A few nice Writing Skills images I found:
Guest Blog Post: Brittany
Image by ShutterRunner
Today is a very special day on the blog. I am very pleased to introduce the first ever guest blog post: Brittany. I will keep her introduction short, because as you are about to find out, her writing skills put mine to shame. Brit and I just got back from a nine day european vacation. In addition to the recent europe pics, Brit has tagged along on many of my adventures. Without further ado…
Let me begin by confessing, I am by no means a photographer. I may spend a lot of time with one, but unfortunately, I really haven’t absorbed anything he has tried to teach me. Honestly, ask me about white balance or bracketing or ISO settings, and you’ll get nothing from me other than an expression of complete and utter bewilderment. However, having been beside our beloved ShutterRunner during many of his recent travels, I have come to truly appreciate the complexity of producing a great photograph. And let me stress, it can be an exceedingly taxing process. Not only does the photographer have to find the perfect moment to capture, but he then must set up his tripod, choose the right lens, find the appropriate settings on the camera, and manage to avoid hundreds of pesky tourists, all while trying not to bore his photographically challenged girlfriend on their first European adventure (well maybe that last one is unique to ShutterRunner). In my eyes, however, the greatest challenge a photographer faces in executing his craft is managing to preserve a moment while still remaining an active participant in that moment. Essentially, the difficulty lies in simultaneously preserving and experiencing the moment sought to be captured. Some distance between an individual and his experiences is undoubtedly created when he inserts a camera between himself and his surroundings. He risks becoming an outsider, someone who misses the magic unique to a singular moment in time that cannot and will not ever be recreated in the exact same manner. For these reasons, I did not take a single photograph when I studied abroad in Paris in late 2007. Despite the undeniably beauty of my surroundings and the millions of photo opportunities before me, I refused to be like the rest of my classmates, trapped behind their cameras, seeing the world through their lenses rather than their own eyes. I wanted to live each moment of my life in Paris without placing a shield between myself and those moments I knew I would never have the chance to relive. And in that regard, I very much succeeded. After three months, however, I was slightly saddened to come home with nothing but my memories. To this day, I truly regret my decision not to memorialize my experience in any tangible way.
Having recently been afforded the opportunity to go back to Paris, I wanted to do things differently this time around. And as luck would have it, I had an amazing photographer by my side to capture all of my new Parisian memories. Don’t get me wrong though, I did not want this trip to become a picture taking free for all. I knew well enough from my first experience that falling into extremes is not the ideal avenue to pursue. Instead, we sought to strike a balance between preserving our memories and living each moment to the fullest. Whether it was snapping a million pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower and then sitting down to enjoy a picnic on the nearby lawns or it was sneakily snapping some shots in the Sacre-Coeur and then taking a seat on les escaliers de la butte while enjoying some beers and live music, we were able to successfully overcome the challenges of simultaneously preserving and experiencing each moment of our trip. Finding this ideal balance guarantees the best possible outcome: unbelievable memories and breathtaking pictures (like the one right below)!
From the photoblog at www.shutterrunner.com.
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Nikos wrote about the essence of a real woman that I find most interesting, so I am sharing this with you here, his take on the real man to follow…
Image by aliceinthepoetsheartland
"Being a real woman is an art mostly pleasant, but demanding some skills and knowledge.
As we all know, there are no unbeautiful women, there are women who don’t know that they’re beautiful.
A woman is only what she makes it of herself.
There are some tricks that make a woman the real one, and help her to bear that name proudly.
These recommendations aren’t the rules. The only definite rule is the inner feeling of a woman that she is the one and the only, but never just one of a kind.
A real woman is independent. She’s always busy on her own business. It can be whatever – job, hobbies, interests. She has no time to deal with the problems and affairs of others. That doesn’t mean she is selfish and takes no compassion on others. She will always be there for her relatives and friends willing to listen to their complaints and to help.
A woman shouldn’t solve man’s problems. This prerogative is male . A man is the one supposed to take care of a woman.
A real woman can’t ever be had over the barrel. She is always well-dressed with her hair and make-up done. Be ready that anything can happen all of a sudden. You’ll say it is hard to look nice all the time – for a real woman it’s a habit.
A woman should always stay calm and relaxed, behaving as if nothing in this world really troubles her. All the attacks of nerves and hysterics are not for public. You’d better never let them see you cry. Tears have a strong effect on men, but don’t abuse it.
Money shouldn’t become the necessity of real woman’s life. If she has money she spends it, when she is short of money she doesn’t care, or just pretends she doesn’t.
A real woman always has a couple of really good and expensive dresses in her wardrobe. They play the role of a parade costume for cases when it’s necessary to make an impression.
One can say there are only “must do” and “must have” for a so-called real woman. But there are many “free to do, or not to do” for her either. The most are provided by men who are ready to forgive her almost everything for just one charming smile, which is supposed to be saying “sorry”.
A woman can let herself be late. 10-15 minutes late is almost on time. 45 minutes – he’ll be only glad that you finally appeared. It’s always better for a woman to be late, rather than to run in a hurry. Men tend to forgive a woman her mood swings, sudden changes of the decisions, promises forgotten and etc.
A real woman can let herself twist men round her little finger. She may stay mysteriously silent, complain that she’s bored, act stupid or start a passionate scientific argument. Nobody can make a woman answer a question if she doesn’t want to, and nobody can force her explain the reasons for doing/not doing this or that. Acting so capricious and unbalanced is a simple way to get a man attached to a woman. Don’t hesitate to make a man spend as much money on you as he can afford – he will never leave an object of capital investments.
A woman knows her worth, but makes everyone believe she’s priceless. Everything she does – she does it with elegance. She knows how to make men dance to her tune and she really enjoys it. She always stays independent, careless and free. She knows what she wants, and will never let anyone stay in her way. A real woman is quite self-confident not to care about the rumors or public opinion, holding her head up high.
If a woman wants to be a real one, she shouldn’t be afraid of changes and mistakes. It’s never too late to make another attempt."
Nikos
efialtis.multiply.com
n1k0s.multiply.com/journal
www.flickr.com/photos/nik-gr
Creation Context
Image by Timothy Greig
You can also think about resources in terms of the context surrounding their creation:
There are three common (traditional?) descriptions for resources that you might encounter as you do research – while they’re a little bit problematic at times – I do like them because they encourage us to think about who the person actually is that is creating the resource, and what kind of perspective they’re likely to be coming from.
Popular: Newspapers and general magazines.
Popular resources are written by people who aren’t experts on a subject, for other people who also aren’t experts in that subject.
Usually, the decision to publish their work is made an editor of that publication.
Their work generally doesn’t have footnotes or bibliographies. (In part this is because they’re reporting on what they’ve directly observed).
Trade: Professional magazines and newsletters (Like Computer Arts, or Prodesign).
These are written by experts for experts.
Sometimes have bibliographies, but they’re usually not extensive.
They usually also have editors like popular resources.
Scholarly: Academic journals.
Aim to publish original research.
Are written by those with higher degrees, masters and phds, and who are associated with research institutions.
Typically have a peer review process where colleagues from other institutions read and critique their work, before it is able to be published.
Peer review is usually most closely associated with academic journal articles, but academic books also go through a review process of sorts (emerge through reviewed journal articles at first, then through manuscript reading)
This means that when you’re reading scholarly resources, you’re accessing something that has been critiqued by a number of experts, that you can trust to be authoritative.
Internet publishing does complicate this model a little bit:
In all the other cases, there’s been an editor, or someone in the way, checking the work before it goes to press.
With companies like Google and WordPress making it so easy for anyone to blog, – even my dad has a blog – people are suddenly able to produce primary material in their own words, without having to go through an editor who might decide if their point of view is "worth putting up"!
This is actually quite a good thing. If you want to express your thoughts to others, you don’t have to get the permission of an academic review board before you can share them.
[I want to say something more along the lines of: you can probably recognize 'popular', 'trade', and 'scholarly' types of information online.... but don't know how to put this. And, additionally, because a popular and scholarly work can appear right next to eachother on the web (like, one click away), it's really key to be able to recognize one from another]