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Posts tagged ‘postaday2011’

Mar 24

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The Alchemist for free!

Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist in Arabic has now been made available as a free download by the author.

This was what he wrote in his blog: ‘Due to the current circumstances, several readers tell me that they can’t find my books in some Arab countries. Therefore, I went to a “pirate” site and found the current edition. I don’t know if the translation is good, but I think it is my duty to facilitate the access of my books.I trust you: only download this edition if you can’t find my books in bookstores.’

Nice gesture. I like the bit about facilitating ‘access to my books.’ But what I found grotesque was…

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Mar 18

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Léolo : ‘Because I dream, I am not.’

em>’Parce que moi je rêve, je ne le suis pas.’

Directed by Jean-Claude Lauzon, Léolo(1992) tells the story of Léo Lauzon (played by Maxime Collin), a young boy living in Montreal with his eccentric family. The film is narrated by an old man reading Léo’s journal, which he used to write every night.

Léo uses his active fantasies and the book, L’avalée des avalés by Québécois novelist Réjean Ducharme, the only one in the house, left by the narrator to balance the dining table when Léo mother invited him for a piece of pie, to exorcise his mind of the tribulations of life in the family. Léo decides his mother was impregnated by leftover sperm of a masturbating Sicilian tomato farmer. He insists on being called Léolo Lauzone…

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Mar 15

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New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan

Blogger and writer Frankie Sachs is doing his bit for the tragedy unfolding in Japan. He is putting together a collection of stories, poems and art honouring and celebrating Japan with the proceeds being donated to a charity engaged in the relief effort in Japan. Submissions for the anthology New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan is now open.

Send your stories, poems and artwork celebrating this wonderful country. If you are not much of a writer, poet or artist, you can help by spreading the word…

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Mar 14

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An Aversion to Adverbs

The road to hell is paved with adverbs – Stephen King

No one is suggesting that the use of adverbs in speech or writing is against the rules of the English language. Not even Stephen King. If using ly ending adverbs and adjectives doesn’t break any rules of usage, what’s the hullabaloo about? Why is using ly ending adverbs considered bad writing for fiction writers. To illustrate the point, a passage from a book that made its writer a billionaire.

‘Careful not to walk through anyone,’ said Ron…

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Mar 9

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The Greater Fool

One day, a horse trader came to the court of a famous king. He told the king he has some fine horses for sale. The king offered to buy them. The man took an advance of two thousand gold coins and left, promising to return with the horses within a week.
That evening the king saw his court jester writing on a sheet of paper.
“What are you writing?” he asked.
“I’m making a list of the greatest fools in the kingdom,” said the jester.
The king was astonished to see his own name on top of the list. “What is the meaning of this? You think I’m a fool!” he said.

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Jan 5

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Blogapost 2011 Part 2: The Three Cs of Blogging

To summarize what I wrote yesterday, remember the three Cs – content, connect and comment.

1. Content: This is the most important part of your blog. Be sure what you want your blog to be about. Niche is important, so is perspective. Visitors will come looking for your take on issues, not read a repeat of somebody else’s opinion. Use pictures and videos to get your view across. Visuals improve the aesthetics of the blog and might induce the odd blog hopper to pause and read. Use the features provided by WordPress. See what widgets you can use, and what feature can enhance your blog’s profile. Write something about yourself…

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Jan 4

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Blogapost 2011 Part 1: Tips to help you on your way

1. Writing everyday would be challenge but be true to the commitment you have made to yourself, but it’s not the end of the world if you fail. Your life is important. 200 words make for a sufficiently large post. And you don’t have to write every day. You can always post videos or pictures, even link.

2. Plan for the week ahead. Post a video one day, a picture another day, anything that can get your view across and interest visitors to your blog. If you read something online that you like, you can use a WordPress feature PressThis, which creates a new post on your blog with a link to the page you were reading…

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Jan 2

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The Stoning of Soraya M.

Today’s temporary release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani , an Iranian women convicted of adultery, brings to mind the film The Stoning of Soraya M. directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh.

The Stoning of Soraya M.(2008) is an American film adaptation of French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam’s book La Femme Lapidée, based on a true story. The film stars Shohreh Aghdashloo (as Zahra), James Caviezel (as the author) and Mozhan Marnò (as Soraya).

Journalist Freidoune Sahebjam is stranded in a remote Iranian village following the breakdown of his car.

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Jan 1

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Top 100 books of all time

The Guardian has published a list of the Top 100 books of all time based on data provided by Nielsen BookScan. Nielsen BookScan collects the retail sales information from more than 33,500 bookshops around the world, spanning four continents and nine countries. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is the most popular book and the top twelve has only three authors: Dan Brown, J K Rowling and Stephenie Meyer.

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