Shapes you should use to draw a cartoon mouse including adding detail to make it look more realistic; learn tips, ticks and more for creating realistic cartoon drawings in this free online art lesson about cartoons taught by expert Matt Moskal. Expert: Matt Moskal Bio: Matt Moskal is a free-lance artist with a BA in Elementary / Special Education. Filmmaker: Christopher Rokosz
Summer, as we all know, is the season for movie blockbusters. The summer of 2007 promises to be one of the biggest yet, with several second and third installments of feature film franchises that already have a large following hitting the theaters. From Pirates and Superheroes to animated characters and real life characters who are overly animated, expect a record breaking season that may go down as the highest grossing ever.
Starting things off with a bang is “Spider Man 3”, the Sam Raimi directed prequel to the sixth highest grossing movie of all time, Spiderman. We rejoin the friendly webslinger as he battles a new cache of villains while fighting off the effects of a symbiotic lifeforce that has attached itself to him in the form a new spider-suit.
If superheroes aren’t to your liking, maybe the comedy of Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy in the highly anticipated “Shrek 3” will do the trick. The third film in the series finds Shrek faced with the arduous task of finding someone to fill the recently deceased King of Far, Far Away land’s shoes lest he should have to do it himself. All the main characters from “Shrek 2” return to handle the voicework.
Last years blockbuster, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Black Pearl”, has set sail for new waters. The third and likely last in the series, tagged “Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End”, is scheduled for release on May 25th and features the reunion of Captain Jack Sparrow and his long lost pirate father, played by none other than Keith Richards.
Steven Soderbergh has once again dragged out the A and B-list for another round of Danny Ocean and company hijinks in “Ocean’s 13”. The latest version finds the crew teaming up with casino boss and enemy Andy Garcia for their biggest job yet.
Whether sequel or prequel, nothing this summer has quite the draw (both literally and figuratively) of “The Simpson’s Movie”. “The Simpsons” are the second longest running television show in history, behind only “The Adventures of Ozzy and Harriet”. Creator Matt Groening promises more of what we know and love, but in the context of a well thought out story.
Last, but certainly not least, is the reunion of east meets west for “Rush Hour 3”. Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan are at it again with a new crime to solve, one which will take them to Paris, among other locations.
To draw Bart Simpson’s face, draw a rectangular face with large eyes and a tubed-shaped nose. Learn to draw Bart Simpson’s face with tips from a professional illustrator and graphic artist in this free video on drawing. Expert: Jay French Contact: www.JayFrenchStudios.com Bio: Jay French is a lifelong artist with 19 years of experience as a professional illustrator and graphic artist. Filmmaker: Todd Green
One of the inherited doctrines of mankind is that the Quran is quoted or borrowed from the Bible. The Bible says that the Hoopoe is detested and unclean and forbid eating the Hoopoe.
The Quran says that the Hoopoe is intelligent, smart, knows and worships his Creator, and communicated with King Solomon.
Leviticus 11
Unclean and Detested bird:
13 “These are the birds you are to detest and not eat because they are detestable: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, 14 the red kite, any kind of black kite, 15 any kind of raven, 16 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, 17 the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, 18 the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, 19 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.
Deuteronomy 14
Unclean Food:
11 You may eat any clean bird. 12 But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, 13 the red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon, 14 any kind of raven, 15 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, 16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, 17 the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant, 18 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.
In the Bible dictionary it is said: “Although the hoopoe bird is only referred to once in the Bible, it is known to be a faithful companion of people all over the world”.
However, the dictionary does not tell that the hoopoe is detested according to Leviticus 11 and also, there is no verse in the Bible which says that is a faithful companion of people all over the world. I bet that the writers of the Bible dictionary have read the Noble Quran and put such an observation about the hoopoe as a faithful companion of people all over the world.
The story of the hoopoe with King Solomon illustrates how faithful, smart was the hoopoe.
Hoopoe in the Quran:
The Hoopoe is mentioned once in the Noble Quran, in Surah 27.
Prophet Solomon was a king whose armies consisted of troops made of men and Jinns and birds. It is possible that the birds were employed for communicating the messages, hunting and for other suitable services.
Detective and Messenger of Prophets
[20] And he took a muster of the Birds; and he said: “Why is it I see not the Hoopoe? Or is he among the absentees?
[21] “I will certainly punish him with a severe penalty, or execute him, unless he brings me a clear reason (for absence).”
[22] But he (the hoopoe) tarried not far: he (came up and) said: “I have compassed (territory) which thou hast not compassed, and I have come to thee from Saba with tidings true.
[23] “I found (there) a woman ruling over them and provided with every requisite; and she has a magnificent throne.
[24] “I found her and her people worshipping the sun besides Allah: Satan has made their deeds seem pleasing to their eyes, and has kept them away from the Path, so they receive no guidance,
[25] “(Kept them away from the Path) that they should not worship Allah, Who brings to light what is hidden in the heavens and the earth, and knows what ye hide and what ye reveal.
[26] “Allah! – there is no god but He! – Lord of the Throne supreme!”
[27] (Solomon) said: “Soon shall we see whether thou hast told the truth or lied!
28] “Go thou, with this letter of mine, and deliver it to them: then draw back from them, and (wait to) see what answer they return”…
[29] (The Queen) said: “Ye chiefs! here is – delivered to me – a letter worthy of respect.
[30] “It is from Solomon, and is (as follows): ‘In the name of Allah, Most Gracious Most Merciful:
[31] “`Be ye not arrogant against me, but come to me in submission (to the true Religion).”
The story of how Solomon and the Queen of Saba (Yemen) met: One day Solomon inspected his birds but did not find the Hoopoe. When the bird came back he said, “With truthful news I come to you from Saba, where I found a woman reigning over people and they worship the sun instead of Allah.
Solomon ordered the Hoopoe to return to her and give her a message calling her not to exalt herself above him (Solomon), but come to him in all submission. The Hoopoe did his job perfectly.
In the Qur’an (27:20) we read that Prophet Solomon reviewed his birds and found Hoopoe missing. His most movable arm was the birds, which were light on the wing and flew and saw everything like talented scouts. Prophet Solomon conveys his anger and his yearning to punish Hoopoe severely if he does not present himself before Prophet Solomon with a realistic explanation. Within a short time, the Hoopoe came back and said, “I have got knowledge of things which you have no idea about. I have brought sure information about Saba (Yemen now). There, I have seen a woman ruling over her people: she has been given all sorts of provisions, and she has a wonderful throne. I saw that she and her people prostrate themselves before the sun and worshiped the sun, instead of Allah.!”
Prophet Solomon said, “We shall just now see whether what you say is true, or that you are a liar. Take this letter of mine and cast it before them; then get aside and see what reaction they show.” Qur’an, 27: 27-28.
Here, ends the role of Hoopoe in the story.
In this story, the Noble Quran gives the Hoopoe some characters that need intense research to be elucidated by the scientists. The Hoopoe had the powers of observation, discrimination and expression that it should pass over a country and should come to know that it is the land of Saba, it has such and such a scheme of government, it is ruled by a certain woman, its faith is sun-worship, that it should have worshipped One Lord, Allah instead of having gone off track, and then on its return to Prophet Solomon it should so clearly make a report of all its observations before him.
In spite of great advances in science and technology, man cannot tell with absolute certainty what powers and abilities the different species of animals and their different individuals have got? Man has not so far been able to know through any certain means what different animals know and what they see and hear, and what they feel and think and understand, and know how the mind of each one of them works. Yet, whatever little observation has been made of the life of the different species of animals, it has revealed some of their wonderful abilities. Now, when Allah, Who is the Creator of these animals, tells us that He had taught the speech of the birds to one of His Prophets and blessed him with the ability to speak to them, and the Prophet’s taming and training had so enabled a Hoopoe that it could make certain observations in the foreign lands and could report them to the Prophet, then we should be prepared to revise our little knowledge about the animals in the light of Allah’s statement.
“… We raise to degrees (of wisdom) whom We please: but over all endued with knowledge is One, the All-Knowing.” Surah 12:76
Back to our main issue; one may ask this: Is the Quran quoted from the Bible? And which book precedes the sciences? The book which that the hoopoe is a detested bird or the book which precedes the sciences and says that the hoopoe has the powers of observation, discrimination and expression and it is one of the best detective and messenger?
Please check out our web site … http://www.gillhamsfishingresorts.com for all the latest news and info about fishing in Thailand at Gillhams Fishing Resorts.
Hi everyone and welcome to 2009. Let’s all hope this recession ends soon – it’s really crippling us, as the first thing people do in troubled times is not take an exotic holiday. Don’t forget to cheer yourselves up and come and see me at the Carpin’ On show 2009 at Five Lakes near Maldon in Essex – see the link on our website. We are on Stand 10A, and if you book and pay on the day you receive a 10% discount. If you bring a Big Carp Magazine and show me, we will give you a further 5% discount, so that’s a massive 15% off the best fishing holiday on the planet. If you buy your tickets in advance for the show you automatically go into the free draw for a week for two with flights, fishing and accommodation at Gillhams Krabi. Just click on the link above.
The first few days of January saw the end of a holiday for a few people who spent Christmas with us. It’s always a sad moment, as people who came as clients and leave as friends depart, but most rebook so we all meet again. As I write this report the heatwave continues; we are having the hottest January on record, the sun is relentless, and every day is over 100 degrees. We haven’t had a drop of rain in five weeks; the lake has dropped a foot as we water the gardens twice a day from the lake. The gardens are struggling in the heat in the jungle around us; the trees are going brown so I just hope there isn’t a fire! The intense heat and flat calm conditions are making the fishing very hard, especially for the arapaima; they are just not feeding hard at all, just taking the odd snack. The Mekong catfish have started to feed in earnest again though, and it seems the stingray like the hot weather also. Talking of stingray, I was landing one for angler Eric Keogh, and stingrays are hard to net – it takes two or three of us to manhandle them into the net. As I was shoving the fish into the net, it swished its tail, impaling its sting into my foot, and I have never in my life experienced pain like it! Within seconds my whole leg was on fire; it was like someone pushing a red-hot poker up my leg, and all my muscles started to seize up as I went into shock.
The lads on the lake bundled me into our car and drove like lunatics to the local hospital, where they had been pre-warned of our arrival. The hospital had staff waiting, and I was rushed into emergency. By now the pain was excruciating, and my shirt was soaked with sweat. Immediately two doctors appeared and started injecting my foot wit Easy Cartoon Drawing : How to Draw a Cartoon Mouse
h anesthetics and an anti-venom type substance. Next, the doctor cut open the wound and removed the sting and a black skin that covers the sting. The wound was then packed out with antibiotics and cotton wool. I had to go to hospital every day for over a week for more injections, and to have the wound opened and cleaned. All our stingrays in the lake had their stings removed, but we did not realize that every so often a stingray has two stings. This one had been overlooked and had two; the sting folds flat to the tail and we had missed this one. The 110lb fish had its sting removed this time. We have stingray to over 200lb in the lake, and in future we will no longer net them in this way until we are sure the sting is absent. Fishing at the lake is perfectly safe as stingrays stay away from people. They are like any creature – if cornered and panicked they lash out. The only time they will sting is when you start annoying them. It was my own fault for being blas? about these beautiful fish. I will have more respect for them next time, and for our customer’s safety no angler is allowed in the lake until any fish has been contained and made safe. This ensures that our customers are 100% safe at all times. For the record freshwater stingray are believed to reach 1,000lbs with 5m wingspans, so this fish was a baby really at 110lb. Mind you, can you imagine a 110lb hornet? We have five different species of fish in Gillhams over 100lb, and landing these huge fish is dangerous. We are professionals but we still get hurt; a moment’s lapse in concentration is all it takes. I will repeat our customers are safe as long as they take our advice and do not enter the water ‘til we say it is 100% safe to do so.
We are still getting the odd person, with the emphasis on odd, who come here, get a huge fish, and feel let down because they wanted one bigger. One guy this month had a 60lb Chao Phraya catfish, which is only 4lb off the world record, but he did not want a photo because in his words he will wait for a big fish. He even admitted it was the biggest fish he had ever caught! Mind you the same guy had his biggest carp, but waited for a bigger one, then when he had an arapaima and a big red tail catfish in a day, he was also disappointed because he had to wait a whole seven hours between fish! Oh where do they come from? Luckily the real nice guys who appreciate catching fish outweigh these so-called fishermen. Some people just want a trophy shot, and do not wish to put in any effort. We even get some that are gutted they don’t get several 100lb fish a day with a couple of 300lb-plus fish thrown in. We are thinking of starting a new service for these people where people can order their fish online; we will enhance their mug behind a fish and send them the picture of their prize without them even having to take the trouble to come here, and I bet we would have some takers! The other annoying people who come here who really wind us up are the litter louts. Last week we had a prat come here who actually called his self Gayland (I kid you not) with his two boyfriends, who I presume were called Ben Dover and Phil McCavity! Now he (it) was the typical berk who only wanted a trophy shot. On arrival they commented how beautiful the place is, only to throw rubbish all around their swim! Luckily I was out all day and just missed them leaving, because their swim was an absolute tip with rubbish strewn everywhere. It took the boys ten minutes to clear the mess of food wrappers, fag ends and general crap! If I had been there I would have donned the rubber gloves and dragged them by their blouses to clear up the mess themselves! We supply rubbish bags and have sand pots in the swims for faggot ends, so please use them. I personally get really angry about cigarette ends thrown on the ground or tossed in the lake. It makes me wonder what these people’s houses are like. That’s it – monthly whinge over!
Back to a bit of humor – my manager Watt, bless him, is very gullible and Sean got him a treat this month. Watt wanted to know how he could increase the size of his manhood, so Sean informed him of a cream called 3-in-1 that triples the size of your tackle, and poor young Watt fell for it. My daughter Becca bought some Immac hair remover over at Christmas, so we put it in a plain bottle and presented it to Watt. He went off with our security man the local policeman; they smeared the cream around their parts, and sat around for an hour talking of what they were going to do with their new king size weapons! After an hour they washed the cream off, along with all their forest. They came to see me in a state of horror and shock, but were very relieved when I told them it is the first stage of growth and to repeat it next month. Oh what a horrid person I am! Roll on next month!
The top method this month looks alien to European anglers, but lots of Siamese carp are coming out to a method feeder fished 3ft below a float with a golf ball sized fishmeal boilie suspended under it. Now I just wonder, would this method work in European waters? The first of the new arrivals were our dear friends Wil and Betty from Holland, who came last year for a few days and stayed a few weeks before setting off on an epic motorcycle journey from India back to Holland. This time their trip was tame, coming straight to Thailand and back by plane. We are planning a trip together now for June when we are going into the jungle fishing for Thai mahseer, that’s if the troubles in the Congo don’t end, because the minute they do we are all planning to race to catch a Goliath tiger fish. Last year Wil and Betty came as clients, and this year, as with many of our guests, they returned as friends. They planned a five-day trip here, and once again stayed longer – as Wil got into the fishing, the trip grew to ten days. We were dreading another group that came to us, as there were 30 people. We had to arrange a speedboat to collect them from an Island 50 miles away, and minibuses to transport them from the beach to here, but they were an absolute joy to host. The whole day went smoothly, and we even managed to accommodate them for the night when they didn’t wish to leave. There was not one person in the group who was the slightest problem, but the fish kept their nuts down though, as there had never been so many lines in the lake at once. Paul and Lorraine, it was a pleasure hosting you all, and we are looking forward to you all returning this year for a holiday. As for Lorraine, she deserved a medal organizing the whole holiday for 30.
We also had a visit from two brothers who we nicknamed The Wurzels, a really nice pair of lads who lived on a farm in the country, and decided to have an adventure. They had never been out of their county, let alone the country, and they had never heard of a place called Oxford where our guide Kevin hails from. Imagine the boys’ surprise when they landed in Thailand! Apparently at home they don’t go out drinking, “We’ze don’ts goes out dranking, we’ze stays in wiz a noice cup orf tea.” We asked one brother if he saw the guy opposite land the big Mekong catfish. He replied, “Nooooooo, I warz wachin’ der arnts – oi loike arnts, they is fazinating indzects.” Yes they were proper characters, really nice lads on an adventure, and imagine their return home to the farm explaining all the things they had seen to their family, “Duz yoo nowz in that Thailand theyz eats frags snakez an bugz, and even der gals haz got willies, not likes our sis aat all, yer nowz!” I must stop, but they kept us amused and were real nice guys.
So now enough of my twaddle and onto the fishing. This month has seen 45 day tickets (30 in one group) and 38 guests on Thailand fishing holidays, fishing in Thailand from a few days to a couple of weeks. Between them they landed 465 fish of 15 species, made up as follows… 25 arapaima to 400lbs, 12 Mekong catfish to 180lbs, 255 Siamese carp to 120lbs, 72 red tail catfish to 80lbs, five alligator gar to 15lbs, four Asian red tail catfish to 30lbs, 13 black pacu to 30lbs, seven Chao Phraya catfish to 65lbs, 19 spotted sorubim to 35lbs, four Julian’s golden prize carp to 25lbs, eight spotted featherback to 10lbs, 17 rohu carp to 16lbs, 18 striped snakehead to 4lbs, five giant stingray to 120lbs, and one wallago attu of 24lb.
As mentioned earlier Wil, with his much better half Betty, from Holland were the first new guests in after Christmas. The fishing this year was slower than last, but as Wil targets big fish it suited him and his style of fishing. Wil’s target this year was to fish Siam carp. Betty once again was chief photographer, reporter, general gopher, and live bait catcher. Betty loves float fishing for our lesser species, but Wil made strict rules – no float fishing before 9am so as not to spook the fish! Wil ended his session with five arapaima to 200lb, 13 Siamese carp to 110lb, and three Mekong catfish to 130lb. That’s three species in one trip exceeding 100lb! Plus he had five red tail catfish to 45lb, and some rohu and pacu.
The next new arrivals who came to us via Siam fishing tours, were totally laid back Mark with his non-fishing wife Carol. I have never in my life met someone as chilled out as Mark, a lovely guy who just got taken in by the peace and tranquility of Gillhams. We actually had to pick up Mark and all his equipment and move him to a different spot, as for four days Mark sat gazing in awe at the beauty of our resort, failing to cast at showing fish or sometimes for that matter even failing to cast. Poor Mark ended the trip with just one fish (mind you that was one more than Siam fishing tours managed to get him). He has vowed to return with his fishing head on next time, but mind you, Mark showed that you do not need to catch fish to enjoy a trip here. Day-ticket visitor pearl necklace Terry came for a day on the busiest day of the month when we had the group of 30 in, but he saw enough to fit a four-hour session in the next morning before leaving Krabi, and his keenness paid off with a 55lb Chao Phraya catfish and three Siamese carp to 40lb. Ian Norris, an ex-pat living in Australia did the usual, a 24-hour trip, and left it ‘til the last hour to catch, but it was worth the wait when first he landed a rare wallago attu at 24lb, followed by the ever-friendly Siamese carp, Black Spot, at 70lb.
Steve Cox made a return visit for a three-day trip with his mate Colin and two Thai friends, Kuan and Jay, who are regulars at Bungsamlan Lake in Bangkok. The Thai lads gave the two Brits a proper lesson in fishing with their knowledge of Thai species, landing 25 fish to the Britt’s 11 fish! Whenever Coxie leaves Gillhams, a big Siamese carp comes out, and this trip was no exception because as he left Wil had a 110lb carp. Another 48-hour visitor was builder Steve Holberry from Manchester with his mate Mark. They landed 12 fish between them, with the icing on the cake going to Steve in the shape of a 90lb Siamese carp. The cobblers from Manchester, Ross and Slim John, made the short drive from Phuket for a 1? day trip. Slim John only made part of the first day, and retired knackered after landing seven carp in a short flurry of action, deciding to stop while ahead, and work his way through our restaurant menu! Ross meanwhile gave his all, fishing ‘til the final whistle for a haul of six Siamese carp to 60lb, one 50lb red tail catfish, and a 150lb Mekong catfish. This fish took him all over the lake while Slim sat eating a box of pies. Judging by the amount consumed by Slim, we estimated the fight took one hour, or 10 pies, 11 cakes, a bucket of ice cream, and 20 fags!
Then came the incredible hulk brothers Ricky and Terry Clark. These two giants were spot-on sound guys who came and enjoyed every moment of their stay. They came hoping for an arapaima, but whatever they caught was a bonus – just the attitude needed to fish here. Now the first day Ricky, who is about 10ft tall with a physique that makes Arnie look a wimp, caught a nice Mekong catfish. He plucked it from the landing net as if it was a minnow, “How big,” he asked? Well judging by the ease with which he had just lifted, it I would have said 5lb, but went for 120lb instead so as not to offend him! “No,” he stated, “I reckon 180lb,” and who was I to argue? But to humour him, I went to lift it, and amidst laughter from all around, I nearly followed through, and for sure it was easily 180lb. Ricky went on to take three Mekong, 17 Siamese carp, two red tail catfish, one pacu, and his target species, a nice 200lb arapaima. Terry, who is the same size as Ricky, with arms like hams, caught ten fish including two 100lb-plus arapaima. I am very glad the brothers were here when they were, as during this time I had the mishap with the stingray, and the lads plucked me from the lake like a feather and ran with me to the waiting car. Thanks you two, I owe you one. The hot weather was certainly bringing the stingrays on the feed, as two days later Keith from Liverpool landed another one, minus a sting! This fish weighed in at 120lb, and compensated for a lost arapaima.
Another laid back Mr. Nice Guy, Ken Weeks, booked in for a week. Ken came to chill out and hopefully catch a few fish. He was great fun to be with, and thoroughly enjoyed his stay here. The first few days Ken just chilled in the wrong swim, but was not bothered. Later in the week he moved to the other end of the lake, landing 31 fish for the week. He got into a shoal of Siamese carp, and took 18 to 50lb. At the same time my dear friends Jamie and Carol Mclean arrived just for a quiet break to see us. Jamie did manage a couple of short sessions between the swimming pool and sightseeing, while Carol divulged her secret steak and kidney pudding and bacon pudding recopies to Steve. Oh mate, these are to die for, and are now on the menu here at Gillhams – I have already put on another 20lbs! Jamie’s best fish from five was a red tail of 65lb. I had an enquiry before Christmas from a guy by the name of Jerker who wished to visit for a 48-hour trip. I thought it was a wind-up from a mate, but actually it turns out to be a popular name in Scandinavian countries – apparently there are lots of Jerkers over there! I suppose when they leave they say Jerker’s off! Sorry couldn’t resist that; it’s a bit like the lad called Wayne Kerr. OK back to the story… Jerker was a fishing fanatic; he booked three rods, and was buzzing from the moment he arrived. He had his better half Ida with him, and what a pair! He said that Ida could fish, but he only wanted her to use maize or boilies so as not to catch bigger fish than him. The first day Ida was a machine, taking eight Siamese carp in a short feeding spell, but the next day she properly gave Jerker a spanking with a 150lb Mekong catfish in the morning, followed by three more Siamese carp to 120lb. While all this was happening, poor Jerker in the next swim landed just two fish. The following week Jerker returned for a day’s fishing, and to save face poor Ida was not allowed to fish! He had a better day, probably because Ida was showing him what to do, landing five fish with some small carp, by Ida’s standards, up to 55lb, along with a nice featherback around 12lb.
Reiner from Dream Lake in Chiang Mai sent his Austrian client Andreas to us. By the time he arrived we were in the middle of a heatwave and the fishing was slow, but in a week he still managed 21 fish of five species. His target featherback eluded him, but on the final day, in the last hour of fishing, Andreas landed a dream fish in the shape of a 400lb arapaima! This was the same fish that rescued Len Gurd’s trip last month, again in the last hour of the last day. This arapaima is just packing on the weight – it was stocked at 300lb and avoided capture for 18 months. We are sure if it avoids capture for the next 18 months, it will reach 500lbs! At the same time as Andreas we had German client Peter in for three days. Peter’s target were predators, and he scored with two arapaima, best 160lb-plus, an 85lb stingray, and also took three red tail catfish. Germany has been making a good appearance here this month, and our final German client for the month was catfish fanatic Michael Zellner, who came for four days, and immediately rebooked for July when the heatwave will be well and truly over, as it will be our rainy season by then. Michael only landed nine fish due to the extreme heat, as we suffered the hottest January on record, but he did land his dream fish, an arapaima of 120lb. Michael’s attitude was what we wish everyone’s would be, enjoy the holiday – one big fish makes the holiday, and he could see enough potential here if the weather is kind to re book.
A bit of a sad one is the way to describe the next visitors. Here at Gillhams we want everyone to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the lake. We designed a fishery for the specialist angler where patience is rewarded with the biggest fish of your dreams. Most people catch a dream fish in a week, and sometimes two or three. We have never claimed Gillhams as a mackerel fishing location where you catch a fish a chuck from an overcrowded stock pond where all the fish are starving and emaciated. Our fish are the biggest and best-conditioned fish in Asia due to a low stocking density and an abundance of natural food. You should expect around four fish a day with a dream fish as a bonus. Henk and Job from Holland had not done their homework because if you look through our website you will see we are not a single specie overstocked bowl, and we chose the area for its peace, quiet and beauty, not like Bungsamlan in Bangkok where you can sit with crowds of muppets crossing lines amongst skyscrapers and fumes, hauling out vast bags of starved, badly beaten catfish before heading back to your hotel through traffic jams for a night of debauchery in the girlie bars. Unfortunately Gillhams was not for Henk and Job, so after a few days of only fishing part time they landed six fish, with a stingray of 80lb and Siamese carp to 50lb, before they headed back to Bangkok for a wild time in the bars, plus sticking hooks in numerous half starved and tatty Mekong and striped catfish amongst the crowds.
By contrast to Henk and Job, the next guest had read up on us, and wanted peace, quiet and big fish in beautiful surroundings. The spritely 70-years-young Arthur Hawkins, with his delightful fishing partner and wife Angie, came for a week on their way home from visiting their daughter and grandchildren in Australia. Arthur first noticed Gillhams via the article by Gary Newman in Anglers Mail after the Anglers Mail visit here. Arthur’s target was a big fish of any species, as he wanted to win a Jonny foreigner hat. In a week of chilling out and a second honeymoon, Arthur landed 13 fish of five species, the best being two arapaima to 220lb, and four red tail catfish to 75lb. Not to be outdone, Angie showed just what the women can do; she was a very competent and experienced fisherwoman who is thoroughly enjoying retirement with Arthur, fishing around the world. Angie landed 12 fish of four species, the best being four red tail catfish to 80lb, and six Siamese carp to 45lb. If poor Angie had not lost a couple of big fish, one being an arapaima, she would have upstaged Arthur. The couple both realized that the extreme heat was slowing the fishing, but agreed that Gillhams would still be paradise without the fish – in their words the fish were a bonus. Top couple, top fishing – we will see them both later in the year.
Gillhams is starting to get noticed in Singapore, so if any of our Singaporean followers are reading this and know the dates of the Singapore fishing show, please email me so we can attend and show just what we have, only a 1? hour flight from Singapore. One guy who made the trip this month was Nick Wheeler, an ex-pat Englishman working and living there, Nick came with his wife and one-year-old daughter for a week’s holiday with three days fishing, and landed ten fish in the three days of six species, with arapaima to 120lb, Chao Phraya catfish to 60lb, a baby Mekong catfish of 65lb, plus red tail catfish to 65lb along with Siamese carp and sorubim, all in all a fair bit of sport for a short trip.
So that’s me running out of space folks, but don’t forget the Five Lakes show on the 7/8 March. By the time you get next month’s newsletter I will be freezing in the UK, wearing shoes, long trousers and jackets for the first time in a year! If your fishing club want a talk on Thailand fishing holidays or fishing in Thailand, please contact me, as I still have some dates available. Forget the recession, and treat yourself to the fishing trip of a lifetime here at www.gillhamsfishingresorts.com Phone +66861644554. So, ‘til next month, from all of us at Gillhams, bye for now, thanks for your support, and catch a whacker.
Stuart and the team.
Please check out our web site … http://www.gillhamsfishingresorts.com for all the latest news and info about fishing in Thailand at Gillhams Fishing Resorts.
Drawing comic book characters requires dynamics in the positioning of the figure and the details. Learn to draw comic book characters with tips from a professional illustrator and graphic artist in this free video on drawing. Expert: Jay French Contact: www.jayfrenchstudios.com Bio: Jay French is a lifelong artist with 19 years of experience as a professional illustrator and graphic artist. Filmmaker: Todd Green
- Large variety of skills to upgrade and use in combat
- World is vast and beautiful
Cons
- Combat system is repetitive and easy to manipulate
- Far too many side quests, none of which are fun
- The countless choices have little impact on actual gameplay
- Buying houses, furniture, vegetables and getting jobs don’t belong in games
by Rabid Rabbit
Fable 2 is yet another over-rated game that focuses too much on side quests that simply aren’t fun and leaves the main campaign boring and repetitive. Similar to the distractions that made Metal Gear Solid 4, Spore and Grand Theft Auto IV boring games, Fable 2 gets distracted from providing meaningful and interesting gameplay. Far too much effort was placed on meaningless tasks that don’t materially affect gameplay, such as getting married, choices between good and evil and jobs to earn money. The main campaign involves traversing a large world and fighting a series of non-descript enemies that lack variety. The actual fighting mechanics quickly devolve into button mashing regardless of your preferred method of dispensing with your foes. The end result is a game that strays into many different gameplay elements but never makes any of them particularly fun. The developers simply forgot to make the game fun. Apparently they knew this was a problem when they released a statement asking people to have non-gamers try the game. Apparently it was made for people who don’t know what to demand from a game rather than traditional gamers who have more discerning tastes and demand higher forms of entertainment.
The crux of Fable 2 is choices. The main adventure is littered with a myriad of choices to help or harm people. If you choose to help people, then you are revered by citizens and gain their favor. If you choose the path of the dark side, then people will fear and despise you. It’s amazing that so much time was spent on this gameplay element, but it actually has very little impact on the actual game. The only material effect is how people react to you and evil characters’ complexions will deteriorate into a purple monster with horns. When you go into town, citizens will run in fear from evil heroes and may charge you higher prices for goods. You can reduce any price hikes by simply scaring them into lower prices though.
Any benefits from being a good person can be earned as an evil hero by scaring people or stealing from them as an evil person. There are just different means to the same ends. Without a material impact to your choices other than people calling you a murderer and running from you, it’s really hard to take these choices seriously. The entire system falls apart and becomes more of a nuisance than a unique aspect to tinker with.
The Fable 2 world is vast and includes a number of towns and people to interact with. You can choose to be a law-abiding citizen or you can just kill people for their goods, money and gifts. If you kill people or get caught stealing, then you should expect the police to quickly arrive to keep the peace. They will give you the choice to pay a fine, complete a community service task, or you can resist arrest. The community service is typically just a simple task to help someone or kill some bandits. If you resist arrest, then expect to be constantly chased by guards in town that you must fight.
This entire crime punishment system is extremely easy to circumvent. All you have to do is continually commit to community service tasks that you don’t ever complete. After choosing to complete one of these tasks, the guards will leave you alone and give you a few days to finish your work. If you don’t finish the task, you can simply request another task. The result is that you can do whatever you want in town without ever suffering any negative consequence. The only other noticeable effect is that your reputation follows you to every town you visit and people will fear you and call you a thief or a murderer. For a game so focused on choices, that seems like an easy choice to me: just steal and kill as much as you want without ever getting punished.
There are also a wide variety of choices for how you interact with people in town. You can choose to be nice by telling jokes or complimenting people to gain their favor or you can be mean by insulting them or giving rude gestures to lose their favor. There are also seductive gestures to attract people of the opposite sex. If you show enough interest in someone, then you can eventually propose to them by giving them a ring. After purchasing a house, you will be married to your fiancée. If you have unprotected sex (yes the game actually has condoms to prevent pregnancy and STD transmission), then you will likely have a child.
Like the rest of the game, the entire marriage and family system is extremely simple. The main result of a family is a budget drain on your income. If you keep your spouse happy, then you will get a gift from them when you arrive home from adventuring. You can also name your child. That’s about it. For a system that took so much work to incorporate into the game, you’d hope there would be more to it, such as training your spouse and kid to aid you in your adventures. Nope, there’s nothing like that in this game. If you like this boring gameplay and are a glutton for punishment, you are able to become a polygamist and have more than one family in the world. Like the rest of Fable 2, there isn’t much interesting depth here to keep you coming back for more of these Brady Bunch antics.
Towns offer a wide variety of things to do, but almost all of them either have no point or are extremely boring. You can get a job to make money, but why would you want to do that when you could be fighting monsters and playing the main campaign. We all have jobs, and we leave them to have fun playing games rather than to start another job inside a game. If you choose to take one of these jobs, you will enter a world of hurt involving extremely repetitive tasks that require no skill. As a blacksmith or wood cutter, you are simply timing button presses to a sliding scale. If you become a bar tender, you simply hold down a button to the end of a meter to pour a full glass of beer. None of these tasks ever change no matter how much you get promoted. Other jobs involve fetching people or items, such as the bounty hunter job.
You can also earn money by playing some games. These games mimic real-world games such as craps, card games and slots. A significant amount of effort went into differentiating these games from their real life counterparts. This becomes obvious when you watch the 5 minute tutorials that teach how to play the games. All of the games involve mere chance and require no skill on your part. Why would throwing dice be more interesting than actually playing the game’s main quest? It’s really absurd how much effort went into these games rather than making the main quest more interesting.
A number of possibilities are available in towns. You can choose to steal from merchants. When you attempt to steal, an icon appears to let you know if someone is watching you. If you are seen pilfering the store, then a guard will approach to punish you.
You can also choose to buy a wide variety of food and items with a myriad of different qualities. It’s really perplexing why people would care so much about different grades of meat, fish, pies, fruits and vegetables. There’s even tofu! The only way these different types of food impacts gameplay is that you will gain weight if you eat too many fatty foods, such as meat and pies. However, gaining weight doesn’t change your speed or the amount of damage you do in combat, so why should you care unless you are a narcissist?
You can also buy houses and shops. Then you can change your properties’ rent or the shop item’s selling prices to affect your profits. Other than additional profits, the only impact to raising prices is your alignment becomes more evil. If you decide to live in a house, you can go out and buy furniture, which increases the house’s value. Yes, you can actually choose to spend your free time looking at different grades of furniture in a video game. If that doesn’t put you to sleep, I don’t know what will.
The game also gives you a dog to accompany you through most of your tasks. His main purpose is to help you find buried treasures or hidden treasure that are off the main paths. He can also be trained to improve his treasure sniffing abilities to find more valuable loot than worthless things such as rancid tofu. If you knock an enemy down in a fight, your dog will also pounce on top of him to cause some additional damage.
With so many side quests and distractions, you’d think the game is a social interactions simulator and there weren’t any problems in the world. If you ever get out of town, you’ll realize there is the typical world coming to an end plotline along with an antagonist to stop. Your main objective is to gather three other heroes to combine forces and stop the world from becoming enslaved. The story unfolds through a series of tasks strewn across a large world with various enemies to defeat.
In order to progress through the story and gain new tasks, you must increase your renown throughout the world by helping people. The world of Fable 2 is large and these tasks are scattered across its many locales. To help ensure you don’t get lost trying to find your next task, the game includes a glowing trail for you to follow to your next objective. Once you have traveled to an area, you can choose to save time by letting the game transport you to your destination.
Combat is resolved by defeating enemies with melee fighting mechanics, shooting foes or employing magic. The associated skills of strength, skill and will increase as you use them in combat. Each downed enemy drops experience based on the ability type you use to defeat them. If you perform well in a fight by winning quickly or taking little damage, then you’ll be rewarded bonus experience. Then you can spend the experience to further hone these skills. Increasing some skills can provide new abilities such as sword counters and combos, but most upgrades simply cause more damage or increase your life meter rather than adding any depth.
Strength skills include causing more melee damage, reducing damage you take and increasing your life bar. Skill abilities revolve around improving shooting accuracy, damage and your ability to avoid enemy strikes. Will abilities include a variety of spells.
Direct damage spells hurt enemies with elements, such as fire, electricity, and blades. You can choose to cause more damage to a specific target or distribute your love through an area of effect spell. There are also indirect spells, such as raise dead to summon minions to aid your cause and charm spells to temporarily remove some foes from the fight by confusing them. The magic system is oddly unbalanced. Magic spells are cast without limit because you don’t spend mana points to cast spells. The result is you can just sit back and cast unlimited spells if you create a buffer against enemy attacks, such as summoning a horde of undead creatures with the raise dead spell.
While there are a variety of different abilities, fights generally devolve into simple button mashing. You’ll either madly press buttons to hack and slash with your melee weapons, shoot with your crossbow or gun or continually cast your spells. There’s very little depth in the actual encounters. Almost all enemies are dispatched with the same maneuvers regardless of how different they look. The only exceptions are the large trolls, which have specific weaknesses to target. Most of the campaign involves these repetitive fights, which makes it more of an effort in patience to endure the game’s monotonous encounters rather than having fun.
Most fights are rather easy, but even encounters that may offer a challenge are simple because there is no real consequence to losing a fight. If you run out of health, you are knocked out rather than dying. The only downside to getting KOed is that you will lose any ungathered experience. You can eat food or drink potions to increase your health, but there’s really no point in wasting your time buying the food and eating it. Just make sure to gather any experience if you are low on health and then you won’t lose anything by being knocked out. You’ll be revived to the same fight without having to walk back to the encounter and you won’t waste any money on healing items. So you can just mash buttons without paying attention to your health level because losing a fight has no negative consequence. These ridiculous gameplay elements further reduce the point of the fights and the campaign itself.
There is also the option of join a friend’s campaign in the game’s co-op mode. As with most games, playing the game with a friend can make it more fun. It’s pretty cool that the game is flexible enough that you and your friend don’t even have to be in the same place. You can choose to take on different tasks and not be in each other’s vicinity. While co-op mode generally add to the overall experience, it’s hard to say it makes a huge difference considering it doesn’t fix the game’s numerous other problems.
If you can endure the boring main quest to the end, you are rewarded with a horrid ending. I’m not talking about an ending movie. I won’t give anything away, but it’s important to note that there isn’t a final confrontation. After pouring hours into a boring campaign and exploring mundane side quests, Fable 2 simply continues to underwhelm with a slow boring end to the game that you have little control over. Well, at least the game’s boring features are consistent from its beginning to its ultimate ending.
The game’s vast world includes a wide variety of landscapes. From the dreary swamps to the lush hilly areas to the dark caves lit by torchlight, the world of Fable 2 is a beautiful place to explore. The only downside is that its ambitious long draw distances coupled with numerous enemies do create noticeable framerate hiccups throughout the quest.
Overall, Fable 2 promises a lot. It allows you to explore towns and make many choices. There are many side quests, jobs, businesses to buy and people to interact with, but none of these distractions are interesting. The main quest and its combat system have a wide variety of skills and enemies to fight but none really differentiate themselves from each other. The end result is a game that fails to entertain or involve you regardless of what you are doing in the game. It simply isn’t fun, no matter what you do or what choices you make in its elaborate world.
Learn how to give your cartoon drawing some legs with expert artist advice in this free online drawing and cartooning lesson video clip. Expert: Danny Page Bio: Danny Page is a professional cartoonist and illustrator. Filmmaker: Nathan Boehme
One of the more fascinating things you can think about when you’re bored is why the spam is so different depending on where you have accounts. Perhaps I’m just lucky, but I get very little spam through my ISP. Mostly, it’s just to persuade me to buy viagra and other more obviously fake ways of producing sexual enhancement. I suppose the way I trawl the web to find stories to write about here sells my name as someone desperate to find a way of overcoming sexual inadequacy. But, when it comes to Gmail, my inbox is more evenly divided between viagra and gambling sites. And then come the yahoo accounts (I have several for different purposes). Almost without exception, I am flooded by the Nigerian scam mail. It seems the spammers target different user groups depending on the mail servers they use. A research team based at the University of California has been digging into the problem — it’s completely fascinating to see how some research teams spend their time. Anyway, this team decided to try estimating how much money the spammers made out of persuading people to buy viagra. Their guess? $3.5 million a year. How did they come up with this number? Well, like cunning hackers, they wormed their way into the Storm botnet. For the uninitiated among you, this is one of the control centers for all those hacked computers around the world. Storm lets you send out millions of e-mails. To monitor responses, they set up two websites of their own to promote. One offered to sell viagra. The other was designed to mimic infecting the users with trojans — the same little bits of code that allow spammers to hijack machines in the first place. Both were actually harmless but counted the traffic and downloaded benign bits of code. Now comes the exciting bit. They sent out almost 470 million e-mails. There were 350 million to promote the viagra site with 10,500 people responding and 28 people attempting to buy viagra in quantities worth more than US$100. So the low conversion rate did not mean low profits. By scaling up this hit rate, the research team arrived at their annual estimate for gross revenue. But it’s actually quite expensive to send out all this spam so the only way the operation pays is if the spammers also run the sites they promote. The infection site was more efficient, converting an average of 6,000 PCs a day to clones. OK, so now you know who to blame for some of that spam you have been receiving, you can all get your own back by e-mailing the research team which is based at the campuses at Berkeley and San Diego. The dog that didn’t bark during the night One of the very best throwaway lines from Sherlock Holmes comes in The Silver Blaze. Asked what is significant about the way in which the horse was stolen, he identifies the failure of the dog to bark as the most important clue. I have always liked the idea of the answer to mystery novels turning on some simple insight. Too often, an author gets so caught up in his or her own cleverness that plot becomes too complicated and characters less interesting as they do increasingly odd things just to fit in with the need to arrive at the solution. So it is, when people like me come to write about why to buy viagra. We beat out our brains trying to find something new and exciting to say when all the new and exciting things have already been said. Then we remember the simple rule. If in doubt, talk about an animal. By now almost everyone on the planet knows that viagra is the best thing since the invention of sliced bread when it comes to a cure for erectile dysfunction. As an aside, I should note that sliced bread is completely useless as a remedy for impotence. Anyway, what is slightly less well known is that viagra is also used under a different brand name for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension. This affects the main arteries and veins in the chest, through the lungs and leading to and from the heart. If blood pressure rises too high, it can cause dizziness and difficulty in breathing. Unchecked, it leads to the risk of heart failure, particularly during exertion. In treating erectile dysfunction, viagra works by dilating the arteries leading into the penis. The same qualities make it a vital way of relieving high blood pressure in the chest. So how do we draw all this together into the big reveal at the end of this little mystery? Well, for that, you have to travel with me to Highgate in London. Look around and ask for Bentley. He’s quite a local character. You see, he got problems with his pulmonary arteries and was prescribed viagra. Now, he’s back on his feet again, chasing rabbits and doing all the doggy things that Springer spaniels do when they are fit again. The local veterinarian was absolutely correct in his diagnosis. The failure to bark probably indicated an imminent heart attack. The use of viagra dilated the arteries and allowed the blood to flow more smoothly. He was “cured”. Unfortunately, Bentley was neutered when young so we are unable to report if his sexual prowess also improved. Other than that, take this story to heart. Even dogs sing the praises of viagra! Buy viagra online right now!
“A narrative or story is anything told or recounted; more narrowly, something told or recounted in the form of a causally-linked set of events; account; tale, the telling of a happening or connected series of happenings, whether true or fictitious” (Denning, 2006).
Your life is a narrative, counted and recounted from many different perspectives, and by diverse people. There are settings, themes, characters and plots – just like in any movie, book, historical account or legendary fable.
In this article we review the approach of Narrative Therapy and how it can be effectively used by counsellors to assist individuals improve their lives.
Fundamentals of Narrative Therapy
The Narrative The Drawing Anime & Cartoon Characters : How to Draw Flames
rapy is an approach to counselling that centres people as the experts in their own lives. This therapy intends to view problems as separate entities to people, assuming that the individual’s set of skills, experience and mindset will assist him/her reduce the influence of problems throughout life. This therapeutic approach intends to place the individual in both the protagonist and author roles: switching the view from a narrow perspective to a systemic and more flexible stance.
Systemic and flexible stance? Yes. The aim is to help clients realise what forces are influencing their lives and to focus on the positive aspects of the ‘play’. In many events of our lives, we tend to focus on particular things and ignore others. Analysing our lives as a play, or a system, helps us understand the different forces and roles that are influencing our behaviour. This in turn gives us flexibility to invoke the necessary changes for improvement.
“The products of our narrative schemes are ubiquitous in our lives: they fill our cultural and social environment. We create narrative descriptions for ourselves and for others about our own past actions, and we develop storied accounts that give sense to the behavior of others. We also use the narrative scheme to inform our decisions by constructing imaginative “what if” scenarios. On the receiving end, we are constantly confronted with stories during our conversations and encounters with the written and visual media. We are told fairy tales as children, and read and discuss stories at school.” (Polkinghorne, 1988)
Merging a familiar set of events (one’s life) to a familiar structure (a narrative story) is a useful strategy. The emotional, cognitive and spiritual perspectives of a person are usually combined in order to derive meaning to an event. In many instances, one or two perspectives will prevail over the other(s), and this will depend upon the particular scenario and the individual’s personality traits.
As an example, we can compare the perspective of two people who have different levels of emotional intelligence. According to Coleman (1998) “intellectual and emotional intelligence express the activity of different parts of the brain. The intellect is based solely on the workings of the neocortex, the more recently evolved layers at the top of the brain. The emotional centers are lower in the brain, in the more ancient subcortex.” Thus, individuals that are more ‘emotionally intelligent’ will draw different conclusions, and behave differently in certain situations.
This is only an example of possible disparities in perception and decision-making. It is the protagonist responding to the setting, the characters, the theme and plot.
Techniques and Objectives
“The techniques that narrative therapists use have to do with the telling of the story. They may examine the story and look for other ways to tell it differently or to understand it in other ways. In doing so, they find it helpful to put the problem outside of the individual, thus externalizing it. They look for unique outcomes: positive events that are in contrast to a problem-saturated story.” (Sharf, 2004)
Externalising the Problem
In Narrative Therapy the problem becomes the antagonist of the story. Certain behaviours are based on particular ‘unhealthy’ or ‘undesired’ characteristics – such as lack of patience, aggressiveness, etc. Thus, they are approached as not a part of the client but as an opposing force which needs to be ‘defeated’. An example would be a child that has a very bad temperament and tends to be aggressive to other kids at school and his parents. The child might feel guilty for his temperament and blame it on himself (“I don’t know… it is the way I am…”). The counsellor will work with him towards isolating that undesired trait (aggressiveness) and placing it as an external trait – not a characteristic of the individual.
This strategy helps clients re-construct their own stories in a way which will reduce the incidence of the problem in order to eliminate negative outcomes and reinforce personal development and achievement. The protagonist becomes the author and re-writes the story constructively.
Unique Outcomes
If a story is full of problems and negative events, the counsellor will attempt to identify the exceptional positive outcomes. When exploring unique positive outcomes in the story, the counsellor will assist the client in redeveloping the narrative with a focus on those unique outcomes. This assists the client in empowering him/herself by creating a notion that those unique outcomes can prevail over the problems. Think about this analogy: you are a novel writer. You were given a novel to review and publish the way you prefer. You have read it and found it generally poor, but there were some interesting ideas which you liked. You selected these ideas, and re-write the novel around them. You can make a flawed story become a bestseller.
Alternative Narratives
The focus of Narrative Therapy is to explore the strengths and positive aspects of an individual through his or her narrative. Therefore, the main objective of this therapeutic approach is to improve the person’s perspective internally (reflective) and externally (towards the world and others). Alternative narratives are a simple way to relate to this concept. This technique works in combination with unique outcomes. How? The individual will reconstruct a personal story using unique outcomes, therefore, focusing on the positive aspects of a previous story in order to achieve a desired outcome. This process is based on the premise that any person can continually and actively re-author their own life.
By creating alternative perspectives on a narrative (or event within the narrative) the counsellor is able to assist the client in bringing about a new narrative which will help combat the ‘problems’. This is similar to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as it aims to create a positive perspective of an event.
Boundaries of Narrative Therapy
Despite being a widely used approach, particularly when combined with other therapeutic approaches, Narrative Therapy has certain boundaries or limitations. In many occasions, diverse clients may expect the therapist to act as the expert, instead of having to ‘conduct’ the conversation themselves. For this reason, Narrative Therapy can be challenging when the individual is not articulate. Lack of confidence, intellectual capacity and other issues could also undermine the expression of the individual through a narrative.
Another common boundary of Narrative Therapy is the lack of recipe, agenda or formula. This approach is grounded in a philosophical framework, and sometimes can become a particularly subjective or widely interpretative process.
The Leading Role
The most important aspect of Narrative Therapy is to empower the client. Placing the client as an expert, and understanding his/her story instead of attempting to predict it, indicates the therapist’s mindset. The idea is to emphasise the therapeutic relationship, in particular the therapist’s attitudes. This standpoint encompasses many of the important aspects of good interpersonal communication, such as: demonstration of care, interest, respectful curiosity, openness, empathy, and fascination.
Once this collaborative relationship has been established, the counsellor and the client can move forward and work on how to improve the outcomes of the narrative:
“Once upon a time… there was an optimistic, content and productive person…”
References:
Coleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. (1st Ed.). London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Denning, S. (2004). Steve Denning: The website for business and organizational storytelling. (www.stevedenning.com/What_story.html)
Polkinghorne, D. (1988). Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences. Albany N.Y.: State University of New York Press
Sharf, R. (2004). Theories of Psychotherapy & Counselling. (3rd Ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Thomson Learning.
An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Getting Noticed in a Noisy Marketplace
My daughter, the one I affectionately call Daughter Number 2, recently challenged herself to participate in a high school Debate Tournament, following in her mother’s footsteps. The topic? Be It Resolved that Santa Claus is a Dangerous Concept Which Should be Abolished. So, 6 AM, the morning of the debate, I’m surfing the net for stories of bank robberies and kidnappings by men in Santa suits. It didn’t take long before I got sidetracked onto something even better― a bunch of articles on The Santa Brand. (Let the kid do her own research!)
Gotta admit, it never occurred to me before, but Mr. Claus fits most of the criteria I set out in my upcoming book “Step Into The Spotlight! -’Cause ALL Business is Show Business!” (Publication Date: April 2008), criteria for developing a dynamic business persona using showbiz techniques.
In show business, actors, directors and playwrights spend a lot of time on character development. In business, we call this building a brand. A business persona, just like a character in a play, needs a unique look (white beard, rosy cheeks, an enlarged perimeter), a unique costume (Red Suit, much better for branding than Banker Blue), a unique name (Santa Claus), a clearly defined personality (Jollier than the Jolly Green Giant), a strong philosophy (You gotta be nice, not naughty) and the guy’s gotta know his lines and stick to the script (”Ho, Ho, Ho!”).
Santa does all that. And the guy’s consistent. You never see him in a blue Hawaiian shirt, even if he’s hanging out at the Honolulu Hilton in December. Try leaving your scarf or gloves or umbrella at a Chamber of Commerce Networking Breakfast. Would everyone immediately know to whom it belonged? They would if you forgot your red velvet hat with a dangling white pom-pom!
The Pillsbury Dough Boy, The Maytag Repairman and The Man from Glad also each have a consistent look and OK, the Dough Boy is irresistible. But none of these characters have the emotional connection with their audience that Santa has. And it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen Santa’s show, you’ll be sitting in the front row again next December. The Maytag and Glad guys stand for dependability, but Santa’s not only dependable, he stands for hope as well, ask any kid on December 24.
Speaking of kids, why is it that we let our kids sit on the laps of strange men in department stores? Why is it that year after year, chubby red suited guys get away with “naughty” deeds like robbing banks and kidnapping kids? Why? Because Santa is such a strong brand that not only kids, but adults, lower their guard and trust the guy. We even leave the guy milk and cookies by the fireplace and encourage him to break into the house when we’re all asleep. Even the Grinch Who Stole Christmas eventually succumbed to his charm as did the journalist who wrote “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”. What does he stand for? Goodness and kindness and “pull out your wallet”.
Santa even knows how to work publicity. Many would disagree, but my philosophy has always been that it’s hard to burst onto the scene if you’ve been hanging around on stage all along! Santa doesn’t try to get ink 365 days a year. He lets Cupid have Valentine’s Day, lets the chicks and bunnies arm wrestle over Easter, leaves Thanksgiving to the turkeys and only then, bursts onto the scene after the stuffing’s been stuffed away.
But we’re talking business. You’re probably thinking, “Yeah Tsufit, but can the guy make money?” Yah Man! Actors are always asking their director “What’s my motivation?” and the classic joke answer is “To get paid”. Santa knows how to bring in the bucks as well as the next guy, better even. But there’s one question nobody seems to be asking. Who’s he making money for?
The major downside of the Santa Brand is that, unlike the Pillsbury Dough Boy or the Man from Glad or the Maytag Repairman, Santa will work for anyone. (You’d never catch the Maytag guy hawking computers on the side.)
I recently snuck out of a marketing seminar to visit the Coca Cola Museum in Atlanta and learned that although the Claus-ster’s been around for ages, Coke gave the guy his current look, Coca Cola Red suit and all, way back in the 1930’s and put him to work selling The Real Thing. But like Kleenex became just another tissue and Zipper became just another fastener, Generic Red Suit Santa started raking it in for anyone who wanted a piece of the action.
It’s nice that he lends his name to charity and stands on street corners pulling in bowls of dollars for the Salvation Army and unwrapped new toys for unfortunate kids. But that’s where I’d draw the line if he were my brand. In Showbiz, unique characters are the show’s best currency. If the character of Ugly Betty started showing up on Grey’s Anatomy and The Gilmore Girls and Desperate Housewives, it wouldn’t be long before she’d lose her draw.
The lesson here? Develop a clear living breathing persona for your business, but make sure it’s your brand, one that has a unique look, philosophy and connection with the crowd so people will pull out their wallets for you too. Before you know it, you’ll be rolling in more dough than the Doughboy!
In the Star Wars movie’s famous bar scene you knew, by appearance, what zany character was sitting beside you. Each character had a distinctive look. Yet in today’s meetings you may have no idea the constellation of characters that you’re meeting with. That’s because their normal outward appearances belie often-troublesome behavior. Use this article as your guide to the crazy cast of characters you’re likely to encounter in your meetings. Whether or not you’re armed with a light saber, you’ll nevertheless be equipped to do battle with these oft-destructive forces who subvert meetings with their bothersome behavior.
The Monopolizer: This person thinks he or she is the only one with wisdom on subjects. The monopolizer believes everyone else is there to hear him or her speak, and so they do, incessantly. They d Drawing Popular Cartoon Characters : How to Draw Naruto
on’t appreciate that meetings offer an opportunity to hear from many. They prattle on and on, arrogantly acting as though their ideas or beliefs are inherently more important than others. Sadly other people shy away from contributing, intimidated by the monopolizer’s stranglehold on the meeting. When facilitators allow this it sends a message their rudeness is sanctioned. The facilitator or even other meeting participants should indicate an interest in hearing from others in the meeting, to remind the monopolizer that others can speak as well as listen.
The Tangent Talker: This person hijacks the topic of the group by taking discussions off on tangents — topics unrelated to the issue at hand. One minute you’re on topic and the next minute you’re in “left field” as your agenda topic has been taken to a tangent. Your meeting chair’s ability to recognize and refocus is essential to a productive meeting. “Let’s remember to confine ourselves to the topic at hand” is a good way to get back on track. Alternately saying, “Let’s try to avoid tangents” also labels such behavior as contrary to the group’s aims. As well, you can “park” extraneous items in a “parking lot” list where they’re noted, if only to be addressed later.
The Devil’s Advocate: Let’s face it, there’s one in every crowd and most meetings too. This person seems to relish taking the opposite tack. Whatever the argument being put forth, this person delights in taking an opposing view. It’s sport for them, an exercise in opposition. The more unpopular the stance the more exciting their challenge. Often they begin by saying “just for the sake of argument…I believe the opposite is true….” While there’s value in looking at issues from multiple points of view and avoiding groupthink, the Devil’s Advocate applies their technique to every issue, every argument and every conversation. Hold on to your Agenda and get comfortable. This could take a while! A good chair can praise this person’s ability to do this while simultaneously indicating its inappropriateness given time parameters or previously agreed issues.
Thy Cynic: The ultimate naysayer, this person has a Masters degree in negativity. Adroit at the phrase “it won’t work” they are skilled at deflating and defeating whatever motion is in motion. “Can’t be done.” “They’ll never buy it.” “We tried it once and it was a failure.” Their motto: just say no.
Challenge these people to think like The Devil’s Advocate and suppose for that things could work. Use the common conflict resolution tool of asking them to embrace the other side’s view as if it were their own, and argue that side’s position.
The Fence Sitter: Known for their paralysis by analysis, these characters are unable to make decisions. Despite being in a deliberative body, they are conflicted by multiple arguments, and can’t “pull the trigger” when it’s time to make a decision in a meeting. They provide fodder for the Devil’s Advocate, the Cynic and other characters with their ambivalence. Whether they are afraid of being wrong, or of disagreeing with someone else, or just going on record, they are a meeting monster for their inability to move the action forward. Try to cajole them to action. Remind them they have a vote and were invited to use it. Ask them their opinions on matters to draw them out and get them on record.
The Brown Noser: There’s likely one in every meeting. The person who is so obsequious, bending over backwards to ingratiate himself or herself to the boss, the meeting leader or other power broker. They’re so busy currying favor with others they subvert whatever true feelings they have about issues to “kiss butt.” They are seen to be in the pocket of the person they’re cow-towing to. Ultimately they are seen for who they are and become predictable. Try to elicit their ideas and preferences before asking others as a way of drawing them out.
The Pandora’s Box Opener: These meeting monsters just have to tackle issues that are emotional, touchy or are “hot buttons” for others in the meeting. In every meeting there are topics sure to strike a nerve, to provoke an emotional reaction or enter the group into a quagmire. These people lead the entire meeting into areas that provoke frustration, animosities and often resentment too. Once this box is opened, it’s hard to get its issues back in the box. Discussions of salaries, promotions or personal styles often stir up issues that hijack meetings. Even worse, some culprits reopen issues from earlier in the meeting that have already been resolved. The best cure: a firm “let’s not go there’ from the meeting’s facilitator. Other phrases like “let’s cross that bridge when we get there” or “that’s a hornets nest we don’t need to disturb” labels certain subjects out of bounds.
The Attacker: As children these people were bullies. Some haven’t grown up! The attacker deftly mixes negativity with personal attacks, challenging others’ ideas with vigor. Without regard to hurting others’ feelings, the attacker uses a confrontational style to object to others’ ideas and go against the flow. Sadly, sometimes they don’t even realize they’re attacking. A good facilitator can refocus them to be positive, to remove the sting from their words and avoid an adversarial approach. All meeting participants are entitled to stop the meeting when attacked personally. Ad hominem attacks are attacks against one’s person. People can criticize your actions or beliefs, but you don’t have to tolerate attacks against who you are as a person.
The Joker: Don’t let their good nature fool you, Jokers can be meeting monsters. Their constant joking has the effect of diminishing others’ serious ideas or suggestions. Their infusion of humor can belittle others’ motions and makes it difficult for some to be taken seriously. There is a time and place for joking. While we all like a good laugh, constant joking disrupts a meeting and distracts attention from where it should be. A meeting chair can designate several minutes at the start or middle of a meeting specifically for humor. When it crops up elsewhere and is deemed disruptive, the chair can remind people the time for humor is passed or forthcoming, so as to control it.
The Robots: Yep, these meeting monsters are actually cell phones, pagers, personal digital assistants (PDA’s) and laptops. Each distracts their owner and others too as they intrude on participants’ attention spans during meetings. It’s gotten so bad now cell phones contain cameras within them…just what meetings need. A good meeting chair will create ground rules for meetings, including turning off these gadgets at their outset. It’s hard to compete with human distractions, let alone electronic ones as well.
As you can see, meetings are full of characters. You should study the behavior in meetings, including your own, to better understand your style of interaction. The character of your meetings will surely be affected by the characters in your meeting. May the force be with you.
The Application of Gender Roles within “Much Ado About Nothing” and
“The Taming of the Shrew”
In his works William Shakespeare exploits many different themes to uncover the message of the works, impress reader and make a narration more vivid and colorful, sophisticated and interesting. The treatment of gender roles plays an important role in the plays under analysis being an integral part of plot and characters development. In Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare attempts to portray a more positive and accepting view of how women should be regarded and treated.
Shakespeare constructs gender role according to characters functions in the play. “In Much Ado About Nothing”, most of the male characters is depicted as brave soldiers. Leonato, Claudio and Benedick. They are courageous and clever men. For all their concentration on mundane details, Shakespeare’s novels depicts survival, heroic adventures of social mobility in which individuals single-handedly confront and conquer a host of adverse circumstances. In “The Taming of the Shrew”, the major characters Petruccio and Lucentio are joined by friendship. Despite the apparent crudity of their narratives, Shakespeare’s novels are animated by a quality more usually identified with a more self-consciously sophisticated form of gender relations. In both plays, women characters are depicted loving and sympathetic, nevertheless very proud and ambitious.
In spite historical epoch and predetermined gender roles of woman as subordinate, Shakespeare underlines that gender role between women and men are not so important as considered to be.
“Now Kate, I am a husband for your turn,
For by this light, whereby I see thy beauty
Thy beauty that doth make me like thee well” (The Taming of the Shrew, p.272).
In contrast to men, the function of women is to be a good wife and mother. In “Much ado about nothing” he writes that: “They say the lady is fair. ‘Tis a truth, I can bear them witness. And virtuous’tis so, I cannot reprove it. And wise, but for loving me. By my troth, it is no addition to her witnor no great argument of her folly, for I will be horribly in love with her” (Much ado about nothing, p.204).
Gender roles are stable in the plays in spite of the changes in appearance of the characters. From the very beginning in “The Taming of the Shrew”, Shakespeare portrays changes in the statuses of the hero. Sly is dressed as a lord, and a pageboy dressed in women’s clothing: “Am I a lord and have I such a lady? Or do I dream? Or have I dreamed till now? I do not sleep: I see, I hear, I speak”. (The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, Scene 2, lines 28-30). In the other play, Claudio and Hero decide to play a game, and force Beatrice and Benedick to fall in love. Their changes in appearance are successful helping Beatrice and Benedick to stop arguing. In “Much ado about nothing” the main hero says “What should I do with himdress him in my apparel and make him my waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him” (Much ado about nothing, p.28). Contradictions like these – and there are many other celebrated examples in the plays – have often been taken as evidence of a slap-dash approach to the gender roles. Yet the pattern of these contradictions, in which characters preach like moralists yet act like ruthless opportunists, goes to the heart of Shakespeare plays. In any case, these heroes preserve their identity as males and females. These changes in the appearance, do not influence the status of woman in the society and do not humiliate them. Judgements like these derive from the tendency to identify Shakespeare with the narrators of his plays.
Exploiting the ambiguities of female function, a subdued creature and a strong and loving person, Shakespeare portrays complex female characters from positive side. For instance, in “The Taming of the Shrew” ill-tempered Katherine is contrasted to her “lovely” and calm sister Bianca. ‘Katherine the Curst’ A title for a maid, of all titles the worst” (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 1, Sc. 2, Lines 130-131). Shakespeare portrays Bianca as: “‘Tis deeds must win the prize, and he of both hat can assure my daughter greatest dower
Shall have my Bianca’s love.” (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 2, Sc. 1, Lines 361-365).
In general, Shakespeare’s reputation contributed to the stereotype of the moral author.
Plays which conformed to social mores were more widely acceptable as serious literary plays. The strong gender roles system made a clear distinction between the aristocratic lady as a graceful accomplishment, and the woman who went against the nature of sex.
Although the terms of the relative judgement has sometimes altered, the temptation to draw comparisons between male and female. High morality of women is underlined throughout the plays. The morality of Shakespeare is based on a simple antithetical contrast; natural instinct versus social hypocrisy, goodness of heart versus cunning of head. Part of the satisfaction of the plays comes from the combination of the formal symmetry of role structure with the apparent freedom and randomness of some episodes. At the end of the play, Katherine declares, “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee, And for thy maintence commits his body To painful labor both by sea and land” (Act 5, Sc. 2, 162-180). Using this episode, Shakespeare contrasts female characters underlining that women are treated according to their behaviour and character, which has little to do with gender roles. “I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.” (Much ado about nothing, p. 224).
In both plays, women voices construct great psychological complexity. In its treatment of the contradictions between ‘virtue’ as reputation and virginity as an extension of moral integrity, Shakespeare highlights the social hypocrisies where the marriage market puts a price on maidenhood. Shakespeare urges the conventional solution of marrying the seducer, but Katherine follows the path of self-imposed martyrdom. The play depicts simplistic morality, based on eternal virtues and justice.
“I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace” (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 5, Sc. 2, Lines 361-365).
This quote provides a notable contrast to the male treatment of female characters. It was the development of the female characters. By creating an distance between the heroines and the heroes, Shakespeare uses this theme to make a social comment on women’s nobles focusing on their good and bad sides.
“Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,-
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never” Much ado about nothing, p.101).
Shakespeare uses the narrative of a woman asking readers to decide what is good and what is bad. He shows an intelligent but naive men tricked out of a woman virtue (Bianca). In drawing attention to the dangers faced by the good- natured but ill-advised heroine contributes to the social debate on the status of women, using the play as an entertaining medium of discussion. This is the way to kill a wife with kindness (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 4, Sc. 1, Lines 201).
Attempting to portray positive image of women, Shakespeare underlines that it is a man who helps women to survive. Women do not have a possibility to interfere into life of men, nevertheless they do so in the plays. Women decide what is good for them and choose the ways to “reach a man”. For instance, Bianca ask Lucentio to be her tutor. Also, Claudio impulsive vitality is made acceptable by the artful manipulations of the narrator’s tone.
Women’s life, their destiny defined and depended upon the men, and, particularly, upon the their marriage. Although men had an influence on women’s behavior and exaggerated them in many life situations: “”That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks; but that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me.” (Much ado about nothing, p. 221).
Shakespeare describes that female characters are strong, as physically so mentally, because their life status requires a masculine strength, but all female characters copes with it perfectly. Shakespeare uses mainly masculine adjectives to underline thier strength.
And do you tell me of a woman’s tongue,
That gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a chestnut in a farmer’s fire? (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 1, Scene 2, lines 200-209).
The main characteristics outlined are not independent, separate qualities of women but are all mutually interrelated while having an inter-dependent essence in each case. They serve to summarise and unify all characteristics inherent to women. Their character features appear as a guideline or norm that helps women to judge what is or is not right or good in their life. Feeling and practicising care, seeking peace of mind, holding to truth and desiring justice are intrinsic aims. That is, the degree of realisation of positive values in thought and action depend on the nature of the accumulated tendencies of a person interacting with others.
“Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband” (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 5, Scene 2, lines 12-13).
With the help of Hero, Shakespeare points out the readers’ attention to virtues of conciseness, strong, clear imagery, symbolism, understatement, humor, and irony. These fluctuations reflect the tragic tension within males: Claudio is at once too ambitious to allow his conscience to stop behaving his way and too conscientious to be happy with himself. At the end, Shakespeare depicts Claudio as a man whose character lacks strength, because of ambition. Women attempt to prove that their are strong enough to live in a masculine world, but they reach this through men’s love:
“O Hero! What a Hero hadst thou been
For thee I’ll lock up all the gates of love,
And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
And never shall it more be gracious” (Much ado about nothing, p. 271).
Even if Shakespeare portrays women from a positive side gender roles in the plays are limited. Wmen’s life and their destiny will be defined and depended upon the men, and, particularly, upon the their marriage. Although men will have an influence on women’s behavior and exaggerate them in many life situations. To look deeply into the problem it is possible to say that women have fought to be independent and be equal to men, but they have no rights. On the one hand marriage connects with ideology and sees as the state intervention in marriage and a abuse of rights. Women are treated as wives and mothers primarily.
“Lord! I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face: I hath rather lie in the woolen” (Much ado about nothing, p. 211).
In any case, woman represented in the plays of Shakespeare do not suffers because their role as wives. This a positive moments in treatment women. The old-new conservative approach to marry a prosperous person (a man or a woman) comes to nothing when the love is taken into account. In contrast to epoch represented by Shakespeare, marriage means love and happiness. Nevertheless, the existence of institution of marriage, in which men played the dominant role and wielded control, determine the gender roles, and placed women at the mercy of their male counterparts. Katherine says:
“My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws” (The Taming of the Shrew, Act 5, Scene 2, lines 140-144).
Some day women attempt to put an end to the long-established meaning of women’s roles and became feminists who were ready to fight against men. Women could move beyond the constrictions of the ideology.
It is possible to conclude that both plays embody functional division of gender roles: women are wives and men are husbands. Nevertheless, Shakespeare goes far beyond this simplistic representation of genders portraying that women can perform men’s functions successfully. This style of writing revels in its own vivacity and wit, offering its readers a rich and varied interpretation of gender roles and gender relations together with literary sophistication. Gender roles are based on moral introspection and psychological insight dramatizing the dilemmas of individual social choice. Love as care does not refer to an emotion or a state of mind so much as to a human faculty of identification with others, sympathy with all beings. Female’s sympathy seeks many and various channels of realisation. It is developed through experience and gradual self-realisation. Women’ poetic nature helps the reader to understand that female characters have a natural charm so attractive to others.
With its tone, both plays are a brilliant indictment of a society in which gender roles has abnegated the natural ties of humanity and love.
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Andrew Sandon
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