Free Idea Factory

An adult playground. No, not that kind.

When I go to the park, I still use the swings and the monkey bars. Some years ago, as an adult, I went to a waterpark which has zip lines over a pool where you can slide down and drop it.

Mostly though, this stuff is aimed at and sized for kids. I want a playground with adult-size versions of different playground items.

For example:

• swings that are mounted 30 feet above the ground and hence have a massive arc
• serious monkey bars
• giant rope swings in to water or foam pit
• zip lines from tree to tree
• giant teeter-totters (kids versions have been removed from parks to due lawsuits of fear of them)
• giant hamster ball as used at Flaming Lips concerts
• giant rope ladders
• trapeze
• obstacle course

Don’t forget to throw in various gymnastics-type equipment.

Have a blast.

In literacy training I learned a technique to help new writers overcome their reluctance to write, or their discomfort with writing (it differs from speaking or reading because it’s a commitment to the action that is not so easy to retract–if you say or read something wrong you can always backpeddle with “Oh right, that’s what I meant to say.” but if you write it down, it’s there in print and much more difficult to gloss over as anything other than a mistake), and I thought it could be a good method for beating writer’s block for some people (though, I don’t know for sure, I’ve never actually experienced writer’s block myself, and can’t even imagine what it would be like…I need a writer’s cork most of the time) because it gets the brain into the writing state of mind in a way that’s completely non-threatening. It gets the engine started without the worry of where are we going. The technique (like all good techniques) is very simple. Fill a page with writing. Write anything at all. Write your name, write the letter “m”, write blah blah blah, write words you see around you, copy out of a book within reach, write anything until you fill a single page. Then throw it away.