In the spirit of the Rankin/Bass "animagic" style... (that's Hermie the Elf and Rudolph a Rankin/Bass classic)...

Apple created this brilliant Christmas version of their "Hi, I'm a Mac. Hi, I'm a PC" commercials.

Enjoy!

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Monday was Queen's Day here in the Netherlands... a national holiday... We all get the day off to party, drink, and celebrate. (if you're into that kinda thing).

I mentioned that you're allow to sell things without paying taxes... So people have created very imaginative games of skill to pay and play...

Here are a few highlights...

Just like any carnival-style game... they all sound and look deceptively easy, but are not!

Egg Hurling

Throw an egg at the guy for €1 per egg. (Or 6 eggs for €5). That's it. A fun looking and gooey game. We saw several of these throughout the city.

Wooden Shoe Egg Toss

A very Dutch appropriate game... For a price you got a few tries to toss the wooden egg into the wooden shoe. Very challenging.

Quick Draw - Rod Grab

"Are you faster than Lucky Luke?" the sign challenges... If you think you can move as fast as the Dutch cartoon character Lucky Luke can draw his guns, you may try to catch the wooden rods as they fall from overhead. You win if you could catch three of them before they fell to the ground. A very clever device allowed the operator in the rear of the machine to pull a string to release the different rods.

Bottle Hoop Challenge

You have 30-seconds to use a long pole with a string and hoop attached to get the hoop over the neck of the bottle. Again, how hard could this be? But with long poles... long string... light wooden rings... and wind... These kids were cleaning up! And, these kids were very organized. They had kids who cheered... A timer... Whistles... all quite official!

and my favorite...

Knak de Worst

Not only an imaginative game, but also cleverly named. For €1 you were given three tries to smash a hotdog with a small mallet as it slides out the orange chute.

The host would say... "Ready... Go!" and drop the wiener down the tube. Your job was to watch for it as it came sliding out and knock it. Sounds pretty easy, huh? It's basically impossible! (The host of this game admitted he's never been able to do it!)

These novel games would make great additions to a church carnival or perhaps even an Office Olympics!

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In his book How to Be Like Walt, Pat Williams cites what are considered the six qualities that made the work Walt Disney did so creative and innovative. Here's how he explains it in his book...

The Six Factors of Walt's Genius

• Knowledge - Walt had a thirst for knowledge. He tried to impart this love of knowledge to everyone around him... He knew that it would pay dividends for the studio.
• Experimentation - Walt was always pushing the envelope and testing new ideas. He was on a continual quest for discovery, and he encouraged that same spirit in his staff.
• Quality at All Costs - Walt's philosophy was "Whatever you do, do it right." He was always reaching for perfection, and his eye never missed a detail.
• Control - Walt hired the best people and gave them a lot of creative freedom. but he always had control of the final results.
• Vision - Walt's special gift. He had a unique sense of what would sell and what the public wanted to see.

• Curiosity - Walt was intensely curious about everything life had to offer... He had a childlike curiosity about anything and everything.

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Tony Buzan, considered the father of the mind map, offers a list of twenty characteristics based on research he conducted for his 1992 book "Buzan's Book of Genius."

1. Vision
2. Desire
3. Faith
4. Commitment
5. Planning
6. Persistence
7. Learning from Mistakes
8. Subject Knowledge
9. Mental Literacy
10. Imagination
11. Positive Attitude
12. Auto-Suggestion
13. Intuition
14. Mastermind Group (Real)
15. Mastermind Group (Internal)
16. Truth/Honesty
17. Facing Fears/Courage
18. Creativity/Flexibility
19. Love of the Task
20. Energy (Physical/Sensual/Sexual)

Buzan suggests you rate yourself by assigning a score of 0 to 5 for each of these qualities, and then add all the scores together to determine your "Genius Quotient." But before you do... I don't have the scoring scheme (yet) to let you know how genius you are... I need to get this book on the shelves of the Sandbox...

Nevertheless, take look at the first six characteristics...

1. Vision
2. Desire
3. Faith
4. Commitment
5. Planning
6. Persistence

They have nothing to do with knowledge, they're about passion... intention... sticktoitivity.

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While reading "Discover Your Genius" by Michael J Gelb I came across this great passage about transforming a conference room into an Einstein Room.

Einstein's parents encouraged his natural talent for imagination by creating a stimulus-rich, brain-nourishing environment. Psychologists have known for many years that the quality of stimulation provided by the external environment is crucial to brain development in the early years of life. Brain researcher Dr. Richard Restak emphasizes that this holds true for adults as well: "Throughout life, not just during the first few months, the brains' synaptic organization can be altered by the external environment."

Alter your external environment to liberate yourself from "cubicle-consciousness" and promote creativity in the workplace. Take over a conference room and transform it into an Einstein Room. Replace the standard office furniture with comfortable chairs and a couch, bring in fresh flowers and live plants, and hang inspiring art on the walls. Install a stereo and assemble a collection of favorite music. (Einstein particularly loved Bach and Mozart). Fill the room with large whiteboards and flipcharts and stock it with colored pens. Use this room for combinatory play* sessions on important work issues.

*Combinatory Play is the exercise of taking unrelated topics, items, thoughts, etc. and forcing them together to obtain new and novel ideas and apply them to the problem you're trying to solve.

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categorized as genius