Shelby Petunia Review

Sephiroth by Yubinbasya “When will you make an end?”
- The Pope on the painting of the Sistine Chapel “When I’m finished.”
- Michelangelo. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Okay, so you got this GREAT Idea for a story!
This Great Idea…that births chapter after chapter…
This Great Idea…that you can’t seem to finish. (WTF?) Crap. So what do you do now? HOW do you make an End? Fairytales and Myths were my foundational reading, so they became my base model for how a story should finish. Fairy Tales have Symmetrical Closure, they end where they began, making a nice tidy ‘Karmic’ loop.The lost find their way.The wicked are punished.The weak become strong. This doesn’t mean ending a story in the location it began, or that full irrevocable transformations don’t happen, but that the story ties the knot to the Emotional or Karmic place they began. Monsters are faced, emotional hang-ups are dealt with, and problems are solved. What is begun - finishes.
It sounds perfectly simple, and it can be, however I despise stories I can guess the ending to, so naturally, I refuse to write them that way. (Insert evil snicker.) The Wrong direction is the Right direction!
I prefer to write stories that throw the reader completely off the obvious path, straight through the center of the village, and force them into the deep dark woods. I deliberately make every straightforward solution unbelievably problematic! The obvious answer is the wrong answer.The simple solution is impossible to accomplish.What seems to be a easy task has impossible if not fatal complications.Once the reader has been sent careening off into territory they never expected to go, and gotten utterly wrapped up in a plot they never expected - that’s when I start tying up ends by way of pulling rugs out from under the reader’s feet. Characters reveal motives that change how their base characters are perceived. The obvious bad-guy isn’t the bad guy, he’s AFTER the bad-guy. However, he’s completely ruthless in his hunt, which is what made him seem like the bad-guy in the first place.The bumbling fool that merely wants to help improve his fellow man, is in fact completely deranged sociopath that likes to do his improvements with a scalpel.The person the main character is trying to rescue, not only doesn’t want to be rescued, but in fact resents the intrusion. Random events and objects are revealed to have unexpected connections. The gun on the mantelpiece wasn’t merely a decoration.The strange recluse neighbor turns out to be the one person who actually knows what’s really going on. What was accepted as fact is revealed to be something else entirely. “We’re all living in a computer generated dream-world.” And in the process of dealing with all that… Monsters are faced.Emotional hang-ups are dealt with.Problems end up solved.What was begun - finishes. The END”But the story is already halfway written and I have no idea where to go from there!”
Go back to the beginning and figure out what your MAIN Character’s Problem was Internally (emotionally) & Externally (plot/quest). If you haven’t solved them yet, then that’s all you need to do — solve the quest & fix their emotional issue.

Note: Your main character is the Point of View character most of the story is told from.

“But what do you do if you’ve come to the end, but you wanna keep going?”

That’s what Sequels are all about.
Very simply: Same cast - New Problem — and new title!

“…too many good books, book series, anime, etc. suffer from
Bad Endings.”
Most often, this happens when:
— A) The author didn’t know how they wanted to end the story before they started writing. They just wrote…until they couldn’t write any more. (AKA: Writing by the seat of their pants.)

— B) They planned the end, but painted themselves into a corner by tossing in a major (head/heart/sex) problem they didn’t know how to fix before they could get to the end. (AKA: Bit off more than they could swallow.)

How do you
FIX the Problem?
1) Written by the Seat of your Pants.
— When you’ve written something by the seat of your pants, the only way to fix it is by stopping cold and figuring out where you want it to end - then adjusting the whole story to suit your ending. This means extensive rewrites.

This also means making a decision.

What’s more important to you as an author?
A) The hours you spent writing all those words that got you nowhere?
- OR -
B) Making a story your readers will swoon over, and demand all their friends read too?

2) Bit off more than you can Swallow.
— I’ve noticed that this shows most frequently when you have an ANGST plot. Oddly, it also shows up when someone wants to write a sex scene, but never had sex before.

Fixing Sex
- This is actually really easy. READ smut stories. (Watching porn movies gives you what it looks like, but not what it FEELS like.) Make damned sure you read the warnings on each story! Some of this stuff might make you wanna hurl.
Hetero smut - I recommend reading books by author Angela Knight for excellent graphic detailing without making you wanna hurl, and a solid romance with her adventures. Yaoi smut - go here: Minotaurs Sex Tips for Slash Writers. Read that. Just, for God’s sake, don’t copy someone’s smut scenes word for word - that’s plagerism. Paraphrasing, on the other hand, is perfectly acceptable.

Fixing Angst
- This one’s tough. If you’re trying to fix a serious problem like Grief over lost loved ones begin by Googling ’stages of grief’, so you know what your character is supposed to be going through, and follow the advice given for getting over it. If you’re trying to fix a heart-ache like a break-up between lovers, the stages of grief still works.

If you’re trying to get them back together again - then you have a real problem.

Here in the West, getting back together rarely ever happens in real life because it’s just easier to end the relationship completely and not deal with it anymore.

In the East, it’s another story entirely. People do get back together because they are tought from childhood that Family and personal Honor is far more important than personal feelings.
Enemies WILL put their personal vendettas on hold until a common enemy is vanquished. Wives will go back to their husbands for the sake of keeping the rest of the family safe from harm; giving those husbands a chance to make their wives fall in love with them again. In conclusion…
— When you have come up with the most diabolical problem known to man (or beast) the only way to fix it is by finding out how other people did it and applying that to your characters. Ahem, RESEARCH. There are literally thousands of help sites for dealing with relationship problems, and even more on how to deal with grief, loneliness, and other emotionally devistating issues.

Hint: Google is your friend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

The wife wanted some eye drops. Her eyes were dry sitting under an AC vent in the office. So I drove the to local CVS Pharmacy and parked my car.

As I got out and took about 5 steps I felt something brush the top of my head and I looked around to find a couple of black birds fly away. I guess those two birds were fooling around and came too close to a human by accident…

I take a couple of more steps and I hear the wings of the birds. As I turn around I see a bird make it to my head and give me a peck on the top!!! What the hell!!!! Do I have any bread crumbs on my head?? My head feels clean!! Silly birds.. must be a mistake.

As I turn to take a step I see the birds double back towards me! Those birds are really after me! I better wear my sunglasses. I don’t want to go blind!!

And I almost run into the store.

There are birds outside that attacked me!!! The attendant at the store calmly informs me: They are nesting there sir. We are after all on their territory.

I have to agree. 3 years ago, this place was a series of rolling hills. Now I can find two man made knolls. And an ocean of terracotta colored roofs. I live on the birds territory after all.

After I bought the eye drops, I am very cautious so as not to bother those birds. As I made a big loop evading them, towards my car, the two birds were on a couple of poles. They turned slowly as I walked. They kept their beady eyes on me, as I quickly made it into the car and left that place.

Birds 1
Man 0

And the game continues….

Are you ready for some more Girl Power? All five Spice Girls appeared in public together for the first time in six years today as they announced an 11-date, eight-country world tour.

The tour will take in the USA, Britain, Germany, Spain, China, Australia, South Africa and Argentina. To register for tickets go to www.thespicegirls.com.

Straddling Christmas, the tour will begin in Posh Spice Victoria Beckham’s new home Los Angeles on December 7, before visiting Las Vegas, New York City, London, Cologne, Madrid, Beijing, Hong Kong, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires.

Source: Times Online
Tags: Spice Girls | Music

Teamspeak is a communication tool that uses the Internet as a highway for delivering clear communication. This is an efficient way that work places can increase efficiency in their business.

With businesses being spread out to so many sites, it is no wonder that there is always a new search for better communication options. There are many ways that companies communicate between employees, teams and sites, however there are positives and negatives with each of these options.

Communication options:

Face to face (great for one on one or meetings, however hard to pull all needed together at the same time in the same place)
Post Mail (slow, but has a hard copy)
Email (faster, but not constant, also not efficient with knowing the immediate result)
Telephone (some increased cost, this can be hard for some smaller businesses, also for multiple people often times the call has to be conference)
Conference call (some cost, mostly a good way of communication, some technical difficulties)

With the newer technologies of Teamspeak, you can talk live, with several people at one time over the Internet. Teamspeak is proprietary voice over IP software that allows which allows many users to speak over chat. This is much like a conference phone call. With Teamspeak, you will likely wear a headset, with an integrated microphone.

Teamspeak was originally targeted toward the gaming community. This software was made for increasing the communication in online games. However, the same possibilities with games became very useful with business.

This software created a revolution in the multiplayer gaming around a couple of years back. Before Teamspeak, people used to use those in game voice commands, which needs the player to press a certain key before talking. That irritates the gamers to say the least. Imagine your enemy standing in front of you and you want to call for help. You start looking for that voice command key and boom, your looking at the stars from a corpse view.

The Teamspeak server currently supports Windows and Linux Operating Systems. The use a web based or telnet interface. This is used to control server administration and settings.

Teamspeak/Ventrilo and other voice chat applications are good if you have a decent connection, but unless you have a constant or regularly-occurring need to hold voice chats, conference calls would still be cheaper at least, unless they use a product often enough to provide a cost benefit over regular calls.

However, even if a company doesn’t use it much, I can see some companies buying a product such as this that is marketed to “increase productivity,” “allow workers to collaborate at the speed of thought,” and “interconnect developers across the globe,” even if they don’t actually end up using this product much.

Being able to communicate openly increased constant and flowing progressive thought,. This is important in many of the fields out there today. For example, a technical support company can trouble shoot faster and limit the call times just by being able to communicate between technicians.

Get yourself started:

o Download the latest Teamspeak client from http://www.goteamspeak.com/index.php?page=getstarted
o Connect to one of our public/test servers below. If you successfully installed Teamspeak you should be able to just click on one of the links below and you will automatically be connected
o For a systematic guide to connecting to a Teamspeak server please have a look at the Tutorials section below.

With this option available, I do not see why many companies would not take advantage of these types of programs. The idea of being able to communicate with many people over the Internet getting immediate results is a fast, easy and convenient way to get the ball going on creativity.

Today, the people of Alcester bade farewell to the Reverend Richard Dobell… as I said in an earlier post, he was perhaps the town’s favourite adopted son.

I wanted to record my thoughts from the day, both for personal memory and on the off chance that anybody who couldn’t make it on the day who stumbles upon my blog… has the opportunity to get a feel for the events as they happened.

A requiem service had been held the previous evening, which I attended. I almost didn’t get there on time, but fortunately I experienced a minor miracle (God quite literally fiddled some traffic lights). We shared communion and poignantly, I was told that the amount of wafers used tallied exactly with the number of people present - the bishop taking the service did not have to consume any extra. During that night, Richard’s body lay in state.

I decided to get to the church early this morning… rumour had it 1,000 mourners would attend and having known Richard as a friend of my family since about the age of 10… I wanted to make sure I was inside the building, should it get busy. With about an hour to go, people flooded in and packed the church out… standing room only.

Shortly before 11am, the muffed bells stopped ringing and the Rector - David Capron, read a personal address from the bishop. There was then silence for two minutes.

After the first hymn, there was a reading from the apocryphal book of The Wisdom of Solomon. some people might frown at that because it isn’t in most translations of the Bible. However it was markedly poignant because it addressed ideas that many skeptics present in the room, might have been considering:

“But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them.

In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace.

For though in the sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality.

Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself;

Those who trust in him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones, and he watches over his elect.”Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-5, 9
The first thing to touch me personally was the next reading. I had felt in my heart God saying “Do not be anxious, do not let your heart be troubled” about a week and a half ago… about various things in my life - sadly I had not been good at that… but the reading from John 10 started with the second part of that phrase… and so I was reassured that God had not abandoned me to be angst ridden psyche.

The next part of the service was the eulogy, given by Reverend Andy Shearn (who was also the former headmaster at Alcester Grammar School, where Richard taught).

He did a great job.

Nearly all his words were taken from personal observations of Richard at school, or from his wife Jan… and much of it was made up of Richard’s own words at various assemblies. Richard’s spirit was eloquently captured in everything that was said. In a previous post I said of Richard:

He never took himself too seriously but always made sure the seriousness behind the message came across. He always left the stage leaving people with something to chew over… but never gave it to them in a painful manner.

Death it seemed, proved no exception to this. People were laughing at some of the more humorous anecdotes and warm memories… and yet equally, there were moments of challenge. Richard, just before Easter had spoken of Christ’s suffering.

“The trouble with resurrection, is that you have to die first.”

He had recounted the pain that Jesus went through prior to the first Easter Sunday… and then he had told the students gathered the reason why:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”John 3:16
It seems deeply relevant to me, that Richard shared in Christ’s Passion in a special way. By openly talking about these things, he then demonstrated them. He was a man who genuinely wanted the best for the people he met in his daily life, and for the students who learned under his tutelage. He was passionate about his beliefs and in his death, he found away to demonstrate the importance of that faith to many people. Reverend Shearn repeated the challenge that Richard had given during that speech… that Christ had gone through so much for all of us, so that we could be reconciled with god… and all that was required of us was that we accept it and believe. Richard’s question was simply:

“Do you believe?”

I wonder how many will have asked themselves that very same question simply because of Richard’s testimony in life and death? To see a man meet the end of his physical life, absolutely certain about his eventual destiny (not out of arrogance but out of blessed assurance), surely that must have inspired people.

We then sang “O Jesus I have promised”. The first verse raised a personal smile for me… because when we sang the line “I shall not fear the battle if thou art by my side”, all I could see was the picture I had described to you the other day: Richard clad in tin hat, dustbin lid and bent sword whilst preaching on the full armour of God. Then I nearly choked up in verse 4 and here’s why:

O Jesus, thou hast promisedto all who follow theethat where thou art in glorythere shall thy servant be

The reason I nearly lost it was because it was those words that I had shared with you on Saturday, when writing about Richard and Selwyn Hughes being men who were still very much alive in the presence of God… and as I said, I don’t believe in coincidence. I have felt very recently that the veil between Heaven and Earth has drawn thin indeed. In the past I have believed and known about life after death… but at the moment I feel it. It seems very much to me as if a window has been left open and I can actually hear the party going on in the unseen room next door.

After the prayers and a rousing rendition of “Thine Be the Glory” of which I am sure Richard would be proud, we sat down and listened to a cheerful rendition of “In an English Country Garden”, a tune that Richard often played on the piano at our house. One couldn’t help but share a bittersweet smile as the music played.

Finally the coffin was led out, followed by the family… as the church organ rippled gloriously through a plethora of lively and swift chords. Testimony to a wonderful musician, it seemed that even the ancient keys and pedals of that instrument, that for so long had shared an almost symbiotic relationship with Richard when he had been organist… wanted to grieve and say farewell in their own way… the only way they knew how - in awesome and wonderful symphony.

The full scale of the event was revealed upon leaving church. Not only was the churchyard full to bursting, but people lined the High Street as far as the eye could see. They had come to say farewell to a deeply loved and wonderful individual… who has returned to the God who graciously gave him to us - undeserving as we were of such a blessing.

Jesus Christ, despite having his years cut short by crucifixion, lived a full life and in the end he had done everything he was supposed to… this is one of the reasons he cried out “It is accomplished.” So despite Richard’s years being cut short, I recognise that his life was a fulfilled one… and that he did what I believe he was supposed to do (how many of us I wonder, can say the same of ourselves?), that is why I gave my post the title of Jesus words on the cross “It is accomplished.”

You may be interested to know that the full text of the eulogy for Richard Dobell is now up at the St Nicholas website… and you can find it by following the linked text in this sentence..

Rest in Christ Richard - well done good and faithful servant!

And as you said so many times to so many of us on so many occasions…

“Peace be with you.”

This is an extremely interesting subject as these people are mentioned in many early texts. Cynocefaloi translates literally as “the dog-head people.” They are also spoken of in the Life of Saint Makarios, which locates the tribe in a desert far beyond Syria. Tzetzis, a Byzantine historical commentator, refers to them as inhabitants of India, of which modern Pakistan would have been a part. In the Greek Life of St. Christopher (who some speculate came from this area), it is said that that he came to the Roman world passing through the Persian desert, and Marco Polo mentions them as inhabitants of the Indian Ocean. So they could be the same primitive tribes that Alexander the Greek found on his way to the sea coast of the Gedrosian Desert (modern Makran in Pakistan).Our main source for the Cynocefaloi is Ktesias (5th century B.C.), a well-known ancient geographer, pharmacist and historian from Knidos, whose writings were taken seriously by Byzantine Church fathers, for example by Patriarch Photius the Great (see his Myriobiblos). In Ktesias’ book “Indica,” which St. Photius himself used, there is a whole text dedicated to the Cynocefaloi, “an Indian tribe.” These ancient folk tales (Ethiopian, Slavic, Persian, Arabic, Armenian, Greek etc.) all refer to the dramatic contact of Alexander the Great and the Cynocefaloi. This also explains why I’ve seen many old Greek icons of St. Christopher with a dog’s head. At first I was shocked, it seemed like blasphemy and I wondered what on earth the Greeks were thinking. No one was able to explain it, except that St. Christopher’s life from the Menaion says that he was so tremendously ferocious-looking that when Emperor Decius saw him, he fell off his throne from fright. Do you think there was a connection? The sources say that St. Christopher came across the Persian Desert. These people lived on the other side of the desert.I have my own theory, although this explanation is not in the old texts that cite these people, because the sources assume the reader is already familiar with the place names and locations. Several sources say that St. Andrew was in this northeast region of Pakistan, and we know that there were peoples in this area who slashed their cheeks from mouth to ear, so that all the teeth showed. Marco Polo saw this tribe, whom he called the Cynocefaloi. He said that they looked like mastiffs; that is, they didn’t have elongated heads like German shepherds with the long nose, but like mastiffs. You can imagine – a mastiff has a round, flat face shaped more like that of a human. They cut the cheeks, filed the teeth, cropped the ears, and reshaped the skulls of theirbabies so that they would grow into a very ferocious aspect. All of this was to protect themselves from the constant invasions of the area.If you go to some sub-Saharan tribes today along the Nile in Rwanda, or along the Amazon, or in New Guinea, the faces of some tribal peoples can frighten you terribly. They systematically mold their faces into something ferocious – the shape of the head, cheeks, teeth…. These people were ferocious in looks, but not ferocious in their ways. They were simply a primitive people who needed to protect themselves.According to the Syriac text, when St. Andrew went to these people they were transformed into normal human beings. In my opinion this means that after their baptism they simply stopped doing these things. In Deuteronomy it is forbidden to scar or mutilate the face, so this would have been part of the apostolic heritage that St. Andrew taught to this people.The Syriac sources say that when St. Andrew first saw them he was horrified. He panicked and fled back to the shore to jump into the boat, but as he reached the shore he smelled incense and realized that the Lord Himself had guided the boat there. He even questioned God at first, “Why did you bring me to this place?” (He is a man you know. St. Andrew is a man like all of us, but he is special.) But when the people came to him, they were kind, they gave him hospitality. They were just fine primitive people, as are many tribes in the Amazon today, even those who fight each other.We hear of this nowadays from people who have come into contact with “barbarian” tribes with strange customs, according to our cultures. Because they accept these people, they in turn are accepted by them. In Papua, New Guinea, in the Amazon, in the jungles of Africa, these people often embrace westerners who settle and live with them in a matter we can hardly imagine, with real love and tenderness. This happened to the apostles as well. The real problem for the apostles was when they were in the “civilized” world, not amongst primitive peoples. Christopher Orr

USA Today is running an excerpt of Denis Johnson’s much buzzed about new doorstop Tree of Smoke.The New Yorker Food Issue, to my mind the highlight of the New Yorker publishing year, has arrived. Somehow I look forward to this one as much as I did the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue when I was twelve. Much of the good stuff isn’t online, but you can get a taste of the food writing on offer with a series of short essays under theme “Family Dinner.” Aleksandar Hemon, Gary Shteyngart, Nell Freudenberger, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, David Sedaris, Anthony Lane, and Donald Antrim are on the menu.

After Edwards and Obama and Richardson, Sen. Clinton hit the stage this morning. Here’s what she had to say about health care reform.
Not a lot.

Clinton included in her introductory comments a reference to the uninsured and underinsured. As an aside, the depth of understanding of the “uninsured” on the part of the candidates has increased dramatically; last year no one was commenting on the issue of lack of coverage for some excluded conditions. This year each candidate that mentioned health care included a reference to “under-insurance”.

Health care was not a main feature of her speech - yes, Clinton said health care is a right of every American, a statement that garnered big applause from the (highly partisan) crowd at TBA. The low profile of health care may be a reflection of Clinton’s deeper understanding of the difficulties in reforming health care, and the scars suffered during the last effort to reform health care.

And that was it. No review of her health care platform, no summary of the ills of the present system, nothing more than a few references sprinkled in here and there.

So, here’s the summary from her site, with commentary. You can also download a more detailed piece here.

Clinton’s platform leads with a strong push for preventive care, mandating coverage of preventive benefits in the FEHBP. Her plan also strongly promotes coordination of care for chronic conditions, looking to build off of private sector initiatives.

The other major platform plank is a prohibition on medical underwriting and exclusions for pre-ex conditions, as well as age bands. Insurers would not be allowed to charge different rates to different people, and would be required to take all comers.

There are also the mandatory mentions of electronic medical records, streamlined administration, and research and education on best medical practices.

That’s it. No mention of universal coverage, no open access to Medicare, no national health puchasing groups.

Overall, a not-very-ambitious proposal, coming from a politician who is much more politically experienced this time around. As Bob Laszewski notes, with experience comes wisdom, and Clinton is clearly working hard to (at least) not alienate insurers and big pharma. She may be a little too sensitive, as the image of insurers is at an all time low, and taking them on may fall on more receptive ears than it did back in the day.

That's for you. Mwah. But also the subject of today's post. Whilst I was sitting, sweating in the boiling sun for hours today, waiting for my executive producers' verdict on my latest two films (which was a) one of them is great and b) reshoot an…
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Lee Stetson, Penn’s Dean of Admissions and a 29-year veteran at the University, announced in July his plans to resign at the end of the current school year. He was going out on a high note as Penn had just admitted its most selective class ever. This is where things come undone.On August 29, Stetson abruptly made his resignation effective immediately. The Office of Admissions, behind University spokeswoman Lori Doyle, offered little explanation beyond Stetson’s personal statement in which he said “that it is in the University’s, and my own best interest, to step down immediately, before the commencement of the fall semester.” Stetson was unavailable for further comment at the time, Admissions said, because he was traveling. According to the Daily Pennsylvanian, “As recently as Tuesday morning