Friday 21 December 2012

I wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy everything else!!!





Just for the record
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year Happy Holidays and finally Happy axilial  Tilt or in similar terms Happy winter Solstice.

Alright Mayan's!! Where is it?

File:Caana Caracol.jpg


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/

Today as most people know, it's the end of the world but if you haven't noticed we are still here. So what went wrong? Well, as it turns out the Mayan calender doesn't actually end it just restarts. So, happy Mayan Millennium......
So, in closing and since I will not to be able to use this toast anywhere else, I raise a glass to the end of the world. Long may the profits be wrong!!!!

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Question of the week


File:Johansen Viggo - Radosne Boże Narodzenie.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/

Where did Christmas trees originate?

A. England

B. France

C. Germany

D. unknown

Monday 17 December 2012

Count down to Christmas Break


File:Fireworks cholmes75.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/


>53 hours to go until break.

Thursday 13 December 2012

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home! 
Charles Dickens 
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/charlesdic105775.html#sc2mxPEUt2lkvq4m.99 

Marc's 50 things and Counting Before I Croak

File:Carisbrooke Castle well house 4.jpg





http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/

File:DjoserIMG 0953.JPG1. Get a pilots license.
2. Visit the Smithsonian's....do it all!
3. Build the most powerful PC in the world.
4. Visit the monuments of Ancient Egypt. 
5. Drive a Steam Locomotive
6. Display a painting I made in a gallery.
7. Own at least one thing thing that is 500 years old or older.
8. Stand in the hall of 100 columns.
9. Visit France.
10. Visit the British Isles.
File:Douglas DC-3 Aigle Azur Palas Jet 1953.jpg11.Live on Cape Briton Island.
12. Fly a DC-3 
13. discover a ruin.
14. Ride a Brough Superior SS100 (motorcycle)  
15.Drive a tank.
16. Find gold.
17. See something impossible.
18. Draw something perfectly.
19. Build a car from scratch.
20. Make an award winning pizza.
File:Brough Superior of T.E. Lawrence.jpg21. Be requested for a lecture.
22. Win a ridiculously big prize.
23. To pay off my parents mortgage.
24. To help my sister to be more self confident.
25. To be a professor in the University...I would like to teach history.                                                        
26. Rewrite history...
27. Write a good creative book.
28. Go one year without anything overwhelmingly stupid or bad happening to anyone I know. 
File:The Hall of Supreme Harmony.jpg29. I would like to do a deep sea diving expedition that includes exploring at least 10 different shipwrecks.
30. To ride a world class roller coaster. 
31. Complete a scale model perfectly.
32. Bring a forgotten object back to life. 
33. To recognise somebody who calls me out at random.
34. Visit the forbidden city in Beijing.
35. Drive a Duesenberg Model J.(1929-1937)
36. I would like to own a 68 Firebird.
37. I'd like to be requested to do a tour at a museum.
38. I'd like to live long enough to have my vision restored to perfect 20/20 sight with no problems.
39. Punch someone in the face who deserves it!!!!
40. To have a game with a user friendly log-in screen. 
File:1933 Duesenberg J Weymann Speedster - fvr 2.jpg41. Organize and lead a group of people.
42. Have something so good happen to me I pass out.
43. Fly a De Havilland Beaver.
44. Visit Peru and tour the oldest civilizations in north America.
45. Have my name in a text book referring to me. 
File:De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver (N130WA).jpg46. Eat a meal at a 3/3 star restaurant.
47. Would like to visit an aircraft carrier.
48. Would to tour a retired sub.
49. Learn to shoot a bow.
50. To find something that has not been seen in centuries. 




Wednesday 12 December 2012

A Good Xmas Movie





http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/


Oh what can I say I'm a sucker for the classics. Well written, enjoyably unrealistic, and generally well done. 
Every time I watch this movie I find it enjoyable. Even though the slap stick is what keeps psychos like me coming back this is entirely a good movie. Kevin as a character is fun , he's a bit selfish but then again he is also in elementary school. His innocence as a character is truly fun to watch. The character of the mother is equally enjoyable going through what could only be described as vacation hell with absolutely no-body understanding the predicament. I would probably have to say my favorite part of the movie is the scene with the fire crackers and the gangster show. And as for the slapstick well, it is pretty unrealistic. Quite simply Marv and Harry should not have made it into the house conscious. But that's the fun of it! In closing home Alone is a good movie with great execution and one of the best Xmas classics of modern time. 

Monday 10 December 2012

Christmas Food



When it comes to Christmas food my family traditions are a little strange. They include fondue and croissants and of course Buche de Noel. Arguably my favorite cake.
http://0.tqn.com/d/frenchfood/1/I/N/K/-/-/chocyulelog1.jpg

It's Christmas!!!!!!!

File:12242008 ChristmasEve00028.JPG


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/

Well, it's not Christmas yet....but that's not going to stop me from throwing up a whole boat load of Christmas related comments, quotes, questions and anything else I can think of. 

Answer to Question of the Week

File:NarmerPalette-CloseUpOfNarmer-ROM.png


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/

A. Menes

Although written records are sketchy at best, it is believed that the first Pharaoh of combined Egypt was Menes. He ruled the country sometime in the thirty first century B.C. that is more than 5 thousand years ago. 

Twitter Post Reading Reflection

Everest book 2: The Climb (78),The story is progressing steadily and I find it to be just as engaging as the other Korman books I read.


The characters are still surprisingly in tact giving the amount of trouble they have experienced.  havoc#RR11

Friday 7 December 2012

Quote of the Week


 I put up my thumb and blotted out the planet earth.

Neil Armstrong


Yeah, I probably should of put this quote up in September but it is interesting to think that from the moon the earth appears so small that you can block it out with your thumb.That all of human history everything we are can be hidden behind your thumb from the closest object in space.It sort of makes you feel small doesn't it.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Writing Reflection #10


So far half decent the assignment went better than expected and I found the twitter format to be more of a nuisance than a problem. The story I created was on par with others that I've come up with, more on that later, perhaps....

Despite some early set backs I found the story flowed freely and easily and required only mild tweaking to fit the format well enough. I especially enjoyed the multiple tweet story format. I found it allowed for greater story complexity and plot in general. In genera,l however, I found the idea of twitter fiction to be interesting. The idea that some body could use the series of apparently random tweets to create a story that can be seen from not just one perspective but multiple perspectives at once. This is what I believe is the strength of twitter fiction. It multiplies the perspective and do to its nature these perspectives can be expressed in a relatively small sample of writing. If done right it can also create very diverse and well flushed out characters without the need for complex back stories and character insight. The whole tweet is an insight of what the characters think of one event and if enough tweets are compiled it paints a very clear picture of the characters point of view, likes and dislikes, weaknesses and strengths and so on. In my opinion this is the true strength of twitter fiction. To use a social networking system to convey the opinions of characters in an event as opposed to being explained the event by the story. It is up to you figure out what the person is saying. As a result, a twitter fiction is a more active and can be a dynamic story if done right. This is what makes a twitter fiction good, my only regret is that I did not understand this principal at the time I  invented my story.

The main issue I see with the technique is it creates a story that is difficult to follow and highly complex. For a casual reader it would probably be a irritant. For a reader looking for more of a challenge it would present a truly unique experience and would probably be an intellectual  test to keep up with the story. Another minor fault with this story pattern is the challenge of writing in personal biasness. It should be impossible to get the full true story from any one character. As for me the issue I have with my personal twitter fiction is the use of the standard short story format with adaptations for twitter were I to write it again I would personally try for something more along the lines I have described above. Another issue i have with my twitter fiction is the clunky,chunky dialogue.  Do to a lack of experience in writing and a difficulty in holding a conversation myself the dialogue pieces in my story are at best clunky and at worst  irritating beyond belief. More practice in this aspect of writing is necessary for me to create a story that I would actually want to read. This to me is the main reason i took this class in creative writing. To learn the skills and techniques necessary to write a story that i would actually want to read.

As for the other twitter fictions I have read, well, how do you think I got the idea for the format above. I realized the value of this literary technique when going through the story written by Elliot Holt. Although, I did not read another completed twitter fiction I still found the pattern laid down in her story to be a good bench mark for how to use twitter in a new and creative way to write a story. Instead of doing what I did and using it like a under powered word document. This style of writing is best suited for twitter because it uses the twitter info-structure to its advantage. By creating multiple twitter pages for multiple characters and amalgamating them on to one central page the effect of a unique and diverse points of views is achieved.

In closing I find the twitter fiction format to be a unique and diverse writing style that is well deserved as a surprising complex way of writing. I would personally love to see a book written in  a similar fashion. As for myself the process of writing a twitter fiction has given me respect for the sight and the idea but has not taught me anything that I did not already know. To reinvent a statement that I have made many times before not just in this articles but others the format is not the issue. I did not take this class  to use different formats in fiction but to just simply learn how to write fiction.

MarcVallee



Monday 3 December 2012

File:Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade A.jpg


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/

Well, it was inevitable, I had to put this movie on sooner or later. As far as the Indiana Jones movies are concerned this is my favorite in virtually all aspects. The adventure is fun, the characters are well.... the characters from Indiana Jones. It doesn't get much better than that. I especially enjoyed Sean Connery's performance as Indiana Jones' father. The contrast between the two characters is not only fun but hilarious at times. Perhaps one of the best throw away gags in the movie is X marks the spot and the book stamping librarian. If you don't what I'm referencing by this please watch the movie again, I know you have already seen it. In closing I would probably have to say that Indiana Jones movies are the best movies I have seen from Lucas Film including the Star Wars movies. This one is my favorite of Indiana Jones' and I don't think it is difficult to see why.

Question of the Week

File:Sesostris III Sphinxkopf.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/

Who was the first Pharaoh of Egypt?

A. Menes

B. Khufu

C. Tutankhamun

D. Seti