www.andrewmackay.net:

The problem with the Olympics being in Vancouver is that on occasion the hockey games start ridiculously late. So, you’re reading this Saturday morning. But, I’m writing it Friday evening, at around 7:30 et. Two hours before Canada plays Slovakia to see who goes to the Gold Medal game. When you’re reading this, I may be incredibly excited. We might have a date with Team USA Sunday afternoon. Or, we may have a date with Finland today for the bronze medal match. I wouldn’t be so excited about that. I mean, it’d be better than 2006 when we didn’t medal… and in fact ended up 7th. But, it’d be a real bummer to not at least have a place in the gold medal game.

Of course, if Team USA comes out playing like they did against Finland, it might not matter. They were good. They looked like we did against Russia. They scored a lot.

But, however this ends up, whether Canada wins a gold medal or ends up ranked 4th, I know where my allegiance is. Go Canada!

I went out to the store the other day (Yay! conquering snow!) and as I drove, the radio played. I’m a little hypersensitive lately about advertising that is a blatant attempt at taking advantage of people… especially people who are trying to bootstrap themselves out of bad situations.

So, a Verizon commercial came on, and started with a discussion of how hard times are, how “you’ve cut your grocery budget — no junk food, no expensive snacks, you’ve cut movie night… but try to cut your kids wireless and you’ll have them protesting in the front yard. Never fear! Verizon Wireless has free phones for the whole family.” It then ran through (you know, Radio Guy with the Fast Voice) the small print.

Here’s how the deal ends up working. You sign up for a $100 plan plus 3 added lines ($10 each) for two years… so, committing to a new $130 payment every month. In exchange for your $3120, you’re getting 4 phones that are a total value of probably $800 (at no contract pricing). But, what happens when you try to cancel? $20 per line per month remaining on the contract. So, when you get to 8 months remaining on the contract and something catastrophic happens, you owe them a payment of $640 if you want to stop making your monthly $130 payment.

Two problems:

First, proposing a new payment of $130 a month to a family that’s “cut their grocery budget and their movie night” seems irresponsible and possibly even stupid.

Second, it seems like interactions with cell phone carriers are entirely slanted their way… there’s little benefit to the customer. It’s not like they drop your monthly charge if you don’t take the free phones and sign the contract. Maybe they should!

Just remember when you’re dealing with them that it IS your money. You can choose to deal with whoever you want. I’m starting to think that it might be time for a revolution in the cell phone market.

I have a great respect for improv actors… being able to wing it like that requires a special talent. Writing is the opposite of winging it for most writers. We create characters and guide their interactions, but it tends to be planned out. There’s a structure, a goal in mind. While the characters might meander their way at times, and rush headlong at others, it’s not winging it.

I think we could borrow some of the elements of flash fiction exercises to improve improv abilities. (Ooh… improve improv… hehehe!) Here’s an exercise I’m contemplating, a modified version of something I read at writingforward.com . The only modifier I’d add is, “In under 20 minutes”:

• Write a piece of flash fiction from scratch and try to keep it under 1000 words. If you really want to push yourself, aim for less than 500 words. It’s harder than it sounds!
• Instead of rewriting an entire piece, turn a scene or a chapter into a flash fiction story.
• Turn movies, novels, and other story sources into flash fiction writing exercises. Take the plot from a movie or book that you like and try to write it as a piece of flash fiction.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Some days I don’t even need to write… I can just point you to really great posts. I read this post by Jeff Wofford titled The Christan Storyteller’s Dilemma, and it was awesome. You should read it. It made my evening. Here’s how it starts:

There’s no good way to tell a Christian story.

The gospel is perennially uncool. Any story that points to the gospel runs the risk of inheriting its uncoolness. A Christian yarn may end up sounding like a sermon. It may come across as moralizing, over-hopeful, or lacking the secular sheen that modern readers demand. A story designed to draw people to the gospel may end up repelling them instead.

How can a Christian writer craft a story that appeals to the culture while pointing beyond it?

Go read the rest.

I don’t know if I’ve ever really figured out how to write collaboratively… Not a huge surprise, since I haven’t necessarily figured out how to write on my own, either.

Collaboration holds some allure because it seems likely that I’d be better working off of someone else rather than on my own. It’d be encouraging — like a built in support structure.

Of course, the how is probably harder than the why. There’s that classic grade school model where everyone provides a line… Or even just a word. But that doesn’t seem to be very productive.

What are some other options working collaboratively?

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”

- General Colin Powell

If that’s not true, I don’t know what is.

Go Canada Go!

We’re entering the sing-song stage around the Mackay household. Everything is subject to becoming a song… Even diaper changes. My favorites are when the boy sings in his American-idol-audition-week best pitchiness and then turns and asks “good song?”

What’s the right answer to that? At this stage, that it resembles a song probably qualifies it as a good song. But, there will come a time where, if the inability to carry a tune continues, the right answer will be, “no, not really such a great song.”
It does amuse me though. Anything and everything can be memorialized in song… Haircuts… Treats… Cars… If he cares about it, he’ll make it into a song. 400 years ago, he would’ve gone into bard training.

I’m off to sing old McDonald.

We are experiencing an unusual winter for southern West Virginia. By the end of last week, we’d experienced more snow than the National Weather Service has recorded for a whole winter in this area. And it’s still falling.

Of course, I take great pride in being Canadian and being the conqueror of snow, but man… this is starting to get to me. Ice building up on the roof and in the eaves. Driveway turning into a bobsled run (with a 4 inch ice pack… and speeds of up to 30 km/h).

Here, then, are three ways to keep your sanity while fighting snow

1. Make it personal. The snow trying to cover your walkway? It’s trying to show you who’s boss! Don’t let it. Put on your best movieguy voice and say, “This time… it’s personal.” Or, go for the Kevin McAllister (Home Alone, for those of you who can’t remember it), “This is it. Don’t get scared now.”

2. Use so much ice melt that it actually becomes a challenge to see if the snow can build up on top of it. (If you’re doing this, I’d recommend something that won’t kill your lawn or the ozone layer.) This is 8th grade science at it’s best. Snow versus salt. Who will win? Don’t bother videotaping this, it’ll probably be boring.

3. Play in the snow. Secret true fact that they only teach Canadians: Snow hates being played in. If you play in it, it loses its power. So, get out there. Throw a snowball. (Don’t hit your wife in the face accidentally. It’s a bad idea.) Build a snowman. Recreate the scary snowmen from Calvin and Hobbes. Take pictures. Put them on the Internet. Have fun with it!

There’s a funny little article on eHow.com called How to Write a Best-selling Book. When I first saw the title, I rolled my eyes. I mean, c’mon, if it was just a matter of a few easy steps, wouldn’t someone have written this article before now.

Upon reading the article, I found that it was tongue-in-cheek, and — as a bonus — actually pretty funny.

It’s fairly non-linear (you can’t precisely do the list in order and expect a logical conclusion), but I found it very helpful to furthering my writing career. Especially the sixth (and final) point:

Include lots and lots of vampires. Everyone loves vampires.

I can’t believe I never thought of that!