Two programmes you can use to produce media assets for your game are ‘Pixlr’ and ‘Microsoft paint’. Pixlr is obviously the more advanced of the two but both are very much usable and both are free.

Pixlr is an online based tool. It’s very in depth when it comes to choosing the ratio of your canvas and brush, since there are so many to choose from. Paint on the other hand is offline and a much more basic in terms of brush choice, there is only one brush and one pencil, you can change the thickness and colour but that’s it. But it does come pre downloaded on every Windows computer so it’s easy to find and convenient if you don’t have internet and you have to make something quick.

Pixlr, as I said is more advanced, there are a plethora of brushes and tools to use. Blenders…

My Unwritten  Books  by  George Steiner…I am enjoying this much more than when read his work ten years ago

The Golden Baby          by  Margaret Drabble…….Good but  too similar to all her later works.

How it all began   by Penelope Lively…Wonderful like all her books

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If you think ‘totes’, ‘fangirl’, and ‘trick out’ are recent idioms, then we’re here to surprise you. In a previous post on Twitter terms and literature we uncovered some of the ancient literary origins of words more commonly associated these days with the world of social networking.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. One of the biggest giveaways that a client has written their own copy, without hiring a copywriter, is the over-use of exclamation marks.

The world’s most over-used punctuation mark has a lot to answer for. In a fraction of a second, it has the power to turn even the most delicately worded prose into a pantomime horse. It’s right up there with CAPS LOCK and alphanumeric truncation (h8ers gonna h8) for a spot in room 101. In the printing world, an exclamation mark is often referred to as a ‘screamer’, ‘gasper’, ‘bang’, ‘slammer’ or ‘startler’ – ie: something to be used sparingly, and for dramatic effect, where warranted. Over-use is tiring and annoying at best and shows lack of control. (Apple even has a specific section in their distributer rulebook about avoiding their use.) There’s even a word for excessive use of…

• 

  Bands of rhyme will be crossing the UK tomorrow.. streams of poetry will bring rain in the eyes.
  Season’s Tweetings to Sinners
  Shadow of the whole silence is folding over like an envelope.Post it now
  The spice of wife..pepper.
  ~Hop around the roses
  It’s best to saunter nowadays.
  When inside out, a cat can still scratch.. with its reversible catclaws.Try one tonight.Just unzip the cat and it will spring into the heir…to the throne or is it the air all round>
  Until the end of all rhymes I’ll be loving you
  Time feels all wounds…and holes
  Maps of the iceberg have melted..
  Two hearts that beat as none ever did.
  I wait for the lime to be ripe then it will be a lemon.
  If you have a man,wash him weekly in a tin bath…don’t blame me if you get drawn in…..mate in the bath … saves washing the sheets.

As the calendar turns to December, it looks like scandal has rocked the North Pole, Modern Philosophers.

My sources at Santa’s Village tell me that North Pole Police raided Santa’s Workshop just after 9:00AM, and arrested several Elves, who have been charged with accepting bribes to move children from the Naughty List to the Nice List.

My sources report that while Santa Claus was aware of the police action, he was not on hand to witness it.  “Santa wants to believe that they are all Nice until proven Naughty,” one Elf told this Modern Philosopher.  “At the same time, he is so sickened by it all that he couldn’t bring himself to be here when the police arrived.”

North Pole Chief of Police Victor Gulag spoke to this Modern Philosopher.  “Santa told me that I could trust you, but I don’t feel comfortable revealing too many details right now while…