Why I am (Finally) Starting an Email List

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I’ve been struggling with this idea of a mailing list ever since Russell Nohelty told me I needed to get one. There are several reasons for this struggle, which I will get into in later posts, but here’s the main reason I’ve decided to go ahead and see if I can build a good contact list:

It will help me keep in touch with you better.

Really, the main reason for any email list is to help keep people informed of what’s going on in the artist’s/author’s/penguin maker’s world without having to worry about an algorithm or some other business suddenly deciding that everything coming from your entire website is spam and won’t be shown to anyone on that platform.

To keep you in the loop and let you in on our processes and our lives, this email list provides the best solution. I wanted to keep it on Patreon where I was doing a newsletter every month, but people haven’t been interested in paying a dollar for it, yet. So, this email list doesn’t cost you anything. Other benefits include (what else you’ll get):

  • Pictures of stuffed penguins
  • Updates on new releases in books
  • Links to travel photos
  • A creativity tip or two
  • Discounts
  • Notifications of our events
  • Did I mention that it’s free (for you)?

Hopefully, this won’t just be a one-way conversation. As an author, I need feedback, and building a virtual community hasn’t really been easy so far. So, if you’re interested in the benefits, please sign up for our email list. (It’s in the beginning stages on July 14, 2019, so there may be some bugs.) We plan in sending out a couple of updates immediately and then once a month – say on the 15th of the month. Of course, you can always join our Patreon and see the great content you get access to there. You can also follow us on our social media accounts; check out the links in the footer below.

Thanks so much,

Shad and Jenya

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Bagel Boss Tirade Required More Kindness and Less Snark

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We all have bad days. There are days when we just can’t deal with our situation. Days when the world seems like it’s too much. Days when our problems are so overwhelming that we lash out at those around us – strangers and friends alike. We all have days when everyone annoys us, when long lines and waiting take their tolls on our patience, or when we can’t understand the logic and motives of others and their actions. We all have those days where we step over the edge into depression, anger or frustration. We all have those days when unsurmountable obstacles seem to be deliberately placed to stop us from advancing.

It’s important to recognize those days in others and to react with kindness.

A short man walked into a bagel place and took offense at the look on the face of the people serving him. It set him off. He cussed at everyone around him, challenged two people to “take it outside,” and ended up getting tackled by someone much larger than him.

We didn’t know anything about him when the video went viral, but social media was quick to label him as Joe Pesci and Napoleon. People called him misogynistic and other names. At the bagel place as far as we can tell from the video, no one bothered to try to understand what the guy was going through. The woman asked him, “Who has said that to you here?” A man told him to “Calm down.” People pointed out the impropriety of his actions, and a man tackled him. The woman filming confirmed she “recorded the whole thing” as she turned around to leave and her friend “just wanted a bagel.”  The store, where the outburst occurred, piled on the man and offered mini bagels to anyone who mentioned the video.

Based on that one video, no one knows anything about what that guy was dealing with at that point in time. No one empathized with him. No one worked to deescalate the situation and find out how to help him. Instead, they challenged him and egged him on. Then, one of the men in the shop tackled him. Not one person showed this man kindness.

I’m not saying that this man’s tirade was right. I am saying the reactions to it left something to be desired. Maybe if someone had responded with a kind word and a little understanding, he would have been able to leave the bagel place feeling better; maybe not. But isn’t it within our morality to try to help him just a little?

Kindness isn’t easy, especially when we are being told every day that we need to be confrontational if we want to be seen as powerful and if we want to win. Being generous with our time is difficult when we are all so busy trying to make a living and get out from under our bills. Being understanding is hard when we feel like no one understands us and we don’t make an effort to walk in the other person’s shoes or make allowances for lapses in behavior.

But kindness is essential for us to survive. As the world grows more uncomfortable and people are living on top of each other, as financial situations become direr and people are fighting to feed themselves and their families, and as we find ourselves in need, it behooves us to do what we would want others to do for us.

Kindness is just good for our society; It’s good for us as individuals. People, who are kind, experience feelings of lasting well-being. We can’t control how others will react to what they are going through and how they will bring that into the world; we can only control how we react. I hope we choose kindly.

‘Cleaning the Kingdom’ Provides an Upbeat, Honest Look at Disney Custodial Life

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“Cleaning the Kingdom: Insider Tales of Keeping Walt’s Dream Spotless” is a detail-oriented explanation of what it is like to be a member of Disneyland’s highly touted and highly effective custodial team. Ken Pellman and Lynn Barron tell great stories in bite-sized chunks that make this an easy and entertaining read, especially if you have any sort of connection to Disneyland throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. They don’t shy away from more difficult topics, like vomit, slacking or death. They give an honest appraisal of what it was like to work at Disneyland.

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The Secrets of Creativity: Paradox

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“As we approach, please notice that there’s a dock on the left, and a dock on the right. But don’t let it confuse you. It’s a paradox.” – Skipper from Disneyland’s The Jungle Cruise. (http://www.wdwvacationtips.com/ten-best-jungle-cruise-jokes/)

Creativity and creative endeavors are fraught with paradoxes. It starts with Csikszentmihalyi’s creative personality theory (Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention). He came up with ten traits, which he admits are somewhat arbitrary, that every creative person exhibits. They are introverted and extroverted. They are often at rest and often in motion. They are smart and naïve. They are playful and disciplined or responsible and irresponsible. They deal in fantasy and reality. They are humble and proud. They are masculine and feminine. In short, creative people tend to have personality traits that are diametrically opposed to each other and that manifest at different times according to the creative’s need.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. – F. Scott Fitzgerald. (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/f_scott_fitzgerald_100572)

This embodiment of paradoxical character traits probable comes from the equally paradoxical needs of human beings. As individuals, we want to be safe. We want to provide a good home for our family and fit in with those around us. However, we also want to explore. Watch how children act. They look at everything. They ask all the questions. They can be found at the edges of the playground where the concrete meets the bark dust or the grass meets the sidewalk. For the species to survive, people need to explore; they need to engage in activities that aren’t safe for the individual. In today’s world, creatives want the safety of a job with a paycheck, but they also want to be able to strike out on their own and find work in their art form.

“Seth Godin says that for any creative person, for any person doing work that matter, the two opposing thoughts are: ‘This might work’ and ‘This might not work’.” – The Editors at the Good Men Project. (https://goodmenproject.com/ethics-values/the-marshmallow-test-two-opposing-thoughts/)

In “Let the Elephants Run” (p. 73), David Usher says that the best way for creatives to harness their creativity is to “develop a routine.” For a process that is steeped in the ideas of the Eureka moment and ideas coming at any time, a routine seems like a paradox. However, “ritual is the key to keeping your creativity alive” because it emphasizes to your brain and to those around you that you are going to be doing something different. It also keeps you putting gin the effort, even when the inspiration isn’t there.

Can you see how something can be an individual’s fault AND the fault of the system that person is a part of? A man who steals bread to feed his family is wrong, and a system that requires his family to starve, even when there’s a surplus of food, is also wrong. Can you harness the power of delayed gratification knowing that you want the reward offered now but you also want a better reward offered later, which won’t be there if you take the first reward? Taking your full paycheck now is something everyone wants to do, but putting a percentage of the paycheck into a matched retirement plan is better. You can’t take both, so you have to acknowledge your conflicting desires and choose the better of the two.

Once you become okay with paradoxes, you’ll begin to see the manufactured false dichotomies of our society. More importantly, you’ll begin to harness more of your creativity.

Thank you for supporting our Patreon!

Man Vs. Machine: How the Assembly Line Leads to Creative Decline

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There’s a reason why the robots, cyborgs and machines are winning – and it all starts with the assembly line. The assembly line puts a person in place to specialize in doing one thing. Day after day, the employee does the same job, has the same responsibilities, and is used for his or her body. The mind stagnates. Creativity dies, and the employee becomes really good at, and sometimes blurry-eyed because of, the one thing he or she is supposed to do. Even with specialization, people mess things up because people aren’t made to specialize. It’s something that’s been forced upon humanity in the name of efficiency and profits. A person’s greatest strength isn’t in the ability to do the tedious job day after day; it’s in the ability to create.

Robots and machines are able to stand and do the same thing day after day without stop and without thinking about it. In fact, they were created to do just that – boring, mind-numbing jobs that people have a hard time doing. They can do these jobs better, faster and more reliably than people.

However, people don’t want machines that specialize; they want machines that do everything. Our phones are nominally phones. You could make a call if you wanted, but you’re most likely going to text someone. You use the Internet. It’s a GPS. It records notes in vocal and written form. It’s an arcade and movie theater. It takes pictures of everything from the latest Internet challenge to your last cup of coffee. It reminds us when to do things and can be used as an alarm clock. The phone has become the ruler of our time and our energy. It has even replaced our memory. How many phone numbers do you have memorized? If you lost your phone and had to borrow someone else’s, would you know who to call?

We can do almost anything with our phones, and we can’t do anything without them.

A lot of information is stored on the Internet, so we don’t bother to remember it because we know we can find it again. This is one important way that our new technology is detrimental to human beings’ most defining characteristic. Creativity requires that two formerly unrelated pieces of information intersect. If we don’t have that data in our mind, we won’t ever connect them. Search engines return groups of data that fit together and already have an intersection.

Machines don’t need AI to rule us. They just need to take away our ability to adapt and create while occupying our time. As they grow to become more general and we become more specialized, they will become us, and we will become them. In many respects, we are already there.

The ABCs of Creativity: Thinking

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While thinking may seem like an obvious trait in creativity, it’s important to examine what people think is obvious and what it means to the subject at hand. It’s part of being curious. In creativity, there are two accepted modes of thinking: divergent and convergent.

Creativity is filled with diametrically opposed qualities. The thinking required to get you there is no different. Divergent thinking is being open to new ideas and is the important part of the idea generation process. It’s usually done at the beginning of a project and when more ideas are needed. Brainstorming is a popular form of divergent thinking.

Convergent narrows down the ideas to come up with one that will work for the problem at hand. If you continually think divergently, you’ll never wind up doing anything. Convergent thinking allows you to focus on one idea and bring it to fruition, or at least far enough along to find out whether or not it will work.

Both types of thinking have their places in the creative processes if you’re looking to bring something into the world. If convergent thinking is applied too soon, it could limit creativity. Divergent thinking brought in at the wrong time could derail a project for something seemingly better. Learn to apply these to your deep thinking, and get better at creativity.

For more on creativity, join our Patreon. Get “Disneyland Is Creativity” and “The Haunted Mansion Is Creativity.” Also available with activity suggestions is “Penguinate! Essays and Short Stories.”

Pay-It-Forward Penguins Take Flight

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Checkers and his Bright Light Nails family were the first to jump in and pay the adoption fees for one of our Pay-It-Forward Penguins. Checkers has been having so much fun in New Zealand that he and his family decided to help someone else experience the joy of having a stuffed penguin friend this holiday season.

Jenya and I were so excited when we saw that the first official Pay-It-Forward Penguin was already on its way within the first hour of posting the project on our website: www.penguinate.com. Join Checkers and Bright Light Nails this holiday season and pay a penguin forward for a child at the Salem Holiday Market in Oregon. We will also be donating a dollar to the Global Penguin Society for this penguin adoption.

Checkers is the salon penguin for Bright Light Nails. He loves chocolate and traveling through New Zealand when he isn’t helping with the great promotions and nail work being done in the salon. There’s been talk that he will get his own Instagram account, but for now, you can find him at the Facebook and IG accounts for Bright Light Nails. Thanks again to Checkers and his family!

(The first Pay-It-Forward penguin was adopted to a girl at Lilac City Comicon 2019. The adoption fees were paid anonymously. That interaction was one of the factors in creating an official program.)

Heroes of the Haunted Mansion: Yale Gracey

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Yale Gracey joined the Disney Company in 1939 as a layout artist. He worked on “Pinocchio,” “Fantasia” and “the Three Caballeros.” In 1959, Walt Disney set Gracey up with Rolly Crump and gave them a large room on the second floor of the animation building. They were instructed to come up with effects for the Haunted Mansion.

As the son of an American Consul, Gracey grew up in various places and had to learn to entertain himself. He filled his days with “Popular Mechanics’ and the book set called “Boy Mechanic.” He also practiced magic.

Gracey had no formal training in special effects, but his curiosity often led to him building miniatures to see if he could get an effect to work. According to Bob Gurr (Kurtti, p. 72), Gracey was given the time and space to tinker without deadlines, and Walt was fine with whatever new thing Gracey invented.

Gracey projected the face of the Magic Mirror on everything in the room one day. It led to the development of the Madame Leota effect (Kurtti, p. 73). Gracey also put the Pepper’s Ghost effect to use in the Haunted Mansion to create the Ballroom scene. Gracey died under mysterious circumstances in 1983.

Gracey tried to do new things. He tinkered, and he followed his curiosity. You can do the same thing. Follow your curiosity and create something new.

Sources: “The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic” by Jason Surrell.

“Walt Disney’s Imagineering Legends and the Genesis of the Disney Theme Park” by Jeff Kurtti.

For more on creativity and the Haunted Mansion, get “The Haunted Mansion Is Creativity” online or at the Candy Cane Inn in Anaheim.

For more on Disneyland and Creativity, order “Disneyland Is Creativity.” For deep thinking about the Disney Company, check out “Penguinate! The Disney Company.”

You can also find more articles about Disney, Disneyland and creativity at our archive website, www.penguinate.weebly.com, and on our blog. If you would like to get even more articles about creativity, join our Patreon and become a Penguinator.

Disneyland Doubles Down on Star Wars

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The opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was either handled correctly or greatly misfired depending on who you talk to. With limits placed on annual passholders, a complicated reservation system that required many guests to stay at the Disneyland Resort hotels, and fears of overcrowding keeping other guests away, Disneyland’s first half of June was light on crowds in the park as a whole. Wait times for HyperSpace Mountain rarely rose above an hour. Other favorites had manageable wait times from 35 to 45 minutes, and many Fantasyland attractions had walk-on wait times of 5 minutes.

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