How fares your summer?
...And if you're in Earth's southern hemisphere, how is your winter?
...And if you're on another planet, well............... please answer in the comments how you're reading this blog!
This remarkable summery photo, "Wish You Were Here: 1905," found at Shorpy. Click on the image to see more detail — it's not your typical early 20th-century shot.
Photo: "binary easter egg" by Rakka
A few sites of note I recently found while surfing:
1. FlowingData is a well-designed and -organized online locale which helps readers
...explore how designers, statisticians, and computer scientists are using data to understand ourselves better—mainly through data visualization. Money spent, reps at the gym, time you waste, and personal information you enter online are all forms of data. How can we understand these data flows? Data visualization lets non-experts make sense of it all.
A few entries I like:
-- "Little Red Riding Hood, the Animated Infographic Story"
-- "Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis"
-- "17 Ways to Visualize the Twitter Universe"
2. The Addictionary is a social word site. Users make up words, create definitions for made-up words, vote on other users' humorous wordy concoctions, and connect to others who enjoy doing the same. From their "About Us" page:
If you add a word or definition to the site, drop a comment here. I'll post a link to it so other readers can check it out.
Members of the Twitterati may follow The Addictionary on Twitter. The site's "snowflakes" have a new book out, too—Addictionary: Brave New Words.
3. A view into the secret life of Peeps. Because I always wondered how marshmallow peeps were made, and this photo set answers it for me*:
"How Peeps are made" from The Chicago Tribune (via Chris Glass)
* A video of the entire factory process would be even more enlightening!
Photo: written by louveciennes
Deadlines are soon for a few of these, so read on and write quickly.
1. SMITH Magazine is featuring three ongoing writing projects:
° Six-Word Momoirs — A challenge to "define your motherhood experience in just six words." Contest deadline is May 8, 2008.
° Six-Word Memoirs — Their ongoing ultimate flash-autobiography contest. The Smith Magazine book, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs from Writers Famous and Obscure, is currently on sale now and features many past submissions from readers. Sounds like they might be working on volume 2.
° Brushes With Fame — Ever ran into someone famous? Would you like to share your story? Here's a venue for you to do so.
2. McSweeney's has announced its "Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award." If you are a woman 32 years old or younger, winning this could help you complete a novel currently in progress. Deadline is May 1, 2008:
The Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award is a $2,500 grant given in memory of Amanda Davis. Amanda Davis was a very gifted writer and close friend of ours who passed away in March of 2003, at the age of 32. She was an irreplaceable person, one who created and nurtured communities wherever she went. She loved to write, loved being a writer, loved to read, loved the existence of books, and wanted happiness—personal, professional, spiritual, shoe-related—for everyone. She really did...
3. Personal Democracy Forum will be publishing "Rebooting America: Democracy in the 21st Century, an anthology of essays from leading thinkers and activists" and is accepting essays from the general public. Editors will pick three winning essays to add to the book. Click for more details here. Deadline is May 1, 2008.
Know of any other worthwhile projects/contests out there? Drop a comment and I'll list them.
Writers need motivation—always. It's part of the job. Finding what motivates one is key; however, writers can get sidetracked from writing while spending time "researching" what moves them to wordiness. But that is a post for another time...
Motivational mantras and quotations sometimes get me in flow, often the funnier, the better. Laughter dislodges writing blocks and gets my thoughts moving again. So when I found a site where I could make my own motivational posters, I went a little crazy. Silly crazy, that is.
Here are a couple I made. Feel free to be motivated by them, also. If you'd like to make your own, jump on over to the AutoMotivator.
This image came up randomly for the first poster I made, and interestingly, I have written a couple of posts about the monarchs' miracle migration to Mexico here and here. I find their journey and Mama Nature's mysterious processes inspiring.
Ah, funny but true. I'm still giggling softly to myself over this one. (P.S. I'm making a stack of even sillier motivational posters which I'm keeping under wraps. Perhaps I'll unveil them during the wordy mayhem of NaNoWriMo this November.)
So, what are you waiting for?
Thanks to the quality visual wit of [BB-Blog] for this find.
Photo: The Nine Muses by dunechaser
How is your muse?
You don't know, you say?
When was the last time you talked with her (or him, or it, or them)?
What?
You don't remember?
It is time to starting talking, my friend.
Ask all the right questions, and listen intently.
With the canyon of silence between the two of you,
You must begin to repair your work relationship at once.
Immediately.
Your writing and creating depend on it.
I recommend the following approach:
Sit quietly without distraction (like teh Interwebs, caffeinated beverages, and juicy blackberries of both fruit and tech kinds).
Ask one question without speaking it aloud. (Muses do like quiet minds and spaces.)
Then wait and listen.
And wait.
And wait a bit more.
Do you hear her (or him, or it, or them)?
Do you recognize the voice? The words? The advice?
Listen carefully and then ask a second question related to what your muse has shared.
Keep listening, keep talking.
A conversation has begun.
Make a promise to talk to and listen to your muse regularly.
Write down key points of your talks — the inspiring mantras, the mysterious phrases which repeat and make no sense, the common-sense reminders of good writing habits.
Review them often.
Acknowledge that your writing needs this ritual,
And that nothing great is ever created alone.
(Or, as my muse-coach likes to bellow, "It takes team work to make the dream work!")
Some wise people I know bake delicious blueberry pies for their muses. It takes them, and their writing lives, very far indeed.
Love of grammar in the "real" world always catches my eye. Someone really has a passion for grammar to have created this: introducing the game Grammar Ninja.
Test your knowledge of grammar at three difficulty levels: beginner, skilled, or master grammar ninja.
National Novel Writing Month starts at 12:01 AM, November 1st, wherever you are. (Just follow your local time, and you'll be fine.)
I'll be wrapping up my outline after the Halloween festivities this evening, and tomorrow, I'll roar through my first 1,667 words (at least) to make sure I'm off to a good start and to create some nice momentum for myself.
To present and future Wrimos, here's a great resource from Mahalo: How to Win at NaNoWriMo. Under Step 4, it is stressed how important it is to start (with a brief mention of my post—thanks, Nicole!):
The main reason people fail at NaNoWriMo, say participants, is that they didn't start. If you don't write anything on November 1, you're already behind on your word count. Kristin Gorski gives a great scenario of what happens if you don't start on November 1.
To all, have a happy, safe and fun Halloween. Because I'm such a huge fan of LOLCats, I could not resist sharing the following picture. This kitty is going as "Emo Cat" for Halloween. Enjoy!
Lolcats are all over teh Interweb. Their creators combine extremely silly captions, photos of cute cats (and, increasingly, other animals) and similarly styled fonts to hilarious effect. Also known as "cat macros", these images spread via Web forums, email and now blogs. The popular site "I can has cheezburger" features new and classic versions of these images, and takes its name from the "original" lolcat shown above.
The post "Cats Can Has Grammar" by Anil Dash features an excellent discussion on lolcat grammar and syntax. He picks up on one point that has fascinated me as I've watched these images pop up everywhere:
The rise of these new subspecies of lolcats are particularly interesting to me because "I can has cheezeburger?" has a fairly consistent grammar...
On I Can Has Cheezburger, blog commenters write in what Dash terms "kitty pidgin" in response to posts. As many languages are currently in danger of extinction, it's surreal to see this living slang language evolving and proliferating. I wonder how long it will last — is kitty pidgin a fad, or will it become a firmly established sub-speak of "Web"?
No matter its future, it is presently another example of how, in Blogville, grammatical slanderings and language misuse are getting the big laughs.
Dash also provides a complete round-up of lol sites, and the comment thread brings in some additional lol sites, too. They are worth the trip — I was much more ROFL than LOL after checking them out.
Related posts:
° Passive-aggressive notes = lots of !, bad grammar
° Ali G. and Noam Chomsky discuss language
° "Literally?" No, literally.
