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Very good, you have discovered I used an oxymoron,want a cookie? As for blogs not serving as sufficient evidence, you have overlooked the experiment with sailors I have posted, the information about armed services using a similar method, and that it is not pseudoscience, it is just a new way of forcing your brain to enter desirable phases of sleep by ignoring other phases of sleep. :| I question what you were thinking if you actually used the oxymoron on purpose. It doesn't help your argument in any way. Seems more like an accidental occurence resulting from you trying to be condescending. The Sailor experiment shows what, an hour and a half less total hours of sleep in the most extreme cases? Not a huge difference. Plus sailing is a physically demanding job and they are most likely tired enough to find sleep when they can. In fact that's the whole reason they adopted that sleep schedule in the first place. A poor study overall, as it focuses on one specialized group instead of a more general population and 99 people is not a lot. Not a lot at all, especially for this kind of study. I don't see a source for the army claims. EDIT: It was in the Wiki article, I see. I don't see how that supports this, to be honest. They still get 8 hours of sleep. As said, it's pseudoscience.

Most of your sources are blogs, which are not credible. Since no medical source has confirmed this, it is not real science. Also, "incredible quantity of insufficient knowledge" is an oxymoron.

FC'ed Up Around the Bend. Came close to FC'ing Our Truth, The Joker, Everlong, Ramblin' Man, Hotel California. Yay?

I got three options to classify these parents: 1) They're honest imbeciles. 2) They want attention, of any kind. 3) They're Nazis. Really, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation and Adolf Hitler? Come on.

It would have been interesting if the writers actually stuck with the real Theory of Relativity and had Hiro, Ando, and Daphne wait 16 years before they showed up in Suresh's loft again :lol: *They disappear* [2 seconds later] Mat: Oh God.

^Yes. And God damn.

That just reminded me that Sylar still can't fly. Noob :lol: I dunno, there's really no way to tell yet whether Peter got all his powers back or just his empathy. One would hope he got them all back, or he's not going to be much use evading and resisting the government. At least if he didn't get them all back he wouldn't have Hiro's, and therefore wouldn't do any more annoying [cabbage] with time travel.

Sylar's whole Saw thing he had going on was pretty sweet. He's not dead, obviously, as his dad will be showing up in the next volume . . . They killed off pretty much every new character except Daphne and, if she counts, Tracy. And PETER GOT HIS POWERS BACK!

We had a version of dodgeball where the players had to stay outside the court, around the edges. The teams basically chased each other around the "track" trying to gain the advantage. We stopped playing that when some kid busted his jaw open running into someone else. We still play traditional dodgeball though.

^What Ginger said. I thought it was a copypasta until I read the last two lines. Doesn't qualify as an essay, so you better pray that your teacher wanted a report instead.

I nearly died laughing seeing a few vids of people trying drums and vocals on They're Red Hot for the first time :lol: Afterwards I was like . . . wow . . . I have a nostalgic memory of the fight with Aragog in Chamber of Secrets for PC. "Bite him, my childrennnnnnnnnnnnnn!!" Yeah I was scared.

Living Fetus. Oh, just think of the most repulsive and un-PC thing you can. Like We Eat Babies. Don't worry, people are supposed to laugh.

That choke is hilarious :lol: "faaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuughhh" Dumb song though.

I think it's a good show :| I don't care about how much other 'quality' anime anyone has watched, FMA holds its own among TV shows I've seen in general, along with Death Note. The manga is good too. It would be cool if the new series focused on the manga story, though Reb already pointed out how hard that would be . . .

I might if I could choose when I stopped living forever.

Three month bump. Awesome. I prefer dogs. Pretty sure I already posted on this thread so I'll leave it at that.

My GH3 won't work :evil: It shows up on the Wii menu, then when I click on it to start it just reboots the Wii menu. None of my other games do this. GH3 hates me.

I would switch 'believable' and 'possible' around. Stories should be believable, not possible. The reason being that something like a dragon breathing fire is just plain biologically impossible, but taken in the context of a fantasy world where there are likely magic and other outlandish things it is believable. This is where suspension of disbelief comes in. We know magic doesn't exist. Nor does the Force. People can't throw things around with their minds or shoot lightning from their fingertips. Not possible. But in a fictional world where these things are taken as a matter of course, our suspension of disbelief--which implies belief--allows them. [Ratchet responded while I was typing this so let me emphasize the above paragraph. Paragraph has been emphasized.] But as you yourself said, a world too outlandish just makes it difficult for readers to immerse themselves. That is why laws of our world must still be applied in some areas. You can be somewhat selective about what aspects of the real world you choose to keep, but choose wisely. I agree on the point about not going too in-depth. I believe that would fall under purple prose in a way, but a mention is warranted. Going in-depth is not required to make things believable, but it would be were you aiming to make it seem possible. I hope you see what I mean by this. Anyway, I think writers will eventually start to pick up on the fact that it is not necessary to describe every minute detail about everything. The small words rule can be applied here, methinks. Only with sentences. Also agreed that you must adhere to the rules of your own world. Not the best example for 'said' I know, but I was trying to keep hold of my thoughts for everything else so I wasn't going to be spending too much time on that . . . I'll find a better one. Totally agreed about the character and plot point, I didn't mean to imply that the world should be in stasis until your main character does something. All the other people in it are characters too. Mary-Sues . . . alright. Don't see where you were going with this one, exactly. If you can pull off a character that has some of the characteristics of a Sue, by all means do it. It's just inadvisable to go too far as the temptation is pretty strong. And for new writers I think Sues are one of the biggest things to be avoided.

Cool story. Exactly how much are we allowed to change it in a rewrite?

IMPORTANT This guide is not the be-all end-all how-to-write list of commandments. It is an open discussion. No one is expected to follow this perfectly, nor is it absolutely required at any level. These are nothing more than general guidelines for any writing, and serious writing with a genuine attempt at true literary value should at least bear the points mentioned in mind. This thread is as much open for "review" as any posted work.

Too high and too close together. Put your hands out like you're carrying a stack of firewood or something. That's where they should be. Trust me, it's hard to catch a ball going in an outward arc when you hands are clutched to your chest.

Isn't it obvious? His father's a serial killer too.

Forearms are approximately waist height and parallel with each other when juggling.

I could have gone on longer I think, but that had taken me over an hour and I needed to stop. I may add some more in later. The same goes for the examples; it was hard to come up with stuff when I was trying to get everything I wanted in within a reasonable timeframe. I don't disagree that it's fine to use archetypes, but they can cause as much of a disconnect with the reader as prototypes so you have to find a balance. My basic goal was to give people a heads up, you don't have to follow this to the letter (AHEM) but eventually you will just know these things without trying.

Awesome. Now the only thing to stop me from getting it is my lack of wireless networking.