A Moment For Melinda

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I have been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award. But seriously, I think overall in the scheme of things winning a Versatile Blogger Award is not important. Let’s get our priorities straight. I think we all know what’s really important in life – winning a Hugo. During my reign, which lasts until the post falls from the front page, I must carry out the duties and responsibilities vested in this vaunted meme:

  • Thank the blogger who nominated you
  • Add the Versatile Blogger logo to your post
  • Nominate 15 other bloggers
  • Inform them of the nomination
  • Share 7 random things about yourself

Versatile Blogger Award

Thank You, Melinda

Thanks, Melinda! Not only are you my favorite online comedian, you are also one of my biggest supporters (long live Blogmogrifier!) By nominating me for this awesome award, you have shed light on what I believe is a chronic problem in the blogosphere: fear of eclecticism. I stand firmly in the shifting sands of conventional wisdom, while acceding to the demands of using a blog for business.

Your encouragement and unwavering support have done much to keep me “honest,” doing what I love, instead of trying to be another niche blog. I appreciate you! Instead of a dictionary, let’s play treasure hunt. You have to find as many Brad, Ellen and Seinfeld references as you can. Bookmark this post so you can procrastinate – that’s the solution to every problem.

15 Versatile Bloggers

Melinda has already nominated many of my favorites, though I have a few more to share. If you want to be moved, enlightened and entertained in 2012, add these folks to your blog reader!

  • Marian Allen: MarianAllen.com. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. With writing prompts thrown in!
  • Shane Arthur: CreativeCopyChallenge.com, a writing prompts site. Yeah, anchor text love for my favorite hangout!
  • Leah Petersen: LeahPetersen.com. Fighting Gravity with 5 Minute Flash Fiction challenges!
  • Jessica Hagy: ThisIsIndexed. Support yourself with 3×5 index cards (financially, not structurally.) Brian, this specific link is for you. It’s thematic, if not better.
  • Noeleen: Words Fall From My Eyes. Serious reflections on life, a playful spirit with a wing on the mend.
  • lovelylici1986: Conchsaladesque. Because eclecticism knows no bounds.

I feel like breaking the rules, as I always do. Instead of adding 15, I’m asking you to nominate your picks for the Versatile Blogger Award. Whee!

Seven Random Things

  1. I had a turtle. It was boring. Needed salt, I guess. (I’m kidding!)
  2. I’ve only ever owned two bicycles. I wrecked the first, over time. Sold the second.
  3. I DJ’ed three parties. The first time, I begged my dad for his turntable – and promptly destroyed the needle. The second one, I was just a flack, hauling crates of extended play vinyl for my frat brother. The third time, I was booed from the room. After playing Boogie Nights by Heatwave.
  4. I’ve been on four different airplanes – all non-stop; to and from Miami, Florida and to and from Atlanta, Georgia.
  5. I’ve never owned five golden rings. I’d have to get married three more times…Oh, I never told you, but I was married once before.
  6. I can trace my mass storage through six generations: paper tape, Hollerith punch cards, cassette tapes (Commodore 64), floppy disks, Iomega ZIP disks, CDs. Nowadays, I’m in the cloud and on a 3TB removable drive.
  7. I have seven children. I named them all, despite vehement denials to the contrary.

No matter what you choose to believe about social media, one rock-solid fact is this: you will meet cool people. Social media, as a whole, is the key that unlocks a treasure chest of your own private Six Degrees of Separation. Sometimes, you can even trace those connections but, even if you don’t remember, the links are just as strong.

My treasure chest has gold links looping, twisting and clinking together in pleasing tones and sparkling bangles. I try to take a peek into the treasure chest at least once a day. What good is treasure if you store it in climate-controlled warehouses, accessible only through a flipbook catalog? Bah! Bling is for flaunting, Yo! (Melinda, this is a reference to Mrs. Spelling. Keep looking!)

I was taught to share. Whether I had two cookies or one, if you were sitting on the steps next to me with nothing, I had your back. Today, it’s considered bad form to share cookies on the web (snicker) but I still share links from my treasure chest. You see, links are like ideas, not cookies. If I give you a cookie, I no longer have it (not that there’s anything wrong with that.) However, if I give you a link, we both have a link! Sweet!

Spam Battleground: Episode 1

Aside

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Turning off comments after 30 days bothered two of my readers. Score one for the spammers.
Andy Bailey fired back, with his latest update to CommentLuv Premium! Let’s see how effective the new G.A.S.P. (GrowMap Antispam Plugin) features work:

  • Try leaving a very short comment, like “Great post!“
  • Add two or more hyperlinks in a comment to this post
  • Beat the clock: visit this link and quickly leave a longish comment – paste from text like the good spambot you are simulating!

Let me know what you think, as the feedback will help me to fine-tune the settings to benefit all of us except the little spambots.

Cheers,

Mitch

Scrabble Sunday – Happy New Year!

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Welcome to 2012 and another edition of Scrabble Sunday. This brief post introduces a new section of the Morpho Designs site: Games & Puzzles, where you’ll find my half-baked games and puzzles, not surprisingly.

The Vocabulary Flashcard Trainer

By way of example, I wanted to use an Excel spreadsheet as a vocabulary flashcard trainer. I call this brilliant hack The Vocabulary Flashcard Trainer. Catchy, huh? You can download it from here but, be sure to check out Games & Puzzles and consider trading your name and email address for the free updates that will not appear on the blog.

Happy New Year! I look forward to seeing some of you on the inside!

Download The Vocabulary Flashcard Trainer

Home of the One Million Product Challenge

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Home of the One Million Product Challenge

Welcome to the 2012 edition of Morpho Designs! If you’re new here, you can scroll down to read the latest article. You may also visit the creative sections by clicking one of the the buttons below. The bar at the top has links to more information about the site. Enjoy your stay and be sure to read about the One Million Product Challenge!

Extract Data Fast

Books, Manifestos and Newsletters

Games, Puzzles and Diversions

Tributaries to Fountain of Truth: Book One

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Copyright © 2011 by Mitchell Allen

This is a work of fiction, inpsired by CreativeCopyChallenge.com, a writing prompts site.

“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

Eccl. 1:9

Og was considered a freak. His grossly misshapen head delivered his mother to death. Tiny compensation indeed for the abomination of her transgression. Bak-Ur wrapped the blue-faced, howling monster in old furs and ordered the youngest hunters to place it at the edge of the campsite – an offering to the Hyena God.

***

Trankwill and Delilah could think of nothing finer than to laugh and dance through the meadow, sharing sisterly joy. On this chilly day, they kept warm with their youthful frolicking, unmindful of the glare from hairy monsters at the edge of the wood that bounded the meadow to the north.

***

Blog grunted and pointed. Drog shifted slightly to ease his cramped thighs. The Og thing lay sleeping, less than ten paces away. The crude trap had always worked with bear cubs, as the big cats seemed to have a taste for them. The hunters were about to learn a new trick to share with the tribe. Surely, Bak-Ur would honor them with a place at the ceremonial hearth!

***

Trankwill extracted a reed from her skirts and blew a playful tune through its openings. Delilah clapped with delight. They cavorted and bounced, ever closer to the boundary, fully warmed up, sweat glistening on pale white skin. A thin, discordant cry broke through their revelry. Both stopped short. Listened for a beat. Nascent maternal instincts guided them, unerringly, to the bundle at the edge of the wood.

***

Delilah was too busy staring at the matted fur, trying to discern why it would prick her stomach with a sheet of stress. She almost didn’t pick up the screaming senses coming through her nose and nape.

***

Drog was premature in launching his attack. The noise from the Og thing was not loud enough to cover the sounds of Drog’s crashing through the brambles. His intended prey surprised him with a quick jab to his chest. The sharp pain made Drog cry out, shocking the Og thing into silence. Blog, five feet away, aimed his spear.

***

Delilah had been on the verge of retrieving the bundle when her scalp tingled. Immediately, she extracted the augur from her skirts, spun on her heels and thrust her arm forward in a defensive gesture. Trankwill, a step slower, executed a tuck and roll that brought her directly in front of her sister. A spear came flying out of the brambles. Trankwill grabbed both ends of her reed and waited.

***

Blog was confused. His spear, normally so straight and true, wavered, wobbled and then fell weakly at the feet of the second morsel. The pale white thing picked up his spear and jammed it through the heart of Drog. Blog retreated.

***

Trankwill heard the sounds of retreat. She counted only one such scampering event and concluded that the creature at her feet was one of a pair of unskilled hunters from the no-no-never-go land. She knew the hunter would return to claim his dead comrade. She whistled to Delilah: a coded message of urgency. Her reed was shredded where the crude stone point of the spear had struck it. She returned it to her skirt.

***

Delilah whistled back. Her augur was dripping with lung tissue and blood. She wiped it quickly in the grass, plunged it into the soft soil and returned it to her skirt before plucking the bundle from the ground. Her eyes widened in recognition.

***

Blog was beat mercilessly. Squandering the life of a young hunter meant that the coming winter would be harsher than necessary. The beating was not for that. Failing to obey strict orders was grounds for banishment. Yet, Bak-Ur hesitated to lose three tribe members in one day. Blog had no concept of his relative good fortune but, he accepted his beating. Tiny compensation indeed for his transgression.

***

Delilah proffered the bundle to Shakur, a look of reproach upon her face. Big brother was the most trusted scout in the clan. Gone for days at a time, no-one in the clan knew what he did when he was not drawing paths on bearskins. Delilah knew, and handed him his fruit.