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• 1 month ago

  Have you been in a non-violent protest where things have gotten dangerous? To what extent will you use non-violence to stand up for things you believe in?

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• March 18th, 2009

  Help us make up a weird disease name for our play...

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• October 14th, 2008

  What (kick-ass) questions would you ask in speed dating?

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• August 6th, 2008

  Is there such thing as vocation?

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• June 23rd, 2008

  Where can I find a basic list of english phrases one might use with a toddler?

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Answers

• 1 day ago

  What are some dictatorships that didn't end in blood, death and sadness?

  By the way, does anyone know much about Bhutan? I heard that their king ushered in democracy and set the priorities for a great balance of modernisation + preservation of traditional cultures + environment…
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• 1 day ago

  What are some dictatorships that didn't end in blood, death and sadness?

  uh, yeah… Hong Kong, China. (why are you so surprised? we have internet here…)
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• 1 day ago

  What are some dictatorships that didn't end in blood, death and sadness?

  @jaytkay—What?? Sorry, there has been lots of violence in China since Tiannamen, overt and covert. Just in the past 2 years, there’s been a lot of unrest in a variety of regions including Tibet and Xinjiang and Urmuqi, Xinjiang. There are many people here in China pushing for political freedom, but sometimes it’s hard to know how. Here in Hong Kong recently they just put back the promised date (previously 2012) of a full blown democratic election of the Chief Executive, and it’s frustrating, very frustrating. However, in a protest of 500,000 people on July 1st, 2003 here, we managed to get Article 23, a national security law shelved, and our last chief executive to “retire for medical reasons” (a face-saving gesture for him to step down). So there are definitely voices demanding for democracy, sometimes with some success, sometimes with less. There are people holding the government accountable to corruption and are being harassed or arrested (e.g., parents demanding investigation into badly constructed schools with regards to the Sichuan earthquake—see here). So not every one is happy here, and for every person brave enough to speak out, they are applauded by many who wish they had the guts to do the same. In some ways, I think the violence of self-censorship, of mass brainwashing is even more scary than the “mass violence” of Tiannamen you talk about. Certainly the effects are more far-reaching.
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• 1 day ago

  NaNoWriMo has officially commenced. Care to share your progress, trials and tribulations? SUPPORT GROUP, HO!

  Sometimes instead of he said, she said, I actually have the characters do an action, or elaborate on their thought. For example, here’s a conversation at the breakfast table: ——————————————— “How’s the judo?” “I’m thinking of quitting.” “Oh?” asks Caesar. He pours himself some decaffeinated tea. “How come?” “He’s got too many other things to do,” chimes in his mother. It’s true, Romain has an insane number of activities. Recently, he’s picked up the saxophone (having given up on the piano) on top of his French and extra math. “You just got to organise your time better. It’ll be such a shame, after you’ve put so much time in it. What are you – a green belt now?” “Brown,” corrects Romain. Of course his father knows what colour belt he has, he was there when Romain got it. “Not so far away from black, then.” Caesar pours Romain more juice. “What is this, passionfruit and aloe vera. Do you like aloe vera?” ———————————————— This doesn’t actually solve the problem of needing to tag the speakers, because I think in general, you have to tag them, unless they have such a strong voice, or it’s such a strong situation (e.g., one arguing against the crowd, or in this case, a clear point of view) that it is self-evident. What you can do however, is to integrate the dialogue with the action, thoughts and feelings so the “he said, she said,” doesn’t stand out so strongly. I know that in strong writing the character’s voices are immediately identifiable, but I’m having trouble with that too. But in lieu of that, I’m just focusing on the action. Incidentally, I’m running into a bizarre challenge of deciding on what tense (present or past) to use, three chapters in. There’s an immediacy, a sense of hovering about the present tense that I like but I don’t know if I can sustain it.
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• 3 days ago

  NaNoWriMo has officially commenced. Care to share your progress, trials and tribulations? SUPPORT GROUP, HO!

  Day Seventeen, 26,824 words I have to say that this week’s pep talk from Lindsey got me right back on track. Not that it was particulary profound, but it came just at the right time. I had written myself in a cul de sac and was really not excited about writing any more. But after reading Lindsey’s e-mail I thought, you know, this character (Caesar) really does have flesh and blood and at one point he did fascinate me. So I actually went all the way back to an earlier draft, the first time Caesar popped into existence and re-read it. Realised that I liked him better in a healthier state than I have recently put him (I just gave him a heart attack and made him lose his job in the current incarnation); and that my earlier fascinations about Chinese factory workers (who work for Caesar’s watchmaking company), which I shelved, are what interest me, and therefore deserve more attention. So here I am again, writing hard. Wrote 777 words only today but they were good 777 good words. Incidentally, it is very encouraging to see people’s word counts still chugging ahead. Jeruba, of course, is blazoning ahead and reminding me that it is actually possible.
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