Short Story Titles

Eight ideas for short story titles from the man behind WriteInvite:

1. Loyalty Cards
2. The Shopping Channel
3. Ideal Travelling Companion
4. Bakewell Tarts
5. Vitamin Pills
6. JB’s Nappies
7. Cardigans
8. Crocodile Tears

 

Word Power

Some words whose meanings I have learned this month:

belicose

adj. Warlike / hostile in manner / temperament

bumptious

adj. arrogant; pushy; offensively self-assertive; conceited

de facto

In reality or fact

de facto standard: Accepted by custom, convention or common practice

dendroglyph

noun. Tree carving, often geometric, found in Australia and the Chatham Islands

nonce

noun. Single occasion; the present call or purpose

pellucid

adj. Admitting the passage of light; transparent or translucent.

vertiginous

adj. Having / causing a whirling sensation; whirling; turning; revolving; liable to falling; affected with vertigo; giddy; dizzy

Advertisement

Quote: Programmers are Romantics

Programmers are romantics. We’re lovers not fighters.

Why, developers are widely regarded as being the sexiest creatures on the planet. Our beauty causes people in other professions to go blind. We are love. We are truth. We are sex at a keyboard.

— Peter O’Hanlon, Code Project.

Computer Science meets Pornography

Original Image from Amazon.com

I recently wrote about IT pros using language in a different way from ‘normal’ people.

I’ve seen it again.

Jeff Atwood, of Coding Horror, wrote a controversial article about something called, “NP-Complete”.  What is it? I must be the wrong kind of geek, because I couldn’t make neither head nor tail of the whole business. As far as I could make out, it is some arcane computer science thing that explains why travelling salesmen rarely see their families at the weekends.

One thing that Jeff mentioned does seem to explain a lot:

NP-Complete problems are like hardcore pornography.

Intriguing.

At the end of the article, Jeff asked for examples of reader’s, “favourite NP-complete cheat”. One of the few responses that actually answered gave a list. With no hint of titter nor smirk he including:

• Simulated annealing
• The great deluge

Frankly, the mind boggles!

Having read the article, I am still fairly naive (about both the porn and the NP thing). One thing’s for sure:

Either computer scientists need to get out more, or I really am the wrong kind of geek.

😉

Classification of Verbs

I suggest that a scheme for classifying verbs could be devised based on Schank’s Conceptual Dependency theory.

REFERENCES:

• A POCKET GUIDE TO CD THEORY

Your Most Valuable Asset

…is your name.

It upholds your reputation.

It is the corner stone of your integrity.

It stands for all that you have been, all that you will be, all that you are.

It is the essence of you.

Your name carries the burden of your potency.

Your signature has the power to pledge…

Your time,

Your money,

Your talents,

Your life.

So, what about that cheque you promised me?

Notes on Fighting

Here are some notes I made for some creative writing. They were intended to represent the philosophy of a warrior in the story. They are not intended to represent my views, nor to be taken seriously.

There are 2 kinds of fighter:

1. Those who believe that they can win, and gain from winning.
2. Those who are desparate, and who have nothing more to loose.

The first will attack, but their attack can be repelled. The second will not attack, but will stop at nothing to defend themeselves.

Do not seek to overcome your enemy, for in so-doing you may make your enemy desparate. In this condition, he has no choice but to win, or die in the attempt. A desparate man makes a formidable enemy. It is better to embrace your oponent, and so subdue him.

If you are to to defeat an enemy, it is not necessary to defeat his body, but to defeat his mind. You must make him believe that he cannot win, or that he will not gain by doing so. You must drain his enthusiasm for battle.

If you are caught up in a fight, seek not to intensify the battle, but to difuse it. For as the fight escalates, so the losses of both sides will increase.

The strategic use of technique will always overcome strength.

Your movements should not be demonstrative, but small and focused. This will keep you from tiring quickly.

Master your breathing, for by so doing you will regulate your entire being.

Fear is the only true enemy.

We begin with the simple techniques, and we continue with them. Simple techniques arethe foundation and the keystone. They are the easiest to learn, but the hardest to master.

A single reed is weak, but when reeds are bound together they are strong. Your whole self – body, mind and spirit – must be in harmony.

Writing Goals 2008

This year I intend to write:

Blog Entries

• An average of 15 Blog entries / month.
• A minimum of 10 Blog entries in any 1 month.

Other Writing

• 4 Chapters Boglin Project

Definition: War

A curious game: all the players set out to win, but all are guaranteed loose.

Great Books

It is not enough to read good books, nor even vert good books. Life is too short for all that. We must resolve only to read great books, and to read them again.