Inspiration Courtesy of Bratz Dress Up Games

Inspiration. The writers of ancient Greece attributed it to the Muses—the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Muses were believed to inspire all artists, especially poets, philosophers, and musicians. Calliope was the muse of epic poetry; Clio inspires historians; Euterpe of lyric poetry sung to the accompaniment of the flute; Melpomene of writers of tragedy; Terpsichore of choral songs and the dance; Erato of love poems sung to the accompaniment of the lyre; Polyhymnia of sacred poetry; Urania of astronomy; and Thalia of writers of comedy.

I however view it differently. Inspiration is just a burst of neural impulses in our brain creating that next big idea that could turn out to be a romantic song, an award winning film, an inspiring book, a breathtaking painting or a sought after dress. I have studied science after all and this bunch of invisible folks inspiring people just do not sit well with me.

But of late, I do not care if it is a big purple dinosaur who will do the inspiring for me. As long as I am inspired I do not care. I am talking about the fact that as a designer and the person who dresses the stars, I have no more creative juices left in me. I am squeezed dry and I feel like every new design has already been done somewhere by someone. All the fashion designers of my age have already put up some major collection but I can’t seem to draw even a single button. Desperate I begin to scour the net for any inspiration I can find. Maybe there is a muse after all for inexplicably, I found myself staring at Bratz dress up games. “This is weird. How did I get in Bratz dress up games?” Maybe my mind wants me to get in touch with the reason why I began to love designing in the first place. Bratz dress up games remind me of the times when I play dress up dolls when I was a kid. I would make paper dresses to put on to my dolls and the longer I play the more that I seem to be improving in my designs. And that paved the way for my career in designing. In Bratz dress up games, the dresses are already there. All one has to do is drag the dress that one thinks would look perfect for the Bratz character. I noticed that most of the clothes there are rather inspired so I took a closer look at the different dresses studied them and made some adjustments n them. Suddenly, I feel an excitement that I thought was long dead. I was inspired to design again!

I have managed to put up a major collection soon after. People began telling me that it is one of my best works and began asking me where did I get my inspiration. Of course, I am sure that nobody will believe me if I say that I got it from Bratz dress up games.

Bratz Games be Playing on my Mind

Bratz games. Bratz games. Bratz games. Every corner that I come to look I can see those two words. It replays on my mind like a bad last song syndrome of some latest pop song or an old broken phonograph playing on a single song over and over again. This is like the old urban legend of the song with the highest cases of suicide: Gloomy Sunday. Gloomy Sunday was composed before world war one by a composer who was rejected by his lady love. Superstitions have come to be associated with this song and musicians usually are hesitant to play this. An old war pilot once listened to this before flying. To his alarm, the song kept playing on his head as if the old record player was beside him despite the noise of all those engines.

That is what I have been feeling today. This word has been plaguing me for weeks now. There must really be a Big brother somewhere. I am a perfectly normal boy with no record of any mental health in both sides of the family. How then could such a word as mundane as Bratz Games be playing on my mind? I try thinking back to the times when I lost consciousness or for any moments where I have a lapse of memory. Alarmingly, there are a lot. Was it in those moments that this phrase has been inserted into my mind? How did they do that when I have never left home in the past few months? Have they entered my home without anyone in our household noticing them? What is its significance? How does it affect me?

These questions seem to form a queue inside my head: Queries that begin anew even before I have finished asking the first question, even before I stop to think of answering the first questions. I am raving I know. But I do not now what else to do. If I stop thinking about these questions, the haunting word with begin playing again in my head. Please, please make it stop. I never thought that something so simple could drive anyone crazy. I am going crazy of that I have no doubt. In spite of myself, I found myself laughing, laughing to the beat of Bratz games in my head. La la la la. Wait. I must not slip away from my own consciousness. I always prided myself of my own logic. I must think this through. I must think straight.

Perhaps it is a message from outer space? That is not logical. Perhaps I have simply seen it somewhere and the word just stuck. Now that is possible. I must have simply seen it in a TV or Internet ad in a site where I usually go. Ok. Now I am focusing properly. How about I Google the following key words? I think that would help me a lot. Gathering what was left of my sanity, I just did that. Turned out, I have nothing to worry about after all.