Monday Machination: Wikipedia Protests PIPA

The Internet Community is in cahoots!

Wikipedia.org joins Reddit.com, Boingboing.net, IHeartChaos.com, and all of the Cheeseburger Network (like icanhasacheezburger.com) on Wednesday in an English language blackout of their sites in protest of the Protect IP Act which hits the Senate floor on January 24th. Read the full article here.

All 3.8 million English-language pages on Wikipedia will be unavailable from 12am to 11:59pm on Wednesday. Originally, the community blackouts were intended to protest Stop Online Piracy Act, but was switched to PIPA when House Rep Cantor announced that SOPA would not come to a vote until later. This announcement came after a White House announcement pledging to oppose any legislation that would undermine the Internet dynamic.

So will it work? This has been in the works for a while now so I certainly hope so. At least, I hope it will make Americans more aware of exactly what their Senators and Representatives are trying to take away from them in Washington. Call your Senators and Representatives and tell them to vote NO on these acts that will limit the exercise of freedom of speech. You can find the phone numbers, emails, etc for your area here.

I must say that I am glad I changed up my dailies so that my Wednesday blog (what used to be Wednesday Wiki) isn't interrupted!

Monday Machination: Plot Twists Famous Movies Should Have Had

Ah... Cracked.com has come through for me today. I found this last night while browsing through their photoshop articles. Chainsaws, peepholes, unexpected dinosaurs, and worm holes are just a few of the first extras in some iconic movie scenes. Which one is your favorite? Mine are #14 and #8. #2 creeped me out beyond repair though. Also, to see the actual shop on #3, watch the window for a couple seconds. Have a great week everyone!

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Monday Machination: Thoughts on Plot

I found this website today, again about literature based plotting, with quotes from writers. Go here to see all 13 quotes.

I particularly like Stephen King's quote.

I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plotless, even when you add in all our reasonable precautions and careful planning; and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren't compatible.

Monday Machination: The 36 Plots

I came across this RPG plot guide by Loren J. Miller earlier in the week as I worked on my genre post (it is still a WIP) and thought I'd share it for the Monday Machination. I know this post is a day late, but I figured I'd post it anyways since I already had it worked up in draft form. Sorry for the late post. :)

Check this article here and then read after the jump.

Monday Machination: Mystery Fiction

Today's Monday post relates to a post on genre that I have been working on recently. I'll finish it eventually, but until then, here is a little something.

Mystery fiction is an umbrella genre encompassing specialized fiction like medical thrillers, police procedural, and "hardboiled" fiction. It is associated most usually with crime fiction, although supernatural thrillers are not uncommon. The name should tell you exactly what it is, but in a nutshell, mystery fiction is at its heart a puzzle and solution story. There are many cliches in mystery fiction like the alcoholic detective, the ditsy girl that solves the case, and the main suspect is innocent all along.

Probably the most famous mysteries are those of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, and the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew series. It grew in popularity in the 20's and 30's, giving rise to pulp magazines before declining in the 50's. Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine is one of the remaining pulp magazines today, continuing to churn out monthly volumes since the 1950's.

Today, mystery stories remain popular. The genre is popular in television (NYPD Blue and its ilk), books (James Patterson is amazing), and comics. Whodunit fiction is surprisingly selling well. Murder mystery dinner theaters pop up all over the place and have amazing online resources for at-home murder mystery parties. Mystery fiction is a very neat genre when done well. Not many can do it well though, as Tod Goldberg (wrote the books Burn Notice is based on) likes to point out. Check out his rant... it is hysterical.

So do you have any favorite mysteries that you could read over and over, or that you recommend to everyone? I cut my teeth on Nancy Drew so this is a favorite of mine even though I write fantasy.

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Monday Machination: What the Hell is Going On?

A friend of mine sent me an article yesterday that pisses me off and scares me at the same time. Apparently, when the National Defense Authorization Act went through the Senate recently, an amendment (Section 1031), made at the last minute that may authorize (or require by orders) U.S. military to detain American citizens arrested on American soil indefinitely, wormed its way through too.

Monday Machination: The Death of Thomas H. Ince

To kick off the first Monday Machination, I am writing about the inspiration for this daily post.

On November 15, 1924, silent film maker and producer Thomas H. Ince set sail with business magnate William Randolph Hurst, actor Charlie Chaplin, actresses Marion Davies and Margaret Livingston, and writer Louella Parsons and many others. Sometime on the yacht, Ince developed an issue that required his removal from the yacht and return to shore. Less than 48 hours later, he died. Why? How? Those reports are muddled.

Daily Posts to Resume

I really enjoyed the past couple months writing a daily post on a specific subject. It allowed me to share some of my interests without talking about myself. Over the past few months, until NaNo took over my life (and blog), I managed to share some of my favorite fairy tales, thrift shopping locales, and books. I also shared some personal stories and helpful information. It is my hope that readers have enjoyed these posts as much as I have.

I know that as a writer, I should be pushing my writing. But the fact of the matter is that I don't like to do that. Yeah, yeah. I'm supposed to be branding myself for the interwebs. Meh. I enjoy writing, just as I enjoy a myriad of other things. After a lot of soul searching and debate, I finally decided what I will be writing on from December 1st until I feel inclined to change it up again.

Here is my *new* list of dailies (and a short explanation for each) to look forward to once the madness of NaNo is over:

Monday Machinations: So a machination by definition is [intrigue, plot, or scheme]. On Mondays, I am going to address such things, be it current events, famous historical episodes, television shows/movies/books, whathaveyou. We'll see if I can get really creative when I'm digging around.

Tuesday Treats: It seems like every month has a holiday built around food. Here in the north, we had Sweetest Day on the 3rd Saturday of October. All of us Americans had Halloween on the 31st of October and Thanksgiving on the 4th Thursday of November. Then Christmas rolls around for our Christian Americans soon. Pagans have their own holidays around this time of year: Mabon, Samhain, and Yule (the actual names might be different depending on the particular Pagan flavor). Hanukkah, Yom Kippur, Kwanzaa, and many others join the list. And those are just holidays that have passed recently or are coming up soon! I am going to take the opportunity to post some of my favorite recipes on Tuesdays, possibly with pictures. I highly doubt they will be *my* pictures so I will try to site where I lifted the recipe and the photos whenever possible.

Wednesday Weird: Getting your news from mainstream news outlets is like getting ice cream from a butcher. You might get *something* resembling ice cream, but all bets are on it *not* actually being ice cream. I just made that up. Anyways. Weird news happens all the time. My friends share the strangest stuff in my Facebook newsfeed. Yahoo news has a section of their site dedicated to it. Wednesday is one of those days that we all need some funny in our week. I'm going to find weird news, pictures, videos, etc. to post on Wednesday. I'll be sure to provide commentary on why it struck me as odd. Chances are, it won't be why *you* find it weird. I'm weird like that.

Thursday Thought: I like quotes and inspirational sayings. I tend to share the funniest on my personal Facebook page. I find myself fascinated by idioms and colloquial sayings. Thursdays will be dedicated to such things until I get bored with it. I lived in the South for a long time so I have a lot stored up that I try to avoid using in regular conversation. Maybe I can get the uniquely Southern sayings out of my system.

Friday Five: This seemed to be a pretty simple daily post in the past so I will be continuing my Friday Fives. It shares a little bit of information about myself without going overboard. I think I'm going to try to pick a theme for each month and tailor the lists to the theme. Maybe. We'll see what December has in store.

Saturday Salute: Anyone that knows me understands that I resolutely support our troops. I may not support the government and the status quo, but I always support the troops. I'm going to use Saturdays as a means to talk about different branches of the military (briefly, I promise) and things pertaining to it. I may recognize a particular event, a person, etc. Who knows.

Sunday Scene: I am a bit of a dork. I love John Hughes films from the 80's. There are many other films that I look on very fondly filmed over the past few decades (less so much the current decade). So imagine my thrill when I found that there are several sites that have uploaded the scripts to many popular movies?! I'll be picking some scenes from my favorites to share with you. Don't worry, I will make sure to provide the link to said scripts when I capture them.

So what do you think about those new daily postings? Any qualms? Better suggestions? I'm open to change so long as it is interesting and will keep me entertained. :D

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS