Thursday, January 11, 2007
Ninja Man!Police on Tyneside are seeking a man carrying a sword who came to the aid of plain clothes officers during a burglary attempt.
The officers were threatened by a man with a knife after they discovered armed men trying to break into a house in Laygate, South Shields.
Another man armed with a samurai sword appeared and attacked the man with the knife, before leaving the scene.
Three men have been charged with aggravated burglary.
One faces an additional charge of attempted wounding with intent to resist arrest.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
More US Oil to ComePresident Bush lifted the drilling ban Tuesday for Alaska’s Bristol Bay, clearing the way for the Interior Department to open the fish-rich waters to oil and natural gas development.
Alaska officials as well as local communities had asked for the ban to be lifted, but environmentalists have warned against drilling in the bay, which is also a major fishing area for salmon, crab and cod.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said one or two lease sales in about 5.6 million acres of Bristol Bay will be considered for leasing in the department’s upcoming five-year 2007-12 lease plan.
Separately, Bush lifted a drilling moratorium in an area of the central Gulf of Mexico known as Lease Area 181, making that area available to drilling.
The Gulf waters acted upon by the president is a small part of a much larger 8.2 million acres that were approved for oil and gas development by Congress last month in one of its last acts before adjournment.
Of course, the usual suspects are up in arms over this. But it’s a good move to cut our dependence on foreign oil. We should just stick with our NAFTA partners, if we can. No more Mid-East Oil.
Dumbass of the Day
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies made over a billion dollars for New Line and saved the company. He ended up suing them because they didn’t give him accurate DVD sales figures. And what does their boss decide to do?
In the latest comment in the controversy surrounding a proposed movie based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, New Line head Robert Shaye told SCI FI Wire in no uncertain terms that the studio won’t work with Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson on that film or any other film. Ever. At least not as long as Shaye is in charge.
Shaye’s comments marked the first time a New Line executive has commented publicly on the fracas since Jackson announced that he has pulled out of the project and also appears to harden New Line’s position against Jackson.
“I do not want to make a movie with somebody who is suing me,” Shaye—New Line’s chief executive officer—said in an interview on Jan. 5 while promoting The Last Mimzy, a New Line family fantasy that marks his first time in a director’s chair since 1990’s Book of Love. “It will never happen during my watch.”
It’s a general rule of thumb that if someone says “You’ll never work in this town again.” that means the speaker of that phrase will soon reap what he has sown. See Mike Ovitz. I know of several editors in comics who met that fate, while the creators are still working a decade later. Talent is what entertainment companies need more than pencil pushers. The suits never seem to get that.
UPDATE: Peter Jackson responds.
$100 Laptops for Sale
The new $100 laptop designed for poor countries is also going to be sold in the west, As an interesting way to get the laptops in the hands of children.
The backers of the One Laptop Per Child project are looking at the possibility of selling the machine to the public.
One idea would be for customers to have to buy two laptops at once - with the second going to the developing world.
I think that’s a brilliant idea. It should work.
I’m curious how good these things are, but it’s only a matter of time before these prices are normal for laptops. Though the laptop will probably look nothing like the ones right now.
Space Diamonds
If indeed “a diamond is forever,” the most primitive origins of Earth’s so-called black diamonds were in deep, universal time, geologists have discovered. Black diamonds came from none other than interstellar space.
Go Iranians!
Let’s hope these Iranian Parliament people get their way.
Iranian reformist lawmakers have started collecting signatures in Parliament to demand the impeachment of the country’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. So far, 38 signatures have been collected out of the 72 required to formally summon Ahmadinejad and request his impeachment. Noureddin Pirmouzen, a deputy with the reformist minority, says it is nonetheless “positive to question” the head of the executive branch.
“Many actions of the current government and of president Ahmadinejad have led the country to an extremely worrying political and economic situation,” Pirmouzen told the Iranian news website Aftab.Referring to a resolution of the UN Security Council unanimously approved on 23 December which imposes sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme, the MP said “it is the last straw which has made Iranians loose their patience.” The international community fears Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons and has repeatedly asked the government to halt sensitive nuclear work - a demand ignored by Tehran which claims its programme is solely for civilian use.
“Parliament cannot sit still in front of the current situation and watch as the economy worsens because of the government’s inability,” he added.
Gee, things ae tough all over.
Secrets of Writing: Character Construction
Now that we’ve discussed some of the fundamentals of characterization let’s explore the construction of a character. First off, we need to decide what role the character takes in the story. Are they Hero, Villain, Protagonist, Antagonist, or Chorus? Determine how much we need to know about them for the purposes of the story, then answer the following questions. These are questions you must know the answers to. Utterly. If you’re building a supporting character who just has a minor role, it’s still not a bad idea to know as much as possible about them. You may want to expand their role later. Or it may give you insights that could be useful when writing their dialog.
Name
Gender
Age
Height, Weight
Color of Hair, Eyes, Skin
Appearance: Attractive, average, ugly, clean, dirty, athletic, flabby, etc.
Archetypal models
Alignment: Saintly, good, troubled, bad, evil
Race
Class: Aboriginal, Homeless, Lower, Middle, Upper
Occupation, income
Work hours, work ethic
Education
Home life: Married, single, children, lives with parents
Religion
Nationality or Culture
Place in Community: Clubs, sports, lodges, etc.
Amusements: Hobbies, Interests, Pastimes
Politics: Conservative, Liberal, Middle of the Road, Communist, Anarchist
Favorite foods
Sexual Orientation: Hetro, BI, Gay, Transsexual, Pedophile, etc.
Sex Life: Promiscuous, Virgin, Celibate, gets it when he can
Fetishes: Sexual, compulsive, objects that are always kept on him
Morality, Standards
Ambitions, Goals, Dreams
Attitude: Militant, relaxed, resigned, defeatist
Complexes: Obsessions, Inhibitions, superstitions, phobias, hang ups
Illusions (what false beliefs to they hold onto)
Abilities: Languages, Talents
Qualities: Imagination, intellect, judgment, taste, poise
I.Q.
Superpowers, if applicable
Once you’ve answered the main questions, as needed, we then proceed to the second series of important character building questions. Answer all that are pertinent with the story you’re writing. Or if important to the backstory.
Relationships
1. Parents: Alive or dead?
2. Relationship with parents: Good, bad, indifferent, communicative, loving
3. Step parents, relations with
4. Siblings, Relations with siblings
5. Lovers, relations with
6. Ex-Lovers, relations with
7. Other Relations
8. Enemies
9. Employers
10. Who do they trust?
11. Who do they hate?
12. Who do they love?
13. Who do they desire?
14. Who do they fear?
15. Who do they loathe?
16. Who do they need?
For the Hero and Villain, you should know most or all by heart depending on the relevance to your story. The relational questions will help you choose the right characters to present when using relational characterization.
Character Backstory
We can safely assume your characters weren’t born yesterday. They had a life leading up to the first moment they appear in your story. The events that shaped their lives and their psyches is called backstory. It’s the accumulation of their experiences from birth until the time of your tale.
You should know the backstory of all...and I do mean all...of your characters. You may not need to know every little detail, but you should have a clear idea. The above lists of questions are a good way to work it out. Get a notebook and answer every question. When you’re done you’ll feel you know the character a lot better. And when you write them they’ll be more real in your mind. They may even “write themselves”.
Backstory is also important when it involves the story you’re doing. Something in this character’s past may have an impact on the events in your plot. You should think through what those events are and also the time and place they occurred. Something that happened in the 1970s should be looked at from the perspective of that time. Not this time. Each decade has it’s own feel and attitude and looking back on those times should feel appropriate to the audience.
People are also a product of the time and place they were raised in. Study people from the generation your character comes from for clues, if you aren’t of that generation.
Those who were raised prior to the 1960s tend to have a whole different world view than those born later. Baby boomers tend to have a different outlooks, attitudes and expectations than “Generation Xers” do. It’s important to take these things into account.
Although it’s become a trite device in contemporary fiction, the hidden trauma in a character’s past can also contribute to the persona of a character. But it should never be used as an excuse for why someone acts the way they do. A human persona can’t be attributed to one event in the character’s life. People are far more complex than that.
This hasn’t stopped a lot of writers from falling into the trap of using pop psychology to explain away a character’s entire personality based on something like Child Abuse or some other taboo of the week.
But there’s no reason for you to follow in their footsteps, unless you like being lame.
REMEMBER: Backstory is relevant, but it shouldn’t be used to rob a character of their mystery.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Drunk of the CenturyThe 20th Century. He was a movie star. Sort of. He also used to get rides to school by Samuel Beckett, the playwright. Beckett wrote “Waiting for Godot” so you could say he was waiting for Beckett.
Anyway, this amazing drinker did 7,000 calories worth of booze every single day. Yeah.
Ain’t Nature Cute?
The TRUTH!!!!!
All those 9/11 conspiracy theories are a smoke screen to hide the real truth. Now that you know. Government agents are coming for you. After all, they killed the man in this video.
