For Fun - Writing Cozya Want To

Lots of us write blogs, not that we have any feasible hope of pecuniary gain, but first for the satisfaction of getting something down on the page, then because the unexpected approval of strangers is such a thrill, and then as the list of posts grows to take those first often faltering steps: new subjects and new styles of writing.

You know who you hope you write like, but is there a scientific way, a 'fair and balanced' way to find out who you actually write like? Take the paragraph above:

Do I have the voice of a man who was regarded as a churner-out of populist crud for the worst kind of 'penny dreadful' but now all these years later has 'classic' and 'textbook' status? We fished the same river maybe there was someting in the water?


'Check what famous writer you write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them to those of the famous writers.

Any text in English will do: your latest blog post, journal entry, comment, chapter of your unfinished book, etc. For reliable results paste at least a few paragraphs (not tweets).'

Here's the link - let us know who you write like


Our First Hunt got me Margaret Mitchell - not too shabby, but frankly my dear ........ I don't give a damn

Hmmm-Bushwacker  James Joyce -  I fear those big words which make us so unhappy

I just Play One On TV Chuck Palahniuk - You wanna fight about this? Tuesday next is good for me, bring a friend.

Who'd have thought that Albert's Charged - Hog Hunting at It Finest would come out as Margaret Atwood?

Your pal

SBW

PS Chad, that last email - You're David Foster Wallace! LOL

Blogging: Rule 303

Erhm, I wish to report an oversight. it has come to my attention that there is a blog that many of you aren't reading, or if you are reading it you're yet to comment. I'm just as bad, I intended to write this post weeks ago. Rule 303 The Locavore Hunter is on my must-read list of blogs.

'Hunting (literally) for local food, some geeking about rifles, conservation and a dose of civil politics' 

He runs a course for people who would like to get up close an personal with their dinner call "Deer Hunting for Beginners" which he's had some success with and it's been featured in the New York Times
and We Love DC (as ever the comments are worth a read).

There are a number of reasons to consider learning how to hunt for your own food. Many people reading this probably feel a little bit bad about eating meat but not quite bad enough to actually stop. If you feel that you've been somehow dodging the ethics of meat and animal cruelty in your own life, there is no more effective way of facing the matter head-on than by learning to hunt and butcher the food yourself. As a hunter, the experience of the animal that you eat is up to you. A whitetail deer in Virginia can live a good and natural life in the wild and then have one bad morning before becoming food. Which is an ethically better source of obtaining meat? From a wild deer or from a pig raised in a factory farm under Auschwitz-like conditions?

Commercial meat is typically filled with hormones and antibiotics and is fed on grain that required high amounts of petroleum to fertilize and transport. Wild venison is free-range and free of hormones, antibiotics and the cruelty of captivity. If you are concerned about 'food miles' and the impact that your own diet has on the environment, hunting is a very practical way of addressing this. There are wild deer in high numbers in nearly every area of the Eastern US. Many people reading this can either hunt literally in their own backyards or could be helped to find land within 25 miles on which they can hunt for deer. Literally, you could be measuring your food miles by looking at your odometer.

His commentary on firearms legislation is a welcome improvement on most of the blogosphere's cut 'n' paste rantings.  None of the boring indignation, asks more than he answers, pins a tail on the elephant in the room, worth a read. As is his coverage of Ebay's firearms policy

His 'rifle geeking' extends to running a weekend course where you can turn a vintage Mauser 98 into a modern hunting rifle which you get to take it home with you on Sunday afternoon. Have a look here.

This piece might have been written with The Northern monkey in mind, rifle choices from $60!
Bang For Your Buck: Comparing Surplus Rifles For Sporting Conversions

What will be, I imagine, of particular interest to regular readers is his interest in eating aliens, those non-native disrupters of the ecosystem, and how to bring about 'the culinary solution'to their invasion plans.

"Work and hunting for food were interfering with each other so one of them had to go".

See you over there, 

SBW

Pic credit to John Athayde