SunFyre...words from a seated position

Legos aren't just for kids and geeks. LEGO Architecture Studio is 1200+ pieces of Lego awesomeness. It's designed with adult Lego builders in mind, particularly those who like free-form building rather than detailed instructions.

I grew up with classic Lego sets.  We didn't have the movie themed sets.  We relied on imagination. Like most of you, I never outgrew my love for Legos. My wife, who grew up back when they were still considered "toys for boys", never played with them. She had difficulty understanding why I wanted to purchase two of every set when I started getting them for my kids.

Actually, that's not completely true. The only set of Legos I still have is the Ferrari Formula One Lego Set, which combines two of my favorite passions.

Now, if I could just convince them to create a Bacon Lego set, I could die happy.

Anyhow, we all know Legos are cool; so what makes this the coolest Lego set ever?

This set is entirely white with lots of unique pieces s…

The protagonist of a story is the character on a journey. You'd be surprised how often talented wordsmiths forget to include a true protagonist. The plot, what happens in the story, is just a series of events without a protagonist. These events tie together around the protagonist to create a central conflict, the point of the journey, to reach the conclusion.

Most often the protagonist is carrying out the actions and controlling these events, but sometimes the events are controlling them and the story becomes less about the events and more about the change in the protagonist.

No story can be told without a protagonist. Furthermore, no story can be complete without a change of state within the protagonist.

Here are a few examples using a protagonist named Eleanor.Coming-of-age – Eleanor, young and naïve, experience a series of events that challenge her core attitudes and values. Sometimes these events reshape her core values. Other times her core values may be the resolve she needs to…

When I was a kid Halloween was awesome. We dressed up as witches and devils, cops and soldiers, robots and fairy princesses (it was just once, and I was adorable).
Now they've ruined Halloween. You may remember, two years ago when I went off on a rant about the downfall of Halloween. If you missed it...
Halloween Is Ruined
This brings me to my pet peeve. How can we take every reasonable Halloween costume for adult women and make them absolutely slutty? I'm starting to believe that there are far more men designing me than women who actually wear them. 
Well here are some of the worst offenders on my list of unnecessarily sexy Halloween costumes:
Nothing says sexy like killing zombies with a headshot. So, Walking Dead fans certainly know that Sheriff Rick Grimes will take good care of the rest of us. I don't recall the Sheriff using a machete, nor did he sport a mini skirt. Frankly, I don't think he has the legs for it. But, if decapitation is your thing, this is the sex…

An excerpt from a Washington Post article:

"They may sometimes be silent and fearful of stirring conservative ire, but more than 100 members of the House GOP are much more centrist than you’d imagine. These are the members from purple and light-red districts, who rarely go on television and, unlike their more unruly colleagues, stick with the leadership. They are critical to sustaining Boehner's power, and, should the GOP find a way to extend the debt limit and once again fund the government, they’ll deserve credit.

Two dozen of these Republicans — including Reps. Charlie Dent (Pa.) and Peter King (N.Y.) — have pressed Boehner to quickly end the shutdown and assure them that the government wouldn't default. They’re rattled by the House GOP’s rightward drift, and they’re tired of Cruz and his House compatriots embracing a standoff that has no end in sight. Dent is working with House Democrats to pass legislation that would reopen the government and repeal the medical-devic…

According to Italian playwright, Carlo Gozzi, the sum of all human storytelling can be categorized into a mere 36 dramatic situations. The authoritative book, The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations by Georges Polti is quite an undertaking. I'm reading it now, roughly translated into English, and I find it fascinating and frustrating at the same time.

It's fascinating to think that there are only 36 potential plot lines that make up the body of all plays, novels, and films. Furthermore, all of these plot lines were discovered in the late 18th century.

Since then numerous others have tried to identify more, and usually arrive at a smaller number. Schiller for example couldn't find more than 24.

I wish I could recommend pulled his book, but it's a difficult read. It's simply a list of 36 situations and references to examples from theater. Unfortunately most of Polti's references are ancient Greek plays, or French plays contemporary to him. I know little about the plays o…

There is a crawl space in our attic, that travels to the deepest reaches of your brain.

There is a crawl space in our basement, that winds into the darkest places in your soul.

There is a space between head and heart where we go with happy anticipation and striking fear. It's the place we go when it's time to write.

This is our scrawl space.