text:
Martin T
Dengler's personal home page.
Nothing at all related to my code, my university, or my high school. Old CV (pdf / tex / docx / txt). |
2014-03-12 : Scoring based on precision and recall
When scoring classifiers one wants to reward
both precision
and recall. A simple and useful linear function of precision
and recall is just
We can do better though. For some discussion, issues, and alternates see "Evaluation: From Precision, Recall and F-Measure to ROC, Informedness, Markedness & Correlation" (2011) by David M W Powers in the Journal of Machine Learning Technologies 2 (1): 37–63. 2013-12-28 : Hacker's image gallery Two lines is all it takes for hacker's image and video gallery: 2013-07-04 : Resistor identification I found Zach Poff's Resistor Identification PDF to be very helpful, but the SMD and +/-1% tolerance sections were not very useful to me when sorting a bag of cheap resistors, so I made a Hobbyist Resistor Identification Codes PDF (from an SVG) in Inkscape of something easy to print out. 2013-04-10 : Kōaning kōans Kōans are universal Computer Science folklore. Especially the AI ones. Recursion is a fundamental structure. Lisp-in-lisp is seen as a great achievement, as is when any programming language becomes self-hosting. I had never connected these very deeply, possibly because I didn't know the first thing about kōans: "...in the beginning a monk first thinks a kōan is an inert object upon which to focus attention; after a long period of consecutive repetition, one realizes that the kōan is also a dynamic activity, the very activity of seeking an answer to the kōan." [1] 2012-08-27 : Elisp function to add-newline-and-ident-after-next-comma I am actually amazed I've used emacs for programming for so long without writing this; bind to Ctrl-, and wonder how you lived without it: (defun mtd-indent-after-comma-space () (interactive) (re-search-forward ",[ ]+" (line-end-position) t) (replace-match ",") (newline-and-indent)) (global-set-key (kbd "C-,") 'mtd-indent-after-comma-space) 2012-08-26 : Python default argument redux This is the right use of python's powerful default kwargs feature: import time def report(when=lambda: time.time()): print when() report() time.sleep(5) report() The wrong one is documented all over, but often without a clear statement that "Default parameter values are evaluated when the function [is defined]"ref. I think it's more useful to ask people to take away the lambda: and ask themselves why that doesn't work as they probably would expect. 2012-02-10 : Quickfix 1.33 for Fedora 16 I've made new RPMs of QuickFIX 1.13.3 for Fedora 16 that you can download; the patches are also available separately. I'm working on getting QuickFIX officially into Fedora; if you're interested in helping please check redhat bugzilla #606421. 2011-05-29 : Quickfix 1.33 for Fedora 15 I've made new RPMs of QuickFIX 1.13.3 for Fedora 15 that you can download; the patches are also available separately. Thanks to Dennis Fleurbaaij for some patches. I'm working on getting QuickFIX officially into Fedora; if you're interested in helping please check redhat bugzilla #606421. 2011-03-31 : tracker hacking I backported tracker's "index & search for numbers" functionality (without its config-ui nicety) from tracker-bug #503366 to Fedora 14's tracker now-ancient 0.8.17 so I could search for numbers; the change was surprisingly small given how much tracker has moved on: diff -ur tracker-0.8.17-p2/src/libtracker-fts/tracker-parser.c tracker-0.8.17-patch-index-numbers-gnome-bugzilla-num-503366/src/libtracker-fts/tracker-parser.c --- tracker-0.8.17-p2/src/libtracker-fts/tracker-parser.c 2011-03-30 18:11:50.717630143 +0800 +++ tracker-0.8.17-patch-index-numbers-gnome-bugzilla-num-503366/src/libtracker-fts/tracker-parser.c 2011-03-31 00:48:06.160630144 +0800 @@ -354,8 +356,7 @@ } } - if (!is_valid || - word_type == TRACKER_PARSER_WORD_NUM) { + if (!is_valid) { word_type = TRACKER_PARSER_WORD_IGNORE; is_valid = TRUE; length = 0; @@ -378,18 +379,9 @@ if (!start) { start = g_utf8_offset_to_pointer (parser->cursor, char_count-1); - /* Valid words must start with an alpha or - * underscore if we are filtering. - */ - - if (type == TRACKER_PARSER_WORD_NUM) { - is_valid = FALSE; - continue; - } else { - if (type == TRACKER_PARSER_WORD_HYPHEN) { - is_valid = parser->parse_reserved_words; - continue; - } + if (type == TRACKER_PARSER_WORD_HYPHEN) { + is_valid = parser->parse_reserved_words; + continue; } } @@ -459,7 +451,9 @@ return FALSE; } - if (word_type == TRACKER_PARSER_WORD_ALPHA_NUM || word_type == TRACKER_PARSER_WORD_ALPHA) { + if (word_type == TRACKER_PARSER_WORD_ALPHA_NUM + || word_type == TRACKER_PARSER_WORD_ALPHA + || word_type == TRACKER_PARSER_WORD_NUM) { gchar *utf8; gchar *processed_word; It's very nice to be able to search for numbers now. 2011-03-29 : Lisp on Fedora revisited
I wanted to see what I could do
with vecto
so I had another go at Common Lisp on Fedora, almost
three years since it crashed and burned for me.
" Luckily, the other old symptom of "libraries don't install the new way, either" has changed: the old old way is gone, the old new way is now the old way, and the new way is really new, and actually works: sudo yum -y install sbcl git clone git://gitorious.org/clbuild2/clbuild2.git cd clbuild2 ./clbuild quickload vecto ...lots of downloading ./clbuild prepl --noinform ...much amusement with dumping core files and such * (require 'vecto) much system loading NIL *If things keep working this well soon people will be asking heretical things like "stop telling me about system loading when it works". 2010-12-02 : Converting scanned pdfs to text on linux (OCR) To convert scanned PDFs to text on linux - where the PDFs don't already have text embedded in them, of course - I have come up with the below process using tesseract for the OCR and unpaper to correct for the vagaries of the scanning process (slightly off-kilter document images, for example). I've started with PNG files, but of course you can just use ImageMagick to convert foo.pdf foo.png to get n foo-i.png files for an n-page PDF. for f in ${output_basename}*.png ; do stem=$(basename $f .png) pngtopnm ${stem}.png > ${stem}.pnm | tee -a ${output_basename}.log unpaper -b 0.5 -w 0.8 -l single -s a4 ${stem}.pnm ${stem}-unpapered.pnm | tee -a ${output_basename}.log convert ${stem}-unpapered.pnm -depth 8 -monochrome ${stem}.tif | tee -a ${output_basename}.log tesseract ${stem}.tif ${stem}-tesseract | tee -a ${output_basename}.log done If you're using Fedora linux, yum can install all the prerequisites for you: sudo yum -y install ImageMagick tesseract poppler-utils unpaper netpbm-progs 2010-10-31 : Using Python modules from C Python extensions When writing a Python extension module, the basics of using another python module's attribute are not overly documented. Constructing an instance of another module's class, for example, is a bit of a mystery. There are at least two object creation primitives and a lot of C APIs to get in the way of integrating gracefully with python-implemented code. Here's how one can do it:
2010-09-28 : The last rosetta stone you'll need 2010-07-05 : Saving your MBR Save/restore your MBR:
2010-06-20 : QuickFIX patches to build 1.13.3 on Fedora 12 and higher I've got some patches and an updated specfile to get quickfix 1.13.3 built on Fedora 12 and higher. This includes the python bindings (tested a bit) and examples (untested). You can download the rpms here. I am going to work on getting them submitted to the quickfix project and into Fedora. 2010-06-17 : QuickFIX concepts The absolute minimum you need to know about QuickFIX / FIX programs is:
Can you think of anythine else? Let me know via email. 2010-05-13 : QuickFIX on Fedora 12 Here's how I got quickfix running on Fedora 12: wget http://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org/packages/quickfix/1.12.4/9.fc12/x86_64/quickfix-1.12.4-9.fc12.x86_64.rpm sudo yum --nogpgcheck localinstall quickfix-1.12.4-9.fc12.x86_64.rpm Ok, so that's just to get libquickfix.so. To actually do something useful, like connect to a FIX endpoint, there's more. But before we get to that, how about building the latest version of quickfix: #standard rpmdev fedora setup: sudo yum -y install yum-utils rpmdevtools rpmdev-setuptree # verify that we can build the existing RPM sudo yum-builddep quickfix-1.12.4-9.fc12.src.rpm rpm -Uvh quickfix-1.12.4-9.fc12.src.rpm rpmbuild -ba ~/rpmdev/SPECS/quickfix.spec #WORKSFORME. now let's upgrade to 1.13.3: sed -i -e 's/1.12.4/1.13.3/; s/9{%dist}/1{%dist}/' ~/rpmdev/SPECS/quickfix.spec rpmbuild -ba ~/rpmdev/SPECS/quickfix.spec Next update: getting python, ruby, and java bindings built. 2010-02-03 : Maemo 5 SDK + Fedora hacking There are a few guides to installing a Maemo 5 scratchbox on a Fedora 12 x86_64 machine, but none of them worked for me without modification. In particular, the vm.mmap_min_addr magic really ate up a few minutes. To save one or two other people some time, here's what worked for me: # do this as root yum -y install Xephyr dbus hal groupadd sbox usermod -a -G sbox $LOGNAME echo >> sysctl.conf <<EOF # for maemo scratchbox (n900) from http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34924 abi.vsyscall32=0 # avoid mmap problems installing .debs: # http://lists.scratchbox.org/pipermail/scratchbox-users/2009-August/001530.html vm.mmap_min_addr = 1048576 EOF # increase apt cache memory limit, for example http://lena.franken.de/linux/debian_and_vserver/commands_to_install.html#NotEnoughMemory echo "APT::Cache-Limit 50000000" >> /etc/apt/apt.conf sysctl -p # do this as non-root user wget http://repository.maemo.org/stable/5.0/maemo-scratchbox-install_5.0.sh http://repository.maemo.org/stable/5.0/maemo-sdk-install_5.0.sh chmod a+x ./maemo-scratchbox-install_5.0.sh ./maemo-sdk-install_5.0.sh patch maemo-scratchbox-install_5.0.sh <<EOF --- maemo-scratchbox-install_5.0.sh~ 2010-01-13 09:00:40.000000000 +0000 +++ maemo-scratchbox-install_5.0.sh 2010-02-03 02:33:22.000000000 +0000 @@ -328,6 +328,7 @@ ;; s) __type=tgz + __force=yes __scratchbox=$OPTARG ;; g) EOF sudo ./maemo-scratchbox-install_5.0.sh -s /opt/scratchbox -u $LOGNAME ./maemo-sdk-install_5.0.sh -d -s /opt/scratchbox -m maemo-sdk-debug 2010-01-29 : Simple Clojure + JNDI example Transcribed + extended a bit from randystuph's blog entry: (System/setProperty javax.naming.Context/INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY "org.apache.naming.java.javaURLContextFactory") (System/setProperty javax.naming.Context/URL_PKG_PREFIXES "org.apache.naming") (def ctx (new javax.naming.InitialContext)) (doseq [node ["java:" "java:comp" "java:comp/env" "java:comp/env/jdbc"]] (.createSubcontext ctx node)) ; Sybase example - SybConnectionPoolDataSource (def sybase-datasource (new com.sybase.jdbc2.jdbc.SybConnectionPoolDataSource)) ; non-pooled version: com.sybase.jdbc2.jdbc.SybDataSource (doto sybase-datasource (.setDatabaseName "mydbname") (.setServerName "hostname.here.com") (.setPortNumber 1400) (.setUser "myuser") (.setPassword "password")) (.bind ctx "java:comp/env/jdbc/sybaseds" sybase-datasource) ; JNDI lookups look like: (.lookup ctx "java:comp/env/jdbc/sybaseds") ; Sybase connections look like: (def sybase-connection-pool (.getPooledConnection sybase-datasource)) (def sybase-connection (.getConnection sybase-connection-pool)) ; non-pooled version: ; (def sybase-connection (.getConnection sybase-datasource)) ; Oracle example (def oracle-datasource (new oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleConnectionPoolDataSource)) (doto oracle-datasource (.setURL "jdbc:oracle:thin:@host.name.here:porthere:schemahere") (.setUser "oracleuser") (.setPassword "oraclepasswd")) (.bind ctx "java:comp/env/jdbc/oracleds" oracle-datasource) ; JNDI lookups look like: (.lookup ctx "java:comp/env/jdbc/oracleds") ; Oracle-connections look like: (def oracle-connection (.getConnection oracle-datasource)) 2010-01-22 : Simplest LaTeX document I couldn't find any web page showing the Simplest LaTeX Document That Could Possibly Work, so here it is:
I then found this "minimal" example. 2010-01-13 : On Understanding Data Abstraction, Revisited Great paper: On Understanding Data Abstraction, Revisited. To summarise: Object-oriented programming and abstract data types are two related but distinct forms of data abstraction. The difference between the two is akin to the difference between thinking in terms of characteristic functions and algebras. The definitions of objects (specifically, objects referred to when one speaks about object-oriented programming) and abstract data types are
2009-12-16 : Use Python from Excel If you want to write python and use it in Excel, check out PyXLL. Using some C++/CPython dark magic, you can call Python functions as Excel user-defined functions (UDF) - it's very cool. It's a hard technical bridge to span but it's been done elegantly and simply. You write python and you get excel functions. The software is in private beta but requests considered quickly, so it's easy to try. The guy who wrote it is great and sits next to me, so I know he wants feedback. Check it out. 2009-11-09 : Clojure's concurrency vs. primitives ...(and vice-versa) by Attila Szegedi: [T]here are four reference types in Clojure, and they differ in three concurrency attributes, namely:
Vars: unshared (thread-local), synchronous (consequence of thread-locality), uncoordinated (consequence of thread-locality). Atoms: shared, synchronous, uncoordinated. They're basically a compare-and-swap. Agents: shared, asynchronous, uncoordinated. Change functions are queued, and each function is run by agent sequentially using a thread pool. Refs: shared, synchronous, coordinated (transacted). They're the software transactional memory implementation. Also worth noting is that agents are integrated with the STM system - any sends to an agent that are initiated from within a STM transaction will get delayed until the transaction commits (otherwise the transactions could have external side-effects via agent sends). 2009-09-15 : Wordplay
Shed-storm n.: bikeshedding on a mailing
list that turns sour and degenerates into a
2009-08-12 : Dengler's Law of Inexorable Software Communism Dengler's Law of Inexorable Software Communism is: Because one can't (or won't) throw code away, one is guaranteed a job for life maintaining the code. The only disadvantage is: one has to maintain the code.
Software engineers are always thinking "argh! I wish I
could just throw this all away and start again". I've
seen the Some of you might be thinking "If they're so good, shouldn't they have done it right in the first place?". In fact, they did do it right in the first place. But then something changed to make it not the best solution, and that something was fundamental enough a change to require a re-write. Williamson's First Corollary to this is: If one has the forethought to invent one's own private programming language, said job-for-life is doubly secure. But the associated disadvantage is quadrupled. 2009-03-24 : Philosophical Innovation I was amused by the relevance to Conway and Kochen's Free Will Theorem when I came across Bramhall's reply to Hobbes: "Will he ascribe liberty to inanimate creatures also, which have neither reason, nor spontaneity, nor so much as sensitive appetite?" -- Bishop Bramhall of Derry 2009-03-07 : Formatting SD cards as ext2, ext3, or ext4 If you've been re-formatting your SD flash card(s) for linux and don't know what an "erase boundary" is, you need to read Aligning filesystems to an SSD's erase block size and How to damage a FLASH storage device. Let me summarise:
2009-03-03 : SoaS/XO Bootchart For my OLPC/XO-1 laptop these days, I'm using the interesting Sugar-on-a-Stick distribution, which is based on Fedora Linux. I want my XO to boot fast, not because I boot it a lot, but because it boots really, really slowly right now. So I installed bootchart, changed olpc.fth to use it, rebooted, and voila, got this chart: Then I edited /etc/bootchartd.conf to use process accounting, and got this chart: I booted without my SD card (which isn't the boot device - I boot off the NAND) inserted, and got this chart: So there's some work to do to fix some SD card badness... Meanwhile, looks like I should get more familiar with rc.sysinit. The data for the above charts are all available for download. 2009-01-14 : Free / Open Source trading system Could-be-interesting (though it's C# only; would love to see how IronPython scripting code would look) free / open-source trading system (purportedly): http://opentrader.org. I wonder if there are any others like it? 2009-01-12 : Updated compcache-on-the-XO entry I have something like this in a "prepare-new-XO" script: if ! `grep -q compcache /etc/rc.local` ; then set +e target_dir=/home/olpc/src this_kernel_rpm=kernel-devel-`uname -r`.i586.rpm mkdir $targetdir cd $targetdir /bin/rm -f ${this_kernel_rpm}* wget http://dev.laptop.org/~dilinger/{stable,testing}/$this_kernel_rpm wget http://compcache.googlecode.com/files/compcache-0.4.tar.gz rpm -ivh $this_kernel_rpm cp -af /boot/* /versions/boot/current/boot/ tar xzf compcache-0.4.tar.gz cd compcache-0.4 make ./use_compcache.sh echo "(cd /home/olpc/src/compcache-0.4 ; ./use_compcache.sh)" >> /etc/rc.local set -e fi 2008-11-21 : Add a clock to your OLPC XO
Add a clock to your OLPC XO (build 767 - the current stable
and G1G1 2008 version):
2008-11-06 : Python profiling cheat sheet snippet
Download lsprofcalltree
from pypy;
then do something like (thanks to Tomeu):
12:39 < tomeu> import os 12:39 < tomeu> import cProfile 12:39 < tomeu> import lsprofcalltree 12:39 < tomeu> profiler = cProfile.Profile() 12:39 < tomeu> profiler.enable() 12:39 < tomeu> ###################### 12:39 < tomeu> profiler.disable() 12:39 < tomeu> k = lsprofcalltree.KCacheGrind(profiler) 12:39 < tomeu> data = open(os.path.expanduser('/tmp/import.kgrind'), 'w+')...and throw that into kcachegrind. 2008-08-01 : DBus Python API
The freedesktop.org
DBus API documentation needs to be higher on Google
searches for "python dbus".
2008-05-01 : irssi settings I don't understand why irssi - a great program - doesn't come shipped with settings that cause joins/leaves to show up in a separate window. Evidently most of IRC is about the schadenfreude of seeing kickbanned people trying to bounce back into a channel or something. It took me about five seconds to get annoyed by getting real conversations interrupted by messages - with extra color and/or highlighted - about whose computer had decided to go to sleep, or who had locked their screen. Is there so little real information in most channels that people like seeing this stuff? To get messages that aren't part of the conversation out into one - the first - irssi window, just paste these commands into your irssi session: /set window_default_level -ALL MSGS PUBLICS NOTICES CTCPS ACTIONS KICKS MODES TOPICS NICKS CLIENTCRAP /foreach window /window level -ALL MSGS PUBLICS NOTICES CTCPS ACTIONS KICKS MODES TOPICS NICKS CLIENTCRAP /set window_check_level_first ON /window goto 1 /window level ALL -MSGS /save Job done. Read more hints in the Irssi documentation. 2008-04-28 : compcache on the XO
I'm trying compcache on my XO. To get it installed on my
XO, from the console of my XO running the latest joyride:
sudo /sbin/init 3 #get joyride kernel-devel rpm wget http://dev.laptop.org/~dilinger/stable/kernel-devel-2.6.22-20080408.1.olpc.de2a86ff3b60edc.i586.rpm sudo rpm -ivh kernel-devel-2.6.22-20080408.1.olpc.de2a86ff3b60edc.i586.rpm sudo cp -af /boot/* /versions/boot/current/boot/ #get compcache wget http://compcache.googlecode.com/files/compcache-0.3.tar.gz tar xzf compcache-0.3.tar.gz cd compcache-0.3 make #use it sudo ./use_compcache.shI got a warning about udevadm being missing, and indeed it is/was and I have no idea whence to get it, but it's just used to wait until the right compressed ram device shows up, and that wasn't necessary in my case (presumably running use_compcache.sh twice would be good enough), so I'm not worrying about it. The results...this is before, in runlevel 5, with 2 Terminals, 1 Browse, 1 Record, and 1 EToys activity running: -bash-3.2# free total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 237840 234036 3804 0 260 35268 -/+ buffers/cache: 198508 39332 Swap: 0 0 0 -bash-3.2# time yum search memory-pig [1]+ Stopped yum search memory-pig real 29m23.437s user 0m0.000s sys 0m0.180s -bash-3.2# kill -9 %1...and as you can see I had to kill yum after 29 minutes with end in sight, OOM killer having killed two of my python processes (one of which was Browse, and the other unknown...) and the XO becoming very unresponsive (well, I was running screen, three shells, and emacs (empty buffer) as well as vmstat 1 500 to show the memory usage, and the sys cpu percentage went to 95% for a long time). This is after init 3; use_compcache.sh ; init 5, and launching all the same apps as before: -bash-3.2# free total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 237840 232636 5204 0 1372 43776 -/+ buffers/cache: 187488 50352 Swap: 59456 13068 46388 -bash-3.2# time yum search memory-pig olpc_development 100% |=========================| 2.4 kB 00:00 No Matches found real 1m52.392s user 0m16.250s sys 0m27.430s...so hey, I'll leave it installed for now :). How does it feel? Hmm...it's too early to tell. 2008-04-23 : XO patches accepted!
I now
have two
accepted into the Sugar! They're about the smallest patches
you can get - the first was one line, a removal :) - but
it's nice to have something in the tree. There are a few
still outstanding though.
2008-04-04 : More Lisp foolery Every time I try to do something in a Lisp requiring not rewriting huge libraries-worth of code I want to boot to the head the smartasses who rant about Lisp being a kickass language and fail to mention that packaging sucks and nobody seems to care that it takes days to figure out how to install each package because the maintainer got bored with other people using their code about 30 seconds after sticking it on CLiki. I imagine Esperanto advocates take the same type of (sadistic) pleasure in this type of situation: "Esperanto is so cool, everybody who's good would use it", I imagine them saying. "Where's Esperanto's Shakespeare?", I'd retort. "Don't worry, you can learn English from this crack-addicted tramp on speed with ADD", they would answer, "and then you can read Shakespeare, and then you'll realize why you shouldn't worry about him and instead be spending time coming up with baroque sentences of interest to abstract Esperanto researchers or arguing about which paper is best to browse the other Esperanto sentences of interest to more than two people in the world". So I wanted to play with ECL and SBCL, so tried (require 'cl-ppcre) in sbcl. Argh, stale FASLs. Imagine the acronym "ABI". Now imagine the word "compatibility". If you're a typical Lisp hacker you're already distracted and I'd have no chance of combining those words with "shouldn't be broken by a patch release of your compiler/intepreter in this day and age". After finding a nice .sbclrc snippet to try a recompile if a stale FASL was found, (require 'cl-ppcre) worked! (require 'split-sequence) didn't, though, nor did a few other ones I tried at random (most from memory but one while staring at its CLiki page!). So then I found Lisp with Batteries Included 2 and tried to get clbuild going. It rebuilt sbcl (!?!?) fine -- amazing. Why Lisp package management is so broken that there's mk-defsystem, asdf-install, and super Lisp hackers (and I mean it certainly seems like these guys really know their way around Lisp development enviroments) have to create a third (!), will never cease to amaze me. There have been rants about how Lisp people are too smart to have their attention distracted by helping other people by fixing this type of problem, and then the counter-rants saying "it's easy enough; we all did it, and if one can't, then one isn't worthy!". Just recently I came across Steele or somebody like that mentioning how "mainstream" languages (by which I mean languages that are not such a pain to get to work with) were actually much more varied not in their language features (or other things a language designer would typically worry about) but varied in their community ("culture?") and their library support. He got it right. And Lisp makes me cry each time I think of how it measures up in those two areas. All this wouldn't even have been attempted if the implementation language wasn't so cool. It's like having a beautiful mechanical toy whose mechanisms are so interesting to even just glimpse from time to time that you're happy to put up with having to clean up the crap that seems to spontaneously accrete every time you come back to it before you can even see the beauty. I'd mark up this text with proper links to the referenced articles/tools but it's five AM so I'll leave it for another day when I don't have to recompile sbcl. I'm still amazed that it worked the first time; see! The code is great but the inconsistency of the tools...argh. 2008-04-01 : some XO patches
LIFO - my last two patches (to
support-scripts [1]
just got added. They're small patches, but useful for
scripting and good of the maintainer (Phil Bordelon) to
merge them so quickly.
2008-03-31 : XO wrangling
My OLPC patches are still being digested; I think update.1
work is keeping people focused elsewhere (given I recently
submitted a one-line patch
to bug
#4646, I don't think it's (just) because my patches are
rubbish). So in order to make it a bit easier for me to
enqueue something on my XO for offline reading, I combined:
2008-03-13 : SOMs
maps look cool, but not (mainly) literally: using them
for categorizing price movement patterns is the subject of
some research, but not really very much. 2-5- and 10-20-
(trading-) day-long patterns of "special situation" stocks
could be interesting.
2008-03-06 : XO/Sugar keyboard shortcut changes
I've gone out on a limb (because it's kind of none of my
business) with
some patches to
Sugar that make nano/emacs usable from a sugar terminal
via the standard keybindings (like, C-s and C-o actually
2008-03-01 : Continuation study
I really need to learn more about
continuations, like Self-application
as the fixpoint of call/cc
2008-02-27 : XO ebook-mode patches, still
My ebook mode patches appear to have attracted no attention
:(. I hope it's just because there is a big XO deployment
and people are busy. Maybe I could make the initial focus
on the Browse and Read applications be a lot more sensible
(and ebook-friendly) in the meantime.
2008-02-11 : XO ebook-mode patches
I submitted some patches to
better support
ebook-mode on the XO. Any python activity will
fullscreen itself and hide its cursor, which is pretty much
just what you want when you hit any buttons on the screen or
move the mouse (because you're in ebook-mode).
2008-01-12 : XP on the XO commentary
Recently there was some publicity about XP on the
XO. I think some of the reaction to the reaction (!)
was regrettable, and I said so:
I think you guys just got it wrong, here: 1) What is OLPC getting? I'm not sure what OLPC will be getting out of helping Microsoft: you say that you're not dedicating resources to it, but I bet if 5 random developers showed up and asked for the same amount of time from you (meetings + technical writer) they wouldn't get the same reception. 2) What are you losing? Your time (meetings) and others' support for the project (bad PR), but most importantly, the ability of the laptops in the field to be used for OLPC core principles (trivially, the 5th, but given the state of mesh networking now, I can't imagine trying to get things working with Windows will speed up achieving saturation and connection). I agree with Bruce about the 'paradox of choice' that you seem to ignore (or straw man the other side - 'To claim we should prohibit XO customers from running XP') is that the choice that removes your ability to choose is no choice. I know you said they must be able to switch back to a free alternative (Linux), but if you really believe that once officials have the choice to distribute Windows the sales (bribery?) pressure won't kick in and leave kids with Windows laptops that their parents can sell or DRM'ed textbooks they need to have, I submit Intel's latest antics as the obvious riposte. 3) Your point about the Microsoft people you're dealing with being 'good people', and want to 'play along', goes nowhere concrete so I assume it's meant to convince you/us that this is all a warm, fuzzy, help-the-kids-first project. If so, doesn't that seem a bit naive? If not, please help me understand where you were taking that point (I assume it wasn't 'MS supports OLPC's five core principles; look, these nice people are just the beginning'). I only hope this is just a friendly, developer-to-developer set of interactions that got too much press. Given Microsoft have had 40 people working on this for a year, I doubt it, and I think you've gone too far. Let Microsoft employees join the devel list and exchange their ideas in the open, at least, on the same playing field as everybody else. Martin PS - you also lost me when you said OLPC's 'commitment to open source and free software isn't religious, but pragmatic' - if one of your five goals can be cast aside so easily for 'pragmatic' reasons, I think you're going to lose a bit of people's trust and goodwill. I would have expected one of your core goals would be adhered to except in extraordinary circumstances (c.f. the Marvell firmware). These are hardly extraordinary circumstances, except in the naivite that what Microsoft has done with other OS competitors won't be done to OLPC. 2008-01-05 : XO laptop backlight control
I figured out how to control the XO laptop's backlight from
blog and thought I'd re-highlight and expand on it here:
The backlight levels can be modified by writing
to Here're examples of how to modify the backlight levels from the Terminal: sudo bash -c "echo 0 > /sys/class/backlight/dcon-bl/brightness" sudo bash -c "echo 15 > /sys/class/backlight/dcon-bl/brightness" 2008-01-04 : XO laptop hacking
I've got an XO Laptop (from the OLPC project) and it's pretty cool. I've upgraded the
software (joyride-1502 works fine for me) and figured out
how to get the battery capacity into a gnu screen hardstatus
line with this tiny script & screenrc change:
---------- /home/olpc/bin/olpc_screen_status.sh #!/bin/bash # Author: Martin Dengler <firstname.lastname@example.com> # idea from http://firstname.lastname@example.com/msg00322.html # based on battery info from olpc-logbat # B_INFO=/sys/class/power_supply/olpc-battery while true do CAP=`cat $B_INFO/capacity` echo b:$CAP% sleep 60 done ----------... .screenrc change:
---------- /home/olpc/bin/.screenrc # run command forever and assign most recent output to string escape %1` backtick 1 0 0 /home/olpc/bin/olpc_screen_status.sh # the ...%1`... part at the end is the important part hardstatus alwayslastline "%{.bW}%-w%{.rW}%n %t%{-}%+w %=%{..G} %H %{..Y} %m/%d %C%a %1` " ---------- 2007-12-06 : New favorite quotes
Some new famous quotes (from norvig.com):
The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to
their commitment to excellence, regardless of their
field of endeavor.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to
entertain a thought without accepting it.
Believe, if thou wilt, that mountains change their place,
but believe not that man changes his nature.
2007-12-05 : What's in your feed list?
Recently had a conversation at a
meetup about what RSS feeds we read. I heard about a
few new ones; here are mine:
2007-11-29 : Common Lisp Tutorial
Siebel recommends
people link to
this Common Lisp
tutorial because there isn't anything better! Seems
like the least we can do.
2007-11-10 : Laptop with Free/LinuxBIOS
I'm interested in buying a laptop or two. Both have to
I might want two, one as a text-only hacking/emailing console-about-the-house and another as a desktop replacement. I'll have to update my projects page as I do the research. 2007-11-08 : Repos page update
I've updated my Fedora
repos page for Fedora 8.
2007-11-07 : Fedora 8 upgrade
If you're thinking of upgrading/installing Fedora 8 without
having to burn any CDs/DVDs and have an extra hard drive
partition (usb disk? home partition you won't be blowing
away?), just drop the rescue disk's initrd.img and vmliunz
into your existing /boot directory and add a new entry to
your /boot/grub/grub.conf pointing to them. Store the DVD
iso on the partition that will survive the upgrade and
reboot. Make sure to select that new grub entry when you
reboot, and you should be off and installing.
2007-10-24 : .emacs file
I've been messing around with my .emacs
file to make it useful on a number of machines. I
figured I'd mention it in case I need to copy it somewhere
without scp or some search engine can use it to help someone
It's got a few standard customizations and cute stuff grabbed from around the web:
2007-09-15 : Language experience
A long time ago, Kent M. Pitman mentioned a list of langague-classes (and examples thereof) that a programmer should get experience with to make them better programmers. I checked off those that I know and was pleasantly surprised:
2007-09-15 : Cleanup
I've cleaned up this first page. 2003-2006s' page is still available.
2007-08-05 : Lisp
Great Lisp comic. If they showed more CS majors that they'd overcome a few of Lisp's disadvantages
2007-06-16 : Backups 2007-06-11 : TV control script
Just a small script to control my TV (LG 37Z55). Really simple example of pyserial usage, but not supposed to be anything like a model bit of code (it's not interesting enough, first off). Will probably work with other LG models.
2007-01-01 : Rabbit problem, almost
The closest I've come to finding a reference to the rabbit problem: Programming puzzle.
(c) Copyright 2000-2008 Martin T
Dengler. All rights reserved. |
"May ours be the noble heart
Strong to endure
Daring tho' skies be dark
And road-ways unsure"
-- Regis High School
Alma Mater
Colophon: The site's design has been influenced by freshmeat.net, mengwong.com, and mozilla.org . You can learn more in the About section.


text:
London Redlight District Escorts - SOHO
Click to Find "Paul Pisces" at Amazon (USA)
Click to Find "Paul Pisces" at Amazon (UK)
My typical weekend begins promptly at 5pm on a Friday afternoon. Usually I and my mainly married colleagues will walk the couple of hundred yards to a bar near the train station which loosely describes itself as a "British Pub". This means the décor and furniture are in poor condition and the beer is warm. They used to have a Filipina working there who could actually speak English but she left.
Actually it's not so bad and very convenient for a quick pint or two after work. As I drink I pull out my packet of continental menthol cigarettes and light up. I only smoke when I drink – in fact I try and keep all my vices together in the hope that they will only count as one sin in total come the final reckoning. I am in many respects a bad man.
I spend an hour with my work mates becoming slowly more and more frustrated at the requirement for me to retain at least a modicum of respectability. Just before 6pm I run for the 6.01 train to the city centre and my transformation from almost respectable employee to whoremonger is nearly complete.
On the train I break out my hip flask and take quiet nips of vodka. I begin to relax after the exacting trials and tribulation of the so recently expired week of work. At the main train station it is a quick transfer to the bus and a 10 minute ride to the heart of the red-light zone.
My first stop is a Thai style bar and my usual hostess Nan brings me a glass of dry white Chardonnay as I light up another cigarette. "Drink for me?" Nan asks and I nod almost imperceptibly.
Nan's a cute looking girl and she doesn't look her 30 years. She is slim and dresses in a revealing short skirt and skimpy top. She has a small son and no husband but I've never been able to tempt her to meet me outside the bar worse luck.
After two more drinks I tip Nan unnecessarily and walk to the main drag of the strip. I have a drink in a few more bars and chat to some girls I know. Almost everyone knows me around here. At work a woman once mentioned that she'd read in the paper that there were 2000 prostitutes in this city. "2000?" I said. "I must know all of them...". Even she thought that was funny.
Most of the freelancers working the bars are African, Brazilian or Cuban with a sprinkling of Russians and other east Europeans. The Thais are mainly in the erotic clubs and massage parlours which I rarely visit as it is too controlled (and expensive) for my taste.
In one of the bars suddenly Claudia wanders in and immediately makes a bee-line for me. "Hey Paul do you wanna buy me a drink?" she coos. "OK," I reply and she slides in next to me at the bar and begins stroking my thigh.
Claudia is 28, good-looking, African, English speaking, no kids. She has a number of piercings and I've been with her several times before. "Do you wanna come with me short time or I'll stay with you tonight if you like?". She flutters her eyelids mockingly. "OK, short time," I say.
We walk to her small one-room apartment and do the business. It costs me around £100 for an hour. (This is an expensive city.) I emerge from the apartment block into the rain and make my way to my favourite bar. This bar has a band every night and a quiet Thai restaurant/bar attached which is good for chatting once you have selected your potential mate for the night.
I wander through the bar and say hello to several girls and a few other whoremongers I recognise. I am looking for Nina but in the end it is Nina who finds me. In French she exclaims "Paul, where have you been? I've been looking everywhere for you." I smile, escort her to the small, quiet bar and buy a bottle of dry white wine for the two of us.
My O-level French is not very good but it is good enough for our purposes. "Paul, I want to stay with you tonight. Tomorrow I have to go back to Paris. OK?" I nod. I like Nina. She's also 28, African, French speaking, big smile and warm personality. She has one kid in Africa and a caesarean.
She's not the cutest girl on the game here but she's has got a nice ass. She is also very friendly, good fun and I trust her enough to have her in my home. I trust Claudia too as it happens but as it turns out tonight is Nina's night. We have something to eat and then get a taxi back to my apartment.
In the morning I drink a bottle of white wine while Nina does a pretty good job of cleaning my apartment. After lunch we retire to the bedroom for an hour. Later we shower together, dry ourselves and get dressed. I give her £400 and then walk her to the train station to buy her a train ticket back to the city.
"A la prochaine fois!" she says as she kisses me. "Yes see you next time, honey," I reply. She gets aboard the train and waves at me until she's out of sight. I like Nina, she's sweet. They are all sweet – well nearly all.
I spend the rest of Saturday afternoon drinking wine and doing chores until I fall asleep sozzled and content. I have bust my weekend budget of £500 so next weekend I'll have to cut back a bit. Yeah next weekend…….
Sunday is my day of rest. No women, no fags and no booze. Just a very bad hangover, plenty of bottled water and plenty of sleep. With luck I'll just about be fit for work tomorrow morning.
You might think that this lifestyle is a bit risky. I would say that my lifestyle and that of the girls around me is riskier than most but nowhere near as risky as most people would probably imagine.
You might also think that it is impossible to love a prostitute but that's not true either. I love (in my own way) all the women I associate with. They are different, daring, unusual, sexy and alluring. They are in addition a surprisingly kind bunch of people.
Prostitution isn't well understood (or well regarded) in the UK. It's generally thought of as a seedy, dirty world populated by drug addicts, pimps, pushers, traffickers, criminals and sad people (like me).
Now, no doubt all of these types of individuals exist in the sex industry here (& elsewhere) but this is largely due to the illegal nature of the trade and the lack, therefore, of any regulation except the prosecution of all and sundry (weather permitting).
I have a great deal of experience of prostitutes. I am 47 and over the last 15 years I have paid for sex with women in the UK, USA, Holland, Switzerland, the Philippines and Thailand.
I have had good (mostly) and bad experiences. I regard myself as a professional John. Being a professional John, however, doesn't pay well. Sebastian Horsley says in his article "The Brothel Creeper" (Why I've slept with 1000 women) that it cost him £100,000. I've spent a similar amount on only 500 women so he must either be cheap or a better negotiator.
Why do I go to prostitutes? Well, I don't want a traditional girlfriend and I don't want to do one night stands. Plus if I pay I get who I want (within reason) no strings attached.
Prostitution is not all sleaze, pimps and drugs. It is women's business and it can be classy and expensive. The double-standard employed by government whereby it appears sex can be packaged and used to sell almost anything for a profit by anyone except women themselves for their own well-being.
Society at large should stop victimising whores (and Johns) who are engaging in natural human activity and press for the decriminalisation of prostitution.
by Paul Pisces
london redlight district escorts soho by:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Saturday, May 23, 2015
How to Write A Brief Synopsis
I loathe synopses almost as much as writers do (they are the spawn of Satan on their best day)
They are, Satan notwithstanding, needed and useful.
Here's one of the very best descriptions of how to write a succinct synopsis. It's by blog reader Dena Pawling, who has graciously allowed me to repost this here (it was originally a comment on this post)
I wrote out everything that happens in my manuscript, chapter by chapter, and then deleted words until I was left with only the major plot points and enough flavor to give the emotion of the story. My finished synopsis is about 825 words, which is 2-1/2 pages double spaced.
Here's an example of a shorter synopsis, from a story we all should know, which I just dashed off so I'm sure it can be improved. Total word count 250 [without the qualifiers].
Long ago, Cinderella lives with her parents, who love her. Her mother dies, and her father marries a jealous lady with two beastly daughters. [set-up]
When her father then dies, Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters treat her as a slave. She's moved to an attic bedroom and her only friends are the mice. Her home falls into disrepair because the family has little money left. She dreams one day someone will love her again. [inciting incident and goal]
Meanwhile, the king wants his son to be married so he can see his grandchildren before he dies. The king decrees a royal ball, with every eligible maiden in the kingdom required to attend. [first plot point]
Everyone is excited. Cinderella, with the help of her mouse friends, re-makes her mother's old gown into a beautiful dress. But her stepmother and stepsisters destroy the dress so she won't be able to attend. Cinderella runs out into the garden and weeps. [mid-point]
Her fairy godmother appears and makes her a magical dress, complete with glass slippers and a coach. Cinderella attends the royal ball and dances with the prince. They fall in love. At the stroke of midnight, she dashes away before the spell is broken. One glass slipper falls off, but she arrives home with the other one, which she hides. [third plot point]
The heartbroken prince travels the kingdom to determine which lady fits the glass slipper. Her stepmother locks Cinderella in the attic [black moment] but her mouse friends help her escape [climax]. The glass slipper fits her, and Cinderella and the prince live happily ever after. [resolution]
44 comments:
- LynnRodz said...
Believe me, Dena's comment did not go unnoticed by me the other day. I had stated that I had written my synopsis in one afternoon without any trouble, so when Dena wrote this comment, I copied and pasted it to compare with mine. All's well in the synopsis camp. Now if only my query could be as easy.
- S.D.King said...
Nice job, Dena.
I find it so hard to write in first person present. I need more practice.
Happy Memorial Weekend,everyone. - 5/23/15, 7:47 AM
- Unknown said...
Printed. Taped to wall. Husband unhappy, he says tape will take paint off wall. I scream at him to 'leave me alone', as frustrated artists have been doing for years.
Actually I just said it needed to be repainted soon anyway. And he said why paint it at all, walls are covered with shark shit.
Which has me thinking about what shark shit looks like... - 5/23/15, 8:21 AM
- AJ Blythe said...
Thanks Dena and Janet for (re)posting this as I missed it the first time.
Like Amanda I am going to print and stick on the wall. But we are in the middle of repainting so it doesn't matter - yet.
What will happen once the wall has been repainted has yet to be seen. Maybe rather than Dulux's Silver Beige I should repaint the wall Resene's Shark - then The Hub may not notice all the post-its stuck on the wall with Sharkly wisdom scrawled on them? - 5/23/15, 8:29 AM
- Anonymous said...
This is a perfect example and I to noticed it. Whether I commented or not, I don't know. My ferret brain is so easily distracted.
I suffered horribly with mine. The crew at Books and Writers stuck with me through a one-page and a five-page.
Someone somewhere was later fretting because there wasn't enough room to get all the details and their voice in. I believe Jessica Faust said they weren't really interested in voice in a synopsis. They wanted to know if you had a complete story.
Anyway, good job Dena.
And cakes again and I'm on a d-i-e-t. - 5/23/15, 8:31 AM
- Lisa Bodenheim said...
I saw it the day of and glad to see it again. Copy-n-pasted and saved to my, still, sparse synopsis file.
Thank you, Dena and Janet. - 5/23/15, 8:33 AM
- Anonymous said...
Amanda, get you a roll of painter's tape and tape to your heart's content. Tell him you need a bulletin board. I have a bulletin board and a No Parking sign above my desk. The sign is supposed to remind me if my butt is planted in that chair, I should be writing, not just parked.
"And he said why paint it at all, walls are covered with shark shit."
Not sure, but since there are fossilized shark droppings complete with tapeworms, it's out there. I'm not sure if they are more expensive with or without the worms.
fossilized shark poop - 5/23/15, 8:47 AM
- Susan Bonifant said...
I was thinking this week that most of us are storyteller "types" by nature. It's probably just another way of describing voice but which type we are is certainly reflected in pace and tone.
There are campfire types (slow and deliberately spooky), life of the party types (gets to the point to keep attention), or maybe the police chief at a conference type (just the facts, lets reader fill in) and so on.
Synopsis writing is a huge headache, but not just because you're trying fit 250 words in a Volkswagen. It's a headache because synopsis-telling makes you write like a police chief when you would rather spook the campers.
As I looked over Dena's example which is brilliant, I pictured the type as a guy in a hurry being stopped and asked about something complicated. (Okay, I'll make this quick).
It kind of hurt my right-brain, but it helped me to picture a type of person telling me my own story in a way that I would find interesting. Then I made them a character with my synopsis as dialogue and whaddaya know, it looked good.
- Unknown said...
Nice job Dena! I've got to pull out mine and have another look. What I particularly hate are individual requirements at individual agencies for say a 300 word synopsis, or a one page single spaced, or a one page, double spaced, or a two paged... I guess this is the spawn part of Satan's Spawn. I just send what I have, which, single spaced, is a bit longer than one page. If I had to write a custom synopsis each time I probably wouldn't make it out of my tree hole.
- Anonymous said...
I was reading someone's a while back and began to see why agents want to see a synopsis. The story read like Ray Stevens Along Came Jones.
Help he's grabbing me!
Oh no, here come the train, here come the train, here come the train.
It was one damsel in distress moment right after another. I thought, sheesh, doesn't this woman ever get her gumption up and do something to protect herself? - 5/23/15, 10:40 AM
- LynnRodz said...
Mine clocks in at 757 words, a little over 2 pages double spaced. Like Rob said, this is what I'll send regardless of what they're asking for. (Or will I be making a big boo-boo doing that? We shall see.)
Thanks for posting this, Janet, and great job, Dena! One less thing to worry about.
Julie, after reading your comment, that video is so funny. Save me! Save me! LOL.
- angie Brooksby-Arcangioli said...
Well done Dena! The Shark quotes you. I copied and printed this as soon as I saw it.
Jami Gold has a series of downloadable worksheets on her blog. Beat sheets adapted to novel and fiction. One is based on Blake Snyder's Save the Cat beat sheet. Here is the link
Dena lists all the main points Jami lists. The worksheets give excellent explainations for each beat or plot point. This may help in breaking down the story for the dreaded synopsis.
Dena makes it sound easy. - 5/23/15, 11:16 AM
- Julie said...
Having now officially finished the garble of my first draft (YAAAY! - pardon, but I'm still punch drunk, though a bit sad, actually), the timing, as usual, is AWESOME!
Kudos to yudos, Dena. Yep, I remember.
And thank you again, O Cosmic Queen. For you have nailed my next project squarely upon its pearly penny-nailed head.
Yes, this is.... Dun dun dunnn....
Agent Week.
(Which will more likely be Agent month, but that's why I paid these people, I'll take their word on when the query and synopsis are a go. Unless you all wanna look at them... ;) )
But seriously, thank you so much. - 5/23/15, 11:32 AM
- Donnaeve said...
Good job Dena - although I might use this format for brief outlining purposes too.
I also found those beat sheets, and it's really WONDERFUL so many other writers have brains that can distill the info into something workable as in EXCEL SPREADSHEETS. Whoop!
- William Coleman said...
The idea of writing a short synopsis is akin to writing queries and getting root canals. I once wrote a short story and by the second re-write I had 365 pages. I have issues with short, maybe because of my height?
I will have to try Dena's technique next time I have to pen one.
On a different note, am I the only one who wonders why the fairy godmother waited so long to come into this poor girl's life? - 5/23/15, 11:55 AM
- Anonymous said...
Great post, and great information. Thank you Janet and Dena.
My experience is: most agents who want to see synopses (and few do) don't give specifics. They'll say 'a brief synopsis', which can be anything from 1 page double spaced, as in Dena's example, or 3 pages single spaced (I've always heard synopses are to be single spaced). They just don't want to see ten pages of 'then this happened, and so-and-so did this...'
Longer synopses, in my opinion, show you can't write cleanly or concisely. (I should talk, right? Look at my posts.) Chances are a long synopsis is going to be as rambling as the novel.
But I've heard from agents and editors though: Novels aren't rejected because of how the synopsis is written. And definitely not because their understanding of 'brief' is not the same as your understanding of 'brief'. If a novel is rejected at the synopsis, it's because of the plot. That's why they want to see the synopsis. They want to make sure you've got a good, logical, appropriate plot that isn't just a series of events.
Julie's example is a good one. Along Came Jones is a fun song, but you really do get the impression that the damsel could really TRY to do something besides cry prettily for help. And character development, while not necessary in the old silent movies that Along Came Jones is parodying, is kind of crucial for a novel today.
And thanks, Angie. Those beat sheets are interesting.
Soups. Dang. They still haven't made it count when you click on the example. What's wrong with them?
OpenID error. Soups. Again. *makes a note for lunch* - 5/23/15, 11:57 AM
- Dena Pawling said...
Several days ago when I saw an email in my in-box from Janet Reid, at first I stopped breathing and then I hyperventilated.
Did I read that right? She wanted to use my comment on her blog? Seriously?!
Then I printed that email and taped it to my wall. I prefer to call it "shark glitter." It sure does look purdy lol
I wrote that synopsis in about 10 minutes. Now that I look at it again, I see several areas where I can make it better. But QOTKU says it's good, so I'm not messing with it!
Which reminds me of a traffic trial I watched once. The officer testified how at a specific intersection, a bus stopped at a bus stop [a phrase which my freelance editor would have yellow-highlighted and told me to change up the word usage] which was right before a right-turn lane [another highlight, this one probably with a note to change the first "right" to "immediately"]. The Defendant pulled out from behind the bus, passed the bus, then merged in front of the bus into the right turn lane and made his turn [note from editor: please buy a thesaurus – bus, bus, bus, right, right]. Our boy in blue then "initiated an enforcement stop" for an unsafe lane change. Which was technically true, based on how the officer described it and the law he cited.
When the officer had finished, the judge leaned forward.
Judge: "I've been at that intersection myself. When the bus is there, it makes things durned inconvenient."
Officer: "Yessir."
Judge: "And I can certainly understand why this Defendant did what you just told me he did."
Officer: "Yessir."
Judge: "So I'm inclined to find him not guilty."
Officer: "Yessir."
Judge, turning to Defendant: "Is there anything you want to say? And by the way, I recommend that when you're winning, to shut up."
Defendant, who must have been former military because he then effected a perfect parade-rest stance: "No comment, sir."
Judge: "Smart man. I find the Defendant not guilty."
I agree with LynnRodz – if only my query had been that easy.
Thanks everyone. And remember, Memorial Day is NOT just another long weekend for barbecues and hot dogs.
Signed - Mom of Navy son.
- Anonymous said...
Thanks for the Memorial Day reminder and thanks for your son's service.
What a great example of when to shut up.
I love courtroom humor.
Diana Gabaldon acquired her agent with a 28-page synopsis, some chunks of writing and notes as to where those chunks would fit in the synopsis, and some samples from her Donald Duck writing. OUTLANDER was very far from complete and turned out nothing like she planned.
Obviously, Diana is not the norm, but I have another friend with an enormously long novel, hereafter known as BAN, who queried two agents with an incomplete novel and a very long synopsis. Both of them pounced on it immediately.
Cakes again. It's a sign.
John had been on a diet for weeks and was doing very well. He'd lost 20 pounds, but one morning he was really craving doughnuts. He said, "Lord, if you want me to have a doughnut, please give me a parking place right in front of the doughnut shop." Sure enough, on the eighth trip around the block, there was his parking place. - 5/23/15, 12:42 PM
- Julie said...
William - I'm with you.
I start out trying to write comments that say "I'm with you," and end up with comments that say, "I start out..."
I start out trying to write 80K mysteries, and end up with 100K Actions.
I start out trying to write 100K fantasies and end up with... well, let's not go there.
Let's just say that this "It could be 250 words, it could be 20 pages" synopsis thing is far, far, far too analogue for a digital thinker like me. I need clear. Like, crystal clear. Like "Nope, I don't need a synopsis. Send me a query and your first 10 pages," clear. And even then they get 10 pages plus whatever it takes to make it to 10 pages --> a reasonable breaking point.
Isaac Newton must have been either completely genius or completely insane when he looked at the series of consecutive approximations and came up with "the calculus." Turning black and white into grey is maddening. No - it is art, and that is what made him and Bach so far into the celestial sphere as to be boggling.
I digress.
THIS is why whenever an Agent has the tagline "...and a synopsis," (sans word count or very clear specifier), I feel Lucifer poo land on my shoulder. And I generally move down my Agent list, thereby narrowing my query range. And thereby causing me to wander further from the Woodland Path. To swim farther from the reef. To dream the impossible dream... To sing the impossible song...
And, yes, this is how I'm feeling this morning, LOL...
ANYWAY, synopses.
Thanks, Janet.
- Julie said...
(PS, I'm likely to be saccharine + sugar + maple syrup with whipped cream and a cherry on top sickeningly sweet for some time to come, and I'm already untwisting and retwisting the twists I twisted into the plot this week. :D)
- John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur said...
I can't help thinking, "Isn't 'brief synopsis' redundant? And a synopsis that's long seems oxymornic." But then I think, well, a synopsis can be shorter, or it can be longer or too short or half as long. So that's all relative to another synopsis. But a brief synopsis just feels wrong, ya know?
- John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur said...
Sorry. Oxymoronic.
- Carolynnwith2Ns said...
You guys are so dang smart. I am not worthy.
- Colin Smith said...
That is a good example, Dena--like you needed me to tell you that after you've been given the gold star from QOTKU. :)
To commenters and lurkers: you know what Janet's saying by lifting Dena's brilliance from the comments and giving it the spotlight? She's saying: "This is how to write a synopsis. So stop belly-aching, grit your teeth, and go tackle Satan's spawn!"
And btw, Beelzebub's underpants are a great way to protect against Lucifer poo. Just sayin'... :) - 5/23/15, 1:40 PM
- Colin Smith said...
2Ns: I'm never worthy. Just permitted. :)
- Anonymous said...
Julie: I know I don't have all the answers. But you must be extremely good luck to your friends, if they can get an agent with an incomplete novel, let alone with an incomplete novel and a story-length synopsis. :)
Although, if the novel is incomplete, it might be very useful for the synopsis to fill in what's missing, so the agents can see the whole story planned, despite it not being written yet.
John: Yep. It's all relative. A ten-foot piece of rope can be short if you need 11 feet, or long if you need 5 feet. :)
- Karen McCoy said...
Thanks for this! On the road now, but will be taping this to my wall when I get home.
- Karen McCoy said...
Thanks for this! On the road now, but will be taping this to my wall when I get home.
- Anonymous said...
Diana and I have been friends for a long time, but she was published before I met her. She got it on pure obvious talent.
My other friend is a similar case of remarkable talent and she, like Diana, doesn't have a clue how the book is going to end. She told the agents flat out if she knew how it was going to end, she would have no desire to write it so they should be aware the book would end nothing like the synopsis.
Diana admits she only wrote the synopsis because it was requested. She's a chunk writer. She had a vague idea of where they might go, but when she writes, the story tends to go where it will.
After the third book, her publisher told her to stop wasting her time and theirs writing a synopsis because the books were never anything like what she submitted.
I keep hoping some of this talent will rub off by osmosis, but it appears you actually have to work at it. Who knew?
Granted, these two people are very much not the norm. So saeth the person who is busy whacking words again to become the norm. - 5/23/15, 2:57 PM
- Anonymous said...
I remember a keynote speech Diana gave at Surrey one year. About how a single mother - with a few children - managed to carve out time specifically for writing. And how, no matter what daily life throws at us, we can put butt in chair and write.
I think she proves the rule that you have to work for your success. You have to be passionate about it and persistent. It takes work, discipline, self-sacrifice, and plain old stubbornness.
And her message was: If she could do it, so can we.
She's really a marvelous woman. - 5/23/15, 3:25 PM
- Jennifer R. Donohue said...
Great advice, Dena, thanks for posting in the first place and letting Janet use it! I'm pretty sure my current synopsis needs work, and it'll come in handy for any subsequent novels I write. Right?
Thanks Angie Brooksby-Arcangioli for posting the link to those worksheets, maybe I'll run some off on my spandy new (well, my fiancé's spandy new) laser printer and play around with 'em.
CONGRATULATIONS JULIA on your first draft!
I feel like I had at least one great story idea yesterday, but lost it due to migraine. I was able to get out of bed at 8 p.m., though don't worry, nurse Elka was on the case! Maybe it'll come back to me in a dream.... - 5/23/15, 4:52 PM
- Unknown said...
Julie, thanks for the picture of shark shit with worms. Another sentence I never thought I'd ever say.
I've got to ask...did you just happen to have a picture of shark poop or did you Google? - 5/23/15, 4:53 PM
- Carolynnwith2Ns said...
Colin, not worthy but permitted. Love that.
bjmuntain, Love the rope. It is the story of my twine. - 5/23/15, 5:00 PM
- Kate Larkindale said...
I've always struggled with synopses, but never more than for a book where I had two very different POVs. I tried writing the synopsis following the structure of the book and it sounded wacky and schizophrenic; I tried writing each character's POV separately, but it made no sense.
Any words of wisdom about how the heck you write a synopsis for a dual POV novel that makes sense? - 5/23/15, 5:22 PM
- Anonymous said...
I wrote some dinosaur books for my youngest son when he was little so I am kind of a dinosaur/fossil nut. I have a dinosaur egg that is about 14 inches tall. One item on the bucket list is to get knees in good enough shape to go fossil hunting. So, no surprise I keep dinosaur and fossil sites bookmarked.
- Anonymous said...
I have five POV characters.
I did a few sentences for each chapter and then tried to weave it into something cohesive and cut out everything that wasn't absolutely necessary.
One thing the crew at B&W told me is that it doesn't necessarily have to be in exact order.
You're going to have to leave some things out that tie things together, so you can rearrange a bit to make sense. Obviously, you can't rewrite your story, but make it readable.
For instance at the very end of the synopsis, my MC's aunt tells her she's earned a place in the Horse Guards as a Far Rider when she turns 18. Kaelyn still cares for the pirate captain, but isn't sure she can ever trust him.
The aunt actually tells her that news much earlier, but it was awkward and wordy there in the synopsis because I cut all that section out. This is important because it's the MC's goal, so it goes in wrap up. - 5/23/15, 8:56 PM
- AJ Blythe said...
Angie Brooksby-Arcangioli - thanks for the link! Jami Gold's Basic Beat Sheet is so simple. I've just printed it out and stuck it next to Dena's synopsis.
I need a bigger wall!
I have no idea how long a synopsis should be. I thought they should be short (say 2 to 3 pages) but have heard so many conflicting numbers I'm totally confused.
I can only hope when I send a synopsis it doesn't actually matter. - 5/23/15, 9:15 PM
- Julie said...
Okay, so reading my previous comment... it now makes no sense unless you're in my head. And it's scary in there, so let me clarify.
Yes, the draft is done. Yay.
But what I meant by "timing" was that now I'll be working on queries and synopses, so the timing of the blog post is absolutely ideal, and Janet has a knack for pulling blog post timing out of the ether like some kind of super shark. They do have that weird electromagnetic sense, right? That's why they ate AT&T's fiber optic transatlantic cable when it was first laid all those years ago and made all those execs so hopping mad.
Anyway, that's what I meant.
Nighty night.
- Anonymous said...
Diana is truly inspirational, She had two jobs when she wrote Outlander, plus the professional papers she was writing, raising three small minions, caring for a large minion, but pretty sure Doug and her were still together when she wrote the book.
Even so, when people say they have no time, she's a prime example, everyone has 24 hours. She set the alarm and got up in the middle of the night to write for 30 minutes when it was quiet.
If you really want to write, you make time.
This happy horse crap of needing a room of their own and perfect conditions is just that, horse crap.
Charlie Russell created beautiful art on wooden spoons (whore spoons), letterhead, envelopes, anything that didn't move really.
Artists create, writers write, just as y'all are or you wouldn't be here.
Some of you write at a prodigious rate, holy crap, Julia. - 5/23/15, 10:43 PM
- Anonymous said...
Jennifer: If it's a really great story idea, it will come back. Something will remind you of it, and that something might make it an even better idea.
Julie: I don't think she necessarily meant writing the first Outlander novel when she was giving that keynote. She talked about having an office, then, too. I mean, it's not like she wrote Outlander and suddenly her life became simple, right? Imagine the years she's put into her writing, stealing time here and there, trying to run a household and raise kids and still become the success she is. Yes. A true inspiration and example of 'no time but writing anyway'.
Kate: Something you might try, if they are very different and have different stories, is take your separate ones, put them together chronologically (according to the chronology of the novel) and before each paragraph, say who's POV this is from. For example:
This would be a paragraph explaining the two POVs. For instance: Rod is a race car driver who is having a run of bad luck. Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, Joe is finding out that marriage is not as easy as his parents made it seem.
ROD: This would be Rod's inciting incident, and other beginning info.
JOE: This would be Joe's inciting incident, and other beginning info.
ROD: Yada yada
JOE: Yada yada
What do you think? What do others think?
- Anonymous said...
I don't think I intimated life got simple after she wrote Outlander, but she wasn't a single mother. It was a while before she quit her jobs.
Her father was aghast she'd quit even after she became successful and kept giving her references to "real" jobs.
Regardless, definitely an inspiration. - 5/24/15, 7:21 AM
- LynnRodz said...
Kate, I have 3 POVs in my synopsis just like Dena's example. If you look at it carefully you see Cinderella's POV, the king's POV and Prince Charming's POV. You don't need to be technical (sorry BJ) nor do you want to be by putting a name and a colon. The reader can follow along without it.
In Dena's synopsis, we see what's happening with Cinderella and her situation. We then see what's going on with the king which starts the ball rolling (l & f). Finally, we get Prince Charming's perspective and what he wants.
I hope that helps.
- Gingermollymarilyn said...
@ Dena - Thanks, Dena! For the obvious - the Cinderella synopsis- and your Bus Stop story; it helped. Oy vey!
- Anonymous said...
Yes! What Rob said! Writing a synopsis isn't easy, but the true pain is trying to satisfy query guidelines from fifty different agents who all want a different synopsis length.
Well done, Dena! I'm going to use your format next time! - 5/31/15, 9:34 PM


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text:
Representative Lorenzo Sierra
Democrat, LD-19
2022 Legislative Score
20 out of 22 votes matched Secular AZ positions
2022 Vote Summary:
HB2707: moment of silence; quiet reflection
What it did: Required teachers to have students recite the Pledge of Allegiance and observe a two-minute moment of "silent reflection." Required teacher to "encourage" parents to instruct their children on how to use the silent reflection.
Why we opposed it: Mandatory recitation of the Pledge including the phrase "under God" in public schools constitutes religious coercion. Silent reflection provisions also create conditions in which children may be coerced into prayer in classrooms.
Outcome: Signed into law
HB2449: care facilities; clergy visitation
What it did: Granted clergy special privileges to enter health care facilities and ignore their safety protocols.
Why we opposed it: Created special privileges for certain religious individuals without equal guarantees for secular people or religious minorities.
Outcome: Signed into law
SB1138: irreversible gender reassignment surgery; minors
What it did: Banned gender reassignment surgery for minors.
Why we opposed it: Perpetuated religious-based discrimination against transgender youth
Outcome: Signed into law
SB1164: abortion; gestational age; limit
What it did: Banned all abortions that happen after 15 weeks of gestation.
Why we opposed it: Restricted healthcare for religious reasons.
Outcome: Signed into law
SB1165: interscholastic; intramural athletics; biological sex
What it did: Banned transgender female students from participating in girls'/women's sports teams.
Why we opposed it: Perpetuated religious-based discrimination against transgender youth.
Outcome: Signed into law
SB1211: Materials; activities; review; posting; schools
What it did: Forced schools to publicly post all materials intended to be used for teaching online before their implementation.
Why we opposed it: Law would be a severe administrative burden on teachers and staff in order to discourage the teaching of subjects that do not conform to white Christian nationalist views
Outcome: Passed Senate, held in House.
SB1399: Foster care; religious foster care; adoption;
What it did: Banned the state from taking action against foster care agencies on the basis that they discriminate for religious reasons.
Why we opposed it: Constituted a state endorsement of religion-based discrimination.
Outcome: Signed into law
HB2009: violations of state law; schools
What it did: At the request of any Legislator, required the Attorney General to investigate school districts for alleged constitutional violations.
Why we opposed it: This gave any one Legislator the means retaliate against school districts that do not conform to that Legislator's views on such matters as religion or social justice.
Outcome: Passed Senate, failed in the House.
HB2112: Classroom instruction; race; ethnicity; sex – anti-CRT
What it did: Banned schools from teaching certain subjects relating to racial and gender-based injustices (largely those commonly misidentified as "critical race theory").
Why we opposed it: This bill censored the teaching about history or social studies topics that do not conform to white Christian nationalist points of view.
Outcome: Passed House, Held in Senate
HB2161: parental rights; schools; educational records
What it did: Forced schools to disclose information that would "out" LGBTQ+ students to their parents.
Why we opposed it: This bill actively sought to suppress LGBTQ+ identity in schools so as to promote religious views on heteronormativity
Outcome: Signed into law.
HB2166: TPT; use tax; exemption; firearms
What it did: Would make guns and gun accessories tax-exempt.
Why we opposed it: Gun proliferation laws serve to arm religious extremists.
Outcome: Passed House, held in Senate
HB2316: misconduct involving weapons; public places
What it did: Allowed the carrying of concealed guns on college campuses.
Why we opposed it: Gun proliferation laws serve to arm religious extremists.
Outcome: Passed House, held in Senate
HB2414: misconduct involving weapons; school grounds
What it did: Allowed parents to bypass gun-free zones at public schools and keep loaded and unlocked weapons within reach in their cars while dropping off and picking up children.
Why we opposed it: Gun proliferation laws serve to arm religious extremists.
Outcome: Passed House, held in Senate
HB2439: school library; review; policy
What it did: Banned books from schools that discuss even the most minor aspects of sexuality or race.
Why we opposed it: Book ban bills are an instrument to censor literature that does not conform to white Christian nationalist viewpoints.
Outcome: Signed into law
HB2448: firearms safety; training; school
What it did: Required mandatory gun safety training in schools, implicitly favoring a controversial NRA curriculum of disputed effectiveness.
Why we opposed it: Secular AZ opposes the normalization of gun culture, which is closely linked to Christian nationalism.
Outcome: Passed House, held in Senate
HB2473: guns; discrimination
What it did: Banned public entities from contracting with companies that divest from firearm entities.
Why we opposed it: Secular AZ opposes the normalization of gun culture, which is closely linked to Christian nationalism.
Outcome: Passed House, held in Senate
HB2495: Schools; sexually explicit materials; prohibition;
What it did: Banned books in schools that talk about sexuality or race.
Why we opposed it: Bills like this are used to censor all forms of literature that do not conform to white Christian nationalist viewpoints.
Outcome: Signed into law
HB2507: Religious services; essential services
What it did: Amends Arizona's civil rights code to declare all religious organizations "essential services," and gives preferential treatment to these entities in matters when enforcing criminal and public safety codes.
Why we opposed it: A massive expansion of religious privilege. Makes the practice of one's religion an allowable defense in any civil or criminal case. (See our article series.)
Outcome: Signed into law
HB2637: divestment; K-12; abortion; explicit materials
What it did: forced the state to divest from organizations that provide both abortion and sex ed to K-12. (i.e. Planned Parenthood).
Why we opposed it: This bill constituted a religious-based attack on both women's reproductive rights and sex education.
Outcome: Passed House, failed Senate
HB2739: school board associations; open meeting
What it did: Among other provisions, banned members of school board associations (like Arizona School Board Association) from holding membership on school boards.
Why we opposed it: Bill is partly designed to limit the number of qualified candidates for school boards who support secular policies.
Outcome: Failed in House
HB2811: unlawful abortion medication; offense
What it did: Completely prohibited the making or distribution of abortion medication, under penalty of class 3 felony.
Why we opposed it: Restricted access to healthcare for religious reasons.
Outcome: Failed in House
HB2853: Arizona empowerment scholarship accounts; appropriation
What it did: Expanded the Empowerment Scholarship Account (school voucher) program
Why we opposed it: School voucher programs funnel public money into religious and private schools, including those that may discriminate for religious reasons.
Outcome: Passed Legislature


text:
Professor Abdul Mawgoud Dardery is the foreign affairs spokesman of President Morsi's party, the Freedom and Justice Party. It's aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, which he is a member. And he joins us now, Dr. Dardery does, from Luxor, Egypt. Welcome to the program once again. And give us your reaction to what's happened today in Egypt.
ABDUL MAWGOUD RAGEH DARDERY: Well, it is very tragic day in Egypt, Robert. It is not acceptable. It is illegitimate. We will never recognize the coup d'etat. Egyptians, they are going now immediately to the streets to protest this - not today or tomorrow. They're going to continue protesting against legitimacy. Military means police state, it means corruption, it means monopoly, and that will never be accepted in Egypt. We are willing to declare, very clearly, give me liberty or give me death.
SIEGEL: But to say give me liberty or give me death, that was a battle cry of the American Revolution. Are we talking about violence in the streets now?
DARDERY: No, no. We're going to do it peacefully. We're going to march in the street. The only way for democracy to work is through the ballot box. If the military wanted to intervene, it could have called for the parliamentary elections. But doing this coup d'etat is shameful. We trusted the military, especially the leadership. But now they betrayed the will of the Egyptian people. There is nothing now to rebuild on the will of the Egyptian people, and we will rebuild on the will of the Egyptian people. And we'll move to the street.
SIEGEL: Dr. Dardery, as you know, critics of President Morsi say that, yes, while he was the only democratically-elected president of Egypt, he then failed to reach out to other groups. He failed to bring minorities, to give a sense that he was president of all Egyptians. And therefore, he lost the support of the people, those millions who turned out on June 30th were a symbol of that. What do you say to that?
DARDERY: Yeah, I know, but what happened today is bringing back Mubarak's regime and power. There is now a terrible alliance between theocracy and the military. It is almost a Middle Age system. That is not the way Egypt is going to go. That is not what Egyptians deserve. We deserve a better system than that. We deserve a democracy. What I say to this, we all make mistakes. To sin is human. And President Obama does mistakes but we don't kick him out of office. We have a contract with him for four years, he finishes them - we either bring him back or not. That is the democratic way. That could have saved us a lot of trouble. Now, Robert, it is a joke. There is no rule of law.
SIEGEL: Well, there are, though, armored personnel carriers out in the streets of Cairo.
DARDERY: Yeah, but might is not right. President Morsi won't give and will be the commander-in-chief. And he called upon the Egyptian people and Egyptian (unintelligible). It's not likely. Because the head of the military does not listen to the commander of the chief. How would he expect other officers or soldiers would listen to help?
SIEGEL: You're saying that he, President Morsi, as president was the commander-in-chief and the officers should have obeyed him.
DARDERY: They disobeyed the order of the commander-in-chief, so how would they demand others to listen to the order? (unintelligible) it will be tragic (unintelligible).
SIEGEL: For the past couple of years, Egypt has been moving fitfully from its own glorious revolution, the Arab Spring, to parliamentary elections that were voided, to a constitution that was written but was protested. What do you do now? Does the Muslim Brotherhood, would you welcome a return to the 1980s when Islamists were an insurgency and they were actually fighting against the government? What does your movement do at this point?
DARDERY: What I can think of now is we are protesting this, we're not recognizing it, and we will do this peacefully. But whether other people will react differently is a different story, but our stand is this is not acceptable, it is illegitimate. I will never recognize it. Never.
SIEGEL: How does Egypt go from where it is today to some normal condition to which tourists would return, in which people would go to work and elected legislature would pass laws? What can actually happen?
DARDERY: Oh, it is very difficult now to think of tourism or normality because things are abnormal now. You now, Robert, when your human rights are violated, completely violated, it hurts you. It hurts you when have a dream of people living in a free society where people can meet freely, speak freely, and all of a sudden there is this fear of dictatorship. It hurts a lot. And what we would like to change this energy into - this anger into a positive energy. And most of the streets - and we will tell everyone that this illegitimate, it will never be recognized.
SIEGEL: Well, Professor Dardery, we'll be talking to you in the days to come in that case. Thank you very much for being
DARDERY: Thank you for having me. And I am moving now personally to the streets.
SIEGEL: OK. That's Abdul Mawgoud Dardery speaking to us from Luxor, Egypt. He's the foreign affairs spokesman for the ousted President Mohamed Morsi's Freedom and Justice Party. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


text:
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Miss Virtual World 2013 – Again BoSL showcased an amazing event on December the 15th 2013, with the finale of the MVW 2013 contest. Many countries were represented by amazing ladies and it was really an exciting event. Designers and models worked together for their 2 final looks. One evening gown and one national costume for each lady. Every year when I saw the MVW finale it was an exciting moment to see the results, that designers and models worked on for so many weeks. Last year I took the challenge to make a full catalogue of all the gowns and costumes. The idea must have inspired some bloggers this year and they started to do that for the MVW 2013 designs. I decided for my own not to do the same again and just would like to showcase my personal favourites. First I thought about to do my personal top 12, but then I figured that I like more than 12 and just thought about doing all the ones that really caught my attention in no particular order
The gown for Miss Virtual Iceland 2013 was made my Kimmera Madison, owner and designer of Tres Beau. I have to admit, as I was sitting there and watching the finale, this was one of those gowns that made me go "WOW". The wonderful flowers and ruffles go so perfectly together and the color change from the bottom to the top just is made so carefully and with such an amazing feeling for the gradient. The combination of white, teal and the yellow of the flowers are awesome chosen. Again we can see that the long experience of Kimmera and her incredible skills for shapes and colors, let her made this beautiful gown.
The wonderful jewelry for "Miss Zaara123 " gown are crafted by Belle Roussel, owner and designer of Chop Zuey. The "Eilifu" set with its amazing white pearls is the perfect addition to this stunning gown. The "Eilifu" set contains earrings, collar and bracelet.
The "Miss Zaara123" gown you can purchase at the Tres Beau Mainstore and for the "Eilifu" set you just have to stop by at the Chop Zuey Mainstore 🙂
Gown: Tres Beau – "Miss Zaara123" – NEW
Jewelry: Chop Zuey – "Eilifu" – NEW
Hair: PurpleMoon – "Era"
Skin: Silken Moon – "Wicca"
Lipstick: Silken Moon – "Wicca Lips Teal"
Poses: PosESioN
Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin


text:
Here's when Boris Johnson will next face Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions
Pressure is mounting on the Prime Minister to dismiss key aide Dominic Cummings, but Mr Johnson will not face Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday.
Opposition MPs, including Sir Keir Starmer and SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford, will not have the opportunity to quiz the prime minister at PMQs on the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe House of Commons entered a recess on May 20 and will not reconvene until June 2.
From June 2 House of Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg has vowed to end virtual proceedings and invite all MPs back to Westminster, sparking health concerns for MPs currently shielding.
When is the next PMQs?
The next Prime Minister's Questions will take place on June 3.
PMQs takes place at 12pm every Wednesday when the House of Commons is in session.
What happened at the last PMQs?
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdAt the last Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir Starmer put pressure on the government to drop an NHS surcharge for migrant health and social care workers to receive NHS treatment.
Mr Johnson initially rejected the idea, but caved into growing demands from his own MPs to drop the charge.
Sir Keir Starmer said the lack of contact tracing - which was abandoned in March - had left a gap in the country's defences against Covid-19.
But Mr Johnson said that a new "world-beating" test and trace system would be in place by June 1.
What has Sir Keir Starmer said about Dominic Cummings?
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe recession of the House of Commons comes at a time where pressure is growing on the Prime Minister, from the public and from within his own party, to dismiss key adviser Dominic Cummings.
Sir Keir Starmer has remained relatively quiet on the subject, though not completely silent.
Prior to Dominic Cummings' Downing Street press conference on Monday Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer had said that the Prime Minister's defence of Dominic Cummings was "an insult".
Sir Keir Starmer said: "This was a test of the Prime Minister and he has failed it. It is an insult to sacrifices made by the British people that Boris Johnson has chosen to take no action against Dominic Cummings. The public will be forgiven for thinking there is one rule for the Prime Minister's closest adviser and another for the British people.
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Hide Ad"The Prime Minister's actions have undermined confidence in his own public health message at this crucial time. Millions were watching for answers and they got nothing. That's why the Cabinet Secretary must now launch an urgent inquiry."


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2001 Audi TT Touch Up Paint
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Select paint based on your color code.
The color plate location is around the spare tire area. Audi color codes can be shown differently on your vehicle. For example, the code 'LY9B/A2' can be shown as 'LY9B' or 'A2' on your car. Please note that some of the Pre-1980 Audi colors shown are estimates. If your color code matches, this is your paint even if the color shown is off! We mix the paint by color code, not what is shown on the screen.


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