What you did today

[Tale]

 

Understanding the character is how I know whether they're to be brave or frightened in a situation. Where I know if they'll be curious, what they might be focused on, when they'll be defiant. Without that they're just simple reactions. They can only answer questions and occasionally tilt their heads.

 

Have you tried taking the character, coming up with a few ordinary, mundane scenarios that don't make for a good story but make up important pillars of this guy's life and writing a scene a few pages long for each of those as an exercise? Then write a couple of scenes where something less ordinary happens, the guy is robbed or he won the lottery and he's now having his first amazing holiday and try to imagine the guy being stressed and excited and in every scene where applicable work out a past, and the guy's plans for the future, his pattern of thinking and who the people in his life are ect.  

 

Another way to go may be to imagine a character from a show/movie/book and writing him into the role and letting him evolve into your own creation as the story progresses. Or to imagine an actor/friend/acquaintance and write the role as if for them as a kind of guideline to get you started (not that the character has to be like them, but you can imagine them playing the character in your head).

 

I think I'm satisfied writing a brief biography that includes events relevant to the themes of the book for the moment. But I do like your ideas and would be glad to add them to the toolbox for future use.

[Keyrock]

I went on a 2 hour long bike ride, including a trek up Avon Mountain, which is a roughly 3, maybe 3.5 mile long climb at a 10% gradient.  I took some pictures while up there.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mor]

^beautiful, I am jealous. I don't know if its the summer\winter effect, but pastoral green sights is one of the things I miss the most in my current place of residents. Although, I suppose it only says that I am being lazy, since in couple of hours drive we can visit all nature feature from lush forest green to marvelous desert canyon red shades, and activities from all across the board...

 

Anyway, today I was thankful to the people who still use WEP encryption or stupid passwords

[Orogun01]

I never got what the big deal was with nature, I mean what can you do with it?....or to it?

[Mor]

Or do to you.. if you are planing to play giddy up, keep in mind that when that horse get excited, he is going to grow a fifth leg.. As for nature, any chance that you just take common things for granted i.e. the allure of the exotic?

Edited May 4, 2014 by Mor

[BruceVC]

Well I just got back from that wedding in the mountains and we had a really good time. Apart from the picturesque views and general relaxation the wedding itself was very sincere and meaningful to all the friends of the groom and bride

 

It was a Polish\South Africa theme because the bride is Polish so it was cool to see some of the Polish wedding traditions incorporated into the typical South African wedding structure. For example a Polish tradition during the dinner service is for the wedding couple to eat bread and drink a tot of Vodka, you then break the tot glasses. Also during the grooms speech he did 3 different speeches. One in Polish ( well he attempted to speak Polish ), one in English and one in Afrikaans. But I really admired the fact he tried really hard to get the Polish speech part right out of respect for his wife's family

 

Then the food was excellent and the guests generally very fun and easy to get along with, we drank loads of Tequila. I also met this really attractive and interesting girl who I'll be taking out for dinner. So I can honestly say " what an awesome weekend "

[Walsingham]

Resentful about compromising my holiday to clear the house drains I drank a treble scotch and pretended sticking my hand into rancid solidified fat was some sort of indie kickstarter.

 

Actually quite fun. Although I'm about to soak my hands in bleach to get the rancid smell off.

[ManifestedISO]

England sounds terrifying. 

[Mor]

Indeed, though its nothing out of the ordinary when you do a thorough cleaning, it helps if you don't neglect stuff too much, a lesson I learned in the university after cleaning the kitchen left my hands pealing\hurting for a week :/

 

Btw walsy, just in case you never heard of it, in any homedepo you can get chemical solution that would make your pipes squeaky clean in half an hour..

[Walsingham]

Indeed, though its nothing out of the ordinary when you do a thorough cleaning, it helps if you don't neglect stuff too much, a lesson I learned in the university after cleaning the kitchen left my hands pealing\hurting for a week :/

 

Btw walsy, just in case you never heard of it, in any homedepo you can get chemical solution that would make your pipes squeaky clean in half an hour..

 

I appreciate the thought, but rice starch and cooking fat forms a solid chalky greasy substance that would fend off xenomorph excretions. A big spoon, and abandoning all pretense of cleanliness is a lot cheaper and simpler. Even if I have had a sort of prickly heat sensation all over my hands for the last two hours. I can only assume some sort of abyssal flesh eating bacteria.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Studied quite a bit. Going to play New Vegas then get some sleep.

 

I never got what the big deal was with nature, I mean what can you do with it?....or to it?

*psst* Wrong alt.

[Woldan]

Finally got the present for my uncle's 50th birthday. Its a Swiss bayonet M1889 96/11, made in 1889, one of the finest bayonets ever made, kind of hard to obtain and not cheap either. The quality of that blade not just blows my mind, it nukes the hell out of it. Even high quality blades in the several hundred bucks category are put to shame by this thing. 

Its also razor sharp and very pointy, like it just left the factory, which is cool for a blade thats 125 years old. No oxidation whatsoever and it balances so well it would make a devastating dagger when not mounted on a rifle.  

 

Pics: 

 

 

Photo with my German Solingen M1908B bayonet (bottom). 

 

Edited May 5, 2014 by Woldan

[Malcador]

Bunch of customers visiting, as well as some internal suits.  So this week will be sucky as everyone'll be in the office and we have to be on best behaviour (all part of a further scam of the client as well). 

[Mor]

In case you working in customer service, I'd suggest thinking about other things you can do, because you sound like you are near the end of your "rotation"

Edited May 5, 2014 by Mor

[Malcador]

Sort of a customer service role, mainly listening to them complain about an application or complain about the development I've done as it doesn't meet with some insane specification they've invented.  Right now though, is a bit of unseemly business where we're using the letter of a spec to weasel out of not fixing a POS patch.

[ManifestedISO]

Finally. The fickle collecting-gods smiled briefly. Black Series 6" Stormtrooper figures have been unavailable at normal MSRP, going for double value on Amazon--until today, for a few minutes. Within the last hour, actually. Got two figures for only 10%+ over ... $22.99 vs. $19.99. Moments later, single 'trooper price went back up to $38.99. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guard Dog]

I'd just like to say how much I hate... HATE... HATE the Stihl M180c chainsaw. It is without the crappiest, most useless, unreliable, chewed up, spit out dried up piece of monkey poop that has ever been stuffed into a chainsaw case. It won't start, it floods the engine on the second crank unless you go to half throttle but it won't start from half throttle unless the engine is warm but it can't get warm because it won't start. And even if, by some chance, miracle, or divine intervention you actually do get it started the chain will lose tension after just five minutes of light use. Then when you try to shut it down to tension the chain you find out the damned thing that would not start, now won't shut off because the wretched little cheap misbegotten spring from the spring loaded shut down switch broke.

 

And this miserable SOB was expensive. I could have had a mid model Husqvarna for the same price. Heck I'd have been better off with a box full of trained termites. If I did an Indian rain dance and prayed for lighting the strike the tree it would probably have gotten trimmed a lot faster. I hope the little twit at Ace Hardware in Millington who sold me this thing dies a slow and painful death and that he takes the engineers who designed it with him.

 

/rant

 

Hey guys, I've got a two year old Stihl chainsaw for sale, hardly ever used.PM me if interested.

[JadedWolf]

Hey guys, I've got a two year old Stihl chainsaw for sale, hardly ever used.PM me if interested.

 

You make it sound like such a sweet deal, but no thanks anyway.

[Malcador]

Chainsaw murderers are lazy these days...can't even go find their victims.

[BruceVC]

 

 

Hey guys, I've got a two year old Stihl chainsaw for sale, hardly ever used.PM me if interested.

 

 

 

Hey guys, I've got a two year old Stihl chainsaw for sale, hardly ever used.PM me if interested.

 

You make it sound like such a sweet deal, but no thanks anyway.

 

 

 

 

Yeah GD Jadedmeister is right on this one. You need to work on your  sales and marketing my friend 

[mkreku]

I'd just like to say how much I hate... HATE... HATE the Stihl M180c chainsaw. It is without the crappiest, most useless, unreliable, chewed up, spit out dried up piece of monkey poop that has ever been stuffed into a chainsaw case. It won't start, it floods the engine on the second crank unless you go to half throttle but it won't start from half throttle unless the engine is warm but it can't get warm because it won't start. And even if, by some chance, miracle, or divine intervention you actually do get it started the chain will lose tension after just five minutes of light use. Then when you try to shut it down to tension the chain you find out the damned thing that would not start, now won't shut off because the wretched little cheap misbegotten spring from the spring loaded shut down switch broke.

 

And this miserable SOB was expensive. I could have had a mid model Husqvarna for the same price. Heck I'd have been better off with a box full of trained termites. If I did an Indian rain dance and prayed for lighting the strike the tree it would probably have gotten trimmed a lot faster. I hope the little twit at Ace Hardware in Millington who sold me this thing dies a slow and painful death and that he takes the engineers who designed it with him.

 

/rant

 

Hey guys, I've got a two year old Stihl chainsaw for sale, hardly ever used.PM me if interested.

 

But why didn't you get a Husqvarna?

 

http://www.chainsawsdirect.com/chain-saw-style-reviews/2-gas-chain-saw-reviews.html

[Raithe]

I need to get some research done for work related activity. For some reason, possibly not helped by a patch of wake/doze/wake/doze sleep this past month I've got stuck in a ridiculous procrastination patch and minor pokes rather then solid  get to grips with it.

 

Also, I've been invited to TeslaCon towards the end of the year. I might have to give some thought to suitable steampunk costuming for the occasion.

[Woldan]

Watched ants from two different ant hills making contact, what first looked like a little harmless skirmish with minor losses suddenly turned in a massive full blown battle with one side getting totally annihilated, it was like in a horror movie. The attacking ants (big red & black ones) hunted down and totally slaughtered the small helpless black ones, they bit off their heads by the hundreds, bit them in half, sprayed acid into their faces, chewed the already dead bodies into pieces with their huge mouthpieces, they were totally going insane and even attacked inanimate objects. 

They eventually pushed the little black ones back to their hills entry hole and I watched a seemingly endless amount of big ants invading the enemy hill. I can only imagine whats going on in there right now, a little big drama in my garden. I almost wanted to interfere to help the black ones, but thats nature.- 

 

What have I learned today? Nature is a bloodthirsty b!tch that spits on the weak. And being a small ant sucks. 

Edited May 6, 2014 by Woldan

[aluminiumtrioxid]

Thinking about getting a miniature rose, although nobody I know managed to keep them alive indoors for extended periods of time.

[ShadySands]

Watched ants from two different ant hills making contact, what first looked like a little harmless skirmish with minor losses suddenly turned in a massive full blown battle with one side getting totally annihilated, it was like in a horror movie. The attacking ants (big red & black ones) hunted down and totally slaughtered the small helpless black ones, they bit off their heads by the hundreds, bit them in half, sprayed acid into their faces, chewed the already dead bodies into pieces with their huge mouthpieces, they were totally going insane and even attacked inanimate objects. 

They eventually pushed the little black ones back to their hills entry hole and I watched a seemingly endless amount of big ants invading the enemy hill. I can only imagine whats going on in there right now, a little big drama in my garden. I almost wanted to interfere to help the black ones, but thats nature.- 

 

What have I learned today? Nature is a bloodthirsty b!tch that spits on the weak. And being a small ant sucks. 

 

Right after I read that I saw this