Talk Like Maxwell Smart, Agent 86

Do you remember ‘Get Smart’?

Adams gave the character a clipped, unique speaking style. Feldon said, “Part of the pop fervor for Agent 86 was because Don did such an extreme portrayal of the character that it made it easy to imitate.”[citation needed] Adams created many popular catch-phrases (some of which were in his act prior to the show), including “Sorry about that, Chief”, “Would you believe …?”, “Ahh … the old [noun] in the [noun] trick. That’s the [number]th time this [month/week].” (Sometimes the description of the trick was simply, “Ahh… the old [noun] trick.”), and “Missed it by ‘that much.'”

From Wikipedia: Don Adams.

Take the Maxwell Smart idea and play with your words:

"Ahh… the old dog in the coffee trick."

"Ahh… the old houseplant in the lifeboat trick."

"Ahh… the old pizza in the hand cream trick."

See more about Get Smart:

Write Like a Diarist

Most people who keep a diary/ journal write with an audience in mind. They write to someone, even if they don’t ever plan to let anyone else read what they have written.

Try writing a diary entry about your day, or pick an average sort of day to write about. Choose who your audience is. As you write change your audience to someone else about midway through. How does this change what you write and how you are writing it?

Found on Wikipedia :

Escribitionist – a term for a person who keeps a diary or journal via electronic means, and in particular, publishes their entries on the World Wide Web.

Clean your Computer

Have you noticed your computer screen just isn’t as bright and easy to read as it usually is? Think dust bunnies. Those little creatures are everywhere. For your computer you will want to anti-dust bunny your screen and all the other parts, at least once a year. More often than once a year for the screen cause it does attract it’s share of stuff, other than your attention.

PC World: How to Clean your PC, Inside and Out

How-To Geek: How to Thoroughly Clean your Dirty Desktop Computer

Computer Hope: Cleaning the Computer and it’s Components

Wiki How: How to Clean your Computer System

Wiki How: How to Clean the Inside of a Computer

New Phishing Scam Asking for Link Changes

Today I had an email (sent from the contact form on my thegrrl.com site) they asked me to change my links from indieblogger.com (which closed in 2007 or thereabouts) to another domain. They claimed they were the people running Indie Bloggers (though they only referred to it by the domain) and were moving everything to this other domain which they also own.

It is possible you will be sent notice to change links when another site moves – but it almost never happens. Most sites move and don’t send out notices. Far more likely they will notify people on the site and avoid sending email (which would take more time).

I am accustomed to checking links. I was an editor with a web directory for years. So I investigated indieblogger.com and the domain which I was asked to switch to (I’m not giving the link, deliberately, because I don’t want to link to them). First, indieblogger.com is still in park, no content. Next, I went to the other domain. There was no mention of Indie Blogger. I checked their navigation links, no mention there either. I searched the site for Indie Blogger and the results came back as zero.

So, it is certainly a scam and I will not be changing any links on my site.

I reported it as a phishing scam because this domain is trying to claim they are some other site. They are looking for free links on blogs which used to be part of Indie Blogger, back in 2007 and beyond.

Watch for anything like this yourself. Don’t go ahead and change a link, assuming the email is legitimate. Don’t give scammers free links on your site.

SimCity, for People into World Domination

Every day life can seem so… ordinary.

Until you take up world domination and run the world as you see fit. This is one of the reasons I have loved SimCity since the first version came out. I used to play with my nephew, Zack. He was just a little boy then. His favourite part was "boom de boom". I would build up my city, make all the sims happy, the city prosperous and then… along came the aliens, or the earthquake . Those were our favourite disasters. By the end of "boom de boom" the city was rubble but the little boy was laughing.

No one says you have to be a kind and gentle world ruler in SimCity.

What would your game city be like and what kind of ruler would you be: kind and compassionate, greedy and merciless, or some other combination of good and wicked?

How to Behave Like a True Princess

Originally written for HubPages sometime in 2013. What does the idea of being a princess mean to you? Have you written about a princess (in a fantasy world or the modern world) before?

If you want to be treated like a Princess begin by acting like a Princess with poise, grace and pleasant manners.

The word Princess comes with so many labels, from a spoiled brat to a graceful lady. Assuming the Princess you want to be isn’t the spoiled brat, how do you become the lovely fairytale Princess admired by so many?

A real Princess isn’t a dainty little thing. She stands on her own feet and makes the world (or at least her own local world) a better place. Contribute an example of how to behave better so others will see and do the same themselves. Keep your poise, don’t get flustered or impatient too easily. Use your best manners and be polite – treat others as you wish to be treated yourself.

Still, a Princess is not a doormat. She stands a little above, on her pedestal. Not so high that she can’t join in and be apart of everything going on in her kingdom but still, she holds herself to high standards and she is proud of what she is and what she does.

Don’t rest on your laurels or think you know all you need to know. Take lessons in etiquette manners and ballroom dancing too.

A Princess with some education can make a career out of being a Princess. Become an etiquette consultant, a protocol specialist or even someone working with the Embassy of your own country or in a foreign country (if you enjoy the travel).

How to be a True Princess (or at Least Feel Like One)

Decide on your kingdom. Your room, home, or your neighbourhood?
Who are your subjects? Your friends and family?
Communicate well. Don’t speak too quickly and use a smooth, calm tone of voice.
Dress like a Princess. Be proud to look pretty and elegant.
Resist buying cheap, wait until you can buy quality clothing, furniture and accessories rather than finding yourself with something which doesn’t suit you.
Wear nightgowns to bed so you can sleep like a Princess too.
Design your bedroom, your most personal space, to be your Princess oasis.
Find an especially beautiful mirror which lets you see your whole Princess self: a refined, classy woman.
Enjoy flowers, even if they are artificial, they will brighten up your space.
Take care of your hygiene, keep cleaned, trimmed and well groomed.
Work hard, do your best to set a good example and show how wonderful a Princess can be.
Work to keep a good attitude, be happy and your kingdom and subjects will be happy too.
Keep your standards high when it comes to your own decorum and good behaviour.
Keep your mind open, be tolerant of other opinions, view points and ideas.
Be generous with your time and energy – give to charity when you can and volunteer to help.
A Princess attends functions, dances and balls. Make sure you are out to see movies, go ice skating and other events you enjoy.
Practice good posture, standing straight and tall with your shoulders slightly back.
Practice making an entrance and exit, not just from the room but vehicles too.
Practice how you sit. A Princess keeps her knees and feet together, especially when she’s wearing a skirt.
Walk with a light step rather than clumping around or dragging your feet.
Don’t hold onto negative things and emotions for too long.
Do things that make you happy, follow your bliss as they say.
Love yourself. Be kind to yourself.
Be grateful for what you have and thank people who help you. Show appreciation.
Create your own Princess crown (or tiara).
Learn how to gracefully curtsy.
Experiment and develop a Princess laugh.
Learn how to give a royal wave when you are on parade.
Host a Royal Event to show off your beautiful gown, your crown and your graciousness.
Read fairy tales. Write and draw your own story about your kingdom.
Be kind and generous to others and be true to yourself.
Have a fancy tea party and invite friends and other Princesses too.
Smile, bestow your smile generously for your subjects and others, even those who are not in your kingdom.
A Princess can be excited, exuberant even, but she does it graciously and with poise.
A Princess is never a poor loser or a gloating winner.
Sometimes being a Princess is all in the details: watch your fingernails for dirt and make sure your shoes are not scuffed.
Princesses respect the Earth. Don’t litter.

Be a classy Princess, never become snobby or act as if you’re better than everyone else. Don’t expect special favours but be thankful when you get them.

How to Curtsy

Begin by respectfully lowering your head.

Hold your skirt out sideways just enough to give you room to bend your knees.

Slowly lift your right foot and place it behind your left foot.

With one foot forward, and your upper body straight, bend your knees. Lower your eyes.

Rise up smoothly and slowly.

Princess Links

Princess with Gail Vaz-Oxlade – Slice TV
How Not to Raise a Princess – Slice.ca
The First Annual National Princess Week Begins April 22
Become a Real Princess | The Royal Blog ☆ Kingdom of Azuria

Daisy Yellow’s Creative Experiments

Daisy Yellow is an art journalist with regular posts with Creative Experiments, Kick Start your Art Journal and Art Journalling 101.

Use familiar stuff in a new environment

This is easy. Take your show on the road. If you draw mandalas at night before bed, draw at a cafe. If you mostly shoot photos of your kids, photograph iron gates or weathered doors. If guitar is your thing, get friends together to play at your house.

Use new stuff in a familiar way

Build on something you know how to do. If you paint flowers with watercolors, paint the same subject with acrylics. Shoot a roll of black + white film instead of digitals. Sketch with thick markers rather than a black pen. Make orange-spiced pecan muffins instead of blueberry-walnut.

Use familiar stuff in a new way

This means playing with your materials! If you know do mono-printing with a rubber brayer, use a brayer to make an art journal background. If you embroider on aprons, try stitching on an art journal page.

Explore completely new stuff

What sparks your curiosity? What would you try if failure was irrelevant, just to try it? If knitting is your passion, experiment by making a bracelet with FIMO polymer clay. If you design digital graphics, try pottery or learn to knit a scarf. If you usually play guitar, try painting with watercolors. For me, freestyle embroidery was intriguing yet out of my comfort zone. You can also pursue this idea by taking a class ~ you can find a course (web or live) in hand dying fiber, photography, photoshop, watercolor, ceramics, jewelry making, sewing, guitar, sculpturing recycled junk, making bread.

Read all the posts from past Creative Experiments on Daisy Yellow.

Mindfulness

I found this post while curating content for my Creative Writing Inspiraton feed at ScoopIt. This comes from PLoS Blogs: Mindfulness and Stress

Take for instance the phenomenon of writers block. This has been a frequent struggle for me and even as I was writing this post, inhibiting thoughts flooded my mind which I immediately accepted as truth: I’m taking a long time to write this post, I must be sub-par; How will I make this post be the most creative possible? If I can’t do that, then what am I wasting my time for?; What if my readers aren’t interested—at all?

While common reasons for not being able to write are attributed to not knowing what to say, not being skilled enough, or simply fearing what others will think of your prose, an experience of writers block can generally be resolved by free-writing or free-listing. Both exercises force the author to experientially work through the contradictions, doubts, and – more often than not – the very nuggets of wisdom or topical analysis that the author originally sought from outside sources.

During free writing, the author is obliged to not worry about future or ultimate outcome, but rather about developing ideas step-by-step, or as they come to the writer. This has the effect of getting the proverbial idea-ball rolling, which encourages even more present moment thinking, until the writer enters more-or-less of a “flow”. As the author learns to trust him or herself more and more, less emphasis is placed on whether the piece will be an astounding success or an abysmal failure. The emphasis, instead, is placed on focusing the authors own experience of the processing of ideas, which has the continued effect of reducing stress and increasing productivity by increasing the experience of control and self-efficacy.

By engaging in this process of moving forward little by little, less time and mental capacity can be allocated to worrying about the outcome of a given problem, since the practical challenge of completing the next step takes precedent over predicting conclusions.

Women Expatriates

Expat Women – Helping women living overseas.

Would you move to another country, another part of the world with a different culture, maybe a different language from your own even? Some women do. Some women in fiction travel even farther. How would it be to live in the fairy realm, another planet, or some civilization built around our own but hidden from the ordinary human eye? I think women in this situation would have the same kind situations and difficulties as women expatriates.

Cold Reading – Writing Backwards

Cold reading is a series of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, mediums and illusionists to determine or express details about another person, often in order to convince them that the reader knows much more about a subject than they actually do.[1] Without prior knowledge of a person, a practiced cold reader can still quickly obtain a great deal of information about the subject by analyzing the person’s body language, age, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc. Cold readers commonly employ high probability guesses about the subject, quickly picking up on signals from their subjects as to whether their guesses are in the right direction or not, and then emphasizing and reinforcing any chance connections the subjects acknowledge while quickly moving on from missed guesses.

via Cold reading – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Choose a character you have already written (or use the idea to help you create a new character) and create a cold reading based on the facts you have given the reader about that character.