“I have read your website and it is obviously that your a foggot.”

via the always hilarious 27bslash6, this funny email exchange with an anti-gay bigot: -“I have read your website and it is obviously that your a foggot.”.

I wish I were as clever as they are. Oh, 27B/6, It’s been along time since I visited. You have clearly become more funny while I was gone.

Continue Reading“I have read your website and it is obviously that your a foggot.”

Pixar story rules

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The Pixar Touch – history of Pixar – Blog – Pixar story rules (one version).

These are some fantastic story writing rules from Pixar Writer Emma Coats, as collected from her twitter feed.

Pixar story artist Emma Coats has tweeted a series of “story basics” over the past month and a half — guidelines that she learned from her more senior colleagues on how to create appealing stories:

#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

#2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.

#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

#8: Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

#9: When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

#10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.

#12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.

#14: Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.

#15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

#16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.

#17: No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.

#18: You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

#19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

#20: Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?

#21: You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?

#22: What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

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Indiana Governor’s Race: Dumb vs. Dumber

I was incredulous yesterday when the John Gregg, the Democratic candidate for Indiana Governor actually went on record as being against same-sex marriage, because – how dumb can you be? That position is clearly on the wrong side of history, is clearly not a Democratic position, and will lose you your base in Indiana. It won’t gain you any Republicans. If you’re trying to hedge your bets, just don’t say anything rather than saying something so stupid.

I immediately went to Gregg’s site and told him off for not being a good Democrat or a good progressive, and told him that while he still had my vote, he wouldn’t get any financial support from me, nor would I support him online or in my social networks.

Today, Gregg decided to double-down on the stupid. I got this email in my inbox:

Dear Steph,

Fact: Congressman Mike Pence has lived in Arlington, Virginia for over a decade.

If you ask me, that’s over a decade too long, if he wants to be Governor of Indiana. That’s over a decade that he hasn’t been living in Indiana, and over a decade that he hasn’t been talking with real Hoosiers.

Watch our latest video, “Out of State, Out of Touch,” and see how Congressman Pence has been gone for too long!
Watch the video!

Want Washington-style fighting and divisiveness in Indiana? That’s what we’ll get with Congressman Pence, because it’s all he knows. John, on the other hand, is still connected to his Southwest Indiana roots, raising his sons in Sandborn. John believes in working across the aisle to get things done, and focusing on what’s important: jobs and education.

Watch our latest video, “Out of State, Out of Touch,” and see how Congressman Pence has been gone for too long!

The Washington way vs. the Hoosier way? I think it’s a clear choice — and I’ll bet you do too.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Pearcey
Campaign Manager
Gregg for Governor

Richard Mourdock just won the Republican primary, apparently on the platform of “Lugar has been in Washington too long” and Gregg is somehow thinking that same platform will work for him against Mike Pence.

But the reality is that Lugar didn’t lose on the “been in Washington too long” issue. He lost because he’s too centrist, and the Republican party has been moving steadily to the right. The “Out of State out of touch” thing with Lugar was just and excuse for people to ditch a guy who’s worked his ass off for the state of Indiana for a couple decades, which is frankly pretty damned crazy. Lugar was a serious force in Washington, and Indiana lost a lot of clout by voting him out.

But as a whole Indiana is NOT as far right as the Republican Party is. Indiana did vote for Obama, after all and I don’t think that was a fluke. Playing on the same themes that the Republican’s are playing to try to appeal to the center is not going to help Gregg in the slightest, and he’s a fool to think so.

I’d almost not vote for John Gregg at all, except that he’s running against Mike Pence. And Mike Pence is the biggest pinhead in Indiana. You have to get up really early in the day to be stupider than Mike Pence. So who do you vote for in a race between Dumb (Gregg) and Dumber (Pence)?

I guess I’d vote Dumb. But this is one of those times when it really sucks to be a Hoosier.

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