Quote for the Week
“I have hoped, I have planned, I have striven.
To the will, I have added the deed.
The best that was in me I’ve given, I have prayed to God for my need.
I have dared and reached only disaster.
I have battled and broken my lance.
I am bruised by a pitiless master that the Weak and the Timid call Chance.
I am old, I am bent, I am cheated of all that Youth urged me to win.
But name me not with the defeated; tomorrow again, I begin.”
~ Samuel Kiser
Signs My Printer is Male
- When we first met, he was smooth, sophisticated, and purred when he worked. Now, I notice he makes strange noises when he thinks I’m not paying attention.
- Our relationship was great for the first 3 months, then suddenly–with no explanation or reason–he stopped functioning.
- I checked around with his exes (other users) and this problem is chronic.
- When I tried to trouble shoot and see what was wrong, he just shut down on me.
- When I asked his buddies (Tech Support) what was going on, they said I had to ask him, but he just said, “Latest software installed.”
- When I decided to just give up, he said, “Please wait for installs,” then updated himself, and started working again.
Now, I ask you, isn’t that just like a man?!
Quote for the Week
Life is just a chance to grow a soul.
~A. Powell Davis
Cat Hair!
What is it with cat hair? Bloody thing is like Houdini. You think you’ve gotten rid of it, but *kazam* there is appears all over again. Been trying for the past hour to scan some documents to PDF format and wouldn’t you know, every time, EVERY TIME, there’s oooonnnneeeee little cat hair that shows up.
Short of shaving the furry ones, I guess there’s no real solution (don’t tell me, Uh, how about keeping the cats out of your office. I stand a better chance of getting into the NBA than keeping the zoo from their (yes, THEIR) territory.
Anyway, off to drink some tea, do some edits, then off to lunch with a girlfriend!
Quote for the Week
The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn’t matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.
~ Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider
Author Question
Q: When you have a character with a long monolouge and you want to break up the paragraphs, where/how do the quotations go?
A: When you have the paragraph change, don’t put end quoations on the last sentence of the paragraph, but do put starting quotations on the beginning of the next paragraph:
“AAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAA.(NO QUOTATIONS HERE).
“AAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAAAAAA.“
Lessons From the 2010 Olympics
I can’t speak for any other Canadians, but when the men’s hockey team won gold, I didn’t feel happy, I felt relieved, just glad it was over and they’d won the gold. The pressure (I think) on these guys and girls in hockey was enormous. Canadians really feel like hockey is œour game and a silver would have been shameful. Which, if you think about it, is insane. What’s wrong with being the second best team/athlete in the world?
I think it depends on the sport, but with hockey, you didn’t win the silver. You lost the gold and got the silver. Team played to see who’d win the bronze, but silver? That was just the consolation prize for not being the best.
It was a good lesson, though, about rethinking my perspective on a few things in my life.
Other lessons learned from the Olympics:
1) The Dutch guy who beat the speed skating record by 3 seconds but was disqualified for being in the wrong lane, said that he felt his coach was wrong (when the guy was telling him what lane to go into), but he figured, ˜heck, he’s my coach. I better listen to him.’ He didn’t follow his instincts and it cost him both the gold and the world record.
LESSON TO BE LEARNED: Sometimes, following your gut will mean going against the instructions or guidance of those you trust most.
2) A Chinese bobsledder was disqualified after her equipment was found to be 0.02 kg over the limit. Her coach had done the calculations incorrectly and she lost her chance to compete in her first Olympics.
LESSON TO BE LEARNED: It’s great to rely on other people, but it’s even better to take the initiative and know your stuff, so you can support those supporting you.
3) A cross country skier fell into a gully and broke 3 ribs, and punctured her lung. She went on to compete and win the bronze. A skater’s mom died the day before she was to compete. She still skated and won the bronze.
LESSON TO BE LEARNED: Life happens and because life happens, crappy things happen. If you want to achieve your dreams, you have to try despite adversity, and if you want to be a champion, then you have to understand that sometimes being a winner means showing up to your commitments, no matter how horrible you feel.
4) In men’s hockey, the Canadians lost a 3-0 lead in the last ten minutes of the gold qualifying game and almost lost the game.
LESSON LEARNED: Don’t start celebrating before your goals are achieved. It’s all well and good to be ahead of your time frames and competitors, but don’t pull back before the final bell sounds.
5) In the men’s gold game of hockey, the Americans tied the game with 24.4 seconds to go in the third period.
LESSON LEARNED: It’s okay if you’re behind. Keep trying, keep to your objectives and sooner or later, you’ll catch up.
6) In the men’s gold game of hockey, during the third period the Canadians switched from offensive to defensive playing. Their caution allowed the Americans to tie the game and force it into overtime.
LESSON LEARNED: Always take risks, and always go after your targets like you want to win, not like you’re trying to maintain status quo.
And so to the Quote of the Week:
There’s no substitute for guts.
~Paul Bear Bryant
Some Days
This is how I feel right now¦
So, idiot that I am, decided to eat fast food¦not naming any names, but we’ll just say I’m not feelin’ real GOLDEN at this point. Had me some chicken and fries at 10.30. It’s now 4.10 and I STILL feel like I swallowed a brick of cement¦a brick of cement that’s trying to grind it’s way out of my stomach a la Aliens.
Add to that that my Outlook went to the Great Server in the sky and I’ve spent about 7 hours trying to figure out a new email system (which actually turned out to be pretty cool, if not as streamlined as I would have liked).
Quote for the Week
œThe longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.
~Charles Swindoll
Author Question
Q: When do you use a scene break, and what’s the format?
A: I asked a few editors/authors about this. So, you designate a scene break with four asterisk, centered, in between the two scenes:
End of scene one
*****
Start of scene two
Use them any time there is a change of: Time (next day, that night, etc), Place (If a character is at home, and you want to cut to them arriving at work), POV change.
Natasha Deen | Copyright © 2024 All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy
