Arts, Entertainment and Electronics - Interesting and Useful Articles on Diverse Topics

Tell No Lies? Not If You Write Speculative Fiction

Articles — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:58:31 +0000

What are some good speculative fiction ideas? The question isn’t all that useful since it doesn’t give us any way to figure out which ideas are the good ones. “How do you come up with a compelling and sensible idea for a speculative fiction story?” might be a better question?”

In answer to that I’ll turn to an idea put forth by Bob Ingersoll in his web column “The Law is a Ass” (which is all about how the law is handled in comic books and other popular media). According to Mr. Ingersoll it is important to get real world aspects of the comics correct so that the Big Lie of super powers can be believable. As an author, you have only one Big Lie that your readers will belief. Once you have a Big Lie, you have to follow its rules, but beyond that you can do anything you want. If the rest of your story is grounded in reality, then the reader shouldn’t have a problem believing in it.

For speculative fiction writers, the Big Lie is important, and generally is the center of the story. In fantasy stories, the magic that is part of the Big Lie must be consistent and have limits set on what it can and can’t do. New technology is often the Big Lie of science fiction stories, and many stories are build around a single advancement. Magic Realism Big Lies have to conform to a mostly real world that has magic added in. No matter what, however, the Big Lie has to make sense within the context of the story, and the rules of the Big Lie cannot be violated.

Here’s a fairly well known (I hope) example. The movie series (and comic book series before and since) Blade (owned by Marvel Comics) is about a man that hunts vampires, and he was in the womb when his mother was bitten by a vampire.As a result, he has many advantages of vampires, but only a few of their vulnerabilities.For example, he does feed on blood like a normal vampire. The Big Lie is that there really are vampires. Vampires as the Big Lie require the writer to define what their actual abilities are, and how they vary from classic vampire stories. In one scene, a vampire is walking under the sun, something most vampires cannot not since sunlight killing vampires is a part of most (but not all) vampire Big Lies. One group of vampires created a powerful sunblock that allows them to temproarily walk under the sun, which is reasonable since it is the UV rays in sunlight that hurts them.The use of sunblock only works because of the Big Lie of what vampires are vulnerable to, it would not work in many other vampire stories with different Big Lies.Later on, Blade attacks a vampire with a UV lamp, which, as now expected, hurts the vampire.

So, probably the most important step in writing a compelling speculative fiction story is coming up with an interested Big Lie to build a story around, and then work out all the details of the Big Lie to make a logical consistent narrative.

If you’d like to see some great Big Lies in action, visit us at Spectacular Speculations and sign up for our free newsletter for a story every month. Also check our subscription options for more great reading delivered directly to your inbox. We’re always looking for a few good Big Lies, so check out the author’s page for publication options.

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Leave The Anxiety When Doing Groom Speeches

Articles — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:27:15 +0000

The bride is the center of attention during the wedding. But the grooms speeches is one of the most relevant events that the guests look forward to. And because of fear of stepping up the plate and delivering that speech, the groom gets anxious during the preparation. This is not surprising at all as according to a survey years ago, a lot of people are more afraid of speaking in front of the public than facing death itself.

In the case of the groom wedding speech, there are factors why the anxiety even before the big day. The fear of standing in front to deliver the speech is experienced even by the most dashing and confident groom. The expectations coming from the bride, the parents of both party and the guests play a big part why.

The groom has to deliver a speech that contains his declaration of his manhood. He is expected to proclaim the honor and pride of being finally married to his better half in front of all the people present to witness the wedding. He is expected to declare his commitment to being a faithful, protective and ideal husband for as long as he lives to the woman he just tied the knot with.

If these expectations are to be removed, perhaps the anxiety he feels would be lessened and the preparation of the speech would be less intimidating as well. So, for you to come up with a memorable and sensible groom speech, what are the things you remember?

First, you have to make sure the speech shows your gratitude to the friends and relatives who attended the ceremony and helped make the wedding possible, and particularly to you and your bride’s parents to what they have done the entire time you both depended on them and the support they have provided for the wedding to come true.

Welcoming and thanking the other guests is maybe a bit easier because you only have to recognize and mention what each of the people involved has done in the planning and organizing of the wedding. However, it is crucial when you are finally acknowledging the parents of the bride to thank and mention them. It is in this phase where your public testament that you will take care, cherish, and love their daughter for the rest of your life will be made.

But as long as you speak with honesty and sincerity, there shouldn’t be any problem to it, no matter how intimidated you feel. Putting this part at the end of the speech is a good idea too. You can end up with this part more a heartfelt and sincere one by placing emphasis on the kind of relationship you have with them and highlighting a particular story that made you feel welcomed by them.

grooms speeches are opportunity for you to honestly and sincerely offer your gratitude to all the people who sacrificed and helped to make the most important event of your life a successful one, so they should never be intimidating at all. Through the speech, you are also given an avenue to show your happiness and tell how relevant the occasion is for you. So, stop worrying and instead pull it off and still remain as the dashing and confident groom that you are.

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Two Popular Japanese Language Programs – Rosetta And Rocket Japanese

Articles — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:06:17 +0000

People like to say that it’s hard to learn the Japanese language, but is it really? The answer is definitely no. One can easily master the language if there is a strong desire to do so. Of course, you will also need a very reliable set of course materials that can be used as a teaching method. These materials will show you how to speak correctly as well as understand the language. Two of the best at home Japanese language courses include Rosetta Stone Japanese and Rocket Japanese.

Fans of language courses surely have heard of Rocket and Rosette Stone since they are both famous for their ability to deliver outstanding results in terms of learning a foreign language. Whether one uses these systems as a supplement to a formal education or as a stand along means to learn Japanese language, they have their value. For those curious as to what these systems entails, here is a brief overview:

The Specs of Rocket Japanese

The Rocket Japanese language course is quite comprehensive and delivers many benefits to those that wish to learn conversational Japanese in a quick and easy manner. This can be achieved through the audio portion of the system. There are well over 1000 audio tracks which makes this software one of the best comprehensive Japanese language courses available. Another huge plus to rocket learn Japanese languagecourses are the interactive games that are included. Those wishing to learn Japanese language effectively will find the vocabulary games to be a tremendous help. As such, they can be considered the jewel of this particular system. The cost of Rocket Japanese is also extremely affordable. There is no reason to spend hundreds of dollars on lessons when this system provides an effective tool for learning at a very low price. The one negative to the system are its illustrations. They are decidedly lacking and those wishing to learning elementary writing skills may be disappointed. Those that are exclusively interested in developing skills at conversational Japanese will most definitely find Rocketlearn Japanese language courses quite helpful.

Rosetta Stone Japanese

Software designers of Rosetta Stone Japanese language courses have made an excellent work. They design software to improve your ability to write and speak. It made use of the fundamentals of Japanese language in very effective manner. The Japanese language courses software is an interactive program, in its speech recognition program you can listen to a native speaker and then talk to him for feedback. This will enhance your ability to properly pronounce a language, which seems to be complicated.

It is indeed understood that nobody wishes to use a difficult program which is very well understood by Rocket Japanese. Therefore this basic – “user friendly” learnJapanese language courses program is made very simple operation enabling a person to use it with ease. The only disadvantage with Rocket Japanese is, it is a basic program suitable for beginners rather than for advanced learners.

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Review Of The Importance Of Social Bookmarking On The Internet

Articles — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:27:46 +0000

A quiet evolution of the Internet has been going on for quite a few years. It has now become more visible and has taken on a the name of Web 2. 0. When people talk about Web 2. 0, they are referring to this evolutionary step that has been started by people who have become empowered by the ability to make independent decisions about how they find things and communicate using social networks and the Internet.

Web 2.0 gives a person a clear overview of how social bookmarking impacts every aspect of communication and information exchange on the Internet. People use this method of communication as an easy way to receive and exchange information instantly using multiple social networking channels.

Many people are attaching links and RSS feeds to their websites and blogs so that they can alert their readers to new information on a regular basis through their social networking site. The bookmarks may be spread across all of the social networking sites via the people accessing them.

Social bookmarking is susceptible to spamming and hacking. All of the social media sites continuously upgrade their security to block spammed messages from businesses being attempting to be bookmarked on their sites. However, this is a continual race.

There are some very good ways to use social networks and social bookmarking specifically, to increase one’s business. However, it is important to note that if a business attempts spam advertising, or has poor and uninformative content, when a person blocks their URL, they are effectively blocked from every device that that customer has. This can be very expensive for a business.

There is no standard language protocol for social bookmarking. Many SEO work with the standardized protocols of the large directory search engines when writing and advertising. The language used for bookmarking on social networks is different. For instance a business that sells desks may write a profound article about roll-top desks. The bookmark or tag that it is saved in will be “roll top.” A person searching for “desks” will not find that business. Many people bookmark using a shorthand method that catches on.

It will be important prior to using social networking as a marketing tool that a person take time to learn the semantics of the bookmarking structure. The bookmarks are organized by the “tag” that is associated to that article or RSS. It may not lead to the website if the correct language is not used in the title of the article or RSS feed.

Social network optimization tools are very different from SEO for the Internet. There is not a marriage between the structure of languages between these two entities yet. However, the Internet search directories will evolve into social bookmarking as more people begin to take control of their information highway.

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Twitter – How To Effectively Use it For Networking

Articles — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:37:21 +0000

Twitter is the fastest growing social networking site on the Internet, and is a very popular subject within Internet marketing circles. Despite the opinions of many online marketers, who dismiss Twitter as nothing but a waste of time, it has proven to be a useful tool in the marketer’s toolbox for driving traffic and networking with fellow marketers, or people with similar interests.

The first step to taking advantage of the benefits that it offers is to follow, and be followed, by those with the same interests as you. Don’t limit yourself to just those people who you actually know, anyone who operates in the same niche or niches as you is an option.

Once you have a decent number of followers, it’s time to start tweeting. Bear in mind that when you tweet, self promotion isn’t the aim – always think about what your can genuinely offer others. Keep away from tweeting about what you ate for breakfast and what you’ll be watching on TV later; the fact is that others don’t care about this and you will soon annoy people if you take this approach to tweeting. If you want to brand yourself as someone knowledgeable and whom it would be desirable to follow, then you’ll need to be able to provide value to your followers as well as potential followers.

There are also a plethora of tools on the Internet that integrate with Twitter to provide greater functionality and options. These tools can be used to automate tasks which you may find are taking up too much of your time. Twitter is a social networking site though, and people often forget about the social aspect of it. If you are truly interested in networking with people on Twitter, then try not to automate anything. While it does save time to automate parts of your Twitter account, doing so will make you seem less interested in your followers.

As well as simply sending information out to your followers, Twitter is great for building new contacts by getting involved in conversations and answering others questions. If someone makes an interesting tweet, then tweet back that you found their tweet helpful and maybe add something to what they originally tweeted. Or, if someone tweets about something that you don’t know about that, then tweet back to ask them for more details on it.

If you tweet and interact with certain individuals long enough, they’ll start trusting and respecting you. Then, once others see that you are an active and valuable Twitter user, they will start interacting with you too, and a viral networking effect results. The consequence being that once you have built a small network on Twitter, and are an active user, your follower base will start to grow significantly without any specific additional efforts by you.

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Using Online Social Networking Sites for Business and Fun

Articles — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:15:21 +0000

Sites that feature free social networks and online social bookmarking are more popular now than ever. It can be a little tricky, however, when it comes to knowing which to choose. That’s where social media reviews come in. When reading these reviews, though, you might be shocked at how people’s points of view vary widely Some people would defend their social media choices to the bitter end. That’s probably because the site they fell in love with is one of the few they tried and they invested all their time without further discovery. I’ve known a few who fought for their choice without even knowing the difference between business networking sites , bookmarking sites or sites that feature online social networking as a means for people to have fun, date, play games or do various other entertainment-related activities. Many are not aware that there are also online social networking sites, like Capazoo, that use micropayments to incentivize users to visit the site and promote it to others.

Many people aren’t aware of the variations between online social networks because there is a tremendous amount of overlap of features on the various sites. For example, HubPages can be used for business or pleasure. Thousands of user-created free networking communities have sprung up all over the Internet, such as Book Market. These type of social network sites are significant because they’re created by users and focus on distinct interests. And speaking of niches, book readers now have plenty of places to hang out online. Social networks that feature book reviews, like LibraryThing, cater to bookworms everywhere. A less interactive format that is just as important as online social networking is social bookmarking, which has become very popular. Social bookmarking sites like Reddit allow people to save their favorite bookmarks so they can access them online any time. This platform type is also great for people who conduct searches, because tags that allow for easy searching can be assigned to each bookmark. This ability also makes these sites tremendous for Internet marketers, because they know they will lead to backlinks for their sites. The individual links aren’t that impactful but in aggregate, they matter. As with Digg, when a link is posted on these web properties, it can often rank high in Google if the person who submitted it understands how to research keywords and has entered the listing properly.

The boundaries are made even more murky with sites like Yahoo Buzz, which are set up for both social networking and social bookmarking. They are quite useful for bookmarking URLs but they also provide a powerful platform for online social networking and marketing. Business and personal contacts galore are just waiting to be discovered on these sites and links posted to these social networking platforms sometimes rank well in the search engines. Great benefits such as these are the reason people who make their livings online love online social media sites.

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The Prisoner (01:01) – “Arrival” TV The Prisoner Review: PopSyndicate.com

Articles — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:28:49 +0000

The 1960s classic cult TV series “The Prisoner”, has been remade/reimaged, with many changes from the original. I haven’t had a chance to see more than the first hour at this point since it made it’s debut on AMC earlier this week, but I wasn’t too thrilled with what I saw so far.

I’ll be watching more (well, probably the whole thing unless it turns out unbearably bad since I’m a big Prisoner fan) but I’m not inspired yet.

This guy’s review is pretty critical of it, maybe more so than I, but we’ll see what I think by the time I get caught up watching…

Click for source

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Trade shows and how it can help popularize your business

Articles — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:54:29 +0000

It is a tough economy right now for a lot of businesses.Many businesses are struggling to survive and many have folded up already.That would be the reason why these businesses must find new innovative ways to survive in this tough economy.With that in mind businesses must do some things that they do not usually do. One way that isn’t used enough is through trade shows.So in this article we will be discussing some ways on how to promote a business through trade shows.

Most businesses don’t realize the increase in sales they can experience if they try this marketing tactic.Especially for those struggling businesses. But to have an impact they need to make sure they have a good trade show display booth.That will be your gateway to better business.What I’m trying to say is that even if you do participate in trade shows but you are unprepared promotionally and your booth is lousy then your business will still stay the same and nothing good will happen.For it to grow and increase sales you must need a professional look.

Next thing you need to do to increase sales through it is to go the extra mile and use trade show pop up displays.This is not your typical display booth.But the key to increasing your business in trade shows is by attracting a lot of people to go to your booth.By giving something that is different and attractive in your pop-up display booth would attract a lot of people.

Finally you will need great trade show banner stands.A trade show will be full of people looking for something that they need and will be needing in the future.Catching people’s attention is the secret to bringing lots of people to your booth.You can do that by having an attention-catching banner.If you can do a banner like then you can attract many people event hose far away from your booth.

So there goes some of the tips on how to increase your business sales during the recession.Going through trade shows is one way to increase your business.

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How To Get To The First Page of Search Engines

Articles — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:53:23 +0000

Not ranking well is like putting up a store in the mountains where no one can see it. Very few people visit the sites on the second page of Google. Being in the first 10 is important as discussed in ppc bully 2.0. If your website is not in the top ten, it will be like a secret website where only you and your friends know about.

There are many factors that determine the relevancy of your website. How Google exactly does this is top secret. For this reason, no one can guarantee your spot in Google.

Getting on the first page of Google can be tedious but is possible if you follow some SEO guidelines. Getting listed on the first page of Google depends on a number of factors:

* The target keyword
* Number of competing pages for your target keyword
* The number of pages your website has
* How well you use keywords on your site
* How may incoming links you have

To be on the first page of Google, first make sure that your website outshines the competition. Add regular features, articles and special offers, give your visitors good reason to return to your site. Be on top of things when in comes to your niche market.

Research the keyword that you wish to target. Make sure to add these keywords in the website title and content of your website. Do not over do this. You can place related keywords to make it look natural.

Link back to your website as much as you can. Each links counts as a vote in your favour and is a key factor in search engine optimisation.

While SEO is important and worth paying for if you can afford it, there are some things you can do if you are on a tight budget. Just remember that optimizing your site takes time and you are unlikely to see immediate results unless you have identified a keyword that has little effective competition.

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What is Twitter and Can It Make Me Money?

Articles — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:13:19 +0000

What is Twitter? Twitter is one of the most popular Social Networking sites online. Unless you have been living on a desert island somewhere I am quite sure you have heard of Myspace, Linkedin and Facebook. these are just three of the most popular social media sites. Each site has it’s own demographics. Each site has it’s own uses as well as it’s own set of rules for use.

Twitter is basically a way for people to make friends and contacts through quick messages that always answers the question of what are you doing? Twitters main difference from other Social Media sites is the way in which you communicate. Twitter only allows 140 characters of communication at one time. so really all you can send or text at once is a message of no more than hundred and forty chracters. Really if you think about it you are simply sending text messages. These little communications are called tweets. I know this all sounds very cute. But don’t let this fool you. Twitter is quite powerful and building a business on twitter is easier then people think.

I went to a seminar recently about social networking where one of the speakers had his laptop open and was conversing with his twitter following during the seminar. During the seminar occasionally he would type in what he was doing while the others were speaking. Too high tech? Think again. How popular is text messaging these days. Well that is one of the major uses for twitter.

Once you discover the Twitter secret you too will be able to build your business and make money with Twitter. You can accomplish by building your list of friends, family and followers. The bigger your following the better the opportunity to make money and establish business associates. So the next time someone asks you what is twitter? you will know how to respond.

This is a site that I found that will help you to find thousands of like minded business associates. Take the time to look at this you’re going to love it. Click this What is Twitter? link for additional information about Twitter and this cool little site. A short informative video is also available on the site. I am amazed at how well this works.

Note: Any link or url in this article may be an affiliate link or web address that earns me an income if you take an action or purchase a product as a result of that link or url.

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