Time passes

I'm a posting a little later than I'd originally intended tonight. I started playing around with an idea for a new theme for this site earlier, and it quickly devoured a surprisingly large chunk of my free time. I'm normally very careful when it comes to my spare time, and it's only rarely that I lose any without being able to provide a full account of it. Almost without fail it's related to whenever I attempt anything creative. I still remember when I started work on my very first web site (six years ago now - has it really been so long?). I began to dig into it at around midday and, after a fruitful couple of hours labour, I decided to pause for lunch, only to discover it was by then 8pm. The discrepancy amazes me still. Possibly I could have been kidnapped by aliens, but I prefer to think I was adrift in a bout of intense concentration (that explanation also goes down better with the nice men in white coats and their extra comfy padded rooms)

The other problem with trying to make things is that I usually start off with a wonderful idea, and then try to birth it kicking and screaming into the world - it rarely survives the process entirely unscathed. Sometimes the end result is wonderful - better than I initially conceived on occasion - sometimes it isn't. But no matter which way things fall, it's rarely as I originally imagined. I'm not complaining, since I like the unpredictability of the creative process, never knowing where a particular path will lead once you start down it, but every once in a while I have an idea that just looks right in my head and it would be nice to show it off to other people.

Then again, it may be better all concerned if I keep the contents of my head out of the public eye...