April 2012
72 posts
March 2012
51 posts
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Killed at Home: White Plains, NY Police Called Out... →
A neglected story from last November: a man accidentally tripped his medical alert bracelet in his sleep. The White Plains, NY police that showed up to respond, rather than to assist, broke down his door and shot the man to death. (Article linked in the title.)
It sounds ridiculous and oversimplified, but that’s what happened. There were some racial epithets and some mockery of the...
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My Links: Pinterest Rivals, and a Skilled Artist.
I don’t like Tumblr’s link option for posting a new item: in some formats, you can’t tell there’s a link there at all. It resembles the headline (it is the headline) and, depending on your color scheme and layout, a reader may never be able to discern that it is a link. I’m going to circumvent this dire malady by posting my own links in text.
I just wrote a little...
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Bored in Minneapolis?
There are things to do in our fine city. We were recently polled as #2 best music city in the nation, and we host far too many excellent ethnic cuisine restaurants. Stroll around the lakes (take your pick), try some local microbrews, or wander around Downtown West and take your chances against mobs of two dozen young men attacking people for absolutely no reason. The cops are helpless! Hilarity...
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Take The APART Rorschach Challenge →
apartmovie:
If you’re comment has the most likes, you will win a signed poster from the cast of APART!
“If you are comment…”?
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WARNING: Exposure to Video Game Labeling Laws May... →
Reps. Joe Baca and Frank Wolf have introduced a bill this week that would require game publishers to add a “clear and conspicuous” warning label to most new video games. HR 4204, the Violence in Video Games Labeling Act, is only the most recent in a series of legislative attempts to restrict or otherwise hinder speech in the form of interactive media.
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“Never complain, and never explain.”
– Benjamin Disraeli
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Free License
Well, very few people are following my Tumblr and no one’s actively reading it, so… This doesn’t get me down. No. This is my time to “dance like no one’s watching.”
I always put my pants/socks/shoes on right-foot-first. It initially ruffled me when the Army drilled me on marching left-foot-first, but, you know, I adapted.
I have an irrational fear that witches...
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Artist Wanted
I’m about ready to break into self-publishing/e-publishing, and my distributor strongly recommends cover art (whether a novel or a short story). They have a list of recommended cover artists, but I went through them and they made my skin crawl. I seriously think I could mock up something better with Picasa/GIMP.
But I’d rather not! I know my city is full of talented artists, so...
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Shy, Lazy, or What?
So, at long last, I’ve begun submitting short stories and flash fiction for publication with various literary journals throughout North America and U.K. (Canada is generally not very open to hearing from its neighbors to the south, but sometimes I can sneak something in.)
I don’t know why I haven’t done this before. Fear of rejection? Rejection is guaranteed. Aggregators love to...
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George Orwell's list of rules for writers (1946)
Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
Break any of these rules...
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Wrong Name, Wrong Location
Woman in Target: Can you tell me where to find a Nebby-pot? Or nasal spray?
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What I Love About Being a Human
Being a human is something many of us take for granted. We do it every day, it’s happened to nearly everyone we know, and you don’t need a license or any special training to make as many humans as you want—hell, frequently it happens entirely by accident! It’s easy to let this aspect of existence slip beneath the radar.
But I live with two cats, and being around animals...
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Catalog Choice →
Great gobs of geese, I cannot recommend this place highly enough.
When my wife and I moved into our lovely new apartment, we were haunted by the mailing lists of the former tenants. It seems they loved to shop, as we received two or three catalogs daily from various clothing, furniture, and sundry other companies. At first it was amusing, to pore over clothing we had no desire to buy, coupled...
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The Lowly Tumblr Thief
What’s a “Tumblr thief”? Funny you should ask. In its simplest form, it’s someone who reposts other people’s posts after deleting all links to their source and/or editing a graphic image to remove signatures, watermarks, or other identifying features.
Why bother to do this? The thief wants his community to think he’s cleverer than he is, that he’s...
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Ten Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy
Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:
1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
5. Never...
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John Steinbeck's Six Tips on Writing
Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.
Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also...
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Gene Wolfe's Top Five Pieces of Writerly Advice
Get up early and write.
Read what you’re trying to write, for Godsakes! (Don’t read enormous fantasy series if you’re trying to write short stories.)
Remember that it is characterizing that puts your story heads and shoulders over the others in the slush pile.
You do not characterize by telling the reader about the character. You do it by showing the character thinking, speaking and acting in...
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“I just flew in from Virginia, and boy is my vagina tired! From the involuntary...”
– KRISTEN SCHAAL, on The Daily Show (via inothernews)
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Getting Famous and Successful
I don’t know how to get successful, it involves a lot of hard work and just an ounce of good luck arriving at just the right time, so forget it. But I did attend a big important seminar on social media and it offered small “classes” in the afternoon, and one of these was about self-promotion.
That’s not, like, putting on a sharkskin blazer, gelling your hair, and...
tumblrbot asked: WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER WHEN YOU ARE IN A BAD MOOD?
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Never Noticed Chat Before
Me: What the hell's this mean?
(time passes)
Me: Oh! It's like my own personal "Overheard In ________"!
(time passes)
Me: Who's going to care about this?
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Graffiti of Reykjavik →
A short slideshow of some of the amazing murals and art displays we found covering the infrastructure of the capital of Iceland.
