Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Writing Poems and Short Stories

There's no better way to practice the art of writing than to write a few poems and short stories. Have you ever tried your hand at them? It's surprising the number of writers that have never done this. Instead they jump straight in with their first novel.

Poems

Poems are a great way to get your creative juices flowing. Why? Because they force you to either rhyme or scan or express your feelings. And most poems are quite short, probably less than 200 words or so. Stuck for a subject? Then just pick a sentence from a book and write a poem about it. It doesn't have to be very long. Or else choose something in your house, or your son or daughter, or your cat or dog. There are a hundred different subjects you can find. Let me try my hand at a limerick:

Writing Poems and Short Stories

I once had a big tiger cat
Who got incredibly fat.
I cut out her food
She got in a mood
And she swallowed my other pet, rat!

There we go, less than five minutes and that included being attacked by my cat, Pipsqueak. She's a little one year-old tabby by the way. The point is it's not that difficult to write poems and practice the art of writing. As we've said already, the more you write, the better you will get.

Short Stories

Onto short stories. The beauty of short stories is that you don't have to sit at the keyboard for days on end to finish them. Ideally, short stories should be somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000 words in length. Assuming you write at about 1,000 words an hour, you can see you've only got to write for three to ten hours. I write at about 1300 to 1600 words an hour usually, so I ought to be able to write a short story in two to seven and a half hours. That's only a couple of days work! Think about it, you can have a complete story in two days!

How do you write a short story? First spend a day or so planning the story. Lay out a simple plot, introduce a couple of characters, add some conflict and there you go. Then jot down somewhere between ten and twenty story points. Next re-order them to make sure the pace of the story is correct and the conflicts are in all the right places. Finally, start writing. The objective is simple. For each story point you are going to write somewhere between 300 and 500 words. Don't worry about getting it exactly right, just write. Don't self-edit, don't re-read what you've written. Just write each story point and move onto the next. At the end of your exercise you'll have a short story that will be ready for editing at some point in the future. And I'll say this again; just leave the story and let it mature on its own in the dark. Let the book 'cook' for a while and for now just be happy that you've written a short story.

Another reason for writing short stories is to discover those that could be turned into full-length novels at some point in the future. Sometimes an idea we have for a story doesn't go anywhere. We write the ten to twenty story points and that's it. There's nothing more in it. But sometimes, we write the short story and suddenly realize there's a whole world waiting to be discovered in this story. It has the makings of a full-length best seller. Welcome to the world of finding your niche!

At the beginning of this article I wrote that some people jump straight into writing their first novel instead of practicing with poems and short stories first. Hopefully you understand the point a little better now. The truth is that most writers have a hundred story ideas, and sometimes one or two they are convinced will turn into novels. But that's it; they're just ideas. Like anything in life, you need to prove the idea. You need a prototype. The short story is your prototype. Once you start writing your ten to twenty story points, you'll soon discover how long the legs on your story are. As an example, when I write my YA fantasy novels I generally need between 200 and 250 story points to complete the novel, and each story point converts to about 550 words. This gives me a novel of about 125,000 words. It's tough to come up with 200 story points out of the gate and it would be terrible to get half-way through a novel and discover you have nowhere to go.

So, your task is to write a short story over the next few days so that by the time we get to the article on self-editing you have something to work with. Enjoy!

Writing Poems and Short Stories
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Thursday, September 6, 2012

Tips and Techniques for Speeches and Presentations

How to make a speech 'sizzle'

1. Preparation - fail to prepare, prepare to fail!

-Preparation and practice: research and prepare your speech well in advance and rehearse it at least five times in front of the mirror or until you feel you know it. Great speakers know their speech inside out but look as if they are delivering their words off the cuff. Knowing and being comfortable with your 'lines' means you can focus on eye contact, delivery and engaging with your audience.

Tips and Techniques for Speeches and Presentations

-PowerPoint and other support materials: never rely on these or use them as a crutch. Your slides or audio-visual materials should support and help illustrate what you are saying but never be a substitute for you. The best way to test how reliant you are on these aids is to ask yourself what would happen if your PowerPoint broke down - would you be able to continue effectively without it? If you couldn't, you need to kick the habit and re-think your presentation.

-Tailor your material to your audience: if it's an after dinner speech, you need lots of humour. If you are speaking on an expert subject, make it informative, interesting and engaging.

-Keep it short and entertaining: 10 minutes is enough to keep people riveted and leave them wanting more! Use the remaining time up in your question and answer session. Think about it, who ever complained about a speech being too short?

-Test-drive your speech: on a partner or close friend and ask them for feedback and timing.

Check your microphone and equipment works: there's nothing like a technical hitch to put you off your game so make sure everything's in working order and audio levels and feedback issues have been checked so that your audience can hear you.

2. Speech-writing and delivery tips and techniques

-Use an attention-grabbing title: apart from hooking and attracting people to hear you speak, a good headline grabs people's attention, gets them curious and interested and can help build the event and the audience's excitement.

-Plain English: the best speakers bring simple language to life. Don't alienate and bamboozle your audience with jargon, management speak or pretentious and complicated technical speak. People who do this either don't understand their subject well enough to communicate it in simple terms or have had a creative by-pass' and are born to be boring. Here's a great example of meaningless, alienating twaddle: "Neoclassical endogenous growth theory and a symbiotic relationship between investment in people and infrastructure." - Gordon Brown, former British prime minister

-Opening and closing lines should pack a punch: metaphors, drama and using misdirection make great speech openers and ice-breakers and are a powerful way to hook your audience, link to your message and set up the key points you want to make.

-Pause to create dramatic effect. It will keep people listening and give your speech impact and energy. Remember, to also pause before you start speaking, it's a great way to calm you and your audience.

-Pace: don't rush your words but also don't be afraid to change the pace of your speech to add emphasis, drama and impact to your message. It will also help to keep your audience engaged.

-Pitch: occasionally alter the volume and tone of your delivery. Speaking quieter or louder and being more cheerful or more serious all adds dramatic effect and keeps the attention of your audience.

-Enthusiasm: if you are enthusiastic about your subject, then your audience will be too. Enthusiasm gives a speech energy and strength so don't leave home without it.

Eye-contact engages your audience. Create spots in the room at the back, sides, centre and front of your audience and run your eyes regularly across them. Find three or four individuals in different parts of the room that you can direct the occasional line and hand-gesture to.

-Hand movements: which help you express your words and meaning are great, but make sure they look natural. We've seen some pretty silly-looking CEOs gesturing like manic robots because they've been told to do so by their PRs. It looks hilarious and turns you into a complete 'wally' and 'chump' in the eyes of your audience and the people you want to impress and influence!

-Move about if you can: if you have the room to move about and use the floorspace where you are speaking, do it. It's a great way of keeping people's attention, particularly if you've got a dry topic. It also allows you to make your presentation more upfront, close and personal for your listeners.

3. Structure and content of a speech

-Start with a structure: decide on what your main message is and then start breaking it down into three key points you want to make. These can be further broken down depending on how much detail you want.

-In short: the beginning should tell your audience what you are going to say, the middle: telling the story and the ending: telling them what you've said.

-Tell people something new, interesting and memorable.

Bring the story to life with examples and real-life experiences: a great way to get people listening to you is to weave a relevant stories or examples of yours or other people's experiences which bring the presentation to life for the listener.

-Incorporate memorable 'one liners' and colourful metaphors: these help to grab the readers attention, keep them interested in what you are saying and make your speech memorable. Here are some example: "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail," Speak softly and carry a big stick and you will go far." - Theodore Roosevelt

-Use short, sharp sentences for dramatic effect. Examples of short sentences: 'Failure is not an option' and 'The time is now'.

-Apply positive adjectives and adverbs. Instead of for example: "We face many challenges" say "We face many exciting challenges"; or "We will work on our problems" but "We will work together to solve our problems".

-Use alliteration to make words memorable and quotable: for example: 'Broadband Britain', 'Britain's best business bank', 'the digital divide', and 'formidable, fashionable, functional.'

-Make comparisons: with other organisations, competitors and people's situational experiences and highlight what can be learned from them.

-Use three-part sentences to create dramatic effect. This technique is called a 'tricolon', for example: 'Government of the people, by the people, and for the people' and 'We came, we saw, we conquered'.

-Repeat your key words for dramatic effect. British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill's famous speech is a good example: 'We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fighton the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets...'

-Use memorable one-liners. For example: "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Sir Winston Churchill

-Opening witticisms: these are good for warming-up the audience at the start of your speech or presentation. Here are some good examples: "I don't mind how much my minister's talk, as long as they do what I say." - former British prime minster Margaret Thatcher.

-End with a high impact statement: that reinforces your opening line. If for example, you were delivering a speech on the importance of business change, you might end with a famous quote: "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." - George Bernard Shaw, and "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin.

4. Don't apologise for being there!

Your audience has great expectations of you, don't disappoint them at the first hurdle by telling them you aren't very good at speaking, that you don't know why you've been asked to speak, that you are nervous or any other excuse.

Tips and Techniques for Speeches and Presentations
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Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Timewave Zero and the 2012 Convergence

Timewave Zero and the 2012 Date

In a follow up to my book review article on Fractal Time by Gregg Braden, I feel compelled to expound a bit more on the apparent cyclic nature of time. As with all things related to various cycles of time, and recent discussions surrounding December 21, 2012, they all appear to miss the point of a much grander of view linear time as we know it. What seems at face value to be random events occurring in time may actually be a reemergence- a quickening repetitive replay of the essence history has shown us. Much like a fractal which at any level of magnification resembles, that is, repeats the larger whole. Could our time-space continuum act in much the same way?

With an ongoing, personal quest to more fully understand this much debated 2012 date coupled with a desire to integrate myths and ancient prophetic writings with recent scientific and esoteric hypothesis, I believe one must investigate cycles of time more closely. While the subject of time is vast, trying not to think of time as experienced in three dimensions can leave one scratching their head in bewilderment. Hopefully, we will avoid a mental black hole and come to some definitive conclusions about repetitive time cycles and their significance to December 21, 2012. Clearly we are experiencing exponentially faster repetition of global events where it appears through closer examination, the similarity of our experiences are merely an echo from our past.

Timewave Zero and the 2012 Convergence

From Yarrow Sticks to Three Coins

We will look into two related observations of time and repetition which come together from vastly different eras of linear time, yet speak to an audience who embrace future possibilities. The first comes to us from 1150 BC China originating in a work what is know today as the I Ching or "Book of Changes".

Later in around 500 BC it is believed the original text was re-worked then incorporated into the Confucian cannon. While the source history of this divination form does go further back than 1150 BC, it was Literary King Wen Wang who has been attributed to creating, naming and organizing the 64 hexagram symbols and accompanying text used in decoding the meanings arrived at during a divination reading.

The I Ching divides into 64 hexagrams, each one a combination of six lines representing the properties of yin or yang. Each hexagram is made up of six lines shown as broken or solid and according to the King Wen tradition, represents the various archetypes of human interactions. Rather than expound here the actual processes involved throwing yarrow sticks or three coins to create the lines needed to use the I Ching, think of it as a method to receive clarity and guidance to questions posed in simple formats to the oracle.

Even to this day, it is used as a way to reduce chaos or the unexpected imposed by changes that life here in this part of the universe is all about. This brings to mind the statement- "Order out of Chaos" in the purest sense. The great push and pull of these dichotomies creates patterns and cycles and in culmination, really push us towards cosmic order and ultimately freedom.

Over the centuries, many have consulted the I Ching for guidance like a wise friend, even Carl Jung the Swiss Psychiatrist used it in his practice, so it's not hard to understand its allure to help seize opportunity and avoid adversity.

Timewave is not just Theory

Before you ask- what does an ancient Chinese method of divination have to do with cycles of time, hold on because it gets very interesting as the I Ching may possibly be more than an archaic fortune-telling method. Although it took over 3,000 years to add credibility to the I Ching premise, someone came along proving this age old marvel is no Chinese fortune cookie.

Fast forward, to the mid 1970's and a gentleman named Terence McKenna. Thankfully, a brilliant mind has returned from dimensions beyond our time and space bringing forth new concepts to better understand time. Along with what impact time has on our perception of reality and the actual unfolding of future events. As mentioned earlier, one such event being much debated and so near on the time horizon is of course, 12/21/2012.

Way before 2012 was in vogue or on the public radar, Terence McKenna tabled a time theory which incorporated this date unbeknown to him at the time. More on this later. Terence was known as philosopher, spellbinding orator, writer and self described anarchist in the popular counter-culture revolution. Very appropriate considering the time in which he lived; unfortunately Terence died way too early in April, 2000 from a violently aggressive form of brain cancer. However, his work based on the I Ching sequence called- Timewave Theory or Zero Point is still today, considered ground-breaking.

In his first book published in 1975, The Invisible Landscape, McKenna reveals details of a fascinating story about a three week journey in 1971 that he, along with his brother, Dennis took into the Amazon jungle in Colombia. This adventure was for the purpose of scientific discovery and experimentation culminating with the gestation of a natural hallucinogenic substances which local shamans prepared called Ayahuasca and have used for eons which included a naturally-occurring tryptamine called DMT, Dimethyltryptamine.

It is said, that Terence believed in the power of psychedelics to unlock the mind's ability to ascertain the secrets of the universe. On a side note, today, Dennis McKenna holds a Ph.D. in botanical sciences, and is currently on the faculty of the University of Minnesota. In all seriousness, it appears neither were wayward 70's "hippies" looking simply to trip out.

The McKenna brothers claim while under the influence of this substance, they were able to tap into the "collective consciousness" at such an accelerated rate that it could be compared to a computer today downloading massive amounts of information from the internet on a T1 connection. It was this collective consciousness source information and more specifically, through these experiments where details of the nature of time originated from that became their focus. The initial method of mapping out this theoretical nature of time pointed to the I Ching as an ancient time-like computer which ultimately developed into the "Timewave Theory". What Terence discovered with the input of his ethno botanist brother, theorist Rupert Sheldrake and chaos scientist Ralph Abraham, enabled him to further clarify his Timewave Theory of novelty with refined mathematical computations along with the help of specialized software and computing power.

Zero Point is Singularity

The principle of novelty is intrinsic to the structure of time and also creativity which is change itself, and just as important, the rate (time/speed) at which we experience this change they proposed, is mathematically heading towards an infinity point. Could that time be around 2012? The existence of an infinity point is a fact, and that is where it gets really interesting. No one can deny the rate of human progress, the pace of which is astounding. You need not go back even 1,000 years to be shocked. Just look back a few hundred years- we just learned then how to mass produce basic machines, 50 years ago rudimentary computers appeared; today we can now hold in our hands far more computing power that what took us to the moon in 1969 just 40 years ago!

What we have experienced can be viewed as various revolutions in consciousness: Three for example are: the Agricultural, Industrial and now the Information Revolution. It seems reasonable to conceive 2012 and its meaning, is rooted in the next revolution- The Human Transformation. The following short clip featuring Robert Anton and Terence McKenna conveys nicely the rapid, ever acceleration of information and experiential knowledge.

Once Terence received his inspiration, he set out to rigorously formulate his mathematical Timewave theory on paper by incorporating transforming numbers of the I Ching, then finally into software to plot and graph linear time. What eventually came out of this research was quite phenomenal. The Timewave software correlates our linear history with the rise and fall on the graph of novelty periods at points in time going forward or backwards on the time scale. At certain points, low spikes on the graph make it is easy to identify monumental novelty events such as the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945 or the assassination of JFK. Even more recently, the day of awakening- September 11, 2001 appears vividly.

Hundreds of other novelty points are easily identified when compared to history. This ebb and flow of novelty according to the Timewave theory expresses itself in a compounded fashion the closer we get to the Zero Point of singularity. Again, much like a fractal, repeating the essence of itself in what seems like infinity.

It is important to point out what critics have said of his theory. McKenna's Timewave theory must first establish and utilize a "Zero Point" date of singularity for all these graphical points of historical significance to appear in logical fashion. Without such a date, the theory truly becomes more pseudo junk-science. According to McKenna, he arbitrarily chose what he felt was a very novel date in recent history, the Atomic bombing of Japan in 1945 as the base line date to set the "Zero-Point" date of singularity. To this 1945 date, he added 67.29 years arriving at, you guessed it- December 2012. Remember this was first published in 1975 way before the Mayan long-count calendar and Hopi prophesies were widely discussed.

Not to bore you with the computations, but some may like to know how he arrived at that number of years. The 67.29 years comes from the I Ching and his "revelation of time" downloaded in the Amazon. Based on the I Ching, one day corresponds to one line on a hexagram, each hexagram has 6 lines (six days) multiplied by the total number of 64 hexagrams equals 384 days. Expanding into larger cycles of time, 64 X 384 = 24,576 days which add up to 67.29 years. The time cycles can and does continue on. This 67.29 year window of time represents the culmination of linear time in which all of preceding history must repeat in a condensed fashion before reaching the Zero-Point date of December 21, 2012. Apparently if one chooses another future date as Zero Point, the historical novelty points on a corresponding graph do not line up in any coherent fashion.

A Message of Hope

In conclusion, I believe Terence McKenna's Timewave theory expands our awareness of just what is possible when you tap into the higher realms available to all of us. While I do not fully understand his method of achieving access to the higher consciousness realms, the indigenous people have relied on these natural substances with great success so we may not want to simply discount through a western culture mindset assumptions about their value. Let's not forget our own bodies naturally secrete DMT, Dimethyltryptamine which is generated within the pineal gland deep in the brain. The fact remains- higher realms of consciousness exist and are available to all of us whether through meditation and other similar practices or by psychedelic means as Terence chose.

It could very well be that one divine message to receive about the days leading up to and after 2012 is a message of hope in that we are to shift into a greater awareness on a collective level. While we travel linear time towards Zero Point which very well may be around 12/21/2012, we will continually experience events appearing to repeat on some level and speed up to the point of singularity. This could be what the Mayan's referred to when they spoke of when "time becomes no more". Finally, we now are receiving a clearer picture helping to remove fear-based thoughts allowing us to open previously closed doors of understanding into the nature of time just as time itself collapses into infinity.

Timewave Zero and the 2012 Convergence

Tim's writing expertise and intuition for understanding arcane, non-mainstream subject matter including esoteric topics begun at the age of 14. It is through his expansive career in finance which affords Tim a unique ability to apply a professional, down-to-earth approach when writing about the science of spirituality.

Please visit- http://www.shiftoftheage.com for additional articles complete with accompanying pictures and any embedded video offering you more wisdom during these chaotic, transitional times we face.

(c) Copyright 2010- Timothy Connolly, All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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Sunday, September 2, 2012

More Little Known Facts About New Zealand

As promised here is more information about the Tuatara and some interesting facts about the rare birds only found in New Zealand.


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The Tuatara has eyes that can focus independently and they have two types of cells so that they can see both by day and by night. It also has a third eye on the top of its head but is only visible when it is born. They grow to be about 20 inches long and can weigh up to 2 lbs. Unlike the Kiwi bird where the female is the larger the Tuatara male is almost twice as big as the female.

The Tuatara eat beetles, crickets and spiders also frogs and the eggs of birds and lizards. They reproduce very slowly taking up to five years. Before they can even reproduce it takes ten years for them to reach sexual maturity. It also takes between 12 and 15 months from copulation to hatching depending on the temperature. The temperature also has an influence on whether the eggs will produce males or females. It is the warmer temperature that contributes most usually in the producing of males.

More Little Known Facts About New Zealand

The Tuatara average life span is 60 years although they can often live to be over 100 years old. They continue to grow for the first 35 years of their life. The courtship and mating ritual is quite unique, but that is for another article at another time.

New Zealand is the home to over 170 types of birds so we will only deal with some of the more interesting ones only found in New Zealand. The most well known is the Tiki Bird although because of its nocturnal nature it is rarely seen. You can see a photo of this rare bird on my site. The other one is the Pukeko again you can see a photo on my website. Other unusual looking birds are the Yellow Eyed Penguin also called Hoiho. Like the Kiwi they are also flightless. They have short stubby flippers and waterproof feathers. They are one of the three species that breed on the mainland of New Zealand.

Another rare bird is the Kakapo with only slightly more than one hundred of these unique birds in existence. It is now considered one of the rarest of birds. The story of their being is special and like the Tuatara is worthy of an article all of its own. Their breeding habit is so unusual it is totally dependent on the Kahikatea or Rimu Tree. These trees only bear fruit every two or three years.

The Kotare or more commonly known as the Kingfisher is a distant relative of the Kookaburra bird of Australia. It is believed that the first Kotare cane to New Zealand over ten thousand years ago. It eats skinks, spiders, earthworms and mice. It eats fish and have been known to also eat crab which it dashes against tree trunks to break them up. It then eats the peaces shell and all. It vomits the shell up at a later time.

I truly hope that you are enjoying the articles about the Unique and unusual wildlife of New Zealand. Visit my site and see photos of some of these rarities. I intend to change the photos from time to time so visit me often. http://www.uniquegiftsfromnewzealand.com

More Little Known Facts About New Zealand

Thanks for your time,

Wayne

Hello, my name is Wayne and for a long time I have been wanting to put a website on the web. I struggled with the right "Niche" and finally found a business I am proud to be associated with. They are, like me, a little guy. It was through sheer luck that I came upon this site offering products that I found to be absolutely unique and amazing. I hope that you will read my articles and also join me on my site to see just a few of the most Unique gifts you will find anywhere. If you enjoy my site tell your friends and ask them to tell their friends. I think more people should know about the other land down under New Zealand.

Here is my address: [http://www.uniquegiftsfromnewzealand.com]

Thanks,

Wayne

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