Blog clichés

Yesterday I was interested in various clichés. Today I focus on blog clichés.



So we have two types of “cliché” term interpretation. More global is “cliché” like “some overused stuff”. The other is “cliché” like “hackneyed phrase”. The second type directly concerns to blog writing. So it would be great to compose a list. And of course it should be named “The Worlds’ Greatest Cliché List”.



The first contributions would be:



“This is absolutely uninteresting post. Don’t read it.” Fantastic, but it’s always true.



“Cool stuff”. In this way people name their sites’ or blogs’ link sections.



“Must see” made a good showing and remains popular nowadays. Don’t miss it. Use it in every review in this way: “…and special effects are so great! And orcs are so realistic! MUST SEE!!!” And its pair “must die” was popular before blogging boom occurred. Hope this phrase will rise again.



At http://mw.cracked.com/2005/07/blog_cliche_roundup.php there’s a worthy blog cliché roundup. MUST SEE!!!



Here is some more COOL STUFF: http://tireddad2.blogspot.com/2006/08/top-ten-appalling-blog-cliches.html





Technorati Tags: cliche, cliches, cliche list, blog cliche, blog cliches, blog, blogs, blogging, wrting, must see, cool stuff

Make your texts more attractive using vivid comparisons

Your posts will look better if you use vivid comparisons.

Here is a remarkable quote from “The Invisible Man” by Wells:

“His feet, save for socks of irregular open-work, were bare, his big toes were broad, and pricked like the ears of a watchful dog.”

“Big toes are ears of a watchful dog” is a smart parallel.

Kipling wrote in his “Puck of Pook's Hill”:

“Then he showed us how to hunt wolves and those great red deer with horns like Jewish candlesticks.”

This unexpected turn makes me imagine a deer with Jewish candlesticks instead of horns. And maybe it’s a good idea for some photoshop.

I remember one great comparison from Marc Chagall’s “My life”. He described a hut as a potato wetted in a pickle. It’s quite marginal, isn’t it?

So I offer you to comment this post using some your great comparisons. It may be a good exercise if you are thinking of how to improve your writing style.

And here is one more thing. I’ve an idea of making a series of such exercises in this blog. So, you’re welcome.

Tags: writing - writing exercises - exercises - creativity - write - books - tips - writing tips - quotes - comparisons

Books to read for RPG script writers

There’s a lot of exciting adventure and detective books. But reading some of them, I notice elements which fit RPG adventures nicely. I mean that sometimes described situations can be great quests, heroes can be bright NPCs, and things can be mighty artifacts and so on. I feel that most of cRPGs could be more attractive if script writers read books of that kind. Now I’ll name some “special for RPGs” classical novels, I’ve read recently.

1. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft.

Actually this book is not of a great artistic value and on the whole I didn’t like it, but protagonist makes a great journey in it. He visits some areas which are described quite detailed and to my mind it could be a worthy setting.

2. Dracula by Bram Stoker

Well, as you can see it’s full of vampires-related details. I suppose Troika learnt it thoroughly, making Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. I’ve read the book before playing the game and I noticed some parallels. For example in the game the vessel with a sarcophagus is called “Queen Elizabeth”. In the book Dracula made a voyage by sea on a ship with the same name (as far as I remember). The book is quite unsophisticated, but it hits the mark.

3. Investigation by Stanislaw Lem

It’s an Arcanum style book to my mind: both are full of global conspiracies and mysteries (do you remember dwarves secret about half-ogres?). Lem describes situation with animated dead and it’s investigation. An old-style England atmosphere fits perfect. Thread of that kind would adorn any RPG project.

4. Kim by Joseph Rudyard Kipling

This book is full of Indian things. And its plot is quite tangled too. Reading this novel can bring a lot of oriental ideas to game scenario.

To be continued…

Feel free to tell about your "special RPG" books in the comments

Tags: rpg, books, scenario, script, Stoker, Dracula, Kipling, Lem, Lovecraft, reading, crpg, quests | Technorati Profile

Photo Tips: Noise Reduction

Not being a great photographer, I’m keen on taking pictures and have some secrets. One of the main problems of digital photos is noise (visible red and green grain present in the image). Here is example:



There are some ways to remove noise. I’d like to tell about Neat Image software. It reduces most high ISO noise, film grain visible in scanned slides and negatives, JPEG artifacts in overcompressed images.

Open input image on the first tab, go to the tab “Device noise profile” and press the button “Auto profile”, go to the tab “Output image” and press the button “Apply”. That’s all. Now you can save your less noised image in fine JPEG quality even in trial version. Here is processed example image:



A useful side effect of Neat Image noise reduction is that noise-free images are better compressable. By reducing noise you can reduce the JPEG file sizes by 30-40% (even if the same compression level is used to save both noisy and noise-free images).

Try to guess what’s on the example photo and see the answer

Download Neat Image (2.1 Mb)