❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
titsay
Love Begins
No title available
Show & Tell
if i look back, i am lost
sheepfilms
taylor price
Cosimo Galluzzi
@theartofmadeline
★
No title available
Cosmic Funnies
YOU ARE THE REASON
occasionally subtle
Kiana Khansmith
Product Placement
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
Not today Justin
macklin celebrini has autism
seen from Malaysia
seen from New Zealand
seen from Malaysia
seen from Australia
seen from Brazil
seen from Singapore
seen from Colombia
seen from Spain
seen from Spain
seen from India
seen from United Kingdom
seen from France
seen from Colombia
seen from Belgium
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from Türkiye
seen from Bangladesh
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@madhistorian-blog
Slow Restart
For the few of you who've kept up with me so far and actually read my stuff, thank you so much! My laptop no longer seems to want to work with Tumblr. I do intend to get this going again, especially as I start some new projects soon, it just might take a bit. I have some stuff to figure out first. Take care and DFTBA! -M
Blog Restart! Changes! Things!
Aaaand I'm back. Soul searching done. Dark times have passed. It's time to get back to work on this.
I will be changing a few things. A great deal of my usual wall of text posts will now be hosted on this site: madhistorianblog.wordpress.com
I feel that a lot of what I was trying to do on Tumblr didn't fit the media, so this will likely be relegated to more Tumblr-esque activities. College PROTIPS will still be posted on this site as they are written.
Thank you all for following me so far! I apologize for my absence; it's good to be back! I look forward to our future interactions!
Best,
M
Found on Deviant Art--artist credit in pic.
What
THIS IS THE BEST THING
Toledo Water Crisis
And I use that phrase with full intent of its connotation.
It turns out that, after some tests late Friday night, that the water supply for the Toledo, OH metropolitan area now has an unsafe amount of microcystin, which is a very dangerous toxin that can cause nerve damage, liver failure, and death. While the media here is trying to spin this as a brief hiccup in an otherwise well-functioning system, there's a lot that's not being said, or at least, being twisted into a lie.
1) News agencies are reporting that, while the water is unsafe for drinking, healthy adults can shower in it. This is a lie. Inhaling water vapor with significant amounts of microcystin can cause nerve damage.
2) This is not a crisis that came out of nowhere. The city of Toledo has been looking into this for a long time now. They have done nothing to prepare or warn its citizens in this regard.
As most of the national news agencies are not reporting on this for more than a moment, I thought it a good idea to use the power of the Internet to let everyone know that nearly half a million Americans are likely going to be without access to reliable, clean water for an extended period of time.
By the way, as of 10:32 eastern, our local news agencies have stopped all major discussions and live streams of this problem. There's something bad happening in NW Ohio, and as a disproportionate amount of Americans get their drinking water from the Great Lakes, this is something everyone should be concerned about.
はろうぃ
8 Bit Medics is a brand new organization comprised of EMS professionals who host various events in order to raise money for charity. We are proud to announce our inaugural event, a 72 hour Zelda Marathon, to be held August 8-10 on our website, 8bitmedics.com. 100% of proceeds from this event will go directly to This Star Won’t Go Out.
Join us live via Twitch TV on 8bitmedics.com, as we spend the weekend playing Zelda to raise money for TSWGO. Chat with us live on Twitter and follow us on Facebook.
We are incredibly excited about this upcoming event and hope that you will watch and donate to help us make it a huge success. DFTBA!
Day twenty-four: Take a picture with something irl that you think could be from Doctor Who?
I’m going with the library at school because it looked like it was painted by aliens
What’s something irl that you think could be from Doctor Who?
That's where I got my Master's degree!
Achievement Unlocked: PUBLISHED WRITER
So, I've had this life-long dream of becoming a published writer (you know, with pay and stuff). Growing up, I had imagined this involving a novel, or some powerful research, or something along those lines.
This isn't any of those. But it is my first paid piece. I'm very proud of this, and thought I should share it here.
http://whatculture.com/film/60-years-godzilla-5-things-big-guy-can-still-teach-us.php
New projects
Coming soon. I have a few new ideas that might be worthwhile. Let's see what happens.
This is an excellent writing advice from Chuck Palahniuk. This was first seen on tumblr. Unfortunately, when I clicked on the link, it no longer existed. But, I still think it’s worth sharing. writingadvice: by Chuck Palahniuk In six seconds, you’ll hate me. But in six months, you’ll be a better writer. From this point forward—at least for the next half year—you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use. The list should also include: Loves and Hates. And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those later. Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…” Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.” Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it. Instead of saying: “Adam knew Gwen liked him.” You’ll have to say: “Between classes, Gwen had always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it. She’s roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume. The combination lock would still be warm from her butt. And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.” In short, no more short-cuts. Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling. Typically, writers use these “thought” verbs at the beginning of a paragraph (In this form, you can call them “Thesis Statements” and I’ll rail against those, later). In a way, they state the intention of the paragraph. And what follows, illustrates them. For example: “Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline. Traffic was backed up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits. Her cell phone battery was dead. At home, the dogs would need to go out, or there would be a mess to clean up. Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her neighbor…” Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows? Don’t do it. If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the others. Better yet, transplant it and change it to: Brenda would never make the deadline. Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing. And loving and hating. Don’t tell your reader: “Lisa hated Tom.” Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail. Present each piece of evidence. For example: “During roll call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout ‘Butt Wipe,’ just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.” One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering. For example: Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take…” A better break-down might be: “The schedule said the bus would come by at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57. You could see all the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus. No doubt, the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line, taking a nap. The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to be late. Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…” A character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you can’t use “thought” verbs or any of their abstract relatives. Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember. No more transitions such as: “Wanda remembered how Nelson used to brush her hair.” Instead: “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.” Again, Un-pack. Don’t take short-cuts. Better yet, get your character with another character, fast. Get them together and get the action started. Let their actions and words show their thoughts. You—stay out of their heads. And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about using the bland verbs “is” and “have.” For example: “Ann’s eyes are blue.” “Ann has blue eyes.” Versus: “Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…” Instead of bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a character has or is, in actions or gestures. At its most basic, this is showing your story instead of telling it. And forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll hate the lazy writer who settles for: “Jim sat beside the telephone, wondering why Amanda didn’t call.” Please. For now, hate me all you want, but don’t use thought verbs. After Christmas, go crazy, but I’d bet money you won’t. (…) For this month’s homework, pick through your writing and circle every “thought” verb. Then, find some way to eliminate it. Kill it by Un-packing it. Then, pick through some published fiction and do the same thing. Be ruthless. “Marty imagined fish, jumping in the moonlight…” “Nancy recalled the way the wine tasted…” “Larry knew he was a dead man…” Find them. After that, find a way to re-write them. Make them stronger.
Thanks Hiraku! (via wingedbeastie)
I needed this right now--nothing in my writing seemed right, and this might be it.
Starbucks will provide a free online college education to thousands of its workers, without requiring that they remain with the company, through an unusual arrangement with Arizona State University, the company and the university will announce on Monday.
The program is open to any of the company’s 135,000 United States employees, provided they work at least 20 hours a week and have the grades and test scores to gain admission to Arizona State. For a barista with at least two years of college credit, the company will pay full tuition; for those with fewer credits it will pay part of the cost, but even for many of them, courses will be free, with government and university aid.
“Starbucks is going where no other major corporation has gone,” said Jamie P. Merisotis, president and chief executive of the Lumina Foundation, a group focused on education. “For many of these Starbucks employees, an online university education is the only reasonable way they’re going to get a bachelor’s degree.”
Starbucks is, in effect, inviting its workers, from the day they join the company, to study whatever they like, and then leave whenever they like — knowing that many of them, degrees in hand, will leave for better-paying jobs.
NYTimes: Starbucks to offer free college education to employees
More of this, corporate America.
100 points to whatever house Starbucks (and/or Howard Schultz) is in
Promoting Starbucks is a bit difficult for me, as the family of one of my closest friends owns and runs a local mom-and-pop coffee house here in Perrysburg, but damn, this is a good move on their part.
This was a project I worked on during my break from all non-essentials to keep myself sane and to teach myself some working knowledge of electronics.
Back to it.
Well, not much has really changed--I just missed tumbling. So I'm back, for the most part.
Update
So I have to put a great deal of things on hold right now, as a huge part of my life seems to do nothing but turn itself upside down constantly. We're in the middle of moving family from one place to the other, work is picking up, and so on.
Which means I'll likely not be on this blog until about May 10th or so.
Take care all!
-MG
(to Ian McKellen) You were saying a dream of yours is that you wanted to host a show like this.
Omg, this is adorable.
In this game I have called Pfftthpth, students review the rules in Well Said, 3rd Edition by Linda Grant and American English IPA. It includes tongue twisters, IPA review, and the book review.
The rules are simple. Students will roll the dice to move forward. If they land on a :P face, the must...
Gaming in the classroom! I love it!
