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-   -   NaNuPoMo (http://www.fiveminute.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1595)

Zeke 11-02-2011 12:18 PM

NaNuPoMo
 
Welcome to NaNuPoMo!

Nope, nothing to do with nudity or postmodernism. (Though come to think of it...) Back in 1999, a group of writers decided that there simply were not enough terrible novels out there. They came up with National Novel Writing Month or "NaNoWriMo", an event for amateur authors to train their churning skill. The goal is to write 50,000 words by the end of the month -- mathematically, this boils down to an average of 100 words a day for each of the first 29 days, and then 47,100 on the last day. Writers who survive the process learn to generate incredible quantity and ignore that other thing. Since '99, there's been a NaNoWriMo each year (it's misspelled on most calendars as "November"), with more participants each time. Last year nearly 40,000 people hit the goal, writing 40,000 novels that were each read 40% of the way through by three relatives, one of whom was lying.

Even if I had no other obligations, I don't think I would try NaNoWriMo. I've seen what it does to my friends. It consumes their lives, overrides their priorities and moral centres. I'm pretty sure I was dumped for it once. But there <i>is</i> something to be said for using totally artificial commitments to develop discipline.

So this month I'm gonna try bringing back an old practice of 5M.net: daily newsposts. Most of them won't be site updates, of course; I'll make 'em where I can, but school has to come first. However, it's pretty easy to make a quick link post. The main reason I stopped doing them in the first place is that I was running out of ideas, but I've had years to build up more since then.

Let's get things started with a highly germane link. Nate the Great started a <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitleupg47ww5?from=Main.FiveMinuteVoyager"><b>Fiv eMinute.net page at TV Tropes</b></a> a while ago. (TVT itself would definitely have been a daily link a few years back, had I still been doing them; nowadays it's hardly necessary.) I'm glad to see us represented there. As noted, the page is fairly sparse -- it can definitely use some activity. Among other things, I'd be happy to see a broader range of site material represented, and tropes that apply to more than just individual fiver scenes. I'm not <i>quite</i> narcissistic enough to edit my own site's trope page, so <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ItsUpToYou">It's Up To You</a>!

Nate the Great 11-02-2011 01:45 PM

You're in school? What for?

If you guys want to help, but don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of tropes, please consider adding a link to the fiveminute.net page to the individual trope pages like I demonstrated on the page.

Zeke 11-02-2011 05:16 PM

Still workin' on the ol' PhD. This is the year I have to finish my comprehensive exams, so it's especially important.

Sa'ar Chasm 11-03-2011 04:57 AM

PhDs are eternal. I don't think they actually ever end, or progress. You just wake up one day on the wrong side of thirty and accept you're going to be here for the rest of your life.

It's a bit like life imprisonment, only I think convicted murderers get a but more respect.

Zeke 11-03-2011 12:27 PM

<i>November 2</i>

NaNuPoMo continues today with a link to a site I often find very useful. One weakness of Google is that it mostly lacks the traditional DOS wildcard search. You can stick a * in a phrase, say "chakotay 1 * 0", and match a word or two, but you can't use ? to match characters or * for parts of words. Someone had to fill this gap (match this pattern?), and <a href="http://www.onelook.com/"><b>OneLook</b></a> did so. It's a multi-dictionary search, which is useful on its own, but it also has full wildcard abilities and other handy features. So next time you're stuck on a crossword answer like, I dunno, "P_R_H_S", use OneLook to narrow it down.

(Note to forumites: rather than fill the board with newspost threads, I'll be putting all the link posts in this master thread. Updates will still get their own.)

evay 11-03-2011 12:52 PM

The first time an enthused coworker told me about NaNoWriMo, I practically recoiled. He was all "But you'll have a novel at the end of the month!" and I had to keep explaining "No, you'll have fifty thousand words of crap at the end of the month. Aiming for a pure word count is just logorrhea. Writing a real novel takes planning."

After working with someone who's a "pantser," aka "discovery writer," I find I hold this opinion even more strongly.

Creating a story takes work. It takes preparation, planning, editing, feedback, killing your darlings, rewriting, foresight, and backfilling.

If someone wants to use NaNoWriMo as a way to get over the fear of getting words on the page, or to break writer's block, hey, go for it. But don't pretend you have an actual novel on December 1. You might, possibly, have the start of a novel, if you're ruthless enough to go back and fix all the problems. But you don't have something publishable. Harrumph.

Zeke 11-04-2011 11:14 PM

<i>November 3</i>

Today's link is to one of my favourite comic book sites: <a href="http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/"><b>Comics Should Be Good</b></a>, which recently turned five years old (young'uns). Like this site, CSBG has a mission, one that's expressed in the title: comics aren't always good, but they <i>can</i> be and often have been, and we shouldn't settle for less.

There are various writers, but it's Brian Cronin's baby, and the main attraction is his long-running column <a href="http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/category/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed/">Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed</a>. It's sorta the Snopes of comics, covering a wide range of rumours; the stories behind them are often more interesting than the rumours themselves, and Brian researches them well. There's plenty to interest even the most casual comic fan. For instance, today's rumours include one about Spock (which a Trekkie will probably know is false just by virtue of having heard the real story).

NAHTMMM 11-05-2011 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeke (Post 78215)
Still workin' on the ol' PhD. This is the year I have to finish my comprehensive exams, so it's especially important.

Good luck! :)

Zeke 11-05-2011 12:55 PM

<i>November 4</i>

Today's link is to the LJ of <b>squid314</b> (Scott to his friends), specifically his <a href="http://bit.ly/oKf9KA">analysis</a> of the relative unrealisticness of certain popular fiction franchises. He first considers <i>Babylon 5</i>, then <i>Doctor Who</i>... but what's the most far-fetched one of all? The answer may surprise you. (The rest of Scott's journal is worth checking out too, as he's a smart guy in general. He won points with me right off with the pangrammatic title.)

NAHTMMM 11-05-2011 03:00 PM

^ :D Some of the comments on that are pretty good, too.

Zeke 11-06-2011 02:14 PM

<i>November 5</i>

Remember, remember the fifth of November! Specifically, the one back in 2005, when I posted <a href="http://bit.ly/uMYZ3r"><b>Five-Minute <i>Rings</i></b></a>. Yep, this is an X Years Ago post, and today X=6. The '05 Hallowe'en event was a sequel to the '03 event; like most sequels, it didn't quite deliver, but there was some good stuff. My contribution was this fiver of a DVD extra taking place before <i>The Ring Two</i>. <i>Rings</i> packed a lot of scares into a short runtime and laid some groundwork for the movie. As with my fiver of the first film, there are a few in-jokes here for Ring fans; for instance, "general discussion" and "serious theorizing" are shoutouts to the real Ring forum (apparently down right now), which had boards labeled that way.

Why would I relink something so obscure? Let's say it's because Daylight Savings Time is mentioned in the fiver, making it timely. That is the reason. There are no others.

Zeke 11-07-2011 07:10 PM

<i>November 6</i>
<p>Today's link: <a href="http://bit.ly/vkBiab"><b>the ringworld</b></a>. I've linked to it before, but that was eight years ago, and it's still the best <i>Ring</i> site around. This time I want to highlight a couple of specific sections. The <a href="http://www.theringworldforum.com/scripts.html">scripts and translations</a> page is a great resource; among other things, it includes full translations by founder J Lopez of the original Japanese movie and the manga of the sequel, <i>Rasen</i>. If you've ever wondered how I became such a <i>Ring</i> series connoisseur in the first place when I've mentioned I can barely watch the freaking things, that's how. The <a href="http://www.theringworldforum.com/fanfiction.html">fanfic section</a> also has some interesting items, including a spooky sequel, "6155", by J himself (see if you can decode the title!) and two short pieces by nostalgia, an acquaintance of mine whose fic I've recommended before.
<p>But that's odd... two <i>Ring</i> updates in a row? Eh. It's probably nothing. Or maybe I'm just doing it because J vanished off the face of the Earth in '07 or so; four years since last update makes even me look good.

Zeke 11-08-2011 06:12 PM

<i>November 7</i>

Okay, enough <i>Ring</i> stuff. Today we'll do something else. Here's a <i>[kssssh]</i>

Um, guess we got some static there. Here's <i>[kssssh]</i>

<i>[kssssh]</i> think this is really <i>[kssssh]</i> know why <i>[kssssh]</i>

Maybe I'll just <i>[kssssh]</i>

<i>[ksssssssssssh]</i>

evay 11-08-2011 08:01 PM

Z, quit trying to control the horizontal.

Zeke 11-08-2011 09:05 PM

That reminds me, today [kssssh] described as [kssssh] promotion. I'm not sure [kssssh] tactful or not. Is [kssssh] thing on?

Zeke 11-09-2011 10:01 PM

<i>November 8</i>

<i>[kssssh]</i>

I wish she'd stop that. Today's link is to <i>[kssssh]</i> <a href="http://bit.ly/sEhb9q">Fitocracy</a>.

HA! Didn't see THAT coming, did ya? I mumbled some gibberish and you staticked <i>that</i> out! Now I've posted my link and there's nothing you can do about it!

For those who haven't heard, Fitocracy is an exercise-tracking system. You can use it to keep a record of anything from heavy workouts to taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Of course, a spiral-bound notebook can do that much, but Fitocracy also has a clever hook: it assigns different point values to each kind of exercise and you accumulate them like XP in a videogame. (I'm level 5 so far, if you're curious.) There are simple suggestions for first-timers, and even "quests" that work like trophies/achievements -- you'll trip over some, while others have to be worked for. Technically the site is in invite-only beta, but this is just to keep spambots out; invite links are posted regularly on their Twitter account, or if you don't want to wait, ask 'em and they'll just give you one.

There. That oughta put her in her <i>[kssssh]</i>

<i>[kssssh]</i>

<i>[KSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH]</i>

Nate the Great 11-10-2011 02:26 PM

Erm, we do have a link thread, y'know. You don't have to abuse a News thread to post them.

Zeke 11-11-2011 04:43 AM

Abuse.

<i>Abuse</i>.

Nate, just... think about that for a while.

Nate the Great 11-11-2011 03:34 PM

Yes, ABUSE. I fully confess to being an inveterate sorter who likes everything to be in precisely defined categories. We have a thread for links, and there isn't a reason in the world why you can't put this stuff there.

Sa'ar Chasm 11-11-2011 08:56 PM

It's his damn website. Let him organise it how he likes.

Besides, News threads for links are an established tradition around here, plus he's got the NaNuPoMoBrovemberwhatever theme going as well.

Nate the Great 11-12-2011 04:57 PM

And what does "NaNuPoMo" mean, exactly? Is there some sort of "vision" or "mission statement" to this event?

evay 11-12-2011 06:22 PM

National News Post Month (with "Nu" standing for News; I guess the U is so that it sounds right). As in, every day this month he will post something in the News section.

Nate, do you have a site of your own? Not a page on someone else's site, or contributing to an existing wiki, but your very own, started from scratch, chose a name, bought a domain, completely Nate's content website? Because you have very clear ideas about The Right Way and The Wrong Way for this site to be run, so why don't you put those ideas into practice on a site of your own? Then you can show Zeke, and everyone else, how it's done.

I can't speak for anyone else here, but I for one would be delighted to see you launch such an endeavor.

Nate the Great 11-13-2011 03:43 AM

No, I do not own my own domain. I had a page on the h2g2 site, and I contribute to TvTropes, but never my own site.

How it's done? You mean, setting aside a certain amount of time every week to be devoted to adding material to a site? Actually keeping promises regarding updates and NOT making them when I know I won't be able to keep them? Refusing to start a multi-day event without setting aside the time to actually HAVE it?

I fully realize that I sound like one of those childless people with lots of opinions about childrearing, but sometimes a person CAN pick up the basics without direct experience. It's the same here.

If I had the skills to update the site, I'd have asked for Marc or Kira's job years ago, but I don't. Nor is it likely.

evay 11-14-2011 01:06 AM

You can run a site very easily on WordPress. Absolutely zero programming skills required; it's one of their selling points. Free themes (that means designs) galore.

I'm actually not being sarcastic. I think launching and maintaining your own site would be a great thing for you.

Nate the Great 11-14-2011 04:08 AM

About what? Another five-minute sister site? Unlikely. A personal blog? Too much personal information, and who'd be interested? I've tried bouts of writing my own short stories, both of the original and fanfiction variety, but it doesn't work. I don't have the drawing skills to make a webcomic. I don't have a camera adequate for a video review series.

In the end the only thing I've considered seriously is doing my own fan DVD commentaries. I don't suppose any of you would like to partner with me through Skype or whatever and launch such a site?

Zeke 11-11-2012 11:50 AM

<p><i>November 9</i>
<p>(<a href="http://fiveminute.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1597">see thread</a>)

Zeke 11-11-2012 11:50 AM

<p><i>November 10</i>
<p>Today's link... let's say <a href="http://8bithorse.blogspot.ca/">8 Bit Horse</a>. It's a nifty site dedicated to 2D gaming, from the NES days to modern examples like the <i>Mega Man ZX</i> games.
<p>And that's ten! You know, I bet some people doubted I could do a whole month of daily updates. But who's laughing now? Here we are on November 10, and I'm making my tenth update of NaNuPoMo right on schedule.
<p>...What?

Zeke 11-12-2012 01:08 PM

<p><i>November 11</i>
<p>In honour of Remembrance Day, I have two things to link today. The first is a <a href="http://bit.ly/SH2ehN">serious post</a> I made back in '08 for the occasion, which I don't think I've linked here yet. Second, on the lighter side, I recently discovered the comics of Angus McLeod on deviantArt. His most popular to date are "Simple Versions" of various wars -- sort of like the historical fivers we've sometimes seen at the forums. McLeod did <a href="http://angusmcleod.deviantart.com/art/World-War-Two-Simple-Version-73625561">World War II</a> first, then <a href="http://angusmcleod.deviantart.com/art/World-War-One-Simple-Version-128505446">World War I</a>, and then the <a href="http://angusmcleod.deviantart.com/art/Cold-War-Simple-Version-189698383">Cold War</a>. Each one's better than the last.

Zeke 11-13-2012 05:37 PM

<p><i>November 12</i>
<p>Ever heard of the Atari game <i>Necromancer</i>? I never had before I read <a href="http://www.electrondance.com/stanley-kubrick-is-gone/">this article</a> at the blog Electron Dance, but when you read it, you'll wonder why not. It's at once an explanation of the game, a biography of its creator (Bill Williams, who died at just 38 of cystic fibrosis), and an eloquent, almost poetic blending of the two. Well worth a read.

Zeke 11-14-2012 12:41 PM

<p><i>November 13</i>
<p>Bisqwit is an interesting guy. I know him best as the founder of TASvideos.org, home of the tool-assisted speedrun. (I won't go into the difference between tool-assisted speedruns and the regular kind, but ask me sometime and I'll write you a short thesis on the subject.) He's also an expert programmer and general videogame hobbyist. Today's link is to a particularly interesting video of his.
<p>On YouTube, one popular genre of gaming video is the "blind" playthrough, where the player is trying the game for the first time. Bisqwit recently tried a blind playthrough of his own... but a very different kind. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w36rA2hQrRw">He literally played a game with his eyes closed.</a> To have half a chance, he chose the first test chamber of <i>Portal</i>, a very simple level that he knows inside out. He calls the resulting video boring, but I disagree -- with his commentary to explain what he was thinking at each point, it's one of the most interesting gameplay videos I've ever seen. Check it out.

Zeke 11-16-2012 07:54 PM

<i>November 14</i>

(<a href="http://fiveminute.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1628">see thread</a>)

Zeke 11-16-2012 07:55 PM

<i>November 15</i>
<p>Smallish but important update today. With the (ahem) long silences this site is prone to, I've been meaning for some time to create an RSS feed people can follow so they know when we have something new. (We used to have something similar, a mailing list, but handling it manually was a nuisance. RSS is basically how mailing lists are done now anyway.)
<p>The other day I realized I don't need to make a feed, because we already have one! A surprisingly obscure feature of LiveJournal is that every account has an RSS feed; it's not linked by default for some reason, but you can find it by adding /data/rss to the URL. I update our LJ studiously with each newspost, so that feed might as well be coming directly from here. I dub it <a href="http://bit.ly/5m-rss"><b>The Five-Minute RSS</b></a>, and I encourage you all to follow it.
<p>Follow it! <i>Follow it.</i>

Zeke 11-17-2012 12:35 PM

<i>November 16</i>
<p>Today, some interesting sci-fi news for those who haven't already heard. A new BSG prequel movie has been made with the impressively generic title of <i>Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome</i>. For some reason, instead of airing on TV, it's first being <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrFaRFw9s4G4OYkHPs0afqM_nT0jLvvPy&f eature=plcp">serialized on YouTube</a> in 12-minute segments. It's set in the first Cylon war and has a character we actually care about (Adama in his Viper pilot days), so there's more reason to watch this one than <i>Caprica</i>. Ron Moore isn't involved, but several other BSG staffers and fellow Trek veterans are, most notably Michael Taylor.
<p>Should be worth checking out. It's nice at least to get something new from one of the big sci-fi franchises. A lot of them are lying fallow at the moment. I still can't believe they didn't capitalize on the success of Abrams' Trek reboot with a TV show -- that should've been a no-brainer.

Zeke 11-19-2012 11:44 AM

<i>November 17</i>

(<a href="http://fiveminute.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1634">see thread</a>)

Zeke 11-19-2012 11:44 AM

<i>November 18</i>
<p>Here's a goofy link to round out the week. The US and Canada have their share of sensationalist papers (<i>USA Today</i>, various <i>Sun</i>s), but none that quite compare to the UK's <i>Daily Mail</i>. One Paul Battley has helpfully compiled a list of everything the <i>Mail</i> has identified over the years as either <font color=red>causing</font> or <font color=green>preventing</font> cancer... and yes, there's overlap. <a href="http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/">Check it out</a>. Just don't do it over wi-fi.

Zeke 11-20-2012 07:36 PM

<i>November 19</i>
<p>Party hats! This is the tenth update of NaNuPoMo 2012, which means I've officially done better than last year (when I vanished after the ninth one). Time to take a step back.
<p>So what <i>did</i> happen last year, anyway? You may recall that I was being taken over by Samara from <i>The Ring</i> (and I'm tempted to just say she killed me for a year or something). This was meant to build up to the long-delayed publication of Five-Minute <i>The Ring 2</i>, which I've been trying to do for Hallowe'en every year since '05. But I just couldn't seem to finish the damn thing, and once again I'd newsposted myself into a corner. I'm not yet immune to being embarrassed about backing out of an event, but there are only so many times I can interrupt a newspost with <i>[kssh]</i>, so I stopped, intending to come back spectacularly with the fiver done. Guess how that went!
<p>Anyway, we're back to normal now. Several of the regular forumgoers have shown up, so hopefully we can get some <a href="../forums/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=1631">interesting discussions</a> going. (We also have an <a href="http://bit.ly/5m-rss">RSS feed</a> now, if you missed that update.) I've got plenty of good updates in progress -- schoolwork permitting, as always.
<p>And I've <i>almost</i> stopped seeing Samara's reflection in stuff and coughing up electric centipedes. Turns out the Ring Virus is much less dangerous if you stay away from video cassettes. It's been hard, but somehow I've managed...

MaverickZer0 11-21-2012 01:26 AM

Psst, Zeke, the link tagged to 'interesting discussions' is broken both on the newspost and the LJ post. It should be http://www.fiveminute.net/forums/sho...newpost&t=1631

(Would you believe, I actually wouldn't be able to manage staying away from video tapes? I still have a bunch of tapes and an actual factual VCR. They're right next to my NES and N64 I'm not even kidding.)

Zeke 11-21-2012 03:22 AM

Thanks. Relative-linking accident. I replaced the site URL with ".." as usual, but was overzealous and removed /forums too.

Zeke 11-21-2012 01:21 PM

<p><i>November 20</i>
<p>Today's link is another of my deviantArt finds. Take a look at <a href="http://vianaarts.deviantart.com/art/Redhead-Girl-Ballpoint-Pen-310870595">this picture</a>. Looks like a pretty good photo, eh? Now look at it again, this time knowing that it's drawn with <i>ballpoint pen</i>.
<p>What you're seeing is the unique art of Samuel Silva, a.k.a. <a href="http://vianaarts.deviantart.com/">VianaArts</a>. He reproduces photos with what must be a million colours of ballpoint pen, and he does it <i>astonishingly</i> well. (For my money, the <a href="http://vianaarts.deviantart.com/art/Vixen-Ballpoint-Pen-293941401">animal</a> pictures are the best.) The latest one is NSFW, but otherwise go nuts.

Zeke 11-22-2012 02:02 PM

<p><i>November 21</i>
<p>Quick link today to a pretty self-explanatory site: <a href="http://www.searchoftheday.com/">Search of the Day</a>.


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