ubernym

Ah yes, the halcyon days of youth. Or something.

Hey Taucer! It's going pretty well. I'm married, got a kid on the way, working as a business analyst for an international software company. I don't have a lot of time these days, but I like to keep my creative juices flowing. How are you?

You suggest that I would a figurative slap to my face keep me from submitting? Ha! It takes more than that to stop me! Besides, I've already outlined my story, so scold away

I freely admit that I am an undisciplined goofball. I thought about doing a short story for freeform, but it seemed wrong somehow. I also tried writing a couple essays, but I was never satisfied with them and so I didn't submit anything. So I did the CMC competition instead. Feel free to slap my undisciplined face, I'm sure I deserve it.

Woo hoo! Short story time!

Wow, thanks everyone for your votes and comments! This was a way fun round, and I can't wait for the next one. Hopefully we get the same amount of participation!

votecast +1 Congrats to everyone who entered! I can tell a lot of thought went into these entries. It was a difficult theme and I'm glad I participated in it, it really forced me to think and it was a real challenge. Good luck to everyone!

Well...that's weird

I had the same problem. Then I looked at the hyperlink and found that there was a typo. Use this link instead. (in case you were wondering what the typo is, /CMC/ was in link twice)

Hmm. I've already done about 4 versions of this theme so far...none of them are 'happy'. I guess mine's just going to have to be grim determination.

I mostly use Logic now (I'm on a mac) but I've used FL in the past and it's definitely a capable app. The problem is that it has a learning curve just like any other app, but FL's learning curve encourages certain bad habits. This is probably because it was originally a glorified drum machine. Underneath its powerful new features, it still bears much of that original framework and if you don't take the time to learn it, all you'll end up creating is cell-based, mechanical quasi-techno. That's how I see it anyway.

Heh, maybe to some people I seem to take this writing stuff too seriously. Like Imagery, I view my writing as craft, and I'm very critical of my own writing. I've been paid to write (nonfiction), so it's not just a hobby for me, and I hope to someday be able to write full-time for a living. So that line is important to me, especially because I think a lot of contemporary published poetry is bollocks. That's not a fair thing for me to say, since I don't read much contemporary poetry. My favorites are guys like John Dunne, Walt Whitman and Robert Frost, and maybe a little Shakespeare. Bukowski is pretty good, but damn he was one depressed mug. Maybe my poetry standards are too high, and maybe I come off as a literary snob to some. I'm ok with that, because I don't enter these competitions to win or to be the best or to compete with others (how crude). I find in these competitions an excellent framework for challenging myself and forcing me to grow, sometimes in unexpected ways. The last competition was a great example. I decided to enter at the very last minute. I didn't have anything written down, and I didn't have a single story idea. I was experiencing writer's block. I decided I had to do the competition, no matter how bad my entry was. I started making up titles, stringing words together in my head. I came up with: The Phantom Poet of Zanzibar. I had no idea what it was about, but that was the title. I forced myself to write something based on that half-formed idea. It was revelatory, inspiring. I didn't care if I won or not, I didn't even vote for myself. So on the one hand, I take my writing seriously and personally, I don't need to win against someone else. The competition is a great motivation, but it's not the end for me. The end is what I see for myself. When I talk about lines between art and pretense, it's a personal definition. And for me, poetry has always been a weakness, where the line wavers and is translucent.

Heh, I'll certainly give it the old college try. I've always struggled with the poetry thing, you know? There's a very thin line between art and pretentiousness, and I have a harder time knowing where it is with poetry.

Thanks for the sig, Douli.

Well it's been awhile, but I guess I'll throw my hat in. *submit* Good luck everyone!

I really didn't expect to win. I didn't even vote for myself, because I was unsatisfied with my own story. But a hearty THANK YOU to those of you who liked my story. It's a big boost for me to see others enjoy my work, and it keeps me motivated. More importantly, congratulations are in order to the runners up, but also to everyone who participated. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm happiest when I'm creating something, whether it's a story or a song or a LEGO spaceship. These competitions motivate me to create, and that makes me happy, so thanks for spreading the happiness. And thanks to Imagery for making it possible. I can't wait for the next one! Now critiques* are definitely in order. I'd love to hear what you liked or didn't like about my story, and I'll share some of my thoughts about yours: Imagery: Great tone, interesting concept. The plot arc feels more like a vignette than a story (so does mine, I think). I really like the narrative's restraint, which leaves much to the imagination. It does make it a bit difficult to read, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Again, this feels like part of a larger framework, and that's the only unsatisfying thing about it: at the end I felt like I wanted more context, more information. Perhaps that was your intention, and if so, Bravo. just64helpin: If there was a beautiful fantasy world where TV stations aired kick ass Saturday-morning cartoon version of the twilight zone, your story would not be out of place there. There's a great Dickian vibe going on here (as in one of my favorite writers, Philip K. Dick). I like that you tried to present the viewpoint of the Stick, but sometimes it was a little hard to get my head around, as in the following sentence: 'Though her eyes could not be seen, the Stick could tell that Shella had closed them.' I just don't get that. I thought you were trying to say that the Stick just doesn't observe people in the same way that we do, but I was never confident in my interpretation of the sentence. It's a troubling sentence to me. Other than that, I think your descriptions are great and you were able to do a lot with the characters in the short space. Great work. Barnsalot: Interesting story. Dark, obviously. I don't have a lot of complaints about the story as a whole, it just didn't resonate with me. It felt...soulless. This is fitting, to be sure, but also makes it hard to enjoy in my opinion. This is an aesthetics thing, and doesn't reflect on your merits as a writer. I also felt some of your descriptions were a little heavy-handed. For example: 'the slowly methodical, high-pitched beeping of the cardiogram' seems overwrought. Perhaps it could be rendered more simply, and yet still convey the image: 'the slow, high-pitch beep of the cardiogram' works better to me. This is only my opinion, but the the words 'slowly methodical' weight down your description and take to long to get to the point. That's just an example, but a good tip to remember is to look at your story and ask yourself which words are absolutely necessary, and which are not. Kill any word that isn't essential. GA Jedi Knight: The first paragraph of your story reads like the intro to a space sim. But this is a short story, not a video game. In this case, the background information isn't necessary to plot, and just ends up weighing it down. Remember, your first paragraph introduces the tone of your story. With your original first paragraph, the story seems too juvenile, as if the reader needs help imagining the story. Cut it out and start with opeining line with your dialog. It brings the plot to a faster clip and makes the story more interesting. Beyond that, my critique follows the line in Barnsalots: watch your descriptions. Also, this sentence needs help: "The mission was boring, but the subject matter was anything but." Too many buts. Maybe it's just a typo? Manic Cinq: I liked your minimalism, but the story was a little confusing too. Too many characters without definition, I got lost easily. I felt like the plot jumped too quickly from point to point. It was like you were trying to write a bedtime story but got caught up in a lot of dialogue that diluted the plot. I felt like you could have spen more time describing the events and less time on the chit-chat of the characters. The story is mainly between Himeko and Rei, the other character don't need so much spotlight. The inclusion of details like 'her robotic sister' and 'testing the conversational abilities of...AI progams' is interesting, but also a little distracting. I think this story has great potential, but needs some tweaking. *I present my critiques as food for thought, not the final word. In case it isn't obvious, I subscribe to the Hemingway school of thought, which can be summed up thusly: “I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.” -Ernest Hemingway Nice Work Everyone!

Well, I voted. Good luck everyone!

Yeah, it's been awhile, but I've realized I need an external source to keep me motivated in writing. I'll be sticking around

Hello everyone! It's been awhile since I've participated in one of these, but I wanted to do something that forced my creative hand. So I made up a cool-sounding title and then forced myself to come up with a story for it. Here's my result. Short Story, Fiction

Just ordered a hoodie, can't wait to get it.

I hope I'm not too late. I don't have a track to pick yet, but if anyone would like me to collab with them....

Sonar 5 supports 64bit processors, but not dual core. Other than that, I don't know of any PC DAWs that support this.

Only a gamer would make a comment like that. But seriously, it's a great remix. Good job guys.

When the DS first came out, I had a strong feeling that there would be a revision, so I waited. Fortunately my suspicions were correct and yesterday I purchased a DS Lite. I love it. I've got New Super Mario Bros., Electroplankton, Brain Age, and Super Mario DS. I'm having a blast. I haven't had this much fun playing handheld since Lumines. Electroplankton is such a work of art, by the way.

I like the textures and the beats a whole lot, but that guitar lead tends to jar the ear a bit. A well done mix overall; it may be that my difficulty with the guitar lead is merely a personal stylistic expectation. Nice work.