How to find your writing voice [Recently Read]

How to find your writing voice. | Jon Acuff's Blog:

"The only way to find your writing voice is to write. Fear will tell you that you must have your writing voice figured out before you write...Fear is a liar."

Happy Pi Day!

Via www.piday.org

Did you notice the video is 3:14 long? I love it when there's such attention to detail.

Via www.piday.org

Happy Buffyversary!

Fifteen years ago today, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" premiered on TV. 

And I don't think I watched it. 

Even though "Buffy" eventually became my favorite show, when it first aired I was just appalled that anyone would take one of my favorite funny movies and try to turn it into a teen drama. The horror! But, as it turns out, it was awesome. I have since learned to trust in the wisdom of Joss Whedon and he's never steered me wrong.

Here's a fan-made "trailer" of season one:

Thanks to the Buffy Facebook page for the heads up!

Still itching for winter to end...

Just a couple more weeks...

Cut! Costume Exhibit, or Encountering Fantasy in Reality

My daughter and I visited the Cut! Costume and the Cinema exhibit at the Durham Museum during her Christmas break. It broke my heart that we weren't allowed to take photos, but I came across this video last night which lets you get an idea of how amazing some of the costumes are:

 


I have to admit the costume that took my breath away wasn't the most spectacular or elaborate. I've always loved the movie Howard's End - E.M. Forster is one of my favorite authors, I've had a long-standing obsession with Merchant Ivory films and I just lurve Emma Thompson - so encountering a dress Emma Thompson wore in that film (below) made me tear up just a little bit. That emotional response was surprising. I think it was a result of encountering such a familiar item from fantasy unexpectedly in reality. I even considered snapping a clandestine picture of the dress, but didn't feel confident in my sneakiness, so I didn't. Maybe I'll have to go back before the exhibit leaves, just to visit Margaret's dress one more time (and to check out Captain Jack Sparrow's outfit, as well. You know, as long as I'm there).

via  Enchanted Serenity of Period Films: Howard's End (1992)

If you can't get to the exhibit, but would like to see some of the costumes in more detail than what is in the video, I just found a Flickr set by annesstuff  which shows many of them when the exhibit was in another venue.

Dreaming of spring, remembering summer

We get to the beginning of March and I start really itching for spring, so I thought I'd share a picture with a bit of green today. I took this last summer in Custer State Park.

As I was looking through my photos recently and came across this one, my first thought was "I don't remember getting down in the grass near the buffalo..." and wondered how I'd had such an adventure without remembering it (after all, being out of your vehicle this close to these animals could be really dangerous). Then I realized I shot this from the car window in an area where the road was down an embankment from the area where the buffalo were grazing. Sometimes great shots come from working with what feels like a less-than-ideal situation at the time.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License (which means you can repost the photo where you want, as long as you give me credit - and it'd be nice if you include a link back here or to the Flickr page)

Only create things you can’t not create [Quote]

By Me

"Fear of protecting your platform can’t be what drives your creative process. Only create things you can’t not create. Even if that means losing some of your audience."

from Dear musicians, authors, bloggers & me. | Jon Acuff's Blog

As always, some great points from Jon Acuff (make sure you click through and read the whole post).

Oh how true [Information Overload]

Boy is this true:

by Jessica Hagy at Indexed

I hate to miss any of the interesting stuff floating out there in the world, so I find my list of "to read" stuff is impossibly long. Not just books, but blog posts, articles, product descriptions, street signs, etc.

Between my email, Google Reader, Read It Later, paper books, ebooks, and on and on, it's a little overwhelming whenever I sit down "to read" unless I have a specific item in mind before I begin.

Once upon a time, I only got that feeling of being overwhelmed when I stepped into a large library. Now it's almost constant. Years ago, who knew we would ever have to plan and structure our reading time (leisure reading or otherwise) in order not to drown?

Happy Leap Day!

By stuant63

Cool student-produced steampunk short

This is a fun short film created by students at Media Design School in New Zealand.

(via Set Phasers to LOL)

And some of the students talk about making the film:

Doesn't Miley Cyrus look like...?

Via CocoPerez

This morning, when I saw a clip of Miley Cyrus at one of the Oscar parties, I didn't even recognize her at first. In fact, I wondered if Madonna had found a time machine in the 80's and jumped forward.

Via Wikipedia

I guess Madonna went through her Marilyn Monroe phase, Miley can go through her Madonna phase...

via CocoPerez

And I just have to add my opinion on Miley's dress. Although I give her points for not going with something revealing, the dress looks far too old for her. It looks like something made for Joan Collins (and Joan would probably rock this dress. But for a barely-twenty pop starlet, it's just not the thing.)

Use caution...on Google Maps

I love it when Google Maps puts little Easter eggs into search results:

via Nerd Approved

Han shot.

Saw this last night. Funny after yesterday's post:

 
see more Set Phasers To Lol

Mal vs. Hammer, Indy vs. Han...

By Gina Biggs

A friend shared this cartoon on Facebook, and I love it. I have to say, that IS what would happen should Captain Mal meet Captain Hammer. (Just in case you're not familiar with Firefly or Dr. Horrible, I'll let you in on the joke: Nathan Fillion played both characters).

So, that got me thinking, and reminded me of this picture I saw on Flickr awhile ago as part of JD Hancock's "Duel 365" series:

By JD Hancock

What would happen if Indiana Jones met Han Solo? I mean there is this scene:

but, as we all know, Han shot first:

So, how do you think it would go down?

Dreams vs. Excuses [Quote]

By nicole.pierce.photography ♥

"If you really want something you’ll find a way to do it. If you don’t want it that bad, you’ll come up with excuses for why it can’t be done." Brittany Castanos

 via Quit Your Day Job: Daughters of Simone | The Etsy Blog

This is clever:

see more Set Phasers To Lol

Downton Abbey Paper Dolls - Adorable & Funny!

I found these paper dolls by Kyle Hilton via Jane Austen's World. I just love the "assortment of emotions" for the Dowager Countess:

Jane Austen's World has gathered links to the paper dolls of other characters (Mary & Matthew, Lady Sybil, and Thomas & O'Brien) here: Downton Abbey Season 2 Finale: Tonight You’re Mine Completely. I think I'll be printing all of these out & having a good ol' time playing paper dolls (no, I have not outgrown that. I don't think I ever will.)

Just an hour and a bit until the season finale!

The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper

Here's an adorable film from 1908, courtesy of the British Film Institute. I wonder if I could teach my dog this trick...

Happy Valentine's Day...from Valentine!

I found a special treat in the mail yesterday: My parents sent us all valentines postmarked in Valentine, NE!

There's even a special image stamped on the back of the envelope:

This is so cool! Thanks, Mom & Dad!

(If you want to do this for your valentine next year, here's how.)

Life moves pretty fast...

Ferris Bueller's Day Off  is one of my favorite movies, so I was super excited to see this commercial. Part of me wishes it was a whole movie, but in a way, this is enough and having more might ruin it.