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Descarga | Avant Windows navigator theme

 THEME:  Summer fun at the beach

INVITATIONS:  Cut round circles and color one side like a beach ball.  On the other side, use California beach slang, such as:

            “Hey, dudes and dudettes–slap on your best beach gear and come hang out at the Indoor Beach Party.  Don’t let winter chill you out!  There’ll be a prize for the baddest beach threads, and we’ll have some really rad activities!  Bring your fave beach snack for munchin’ and blow off this winter scene–totally!”

     This is a fun party for all ages, from teens to adults.

MATERIALS FOR ACTIVITIES:  Two surfboards or plain wooden boards of similar size; two large bowls; wrapped hard candies; two plastic pitchers; two clear plastic glasses; two or four rolls of Life Saver candies; large box of sand; 20 pennies; blackboard and chalk or whiteboard (or poster) and marker; team prize for the competitions, such as kiddie sunglasses for each team member; prize for best beach outfit, such as a pair of underwater goggles; music for dancing, if desired (Beach Boys, etc.) and stereo; prize for dance contest, if desired, such as a beach ball or water wings; video of old beach movie and VCR, if desired.

FOOD:  The guests will bring snacks, and you can provide the cold pop–six-packs in various flavors, packed in an ice chest.  You might also provide something more exotic, like a fresh pineapple.  Set the food out on a table covered with a beach blanket or large beach towel.  Serve in creative containers, like large seashells, a diver’s mask, little plastic boats, etc.

DECORATIONS:  First of all, have the party room warm and well lighted, as the guests will be wearing summery clothing.  In two clear corners, create two famous beaches, such as Malibu, Waikiki or Palm Beach.  If you have local beaches, you could use those names.  Label the beaches with signs and try to recreate something that beach is famous for.  Borrow some potted palms for Palm Beach, or make palm trees on the wall with colored construction paper.  For Malibu Beach, you might spark some laughter by setting up a scene with Malibu Barbie and Ken in their beach buggy, etc.  Light blue cloths or curtains could hang on the wall as an ocean backdrop.  You could display diving or surfing gear, if you have access to it.  In other areas of the room hang colorful swimsuits, beach towels, beach posters and Beach Boys album covers.  Near the refreshment table, you might set up beach blankets and umbrellas on the floor.  Have Beach Boys surfin’ music playing softly in the background during the competitions.

 BLOW-BY-BLOW:            As guests arrive, assign them equally to the two (or more, if the group is large) different beaches.  Each beach team then uses this time to come up with its own cheer.  When the teams are complete, they each give their cheers, and the competitions begin.

Surf's up!

            The first competition is the Surfing Race.  It will require three people from each group, usually two boys and a girl.  The teams choose their contestants before the race is explained.  Give the boys from each team a surfboard or similar piece of wood, and they hold it between them while the girl sits on it.  On a signal, the groups race to the end of the room and back.  The team to arrive first gets a point on the board.

            The next contest is the High Dive, which requires one representative from each beach.  You (the host/hostess) provide the contestants with one pitcher of water each.  On the floor are two empty glasses.  These they must fill at least two-thirds full from the position of standing on chairs.  The one who spills the least water on the floor gets the point for her team.

            The next event is the Underwater Swimming Race.  One contestant is chosen to represent each beach.  Give each one a deep bowl filled with water at the bottom of which are several wrapped candies.  He is seated at a table or may kneel on the floor in front of the bowl, keeping his hands behind his back.  At the signal, the contestant must bob for the candies, getting them out with his mouth.  The first one to get all the candies out wins the point for his team.

            The next event, the Life-Saving Contest, is announced, and two representatives are chosen from each beach.  The two partners stand four or five paces apart, facing each other.  Give one side several Life-Saver candies, which they must toss, one at a time, to their partners.  The other side must catch them with their mouths.  The team which catches the most wins the point.

            For the last event, the Buried Treasure Race, one contestant is chosen from each group.  (Make sure that every person on each team has the chance to compete in at least one event.)  This could be the tie-breaking event!  A large box of sand is placed at one end of the room; the representatives line up at the other.  Twenty pennies are buried in the sand, ten for each team.  On a signal, the contestants race to the box, dig their ten pennies out with their hands, and race back.  The first one back with all ten pennies wins the final point for her team.  The beach with the most points on the board wins a team prize.

            After this, you  award a prize to the guest with the best beach outfit.  Then serve the refreshments, and turn the music up.  Guests may dance, if desired, or, after eating, you may show a video of an old beach movie.  If you choose to dance, a spontaneous dance contest–whether ’50’s style or the current craze–adds to the fun, and you may award a prize to the winning couple.

The theme of a WordPress blog is like its skin, its graphical interface… So the theme is part of the blog’s identity.

Should that identity be preserved across platforms, even when some of the platforms are mobile? A recent post suggests that it typically isn’t. WordPress.com’s mobile default is a mobile theme, rather than a mobile version of the blog’s “main” theme.

For self-hosted WordPress, there are several plugins available. The most popular seem based on the rule: if mobile platform, then mobile theme.

There are some aspects of theme design that don’t translate well to mobile. For example, the theme for this blog shows a lot of white space. That doesn’t work on mobile, when there isn’t much space to spare.

On the other hand, colors do work on mobile. The WordPress.com CSS upgrade doesn’t let me tweak the color scheme of the mobile themes. I wish it did.

For self-hosted blogs, it might be good practice to have a little CSS file that specifies colors, and other aspects of themes that carry over well to mobile, and invoke that file from every theme the blog uses.

I’m sure someone has written a good, thoughtful account of aspects of theme design, and the extent to which each aspect should be similar or different between mobile and other themes. If you know of it, please leave a link in the comments.

As you may or may not have noticed, many of November’s unFold poems have featured some aspect of the writing life.  This correlates nicely with NaNoWriMo, so we are now officially calling it the November theme.  If you hadn’t noticed or you just want to procrastinate before writing your daily quota, check out unFold’s NaNoWriMo collection.

unFold’s editor, Rose Auslander, enjoyed having a common thread amongst the poems so much, that she has devised some themes for upcoming months as well.  While poems do not have to fit within a theme to be published in a given month, we hope the themes will serve as inspiration to poets plagued with a blank page.

Upcoming themes:

1. February 2010:  Zoology (Wanted: Mammals, amphibians, fish, insects, and reptiles — alive or dead.)
2. March 2010:  Automobile (Cars breaking/making weird noises/being fixed/being unfixable–onomatopoeia welcome.)
3. April 2010:  Technology (Poetry that uncovers the art of technology.)

Submissions are wide open for the months listed above, so check out our submission guidelines and get writing;-)

Cheers,

J.S.

Bonjour à tous,

Noël approche et Famicity aimerait vous permettre d’échanger autour de ce merveilleux moment. Très souvent, lorsque l’on invite ou lorsque l’on est invité pour les fêtes de fin d’année, il y a toujours de nouvelles idées de recettes. Nous les trouvons excellentes mais nous finissons en général par oublier de les partager.

Alors maintenant, plus d’excuse ! Vous avez l’outil tout trouvé pour partager très facilement les recettes de chacun à l’ensemble des personnes invitées et même plus ! Il suffit d’écrire un post dans votre journal. Plus tard, grâce au nouveau moteur de recherche, vous pourrez retrouver très facilement les recettes partagées par vos proches !

Génial non ? Nous vous proposons donc cette semaine de faire découvrir à vos proches les recettes de noël que vous appréciez tant !

Très bonne semaine à tous,

Jérôme & Guillaume

Co-fondateur de www.famicity.com

Qu’est-ce que le thème de la semaine ?

I decided to change my blog theme yesterday. James Eez visited me and I noticed that his new theme was milder to the eyes. I said that I would change my theme to that of his. So I did. I hope you like it. And thanks for your serendipitous visit James.

Just worked on setting up my blog and now I’m pretty satisfied with it so I’ll leave it at that. Looks pretty good to me.

Descarga | Stomp metacity

Ο ανώνυμος λαός θα παραμένει μονίμως άφωνος μέσα στη στάχτη των αιώνων. Θα ξαφνιάζεται πάντοτε από τις πυραμίδες στο Νείλο, από τον πολιτισμό των Μάγιας, από τον φευγαλέο βηματισμό του ανθρώπου στο φεγγάρι, από το ελικοειδές γενετικό αποτύπωμα. Θα τα λέει με τους φίλους, όχι όμως συχνά. Η καθημερινή επιβίωση λειτουργεί σαρωτικά και παρασύρει μαζί της την ιστορία και τη μεγαλοσύνη της οικουμένης. Ο βιαστικός πολίτης -κεντρική φιγούρα παντού και πάντα- θα ήθελε ν’ αδράξει μέρος της δόξας των άλλων, αλλά δεν έχει την πρακτική ικανότητα, παρότι και στις μέρες μας οι λίγοι που μεγαλουργούν δεν ανήκουν σε βασιλικές οικογένειες, ούτε γεννήθηκαν με την επιστημονική πορεία προδιαγεγραμμένη. Πάλεψαν πολύ. Παρ’ όλα αυτά, αυτός ο βιαστικός πολίτης, όταν στριμώχνεται, όταν φτωχαίνουν γύρω του οι αξίες, όταν οι ψυχές γίνονται ρηχές, τότε κατεβαίνει στους δρόμους και ολοφύρεται. Ο συνήθης καθημερινός άνθρωπος (αφιερωμένο στο Πολυτεχνείο).

Στις ΗΠΑ, ο συνήθης καθημερινός άνθρωπος ζει στους ρυθμούς της ύφεσης. Σιωπηλά, χωρίς κραυγαλέες συμπεριφορές, λες και χάθηκαν οι σύγχρονες Βαστίλλες. Χωρίς στοχασμούς, χωρίς την αίσθηση που ο Ευρωπαίος έχει για τον κοινοβουλευτισμό, μόνος απέναντι στους μετασχηματισμούς της αμερικανικής κοινωνίας. (Η θεωρία του ατομικισμού δεν είναι ό,τι καλύτερο.)

Ο Αμερικανός, λοιπόν. Ενας μοναχικός καβαλάρης που κάποιες φορές πέφτει στα νύχια αρπακτικών που βάλαν στόχο ζωής να πάρουν την μπουκιά από το στόμα του λαοφιλούς Ομπάμα. Στο όνομα μιας ξεπερασμένης από τον χρόνο ρεπουμπλικανικής Δεξιάς, βουλευτίνες και αυτοαποκαλούμενες συγγραφείς κερδίζουν πόντους και χρήμα, εκμεταλλευόμενες τον ανθρώπινο πόνο και την άγνοια των πολλών. Οχι, δεν είναι αντίγραφα της Θάτσερ, ούτε κατά διάνοια της Μέρκελ. Είναι ένα συνονθύλευμα οπισθοδρομικών ατόμων, με σημαία τους τον άκρατο συντηρητισμό και τη θεοκρατική αντίληψη. Μην πάει ο νους σας στη Σάρα Πέιλιν γιατί έχει παραφορεθεί, παρότι όπως γράφεται, το βιβλίο της προκαλεί φρενίτιδα στους ρεπουμπλικανικούς κύκλους.

Το νέο ανερχόμενο αστέρι της ρεπουμπλικανικής δεξιάς είναι η 53χρονη μελαχρινή Μισέλ Μπάκμαν. Κατάγεται από τη Μινεσότα και την καταβρίσκει αποκαλώντας τον Ομπάμα σοσιαλιστή (για τους Αμερικανούς, σοσιαλιστής ίσον κομμουνιστής). Αν δεν είναι μια ακόμη τρέλα των μίντια, μάλλον κάτι φοβιστικό θα είναι. Ο βρετανικός «Ομπσέρβερ» την περασμένη Κυριακή είχε δισέλιδο αφιέρωμα στο κίνημα «Tea Party». Κομψευόμενες κυρίες, μέσης ηλικίας, συνοδευόμενες από αποτυχημένους συζύγους και τους μαϊντανούς κλακαδόρους μαζεύονται και συζητούν τα προβλήματα της Αμερικής επί προεδρίας Μπαράκ Ομπάμα. Και φυσικά, όλα τους βρωμάνε. Από το σύστημα περίθαλψης ώς τις αμβλώσεις. Από τους γάμους ομοφυλοφίλων ώς το οικονομικό πακέτο ανακούφισης της αμερικανικής οικονομίας. Δηλώνουν όλες βαθιά θρησκευόμενες, κι αν κάτι «ατμοσφαιρικό» αναδύεται από τα απογεύματα τεΐου είναι ότι η Αμερική απειλείται από τον ίδιο της τον πρόεδρο!

Η Μισέλ Μπάκμαν μαζί με την 39χρονη Μισέλ Μάλκιν και την 48χρονη Αν Κόουλτερ αποτελούν κομμάτι του «θηλυκού» αμερικανικού συντηρητισμού.Η ανθρωποφοβική Μισέλ Μπάκμαν δηλώνει παθιασμένη με το Χριστό , ξεσηκώνει τα πλήθη στις συγκεντρώσεις της και προσδίδει μια μάλλον ανησυχητική μορφή στο κόμμα των Ρεπουμπλικανών, περισσότερο λευκό και περισσότερο νότιο, σε εποχές που οι δημογραφικές αλλαγές παραχωρούν εξουσία και λόγο σε άλλες πολιτείες και σε μειονότητες.

Ούτε η Μάλκιν ούτε η Κόουλτερ είναι εξαπτέρυγα της Μπάκμαν, αλλά είναι εξίσου μαχητικές και ενδεχομένως εξίσου επικίνδυνες. Η Μάλκιν  γεννήθηκε στην Αμερική από γονείς Φιλιππινέζους. Δηλώνει μπλόγκερ και συγγραφέας. Εχει γράψει τέσσερα βιβλία, το τελευταίο της είναι το «Culture of Corruption» και μπορεί να μη συναγωνίζεται τη «Νέα Σελήνη» της Στέφανι Μέγιερ, αλλά τα όσα γράφει μπορεί να κάνουν κάποιους ευφάνταστους να σκεφτούν τους σύγχρονους βρυκόλακες. Εκτός αυτού, τα λιβελλογραφήματα κατά των Δημοκρατικών είναι το φόρτε της.

Η πολιτική αναλύτρια Αν Κόουλτερ έχει γράψει επτά βιβλία. Το τελευταίο της, τον Ιανουάριο του 2009, με τον τίτλο «Guilty. Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America» στοχεύει να ταπεινώσει τους Δημοκρατικούς. Η Κόουλτερ τους θεωρεί ξοφλημένους, κομμουνιστές, άθεους και εμμέσως «αδελφές». Αν όχι όλους, πάντως κάποιους. Για του λόγου το αληθές -διαβάζω στον «Ομπσέρβερ»- προεκλογικά πέρσι αποκάλεσε από τηλεοράσεως «αδελφή» τον υποψήφιο Τζον Εντουαρντς. Παρ’ όλα αυτά, πολλοί στην Αμερική τη βρίσκουν ηρωική φιγούρα και διόλου απίθανο, με τη βοήθεια του Fox News, να τη δούμε να εξελίσσεται σε «Οπρα» της αμερικανικής δεξιάς…

Τα συναισθήματα και οι στοχασμοί δεν μπορούν μονίμως να περνούν στο περιθώριο. Αποτελούν συστατικό στοιχείο του καθημερινού ανθρώπου που ενίοτε κατακλύζει τους δρόμους.

Δημοσιεύθηκε στην Καθημερινή 22-11-2009

ριτς

Just last night, I uploaded my custom banner at the top of this blog. I wanted to use something other than the stock photo that was originally here, but something that I felt looked good. I wanted something original. So, I took some pictures of my face, played around with them in photoshop, and the outcome is what you see at the top of the screen. This is the reason why I chose this format for the blog. I wanted to be able to have something in it that makes it different from another blog that might use the same theme. It shows that it’s mine, and it’s the best I can do with WordPress online (I’d download WordPress, but I would need a host, and I am currently saving up my money for more important things I am going to need soon).

And, yes, the glasses I am wearing are the ones from Sears.

-Tony

Yes I know it’s a bit early for getting all christmasy but I found this lovely theme that I had never got around to installing and thought i’d give it a whirl.
You will need both of the following files.
Download the archives (zip’s)
Snow Theme
LighthouseBlue GTK Theme engine
In most installations you can just right click your desktop click “change desktop background” and select the “theme” tab then you will see a button at the bottom marked “install” click that and then select the files you downloaded. You can customise your themes further by clicking “customise”

I think it will probably last until twelfth night but we’ll see if I can stand that much festiveness, is that a real word, I wouldn’t think so.

I decided to look through various Mozilla Firefox themes today since I've not changed my theme for over a month now. After doing a little bit of searching, I decided to make the theme Black Stratini my new default Firefox theme.

The light-colored original version of the Stratini theme is nice as well, but I went with the dark version of it since it goes nicely with my customized dark Windows XP theme.

Damn, is it ever nice!

Posted via email from HikiCulture – A Forum For Reclusive People (and Hikikomori) {HikiCulture.Com Site Blog}

Mate Soulmate SPDP  

Short Fiction – A Tasty Story

By

VIKRAM KARVE

Pune. Fergusson College Road. Vaishali Restaurant. 5 PM on a Sunday evening.

Crowded. Crammed full. Jam-packed. All tables occupied chock-a-block. Aisles teeming with people waiting with watchful eyes for signs of someone finishing their refreshments.

Suddenly I see a woman waving to me, beckoning me with her hand. Her face seems familiar – oh yes, she is Ravi’s wife. She is sitting all alone on a table for two with a half eaten masala dosa in front of her.

I walk towards her and give her a smile.

“Sit down, sit down,” she says to me, gesturing with her hand towards the empty chair opposite her, “Sit down here with me, otherwise you will have to wait for hours.”

I sit down opposite her and say, “Thanks.”

She summons a waiter and orders peremptorily, “SPDP.”

“Two?” the waiter asks.

“No, one SPDP for Madam,” she says pointing to the empty plate in front of me without even bothering to ask me, then she pauses for a moment and tells the waiter, “and get one Kachori for me.”

Before I can recover my wits, she says, “You like SPDP don’t you? Ravi told me.”

“Yes, I love the SPDP at Vaishali. In fact I come all the way here every Sunday…”

“To spend the day reading in the library opposite followed by an SPDP at Vaishali,” she completes my sentence.

“Ravi told you all this?”

“Of course. He’s told me everything about you. Ravi admires you so much, he always talks about you.”

“Really? But he never tells me anything about you.”

“What’s there to tell? I am only his housewife, you are his office wife.”

“Come on. Please don’t say that. There is nothing like that between me and Ravi. We are just colleagues – workmates…”

“Workmates?” Ravi’s wife interrupts, and then says with a hint of sarcasm, “I think you are his true soulmate – and I am only his mate!”

I am struck dumb, feel a bit uneasy, but suddenly the plate of SPDP is kept in front of me, so I look down and begin to eat.

“I’m sorry,” she says, “Don’t get angry. I was just teasing. I want you to be Ravi’s friend. He likes you so much. That’s why he is so happy in office and doing so well in his work.”

I stop eating; look up at her vacuously, wondering what to say.

“Ravi appreciates you so much he even brings you home to me every evening in his thoughts and talks…that’s why I wanted to meet you.”

“We’ve met before…”

“Only once, that too only an introduction, at the Office Annual Day get-together…we are hardly married for three months, you know, and you all are so busy, with your targets and all, so I decided to meet you, talk to you, get to know you better, make a friendship…”

“You mean…”

“Yes, I contrived this coincidence. I came to the library also, but you were so busy browsing that I did not want to disturb you, so I waited here in Vaishali knowing you would surely come for your SPDP.”

“You’re not eating your Kachori,” I say, trying to change the direction of the conversation.

“Here, you eat,” she says pushing her untouched plate of Kachori and katori of whipped curds towards me, “I am all full – I ate an Uttapam, Idli-Vada Sambar, god-knows-what, waiting for you to come…”

She leans forward and casually picks up a Sev Potato Dahi Puri from my plate, pops into her mouth and says, “Wow. I love the chatpata flavour of SPDP – you call it Umami taste or something – that’s what you told Ravi, isn’t it?”

“I think I’ll go now,” I say, feeling distinctly uncomfortable, making up my mind to have a long talk with Ravi the moment I meet him in the morning at work.

“No, no, don’t go, I want to show you something.”

“Show me something?”

“Yes, that’s why I came all the way here to meet you.”

We finish the SPDP and Kachori, I insist on paying the bill, she doesn’t object too much, and then she takes me to the drapery section of the Shopping Mall nearby.

“We are furnishing our new house,” she says, pointing at the curtain cloth on display.

I look at her clueless.

“I like yellow, you like blue, and since you have told him about the aesthetic cool tranquil beauty of the blue colour, Ravi is besotted with everything blue – blue shirts, blue trousers, blue table-covers, blue bed-sheets, blue napkins, the sober blue everything that you make him buy…”

I look furtively and self-consciously at the blue dress I am wearing, and say, “Okay, tell me which curtains you like.”

She points to a bright yellow floral print and says, “I like that one, I love yellow, so lively and cheerful… I hate sober gloomy colours, especially blue, it depresses me.”

Next morning at the office, Ravi says to me, “Hey, keep yourself free in the evening. We’ll go to Deccan for some shopping. You’ve got to help me select curtains for our new home. Then we’ll have SPDP at Vaishali.”

“Sure, Ravi, I’ll love to come with you,” I say.

Now I’ve got till evening to decide one thing – which colour curtains should I tell Ravi to buy – Yellow Curtains or Blue Curtains?

VIKRAM KARVE

 Copyright © Vikram Karve 2009

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com 

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve 

Appetite for a Stroll

vikramkarve@sify.com

Humans have been telling stories to each other since time immemorial. They serve a deep psychological and sociological need. Let us examine a few key concepts:

WHAT IS A STORY?

Quite simply, it is a journey of inter-connected events with a beginning, middle and an end providing

• dramatic fulfillment
• education
• knowledge
• entertainment
• emotional stimulation and,
• a satisfying conclusion (we love closure)

Stories began as visual medium when our forebearers painted images on cave walls. or drew with sticks in the sand. They were accompanied by words or grunts. As complex language developed, stories were increasingly verbalized, and later on written. Stories today can be exclusively composed of images, written words or speech, but often times are a combination. Cinema is primarily a visual medium, with a lesser proportion of words (dialogue). Television is more dialogue based than cinema in general.

A story must have a purpose. For instance, the Australian Aboriginal woman at a rock formation called “The Devil’s Marbles” in the Northern Territory told stories to keep youngsters away from these rocks to avoid danger. A story can be as dry as a depiction of actual events or “life-like” events. Even fantasy fairy tales emulate “life-like” events through suspension of disbelief. Whatever dungeons and dragons we use, the events in a story must feel authentic .

Stories also need a theme (exploration of the human condition). What topics or concepts is your story exploring? Racism? The power of the human spirit during disaster? Love always triumphs over evil? Revenge? And the list goes on. This has been discussed in an earlier blog in the 36 dramatic situations by Georges Polti.  Be careful that you are only exploring one central theme and perhaps one or two minor ones. Otherwise your story loses focus which must be found.

In order to make a story compelling, there must be a protagonist (hero), a goal, a dilemma, conflict, an antagonist (nemesis) and a moral (leading to growth) to create a complete experience. And more importantly, an audience. Stories help us communicate with each other, and add meaning and enrichment to our lives. They bring people together through sharing and help us evolve and grow stronger.

Dramatica defines story as a grand argument dealing with a problem or an inequity. Huh? Basically, it raises the issue of a hero with a conflict as they are yanked from their natural world through a critical or inciting incident, and how they go about solving it.

During a recent seminar by Jen Grisanti (a Hollywood writers’ consultant and wonderful person too), she spoke of the importance of finding your story. What is the writer specifically trying to say? Why are they taking up her with a series of events? Is your story too episodic? What do you want your audience to get from watching your film? What message are you trying to convey to your audience?

The movie “Tootsie” spent close to a decade in development until the writer Larry Gelbart finally decided that ‘Tootsie” was a story about a man who had to become a woman in order to better understand them and himself. It wasn’t so much a story of desperation, the lengths people go to to make it as an actor, or about a guy liking to dress up. Consider “What Women Want” with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt which was essentially the same story with body rather than clothes swapping.

Jen Grisanti sees stories as media for building communities. Pretty powerful stuff. A good story must have clarity and must be relevant to the times. How does the story make you feel? These are primal concepts, but difficult to nail down. It must also possess deeper symbolism to have a greater impact on us. She sees the important aspects of raising the emotional stakes in a story as being

• anticipation
• expectation
• participation
• surprise and,
• a delayed payoff

WHAT IS A PLOT?

A plot is simply the way a story is executed, or a cause and effect series of events. A road map. It is the mechanics of your story; how the sequence of events are put together. Many writers confuse the two and think writing event after event constitutes a story, especially in action films. Is your plot linear, non-linear or avariant? Classic examples of unconventional plotting include “Memento”, “Reservoir Dogs” and “Run Lola Run”. Plot also relates to structure, the most common being the Aristotelian three act structure. Is there a clear concept or story idea, which is more specific than a theme? Good versus evil isn’t a story concept.  Is there a well defined central/main character with a clear motivation, goal, a dilemma and obstacles. One way to enhance your plotting is to consider what is the worse case scenario if your main character doesn’t achieve their goal. The ultimate failure to achieve a goal is death.

Subplots are secondary or tertiary storylines. Some readers have complained that, because a writer hasn’t really found their story, some subplots are actually more intriguing than the main plot. It happens in unpolished scripts. Even to me! Another problem I recently grappled with is my choice of main character to drive the plot. In the end I switched the boy to a girl (literally not surgically) and everything fell into  place.

FINDING YOUR VOICE

These are the less tangible qualities that define you as a writer. Jen Grisanti claims that many newer writers lack a distinct voice which distinguishes them from other writers.

This is a difficult process of self exploration. It means that we need to delve deeper into our psyches than ever before. She made us define a critical or life changing incident where the rug was pulled from under our feet and we are forced to deal with a new reality. Sound familiar? In doing so, we help shape our characters which are products of our creativity and therefore ourselves. Imagine placing your profile on a social website. Think of how you would describe your personality? What are your likes and dislikes? What do you value most in your relationships with other people? Certain patterns will emerge which define you as an individual. Are you easy going? Wound up tight? Chatty? Pensive? Conventional? Alternative? Think about how a producer might discuss what qualities you possess as a writer. If a project is greenlit and a producer is looking for a writer and they say “This project is perfect for xxxx (insert your name)”, it’s because of your voice.

Part of finding your voice involves common themes in the stories we like to tell. Are we animal lovers? Philanthropists? Comedians? Feminists? Optimists? Cynical? Interested in human suffering? Are your characters strong, successful people? Are you strong and successful or do you aspire to be? Are characters underdogs? What is their disposition? Happy? Smarmy? Cheerful? Quirks?

Finding your story and finding your voice is rather like wanting a quick definition of the meaning of life. The only way to find it is to keep searching. And the search lies in the writing. So what are you waiting for?

This last week, we finally decided what to do for BB’s birthday. He had grand plans, but with an impending cross-country move, we’re watching our budget. We also aren’t sure he’ll have enough kids come to make a pizza-parlor/game type of party, so we decided to go back to our standby, a cool bouncer in the front yard with food of his choice and a sundae bar for dessert, along with cake. The theme is Army, and I’ve got all kinds of decoration/game ideas, though with his temperament, I may have to back out of the Nerf gun/marshmallow shooter ideas for fear of someone flipping out with a bullet or marshmallow in the eye.

But, to the point…I sent invitations to the entire class on Wednesday. All 20+ kids, and asked for RSVP. (I know that RSVPs aren’t foolproof, but it’ll at least give us an idea if kids are coming and how much food to buy.)

Chirp. Chirp. That’s the crickets as we wait for the phone to ring.

I know there’s a major holiday in a few days, but if I’d waited to send out invitations after Thanksgiving break, we probably wouldn’t have given them enough time.

I know people are busy, but I still can’t help but worry….what do I do if he has few to no kids? (Okay, wait, I know he’s got one coming at least.)

This is an issue a child shouldn’t have, worrying if he’s going to have birthday party guests to celebrate with.

I have to stop worrying and just keep planning. Camouflage decorations, little Army men all over the yard, and face painting to match the theme. No goodie bags of cheesy toys and candy no one wants, but some homemade cookies in some Army-ish shape I have yet to decide upon. Maybe some game prizes, not sure yet.

How does everyone else handle birthday issues?

“BB: Is this what you mean when you speak of “general interaction”?

JFL: Yes, that’s what that means, and it will be one of the two major themes of the exhibition. It’s the first theme, and I see it as the basis of the entire discussion of the postmodern, which is a subject the French don’t yet know very well, since they’re always turned so completely in upon themselves.

[...]

The exhibition also has another theme that tries to give legitimacy to this “monstrous neologism – the immaterials”; we make the point, obviously enough, that all of the progress that has been accomplished in the sciences, and perhaps in the arts as well, is strictly connected to an ever closer knowledge of what we generally call objects. [...], they are only a question of complex agglomerates of tiny packets of energy, or of particles that can’t possibly be grasped as such. Finally, there’s no such thing as matter, and the only thing that exists is energy; we no longer have any such thing as materials, in the old sense of the word that implied an object that offered resistance to any kind of project that attempted to alienate it from it primary finalities.”

A Conversation with Jean-François Lyotard with Bernard Blistène, auf: http://www.kether.com/words/lyotard/index.html

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Татах

Diesmal schreibe ich etwas total Unpolitisches. Versprochen! Ich weise nur dezent, wie es meine Art ist, darauf hin, dass es wieder was Neues von mir zu hören gibt. Ganz neu ist es nicht, hat auch schon ein gutes Jahr auf dem Buckel, war aber jenseits seiner ursprünglichen Funktion als Theatermusik für “Sehnsucht Ahoi” niemals wo zu hören. Es ist ein Thema, das eine Reise antritt durch Stile und Genres, jegliche Grenzen und Konventionen ignorierend, und letztendlich wieder bei sich selbst anlangt. Ob gereift, geläutert oder gar erleuchtet? I don’t know. Just listen:

The poll will end on 25 Nov 2009.

I’ve been playing around with scene composition lately. The chapters for Gemini City alternate between the two plotlines in a steady pattern for the most part; this means there’s a greater danger in the story growing repetitive to the point of redundancy. I don’t worry about this with Gavin’s story as much; falling from a position as a top assassin to a demon-possessed bicycle courier guarantees a lot of change and growth. Meet new people, experience new symptoms, look for revenge in spare time, etc. Jyre and Felia’s story, though, with slower-paced conflict and many introductions of minor characters as they acclimate themselves to the city’s underworld… Yeah. Something to watch out for.

So, instead of avoiding repetition, I’ve been thinking about how to use it to best effect. One of the things I most enjoyed while reading Perfume by Patrick Suskind was how every character that took the MC under his wing/tried to exploit him ended up insane, in ruins, or dead soon after they parted ways. There was a common theme of the MC being a malevolent force that doomed people to sorry fates like some sort of spiritual plague.

My focus is more on composition than theme at this point, but I’m aiming for something similar in using repetition to sharpen the effect of the different experiences characters have as they meet and negotiate with Jyre and Felia. Ideally, I want readers to recognize the pattern and look forward to how it will deviate at the end.

And now I should get back to writing instead of merely thinking about it.