Reading upside down is a valuable skill.
It was pretty useful to me as a reporter, too. Nothing on a desk was safe. Eventually I also learned to read backwards, to proof hot lead.
Xander: Look who's got a bad case of Dark Prince envy. Dracula: Leave us. Xander: No, we're not going to "Leabbb you." And where'd you get that accent, Sesame Street? "One, Two, Three - three victims! Maw ha ha!"
'Lessons'
The Great Write Way
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
Ginger - Jan 03, 2005 4:27:02 pm PST #9223 of 10001
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
dcp - Jan 03, 2005 4:43:18 pm PST #9224 of 10001
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
There's a ps and qs and ds and bs joke in there somewhere.
Ginger - Jan 03, 2005 4:44:36 pm PST #9225 of 10001
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
Mind your P's and Q's did come from printing, because they're hard to tell apart, particularly when you're setting type by hand.
SailAweigh - Jan 03, 2005 4:45:49 pm PST #9226 of 10001
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb
I always heard it was from "mind your pints and quarts" for tavern patrons so they knew what their tab was at the end of the night.
dcp - Jan 03, 2005 4:46:54 pm PST #9227 of 10001
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
I just meant that I had as much trouble with db as with qp.
SailAweigh - Jan 03, 2005 4:49:00 pm PST #9228 of 10001
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb
Good thing you have a d and p then, a little less confusion.
dcp - Jan 03, 2005 4:49:00 pm PST #9229 of 10001
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
Drabble: upside down
My introduction to basic aerobatics started okay with a simple barrel roll, but at the top of the first loop the instructor changed his mind and just held us inverted -- with no warning, the bastard.
The only visible sign that there was something -- anything -- between me and the planet suspended over my head was one-sixteenth of an inch of dusty Lexan. I clutched at my shoulder straps for reassurance that I wasn't going to fall out.
Then he said, "Hey, I've never stalled inverted in this model." Followed by, "Wow, I didn't know it would do that."
Double bastard.
SailAweigh - Jan 03, 2005 4:51:45 pm PST #9230 of 10001
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb
"Wow, I didn't know it would do that."
That sounds like they could have been famous last words. Wow.
erikaj - Jan 03, 2005 4:54:12 pm PST #9231 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!
My favorite redneck joke:
"What are a redneck's last words?"
"Y'all watch this..."
Lilty Cash - Jan 03, 2005 4:57:07 pm PST #9232 of 10001
"You see? THAT's what they want. Love, and a bit with a dog."
Ok, I've just got an idea and maybe this is the best place to air it out. I'm applying for a job with a non-profit, and they want a writing sample. Everything recent I've got is fiction and not appropriate, so I started combing through older stuff. Most of what I've got there are analytic papers. Again, no good. But when I go back to freshman year and start looking at some of the journalism stuff, it isn't bad. Topically, though, it's clear that I wrote it years ago. (It dealt with the closing of my college, which happened in 2000.)
There's one piece that I wrote though, after talking to alumni about the school's closing, before the final graduation. What if I presented an excerpt from that and framed it with my own perpective on what it is to be alumni, etc. That way, it could look like something I'd written to submit to the alumni magazine. I'd start something fresh, but I'm seriously blocked for topics and strapped for time.
Would that work?