How to develop a story

I bumped into this blog post about developing story ideas and liked it a lot, so I'll link it here. This is from a horror-themed blog. The writer talks about his usual process for developing stories. This sort of thing has been on my mind lately.

Fat is fake, and our latest public policy demon

I could just post links to Megan McArdle articles all day, but I'll stop here. This article describes the recent focus on American obesity as a fake problem and gives cogent reasons why:

• There are no quantifiable health benefits to being thin. If you're seriously overweight, then you have a problem. But that's not what's going on. The fellow interviewed here suggests that what we're seeing in the U.S. right now is just a statistical fluctuation. Americans are not dangerously obese; the average body mass index value has moved a bit.
• Being very thin is tied to class issues. It's hard to stay super thin if that's not the way you are built, unless you are wealthy and/or have lots of time.
• We don't tell people to move to the country, even though people live longer there than in urban environments. But we tell them to lose weight, because weight is demonized.
• Here's a quote: "So the strategies that have failed so spectacularly with adults -- tell them to exercise more, and eat less, and shame them about their weight -- will work with children. Because if there's one thing fat kids need, it's to be made to feel bad about feeling fat. "

Small city (Sculpt-a-day 4)

Small city, polymer clay over cardboard, wire, and foil, sculpted 8/3/09

This walled city is about two inches across.

What IKEA furniture means to lifestyle and the economy

Megan McArdle is pretty much always worth reading. Here's a short piece by her in the Atlantic, where she talks about the wider effects of IKEA furniture, in the sense of cheap mass-produced furniture, to people's lives and the economy. I started reading this piece from the 'I hate IKEA' point of view. Mostly my IKEA-hate stems from not wanting to go spend hours in any big-box store, but part of it comes from a growing dislike of particle-board furniture. Mcardle points out that

• the idealized furniture of ye olden days wasn't all durable...but the durable stuff is the stuff we see around us and which gets passed down.
• cheap furniture makes it easier to set up a new house, to leave your parents' nest. So factor that into your complaints about IKEAs.

One of the commenters makes a nice point, too, for parents:

I can deal with having IKEA furniture that can be replaced inexpensively when a child scribbles on it with a Sharpie. I can deal with having furniture that is so well-made (and not cheaply) that it holds up under heavy wear and use. What doesn't make sense, at this (fun but) messy, chaotic stage of life, is to spend intermediate amounts of money on things that will hold up okay but won't hold up extraordinarily well under use and abuse by small kids. The kind of stuff you can buy at a mainstream American chain furniture store is pretty good, but pretty good isn't good enough to justify the cost over something from IKEA that I can literally regard as "disposable."

This is a painful lesson. This is one of those things I wish I'd thought about long ago.

Cat whatsit (Sculpt-a-day 3)

Cat whatsit, sculpted 8/2/09, polymer clay

This is a cat whatsit because it was going to be a cat, but then it changed. This guy is tiny, about an inch and a half tall.

Ethan birdwatching

We went on my friend Mikael's neighborhood bird walk this weekend, at Ethan's suggestion. It was nice and cool and we saw lots of birds, including a heron that was new to me, the tri-colored heron.

Castile de Tortuga (Sculpt-a-day 2)

Castile de Tortuga, sculpted 8/1/09, polymer clay with wire and foil armature

One of the things I like about having clay around is that it shortens the distance between idea and a model. I've been interested in making something like this ever since I saw the Travelling Court of the Brownie King model. Mine isn't much as a castle or a turtle, but it is a quick exploration of the idea. I'd love to build something like this as a model about 18 inches across.

Ethan Returns to a Newly Painted Room

Ethan was away from home for three and a half week. He was gone longer than the rest of the family because he took a side trip to visit his uncle. When he returned, we presented him with a surprise: fresh paint in his room.

His room was pink and purple with giant flowers on the walls and completely empty otherwise. We'd cleaned out everything. Then we told him we were moving him to the larger room his sister had formerly occupied, and he can pick the paint for that.

Little Devil (Sculpt-a-day 1)

Little Devil, sculpted 7/31/09, polymer clay with a wire armature.

This month, I'm going to post a new sculpt every day. Each object will be sculpted in a single day. Most of them will be sculpted on the previous day, but I've got an event later this month and I'll do some advance items for a few days. The rules for this challenge are:

• I can use premade armatures, bases, or prebaked eyes, teeth, etc.
• Once I start adding soft clay to the model, it has to be finished that day.