MST3K Does It Again!
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New Act, same Schtick from the guys of MST3K: Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett reunite to continue to make fun of the worst Hollywood has to offer.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Happy Independence Day
Carl Sagan gives us a little perspective on the Pale Blue Dot
Popularity: 20% [?]
4 Minute Film School Webisodes
Thanks To the Good Folks at Indy Mogul
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Watch the Martian Skies!
I’m sure you’re following the Phoenix mission pretty closely. You’re thinking, "Wow! Water cycle!" in public and don’t care what kind of strange looks you’re getting. And I know you’re glad that the house has overridden Bush’s Nasa Budget .
In case you aren’t, or are jaded enough to thing, "Meh, another robot," Boston.com has posted a series of photos showing the Martian Skies from a variety of landers.
A lot of them come from the long running Spirit rover, including a couple animated gifs of dust devils crossing the crater’s plains.
And we have the now famous shot of Phoenix’s Parachute deploying.
But the last photo: Awesome. No, I’m not gonna tell you what it is. Check it out.
Popularity: 32% [?]
Science of “Star Wars” Exhibit opens
Anyone around Minneapolis might want to check out the science museum’s newest exhibit.
As an added bonus, watch for the News Droid’s Misreading of “Stars War” Right at the beginning.
Gotta Love it.
Popularity: 39% [?]
Free Science Fiction Wallpapers
I know, I’ve been busy with a few projects at work. In the meantime, here’s a few wallpapers to whet your appetite courtesy of Photobucket:
Kinda Cliche, but this was the image used in the “Galactica” Wordpress theme that inspired me to start this Blog. Too bad that Linkware theme didn’t work right.
I like this “Time Machine” Like Image. Pretty neat.
“Canticle for Leibowitz”?
And Finally, a day in the life of your typical blogger. Enjoy
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BTT: Apostrophes, Possessives and Pronouns, OH MY!
It’s a writer’s easiest mistake to make. You write one wrong word, followed by another, followed by yet another. And spellcheck doesn’t catch any of them. You proofread it, your eyes skimming over the mistake and hit send. Shortly after, you get yet another rejection letter, making fun of your heritage, your education and your dreams. You read your work, the tears swelling up, your vision blurring, and you see this:
The Cylon’s saw there prey over their, they’re spines glowing in anticipation.
Ok, You deserved that one. Have a good cry.
Look, It’s easy. Apostrophe’s do two things in the English language:
- Show Possession
- Show Contractions
The Problem is they can’t do both at the same time
Apostrophes Show Possession
If the noun doesn’t end in s, add ’s, regardless of plurality
Baltar’s demons
The Cylon’s Basestar
The men’s triangle team
If the word ends in s, usually add just the apostrophe. Some style guides do show ’s for words ending in s, as that’s the way they’re still pronounced. Sorry, this is still in flux
Gaius’ fantasy
pilots’ Vipers (Pilots’s Vipers? Nahh…)
Compound words and joint ownership put the ’s at the ery end of the bunch of nouns:
Commander-in-Chief’s quarters
Starbuck and Apollo’s relationship
Six and Gaius’ destiny
Personal pronouns do not have the apostrophe : Indefinite pronouns do.
His, Her (hers), Your (Yours), Their (Theirs), Its
Everybody’s home planet
Contractions
While we’re on the subject, here’s where we start having problems. The apostrophe can contract "Is" and "are" down so they sound the same as the possessives:
Everybody’s home planet
Everybody’s going home
This leads to all kinds of homophones in English:
It’s looking at its former body.
They’re standing over there next to their ships.
You’re not getting your weapon back.
And in the heat of battle, typing away at your desk, it’s easy to miss these small mistakes. But editors, who are looking for any way they can to cull their paperwork, see these small, common mistakes, they make the snap decision that you are a small, common writer.
Go ahead, have that cry.
Popularity: 54% [?]
Stream Free Classic Science Fiction TV and Films
The big problem with the internet is that it seems like it’s designed to make you feel like an idiot on purpose.
I don’t mean the fact that every question you post on Yahoo!Answers is answered by some snotty 12-year-old. I don’t mean that every time you try to do research you have your choice of either an impenetrable thesis or incorrect wiki.
I mean the fact that even though you try to stay abreast of news and features, even though you subscribe to dozens of feeds, constantly google, search Technorati and have alerts automatically sent to your cell phone, you still come across a nifty, cool, useful and entertaining site after millions of other people already know about it. On the Internets, you’re always a Noob somewhere.
Take <a title="Hulu.com" href="http://www.hulu.com" target="_self">Hulu.com</a>
Hulu is a free TV and movie Streaming site. Yes Free. As in , Get-your-fix-of-the-A-Team-right-now. As in no money down. Not $1.99. Not $.99. Free.
There’s a catch- The number of shows is inversely proportional to the age and DVD availability. A show airing today might only have the last couple episodes. A classic on DVD might have the entire first season. A show which is no longer selling might have nearly it’s entire run. The Movie section is as sparsely populated as basic cable, but on the positive, is heavy on American International.
And, Of course they’re ad supported.
But this closes the deal: Embeddable content. That’s right. Embed your favorite show in your blog.
So, For Your viewing pleasure, here’s the "Saga of a Star World, Part 1" for Memorial Day Weekend:
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ASM: “Show, Don’t Tell” Is NOT About Description
The Novice writer begins his story like this:
Ovid lay sprawled across the Bunk. He absently fingered the video remote without ever turning the set on.
"I’m Bored," He said to no one in particular.
The Intermediate writer, learning the phrase "Show, Don’t Tell" writes something like this:
Ovid sprawled over the ancient, brown Geminon wool blanket he had picked up at an estate sale two years before, when he first got this berth. The frayed duct tape holding the broken seams together scratched and pinched his skin through his worn T-shirt. He absently fingered the universal remote, flipping randomly through the Colonial News feed, infomercials,and a training diskthat was spinning in the RCA player for no reason.
"I Even more bored now," he sighed to no one in particular, "and I’m even more verbose."
While more descriptive than the Novice writer, this doesn’t show us any more, and is just as bad. Why? Because "Show Don’t Tell" is not about description.
"Show Don’t Tell" is about Movement. It’s about characterization and dialogue and plot. We still don’t know how bored Ovid is, because the writer has just told us he’s bored without showing it:
Ovid flipped two decks of cards into the wastebasket, one at a time. sixty-two landed face up.
When Writing, watch out for characters who tell us how they’re feeling, and watch out for Poker tells tht can have only one meaning. try to be a little subtle, a little nuanced. avoid things like:
"I’m angry," she said, punching the wall.
Well D’uh.
Telling often happens during exposition and summnation in a book. We want to skip over the boring stuff and get back to the action, so we gloss over characters emotions and just tell what’s happening. It’s the written equivalent of "Yada,Yadda.Yadda", "Anyway" and "To Make a long story short…" The problem is, it too often makes a long story even longer. On the written page, it’s black chunks without dialogue, without changes. it sucks.
What to do about it? What you don’t want to do is sneak in lots of description of things that don’t directly bear on the plot. Show. Don’t tell is not about description.
Take a look at this passage from John W. Campbell’s The Black Star Passes :
The passengers in the huge plane high above them gave little thought to what passed below, engrossed with their papers or books, or engaged in casual conversation. This monotonous trip was boring to most of them. It seemed a waste of time to spend six good hours in a short 3,500 mile trip. There was nothing to do, nothing to see, except a slowly passing landscape ten miles below. No details could be distinguished, and the steady low throb of the engines, the whirring of the giant propellers, the muffled roar of the air, as it rushed by, combined to form a soothing lullaby of power. It was all right for pleasure seekers and vacationists, but business men were in a hurry.
Ok, He tells us they’re bored. But then he SHOWS us why: The trip is too long, there’s noting to see, the enginnes are soothing. He takes us there by showing us the boredom. Look again, and you’ll see no description: What does the plane look like? What does the cabin look like? Does it matter to the plot? Would it matter to slow the exposition down to a crawl to describe the plane? You bet it would.
It would bore me. And you don’t want that.
Popularity: 58% [?]
BTT:Passive Voice was Avoided by the Writer
In Military training there are certain maxims that are ingrained in recruits as inviolable laws:
Incoming Fire has the Right of Way
If it Requires a volunteer…Don’t.
Teamwork is essential. It gives the enemy someone else to shoot at.
For writers, one of the fundamental maxims is "Avoid the passive voice."
What is passive voice?
Passive voice is simply putting the Object of the sentence at the beginning, where the subject normally is:
- The Raider was shot by Starbuck instead of Starbuck shot the Raider.
Passive voice often uses the past participle of the verb with a "To be". The word "By"is often hanging around to identify the real subject. Because of that "Was", Passive voice can be confused with the past tense that writers often use in fiction. It can also be confused with the uncommon past progressive used when two actions occur in the past:
- "I was walking down the sidewalk when I saw the dollar bill" is past progressive tense.
- The sidewalk was walked on by me is just plain awful.
What’s Wrong with Passive Voice:
- It’s Wordy- In both of the examples above, you can see how passive voice uses more words to say the same thing.
- It’s Distancing- Passive voice distances your reader from the action.
- It’s Passive- For Frak’s sake, they put this in the NAME…Sentences written in Passive voice lie there, inert lumps of clay, while the subject sits over in the corner waiting for something to do.
When Is Passive Voice seen?:
Passive voice is seen often in two different situations: When you don’t want to have to accept blame and if you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Passive voice is often used in student writing and Business writing by writers who aren’t sure of themselves or their subject matter:
- The report was written by committee. The Errors were included by accident. Resposibility wasn’t taken by anyone in particular.
- The Battle of the Alamo was fought by Texans. In Texas? They were killed by Santa Ana. Maybe?
Passive voice is also used when the subject is unknown:
- The Bomb was planted under the bridge sometime after midnight.
- The Baseball was thrown through the living room window.
- So you can use passive voice if you don’t want to be blamed for your writing, or if you don’t know what you’re writing about.
How do you eradicate the pernicious threat of Passive Voice?
You should be on general alert for the passive voice: It creeps up everywhere. Watch out for the words "Was" and "By" appearing too close together. But there are two areas in your writing you should be especially wary of, Exposition and flashbacks.
- Fashbacks- If you’re already writing a passage in the past tense, and are now moving to a passage that is “more past,” it is easy to slip into the passive voice.
- Exposition- Like flashbacks, exposition forces you to step outside the main story and provide info that is not part of the flow of action. And again, this natural distancing can cause you to use the passive voice.
Popularity: 57% [?]