PearlD's posterous http://pearld.posterous.com Most recent posts at PearlD's posterous posterous.com Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:17:00 -0700 Taiwan Social Savvy Ep3: Taiwan's Ghost Month. http://pearld.posterous.com/taiwan-social-savvy3-taiwans-ghost-month http://pearld.posterous.com/taiwan-social-savvy3-taiwans-ghost-month

Taiwan Social Savvy 3 by Pearl Desa Listen on Posterous

Ghostmoney

Shownotes
0:05- Introduction
0:35- Possible scenario you might see during ghost month
0:59- What is Ghost month
1:14- What's the difference between west and east
1:23- When is ghost month? And what's the history behind it?
2:08- Why all the food?
2:24- The afterlife- why burn money?
2:49- Superstitions during ghost month
3:20- What not to do.
3:31- What about celebrations?
3:47- Concluding remarks
4:05- Outro and signing out

Credits
Information
1- Ghost month

2- Wikipedia entry

Image from here

Music/ sound effects.
Intro and outro- Asian Adventure by Sonic9019 at Newgrounds
Background music-Ambients of Asia by Wolfguard at Newgrounds


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Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:39:00 -0700 Taiwan Social Savvy Ep2: Eating Customs http://pearld.posterous.com/taiwan-social-savvy-ep2-eating-customs http://pearld.posterous.com/taiwan-social-savvy-ep2-eating-customs

Taiwan Social Savvy Ep2 by Pearl Desa Listen on Posterous

Po6b

Show Notes

0:02 Intro for the episode topic
0:35 What kind of food would you find in Taiwan?
1:18 Brief note on gift giving when invited to dinner. For detailed information on Taiwanese gift giving go here.
1:36 What to do when you're at the dinner table?
1:56 Why you need to know how to use chopsticks. (for information on how to use chopsticks go here)
2:16 Chopstick language and manners when you use them.
3:09 What to do when you get served a lot of food?
3:35 Drinking alcohol at the dinner table.
4:41 Hook for next episode and outro

Credits
Information
1- Popular food culture in Taiwan
2- Taiwan local customs at virtualtourist.com
3- Taiwan food

Image
Popular food culture in Taiwan

Music/ sound effects.
Intro and outro- Asian Adventure by Sonic9019 at Newgrounds
Sound effects from SoundBible.com

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Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:39:34 -0700 Merging sounds and sight to understand. http://pearld.posterous.com/merging-sounds-and-sight-to-understand http://pearld.posterous.com/merging-sounds-and-sight-to-understand

As a person who's always been fascinated with Synesthesia because of a BBC documentary and becasue I did a Science and writing project on the topic, Steven Connor's article "Edison's Teeth: Touching Hearing" caught my attention with the mention of synesthesia. But then a part of me just got lost...as expected, I suppose.

I think the interesting part of the article had to be the part that says, "hearing tends to ask questions that get answered by evidence of the eyes". Really?

First of all, because of the previous reading assigned for this week, it'll have to be "listening" in the place of "hearing".

But anyway, do we really need to see something physical/real (like photos)  to make sense of the noises that we hear? Well, I don't really think it has to be a physical image present in the world. What about images that we create in our minds when we listen to things?

When we listen to a podcast, even with the lack of imagery, if we hear a lot of sound effects we create an image in our heads in order to make sense of things.

But do those imagined images count as evidence that help us understand things we hear? Well technically, our imagination is shaped and inspired by images around us. For instance, we "know" what a dragon looks like because of people's physical interpretations of such things.

So then I guess, the brain created images when we hear things can be considered a type of evidence because they're based on real life images/things.

But do imaginary images answer questions from listening? Sort of. In the case of images conjured by our minds- they don't really give us the right answers. I remember listening to Jericho's podcast and the intro song made me imagine a car ad. I spent a while trying to figure out which car ad it was from.Going through his shownotes- I found the intro music was from a movie OST that had nothing to do with cars.

On another note, what does Edison's teeth have to do with anything?

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Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:43:00 -0700 Listening vs. Hearing http://pearld.posterous.com/listening-vs-hearing-0 http://pearld.posterous.com/listening-vs-hearing-0

Those are words I often usually use interchangably. I've never really given much though to the actual meaning behind them. But then I read this, and I go- why haven't I thought of this before? What the difference between something like "she heard them" and "she listened to them"? Well now that I think of it, there are many things.

Listening requires the strategic part of the brain (the prefrontal cortex) which helps us pick out and understand the speech that we hear. When I read that, a part of me went- so what?

Well listening is different from hearing because listening means finding meaning and making sense of the noises and sounds around us. We're always hearing things around us but the only time we pay attention is when we actually listen to things.

So I decided to listen to the sounds around me right now- car driving outside, plane somehwere in the air and a steady dripping somehwere in the house. What did that brief listeneing spell tell me? Well even though these noises surrounded me for a while and I heard them in the background, I never really listened.

It also told me that I'd left a tap on somewhere in the house.

So when we listen to a podcast- do we really listen to it? Or do we just hear it? For me personally, I only tend to listen when something really grabs my attention. A sound effect that stands out, a new voice or something that made my random thoughts pause- things that make me want to listen.

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Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:25:00 -0700 Podcast Recording Tidbits http://pearld.posterous.com/podcast-recording-tidbits http://pearld.posterous.com/podcast-recording-tidbits

The first actual podcast came and went. After it, I felt- odd. The product I ended up with wasn't quite what I expected it to be.

A bit on the actual process.

  • After tons of experimenting in the living room, on the stairs, in the laundry room and even crouched under a table I managed to find the perfect recording place. My cramped closet. Yes, many people did say it was a good recording place, but I was very skeptical until I heard the sound.
  • It took me multiple tries to get a good recording mostly becasue the pitch black closet kept freaking me out with imaginary spiders and other things. (Note-to-self: stop watching "A Haunting" until remaining podcasts are recorded.)
  • I followed Tamara's FAQ page- I felt a bit silly doing the stuff on there, but it definitely made recording a bit easier and less awkward.
  • I didn't have a proper script. I just had the main points jotted down, but the closet was too dark to read any of that. Everything in that podcast was from memory. And apparently my memory is not what it should be.

Things I liked

  • The music- it was definitely something that made me feel more upbeat about my podcast. I loved it the moment I heard it and just knew it had to be in the podcast.
  • Editing in Audacity- There was something really magical about cutting out odd pauses and awkward sentences and making youself sound a bit better. But, it did get annoying when I kept missing obvious things.
  • I didn't get too injured in the dark closet. Sure I smacked my elbow a couple of times and stubbed my toe. And maybe I almost slammed into the closet door in a panicky attempt to escape from the closet. But I'm glad to say I didn't need any band-aids.

Things that made me wince... repeatedly

  • Oddly enough even though the content in my final podcast came from one recording- my tone changes a lot. Sometimes I sound fun and suddenly it's like I'm reading for an encyclopedia entry/funeral.
  • My skit/sketch to demonstrate a scenario. I think my editing was lacking for this. Even though I had the materials and worked on the parts- it just became a mishmash of sounds.
  • Mono, stereo and other odd things that popped up when I tried to add in sound effects. I realised if I messed with certain settings I ended up killing most sounds without knowing what I changed. One minute the sound was clear and the next it became a long drawn out wailing sound.
  • Posterous posting- I know it's a new blog and everything. But I just despised the lack of options to attach filens directly when you create a web post. Attaching files to email and then not having proper editing functions for that post made it annoying.

Things I definitely need to keep an eye out on next time

  • Transitioning from one part/point to another. I probably need to use a sound effect to move between different points. Or at least take a bigger break/pause.
  • Definitely include more research. The thing I realised was that I skipped mentioning a lot of the historical research becasue I thought it was too bland. The lack of script definitely showed here.

On the whole, I think it could have ended up a whole lot worse. At least my paranoia of constantly saving my files and backing up things kept most of the stress away.

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Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:03:00 -0800 Taiwan Social Savvy Ep01 http://pearld.posterous.com/taiwan-social-savvy-ep01 http://pearld.posterous.com/taiwan-social-savvy-ep01

 

381

Taiwan Social Savvy Ep01 Listen on Posterous

Yay! The first episode- done and uploaded- even after running into minor obstacles (dodgy slow-poke internet connection, twitching fingers and a lack of chocolate).

I hope my podcast was informative.
Enjoy


Show notes

0:01- Introduction about podcast topic for the week

0:32- Levels of etiquette 0:48- Receiving a gift (short skit)

1:15- How to properly accept a gift with a brief mention of history.

2:00- Giving a gift (skit at 2:19)

2:31- How to properly give a gift- modesty on the price

2:44- Colours in gift giving.

3:15- Food as a gift for a dinner party.

3:34- Flowers and even numbers

3:49- Bad gifts to avoid vs. good gifts to give.

4:20- End comments

Sources
Information
1- Taiwanese customs
2- International gift Etiquette
3-
4-

Image from  here

Voice addition
Taiwanese/ Mandarin voice over- Tiffany Chen

Music and sound effects
Asian Adventure by Sonic9019 at Newgrounds

China Town by pheel at Sound effect from Newgrounds

Background/ambience from Internet Archive

Sounf effects from FreeSFX.com

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Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:13:00 -0800 Common Sense Netiquette http://pearld.posterous.com/common-sense-netiquette http://pearld.posterous.com/common-sense-netiquette

The list on here really emphasizes things that people should already know- Don’t use profanity and respect others. Keep those two in mind and you’re already a step ahead of most people on the web.

I think people tend to take the internet’s nature for granted and they sort of lose all their face to face communication etiquette. Anonymity allows people to leave unhelpful flames. But I think in closed groups where you know each other- like in a school discussion, people tend to be a bit more careful of their words. If you do something unhelpful and offensive in such an environment, chances are someone’s going to call you out on it.

That being said, I think commenting on other people’s work takes some getting used to. You don’t want to offend them and you want to sound helpful. Sometimes I just stare at an empty comment box- wondering if I should force myself to find something to say just to show I read it. But I don’t think that’s really helpful (even if I do it sometimes). Commenting just for the sake of occupying space isn’t the best thing to do when you want to foster a discussion.

So my rule for commenting- if you’re inspired to comment, do it. Those comments are usually the best because inspired thoughts are always unique.If you have nothing to say- that's fine, keep reading until you find something that makes you want to speak up.

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Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:20:00 -0800 Interesting podcast examples. http://pearld.posterous.com/interesting-podcast-examples http://pearld.posterous.com/interesting-podcast-examples

A podcast with good show notes

In SCIENCE…sort of, the first thing you notice about the show notes is the informal tone. I like the fact that it shows a bit of personality. It also explains stuff that might have happened in a previous show. The show notes include exact timings which is good since the podcast is an hour long. The most helpful part of the show notes has to be the links to other websites.

The odd thing about their layout is that they’ve placed their show notes above the actual podcast player- which made me panic in the start because I didn’t know where they podcast was.

A podcast with visuals

When I looked at Dig it Down Under, my eyes were immediately drawn to the images used beneath the podcasts. The pictures of flowers and plants were colourful, unique and related well with the content of the podcast.

The only thing that bugged me is that I had to scroll down for the visuals. I think these images would have been more effected if at least one of them was placed at the top so you could see it without needing to scroll.

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Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:13:00 -0800 Research post- with 50% more research! http://pearld.posterous.com/research-post-with-50-more-research http://pearld.posterous.com/research-post-with-50-more-research

Well I decided to go around stalking some Taiwanese people and bugging them about customs that foreigners wouldn’t know. Along with the exasperated looks, I managed to get some tidbits of information.

Here’s a list of what I got from cursory research

Gift giving: When receiving a gift, refuse it at least twice before finally accepting. Otherwise you’re going to be seen as greedy. Always make sure you gift wrap it carefully with auspicious colours and keep in mind that odd numbers are considered unlucky.

Research: I decided to find out the historical basis for most of these things. I ended up reading a bit in Confucianism. This took me to a book called, “Place and Spirit in Taiwan: Tudi Gong in the Stories, Strategies and Memories of Everyday Life” by Alessandro Dell'Orto. I still have to read it- I just got through the first few pages. 

Food: Don't stick chopsticks into your rice and leave them standing there. I got some more- but I need to verify some of the stuff.

Something that’s not really connected to food but I’ll list it here for now- When greeting someone, Taiwanese ask "Did you eat?" rather than "How are you?"

Research: Well, for the “did you eat?” greeting, this seems to be a well known thing to do. The person in the video uses this greeting in his speech- so I’m assuming- not an unknown custom. Have you guys heard of this greeting before?

Technical stuff.

Intro and outro music- I was definitely thinking of an oriental themed opening. Something to give you a hint of what the podcast is about. A fast paced one would definitely fit better than a tranquil one. Haven’t found anything concrete yet, but will have something up here by the end of the week.

Sound fx- Again loads of oriental sounds that give listeners an immediate association with my content especially when I try and create scenarios to introduce certain customs. So far, I’ve found dishes clanking for the food customs scenario and even a couple of festival sounds.

Authentic Taiwanese speaker- Have found willing participant who will record actual Taiwanese dialogues/phrases for my podcast scenarios. I only had to use a coffee bribe.

This entry is not really complete and will be subject to edits as I find new things.

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Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:48:00 -0800 Rome. Caesar. Pepsi. Wait, what? http://pearld.posterous.com/rome-caesar-pepsi-wait-what http://pearld.posterous.com/rome-caesar-pepsi-wait-what

When I listened to Terry O’Reilly’s podcast podcast, my mind immediately remembered a Pepsi slogan from back home, “Yeh dil maange more” (This heart asks for more). And then I wondered- why did I remember that all of a sudden? And more annoyingly- why did I remember that you have to go “Aha!” at the end of that line?

  • It could be because it was the longest running Pepsi slogan in India (the slogan ran from 1999 to 2006)
  • Or it could be because a lot of the Pepsi commercials with the slogan featured Shah Rukh Khan (a Bollywood actor I liked a lot)
  • It had a really catchy melody?
  • I was brainwashed?
  • Blue is an evil mind controlling colour?
  • Did I say Shah Rukh Khan already? Oh well, one more time won’t hurt.

On a totally unrelated note, I could not find my favourite SRK Pepsi ad on Youtube- I feel let down. You’ll have to settle for an old picture. Also as of Feb 20th, he’s no longer with Pepsi, he’s marketing Sprite.

Media_httpcontent8fli_cibww

Considering I never really liked Pepsi, and preferred Coca Cola, I’m amused that I can’t remember any Coca Cola slogans off the top of my head.

So I’m going to say all of the above listed reasons kept that slogan in my head. So what if Pepsi created two more slogans after that. I still identify Pepsi with the slogan, Yeh dil maange more”.

The reason I’m telling you all this? Well I wanted to show you what Terry O’Reilly’s podcast inspired in me. Even though his podcast did go slow at times, and he never mentions Pepsi, in the end I really connected with it. I was able to pull things from it and relate it to my own experiences.

I think that’s a really important part of a podcast. Having your listener connect to what you say. Or at least use loads of different clips to make your listener think more about the content.

 

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Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:25:00 -0800 Research Process- Bits and Pieces http://pearld.posterous.com/research-process-bits-and-pieces http://pearld.posterous.com/research-process-bits-and-pieces

I decided to convert my mini-language lesson podcast idea into something more narrow. My podcast series will deal with “Customs that you need to know if you’re traveling to Taiwan”. The title is subject to change and a lot of cutting, but the content is final.

Why Taiwan?

I’ve never been there. So I won’t have any preconceived notions of what’s the right thing to do. I’ll be depending on actual research to find content. So far, I’ve found this good website which has helped me search. This gave me a cursory overview of existing customs. I still need to find credible sources from the library that deals with the topic.

I also have a Taiwanese friend, who I can ask for personal opinions and for any Taiwanese voice clips.

Why customs and not language?

The customs reflect certain ideals that you need to follow so that you don’t insult anyone during your trip.

Plus introducing a custom for certain situations is definitely easier and makes more sense.  

There’ll still be bits of language in there- mainly just to give an authentic feel when I introduce the situation where the custom must be used.

Possible format

I listened to The Lowdown Podcast. While it’s not exactly a great example and a bit long, it did give me some ideas of what I need to talk about/use in my own podcast.

1. A huge chunk of my podcast will be an acted out scenario that demonstrates the do’s and don’t for a certain custom. If I use an authentic Taiwanese speaker, the change in voice will keep it from being too monotonous

2. I’ll add in other tidbits of information like

-         How did this custom come about? A brief look at the history.

-         Why is it so important? Is there some sort of religious significance?

-         What do you do if you have done a mistake? This will include what phrases to use to apologize.

3. Interview – question people to see what they would do in the situation? What would people want to know?

Breakdown of podcast series

1-     Gift giving customs

2-     Business customs

3-     Dining customs

Tools/ Resources 

I came across www.archive.org that allows you to download different kinds of audio for free. You can search for sound effects here, in the Open source Audio section. My favourite part of the site has to be the 78 RPMs & Cylinder Recordings- even if it has nothing to do with my topic. 

 

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Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:05:00 -0800 Interview? Of Course I did! http://pearld.posterous.com/interview-of-course-i-did http://pearld.posterous.com/interview-of-course-i-did

Here's a link to Tiffany's brainstorm blog entry in case you're interested:

Recording Process

We booked one of the study rooms on the top floor of the library. When we got to the library room Tiffany and I spent a few minutes going over our questions and answers. We then did a practice run of what our interview would sound like. It went great and we were eager to record.

I placed the recorder on the table and pressed record.

We heard the beep and I started talking. I didn’t make it past “Hello my name is…”. Yes, I forgot my name. We laughed. And then I forgot where we were. We laughed some more. And somewhere along the way I forgot what I wanted to ask- even though I had some points jotted down in front of me. You see where I’m going with this?

But we persevered and got through the first run. We played it back and found a lot of long silences, thoughtful hmms, joyful aha!s and tons of laughter. It helped us realize what worked and what didn’t.

We gave the recording another try.

I remembered my name and questions- but it felt too awkward. Our voices were too stiff and it sounded like we were complete strangers.

The third attempt was a huge success- perfect conversation tone, minimal laughter. But the people in the room next to us got noisy during this particular recording and ruined it.

Thankfully our fourth attempt went off without too much trouble.

Editing Process

Listening to yourself on audio during the editing process is just too odd for words- especially when you have to hear yourself say the same thing over and over again.

First I listened to the interview searching for any awkward pauses and long umms and ahhs. Not that many, so then I decided to look at our conversation- did we repeat phrases while talking? I removed those repetitions to make the conversation more fluid.

I also added some pauses in between places where we seem to interrupt each other. After all the content was edited, I decided to work on sound quality. Noise reducer was really helpful. I cleaned it up as best as I could- but at some points it sounds as though I have echoes.

But you can still some voices in the background, from people outside the room- that sound like low EVPs if you listen carefully.

I tried listening to it on different computers- but there’s only so much I can pick up after listening to it so many times. So if you guys hear some problems that I may have overlooked, I’d love to know about it.

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Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:18:00 -0800 Podcast Possibilities- A brainstorming session. http://pearld.posterous.com/podcast-possibilities-a-brainstorming-session http://pearld.posterous.com/podcast-possibilities-a-brainstorming-session

1- A day in the life of… 

A pod cast that follows someone around for a day (or a certain period of time during the day) and then highlights major events that occurred – like tripping down the stairs or something bigger. It would work as an observational mode. I could interview the person I’m following.

How this could work

- it’s interesting if I find the right person. Maybe someone with a fun job/hobby.

- I’d probably have to follow the person for more than one day to get my information.

- Some potential people- a secretary, vets, transit bus driver?

- maybe I could follow my group project for one of my other classes? We’re doing a re-design project and we have weekly meetings.

How this would fail

- how strong would a podcast be if it was just filled with observations of what a person does. Even though we’d hear audio of the person- it seems rather odd.

 

2- The Artist’s corner

A podcast that deals with digital art and artists. It could be a mix of observational and participatory with interviews. Seems to follow the idea of the first idea in a way.

How this could work

- could include commentary about equipment used to produce digital art i.e) Programs like photoshop

- Could observe how an artist creates part of an art piece- would people be interested in that?

How this would fail

- without a co-operative subject it could end up being just a commentary of different products that are used.

- Just commenting on what an artist does when they’re creating something wouldn’t be strong as using actual visuals.

(Edit: Added new idea that came along)

3- Learning a new language

A podcast that's almost like a mini-language course- one language per podcast most probably. Or at least a few essential phrases to survive when you need help in a foreign place.For instance:

"Does anyone here speak english?"

"Are there any english TV stations I can watch?"

"This tastes funny. Is this really chicken?"

"There's a huge spider in my room, I'd like a different room please."

"Look over there! A three-headed monkey."

And many more for various situations, obviously.

How this could work

- I could ask native speakers of different languages to participate by giving the correct pronounciation and translation.

-I could also give tips on certain etiquette in different places. For instance different hand signs may mean different things in different cultures.

- Pick up lines in different languages would be amusing.

- I could ask country-specific/stereotypical questions and get those translations. Eg: Something about wine and snails in French.

How this would fail

- could I squeeze helpful phrases within a few minutes without making it seem too rushed?

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Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:43:00 -0800 Huzzah! Some thoughts about “Secondary Orality”! http://pearld.posterous.com/huzzah-some-thoughts-about-secondary-orality http://pearld.posterous.com/huzzah-some-thoughts-about-secondary-orality

Walter Ong states that secondary orality, created by electronic technology, is more deliberate and self conscious since it interacts with writing and print.

What exactly does he mean by that? Does he mean that people who use electronic devices to record their message are careful about what they say?

Since secondary orality is not completely oral, I think that people are forced to think about how their message will be received. The ability to have the message recorded in its entirety on different places in different forms may cause people to second guess what they say. Sort of like a post for a class discussion- where people have to think out something that has to be suitable/smart enough.

At least that’s what I figure from Ong’s sentence.

But then again there are people out there, who are unafraid to speak their mind and record their thoughts in blunt terms.

Are their messages deliberate? Probably. Well, they’re probably not all that self-conscious. Maybe they want to stand out as people who are unafraid and unwilling to censor their thoughts for the world.

 

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Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:13:00 -0800 Participatory Documentary mode http://pearld.posterous.com/participatory-documentary-mode http://pearld.posterous.com/participatory-documentary-mode

I chose to look at Arna’s Children- a biographical documentary of Arna Mer Khamis’s attempts to help Palestine children find a constructive outlet during Israeli occupation. The documentary traces the lives of a few children who were under Arna’s care in her theatre program from the 80’s -90’s.

In the above clip we see Juliano Khamis, the director of the documentary and son of Arna Khamis, interacting with the kids filmed in the documentary. Khamis’s screen time includes him teaching acting lessons to the kids.

Fast forward to a few years and we hear him interviewing the children who have grown up and taken on very different roles in life.

The documentary does slip into observational mode, when the camera captures the natural interaction of Arna with the children. Even though there is a narrator directing you, the voice blends in with the visuals so it doesn’t really stand out.

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Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:41:00 -0800 Epic First Post! http://pearld.posterous.com/epic-first-post http://pearld.posterous.com/epic-first-post

Well, I suppose that does sound better than 'Introductory' post. It'll have to do.

Anyway, welcome fellow Wri380-ers, to this wonderful space of nothingness. For now, at least. I'm hoping to fill this space with loads of ideas, thoughts and colourful bits of things. So definitely come back for more late night typings.

In future posts I'll try

- to stay away from the word 'epic' in my titles. I shall only use it in dire circumstances like when going on an adventure to save the world or something.

- to keep my thoughts clear, readable and un-sloppy

- not to call you guys Wri380-ers?

Pearl.

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