Guide to Writing Love Letters I found this terribly interesting as it was published in Hill's Manual of Social and Business Forms: A Guide to Correct Writing in 1882. Very neat look at the proper way to court a potential mate in a ladylike and gentlemanly fashion.
What makes it most interesting - above and beyond it's lovely use of wording and phrasing - is that despite it's age, the common sense guidelines within hold up very well to the test of time. Marrying for love not wealth; marrying at an age of maturity, not jumping into such an arrangement when not ready; that a woman doesn't need a man to give her life a meaning or to provide a home for her - all lessons which are still true today.
I got up this morning and had the oddest email in my inbox...
Hi M. Turner
Congratulations! The Elfwood moderators have selected one of your new stories (flight1.html) be a featured pick-of-the-day! It's featured at the main page of Elfwood for one day.
Best regards, Thomas Abrahamsson and the Elfwood moderators.
(Jan 17)
You have to realize that my Elfwood gallery is SO OLD that I've forgotten it exists. More then that, the writing section contains stuff from about 1998. The ramble in question is one of those way-dated peices. I'm blown away that anyone not only stumbled acrossed it, but actually liked it. How odd! I just re-read it and while I like some of the description, it's like most all of my open-ended rambles - it's just rather random and I can't fathom that anyone can understand and follow it that's not me. *chuckles*
Thanks to Orb, I found the coolest thing. Fontifier will turn your handwriting into a font for you free. You either do it with a printer and scanner or a mouse/tablet. I don't have a scanner so just to try it out I used my Wacom.
Looks funny since it's all out of alignment with each other. I didn't know how it'd work and I'm not the best with my tablet. Still it's REALLY cool and pretty darned interesting if I do say so myself. :)
The inconsistencies of The West Wing So, anyone who's a fan of the West Wing, know that ubersmith, writer/director/producer/series creator Aaron Sorkin left after the fourth season (last year; may 2003). Prior to that, pretty much every single episode was penned by him. And it showed. It was what made WW the most honored Drama on television - ever. (with 13 wins it's first season)
So the fifth season (the current one) has been sad. Bland, plagued with poor scripts and even worse directing. This is the show that my Love and I planned our weeks around; that we founded a "no company Wednesday nights" rule based on so we could sit and enjoy the hour together, uninterrupted. Everyone who knows us knows Wednesday is West Wing Night. It's gotten to a point where we don't even look forward to watching it anymore. In fact, we're more excited about watching Angel these days then we are WW.
Last week was an especially low point. The Stormy Present was apparently written by a lump of coal (though it's credited as John Sacret Young) and directed by a monkey on LSD (though it's credited as Alex Graves). Horrid spin-in-a-circle-around-a-table camera shots, slightly out-of-focus attempts at "art" shots, shots where it's purposefully misframed and the camera doesn't follow the action, etc. all left for one distracting and utterly low-grade production. It was with trepidation, I have to admit, that we chose to tune in again to WW this week (rather then watching Angel "live" and recording WW). But last night, there was actually a light at the end of the tunnel. The episode was actually pretty good.
The Benign Prerogative was written by Carol Flint and actually had tempo and pacing. (say it ain't so) It also had good, classic, true-to-character moments of witty commentary and jokes. It was also directed by Christopher Misiano who, with a cursory look at WW episode guides, seems to have been around in the Sorkin days. No damned flashy, annoying, overused camera shots. No cheap tricks. No overly dramatic cuts or pans. Just good, solid direction which followed the progress and didn't make you want to hurl or hurl things at the screen. I don't know anything about the writer of the episode - couldn't really find anything useful or any other episodes that she might have written, but I can't stress how much I hope this wasn't just the eye of the storm. The series needs to stay true to the Sorkin vision and that DOESN'T include illiterate scripts and puke cams.
Anyway..... yeah, I'm babbling about a tv show. But dammit, it's a good one and I hate to see it go so far downhill. Last week I was more interested in getting my clothes in the dryer then watching the episode. It's crazy that one high, stoned, and drugged-out writer could do where this whole team can't. The show's not lowbrow. It's not supposed to appeal to the dregs of the lowest common denominator. Show some respect for bringing back a smidge of intelligence in television and don?t make it an embarrassment for Sorkin?s name to be on the credits as creator. And, above all, don't let down those of us who love the show and have been there since day one.
by the way, my comments are down because my cgi bin location changed with the server move. I want to get a new system so if anyone knows of a really I-can-be-a-script-moron-and-still-make-it-work system, drop me an email. missm @ giveneyestosee . com (no spaces obviously) note I went ahead and added a free comment system for the moment just to hear back from people, but I WANT TO FIND SOMETHING I HOST MYSELF. Your ideas appreciated!
So dull and pointless in fact that I'm the only one here. Everyone's slowly bailed as the day went on. I've only got ten more minutes thankfully, but DAMN, I am SO ready to go home.
Had problems with my roadrunner this morning when I got up. Despite continually releasing and successfully renewing my IP addy, I couldn't actually connect to the net. I turned off my pc and when I get home I'll turn off my Love's as well and reset everything. Who knows what's up. RR homepage says everything's peachy, but I'm not buying it. Bah. So, if you emailed me or were trying to get my attention in some way, chances are that between the server move and the RR issues, I'm clueless and haven't gotten it.
All I know is that I want out of here. Damned florescent lights and damned monitor off to the right hand side making me crane my neck all four hours to see the screen. Bah.
Going to pack up and hopefully by then, it'll be time to head on home.
So, yesterday morning, I woke up at about 7am with the first stirrings of a migraine. I tried to ignore it and go back to sleep. My Love woke up at some point and got out of bed and I woke up again at 9am - this time, it was full-blown. Got a migraine ice, laid back down and tried to sleep some more so it'd go away. Woke up around 11:15am and it was full-blown hell. I was sobbing because I couldn't help it, though of course the crying hurt. My Love rubbed my neck and got me some excedrin (no medical insurance means no rescue medication means I have nothing to stop one once they arrive). I laid back down after calming down a little and slept another couple hours. Got up, we went to the store to get stuff for dinner and I was so dizzy and disoriented that even though the worst of the migraine was over, I was still feeling like shit. Called it an early night.
Got up this morning and still didn't feel good. I called in because I was doubtful about my ability to drive and sit under florescent lights. Been feeling worse as the day goes on again. Mainly sitting around today with my Love (who was unrelatedly sick this morning). We went and got cat food, turned in our coins for some bread and such (we're SUPER broke until Friday) and came home. My head has proceded to just feel worse and worse. I've got the after-image thing that happens when I have a migraine and I'm woozy and sick to my stomach. Bah. All-in-all, it's just not been a good couple days. I don't know what to do with this day-after headache/dizzy/sick feeling thing. I just know that I REALLY need to get some insurance soon because I can't just keep dealing with these attacks.
The monitor is killing my eyes and most of this I've typed with my eyes closed so forgive the errors and I'm going to close. I just want to feel normal again dammit.
Yeah. Updated server is working. I still have some issues with subdomains, hosted sites and mail, but dammit, I can publish to my journal at least so that's something.
Now me and my all day, woke up with it at 7-fucking-am migraine that hurts really fucking bad, that I don't have any medication for and that has left me utterly dizzy, dioriented and really fucking out of it head are going to stop staring at what appears to be a nuclear explosion but is apparently only my monitor.
