Study of the Trivium and Quadrivium

The Beginning Writer: Friday's Link Round-up for 3/16/12

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:23:21 -0400

The Beginning Writer: Friday's Link Round-up for 3/16/12:

Check out this week’s link round-up! Covering everything from writing tools, dialogue, first drafts, and scene and story structure.

Why You Should Keep A Writing Journal | The Beginning Writer

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:29:06 -0400

Why You Should Keep A Writing Journal | The Beginning Writer:

ilovereadingandwriting:

One of the most valuable tools I’ve found since I started taking my writing seriously is my writing journal.

This notebook, is where I detail every idea I have. Some I end up using, some I don’t, but the journal helps me sort them out and keep them organized.

I write out my fears, my worries, my dead ends, and all the difficulties I face trying to piece a story together from beginning to end.

intothecontinuum: High-res: 800x800 Mathematica code: f[x_,...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:11:35 -0400

intothecontinuum:

High-res: 800x800

Mathematica code:

f[x_, y_] := {Log[Sqrt[(x)^2 + (y)^2]], ArcTan[x, y]}

ImageTransformation[
  ImageCrop[
   DensityPlot[
     Sum[Cos[(Cos[n*2*Pi/5] + Sin[n*2*Pi/5])* x + (Cos[n*2*Pi/5] - Sin[n*2*Pi/5])*y],
    {n, 0, 4, 1}], {x, -125, 125}, {y, -125, 125},
   PlotPoints -> 200, Mesh -> False, Frame -> False, 
   ColorFunction -> GrayLevel, ImageSize -> 834],
  800],
 f[#[[1]], #[[2]]] &, DataRange -> {{-Pi, Pi}, {-Pi, Pi}}]

Photo

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:09:27 -0400

ichrider: gamefreaksnz: Forces on a Triangle by...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:07:47 -0400

ichrider:

gamefreaksnz:

Forces on a Triangle by iwilding

USD$27.08

Follow the artist on Tumblr

I kinda want to frame this and put it on my desk.

10 Excellent Essays About Words

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:58:44 -0400

10 Excellent Essays About Words:

tetw:

A Tetw reading list

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard - Not reading is our main way of relating to most literature, find out how to make the most of your ignorance.

Tense Present by David Foster Wallace - In one of his finest essays, DFW reviews a dictionary of English usage, thereby tackling everything from democracy and free will to racism in academia.

The Rise of the Essay by Zadie Smith - Why do novelists write essays? And what excatly is an essay these days?

Words by Tony Judt - One of the very best essayists refelcts on his relationship with words.

The Birth of ‘The New Journalism’ by Tom Wolfe - Who put the ‘I’ in journalism? Tom Wolfe seems to think it was him and his friends.

Own Your Own Words by Steven Johnson - The ubiquity of Google has made it easy to gain control of a word or phrase, what effect is this new power having?

A Linguistic Big Bang by Lawrence Osborne - “For the first time in history, scholars are witnessing the birth of a language, a complex sign system being created by deaf children in Nicaragua.”

Cyber-Neologoliferation by James Gleick - A guided tour through the strange world of the lexicographer.

The Language of the Future by Henry Hitchings - A fascinating look at how English is mutating as it becomes the world’s lingua franca.

Printed Words, Computers, and Democratic Societies by Irving Louis Horowitz - This essay from 1983 looks forward to the advent home copmuting and the “videotext revolution.”

whereisthecoool: Happy Pi Day.

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:50:57 -0400

whereisthecoool:

Happy Pi Day.

AdviceToWriters - HOME - You Can’t Wait Until You’re in the Mood

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:43:38 -0400

AdviceToWriters - HOME - You Can’t Wait Until You’re in the Mood:

beatwritersbane:

You can’t wait to write until you’re in the mood. My God, if you waited until you were in the mood, it would take forever. You have to sit down. The name of the game is to put it in the chair.

HARRY CREWS

ilovereadingandwriting: Just putting this out there for those...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:07:38 -0400

ilovereadingandwriting:

Just putting this out there for those who may have missed it.

I have a new blog dedicated to the beginning writer!

I just wanted to let you guys know that I recently started a new blog that will be geared specifically toward those of us that are just starting out on our writing journeys.

It’s called The Beginning Writer and I will be posting about the things I am learning as I study and practice the craft of writing.

It’s a very new blog but I have a posting schedule set up: Mon & Wed I will be sharing thoughts and articles that will be helpful to new writers. And Fridays will be a link round-up of sorts. Where I will share links to all the articles I’ve found that week that are relevant to all beginning writers.

If you’re interested, please check it out.

I’ve also got links to my Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ pages.

I hope I see you there!

<3

Kelly

13-Year Old Correctly Analyzes Her Own Slavery

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:21:06 -0400

13-Year Old Correctly Analyzes Her Own Slavery:

iambinarymind:

Good.is reports in Rochester, New York, a 13-year-old girl wrote a comparative essay based on The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass for a contest in her 8th grade class. In it, she reflected on the words of Douglass’ master after discovering the master’s wife had been teaching Douglas to read: “there will be no keeping him,” said Douglas’ master. “It will forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.”

This little girl has some big insight when she drew the connection that her public school seems to be failing students by design, with only 19% of her classmates are proficient in language arts, and only 13% are so in mathematics. The student complained that the teachers simply hand out pamphlets and packets and expect the students to learn, but that approach clearly isn’t working.

The young girl wrote that her teachers are in a “position of power to dictate what I can, cannot, and will learn, only desiring that I may get bored because of the inconsistency and the mismanagement of the classroom.”

She concludes that her position is analogous to that of Douglass, “just different people, different era.”

According to the Fredrick Douglass Foundation of New York, “the schools’ teachers and administrators were so offended by Williams’ essay that they began a campaign of harassment—kicking her out of class and trying to suspend her—that ultimately forced her parents to withdraw her from the school.”

The Frederick Douglass Foundation has given her an award for her controversial essay, but the parents of the bright young student are still forced to fund the continued operations of the school which is failing her former classmates and attempted to punish this girl for speaking truth to power.

nevver: Six Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck Abandon the...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:45:31 -0400

nevver:

Six Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck
Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.

Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.

Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.

If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.

Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing.

If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.

silezukuk: Straight Square Inscribed in a Circle [***]

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:43:22 -0400

silezukuk:

Straight Square Inscribed in a Circle [***]

wordpainting: heyboobooks: The American Library...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:44:16 -0400

wordpainting:

heyboobooks:

The American Library Association’s Banned Books Week.

How will you celebrate your freedom to read?

Read a banned book.

Photo

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:24:57 -0400

anti-capitalista: occupyallstreets: 35 Facts That Prove Higher...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 07:17:44 -0400

anti-capitalista:

occupyallstreets:

35 Facts That Prove Higher Education Has Become A Corporate Scam

The Student Loan Debt Bubble

1. After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.

2. According to the College Board, college tuition is absolutely soaring. The following comes from a recent CBS News article….

Average tuition and fees at public colleges rose 8.3 percent this year and, with room and board, now exceed $17,000 a year, according to the College Board.

3. Average yearly tuition at private universities in the United States is now up to $27,293. That figure has increased by 29% in just the past five years.

4. In America today, approximately two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loan debt.

5. In 2010, the average college graduate had accumulated approximately $25,000 in student loan debt by graduation day.

6. According to the Student Loan Debt Clock, total student loan debt in the United States will surpass the 1 trillion dollar mark in early 2012.

7. The total amount of student loan debt in the United States now exceeds the total amount of credit card debt in the United States.

8. Over the past 25 years, the cost of college tuition has increased at an average rate that is approximately 6% higher than the general rate of inflation.

9. Back in 1952, a full year of tuition at Harvard was only $600. Today, it is $35,568.

10. The cost of college textbooks has tripled over the past decade.

11. One survey found that 23 percent of all college students actually use credit cards to pay for tuition or fees.

12. According to recent Pew Research Center polling, 75% of all Americans believe that college is too expensive for most Americans to afford.

13. College has become so expensive that it is causing many college students to do desperate things in order to pay for it. For example, an increasing number of young college women are actively advertising on the Internet for “sugar daddies” who will help them pay their college bills.

14. The student loan default rate has nearly doubled since 2005.

15. Approximately 14 percent of all students that graduate with student loan debt end up defaulting within 3 years of making their first student loan payment.

The Quality Of College Education In America Stinks

16. The typical U.S. college student spends less than 30 hours a week on academics.

17. According to very extensive research detailed in a new book entitled “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses”, 45 percent of all U.S. college students exhibit “no significant gains in learning” after two years in college.

18. Today, college students spend approximately 50% less time studying than U.S. college students did just a few decades ago.

19. 35% of U.S. college students spend 5 hours or less studying per week.

20. 50% of U.S. college students have never taken a class where they had to write more than 20 pages.

21. 32% of U.S. college students have never taken a class where they had to read more than 40 pages in a week.

22. U.S. college students spend 24% of their time sleeping, 51% of their time socializing and 7% of their time studying.

23. Federal statistics reveal that only 36 percent of the full-time students who began college in 2001 received a bachelor’s degree within four years.

Not Enough Jobs For College Graduates

24. Only 55.3% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 were employed last year. That was the lowest level that we have seen since World War II.

25. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the “official” unemployment rate for college graduates younger than 25 years old was 9.3 percent in 2010.

26. One-third of all college graduates end up taking jobs that don’t even require college degrees.

27. In the United States today, there are more than 100,000 janitors that have college degrees.

28. In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.

29. In the United States today, approximately 365,000 cashiers have college degrees.

30. In the United States today, 24.5 percent of all retail salespeople have a college degree.

31. The percentage of mail carriers with a college degree is now 4 times higher than it was back in 1970.

32. Right now, there are 5.9 million Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 that are living with their parents.

33. According to one recent survey, only 14 percent of all Americans that are 28 or 29 years old are optimistic about their financial futures.

34. Record numbers of Americans are going to college, but incomes for young American adults just keep falling. Since the year 2000, incomes for U.S. households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12 percent after you adjust for inflation.

35. Once they get out into the “real world”, 70% of all college graduates wish that they had spent more time preparing for the “real world” while they were still in school.

So is going to college always a bad idea? Of course not.

But it is a huge gamble.

Source

Photo

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 17:32:00 -0400

metaphysicalultrasound: The Flower of Life is the modern name...

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 14:16:12 -0400

metaphysicalultrasound:

The Flower of Life is the modern name given to a geometrical figure composed of multiple evenly-spaced, overlapping circles. They are arranged to form a flower-like pattern with a sixfold symmetry, similar to a hexagon. The center of each circle is on the circumference of six surrounding circles of the same diameter.
It is considered by some to be a symbol of sacred geometry, said to contain ancient, religious value depicting the fundamental forms of space and time. In this sense, it is a visual expression of the connections life weaves through all sentient beings, and it is believed to contain a type of Akashic Record of basic information of all living things.
There are many spiritual beliefs associated with the Flower of Life; for example, depictions of the five Platonic Solids are found within the symbol of Metatron’s Cube,[citation needed] which may be derived from the Flower of Life pattern. These platonic solids are geometrical forms which are said to act as a template from which all life springs.
According to Drunvalo Melchizedek, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the stages which construct the Seed of Life are said to represent the seven days of Creation, in which Elohim created life; Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 23:12, 31:16-17, Isaiah 56:6-8. Within these stages, among other things, are the symbols of the Vesica Piscis, an ancient religious symbol, and Borromean rings, which represents the Holy Trinity.

poeticneedlez: Got Third Eye? The cornucopic pattern on the...

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:29:22 -0400

poeticneedlez:

Got Third Eye? The cornucopic pattern on the frequency that corresponds to the Third Eye (Pineal Gland)

laurenjenae: Never Stop Learning by Hannes Beer

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:19:09 -0400

laurenjenae:

Never Stop Learning by Hannes Beer

ascension2012: The Vesica Piscis is formed by the intersection...

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:17:58 -0400

ascension2012:

The Vesica Piscis is formed by the intersection of two circles or spheres whose centers exactly touch. This symbolic intersection represents the “common ground”, “shared vision” or “mutual understanding” between equal individuals. The shape of the human eye itself is a Vesica Piscis. The spiritual significance of “seeing eye to eye” to the “mirror of the soul” was highly regarded by numerous Renaissance artists who used this form extensively in art and architecture. The ratio of the axes of the form is the square root of 3, which alludes to the deepest nature of the triune which cannot be adequately expressed by rational language alone.