All posts by Robin

I'm a woman in my early thirties living in North Carolina, USA, and I have a lot of varied interests; I love creative writing, music composition, web design, surfing the Internet, thinking out loud, and gaming. And yes, my glasses are crooked. :)

Monday in the HTMLab

Do I Still Need to Worry about META Tags?

April 2, 2012 Robin 2 Comments

“META tags? Huh? What are those?” you might ask. The following are examples:

For most modern web designers, the esoteric meta tag fell just a little bit before our time. Tucked away in the head section of our HTML documents, these little snippets of code, like talismans, were supposed to help search engines find and index our sites, and therefore supposed to help potential visitors find us a lot more easily.

But these days, meta tags don’t quite function that way anymore. Most modern browsers don’t pay much attention to them, and neither do many search engines. So, the question remains: Are they worth even including in our webpages anymore?

The Verdict: Sorta-Kinda

Meta tags have not lost all their effectiveness, according to this article at SearchEngineWatch.com. Some search engines still do pay attention to them. But just making detailed meta tags is not the be-all and end-all SEO strategy it used to be. Nowadays, it’s far better to combine a selective use of meta tags with other strategies, like blogrolls, affiliate programs, content keywording, topsites listings, ad programs, and the like.

Meta Description: Think Twitter-Length

For your description, write a short, one- or two-sentence summary of your site, and leave it at that. No need for long-winded, essay-question-esque responses! (Ha, I need this advice more than anybody, LOL.) Since the content in meta description tags may or may not all be picked up by a search engine (depending on character limits per individual search engine), you want to make sure the content in the tag is as short and sweet as possible.

Meta Keywords: “Meh”

The meta “keywords” tag used to be of all importance, and you used to stuff it full of all the keywords you thought people would search for and find your site with. These days…don’t bother even typing in <meta name=”keywords”> into your code.

Why? It’s vastly easier on you (and more intuitive for modern search engines) if you just use the keywords a whole lot in the text of your website. For instance, if your site is about beaded jewelry, use “beaded” and “jewelry” a lot in your content. Search engines will still find you, and maybe find you a lot more easily than they would if your site’s content had very few actual usages of your ideal search terms.

Meta Author and Meta Content-Type: Don’t Bother

I’ve never known either of these tags to make much of a difference in search engines or browsers either one. (In fact, it may be dangerous for you to put your real name in such a prominent place in your source code.) Plus, the content-type, while it may have mattered in the past for older browsers, likely doesn’t matter as much anymore with more modern browsers being used. My advice: don’t worry about either of these.

Use Your Title Tag As Well!

Don’t forget your <title> tag! Though it’s not a true meta tag, it will remind your users of what site they’re looking at when they look through their browser tabs. Also, many search engines search your title tags first, even before they search your content, so it’s well worth writing at least something between <title> and </title>.

Make it short and descriptive, like your meta description tag, and you’ll be well on your way to having a site that people actually visit. (Y’know, why we spend hours before a screen typing and clicking, blinking our bloodshot eyes in a vain attempt for rest? LOL)

Summary

META tags aren’t something to lose sleep over anymore, but some of them might be helpful supplements to your other SEO strategies for making your site known. Simply craft a meta description, spiff up your title tag with appropriate text, and you’ll be set in terms of META tags.

Saturday with the Spark

Picturestruck

March 31, 2012 Robin Leave a comment

Have you ever been outside and been surprised by the beauty of light and shadow playing on an object? Or ever been amazed at the perfection of a flower blossom? Has anything, natural or man-made, ever looked so suddenly awesome that you just HAD to stop and take a picture of it with whatever camera was to hand?

If you have, you’ve been picturestruck. I get that way all the time, even though I’m not a particularly visual person usually. Sometimes I’ll see the sky in the daytime, for instance, and be awed by sunlight streaming down between cotton-candy threads of cloud; other times, the quiet loveliness of a full moon casting silver shimmers along the wide river close to my house will render me silent.

Taking care of the urge to capture the image before you is fairly easy if you have a cameraphone or small digital camera with you. It’s as simple as taking the device out of your pocket/purse, lining up the shot, and clicking the button. But if you’re picturestruck while driving, as I am so often, it can be difficult to balance your need to stay on the road with the desire to get an awesome picture right now!

I’ve been known to pull over to the side of the road long enough to fish for my phone and take the picture through my windshield, if I can’t stop long enough to get out of the car (or if it’s not safe to try to get out). But usually, I like to completely stop the car, get out, and take the picture without having to rush. Convenient parking lots are good places to stop for impromptu pictures, even if it does make me look like a tourist in my own town. LOL

Even if it might sound a little weird to practice this kind of art, I do enjoy it, and I end up with some beautiful images that I’ve even used in my web designs. Random spots of beauty in our world are always worth capturing for posterity if we can manage it, I believe.

Have you ever been picturestruck? Ever get any randomly awesome pictures? Tell me in the comments!

Friday around the Web

Freewriting, Steelin’ Som Ur Foodz, Writing Experiments, and Learning Handouts

March 30, 2012 Robin Leave a comment

5 Freewriting Secrets: Being Genius
Learning how to free your creativity with freewriting.

I’m Steelin’ Som Ur Foodz Kthxbai
This little rabbit’s (?) expression cracks me up!

Writing Experiments
Ideas for journals and writing style experiments. Great for getting over writer’s block!

LifeLearning Handouts
From time management to helping you with critical thinking, a group of printable handouts for improving your college experience.

Thursday in the Zone

A Plastic Swarm: A Different Way to Play HeroClix

March 29, 2012 Robin Leave a comment

Most of my opponents are very surprised if I pull out a more-than-75-point figure to play; they know me well, and know that most of my collection is made up of figures costing less than 50 points (and even many less than 30).

In a way, I pride myself on having little figures; I know that given the opportunity, all those little figures can be multiple Davids against their big 200-point Goliaths. I prefer to play a strategy called “swarm” in HeroClix, running groups of many figures rather than running two or three figures. In a typical 300-point game, I can often fit 6 to 8 characters in; you don’t want to see how crowded my start area can get when I play 600 points and above. 😛

The Benefits of a Swarm Team

Having been drawn to this strategy since I began learning Clix in 2007, I can say that there are several strengths to running a larger team of figures, such as the following:

Opponents using a smaller number of figures may have less maneuverability, because of adjacency rules (everywhere they step, they’re beside an opposing figure)
Opponents may not know which piece to attack first, because there are too many targets
You don’t have to push anybody to move unless you just want to–you can move fresh pieces every turn and allow the other ones to rest
Strategy allows you to cover more of the board, especially with ranged characters
Also allows hurt pieces to drop back toward any available Medic and get healed, while your front line of defense stays solid

I find that using many little pieces gives more team-building versatility, as well. For instance, I can pick characters that are basically “one-trick ponies,” such as Destiny, Night Nurse, Abbey Chase, Harley Quinn, etc., who give me first-click access to support powers without needing to risk them in battle. Not only that, I can pick multiple figures who do basically the same thing, so that if one gets hurt and needs to drop back toward good ol’ Night Nurse, there’s another one waiting in the wings to take over. (Multiple iterations of Cheetah and Shi for the win.)

Swarm teams allow for this kind of redundancy and long-game protection a little better than beatstick teams do. Playing a beatstick team (a small number of large-point-value pieces) always makes me feel like I’m wearing a hospital gown–no coverage where I need it most, if you get my drift. If rolls go badly and worst comes to worst, where is my support squad? Not available on such a small team. Swarm teams allow for better team cohesion and complex, subtle strategy.

A good analogy is a large musical group like a choir, versus a small group of soloists. If one of the choir members gets sick right before showtime, the choir can perform without that person if necessary, and the show is not affected. But if one of only four soloists gets sick before showtime, then the show is going to be delayed until that performer can get on their feet again, because the show will be very different with only three voices. Swarm teams are like choirs–they work together and cover for each other’s mistakes and problems much better than small groups.

Weaknesses

But I will admit, swarm teams are not the strongest option out there. These chief weaknesses come to mind:

Smaller-point-value pieces have shorter dials, can’t take as much damage
Swarm teams can get too spread out across the map very easily, leading to easy pick-off kills by a beatstick team
Smaller pieces have generally lower attack and damage values–may not be able to hurt larger pieces

In general, playing a swarm team that’s just combat and no support is about as bad as playing a beatstick team with no support–it’s folly. Making a swarm team practically necessitates the use of Probability Control, Outwit, Support, Perplex, and Telekinesis, because your figures need that support. You need that Outwit to get rid of Superman’s Impervious; you’ll need that Prob to reroll that one-off on Hulk, or Perplex to increase the chance of a hit. (And if Hulk manages to hit you, you’ll need TK to pull your wounded piece out of combat, and Support to get it back at least closer to top click. LOL)

But a swarm team with support that plays a little more closely together (without blocking each other’s lines of fire) can overcome these weaknesses, with a little bit more thought and planning. That 8 attack can be overcome by 2 shots of Perplex, a dose of Outwit, and a Prob waiting on backup; that 15 defense can be boosted by a friendly’s 18 defense with Defend. You just have to figure out how to use each piece’s strengths all together.

You also don’t want to space out a swarm team too much. Too far apart on the map, and they can’t help each other with support powers like Outwit, Perplex, and Prob, and they can’t run back as easily to the Support character (or get TKed back to the Medic, for that matter). Beatstick teams can spread out a little more easily since they have longer dials and better powers–don’t make the mistake of keeping all your support squad too far away from your main combat, or engaging your opponent in two separate combat zones. Keep it focused.

Summary

If you like winning in unconventional ways, or just want to try something new and more tactical, a swarm team is a great strategy–it’s customizable and fun for theme teams as well as non-theme teams, and for certain, it allows you to simply outgun or out-combat your opponent. Build a team with some small-point support pieces, along with some cheap and good combat characters, and watch your swarm take the field!

Wednesday in the Word

Remember God’s Goodness

March 28, 2012 Robin Leave a comment

Deuteronomy 31:19

19 “Now write down this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them.”

In this selection from one of the end chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses knows he is dying, and the Lord speaks to him one last time, advising him to write a song that will remind the nation of Israel of its God when they become faithless to Him. (The actual song can be read in Deuteronomy 32.)

God asks this of Moses because He already knows what’s going to happen later on–as soon as Joshua, Moses’ successor, and the rest of the Israelites get into the Promised Land, the Israelites will start turning to other gods, namely Ba’al and Asherah, and completely forget about God. (See the book of Judges for most of this.) Knowing this already, God knows that they’ll need a memorable piece of literature to remind them of Him, a song they can carry with them as far as they’ll go.

We, too, tend to forget God, especially when things are going well. If life is going smoothly, we usually give ourselves the credit; only when life becomes rough do we wonder where God is and wonder how a “good God” could do this to us. We, just like the ancient Israelites, need a memorable reminder of what God has done in our own lives, as a testament to His nature.

Maybe we all need to write a song detailing all the wonderful works God has done for us in our lives–I know mine would be nothing but praise for getting me out of everything from a traffic accident to a terrible career choice. What would your reminding song say?

Tuesday on the Soapbox

Church: Not about Control, but about Worship

March 27, 2012 Robin Leave a comment

I have always said that whenever you get a group of humans together, even a group of Christian humans, you are going to have some manipulation and struggles for control, as well as hurt pride and hurt feelings. From a group of kindergartners to a group of co-workers, humans tend to have power struggles between each other, even if they are so subtle they are never voiced.

But in the Christian church, it seems, power struggles get far more virulent and dangerous to the community than in any other place. When people try to control the church’s direction, worship style, outreach, activities, and even decorations, worship itself gets lost in the confusion, and it can split the church apart before any of the members are truly aware of what’s happened.

Where Good Intentions Become Manipulation/Control: A Handy Chart

I am not saying that church members should not be active in the church, doing things for the church, etc. What I am advising against here is church members saying, “Hey, you do things my way, or I’m taking my tithe elsewhere.” Many times, actions and behavior that start out well-intentioned become manipulative and controlling–here’s a few examples:

Good Intentions…	…Manipulation/Control
Suggesting a new style of worship music to be integrated with the current choices	Demanding that a new style of worship music be put in place of the old
Offering to decorate the church display tables/altar/choir loft/etc.	Refusing to heed anyone else’s ideas about decorations because it’s “your” ministry
Coming to the business meetings to learn what needs to be done	Turning the business meeting into a theater for your ideas and yours alone
Meeting with the pastor to discuss a part of last week’s sermon you found distressing	Firing off hateful emails to the pastor about the sermon last week
Politely disagreeing with a music style choice	Threatening to leave the church if the offending music is not changed
Expressing well-reasoned doubts about a new, experimental ministry	Talking spitefully about the experimental ministry getting in the way of your work
Discussing funding for all church programs	Demanding that the programs you’re involved in get the most funding
Expressing thoughtful concern about the length of the worship service	Complaining (loudly) that the service always lets out too late for you to get to your favorite restaurant

Those who Try to Control the Church Are Never Happy

It’s important to realize that people who try to control the church are actually missing out. They miss out on their own true worship by fretting and worrying over the church’s organization; by the same token, they make worship nearly impossible for others by being so specific in their “needs.” They are so concerned with making everything “just so” that they end up unhappy that everything can’t be “just so.”

Not only that, people who try to control the church are actually pretending their word and authority goes before God’s on earth. When you try to control everything that a church does just to suit your own needs, the church becomes significantly less about God and more about you. In fact, some churches can end up inadvertently worshipping their wealthiest/most influential members, instead of God. (I’ve seen it happen…more times than I wish.)

This kind of controlling and manipulating behavior is one reason people have begun to draw away from the church, citing that they “hate religion.” (See: the viral Youtube video on that very subject.) When we start worshipping other people’s interests, wants, and needs rather than focusing on God, the whole point of the earthly church is lost.

Compassion and Compromise: The Secret to a Great Church Family Relationship

I believe that compromise, compassion, and understanding is how churches truly function best. Though my church is certainly not free of these human problems, I have been lucky to not feel factions and church politics intruding on my worship and praise. I chose my current church specifically because I felt God moving in it, felt Him working and using the church to do what needed to be done in the wider community. Though we are now going through a little rough patch, I know that the members are still the same good folk I knew when I first joined, and I know God has this under control.

When we use calm discussion, good sense, and humility in dealing with fellow Christians, church problems just seem to dissolve away rather than sit and rankle in our hearts. Realizing that it’s not “all about us,” but rather “all about Jesus,” is a powerful reminder that what we want isn’t as important as praising God. When we put aside the desire for more power, more prestige, more accomplishment, and more pride, God can come into our lives and start doing marvelous works.

One of the leaders of the church said in a recent meeting, “Don’t join a church attempting to change it; join it because it feels like the place God wants you to be.” I think that’s the takeaway message here. Don’t change your particular church to be something that panders to you and only you, and don’t threaten others with taking “influence” and “tithes” elsewhere; instead, be as Christlike, compassionate and forgiving, as you can be. That’s what Christianity is about, isn’t it?

Monday in the HTMLab

10 Ways to Make Your Page Look Professional

March 26, 2012 Robin Leave a comment

Last week, I discussed 10 “newbie” web design mistakes, and even showed you a page full of those mistakes, as cringe-worthy as they were.

Well, this week, to balance that out…I’m going to show you 10 simple ways to spiff up your page and make it look just a little better. These are all simple tricks that give your page just that little bit of extra detail, like a shined shoe or a little bit of jewelry for an outfit. Read on, and see what tricks you might be able to add to your webdesigning bag!

#1: Use Gradients and Shadows for Page Dimension

Any time you can add a little bit of 3-D to your page, especially if it’s an important page element like navigation or content, do so. Soft gradients, especially as a background, give a page a colorful backdrop without being distracting, and small shadows help a page element like a menu or content block “pop” off the page. (It also looks more modern.)

Fokal.com
The black-to-gray vertical gradient on the logo and navigation buttons, plus the dark gray-to-light gray gradient in the lower half (content section) gives just enough contrast without being too distracting.

HairStylesDesign.com
The “Popular Galleries” balloon has a slight drop shadow under it, bringing the page element just that much farther forward into 3D.

CollegeFashion
The logo has a glossy look over the text, painting a slight gradient effect over each letter; also, the navigation below the logo has a very slight gradient. (Not to mention the shadows behind the logo’s letters!)

WhoWhatWear
The bottoms of the logo letters, as well as the tops of the navigation’s letters, have a slight shadow effect that make the page sleek.

#2: Use Georgia Font

According to the New York Times, Georgia font is the preferred serif font for web designers–I personally like it for its soft and yet readable look. (It especially looks gorgeous at larger sizes and in italics…but maybe that’s just me. :D)

#3: Choose Colors that Go Together Well or Set Each Other Off Beautifully

Color scheme is one of the more important facets of your web design. If you’ve got a nicely-organized page, but the colors clash, your users’ eyes will not thank you. However, if the colors blend well or provide a touch of lovely contrast, you’ll have a much better user interface overall.

Freshome.com
Using little hints of the full rainbow in Freshome’s design makes it truly a “fresh” design, especially with white and gray to ground it all.

YouLookFab
The bright teal green of the striped shirt used as a background image, paired with crisp white and black (and a little soft gray), render a page that is attractive without being eye-dazzling.

#4: Blend Your Header with the Rest of Your Page

Gone are the days of a completely useless header image that has nothing to do with the way the rest of the page is designed. *…glances up toward my own blog header sheepishly*

Ahem! Pay no attention to that. Headers are now valid places to put navigation and other site information, so you don’t have to fill them with images if you don’t want to. See the examples below:

Unkno.com
Over at Unnecessary Knowledge, the header and the navigation are literally on the same horizontal lines with each other–just at opposite vertical edges of the page. This allows the focus to fall naturally on the content rather than the “frame” (the layout) of the site.

DesignShuffle.com
With a logo and navigation that don’t take up a lot of visual room, more space is left “above the fold” for content–always a good idea for content-rich sites, if you can pull it off.

#5: Employ Different Fonts for Highlighting Content

No need to go font-raving crazy, but using slightly different fonts in various contexts on your page can make your design be that much more interesting. I usually provide a simple contrast between sans-serif body text and serif headings, but the sites below do even more than that.

InteriorDesign
Let’s see, I count…4 different fonts just in this sample (logo, navigation, colorful headlines, caption text). Each one doesn’t compete with the others, but rather plays off them, accenting each bit of content. There’s a good blend of sans-serif and serif in this example, as well.

DesignReviver
DesignReviver’s site uses 3 different fonts–one for big headlines, one for body text, and one for small side headlines (right side of the page), which helps the user know which content is newest and which posts they also might be interested in.

#6: Make Your Links Interactive when Hovered Over

As of probably 2005, users began expecting interactive links, and the way we webdesigners can make that happen has changed some over the ensuing years. From simple a:hover states to Flash animations, designers have literally tried it all–now, the trend seems to be “simple and lovely” rather than “complex and crazy.” After all, what you’re trying to show the user is that they’re hovering over something they can click on; these sites below do a good job of that.

Freshome
Not only a page of lovely colors, but a sleek, animated navigation as well, making it obvious which category a user is hovering over. It’s not too flashy or over-the-top, but provides just the right amount of interactivity for a navbar.

Webmonkey
Though there are few category links in this navigation, hovering over them provides you an instant look at the articles in the category, which helps a user get to what they need faster.

#7: Specify Rounded Corners for Divs and Other Page Elements

At least for me, rounded corners instantly make a page look better–it’s like putting dress clothes on your site. It looks a little more polished and updated than square corners. (Not all browsers accept the “border-radius” rule yet, but you can use images to get around that.)

MakeupGeek
The rounded corners in both the page border (top left) and the navigation bar make this page a little softer and sleeker than it would be if they had gone with default square corners.

HomePortfolio
Though it’s very, very subtle, the rounded corner that divides the white content div from the gray background shows the designer’s attention to detail, and brings the page into the 21st century, as surely as if they’d switched from Times New Roman to…well, anything else.

#8: Design Sleek Icons and Simple but Beautiful Graphics

Thankfully, we don’t have to be detail-oriented artists to make beautiful graphics for our pages anymore–in this age of app icons that are more simple and to-the-point, our site graphics can be just as straightforward and iconic. In fact, that might make our pages even easier to use and navigate; for certain, they look a lot better than busy icons of the past!

Apartment Therapy
Site logos don’t need to make a recognizable shape to befit a site–in this case, the simple, waving orange line transmits a sense of playfulness and innovation just as much as a more complicated logo could, and in less time.

Appstorm
Not only are different types of content noted by different (big) icons, but even the sidebar has a few icons to make navigation easier. The icons are not multicolored or overly detailed either; they’re just basic white shapes or letters, with a solid-color background in a rounded shape. And the site’s logo is a simple lightning bolt–perfect for a site with “storm” in the name.

#9: Include a Little (or a Lot of) Texture

Texture is something I’ve always had a hard time incorporating in my page, because I can never find a texture that I’m really happy with. Yet I know that texture on a webpage gives your background, site headings, links, and even content blocks just a little bit more visual interest, like the examples below:

DesiretoInspire
The textured dark gray background, as well as the roughed-up edging along the top of the page and the uneven “paint” job on the logo, gives the site a literal “rough-around-the-edges” quality…it’s not too perfect and primped, yet it’s still forward-thinking in design. Great for a design site!

InsideFashion Blog
A grungy-textured background in darker colors, contrasted with a lighter-but-still-crumpled header and content div, make this page look like an underground newsletter of sorts, as if it’s truly out of the back pocket of a fashion insider…which is likely exactly what they were going for. 🙂

#10: Align Your Layout in the Center

Nope, not talking about centered TEXT; that was last week. *shudder* But centered layouts are so much the norm in design these days that left-aligned layouts are almost extinct. Users have come to expect a center-aligned page because it’s easier to view, especially on wider-screen monitors. That’s why it’s important to employ this mode of layout design for professional pages–it’s just easier to use!

Keep Designing
Strong contrast between background and content divs make this center-aligned layout easy to understand and draws the user’s eye straight to content.

HerCampus
Here, the background and the content blend a little more, but there’s still a good delineation between what’s decorative background and what’s real content. The user doesn’t have to look all over the page to try to find links and news.

Summary

Adding a little polish to your page may not be confined to these 10 tips, but certainly these design concepts fit into a more professional look. Try one or more of these out in your next design, and see the magic at work!

Saturday with the Spark

Clumpy Character Description = Boredom

March 24, 2012 Robin 2 Comments

When I’m reading a novel, I personally hate character descriptions that are “clumped”–the kind that go on too long when they first introduce the character. You probably know the type; there’s almost a whole page dedicated to how shockingly beautiful the heroine is when you first meet her, or how devastatingly handsome the villain is despite his horrible ways. Bo-ring.

Here’s an example I crafted of “clumpy” character description:

Boring Character Description

“In the doorway stood Jean. She was about 41, with curling red hair down to her mid-back, porcelain skin with ruddy patches on the cheeks, and eyes that seemed to be nearly silver. If I had to guess, I’d say she wore a 36DD bra, had no waist to speak of, and hips that nearly took up the whole doorway space. Aside from the expensive, deep green blouse she wore, the rest of her clothing looked worn; even her shoes looked too scuffed to be new. Her rounded belly, not of pregnancy but of years not spent on the treadmill, became more obvious as she moved into the room. If she had once been beautiful, the bloom was rapidly fading.”

While this does make a great character sketch of “Jean”, it’s not very interesting. The story stops while this snapshot in words is taken; additionally, the character sketch is almost too detailed. Prime example of a “too-detailed” sketch: the “36DD bra” and the age of “41” detail, which is something I’ve actually seen done in many amateur stories. Like anybody can tell what size bra a girl wears or exactly how old she is by just looking at her! It’s like you’re reading a police report on somebody’s description rather than a story.

When you do a detailed character description like this, especially at the beginning of a story where it’s the first appearance of the character, it tends to slow down the storytelling, and many readers (like me) will want to skip over it. Nothing’s happening to advance the story in there, so why bother reading it?

Instead of clumping all my character description into one paragraph, I like to space it out across several story-moving sentences, slowly weaving a picture of the character while describing him/her through his/her actions.

I reworked my earlier example into the following sample, below:

Hopefully Not-So-Boring Character Description

“Jean appeared in the doorway just then, her generous hips grazing the doorjamb as she moved through. ‘What are y’all even talkin’ about?’ she said, defiantly placing a large hand on one hip. ‘You think I’m deaf in there, you don’t think I’m hearin’ you talkin’ junk ’bout my fam’ly members?’ For a moment, her anger seemed to spark along her tumble of red curls, and her pale, gently-lined skin flushed only on the cheeks in unbecoming spots. ‘I’m in there cookin’ supper an’ all I can hear is this mess, on a holiday, no less!’ Her large bosom, even constrained as it was underneath the silky green blouse, quivered with the force of her words and feelings. ‘If that’s what you think about my fam’ly, you can just git out, for all’s I care. Why should I bother feedin’ you when you’re talkin’ trash, in MY house?’

No one could say anything against her, not with her gray eyes flashing an unsettling silver, not with her words condemning them. Already a statuesque woman, she seemed to stand even taller in her frustration, and everyone was too intimidated to speak.”

For me, this character description works better because the story continues to move along–we get hints of what “Jean” looks like, especially in anger, and we also get the reasons why she’s angry through the dialogue she has. It feels like a much more active scene, a better emotional scene, not just a paragraph-long, flat painting of a character.

Your Opinion: Which is Better?

Depending on your personal opinion, you might like the first example better than the second, or vice versa. Which do you think is more interesting to read? Which provides a better character description? Is neither particularly interesting to read, for that matter? (That would be a sad result, considering I wrote both, but… LOL)

Friday around the Web

Love and Marriage, Hark! a Vagrant, Sketches in the Wind, and 96Pix

March 23, 2012 Robin 1 Comment

Difference Between Love and Marriage
In the first scenario, Plato quotes Haddaway and ends up with nothing. In the second, he grabs the first decent thing he sees to avoid being alone. True to life or not?

Hark! A Vagrant
Black-and-white comics covering all sorts of historical and/or pop-cultural topics, from Sexy Batman to Wuthering Heights and everything in between.

Sometimes Dancers are Just Sketches in the Wind
This made me tear up…beautiful and poignant. :’)

96Pix.com
A personality test based on choosing which of the two images displayed you like better. Set of 96 pictures in all…and very insightful!

Thursday in the Zone

Funniest Game Reversal Ever: “Prevent All Combat Damage”

March 22, 2012 Robin Leave a comment

From the first time I played a Magic game, I enjoyed running Fog, Holy Day, and Darkness. Why?

Because it is hilarious to watch someone swing all out for tons of combat damage and refute it all with one green, white, or black mana. The “prevent all combat damage” line has saved me time and again from certain doom, leaving me with just one turn to come back from the brink–and sometimes, that one turn is all I need.

I really enjoy running damage prevention and have made it a large part of my “style” in Magic: the Gathering. Since I run a lot of Green and White, I came across Fog and Holy Day early in my M:TG career (I only later found Darkness when I tried my hand at building a Black/White deck), and soon included at least two copies in every deck I built because I found it to be so useful.

In my humble opinion as an M:TG player, there are 3 reasons why running “prevent all combat damage” is an excellent choice for a Green, White, or Black deck.

Reason #1: Protection

When you run a longer-game deck (like most of the decks I build for casual play), stalling cards like Fog, Holy Day, and Darkness allow you to last one or two more turns so your deck can have a chance to go off. Especially when you’re playing against hyper-aggressive creature combat decks, these cards can provide you with one more turn to draw a Wrath of God/Day of Judgment, two more turns to put into play a Story Circle, or a turn to draw that last combo piece you’re missing.

Knowing I have a damage-prevention card in my hand is like a safety net or security blanket. I know that if all else fails and I’m about to lose this turn, I can possibly stave it off with one mana.

Reason #2: Mind Games

Imagine this scenario: I pretend to be weak and unable to play anything of import (except for leaving one green, white, or black mana open). Then, the hyper-aggressive opponent grows overconfident and strikes with full force, tapping all his/her creatures for combat. I play Fog/Holy Day/Darkness, and their full-strength strike is negated. Next turn, I counter-attack with nearly all my forces (I say “nearly” because I want to be able to block next time around), because in their haste to kill me, they left themselves completely undefended. Thus, I succeed in knocking their life points down by a good chunk.

Preventing all combat damage allows for these mind games, because you do look incapable and cornered, until they swing for lots of damage and you tap your last remaining land. (My boyfriend knows this very well now, and knows what I’m about to do when that last land gets tapped…LOL)

You can also leave one land untapped and one card in hand to fake an opponent out, so that they think you have a Fog/Holy Day/Darkness in hand when you really don’t. Believe me, it can work; it’s a psych-out move just like playing the actual card can be.

Reason #3: Board Control

I will admit, “preventing all combat damage” by itself is a stopgap move, a way to last just a little longer till your deck goes off. But if you add an Isochron Scepter…

…it becomes a board-control move. Suddenly, just by leaving 2 mana sources available every turn, you have a constant source of damage prevention. It may not completely save you against direct-damage decks, but for creature-combat decks, this reads “THE END.” Only your own player error or a good Disenchant/Shatter/Naturalize can wreck this.

I find this to be an excellent stall maneuver–with this combo, I no longer have to worry about combat damage, and I can focus on gaining back whatever life I lost before this combo hit the table. I can also frustrate the opponent and possibly force some player errors that wouldn’t normally have happened under regular conditions.

(Frustrating the opponent with a Teflon life total is just as much “board control” as it is “mind games;” you are subtly influencing how they play what they play, and as irritated as life-gain and damage prevention makes some players, they’re bound to start making mistakes. As the stall player, you can capitalize on that weakness as if it were a card on the field.)

Why Is This Funny?

Because it’s a less-expected way to win. Most M:TG players win by blatant control in-game, huge amounts of damage, or tricky combos; this, by contrast, involves subtle control/manipulation tactics outside the game, resistance to said damage, and simple but effective combos.

And because it’s unexpected, one can eke out a win, proving that ingenuity can triumph where brute force and “doing what everyone else does to win” doesn’t always work. I don’t know about you, but I find it hilarious and awesome when the perceived “underdog” wins…especially when that underdog is me. 😛