AdwareMedic
“Removes all known adware from your Mac. It is very simple to use, and should clean up your system in less than a minute, from start to finish. Just open the app, click the Scan for Adware button, and remove anything that is detected. That’s it!”
Should we be concerned that in China they have developed a shape-shifting liquid metal?
Between the shape-shifting liquid metal in China, and the robots in Japan, it’s probably easy odds in Vegas that our robot overlords will be the fault of our Far East brothers and sisters.
Privacy Badger
“Privacy Badger is a browser add-on that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web. If an advertiser seems to be tracking you across multiple websites without your permission, Privacy Badger automatically blocks that advertiser from loading any more content in your browser. To the advertiser, it’s like you suddenly disappeared.”
Unfortunately, not currently available for Safari.
How to beat procrastination
For me the biggest challenge that I face while trying to write my book is to not get stuck in the middle of the story. Usually I love writing the first few chapters but then all of a sudden it gets…
All Aboard the Texas Eagle: Austin to Dallas Edition – No. 4 St. James
All Aboard the Texas Eagle: Austin to Dallas Edition – No. 4 St. James
Dallas or Fort Worth -> San Antonio might be a fun trip with the boys the next time we head down there for vacation. Of course, then we’d have to rent a vehicle…
In This Year’s Super Bowl Ads, Positive Portrayals Of Men—And More
In This Year’s Super Bowl Ads, Positive Portrayals Of Men—And More
The Dove ad may have caused some dust to get in my eyes…
Why James Cameron’s Aliens is the best movie about technology — The Message — Medium
[gallery]
pieissupernatural:
MY WRITING MASTERPOST
I just have a lot of writing tips and masterposts and just stuff in my likes and I decided to put them all into this. All rights goes to the people who made them.
Cool Other Masterposts:
- Writing Specific Characters
- Writing References
- Writing Masterpost
- Character Guides
- Writing Help for Writers
- Ultimate Writing Resource List
- Lots of RP Guides
- Online Writing Resources
- List of Websites to Help You Focus
- Resources for Writing Bio’s
- Helpful Links for Writing Help
- General Writing Resources
- Resources for Biography Writing
- Mental Ilnesses/Disorders Guides
- 8 Words You Should Avoid While Writing
- The Ultimate Writing Masterpost
General:
- The Official Ten-Step Guide to Becoming the Next Gatsby
- The Periodic Table of Storytelling
- Joss Whedon’s Top 10 Writing Tips
- Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
- 34 Writing Tips that will make you a Better Writer
- 50 Free resources that will improve your writing skills
- 5 ways to get out of the comfort zone and become a stronger writer
- 10 ways to avoid Writing Insecurity
- The Writer’s Guide to Overcoming Insecurity
- The Difference Between Good Writers and Bad Writers
- You’re Not Hemingway - Developing Your Own Style
- 7 Ways to use Brain Science to Hook Readers and Reel them In
- 8 Short Story Tips from Kurt Vonnegut
- How to Show, Not Tell
- 5 Essential Story Ingredients
- How to Write Fiction that grabs your readers from page one
- Why research is important in writing
- Make Your Reader Root for Your Main Character
- Writing Ergonomics (Staying Comfortable Whilst Writing)
- The Importance of Body Language
- Fashion Terminology
- All About Kissing
- Genre Help: Romance
- 187 Mental Illnesses
- Types of Mental Illness
- Eye Color List
- Spectral Groupings
- Do you have trouble creating your titles?
- On being a co-writer || Additional tips on effective co-writing
- The length of a chapter
- How to deal with too many story ideas
- On writing two stories simultaneously || a similar ask
- When a story stops working
- Copyright
- Reading critically for writers
- The question of outlining
- Avoiding publishing scams
- Finding story ideas
- Tips on building a platform [guest blog]
- How much does writing “in genre” matter?
- What a “real writer” is
- Pennames and aliases
- A series of thoughts on series titles
- The self-pub miniseries: the why
- The self-pub miniseries: the what
- Rewriting fanfiction into original fiction
- Formatting long quotes and songs
Characters:
- 10 days of Character Building
- Name Generators
- Name Playground
- Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test
- Seven Common Character Types
- Handling a Cast of Thousands Part 1 - Getting To Know Your Characters
- Web Resources for Developing Characters
- Building Fictional Characters
- Fiction Writer’s Character Chart
- Body Language Cheat
- Body Language Reference Cheat
- Tips for Writers: Body Language
- Types of Crying
- Body Language: Mirroring
- Character Building Workshop
- Tips for Characterization
- Character Chart for Fiction Writers
- Villains are people too but…
- How to Write a Character Bible
- Character Development Exercises
- All Your Characters Talk the Same - And They’re Not A Hivemind!
- Medieval Names Archive
- Sympathy Without Saintliness
- Family Echo (Family Tree Maker)
- Behind The Name
- 100 Character Development Questions for Writers
- Aether’s Character Development Worksheet
- The 12 Common Archetypes
- Six Types of Courageous Characters
- Kazza’s List of Character Secrets - Part 1, Part 2
- Creating Believable Characters With Personality
- Angry
- Bad Asses
- Bitches (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
- Childishness
- Emotional Detachment
- Flirtatious
- The Girl Next Door
- Introverts (2)
- Mean Persons (2)
- Psychopaths
- Party Girls
- Rich (2)
- Rebels
- Sarcasm
- Serial Killers (2)
- Shyness (2, 3)
- Sluts
- Villains (2)
- Witt
- Body Language Cheat Sheet
- Creating Fictional Characters Series
- Three Ways to Avoid Lazy Character Description
- 7 Rules for Picking Names for Fictional Characters
- Character Development Questionnaire
- How to Create Fictional Characters
- Character Name Resources
- Character Development Template
- Character Development Through Hobbies
- Character Flaws List
- 10 Questions for Creating Believable Characters
- Ari’s Archetype Series
- How to Craft Compelling Characters
- List of 200 Character Traits
- Writing Characters of the Opposite Sex
- Making Your Characters Likable
- Do you really know your characters?
- Character Development: Virtues
- Character Development: Vices
- Character Morality Alignment
- List of Negative Personality Traits
- List of Positive Personality Traits
- List of Emotions - Positive
- List of Emotions - Negative
- Loon’s Character Development Series - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
- Phobia List A-L (Part 1), M-Z (Part 2)
- 30 Day In Depth Character Development Meme
- Words for Emotions based on Severity
- Eight Bad Characters
- High Level Description of the Sixteen Personality Types
- How Not to Write Female Characters
- Writing Female Characters
- How to write empowering female characters
- Why I write strong female characters
- Red Flags for Female Characters Written by Men
- Writing strong female characters
- The Female Character Flowchart
- Eight Heroine Archetypes
- Eight Hero Archetypes
- Help on picking character names
- A tip about realistic characters
- Strategies to create believable characters
- Additional tips on writing PoC characters
- Advice on writing genders
- Creating unstable characters
- Ambiguous Antagonists
- A tidbit on psychological trauma [trigger warnings]
- On writing accents
- What makes characters stick with me
- Sweetening up character description
- Making an introverted character stand out
- Conveying too much or too little character “inner reflection”
- Revealing a character’s asexual orientation
- Revealing a character’s gender & orientation
- A habit of killing characters
- When characters aren’t standing out
- Breaking hearts with character deaths
- Quick tips on expressing character
- Character development versus pacing
- A mini guide to character voice
- A Description Resource
- 55 Words to Describe Someones Voice
- Describing Skin Colors
- Describing a Person: Adding Details
- Emotions Vocabulary
- 90 Words For ‘Looks’
- Be More Descriptive
- Describe a Character’s Look Well
- 100 Words for Facial Expressions
- To Show and Not To Tell
- Words to Describe Facial Expressions
- Describing Clothes
- List of Actions
- Tone, Feelings and Emotions
- Writing A Vampire
- Writing Pansexual Characters
- Writing Characters on the Police Force
- Writing Drunk Characters
- Writing A Manipulative Character
- Writing A Friends With Benefits Relationship
- Writing A Natural Born Leader
- Writing A Flirtatious Character
- Writing A Nice Character
- Fiction Writing Exercises for Creating Villains
- Five Traits to Contribute to an Epic Villain
- Writing Villains that Rock
- Writing British Characters
- How To Write A Character With A Baby
- On Assassin Characters
- Disorders in general (2, 3, 4, 5)
- Attention Deficit Disorder
- Antisocial Personality Disorder
- Anxiety (2, 3, 4, 5)
- Avoidant Personality Disorder
- Alice In Wonderland Syndrome
- Bipolar Disorder (2, 3)
- Cotard Delusions
- Depression (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
- Eeating Disorders (2, 3)
- Facitious Disorders
- Histrionic Personality Disorder
- Multiple Personality Disorder (2)
- Narcissistic Personality Disorder
- Night Terrors
- Kleptomania (2)
- A Pyromaniac
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
- Psychopaths
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (2) (3)
- Sex Addiction (2)
- Schizophrenia (2)
- Sociopaths (2)
- Aspergers Syndrome
- Apathy
- Autism
- Someone Blind (2)
- Cancer (2, 3)
- Disability
- Dyslexia
- Muteness (2, 3)
- Stutter
- Actors
- Ballet Dancer (2)
- Christianity
- Foreigners
- Gamblers
- Hinduism
- Hitmen
- Satanism
- Smokers
- Stoners
- Taoism
- Journalists
- Vegetarians
- Alcohol Influence (2, 3, 4, 5)
- Cocaine Influence
- Ecstasy Influence (2)
- Heroin Use
- LSD Influence
- Marijuana Influence (2, 3)
- Opiate Use
Tips on Writing Dialogue:
- It’s Not What They Say…
- Top 8 Tips for Writing Dialogue
- Speaking of Dialogue
- The Great Said Debate
- He Said, She Said, Who Said What?
- How to Write Dialogue Unique to Your Characters
- Writing Dialogue: Go for Realistic, Not Real-Life
Tips on Writing Point of View:
- Establishing The Right Point of View
- How to Start Writing in the Third Person
- The I Problem
Style & Craft of Writing:
- The literary “weak verb”
- Do you have word tics?
- Victoria’s Vitamins: vague descriptive words
- Victoria’s Vitamins: mood
- Breaking writing habits
- Varying sentences
- Describing colors
- Sweetening up character description
- Purple prose
- Grammar is a tricksy thing
- “Smartening” the language of your narrative
- Building suspense and making readers sweat
- A couple tips about description in fast-paced scenes
Content:
- The story of exposition
- 10 ways to hit your reader in the gut
- Make your reader root for your main character
- Make your reader hold their breath
- What’s the big deal about intros?
- A tip about description
- The word count of your manuscript
- Things that make me keep reading
- Choosing ideas and endings
- When to describe setting
- Battling cliches
- Is your story YA, NA, or adult?
- When a plot isn’t strong enough to make a whole story
- Flashbacks with multiple POVs
- Bulking up your word count
- Avoiding cliches
- Conquer that opening line || response || discussion
- Tips on revealing setting awesomely kind of
- Deciding between different ideas for the same story
Revision:
- You’ve finished your manuscript! Now what?
- Revision sucks but doesn’t have to suck
- Where to find beta readers/critique partners
- Tips on taking critique
- Tips on giving critique
- What to do with bad writing advice
- Additional insight on bad writing advice
- Five quick steps to get into revising that manuscript
- When to say you’re done revising
- Beginning the awesome journey of revision
- Friends are not always the best readers
Plot, Structure, & Outline:
- Writing A Novel Using the Snowflake Method
- Effectively Outlining Your Novel
- Conflict and Character Within Story Structure
- Outlining Your Plot
- Ideas, Plots and Using the Premise Sheets
- How To Write A Novel
- Creating Conflict and Sustaining Suspense
- Plunge Right In…Into Your Story, That Is
- Tips for Creating a Compelling Plot
- 36 (plus one) Dramatic Situations
- The Evil Overlord Devises A Plot: Excerpt from Stupid Plot Tricks
- Conflict Test
- What is Conflict?
- Monomyth
- The Hero’s Journey: Summary of Steps
- Outline Your Novel in Thirty Minutes
- Plotting Without Fears
- Novel Outlining 101
- Writing The Perfect Scene
- One-Page Plotting
- The Great Swampy Middle
- How Can You Know What Belongs In Your Book?
- Create A Plot Outline in 8 Easy Steps
- How to Organize and Develop Ideas for Your Novel
- Create Structure in your novel using index cards
- Choosing the best outline method for you
- Hatch’s Plot Bank
Setting & Making Your Own World
- Magical Word Builder’s Guide
- I Love The End Of The World
- World Building 101
- The Art of Description: Eight Tips to Help Bring Your Settings to Life
- Creating the Perfect Setting - Part 1
- Creating a Believable World
- Setting
- Character and Setting Interactions
- Maps Workshop - Developing the Fictional World Through Mapping
- World Builders Project
- How To Create Fantasy Worlds
- Creating Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds
Helpful Tools & Software:
- Tip Of My Tongue - Find the word you’re looking for
- Write or Die - Stay motivated
- Stay Focused - Tool for Chrome, lock yourself out of distracting websites
- My Writing Nook - Online Text Editor, Free
- Bubbl.us - Online Mind Map Application, Free
- Family Echo - Online Family Tree Maker, Free
- Freemind - Mind Map Application; Free; Windows, Mac, Linux, Portable
- Xmind - Mind Map Application; Free; Windows, Mac, Linux, Portable
- Liquid Story Binder - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free trial, $45.95; Windows, Portable
- Scrivener - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free trial, $39.95; Mac
- SuperNotecard - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free trial, $29; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable
- yWriter - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free; Windows, Linux, portable
- JDarkRoom - Minimalist Text Editing Application; free; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable
- AutoRealm - Map Creation Application; free; Windows, Linux with Wine
Grammer & Revision:
- How To Rewrite
- Editing Recipe
- Cliche Finder
- Revising Your Novel: Read What You’ve Written
- Writing 101: Revising A Novel
- 20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes
- Synonyms for the Most Commonly Used Words of the English Language
- Grammar Urban Legends
- Words Instead of Walk (2)
- Commonly Confused Adjectives
- A Guide on Punctuation
- Common Writing Mistakes
- 25 Synoms for ‘Expession’
- How to: Avoid Misusing Variations of Words
- Words to Keep Inside Your Pocket
- The 13 Trickiest Grammar Hang-Ups
- Other Ways to Say..
- Proofreading
- 300+ Sophiscated and Underused Words
- List of Misused Words
- Words for Sex
- 100 Beautiful and Ugly Words
- Words to Use More Often
- Alternatives for ‘Smile’ or ‘Laugh’
- Three Self Editing Tips
- Words to Use Instead of ‘Walk’, ‘Said’, ‘Happy’ and ‘Sad’
- Synonyms for Common Words
- Alternatives for ‘Smile’
- Transitional Words
- The Many Faces and Meanings of ‘Said’
- Synonyms for ‘Wrote’
- A Case Of She Said, She Said
Creativity Boosters:
- *Creative Writing Prompts
- *Ink Provoking
- *Story Starter
- *Story Spinner
- *Story Kitchen
- *Language is a Virus
- *The Dabbling Mum
- Quick Story Idea Generator
- Solve Your Problems By Simply Saying Them Out Loud
- Busting Your Writing Rut
- Creative Acceleration: 11 Tips To Engineer A Productive Flow
- Writing Inspiration, Or Sex on a Bicycle
- The Seven Major Beginner Mistakes
- Complete Your First Book with these 9 Simple Writing Habits
- Free Association, Active Imagination, Twilight Imaging
- Random Book Title Generator
- Finishing Your Novel
- Story Starters & Idea Generators
- Words to Use More Often
- How to: Cure Writer’s Block
- Some Tips on Writer’s Block
- Got Writer’s Block?
- 6 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block
- Tips for Dealing With Writer’s Block
Improvement:
- Improve Your Writing Habits Now
- 5 Ways to Add Sparkle to Your Writing
- Getting Over Roleplaying Insecurities
- Improve Your Paras
- Why the Right Word Choices Result in Better Writing
- 4 Ways To Have Confidence in Your Writing
- Writing Better Than You Normally Do
- How’s My Driving?
Motivation:
- Backhanding procrastination
- On habits and taking care of yourself || Response
- More troubles with writing motivation
- The inner critic and ways to fight it
- The writing life is hard on us
- For troubles with starting your story
- Writing to be published
- “You’re a writer, will you write this for me?”
- Writing a story that’s doomed to suck
- Writing stamina builds slowly
- When depression goes and writing goes with it
- Additional inner critic strategies
- Tips on conquering NaNoWriMo (or any project, really)
- You will change as a writer
- Ways to keep writing while in school
- 13 quick tips when you’re starting your novel
- First draft blues
- Getting in your own way
Writing an Application:
- How to: Make That Application Your Bitch
- How to: Make Your App Better
- How to: Submit a Flawless Audition
- 10 Tips for Applying
- Para Sample Ideas
- 5 Tips on Writing an IC Para Sample
- Writing an IC Sample Without Escaping From the Bio
- How to: Create a Worthy IC Para Sample
- How to: Write an Impressive Para Sample
- How to: Lengthen Short Para’s
Prompts:
- Drabble Stuff
- Prompts List
- Writing Prompts
- Drabble Prompts
- How to Get Into Character
- Writing Challenges/Prompts
- A Study in Writing Prompts for RPs
- Para Prompts & Ideas
- Writing Prompts for Journal Entries
- A List of Para Starters
I Have So Much to Learn From My Sister, Africa - Prodigal Magazine
I Have So Much to Learn From My Sister, Africa - Prodigal Magazine
I sit on the ground with her, this woman in the brightly printed dress and crow’s feet from the Widow’s Village in Rwanda.
She sits with a thud, because the genocide has that kind of impact–it has robbed her of her husband and her children–and she has been listening to another woman tell her story and the memories–they’ve just collided and shoved her down.
So I sit there with her in the dirt, a child in my lap and the village around us.
“God is good,” she whispers.
AP vs. Chicago
“A guide comparing Associated Press style and Chicago style for editors, writers, teachers, students, word nerds, and anyone else who gives a dollar sign, ampersand, exclamation point, and pound sign about style.”
This. Is. Everything.
Dumb — Shawn Blanc
My analog watches are my reminder that utility exists apart from an internet connection and usefulness doesn’t require the latest software.
I love my analog watches. I wear one every day, and feel like something vital is missing if I’m not. It’s not as bad as if I took off my wedding ring, but it’s close.
Opt out of Dropbox's arbitration clause
Opt out of Dropbox's arbitration clause
If you’re a Dropbox user, you probably got an email in the last few days about an update to their TOS that basically puts all disputes into arbitration rather than litigation.
If you’re like me, you probably glossed over this update because gah, legalese.
Allow me to summarize what it means when a company wants to handle all disputes in arbitration:
No matter what they do (delete your data, privacy breach, overcharging, whatever), you don’t get to sue. Instead, THEY get to choose the arbitrator according to whatever criteria they want, and thus any dispute is decided by someone they’re paying.
Also, you can’t join a class-action suit against them. Which sounds like no big deal, but when a company takes advantage of a bunch of people all in the same small way (incorrectly assessing a service charge, for example), class action is how companies are made to clean up their act en masse, instead of waiting for thousands of people to call them up and demand their $20 back or whatever.
I love Dropbox and use/recommend it enthusiastically. But this is a company that we entrust with some of our most important data- the kind of data we need to have access to wherever we are. Family photos, portfolios, projects representing years of work, etc. And as we’ve seen with Google buying Nest, even if we trust the management team in charge of our data right now, that’s not guaranteed in the future. Founders move on to other things. Companies with great products get acquired. Business decisions get made that change the direction of the company.
The agreement we make with Dropbox is too important to be enforced only by an arbitrator of their choosing. You have 30 days from the date of notification to opt out of the arbitration clause. Do it now.
Fellow Dropbox users, Tiffany does a wonderful job summing things up on this. Follow that link and opt out.
What Do Your Android Reader Apps Know About You?
What Do Your Android Reader Apps Know About You?
From The Electronic Frontier Foundation, by Parker Higgins. Graphic prepared by Matt Bernius.
For my Android device-using friends. The more you know…
London typeface by Antonio Rodrigues
London typeface by Antonio Rodrigues
I stumbled upon one of the more unique (but still usable) typefaces I’ve seen in a while this week. London is an elegant, Gatsby-esque display typeface with a pleasant use of negative space. I wasn…
For my type-nerd homies.
(via Jim Dalrymple’s The Loop)
Amnesty International report yet another reminder that Qatar can be horrible, horrible place
Amnesty International report yet another reminder that Qatar can be horrible, horrible place
Among other abuses, 90 percent of Qatar’s 1.35 million foreign workers have their passports withheld by employers.It’s called slavery.
Jen Hatmaker - Dear Trayvon's Mom
Jen Hatmaker - Dear Trayvon's Mom
I kept looking for a quote to pull for Tumblr, but every paragraph was better than the last, and just… read the whole thing.
My wife tweeted this link earlier today, so I only thought it proper to include it here as well.
Secret door inside this wardrobe leads to a Narnia-themed playroom
Does Airport Security Really Make Us Safer? | Culture | Vanity Fair
Does Airport Security Really Make Us Safer? | Culture | Vanity Fair
Bruce Schneier’s exasperation is informed by his job-related need to spend a lot of time in Airportland. He has 10 million frequent-flier miles and takes about 170 flights a year; his average speed, he has calculated, is 32 miles and hour. “The only useful airport security measures since 9/11,” he says, “were locking and reinforcing the cockpit doors, so terrorists can’t break in, positive baggage matching”—ensuring that people can’t put luggage on planes, and then not board them —“and teaching the passengers to fight back. The rest is security theater.”
Steve Jobs narrates The Crazy Ones - The Loop
links for 2011-04-18
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A simple application that reverses the usual scrolling practices on Mac OS X 10.5 and above to mimic those of the upcoming 10.7 Lion OS and iOS. Been using it for five minutes and I'm already used to it.
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"Being sedentary for nine hours a day at the office is bad for your health whether you go home and watch television afterward or hit the gym. It is bad whether you are morbidly obese or marathon-runner thin. 'Excessive sitting,' Dr. Levine says, 'is a lethal activity.'"
links for 2011-04-05
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"[T]he US cannot grow its way out of this problem. It needs to cut spending, specifically entitlement spending. We hereby announce that we'll give a special gold star to the first 'leader' with the guts to say that publicly."
links for 2011-03-25
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"The story is about a girl dreaming of the Darth Vader. You can see what happens when he doesn’t like a twi’lek lady flirting with him…"
links for 2011-03-21
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"A simple, elegant to do list app for iPhone and Mac"
Love the clean, minimalist design of both apps. I just wish it had recurring to-dos.