I’ve had a couple of people ask for the directions to building the Mickey Mouse micro-brick figure. I have photographed them and put them in a gallery. I’m in the process of moving, and I’m not able to add them to the video. Hopefully these photos will work just as well. Let me know if you make use of them. Thanks!
Continue readingCategory Archives: Creativity
Where Does Real Motivation Come from?
(This article contains affiliate links. Making a purchase from one of these links won’t cost you any more than normal, and it helps fund our blog. Thank you.) I was trying to come up with a post for Monday Motivation, and everything I thought of fell flat. I could write about a motivational song like, Smash Mouth’s “All Star” or Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down,” or I could choose a quote attributed to some famous person, like “if you can dream it, you can do it” – not said by Walt Disney. I could tell the story of a famous person who started of bankrupt and found his or her way to fortune – Walt Disney, again. None of those feel right.
Continue readingNabisco’s Animal Crackers: How to Sell More Cookies
While the idea for animal crackers came from England, it was Stauffer’s that produced the first animal crackers in the United States in 1871. The factory was in York, PA. While Stauffer’s are the original in the U.S., Nabisco’s animal crackers may be the most famous. In 1902, Nabisco jumped into the animal cracker business. They used the Barnum name from the famous circus for their animal crackers. These snacks were put in boxes resembling train cars with animals caged in them. They featured a string across the top of the box.
Continue readingKnocked Down? Three Sayings to Help You Get Back Up
(This article uses affiliate links. If you order from the affiliate link, you pay the same amount, and our blog get s a little support. Thank you.) If you want to live a creative life, you’re going to have to face failure, rejection and hard times. With the Internet, you can have complete strangers review your work and describe it as terrible in the most graphic and demeaning ways known to man. The trolls are going to look to knock you down, especially as you become more successful. Don’t let them.
Continue readingHall-of-Fame Rocker Neil Young and Mickey Mouse: the Surprising Connection
Neil Young’s star was taking off just as Walt Disney’s was setting. Young was touring Canada as a solo artist in 1965. In 1966, he formed the “Mynah Birds” with Rick James, which was signed to Motown. The group had problems when James was arrested for being AWOL from the U.S. Military. Still, Young went to Los Angeles where he formed the highly successful Buffalo Springfield in the same year. It was also the year Walt Disney, the creator of Mickey Mouse, died.
Neil Young’s Invention
Ben Young, Neil’s son, has cerebral palsy. Growing up, Neil wanted to be able to connect with his son, so he built a 700-foot model train track. He then designed a controller that Ben could use to control the trains. In 1995, Lionel Trains was threatened with bankruptcy. Neil put together an investment group and bought the company, so he could continue his experiments with model trains. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 2008.
Mickey Mouse Hand Car
Flashback to May of 1934, and the great depression has taken the life out of the Lionel. It’s facing bankruptcy but goes into receivership. Two months later, Disney’s marketing genius Kay Kamen comes to Lionel with a plan because he believes in the company. Lionel could make and sell a windup Mickey Mouse Hand Car. They do, and by Christmas, Lionel had paid off its debts, and by January, it was out of receivership.
The Connection
While Walt Disney had a love trains in common with Neil Young, the connection Neil shares with Mickey Mouse is they both saved the same model train company from bankruptcy.
Lessons of Creativity
Neil Young is in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. His creativity comes out in his music, but that didn’t stop him from dabbling in something new. He wanted to share his love of trains with his son. He saw a need and figured out how to fill it. Neil Young was no dabbler in trains though; he had been playing with them since he was five. It was Kay Kamen’s belief in Lionel that led him to offer the company the opportunity to turn their fortunes around. The company said yes to the offer. “Yes” is often the most powerful word.
For more on creativity, follow this blog and join our Patreon. You can also get my books: “Disneyland Is Creativity,” “The Haunted Mansion Is Creativity,” and “Penguinate! The Disney Company.”
Four Ways to Improve Your Happiness
In Mary Holm’s “Rich Enough?” (affiliate link) Holm connects the reason for investing is to be happier. There’s no point in being rich if you’re unhappy. In the research she looked at, she found that there were ways to use your money to improve your happiness even if your income doesn’t make you a millionaire.
Continue readingCelebrate Failure Like You Celebrate Success
Celebrating success comes easily to Americans. You see professional football players dancing in the end zone, even if their touchdown didn’t mean they won the game. You see confetti pour out of the ceiling at NBA games, even when the team is no longer in the playoff hunt. You get a bonus in your paycheck when the company has a banner year… Well, we can dream that’s what you would get if you were a part of the company’s success, and I’ve heard they do that somewhere. And by all means, celebrate your success! You earned it. However, success isn’t the only thing you should celebrate. You should also celebrate your failure.
Continue readingRemember Your Creativity with “So, You Think You Can’t Draw”
On Monday, July 27, 2020, the last in the “So, You Think You Can’t Draw” series is going live over at Patreon. This episode focuses on putting the shapes together to come up with a simple drawing. It’s designed to take all of the things you’ve practiced over the previous six episodes and help you visualize what a drawing can be in its easiest form. These are the drawings that you did as a child – the ones your parents put on the fridge and the ones that delighted your grandparents. You will remember your creativity and bring it back into your life.
Episode 1
The first episode, which you can see in its entirety on YouTube (or above), focuses on lines because they are the basis for everything else you’re going to do in drawing. Lines are the first thing you need to learn and practice. They seem easy, and they are, that’s the point. However, how you use the line will determine what you get from your drawing. The more you draw, the better you will get at the skill.
Boost Your Confidence
There’s a voice inside your head that tells you that you cannot, or should not, do things. Sometimes, this voice is correct. You can’t fly without a mechanical assist. You shouldn’t walk around the streets naked because it’s against societal norms. Much of the time, however, this voice is wrong and probably doesn’t belong to you. Instead, it belongs to the doubters, some of whom are well meaning, in your life.
If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
Vincent van Gogh
In creativity, believing you are creative is the first step to becoming more creative. I Designed “So, You Think You Can’t Draw” to show you, and that doubting voice, that you can draw. If you can draw, maybe, you’ll begin to believe you can be creative.
A New Series
I have other ideas for the series, but I need some help putting them together. These will highlight the things we did as kids without realizing it and remind you that you are more creative than you think. You just need to remember it. If you’d like to see more of this type of content, join our Patreon and let me know. That’s where the rest of this first season is, so you’ll find out the five other shapes you need to know to draw anything.
Other Creativity Help
If you’re ready to take the next step to becoming more creative, follow this blog. Pick up my books: “Disneyland Is Creativity,” “The Haunted Mansion Is Creativity” and “Penguinate! Positive Creativity.” Join us at Patreon, as well; it’s the best way to get more of what you want and to interact directly with me and help create content you want to see. Let’s get together and help you remember your creativity.
My Favorite Jimmy Buffett Songs and Creativity
When I joined the Walt Disney World College Program in 2012, I was assigned a custodial position at Saratoga Springs and Old Key West. I worked at a couple of the other resorts, but these were my home base where I spent most of my time. By far, my favorite place to work was Old Key West. No matter how few people there were, I always had a great soundtrack for my workday, and on the playlist were several Jimmy Buffett songs. These are three of my favorites from Jimmy Buffett after listening to more of his music. (This article contains affiliate links. If you order through these links, you support this work, and it doesn’t cost anything extra. Thank you.)
Continue reading298 Consecutive Days of Posting
About 299 days ago, I decided that I would commit to publishing 365 consecutive days of posting. Somewhere along the line, I ran across a motivational speaker, who said something like “If you can commit to 365 days of anything, you can succeed.” I don’t know if that’s true or not, yet. To be honest, my other website, www.penguinate.weebly.com, which I can’t access from my current location, is still doing better than this blog in terms of income and in spite of the fact that I haven’t published anything new there for more than a year. I even pulled the most popular post from that website and put it here: Internal Communications of Southwest Airlines.
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Penguinate! Positive Creativity 