatever you are creating. This can happen with writing, music, coding, design, art, or anything where you are creating.</p><h3 id="how-to-get-in-the-zone">How to get in The Zone </h3><p>Now that I have explained what “The Zone” is, how does one get in it? The answer is quite simple: I don’t know. “The Zone” is something that requires a variety of ever-changing parameters to enter, and in my own experience happens somewhat randomly. That being said, there are a few things I see as requirements for it, as well as things I do to be ready when it does happen. First, the requirements.</p><p><br>In order to get in the Zone, you have to have a motive for creating. There are obviously as many motives as there are people, so this can vary from wanting to get an ‘A’ to being relaxed by creating to simply enjoying creating. As long as there is a motive, whatever it may be, you have a reason to create. A lack of a strong enough motive causes the inability to get to the “The Zone”. An good example of this is my own tendency to procrastinate. My assignments are always due on Sunday nights at 11:59 P.M., and, though it is a good idea to work on them throughout the week, I always wait until Sunday night to start them. My motive, the fear of turning an assignment in late, is inversely proportional to amount of time I have left to complete an assignment. If I have a long time before it has to be completed, that motive is not strong enough for me to begin working. If I have 2 hours until it is due, I am able to get in “The Zone” and complete it before the deadline. This however, sometimes does not happen and leads to me turning in my assignment late. You cannot rely on this state, because it has other factors that effect it, too. The only way to access this state is to be ready for it.</br></p><h3 id="be-ready">Be ready</h3><p>Because “The Zone” is an extremely productive state, you will want to be ready for when you have an idea that triggers it. Here are some things I do to be ready for it:</p><ol><li>Always have a way to write notes. Whether it be your smartphone, tablet, pen and paper, or Etch-A-Sketch, a way to jot down your ideas quickly is important to retaining any creative sparks you may have when you are not able to act upon them.</li><li>Keep your tools within arms reach. If you have the ability to immediately begin creating when you have an idea, you will always be able to get in “The Zone” when you do. I am usually a few seconds away from all of my tools, so that I never have to break the flow of creativity that has started and I can just sit down and start working.</li><li>Take breaks. When you are working and start to feel like you are moving out of “The Zone”, take a break. If you keep working, you will only get fatigued about the work you are doing and lose your ability to get back in “The Zone” until that fatigue is gone.</li></ol><p>Being creative is my favorite thing in the world, no matter what the medium is. In order to tend and grow that creativity, you can keep tools near to be ready for any ideas you may have.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Orchestra in My Mind]]></title><description><![CDATA[There are some that dream of flying, And others dream of sheep But when I close my eyes, all that I see Is an imaginary orchestra Directed by me The sounds wash over me Like a soothing spring breeze The violins swaying like willow trees My arms sway and the music swells Crescendoing to a distant tale Of love and loss and loneliness That the audience can feel Then I open up my eyes And I’m still in my room Four walls a cage that I want to break through Someday I hope I’ll see]]></description><link>https://jadedkitty.net/the-orchestra-in-my-mind/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5ec4d68d20e030108959944e</guid><category><![CDATA[Poems]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma Maguire]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 20 May 2020 07:08:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://jadedkitty.net/content/images/2020/05/D63A6918-25D3-465C-A1D7-CE2D4DD1987B.jpeg" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://jadedkitty.net/content/images/2020/05/D63A6918-25D3-465C-A1D7-CE2D4DD1987B.jpeg" alt="The Orchestra in My Mind"/><p>There are some that dream of flying,</p><p>And others dream of sheep</p><p>But when I close my eyes, all that I see</p><p>Is an imaginary orchestra</p><p>Directed by me</p><p/><p>The sounds wash over me</p><p>Like a soothing spring breeze</p><p>The violins swaying like willow trees</p><p/><p>My arms sway and the music swells</p><p>Crescendoing to a distant tale</p><p>Of love and loss and loneliness</p><p>That the audience can feel</p><p/><p>Then I open up my eyes</p><p>And I’m still in my room</p><p>Four walls a cage that I want to break through</p><p>Someday I hope I’ll see the orchestra in my mind</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Bubble Tools!]]></title><description><![CDATA[Though I know how to code and develop websites from scratch, at my day job our internal tools platform is currently built in Bubble.io's no-code platform [https://Bubble.io/] (largely because the original developers didn't know how to, well, develop. I'm slowly working on moving away from it). That being said, it is a very user-friendly platform to create responsive web apps, and, because I spend a lot of time in it, I decided to create a browser extension to give me quick shortcuts to some tool]]></description><link>https://jadedkitty.net/bubble-tools/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5ebe291f20e03010895993c8</guid><category><![CDATA[Development]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma Maguire]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2020 05:48:36 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Though I know how to code and develop websites from scratch, at my day job our internal tools platform is currently built in <a href="https://Bubble.io/">Bubble.io's no-code platform</a> (largely because the original developers didn't know how to, well, develop. I'm slowly working on moving away from it). That being said, it is a very user-friendly platform to create responsive web apps, and, because I spend a lot of time in it, I decided to create a browser extension to give me quick shortcuts to some tools that I normally would need to access manually. Things such as switching a page from the production environment to the development environment quickly, enabling or disabling the built-in debug mode, or a notification when a long database transfer has been completed, which are normally time-consuming or not possible. So, having this goal, I have set out to create this extension.</p><h2 id="the-icon">The Icon</h2><p>I tend to create most of the assets I know I'll need for a project before-hand, so that I can focus purely on the code later. So today, I created the icon for this project:</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://jadedkitty.net/content/images/2020/05/bubble-tools-icon-128px.png" class="kg-image" alt="Icon of a blue bubble filling the center of a grey gear"><figcaption>The Bubble Tools icon</figcaption></img></figure><p>I designed this icon in Adobe Illustrator, using only a few shapes (4 to be exact). I designed this icon so that when the extension is inactive, the blue bubble will become grey. It is also symbolic of the two words in the name of this extension: a bubble, signifying Bubble.io, and a gear, representing the purpose of the extension.</p><p>If you would like to follow along with my development of this extension (and other projects), check out my GitHub <a href="https://github.com/jadedkitty">here</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Wurlitzer Chords]]></title><description><![CDATA[I really love electric pianos, Wurlitzers in particular. I was messing around with a virtual instrument from Arturia and made this today. It's really rough, but I love the chords. Listen to it here [https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.jadedkitty.dev/music/Wurlitzer+Thing.wav]]]></description><link>https://jadedkitty.net/wurlitzer-chords/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5eba2e6820e03010895993a5</guid><category><![CDATA[Music]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma Maguire]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2020 07:00:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://jadedkitty.net/content/images/2020/05/F57C2223-7A03-49AD-8CD6-8D67E71202A5.jpeg" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://jadedkitty.net/content/images/2020/05/F57C2223-7A03-49AD-8CD6-8D67E71202A5.jpeg" alt="Wurlitzer Chords"/><p>I really love electric pianos, Wurlitzers in particular. I was messing around with a virtual instrument from Arturia and made this today. It's really rough, but I love the chords.</p><p><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.jadedkitty.dev/music/Wurlitzer+Thing.wav">Listen to it here</a></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Waterlilies]]></title><description><![CDATA[ I found this painting of some waterlilies I did in 8th grade. The art class I attended that year was my favorite part of school and I was always excited about it. It amazes me that I have explored so many creative outlets in order to cope and deal with my emotions, yet somehow I move on so quickly that I only recognize my creations years later.]]></description><link>https://jadedkitty.net/waterlillies/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5eb8e6c8b634c50682070183</guid><category><![CDATA[Artwork]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma Maguire]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 10 May 2020 07:00:00 GMT</pubDate><media:content url="https://jadedkitty.net/content/images/2020/05/IMG_2848.jpeg" medium="image"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="https://jadedkitty.net/content/images/2020/05/IMG_2848.jpeg" alt="Waterlilies"/><p/><p>I found this painting of some waterlilies I did in 8th grade. The art class I attended that year was my favorite part of school and I was always excited about it. It amazes me that I have explored so many creative outlets in order to cope and deal with my emotions, yet somehow I move on so quickly that I only recognize my creations years later.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[On imposter syndrome]]></title><description><![CDATA[I often find myself feeling incompetent while completing tasks at work. I am a self-taught web developer, and everything I know I have learned through trial and error as well as a significant Google search history. I frequent some web development communities around the internet and have found a common theme: a lot of developers feel like they have no idea what they are doing, despite having jobs in the field. We feel like we have somehow tricked people into believing that we know more than we do]]></description><link>https://jadedkitty.net/on-imposter-syndrome/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5eb8e56db634c50682070170</guid><category><![CDATA[Thoughts]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma Maguire]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 09 May 2020 07:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<!--kg-card-begin: markdown--><p>I often find myself feeling incompetent while completing tasks at work. I am a self-taught web developer, and everything I know I have learned through trial and error as well as a significant Google search history. I frequent some web development communities around the internet and have found a common theme: a lot of developers feel like they have no idea what they are doing, despite having jobs in the field. We feel like we have somehow tricked people into believing that we know more than we do.</p> <h3 id="whydowefeelthisway">Why do we feel this way</h3> <p>I learn by doing. When my manager interviewed me for my current position, he asked what experience I had with various technologies and languages. I explained that even if I did not currently have experience with something, I can usually figure it out and make something usable with it. The vast majority of what I have created during my time in this position I have learned as I worked. This ability is a double-edged sword, because despite my capability to learn and develop usable products I still feel like I know nothing. I feel as though the only knowledge I have is how to go to Stack Overflow and copy code that someone else has written. I have seen a lot of developers experience this same feeling of being an imposter due to the way they learn.</p> <blockquote> <p>Skill is not what you know, it is what you can learn</p> </blockquote> <p>I think this commonality between developers is because of a warped perspective. Our skill as developers is not limited to the amount of code, we can write off the top of our heads, but in our ability to understand, copy, modify, and adapt the code of others. And this is not limited to development. Any field or task can benefit from this ability and is probably doing so without knowing it. Anyone who has had to write research papers knows that most, if not all, information comes externally. You must clearly state a claim, back up that claim with sourced information and references, and create a work that combines the information while arguing a position.</p> <h3 id="achangeinperspective">A change in perspective</h3> <p>The perspective from which you view your abilities ultimately determines how you feel about them. Rather than a negative angle of "I'm incompetent and don't know what I'm doing", you can view it from a positive angle of "I may not know what I'm doing now, but I can learn and gain the knowledge I need". A positive angle changes the way we feel about ourselves and our skills. I may not be lead developer at Google material yet, but I know more now than I did a month ago and in a month's time I will learn even more. We all grow and improve and learn gradually, it is not an instant process. We need to be kinder to ourselves and think of how far we have come and how much we have learned rather than how much we do not yet know.</p> <!--kg-card-end: markdown-->]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[An alarming poem]]></title><description><![CDATA[A loud alarm awakens me My foggy eyes slowly clear, That someone burnt some toast again Is the worst that I fear I lay back down and stare up at the pale plaster overhead, Wondering if I should abide by the rules And get out of my bed Should I stand and go out the door And avoid the possible fine? Or should I close my eyes and risk it To rest my tired mind Maybe while I slumber, If the fire is real, The flames will embrace me with their warmth And we shall both go out together]]></description><link>https://jadedkitty.net/an-alarming-poem/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5eb8e518b634c50682070161</guid><category><![CDATA[Poems]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma Maguire]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2020 07:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<!--kg-card-begin: markdown--><p>A loud alarm awakens me<br> My foggy eyes slowly clear,<br> That someone burnt some toast again<br> Is the worst that I fear</br></br></br></p> <p>I lay back down and stare up at the pale plaster overhead,<br> Wondering if I should abide by the rules<br> And get out of my bed</br></br></p> <p>Should I stand and go out the door<br> And avoid the possible fine?<br> Or should I close my eyes and risk it<br> To rest my tired mind</br></br></br></p> <p>Maybe while I slumber,<br> If the fire is real,<br> The flames will embrace me with their warmth<br> And we shall both go out together</br></br></br></p> <!--kg-card-end: markdown-->]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Welcome to my blog!]]></title><description><![CDATA[I’m attempting to do something creative every day, so I’ll be posting something here every day (no matter how terrible). Feel free to look around if you like. Status [https://app.netlify.com/sites/jadedkittydev/deploys]]]></description><link>https://jadedkitty.net/welcome-to-my-blog/</link><guid isPermaLink="false">Ghost__Post__5eb8dbbcb634c50682070152</guid><category><![CDATA[Thoughts]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Emma Maguire]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 07 May 2020 07:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I’m attempting to do something creative every day, so I’ll be posting something here every day (no matter how terrible). Feel free to look around if you like.</p><!--kg-card-begin: markdown--><h3 id="status">Status</h3> <p><a href="https://app.netlify.com/sites/jadedkittydev/deploys"><img src="https://api.netlify.com/api/v1/badges/bc5e3c0b-f693-4220-ab5c-5822d3889962/deploy-status" alt="Netlify Status"/></a></p> <!--kg-card-end: markdown-->]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>