Monday, November 20, 2006

next sunday

There is one last chance to come to a write-in, and here are the details:

Date: Sunday, 26/11/06
Time: 12pm onwards
Location: Starbucks on New Street Birmingham England

It'll be the same format as the last few times: we'll have 45-minute sessions of writing with 15-minute breaks in between to chat, drink coffee and ease cramps. Stay for as many sessions as you like, and if you arrive in mid-session, simply join in. . . . .

Saturday, November 18, 2006

David Frost 1 - Tony Blair 0

Blair admits Iraq a 'disaster'
Aljazeera.net, Qatar - 7 hours ago
... Responding to a suggestion from Sir David Frost that the conflict had been a disaster from the start, Blair replied "it has", before blaming a combination of ...
Gavin Scott: Through the Conference Hall and Out of Iraq Yahoo! News
Blair says Iran should work with the West but warns that Britain ... International Herald Tribune
Blair urges Iran and Syria to help with Iraq solution ic Wales
all 64 news articles »


Poor old Tony was really leading with his chin and being too honest when Sir David Frost looked shyly down, with false modesty, and away from Tony's eyes and baited that trap.

First I am against war, any war and all wars, because as a four year old I must have heard 70 or so bombing raids and 300 plus air raid alarms and grown up a war orphan with my widowed mother.

But after the experience of Harold Wilson's refusal to support USA in Vietnam, which caused USA in revenge stopped supporting the pound, which led to many financial and personal problems in UK , and caused me to abandon my teaching career and the break up of my second marriage . . .

Tony Blair saw that he had no choice and had to go along with Bush's silly ideas in order to secure the economic future of UK, industry, workers and capital.
Once we are in of course we had to make the bet of a bad job and support our soldiers . . .

It takes a country more than 20 years to recover from a major war
10 years planning, 10 years very hard work and then prosperity came to Japan and West Germany from the mid 1960ies.

The disaster has not been the war but the peace, Iraq needs one or two million men on the ground to maintain "homeland security" just as we had millions in Germany in 1945.

Tony Blair really was between the devil and the deep blue sea and he made the best choice out of what was available to him at that time.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Thursday, November 09, 2006

You've received a postcard from a family member!

1001 Postcards Home

Aunt Edna Virus & postcards.gif.exe << NB double file type typical of a virus

This Is Not A Real Postcard, And No, It Didn't Come From Our Site
http://www2.postcards.org/?a91-valets-cloud-31337

If you got here with a pickup code (something like "35-dodge-treads-aunt", "d21-sea-sunset" or "a91-valets-cloud-31337"), then you should know that the message you received was not a real postcard from our site.

On December 10th, 2004, some jerk released onto the internet what has come to be known as the "Aunt Edna Virus." Basically, that person faked one of our notification emails by switching out the links for links to an infected website. (No, our site is not infected.)

Update: Now there's a second person out there spamming people with a fake greeting card notice, slandering our site. The title of this newest abomination is "You've received a postcard from a family member!", and actually links to a malicious exe file. We believe it was sent by someone that refers to himself as "Dani MAD". If you happen to know who he is -- we're assuming it's a he, since most she's have better things to do -- please, let us know. And if you happen to hit him with a fast-moving car, we'll won't be displeased.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Monday, November 06, 2006

ethics and capital punishment

I am a long term opponent of punishment by hanging, or execution in any other way,
but I am sorely tempted to agree with the judgement of Sadam Hussein in such a violent community is that the only way to deal with a lunatic of such stature ?

I fear he is unlikely to commit suicide.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

"Royal Mail" Scam. NOT A JOKE!

from my email:-

"ROYAL MAIL" SCAM - NOT A WIND UP!!

Can you circulate this around especially as Christmas is fast approaching. It has been confirmed by Royal Mail.

The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:-

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0306 6611911 (a premium rate number).

DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scan originating from Belize.

If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £15 for the phone call.


If you do receive a card with these details then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 0207 239 6655 or ICSTIS (the premium rate service regulator) at:- www.icstis.org.uk

or your local trading standards office. This is a genuine scan and is under investigation by ICSTIS.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

going off line

yes for the rest of today
I am going to read Mills & Boone romances to get the style and rythm, and enjoy Deal or No Deal on TV
no exercise either in spite of the sunny weather outside

just cogitating on ideas for novel writing which will need no research.

I am going to use my old five year old machine and stay off line until I have about 5000 words for a chapter one.
I will still answer the phone tho'

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

NaNoWriMo :: Week One

from my email:-
Dear Author,

Greetings! My name is Chris Baty, and I'm the director of National Novel Writing Month. Welcome to this year's noveling extravaganza! It's great to have you writing with us.

As impossible as it may seem standing here on the precipice overlooking a vast November, NaNoWriMo will be over before you know it. This month---like the book you started writing today---moves at a frightful pace. To help give you a heads-up on some of the spirit-lifting milestones and spleen-poking hazards we'll be flying past on our way to 50K, I'll be sending an email like this one to you every Wednesday of the month.

Which brings me neatly to the subject at hand: Week One.

Ah, sweet Week One.
Whether you're a first-timer or a NaNoWriMo veteran, Week One is epic. We step onto its stage clutching a few crumpled lines of dialogue, and bearing only the haziest notions of setting and story. And, when the curtain closes on the seventh day, we're improbably directing a strange and wonderful cast of characters, all of them eager to make their mark on the tale unfolding around them.
The keys to thriving in Week One are straightforward:

1) Surge early. To be on par for the month, you should be writing 1667 words per day. In Week One, try to get 2000 or 2500 a day, and beg, borrow, and steal as much of the first weekend as possible to write. You won't need to keep up this pace throughout the month, but nothing guarantees a NaNoWriMo victory (and a fun month) like opening up a hefty lead in the first week.

2) Know that you're not doing any of this alone. As you dive into your book, 70,000 other souls are going through the same ups and downs of the Great Sleep-Deprived Novel. Whenever you're feeling like hurling your laptop out the window or setting fire to your favorite noveling notebook, come to a local write-in or stop by the NaNoWriMo forums for encouragement and reassurance. Likewise, whenever you've had a ferociously productive writing day, celebrate by sending a pep talk or sports car or box of fantastically expensive Swiss chocolates to a writer in distress.

3) Embrace the fear. It's okay to be nervous. Nervous just means you're pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone---which is when great and magical things happen. Even if you have a complete story outline to serve as a map for the month, it's still terrifying to be stepping out into the frontier of your imagination. I blame this on a lifetime of exposure to the perplexing idea that art should be made by artists, and novels left to novelists.

As someone who has done NaNoWriMo for eight years now, I can tell you this: Novels are not written by novelists. Novels are written by everyday people who give themselves permission to write novels. Whatever your writing experience, you have a book in you that only you can write. And November is a beautiful month to get it written.

Have a great first week, everyone! I'll be writing like crazy until Wednesday the 8th, when I'll drop by your inbox again with some thoughts about the spleen-tastic adventures awaiting us in Week Two.

Write on!

Chris
NaNoWriMo