The Best Writing Tips Ever (?)

Interesting list of thoughts slogans on writing from Allan Ginsburg.

The first one from William Blake is really wonderful.

DEFINITIONS, A PREFACE (2/19/94)

Allen Ginsberg spent two decades teaching poetics at Naropa Institute, a half decade at Brooklyn College, and did occasional workshops at Zen Center & Shambhala/Dharmadhatu weekends. It's all been boiled down to brief mottoes from many sources found useful to guide myself and others in the experience of "writing the mind." --Peter Hale

ALLEN GINSBERG'S MIND WRITING SLOGANS

'First thought is best in Art, second in other matters.' --William Blake

I. GROUND (Situation, or Primary Perception)

1. 'First Thought, Best Thought' --Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
2. 'Take a friendly attitude toward your thoughts.' --Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
3. 'The Mind must be loose.' --John Adams
4. 'One perception must immediately and directly lead to a further perception.' --Charles Olson, 'Projective Verse'
5. 'My writing is a picture of the mind moving.' --Philip Whalen
6. Surprise Mind --Allen Ginsberg
7. 'The old pond, a frog jumps in, Kerplunk!' --Basho
8. 'Magic is the total delight (appreciation) of chance' --Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
9. 'Do I contradict myself?
   
   Very well, then I contradict myself,
   
   (I am large. I contain multitudes.)' --Walt Whitman
10. "...What quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature? ...Negative capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason." --John Keats
11. 'Form is never more than an extension of content.' --Robert Creeley to Charles Olson
12. 'Form follows function.' --Frank Lloyd Wright
13. Ordinary Mind includes eternal perceptions. --A.G.
14. 'Nothing is better for being Eternal
    
    Nor so white as the white that dies of a day.' --Louis Zukofsky
15. Notice what you notice. --A.G.
16. Catch yourself thinking. --A.G.
17. Observe what's vivid. --A.G.
18. Vividness is self-selecting. --A.G.
19. 'Spots of Time' --William Wordsworth
20. If we don't show anyone we're free to write anything. --A.G.
21. 'My mind is open to itself.' --Gelek Rinpoche
22. 'Each on his bed spoke to himself alone, making no sound.' --Charles Reznikoff




II. PATH (Method or Recognition)

23. 'No ideas but in things.' '...No ideas but in the Facts.' --William Carlos Williams
24. 'Close to the nose.' --W.C.Williams
25. 'Sight is where the eye hits.' --Louis Zukofsky
26. 'Clamp the mind down on objects.' --W.C.Williams
27. 'Direct treatment of the thing...' (or object.)' --E.Pound, 1912
28. 'Presentation, not reference...' --Ezra Pound
29. 'Give me a for instance.' --Vernacular
30. 'Show not tell.' --Vernacular
31. 'The natural object is always the adequate symbol.' --Ezra Pound
32. 'Things are symbols of themselves.' --Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
33. 'Labor well the minute particulars, take care of the little ones
    
    He who would do good for another must do it in minute particulars
    
    General Good is the plea of the Scoundrel Hypocrite and Flatterer
    
    For Art & Science cannot exist but in minutely organized particulars" --William Blake
34. 'And being old she put a skin/On everything she said.' --W.B.Yeats
35. 'Don't think of words when you stop but to see the picture better.' --Jack Kerouac
36. 'Details are the Life of Prose.' --Jack Kerouac
37. Intense fragments of spoken idiom, best. --A.G.
38. 'Economy of Words' --Ezra Pound
39. 'Tailoring' --Gregory Corso
40. Maximum information, minimum number of syllables. --A.G.
41. Syntax condensed, sound is solid. --A.G.
42. Savor vowels, appreciate consonants. --A.G.
43. 'Compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome.' --Ezra Pound
44. '...awareness...of the tone leading of the vowels.' --Ezra Pound
45. '...an attempt to approximate classical quantitative meters...' --Ezra Pound
46. 'Lower limit speech, upper limit song' --Louis Zukofsky
47. 'Phanopoeia, Melopoeia, Logopoeia.' --Ezra Pound
48. "Sight, Sound & Intellect." --Louis Zukofsky
49. 'Only emotion objectified endures.' -- Louis Zukofsky




III. FRUITION (Result or Appreciation)

50. Spiritus = Breathing = Inspiration = Unobstructed Breath
51. 'Alone with the Alone' --Plotinus
52. Sunyata (Skt.) = Ku (Japanese) = Emptiness
53. 'What's the sound of one hand clapping?' --Zen Koan
54. 'What's the face you had before you were born?' --Zen Koan
55. Vipassana (Skt.) = Clear Seeing
56. 'Stop the world' --Carlos Casteneda
57. 'The purpose of art is to stop time.' --Bob Dylan
58. 'The unspeakable visions of the individual.' --J.K.
59. 'I'm going to try speaking some reckless words, and I want you to try to listen recklessly.' --Chuang Tzu, (Tr. Burton Watson)
60. 'Candor' --Whitman
61. 'One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.' --Shakespeare
62. "Contact" --A Magazine, Nathaniel West & W.C. Williams, Eds.
63. "God Appears & God is Light
    
    To those poor Souls who dwell in Night
    
    But does a Human Form Display
    
    To those who Dwell in Realms of day.' --W. Blake
64. Subject is known by what she sees. --A.G.
65. Others can measure their visions by what we see. --A.G.
66. Candor ends paranoia. --A.G.
67. 'Willingness to be Fool.' --Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
68. "day & night/you're all right" --Corso
69. Tyger: "Humility is Beatness." --Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche & A.G.
70. Lion: "Surprise Mind" --Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche & A.G.
71. Garuda: 'Crazy Wisdom Outrageousness' --Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
72. Dragon: 'Unborn Inscrutability' --Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
73. 'To be men not destroyers' --Ezra Pound
74. "Speech synchronizes mind & body." --Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
75. "The Emperor unites Heaven & Earth." --Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
76. 'Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.' --Shelley
77. 'Make it new' --Ezra Pound
78. 'When the mode of music changes, the walls of the city shake' --Plato
79. 'Every third thought shall be my grave' --W. Shakespeare, 'The Tempest'
80. 'That in black ink my love may still shine bright' --W. Shakespeare, Sonnets
81. 'Only emotion endures' --Ezra Pound
82. 'Well while I'm here I'll
    
    do the work--
    
    and what's the Work?
    
    To ease the pain of living.
    
    Everything else, drunken
    
    dumbshow.' --A.G.
83. '...Kindness, sweetest
    
    of the small notes

in the world's ache,

most modest & gentle

of the elements

entered man before history

and became his daily

connection, let no man

tell you otherwise.' --Carl Rakosi

Ed Emberley’s Make a World: The Film

I have no idea what this movie Ed Emberely’s Make a World: The Film. could have that could compare to the awesome power he shared to draw anything.

But I'll definitely watch it!

Oh my god, I loved this book: Ed Emberley's Make-a-World I LOVED this book back in 1972.

I think I borrowed this book from the library about a zillion times.

urban computing conference title generator

Awesome urban computing conference title generator.

Sound Hip without meaning ANYTHING!

Some samples:

• Approaching the Mesh Tweet
• Deploying the Ludic Interstices
• Thinking about the New Environment
• Approaching the Participatory Service
• Discussing the Spatial App
• Architecting the Public Infrastructure

Flurry of ActionScript stuff

Some interesting links to remember:

• From InsideRIA, Create cleaner ActionScript with conditional compiling is a pretty cool technote for AS3 development
• From Mike Chambers, a slide deck (PDF) on how to build iPhone apps with Flash CS5 (not released yet). Talks about optimization techniques for a weaker mobile device.

Tutorial on ActionScript 3 performance testing

From The Flash Blog, New tutorial on ActionScript 3 performance testing using a Grant Skinner library set.

64 Important Games From Video Game History

64 Important Games From Video Game History is a pretty accurate list! (Though I would have Wizardry in there...)

64 Important Games From Video Game History version 2.0
1. 1961 Spacewar, first digital game / first shooter / first two-player game
2. 1971 Oregon Trail, landmark educational game (designed in 1971, produced in 1974, re-released in 1985, 1992, 2001, 2008, and 2009)
3. 1972 Pong, first commercially-successful arcade game / first sports simulation, also first digital game released for the home market (1975)
4. 1974 Gran Trak 10, first racing game
5. 1976 [Colossal Cave] Adventure, first adventure game
6. 1976 Breakout, landmark arcade game
7. 1977 Night Racer, first first-person racing game
8. 1978 Space Invaders, first commercially-successful shoot-em-up (160,000 copies sold)
9. 1978 Atari Football, landmark sports simulation game
10. 1979 Asteroids, landmark shoot-em-up
11. 1979 Adventure, first action-adventure game
12. 1980 Zork, landmark text adventure game
13. 1980 Space Panic, first platformer
14. 1980 Pac-Man, landmark arcade game (350,000 units sold)
15. 1980 Rogue, early graphical adventure game
16. 1981 Donkey Kong, landmark platformer (60,000 units sold), also the first game to tell a complete (embedded) narrative
17. 1982 Pole Position, landmark racing game
18. 1983 Intellivision World Series Baseball, first 3-D sports simulation, also the first sports simulation to use multiple camera angles to emphasize action
19. 1983 Ultima III, landmark PC role-playing game
20. 1983 Lode Runner, landmark platformer, plus an early game permitting the creation of user-generated levels
21. 1983 Pinball Construction Set, an early game permitting the creation of user-generated content
22. 1984 Tetris, landmark abstract puzzle game
23. 1985 Gauntlet, landmark multi-player game
24. 1985 Super Mario Bros., landmark 2-D side-scrolling platformer (forty million copies sold)
25. 1986 Air Warrior, first multi-player online game with graphics
26. 1987 Earl Weaver Baseball, landmark sports simulation
27. 1987-8 Street Fighter / Street Fighter II, landmark one-on-one competitive fighting games
28. 1987 The Legend of Zelda, landmark adventure game, also the first home cartridge to permit saving, also a good early example of a game which permitted non-linear play
29. 1989 SimCity, landmark developer simulation
30. 1990 Microsoft Solitaire, landmark casual game
31. 1990 Minesweeper, landmark casual / puzzle game
32. 1990 John Madden Football, landmark sports simulation
33. 1991 Civilization, landmark turn-based strategy game
34. 1991 Neverwinter Nights, first multi-player online role-playing game to display graphics
35. 1991 Final Fantasy IV, landmark console role-playing game
36. 1991 Myst, landmark adventure game (six million copies sold)
37. 1992 Wolfenstein 3-D, first commercially-successful first-person shooter
38. 1992 Mortal Kombat, landmark fighting game
39. 1992 The Incredible Machine, early physics game
40. 1992 Dune II, first real-time strategy game
41. 1993 Doom, landmark first-person shooter, also a good early example of an open-source game
42. 1995 Command and Conquer, landmark real-time strategy game
43. 1996 Quake, landmark first-person shooter, also a good early example of a game utilizing an online multiplayer mode
44. 1996 Super Mario 64, landmark 3-D platformer (eleven million copies sold)
45. 1996 Resident Evil, first survival horror game
46. 1996-8 Pokemon Red / Pokemon Blue, landmark RPG (eight million copies sold), also a good early example of a game with innovative multiplayer mechanics
47. 1997 Lego Island, first open-world game
48. 1997 Ultima Online, landmark multi-player online role-playing game (250,000 subscribers)
49. 1998 Dance Dance Revolution, landmark rhythm game / exercise game
50. 1998 Half-Life, landmark first-person shooter (eight million copies sold), also a landmark example of an open-source game
51. 1998 Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, first commercially-successful tactical shooter
52. 1998 Metal Gear Solid, first commercially-successful stealth game
53. 1998 Starcraft, landmark real-time strategy game
54. 1999 Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, landmark extreme sports simulation
55. 1999-2000 Counter-Strike, landmark mod, also a game making central use of online multiplayer technology
56. 2001 Bejeweled, landmark puzzle / casual game
57. 2001 Gran Turismo 3, landmark racing game
58. 2001 Grand Theft Auto III, landmark open-world game
59. 2002 The Sims, landmark life-simulation game (sixteen million copies sold), plus a game making central use of user-generated content
60. 2003 Diner Dash, landmark time-management game
61. 2004 Halo 2, landmark in online console gaming (four million subscribers)
62. 2004 World of Warcraft, landmark multi-player online role-playing game (over eleven million subscribers)
63. 2005 Guitar Hero, landmark rhythm game
64. 2006 Wii Sports, landmark sports simulation (forty-five million copies sold)

(via Hybrid Mind Studios)

It is a very addicting game - CANABALT

CANABALT and play at your own risk.

It reminds me of a Michael Jackson in Billie Jean (it is the white socks that do it for me) garb running for his life.

Just running.

Run, Michael, run!

Star Guard - Old School platformer!

An awesome Star Guard. It is so low-rez; it is AWESOME!

Star Guard - Level 3 from Sparky on Vimeo.

Downloadable for PC and MAC!

One time at D&D camp…

I would have loved this as a kid: D&D camp One week of concentrated Role-playing with lectures on role-playing? No way!

Nay, I would have "killed" for this!

(via Gaming Brouhaha)

Attack From Space (1964)

From SF Signal, Attack From Space (1964) brings back memories of me and my brother hoping they would play something besides sports on boring Saturday afternoons. (Flash movie in there link)

Though this wasn't Godzilla or Rodan, it was good in a pinch.

The most impressive thing is the council of Elders in the first 3 minutes of the movie... Yes, kinda MST3k fodder but not bad for 1964.