Kind Pointers to Info Streams

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In the Flesh: Three Tips to Journaling Believable Characters
By Barbara Carr Phillips

Writers are natural observers. We note characteristics about people that others miss. How many times have you observed someone, and then revealed that observation to a friend who said, “Yes, yes, that is exactly right! I could not put my finger on what impressed me about that person before.” Here are three journaling tips that will develop your skill of observation.

Tip #1: Choose a Character of the Week

You might not describe your character’s physical appearance at the beginning of your novel, but knowing what he or she looks like will open opportunities to you as you write. Every day we are in contact with others, whether it’s our family, the grocery store clerk or the woman sitting in the car ahead of you at the stoplight. Choose one real person every week to write about in your journal. Write a page about this person, as though you were looking at her through a one-inch picture frame. Include every physical detail: clothing, jewelry, hairstyle, skin tone, fingernails, facial expressions and mannerisms. If you don’t know her name, give one to her. You may discover a character who is ready to bump into the main character of that novel you are working on!

Tip #2: Create your Character’s Goal Log

Select one character of the week (from Tip #1). It’s time to develop this character’s motivation. Step into your character’s shoes and write a personal goal log. It will be similar to a goal log that you would write for yourself. Write about both long-term goals, (saving a million dollars, retiring to Tuscany) and short-term goals, (losing weight, learning to play guitar). Write about why these goals are important to your character. Include all the steps your character will have to take to achieve his or her goals, along with the obstacles he or she may encounter along the way. Some of the goals should be very difficult to achieve or open-ended, just like they are in real life. As you log your character through a difficult goal, which challenges will she or he overcome? Which ones will cause them to give up?

Tip #3: Interview a Character

Leaf through a copy of an old magazine. Cut out a picture of an interesting character. Tape it in your journal. On the opposite page, write interview questions to this person. Answer the questions with your imagination. Having a picture of the person to focus on will help you do that. Write detailed questions, in the present, that relate to the setting of your story. For example, if your story unfolds in Biloxy, Mississippi, but your character looks like a New Yorker, don’t ask him, “Were you born in New York City?” Ask, “How did you end up here, at the Whistle Stop Café, with one beat-up suitcase and no money for a return ticket?”

Your writer’s journal can help you create characters for your short stories and novels that readers will understand and enjoy. If your reader believes your character, he or she will also believe your story.

About the Author

Barbara Carr Phillips, journal instructor, believes dreams come true when you learn to journal your way to success. Visit http://journalworkshops.net to order
your one-on-one journaling session or to sign up for her free e-zine.

It has become obvious that a company is only as efficient as its software. This is the technology age. More is being done faster and more automated than ever before. Anyone who is running a business has seen the benefits of software development. Unfortunately along with this development comes many errors, glitches, and set backs. Developing new software can be a very painful process if the right measures are not followed. Imagine integrating software that is supposed to track and order inventory only to have it implemented and cause crashes on the system. This would take hours to fix and you still need to be running business as normal to keep your customers happy. Whether your IT group is developing its own application or you are integrating a third party application to help you manage a critical business function, it is a good idea to consult with experienced software developing companies. They will limit the potential risks accompanied by installing new application. These consulting companies have extensive experience making test software to help you ensure that your application will function as you expect and that there won’t be other problems.

Software Development companies take the testing responsibility so your valued IT staff can focus on their core competencies. Many times in-house IT groups lack the time, resources and experience to thoroughly test new applications. Allowing an outside source to take on this responsibility of making a software test will save you time and keep the business running as usual. Some of the main advantages of Software Development companies are they have streamlined test practices, proven methodologies, clear and comprehensive test planning, complete test metrics with trend analysis, total knowledge transfer and ongoing skill-building training programs.
A company is only as efficient as its IT group typically. Let them thrive in their area of expertise and allow outside professionals with test making software to take care to the integration and implementation of new complicated applications. This will show that you understand the skill set of your IT group and that you want to help them help the company. It is important that you test making software in a controlled environment.
Software development companies have controlled environments and will discover and troubleshoot many of your new applications problems before you even have to deal with them. Listed below are ways software development companies test new software. Regression Testing is the term used for re-testing after fixes or modifications of the software or its environment. Re-running test cases for a new build of software that includes new features, to ensure that product features still work. Automated Testing Tools can be very effective for this type of testing process.

Other types of test done are; user acceptance testing, installation testing, negative testing, and smoke testing. User acceptance testing involves testing based in specifications or use of the end-user. It determines if the software meets the acceptance criteria and should be widely implemented in an organization. The installation testing makes sure that in the cases of an unexpected event that information on the system will be preserved. These events could be loss of power or insufficient memory. Negative testing attempts to find the situations where the software fails. This is very important as it will help prevent future problems that will arise. Smoke test is part of the initial testing process to determine if a new software version is performing well enough to undergo further testing. For example if the software causes crash, slows down the system or corrupts data it isn’t ready for further testing. With all of these available tools and test in most cases you are better of relying on professional software development companies with their own test making software.

Mark Keller is a Client Account Specialist for 10x Marketing, an internet marketing company. If you would like to learn more about Test Making Software visit Aculis.com.

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The Super Bowl in 2009 was a great game to watch. Just when you thought that Arizona was going to pull it off, it turn the other direction and Pittsburg takes home the trophy. The game was an aggressive game, both teams wanted to win real bad, they put their hearts on their sleeves and gave it their all. If you watched the game with your friends and ate a whole lot of food yesterday, you could take the acceletrim solution to help speed up your metabolism today and give you some extra energy, you might want to get to the gym and get a workout in.

This years Super Bowl represented a lot how life can be at times. If you are like the Arizona Cardinals you can have the best rally ever and almost make it. If you are like the Pittsburg Stealers you could be up, then down, and then pull it off in the end. There can be a lot of similarities drawn from both teams if you really look into it. The bottom line though is that both teams gave it all that they had and when you have this, people flock to it and have a great deal of respect and admiration for the effort put in. It was one of the best games ever played and it has to do with the heart and determination of all of the players on the teams. Thanks for playing such a great game this year.