I’ve mentioned Abulafia Random Generators before. Well I’ve created one: Tarot Plot Generator as a writing tool, to inspire myself with plot ideas, using the symbolism of the tarot. It details the main character and three acts with fourteen cards.
Here is an example, continued after “More”…
Main Character
Description: (Reversed) PENTACLES Knight.–An useful man; useful discoveries. Reversed: A brave man out of employment.
Past: (Reversed) CUPS Ace.–Inflexible will, unalterable law. Reversed: Unexpected change of position.
Wants: (Reversed) WANDS Knight.–A bad card; according to some readings, alienation. Reversed: For a woman, marriage, but probably frustrated.
Strength: WANDS Page.–Young man of family in search of young lady. Reversed: Bad news.
Weakness: 8. FORTITUDE.–Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honours. Reversed: Despotism, abuse if power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace.
Obstacle to “wants”: CUPS Two.–Favourable in things of pleasure and business, as well as love; also wealth and honour. Reversed: Passion.
Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day
My favorite part:
Walk up to random people and say “WHAT YEAR IS THIS?” and when they tell you, get quiet and then say “Then there’s still time!” and run off.
I am obsessed with Random Generators, and have been for awhile. I like the idea that a program with some algorithms and data can create something (seemingly) new. Like the Postmodern Essay Generator or the Random Slashdot Story Generator or a Random Haiku Generator.
I’ve wanted to use generators as inspiration for writing and have found the Plot Keyword Oracle at Abulafia Random Generators. Albulafia is a wiki that allows you to pretty easily create random text generators. A lot of it is geared towards Role playing games (a la Dungeons and Dragons), but I lot of it will work as inspiration for writers of all kinds. For the Plot Keyword Oracle, Robert Donoghue extracted 32,000 keywords from the Internet Movie Database and the Plot Keyword Oracle presents you with 10 keywords randomly pulled from the list. For example in one run I got:
Wow! That would be one hell of a story!
Swarm of bees forces airliner to return home - Independent Online Edition. OK, so the bees have been disappearing, and now they show up in Bournemouth, England to force down a jet. I’m getting concerned here. Are bees turning against us? Bees attack cricket match in India. Bees attack House of God, captured by Bee-Buster hero. Bees attack Waco, Texas, kill dogs and injure humans.
Tim and Eric promo the new Shrek movie. But it’s not a Shrek ad… Check out these videos at YouTube.
U.S. Says Wiccan Symbol Can Appear on Veterans’ Headstones - New York Times: “To settle a lawsuit, the Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans’ headstones.”
More theories on why bees are disappearing from North America and Europe. 60% gone from the USA west coast, 70% from the east coast. This was first noticed last year. No one really knows yet what is causing CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder), but mobile phones are a suggested cause, also genetically modified crops, pesticides and more. Interesting fact sheet here, says that “Bees are very important to US agriculture because they pollinate about 1/3 of our crops“. According to this April 4th article in Truthout, “Research is only beginning and hard data is still lacking, but beekeepers suspect everything from a new virus or parasite to pesticides and genetically modified crops. Scientists have hastily established a CCD working group at Pennsylvania State University. Last week, the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Agriculture held hearings on the missing bees.“
Lou Reed is playing an AOL function. “Between songs Lou looks pissed, but I think that’s normal. He tells the crowd, “You can keep on talking, I’ve only got 20 minutes. Or I can turn up the music. I can turn it up so loud it will hurt. Do you want me to turn it up? Do you want me to make it hurt?” (rough paraphrase). How awkward.” (Link) (Via Boing Boing)
Jorn Barger is a friggin GENIUS. Sometimes I have to reread his posts a couple of times just to fully understand him. Like this post about about the Yahoo Zodiac (his term?) describing information cataloging. Another post on Yahoo Zodiac. Jorn’s blog, Robot Wisdom 2. Jorn calls Robot Wisdom (#1) a weblog but it is really more linky. His home page.
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