Bad

This also applies to self care as well.

not sure if this will make sense to anyone besides me but: the antidote to negativity is not positivity, its warmth

The single most important piece of writing advice I would give to a lot of amateur writers is to write less beautifully - or at least to write beautifully less.

I rarely find a piece of writing I can't read because it's too simple, or too concise and to-the-point - not memorable, perhaps, but also not a headache on a page. On the other hand, I see loads of pieces which are effectively unreadable because they're far too rich to swallow, and badly in need of watering down a bit.

The absolute worst culprit is the dialogue tags and stage directions. I'm a big fan of letting people write in their own style, but I would love it if a lot of writers could please cool it with letting me know every time a character blinks or licks their lips. I don't need to know that, especially if it happens every time they speak.

So many dialogue excerpts look like this:

"So this is how we talk?" he queried quietly, his eyebrows furrowed into knots. "Apparently," she replied with a puzzled grin, bouncing on the balls of her feet with restless energy. "Isn't that... exhausting?" he questioned, a lop-sided smile snaking its way across his lips. "The bouncing?" she asked shyly, her eyelids fluttering in shame. "No, of course not," he told her, his lean arms reached out to pull her closer. He buried his face into the mess of her hair, taking a deep breath of her perfume. "I just feel a little nauseated by all of these actions." "I don't know what you mean," she giggled, brushing the hair back out of her eyes as her cheeks flushed red. "Don't worry," he sighed, rolling his eyes up towards the ceiling.

I'm assuming this is a convention that comes from somewhere, given its ubiquity - perhaps somewhere in the world of fanfiction, where there will be short, intimate pieces entirely focused on the ways in which characters interact with each other. But to me, in an original work, it's so exhausting that I can't make it down the rest of the page.

Dialogue may be the worst, or most obvious offender, but the same principle extends pretty much everywhere else. Each line doesn't have to be some great quote you can hang on your wall, and it's hard to read a whole story written like that.

There's been some recent backlash on here against modern films where every line of dialogue is a quip, at the expense of building an authentic conversation, but that's how a lot of people start out writing - thinking that each sentence should be made as flowery as possible, when too many flowers in the same pot will crowd each other out.

You need to leave some gaps to let the sunlight in, and illuminate the beauty of the occasional flourish you do include. Think of it like vanilla extract, to make a reference that was topical when I started writing this post: you need to add a little for flavour, without which the writing will be too dull, but tip the bottle and I will actually be sick. Write beautifully less. Learn to embrace the prosaic.

These 3D-printed prosthetics for children are given to them free of charge. (via @techthatmatters)⠀

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Meet @teamunlimbited, a non-profit from the UK that’s on a mission to change the lives of children with missing limbs by helping them get custom 3D-printed prosthetics, free of charge.⠀

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The innovative 3D-printed arm devices are designed to empower and inspire children to improve their confidence and courage. Each innovative 3D printed arm device is made by volunteers and gives a helping hand to remove the long-standing stigma around discussing disability.⠀

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The prosthetics are cost-effective and easy to produce. They are fully parametric, thermo-formed 3D printed limbs that are light-weight, highly customizable and colourful. The average production cost is £30 (around $40) per arm. It’s a simple act of kindness that won’t get unnoticed.⠀

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Team UnLimbited designs are attractive alternatives to the current, clunky and expensive, prosthetic options available. The designs are open source and freely available to anyone in the world with a 3D printer. On average, an arm takes 24 hours to complete.

full credit:tectthatmatters

hope is a skill

Not gonna lie. I kinda want this.

Do you think DnD gave Elves trance state to use instead of sleeping cause the creators got into a fight about how they sleep with them pointy ears?

NanoDog is learning to balance and learning various types of instructions using Machine Learning algorithms and Computer Vision applications as Dogs Eyes

NanoDog is powered by Jetson Nano, 13 Servo Motors, PCA9685 I2C Driver, CSI Camera. Final goal is to deploy a LiDAR and 3D Camera for a fully Autonomous AI-Dog for EdTech.

👏🏻👏🏻

I read this to the tune of "rocking around the Christmas tree"

Take that however you will.

Slutting around the library, pretending to read books so everyone thinks I’m smart (I’m not)

February 21 2005 3/21/05

I am not becoming budist.

Don't get me wrong.

They were not unkind.

It just didn't click with me, you know?

I want to make the change in this life. Not the next.

I will never not share this when I come across it.