#Spark Creativity

[openstorygames]

Time is running out! You've got just over 50 hours to grab my kids' games for 25% off!

Go for a backyard adventure with Whither & Whence, be a spy with Encode, or adopt a creature of mischief and chaos in Lil Gremlins. Or triple the fun and get all 3 at an extra discount!

[goodoldbandit]

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” - Plutarch.

Sanjay Kumar Mohindroo Sanjay Kumar Mohindroo. skm.stayingalive.in Let’s stop stuffing minds with content and start lighting fires of inspiration. This post is for leaders who want to spark real growth. Stop Stuffing Minds. Start Sparking Them. Most People Get This Wrong Too many still treat learning like it’s about cramming in more info.
More books. More webinars. More “thought…

[artisticdivasworld]

Daily Habits to Spark Creativity

Unlocking your inner artist doesn’t have to feel like some mystical journey or a talent you’re just born with. It’s something you can nurture every day, little by little, like planting seeds in a garden. Creativity is already inside you—it just needs a little encouragement to grow. The best part? You don’t need fancy tools, hours of free time, or even a studio. You just need a willingness to…

[animeworldoor]

Proven Strategies to Increase Organic Website Traffic in 2024

Increasing a website's organic traffic is a top priority for the majority of businesses, no matter how big or small they are. Getting quality visitors without relying solely on paid advertisements is the key. Organic traffic is the lifeblood of long-term online growth because it comes from people naturally finding your website through search engines.

We'll go over tried-and-true methods for increasing organic website traffic in depth in this blog. You can increase your visibility online and attract visitors who are more likely to engage with your content by using these suggestions.

Optimize Your Website with SEO to Increase Organic Website Traffic

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the cornerstone of growing organic website traffic. SEO is essentially about making your website more accessible and appealing to search engines like Google, which can initially appear overwhelming.

On-Page SEO Keywords,

 meta descriptions, and headers are all part of on-page SEO. You must ensure that your pages are optimized for the terms your audience is searching for in order to increase organic website traffic. Utilizing tools like SEMrush or Google Keyword Planner, conduct keyword research first. Concentrate on long-tail keywords due to their lower likelihood of ranking and lower competition.

Make sure your chosen keywords are strategically placed in your content's title, header, and body, but don't use too many. Your goal should be to produce content that is still optimized but still feels natural.

Technical SEO

 You must also consider the technical aspect of SEO in addition to the content itself. Your search rankings are affected by things like how quickly your website loads on mobile devices, how responsive it is, and how well it is indexed. Make your website more accessible to search engines by making use of tools like Google Search Console to check that it is being properly crawled and indexed. This will help you increase organic website traffic.

 Produce High-Quality Content 

Content still reigns supreme, particularly in terms of organic traffic. Your website ought to be the source of useful information for people who use search engines to find answers.

 Articles and Blogging

 Regularly writing informative articles and blog posts is a great way to boost organic website traffic. You can answer frequently asked questions that your target audience is looking for on blogs. Your site's rankings will likely be favored by search engines if your content is valuable and consistent.

Focus on providing value rather than keyword stuffing when writing blog posts. Try to answer real questions in detail by naturally using keyword variations. This not only enhances SEO but also builds audience trust.

Content Updates Keeping your content current is essential. Websites that regularly update their content are favored by Google. Revisit previous blog posts and update them with new information, examples, or insights. By doing this, you can keep or even raise your rankings, which will help you get more organic traffic to your website over time.

Utilize Social Media Despite the fact that social media does not directly affect your search rankings, it can significantly contribute to the growth of organic traffic. To increase your visibility, share your videos, infographics, and blog posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Engage with Your Audience Engaging with your audience is an essential social media strategy for increasing organic website traffic. Respond to comments, inquire, and promote sharing. Your content is more likely to reach a larger audience if it receives more engagement, which may result in an increase in website visits.

. Content Distribution To ensure that your content reaches a larger audience, distribute it across multiple channels. Utilizing platforms like Medium, Reddit, or even guest blogging on well-known industry websites can bring new readers to your content and increase organic traffic to your website.

Create high-quality backlinks Backlinks are an important part of search engine optimization (SEO) that can increase organic website traffic. Search engines learn that your site is trustworthy and useful when other websites link to your content. However, not every backlink is created equal. Concentrate on acquiring backlinks from high-authority, reputable websites.

[ismailfazil1-blog]

Brainstorming Technique: Generate Ideas, Solve Problems, and Spark Creativity

Are you struggling to come up with innovative solutions or fresh perspectives? This comprehensive guide introduces you to the powerful tool of brainstorming. Discover how to unleash your creativity, solve complex problems, and generate a wealth of ideas through effective brainstorming techniques.

Key Topics Covered:

• Understanding Brainstorming: Learn the fundamentals of brainstorming and its various applications.

• Essential Techniques: Explore traditional and modern brainstorming methods, including mind mapping, reverse brainstorming, and rolestorming.

• Facilitating Effective Sessions: Discover strategies to create a conducive environment for brainstorming, encourage participation, and capture valuable ideas.

• Harnessing Technology: Leverage online tools and virtual platforms to enhance your brainstorming sessions.

• Applying Brainstorming in Different Areas: Learn how to apply brainstorming techniques to business, problem-solving, creative endeavors, and personal development.

• Overcoming Challenges: Address common obstacles, such as groupthink and fear of judgment, to ensure successful brainstorming outcomes.

Whether you're a business professional, entrepreneur, student, or simply seeking to boost your creativity, this book provides practical insights and actionable advice to help you master the art of brainstorming.

[summerfoxcrafts]

Overcoming Creative Blocks and Sparking Inspiration

We’ve all been there, haven’t we?  We finish a project that we’ve been working on and get ready to start on something new.  But as we’re sorting through our various colors of yarn, as we flip through the cross-stitch patterns, as our thoughts jump back and forth from candy molding to soap molding, we find that we’ve hit a wall.  What do we want to work on next?

Crafters are creatives, the same as writers, painters, or sculptors.  Our work is best when it is inspired and full of passion because we put part of ourselves into the crafts that we make.  Of course, the movements can become routine – I don’t stitch a garter stitch any differently if I’m making a scarf for my step-mom or for a stranger.  But you can’t convince me that there’s not an extra element of heart that goes into making something that we care about.

When we’re hurting for inspiration, there are plenty of places that we can look to get motivated and find our creative passion for our next project.

[Link to full article]

[o0kawaii0o]

"I've been thinking of a new recipe lately.."

[ancientroyalblood]

Let Your Imagination Soar: Fun Writing Exercises to Spark Creativity

Writing is an adventure where you’re both the storyteller and the explorer. If you’re looking to stoke your creative fire, or simply want to infuse some fun into your writing routine, you’re in the right place. In this post, we’re diving into a world of writing exercises and prompts that will unlock your imagination and set your creativity free. So grab your pen, and your favorite notebook, and…

[ellie-makes-mbs]

name moodboard for “kodi” for anonymous

[centaurianthropology]

Using the costuming to figure out the budget of ‘Murderbot’

So I kept meaning to write other things, but what ended up lingering in my brain this week about ‘Murderbot’ was something a bit more specific to my training an interests: costuming, and more specifically, how costuming can indicate the budget of the show. 

I’ve seen posts on here and elsewhere criticizing certain aspects of the show for various costuming or setting choices (no drones, far less chrome and inorganic parts on both MB and Gurathin than I think a lot of us imagined, less visual representation of the Feed, things looking “cheap” or “plastic”, etc), and claiming that Apple has an enormous amount of money, so why did the show ‘cheap out’?

I think that A) fundamentally misunderstands that a single television production is not the same as its production company, and B) dramatically overestimates the budget this show almost certainly has.

I don’t think this is a low-budget show.  The CG is solid, the sets are lovely, and none of that is going to be accomplished with low budget, but looking at the costumes it’s clear this isn’t a high-budget show either.  Appropriately for a fairly unknown property, my guess is that season 1’s budget was modest. Keeping run-times down to 22 minutes an episode was likely both a stylistic choice (hooray serial adventure stories!), but was also a budgetary choice. Because every minute that makes it to air is a LOT of money on the table. 

But I can also see the mid-budget in the costumes, but also a lot of creative work-arounds for a limited budget. For one, most characters thus far essentially have two costumes: their civilian clothing (or MB’s armor), and the hab uniforms. And the uniforms themselves are modular, and so a good amount of customization can happen with a single costuming piece (which is both practical in universe, but also great for saving money for wardrobe). That means that more money can go into limited pieces.

There is certainly money that went into these pieces. We didn’t get to spend a lot of time with the original civilian pieces, but the uniforms all required a decent amount of tailoring, at least in the out piece, because let me tell you: jumpsuits are NOT one-size-fits-all. They have to be fitted to every part of a person in order to fit decently, which means each of the actors had a uniform made bespoke for them.  There are also prints (company logo) on a lot of the pieces that would also require custom work. The tunics Bharadwaj and Arada both wear may or may not be custom.

There are a lot of carefully cut corners that almost certainly lowered cost: the shoes, and probably the leggings and cargo pants, look like they were purchased rather than made.  Purchasing a costume piece, especially if you don’t have to purchase a brand name or a designer piece, is the cheapest and easiest way to costume. 

I think that, if they had unlimited budget, everything would probably be bespoke.  Even the fabricated clothing on the hab would be bespoke, down to the shoes (shoes are always the last thing to be bespoke, because very few costumers are also cobblers, and hiring someone to make shoes is VERY pricey).  I think they’d take all the little details they managed to work in, and go even farther with them.   I want to stress that I think the costumers did really well with what they had, and even had a lot of subtle detail worked into their pieces.  Having the company logo as a miniature texture print was particularly great.  And you can get away with the ‘printed’ clothing being made out of inexpensive synthetics, while still making it a stylistic choice.

If anything, I think they would have pushed the budget harder with the civilian clothing if they had a bigger budget. It’s stated that their clothing is hand-made.  If I were costuming the show, I would want their costumes from Preservation to be actually hand-made, with a ton of detail work, all made of natural fabrics to contrast the synthetics in the Corporation Rim.  I would want layered textures, embroidery, bead-work, knits.  I could see them trying to do that with the civilian costumes, but it was there that I still saw what almost certainly were purchased pieces that didn’t quite nail that feeling. And that’s what convinced me that this was a mid-budget show. If they had the budget of, say, ‘Game of Thrones’, very different choices would have been made. I mentioned the civilian clothing, but there would have also, likely, been a lot more obviously inorganic parts on Murderbot, and probably also Gurathin.

Anyway, I have no idea if anyone is interested in my thoughts on budget on a show like this, but it was this realization that made me fine with a lot of visual changes to save money. If our SecUnit doesn’t have metallic feet, and a ton of visible inorganics, I get it. A few visual effects shots of being reprinted (a fun thought!) are way cheaper than having to either provide makeup or costumes consistently to create believable synthetic pieces, particularly if you have to supplement them with CG. So it’s fine. It’s fine if they can’t afford that, or the drones. Hell, having the hab look cheap is not only fine, it’s perfect! This is the budget model, after all. It looks like an intergalactic air-stream, while the DeltFall hab (which was the deluxe version) is far more upscale sci-fi visuals. There is so much visual storytelling going on, not only working within the budget, but utilizing their lower budget to tell a story.

[thegoldenshi-shi]

Been thinking about the Prowler

[spicyavogato]

Late night doodle of my latest fandom obsession

[toast-x-butter]

Afterlife, oh, what a terrible thought

fic: Theseus' Guide to Ruining a Perfectly Good Boat

[captain-astors]

Reading through Witch Hat Atelier, extremely slowly because the art is amazing and I have to stop to marvel at every chapter. Everything about this series is a delight thus far, I would definitely recommend it.

(This is a panel redraw from the first chapter. I'm only on the second.)

[thewanderingmask]

Hermit-a-Day May #2: Grian!