Yzabel / September 10, 2005

What About Signatures in Blog Comments?

Here’s an interesting post—wielding quite an amount of questions— that I picked on Darren’s blog: signatures in blog comments.Because I was too tired to develop in my own comment there yesterday, here’s my own opinion on the matter:

  • I’m technically okay with signatures in comments on this blog, provided they’re not cumbersome: a name and a link is enough. However, so that you know, posts containing any link are screened and must be approved by yours truly before being published. This is an anti-spam measure.
  • “Signature” does not equal “free pass for spamming”. Spammy comments will be immediately deleted, or never let in in first place (WordPress’ filter is a powerful one). Of course, what is considered spam or not is left to my own appreciation, but if the previous point is followed, you’ll be okay.
  • Obnoxious signatures are a no-no, especially when they contain banners and other images, whatever their size. I’ve been editing images-signatures for a good five years on a variety of forums I’ve administrated, and trust me, they’re a serious bother.
  • For me, it’s a matter of etiquette. I’ll courteously allow signatures in comments for people who’re courteous enough to keep it under sensible control.

Now, one may ask, what’s the point of adding a sig to a comment, given that most blog systems will let you enter a link to your website along with your name? Personnally, I know enough about blogs to know where to click if I want to visit someone’s webpage. One the other hand, not everyone knows that, and a commenter may want to leave a link to a different site of his, if it’s more related to the blog he’s commented on.This said, don’t hesitate to go have a read at the comments on Darren’s posts. Many valuable opinions are represented there.blogging, etiquette, signature

Yzabel / September 10, 2005

European Fair and Scientific Brain-Teasers

European Fair in StrasbourgThe reason why I haven’t blogged about anything insightful since Thursday is the image on the left, and I must simply admit that s much as I wanted to finish my next planned entry yesterday evening, I’ve been too dead tired to go on with it. In any case, I’m glad I went to the European Fair no matter what.Bozo Bozo (link in French)Here’s one of the interesting things we found here: a little series of brain-teasers called “Bozo-Bozo” (nevermind the weird-sounding name, really). Its principle of course caught our interest, based as it is on actual scientific matters: a wooden stick with indents in it and a propeller on its end. Rubbing another, smaller stick on the indents will make the propeller move. No problem here, except that when you say “bozo”, the propeller rotates backwards, which in theory isn’t possible by itself.Of course, there’s a trick, and I’m not going to give the solution here (a shame we figured it out quickly). Who knows, perhaps I can one day use the theory in a story, too. Everything is worth being investigated when it comes to imagination.fair, games, science

Yzabel / September 8, 2005

Sketching the Thoughts

A little musing on my mind today: in the case of fiction (since I assume that it’s not really appliable to non-fiction works), do some of you also happen to sketch their characters, or even landscapes, actions, and so on, instead of directly describing them in your books? This is regardless of style and skill, and only as a personal way of fixing your ideas, not as artwork in itself.My own style isn’t what you could call “realistic” (my influences mainly come from comics and manga, as well as a certain type of vector works), but I’ve found that more often, sketching helps me to write better descriptions, as what I want to show is clearly pictured in my mind already. Moreover, in the case of action scenes, it’s also a good exercise for me to see if said action can be performed by a human body, or is just looking nice in my own perception. If the latter can seem laughable, sometimes it really isn’t, and has already allowed me to avoid… many mistakes.characters, drawing, sketching, writing

Yzabel / September 7, 2005

Who’s There: Seth Godin’s New Ebook

I’ve just finished reading Who’s There, the new ebook Seth Godin has put up on his blog, and I must say that it’s been a really interesting read, albeit too short to my liking, in a way. However, he goes to the essential, and in an understandable fashion: what more could one ask? The price? No worries, it’s even free, at least for the moment.If, like me, you’re interested about reading here and there on the subject of blogging, don’t hesitate any longer, and download it here. The book isn’t about “how to blog”, but about why to blog, as a business owner as well as an indivdual who’d like to make his or her niche in the always expanding world of blogs. It also distinguishes the three “main types” of blogs, in a way that isn’t without reminding of the classifications theorized by John and Duncan.On top of it, it’s nicely written and presented.blogging, ebook, seth+godin

Yzabel / September 7, 2005

Monstercake

It had been a few days I had bookmarked this blog with the intent of writing a little blurb about it here, but I got sidetracked by my recent theories about languages, among other things.

Better late than never, here is Monstercake, “a cast of the odd, misfortunate, and downright horrible, brought to you daily” by Eugene Smith. Each blog entry intriduces some kind of “monster”, whether this is evident at first sight, or done with a more subtle approach. Sometimes scary, sometimes funny in some kind of twisted way, inks or watercolor, freaks or folklore monsters, these drawings aren’t always what one would expect of them at first, and the style is one I find very pleasant.

Today’s post features Cthulhu in a salaryman suit. Well, probably not Cthulhu, but isn’t it an interesting way of seeing things?

Illustration © Eugene Smith

Yzabel / September 6, 2005

Wondering about Webhosts

The need to write is constantly growing in me, and I’ve been pondering working on one or two more sites, preferrably blogs. Nothing’s sure yet… simply, ideas are boiling more and more, and I need to let them out somehow. I know I could take some kind of free account at Blog*Spot or similar services, but let’s be honest: I’m used to having “my” hosting and “my” domain names now, and this kind of services usually don’t fit my needs anymore.While I’m very happy with Paradygma (I know, I need to update it!), it’s starting to get a little cramped in there, and I found myself considering other webhosts, more adapted to my needs, preferably not expensive. I’m just hesitant, given that I’ve worked with one host only so far.Read More

Yzabel / September 4, 2005

Languages in Fiction Stories – Part 1

Surely I’m not the only one dealing with the creation of a whole foreign language in my world of fantasy. Since I’ve started to think of it more closely, there are a few “rules” I’ve been able to isolate, both from my own attempts and from observing the works of other authors. This is still a loose list, in a way, but I feel that it can be interesting and useful to lay it down in full, since I know this whole language matter can become bothersome for the reader if not used properly.These rules sure aren’t carved in stone; feel free to add your own if you need to deal with this. I’m going to begin here with the creation of languages; the second part of the article will be developed in another post due to its global length.Read More

Yzabel / September 3, 2005

And Ideas Sprang…

Another of these reflexions about writing that came to me through means to which I wouldn’t think at first…It was 8 AM, I was up since 6, and after some time spent writing, I was itching to move. The weather that wasn’t too warm yet decided me to do something I seldom do: running. Therefore, I laced my shoes and simply stepped out (the good thing with wearing simple tops and shorts is that I’m always ready for such whims).I normally don’t like jogging. I’m much more a squash and strength-training person, and the only thing close to “cardio” that I really like is dancing. This time, however, there was something in the air, or perhaps in my way of viewing the world, that made it different. I didn’t have a MP3 player with me, I didn’t have any company, not even my dog. It was just me and myself, ready to have a little internal dialogue while running with my eyes on the clear sky. This is one of the nice things when living in the country: there are plenty of tracks and places to run, far from cars and other people.And the ideas started pouring in.Of course, I couldn’t note them down on the spot, but I had so much time alone to think of them that they still managed to stick in my mind. In about half a hour, I got ideas for a good nine or ten short stories. I probably won’t use them all—you can be sure that I scribbled them down afterwards to make sure I don’t forget—yet no matter what, it’s a very fine feeling to find myself with renewed inspiration.Too bad I don’t really enjoy running. If I had done this more often, without any other distraction, perhaps I’d now have a really huge stash of ideas.ideas, running, writing

Yzabel / September 2, 2005

Et In Arcadia Nos – Part 4

[Last installment of this story. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.]First came the terror, the terror at seeing how Ewell was wiped off the surface of the planet in a matter of minutes, after the first and last use of the A-M bomb prototype. No more shiny cristal cities, no more communications, no more Rims nor Kellens, no more floating islands in the sky of the main land, architectural and technical wizardry meant to create additional space in a once overpopulated country. Varsa’s government itself started to panick, when every satellite liaison broadcast showed the world what was now left of a whole continent.Second came the Flood, the sudden void created in the middle of the ocean causing the waters to subside first, then rise. When they finally retreated again, finding a new, fragile balance, the face of the world was never to be the same again.In the end, caught in the chain of events that had boiled for decades only to culminate without any point of turning-back, the lead countries and their allies annihilated themselves in a last display of raw, brutal strength.Read More