I keep forgetting to Google first. The Bible includes over forty verses against cursing, including:
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
He loved to curse; let curses come upon him! He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him! He clothed himself with cursing as his coat; may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones!
Dirk
Thank you, Karen. I figured dammit was probably the most questionable of the list, since it's historically short for 'God damn it.' I don't have that much cursing in my book but was interested if I was crossing any obvious boundaries.
Dirk
Several of my sci-fi characters come from a religious world, New Bethlehem. They're teenagers, so I do have them mildly curse occasionally. For example, one of the teens says, "I'd resist it like hell." Is there anything in the Bible that addresses cursing, besides the obvious of not taking the Lord's name in vain?
Also, are any of the following considered taking the Lord's name in vain:
Good gracious
Holy cow
What in Heaven
Dammit
Finally, if my characters are in a life-and-death situation, is it okay for them to cry out, "God, help us!" without violating the commandment?
Thank you.
Dirk
It's called the Path of War by Anthony Harris.
God in action. http://abcnews.go.com/US/tom-cat-brings … d=26485583
Sol, if you're still trying to work out those long response times, it happened several times around 5:45 AM Eastern Time today (May 3).
Google Chrome/Win 7
Thanks,
Dirk
Since the site doesn't allow us to see if a new author can read inline reviews, I found the following workaround. Connect to them first to see if they're still on the site and can read inline reviews. I have all the points I'm going to need for years to come, so I only read new work if I know the author is still here and can read my reviews and, perhaps, reciprocate. Connections and messages seem to be the only way to figure it out.
Dirk
I was wondering if anyone else is experiencing problems with regular reviews. The text on the far left of the book I'm trying to review is cut off (roughly the left-most character of each line in the book. It appears to be a relatively new author, so I don't know if he can read inline reviews (or if he's even still on the site), so I'm just guessing blindly as to which kind of review to leave. I tried using a new tab in my Google browser to write the review, but the problem persists. I also tried completely rebooting my machine. Still no luck. I'm pretty much stuck right now, at least as far as that author is concerned.
Thanks.
Dirk
How does one submit to reviewers on Amazon?
Yes, the reply is still there. I had two, but one of them disappeared quite a while ago (weeks, if not longer).
Also, that hanging problem has come back. 149 seconds to load the page. A second browser tab attempting to load the TNBW home page also hung. The problem was gone for about two weeks, then came back about two to three days ago.
Google/Win 7
Thanks.
Dirk
Both Google Docs and Open Office include very good word processors, but I found that they require some manual reformatting if you want to eventually move the files to MS Word, which an editor/publisher would almost certainly require. Apparently, they don't save in exactly the same format that Word uses. No surprise, really, since they're complex files. In my case, I used only a few simple styles, but still couldn't get it to come across cleanly into Word. It wasn't a huge task but then I had only completed half of my first draft.
I don't know if Open Office has track changes and inline comments like Word, but they are invaluable eventually. I now use inline comments to flag stuff I want to revisit later, rather than interrupting my work to do immediate fixes. I use track changes to go back and forth with my editor. The last time I used Google Docs (about two years ago), it didn't have track changes or comments.
Dirk
Sol, when you have a moment to come up for air, I was wondering if you can purge an orphan inline reply from Don Chambers for me. He deleted the chapter after I reviewed it and he had responded. It's his response I can no longer access and, therefore, can't clear the "new reply" count, which is stuck at 1. Just a minor nuisance, so no rush.
Thanks.
Dirk
Actually, I was the twit who stuck a large firecracker in the barrel of my brother's toy gun and held it while it went off. That really hurt! My brother probably wondered why he couldn't find his gun after that. I'll have to tell him.
Dirk
Wow. Soldering. That brings back memories too. I'm surprised I never tried to burn anything. I was that kinda kid.
You know the type - dials 0 for the operator, says "Operator, help!", makes gasping sounds, then hangs up - only to discover that they can call you back!
Dirk
My mother made french fries that way when I was about four, emphasis on "fries." I remember to this day how impressed I was that she knew to throw the lid over the flaming pan. Have used that acquired skill several times in my life.
Dirk
I wanted to share this with everyone because I believe you'll enjoy the very soulfull sound of this poem put to music.
Lord Alfred Tennyson, son and grandson of vicars/rectors published the poem in 1833. It's based on Arthurian legend, grounded in Christianity, about a woman cursed to only see the world through a mirror. The book in which it was published was so heavily criticized that Tennyson didn't publish again for ten years. Fortunately for history, the poem caught on and inspired numerous paintings over two centuries. Loreena McKennitt, a fellow Canadian, put it to music in 1991. She has a hauntingly beautiful voice that makes it a very spiritual experience, I think.
It's very long, almost twelve minutes, but worth it. I chose a video that includes the words and some of the paintings inspired by the poem. You may need to cut and past the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0rVNQw1DQM
I hope you enjoy it.
Dirk
I'll defer to Vern, although I'd still very much like a wider Submit button.
Sol, can the technology you're using for the inline reviews handle placing the cursor in the comment box, so that we can start typing as soon as the box opens? Saves a click per comment (winks at Vern).
X-lines are great, by the way, in case I haven't said that enough.
Dirk
Tthe four buttons: add video. add picture, submit, cancel. Submit will be most commonly used. Right now it's in the middle, which requires too much "aiming" with the mouse, so we don't hit the wrong button. I suggest moving Submit it to the far left and making it wider, followed by Cancel, then the others, which I think will be rarely used. You may even want to move those two off to the right side of the comment box.
At a minimum, please widen Submit to make it easier to hit.
Thanks.
Dirk
At the risk of incurring Vern's wrath twice, I was just using the new feature to read reviews given to another author (as opposed to those received by me). In all those cases, the x-line tab should definitely be the default. I can't imagine a reason why someone would want the other view, having to click on each inline. Unless there's an issue with tablets or phones that requires it to be otherwise... It's more than just one mouse click per review; I open the review and begin to scroll down looking for comments, then when I see them, I realize I have to scroll back up to switch to the x-line tab, then scroll back down to continue where I left off.
Besides, if you change the default, I might shut up for a while and go away. :-)
Dirk
Seems like a low priority to me; you're talking one click for crying out loud. But hey, if we're trying to alleviate any effort on anyone's part, how about a respirator to breathe for me, and I can probably think of a few more things which could reduce the burning of one-and-a-half calories and save a nanosecond or two. Or maybe just link us all up to a Matrix; don't forget to roll us over so we don't get bedsores, lol. Take care. Vern
LOL. Best single piece of advice I ever received from my business counterpart while I was working in IT was, "Count the mouse clicks." I deployed Customer Relationship Management systems for call centers that have to be very efficient/intuitive/self-teaching. I extended his advice to include scrolling and mouse movements. It's a trivial change and will almost certainly be the preferred default. Besides, there's no harm in asking.
Dirk
I was wondering if I could ask the group's members their reactions to the earthquake in Nepal. I think we've all heard the expressions Act of God or God's Will. There are, of course, even worse natural disasters, like the Japan tsunami, among others. In 1931, floods in China took an estimated 1M-4M lives.
I suppose one could take solace from the fact that they are now in Heaven, but there is an extraordinary amount of suffering that arises from such natural disasters, particularly among the survivors.
My Joseph character is going to experience a moment like this later in my book. It brings him to a crisis moment with his faith.
What is the group's view of God and such events?
Thanks.
Dirk
Default to X-display makes sense.
Can you at least warn us if we're about to leave an inline review for someone who can't read it? I understand that it might be a draw for someone to start paying if they see a bunch of inline reviews they can't read for free, but I read new authors' works intentionally to get them hooked on the site by giving them as much useful feedback as I can. From what I've seen from other authors, they do the same thing, going the extra mile.
If I get halfway through a detailed inline review before realizing that they might not be able to read it (that's happened to me several times), then I either need to abandon the review, or continue and hope they see it. So far, I've received no reply from the authors, even though I've asked them to let me know if they saw it. Part of the problem is that many of us don't use regular reviews anymore, so I don't even think about using one, especially since there's only the Leave Inline Review button at the top of the posting view.
Either way, thanks for the great new feature!
Dirk
Thanks. This is a great new feature!
On a related note. Is the Leave Inline Review button disabled when we're about to review a non-paying member? I want to ensure they can read the feedback I'm leaving for them.
Thanks.
Dirk
Also, when I add a response comment inline from within the x-line tab, it doesn't show on the page unless I reload it.
Dirk
