So you are writing the Great American Novel and need some character names? My Random Name Generator will take care of that for you. Generates American names, 10 at a time. Press “New Results” for 10 more. My generator is a modification of RandListGen.
I created this Perl Cheatsheet for myself a while ago, and recently found it again. I cleaned it up and posted it here in hopes that it might be useful to someone. It consists of brief code examples of common usage (for me), broken up into different sections. It’s in PDF format. [Updated May 24th, 2008]
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.
I’ve just discovered Household Hacker, it “specializes in creating quality items with little to no money and just a bit of imagination.” Videos describe how to for example How to Charge an iPod using electrolytes and an onion:
You will need:
1. 1 White onion
2. 2 cups of Gatorade
3. Screwdriver
4. iPod and USB cable
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.
Do you want to impress your wife/husband/significant other? Fix the vacuum. I’ve fixed my five year old vacuum a few times over the years and every time, my wife looks at me with that “my hero” look. It’s great. Maybe my real motivation was when she said, “let’s go to Target to buy a new vacuum.” Heck no, I’ll fix it!
This entry is called “How to fix your vacuum,” so I’d better get to the meat of the issue. I’m not going to cover electrical stuff, just simple stuff. First unplug your vacuum. Get out your screwdrivers.
So what’s the problem? The only real symptom is that the damn thing stops cleaning. If the motor won’t turn on, forget it, that’s beyond what I’m going to get into, take it to a repair shop. Usually my problem has been blockage. Something gets stuck somewhere in the vacuum that prevents it from pulling up any more dirt. My main troubleshooting technique is to follow the dirt. What is the path of dirt in your vacuum? Examine your vacuum, follow the tubes from where the dirt is sucked up all the way to the bag or container. Clean the easy stuff first. Empty and remove the bag or container. Look in the hole that feeds into the bag, is it clogged? Look in the hole next too the floor scrubber brush, clean it out. If there is a roller brush, is it stuck? There might be something stopping it from spinning. Look for string or rubber bands.
If you’ve gotten this far and haven’t found any obvious problems (i.e. globs of dirt or hairballs), next you are probably going to have to start taking this thing apart. Don’t void your warranty. Take all safety precautions. Look along the dirt path as before. What looks easy to take apart? There should be some screws that hold down parts of the tubes that come apart. As you take it apart, check each section for debris. Remember where each piece goes, and if there are different kinds of screws, where they came from. If it’s getting complex, it might be a good idea to draw a diagram of what you are taking apart. I use a screwdriver or an end of a coat hanger to poke into the tubes to clear debris. Be careful not to break anything. Hopefully you’ve found the debris, a nasty hairball, or a barbie head or something. Good. Put it back together, and if you were careful, there will be no screws left over. Test your work. It works? You are awesome! Proudly tell your wife/husband/S.O., “Honey, I fixed the vacuum, another crisis narrowly averted!”. Bask in the love and admiration.
mobsters and spies quest
to find mystery lost at sea
not science fiction
Oddly transfixing. This guy kinda reminds me of Zappa.
Chocolate Rain
Some stay dry and others feel the pain
Chocolate Rain
A baby born will die before the sin
Chocolate Rain
The school books say it can’t be here again
Chocolate Rain
The prisons make you wonder where it went
More of Tay Zonday
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!
I just watched Resident Evil, and it struck me, how many movies have the premise of a weaponized biohazard accidentally released in/from a secret lab? There’s Resident Evil (2002), 28 Days Later (2002), Outbreak (1995), Twelve Monkeys (1995), and that’s just the ones I’ve seen that I can think of off the top of my head. Any others? It’s almost the premise for The Return of the Living Dead (1985), too. It’s probably an easy way to kick off a zombie film.
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