Clipmarks | Writing Clips

How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 05:36:21 GMT

clipped by: spherepet

How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later

Philip K. Dick, 1978

Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful. A few years ago, no college or university would ever have considered inviting one of us to speak.

SCIENTISTS SAY THAT MICE CANNOT BE MADE TO LOOK LIKE HUMAN BEINGS. It was a federally funded research program, I suppose. Just think: Someone in this world is an authority on the topic of whether mice can or cannot put on two-tone shoes, derby hats, pinstriped shirts, and Dacron pants, and pass as humans.

So I ask, in my writing, What is real?

I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind.

It is my job to create universes, as the basis of one novel after another.

I like to build universes which do fall

Tags: universe

The Election is about McCain

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:53 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: I've been very guilty of over-Palinizing. Mickey Kaus is right...forget her, it's about McCain.

Clip Source: opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com

If there were some sort of tacit liberal MSM conspiracy — a hypothetical! — Plan 1 was to knock Palin off the ticket out of the box with various unvetted home state scandals. Plan 2, the plan currently in place, is to force Palin to submit to “real interviews” where she will supposedly reveal her embarrassing unpreparedness for the office.

May I suggest to my fellow conspirators that we move directly on to Plan 3: Forget Palin. Stop writing about her. If we make the election about Palin, we will lose. She’ll probably win her debate and will almost certainly handle the interviews well enough (to the satisfaction of the voters, at least, if not the experts). The election’s not about Palin. It’s about McCain. We can beat McCain. …

Tags: palin, mccain

Leftists Devote Website to Ridiculing Trig Palin

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:59:21 GMT

clipped by: Smoke TNT

Clip Source: moonbattery.com

Daily Kos and Democratic Underground make it difficult for the liberal Nutroots to reach new lows. Yet they always manage. Their latest proud accomplishment is I Miss My Mommy, a website devoted to ridiculing Sarah Palin's son Trig for having Down syndrome.

The site makes repeated use of this graphic, evidently meant to represent Trig:

A sample of the writing:

How dare you, Camel Brown [i.e., CNN anchor Campbell Brown], asking those bad questions 'bout Mommy and forn polcy. You have no right caus you are media leet. But joke on you, bitch! Wite wing behind Mommy now! Wite wing glavanized!

Mommy, sorry I say word bitch. I know it bad word, but I hear it from Grampa 'Cain. Yes, he have firey temper but it ok. Everything he do ok. He pee oh dubyou.

Liberals despise Sarah Palin for not having put Trig to death, so they're unlikely to see any harm in some ridicule.

Tags: liberals, democrats, pieces of shit

Sarah Palin’s Family Values Aren’t Mine!

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:30:40 GMT

clipped by: ninja1105

Clip Source: www.dominickevans.com

I can’t stand Obama. I think Joe Biden is a poor excuse for a politician. Plagiarists don’t sit well with writers, even if I’m only writing until I can get through film school. I don’t think Obama can change anything. I don’t think he has the skill to fix jack shit. He can’t fix what Bush has done and he’s the most inexperienced presidential candidate ever second only to Bush.

But….I hate Sarah Palin. I don’t mean I dislike her. I HATE that stupid bitch. I cannot stand her. She is the biggest hypocrite on the planet. John McCain made a huge mistake in picking her as his running mate. He wanted the “Hillary” supporters and the Evangelicals all in one vote, but seriously, he’s about to alienate both groups thanks to choosing this woman.

I agree that USUALLY a politician’s kids should be off limits, but:

-When a person is trying to force “beliefs” on a nation that do not even work in her own home she is a fuckin’ hypocrite

Tags: sarah palin, john mccain, barack obama, joe biden, political choice, family values, voting, book banning, pregnant, bristol palin

Faten Abdallah and Associates

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:39:26 GMT

clipped by: educator

Clip Source: www.fatenabdallah.com

Are you in need of copy? Do you need to have your white paper or manuscript edited? Are you in need of business advice?

Welcome to Faten Abdallah and Associates, where we offer copywriting, ghostwriting, editing, consulting and other services for your business or personal needs.

You can count on us being dependable and reliable; responsible and creative. We can fulfill your goals.

Our rates are competitive in the writing field. We will be glad to give you estimates on a variety of projects.

For more information on our rates and fees, call Faten Abdallah and Associates, at 1-815-975-1429, or email: fatenabdallah@fatenabdallah.com.

Tags: faten abdallah and associates, copywriting, writer

Columbia - Visit

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:27:06 GMT

clipped by: celesteg1119

Clip Source: wwwapp.cc.columbia.edu

Tours

Tours begin the week of September 8 and end the week of December 1. There are no tours Monday, November 3 and Tuesday, November 4. There are no tours Thursday, November 27 and Friday, November 28.

Mondays 1pm
Wednesdays 12pm
Thursdays 10:30am

Please meet at the LeRoy Neiman Gallery located at 310 Dodge Hall. There is no need to reserve a space.

Columbia University's School of the Arts in New York City offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, Theatre Arts, Visual Arts, and Writing.

http://arts.columbia.edu Webmaster

Article Marketing around the Web

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:39:01 GMT

clipped by: davidthocx
clipper's remarks: Article marketing has the World Wide Web available for its playing field. Developing an article marketing strategy that positions your articles to win recognition by the search engines and new website visitors means optimising every opportunity to make yourself visible.

Clip Source: www.linkpopularity.com.au

Article Marketing around the Web

Tags: article marketing, article submission, article writing

50 Years Ago: Greatest Scientific Discovery is Science Itself

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:30:48 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Instant parameters.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

SEPTEMBER 1958
THE CREATIVE PROCESS— “The most remarkable discovery made by scientists is science itself. The discovery must be compared in importance with the invention of cave-painting and of writing. Like these earlier human creations, science is an attempt to control our surroundings by entering into them and understanding them from inside. And like them, science has surely made a critical step in human development which cannot be reversed. We cannot conceive a future society without science. —Jacob Bronowski”

Tags: just, ahead, of, unintelligent, design

Favorite Programming Quotes

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:52:51 GMT

clipped by: swampfoxz

Clip Source: www.juixe.com

Favorite Programming Quotes

The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time…The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of the development time.
Tom Cargill

Most of you are familiar with the virtues of a programmer. There are three, of course: laziness, impatience, and hubris.
Larry Wall

Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.
Bill Gates

Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.
Brian W. Kernighan

Once a new technology starts rolling, if you’re not part of the steamroller, you’re part of the road.
Stewart Brand

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.
Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut

The hardest part of design … is keeping features out.
Donald Norman

Advocacy

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:08:02 GMT

clipped by: ventures
clipper's remarks: save for reference

Clip Source: www.nps.edu

General Duties and Responsibilities:

Develop and maintain an active communication program within the area of responsibility.
Provides assistance in with resident services.
Inform residents of any violations of community standards: as appropriate.
Collect resident concerns and mediate if necessary and appropriate.
Be knowledgeable of regulations, policies, and standards.
Disseminate community related information.
Display community representative sign at residents.
Performs all other duties as assigned.

General Qualities:

Enjoys working with and relates well with the residents.
Able to lead and motivate people; excellent interpersonal skills.
Good planning and organizational skills.
Able to communicate well, both orally and in writing.
Self-starter; able to carry out diverse duties with minimal supervision.
Enjoys thinking of new ideas; is creative and resourceful.
Professional and positive attitude.

Mesh Platforms

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:11:40 GMT

clipped by: telecommatt
clipper's remarks: There seems to be a pretty big focus on 'the mesh' these days. This post from RWW pulls together material from Marc Canter's upcoming book. It's a good look at the competing platforms that are emerging.

The idea of a mesh network is a bit hard to conceptualize. You could say that it's a bunch of communications devices that help each other move data from one point to another. Wikipedia offers a much better, albeit more involved, definition. I found Microsoft's explanation rather easier to grasp. And their Vision video isn't bad either.

Clip Source: www.readwriteweb.com

It's great to hear that Marc Canter is writing a book, called 'How to build the Open Mesh'. He's been working for years on this vision with his product PeopleAggregator. He's just posted the four Appendices that conclude the book in his blog. It's a great overview of the major web platforms: Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft Mesh, and Facebook/MySpace.

Article Marketing to Help the Reader

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:00:26 GMT

clipped by: davidthocx
clipper's remarks: Helping Others with Article Marketing Helps your Website.Article marketing that helps others will help your website. Internet users seek solutions and advice. If your article marketing strategy provides for solution-oriented content, your marketing strategy will turn into a strategy for success.

Clip Source: www.linkpopularity.com.au

Tags: article marketing, article submission, article writing

Childrens Stationery

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:17:05 GMT

clipped by: flower425
clipper's remarks: We offer kids birthday party invitations, theme party and wedding shower invitations, boys & girls party invitations, train invitations, couples shower invitations, Casino, Mexican & Fiesta party invitations, moving announcements & childrens stationery.

Clip Source: www.sprinklesinvitations.com

Children’s Stationery

Sprinkles is a big proponent of instilling good habits in Children while they are young, hence we design Thank You notes and other childrens stationery that match many of our Birthday Invitations. Writing a short and sweet Thank You note is not only considerate, but it’s a good way to teach your child the importance of the hand-written letter. In this day and age, hand-writing letters is a rare and dying practice, yet it shows a special effort from the author to express thanks. Why not teach your children to do the same? If they write Thank You notes now, most likely it will become a habit they will keep for the rest of their lives.

Tags: kids birthday party invitations, wedding shower invitations, boys party invitations, train invitations, girls party invitations

palin's speech pre-written

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:22:07 GMT

clipped by: kroqben

Clip Source: voices.washingtonpost.com

Putting Words in Palin's Mouth

There was a flutter of attention when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told a group of Post reporters and editors yesterday that his team was having to rework the vice presidential acceptance speech because the original draft, prepared before Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen, was too "masculine." While we all wondered to ourselves what might make a speech masculine or feminine, no one batted an eye at the underlying revelation: that the campaign was writing the nominee's speech before knowing who the nominee would be.

7 Writing Habits of Amazing Writers

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 03:48:57 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: This extremely prolific writer has won numerous awards, including the National Book Award. She writes in longhand, and while she doesn’t have a formal schedule, she says she prefers to write in the morning, before breakfast . She’s a creative writing professor, and on the days she teaches, she says she writes for an hour or 45 minutes before leaving for her first class. On other days, when the writing is going well, she can work for hours without a break — and has breakfast at 2 or 3 in the afternoon!

Clip Source: writetodone.com

1. Stephen King. In his book On Writing, King says that he writes 10 pages a day without fail, even on holidays.

2. Ernest Hemingway. By contrast with King, “Papa” Hemingway wrote 500 words a day.

3. Vladimir Nabokov. The author of such great novels as Lolita, Pale Fire and Ada did his writing standing up, and all on index cards.

4. Truman Capote. The author of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “In Cold Blood” claimed to be a “completely horizontal author.” He said he had to write lying down, in bed or on a couch, with a cigarette and coffee.

5. Philip Roth. One of the greatest living American writers, Roth works standing up, pacing around as he thinks. He claimed to walk half a mile for every page he writes.

6. James Joyce

Joyce prided himself in taking his time with each sentence. A famous story has a friend asking Joyce in the street if he’d had a good day writing. Yes, Joyce replied happily. How much had he written? Three sentences, Joyce told him.

7. Joyce Carol Oates