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Most writers are familiar with first and third points of view and their variations. But have you ever experimented with alternative points of view? Below are some less used points of view, what I call “unusual points of view.” Try using these when you’re blocked or you want to try something new.

Second Person Point of View

Second person can be written as “you” singular or plural. Josip Novakovich in FICTION WRITER’S WORKSHOP says: “The author makes believe he’s talking to someone, describing what the person addressed is doing. But the ‘you’ is not the reader, though sometimes it’s hard to get rid of the impression the author is addressing you directly.”

Here’s an excerpt from Italo Calvino’s first chapter of If on a winter night a traveler. I think it’s one of the most engaging examples of second person point of view. But if the author is not speaking to the reader…then to whom? You be the judge.

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel, If on a winter’s night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel ever other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room. Tell others right away, “No, I don’t want to watch TV!” Raise your voicethey won’t hear you otherwise”I’m reading! I don’t want to be disturbed!” . . . So here you are now, ready to attack the first lines of the first page. You prepare to recognize the unmistakable tone of the author . . .

Most stories told in second person are written in the present tense, so the reader identifies directly with the character. You’re along for the journey, being an active part of the story. I read this excerpt feeling as if the author sees me and is talking directly to me.

Like other points of view, second person has its pitfalls. One of them is keeping the reader’s attention through the whole story (in this example, an entire novel). Some readers don’t like to be told what they’re thinking and doing and saying. Sometimes this point of view has a tendency to sound too journalistic or like a recipe.

First Person Collective Observer Point of View (or third person plural)

In this point of view the reader follows the motions and acts of one person through a group’s viewpoint. Usually, someone in the group acts as narrator but doesn’t have his/her own identity. Usually this is reserved for small town narratives, where an individual lives under communal scrutiny. Schools, towns, churches, or families focus on a secret person in conflict with the community. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” Emily is the character scrutinized by the residents of Yoknapatawpha County.

Here is an excerpt from the story which occurs after she is put in the ground and what “we” discover.

For a long while we just stood there, looking at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, but now the long deep sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love, had cuckolded him . . . Then we noticed that in the second pillow was an indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, leaning forward, that fast and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair.

Third Person Plural Observer (”They”)

Here the perceptions of a critical situation comes from a group of characters who watch the protagonist. It could be a group of boys watching a teenage girl undressing in her window as in: “They saw her in the window.” The excerpt from “A Rose for Emily” might as easily be written in the point of view.

First and Second Combined

This point of view is usually used in love poetry, and rarely in fiction. In this example from “The Roaring Bull and Electra,” a short story, it’s an adult daughter speaking to her father too ill to speak for himself.

Today the new Roaring Bull was christened, and I wanted you to be next to me as you had been, twenty years ago . . . Now you can’t speak. You can barely swallow. I used to feed you melted ice cream and stroke your throat to get it down because I thought the taste would remind you of our ferry rides . . .

First and Third Combined

This point of view is used for characters with a personality dichotomy, to look at the same character from different angles. In “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story” Russell Banks does this to portray a narcissistic man’s affair with a homely woman.

I felt warmed by her presence and was flirtatious and bold, a little pushy even.

Picture this. The man, tanned, limber . . . enters the apartment behind the woman.

The switch to third person is the character taking a look at himself, the way one might want to see himself projected onscreen. The shift in point of view might be annoying to the reader, so it’s important to establish this shift pattern early in your story.

Try this exercise:

Choose one of your favorite stories and rewrite a scene from it in one of the “unusual points of view.” You might want to try rewriting one of the excerpts above. In your exercise show the original passage, then your changed point of view (or points of view). You get extra brownie points if you write a scene from scratch. This is a challenging exercise, but it also shows you don’t have to be limited by variations of first and third person.

Let go, breathe deep, and have fun with it!

(c) 2004 Rita Marie Keller

About The Author

Rita Marie Keller has written and published numerous stories, articles, and essays. Her first novel, Living in the City, was released September 2002 by Booklocker.com, Inc. She founded the Cacoethes Scribendi Creative Writing Workshop (www.cacoethes-scribendi.com) in 1999.

Not only is your CCNA exam going to have questions on VLAN trunking protocol, almost any network that has more than one VLAN is going to have VTP running. Whether you’re planning on passing the CCNA exam or just brushing up on your networking skills, this VTP tutorial will help you learn the basics of this important protocol.

VTP allows switches to advertise VLAN information between other members of the same VTP domain. VTP allows a consistent view of the switched network across all switches. When a VLAN is created on one switch in a VTP server, all other VTP devices in the domain are notified of that VLAN’s existence. VTP servers will know about every VLAN, even VLANs that have no members on that switch.

Switches run VTP in one of three modes. In server mode, VLANs can be created, modified, and deleted on a VTP server. When these actions are taken, the changes are advertised to all switches in the VTP domain. VTP Servers keep VLAN configuration information upon reboot.

In client mode, the switch cannot modify, create, or delete VLANs. VTP clients cannot retain VLAN configuration information upon reboot; they have to obtain this information from a VTP server.

In real-world networks, this is generally done to centralize the creation and deletion of VLANs. An interesting side effect of the server/client methodology is that if a VLAN is only to have ports on the VTP client switch, the VLAN must still first be created on the VTP server. The VTP client will learn about the VLAN from the VTP server, and ports can then be placed into that VLAN.

The third VTP mode is transparent mode. VTP switches in this mode ignore VTP messages. They do forward the VTP advertisements received from other switches. VLANs can be created, deleted, and modified on a transparent server, but those changes are not advertised to the other switches in the VTP domain.

For switches running VTP to successfully exchange VLAN information, three things have to happen. I’ve listed them for you in the order that you’ll see them in the real world.

The VTP domain name must match. This is case-sensitive. “CISCO” and “cisco” are two different domains.

To distribute information about a newly-created VLAN, the switch upon which that VLAN is created must be in Server mode.

Learning VTP isn’t just a good idea for passing your CCNA exams, it’s a skill you must have to be effective in configuring and troubleshooting VLANs. I wish you the best in both of these pursuits!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.

For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Get your CCNA study guide from The Bryant Advantage!

Do you KNOW what is on your credit report? Even if you have just
filed bankruptcy it is EXTREMELY important that you KNOW how it
is reported on your credit report. It is NOT the credit
reporting agencies responsibility to make sure that your credit
report is accurate. It is YOURS, and only you can make sure that
it is.

After receiving your bankruptcy discharge papers the first thing
you will want to do is get a copy of your credit report and make
sure that the information reported on it is correct. Did you
know that over 90% of the time it is incorrect?

You wll want to make sure that your report is showing the date
the bankruptcy was filed and when it was discharged. Make sure
that ALL creditors that you included in the bankruptcy are
showing that they were and that your balance is $0 and nothing
else. Profit & Loss or Charge Offs will lower your credit score.
Make sure they report as “included in bankruptcy” with a $0.00
balance.

If a creditor shows any balance other than $0.00 and it was
included in the bankruptcy it will lower your credit score. It
will by your responsibility to contact the creditor and have
them update your credit report to show the correct information.
Be prepared, you may need to contact them several times before
they get it right. But don’t stop until it is.

Did you also know your credit score will go up after a
bankruptcy? Why? Because all past due, profit & loss and charge
offs will now show a balance of $0 instead of a balance past due.

Did you know that if your credit score is over 500 you can
purchase a home and get 100% financing? That’s right!! However,
you need to realize that you will be paying a premium price in
the closing costs and interest rate. If you do some credit
repair and wait until the bankruptcy is two years old you can
qualify for a Fannie Mae low interest rate loan.

Remember, you are responsible for your own credit report. No one
else is going to care about it as much as you. Start working on
it now, it’s never to late.

England?s prosperous & seldom horrendous past is in all probability largely captured in it’s historic constructions and nowhere is this clearly noticeable than in those properties recognised by the Royal Family & their galas.

For a long time now the English Monarchy has been seen as being very significant to the achievement of the United Kingdom. They have amused overseas holiday-makers for many years & maintain to motivate the interest of overseas guests of all age bracket. Buckingham Place has been regarded as the London home of the British monarchy from the time when Queen Victoria became instated as queen in eighteen thirty seven. It is one of a petite number of working royal palaces enduring in in Great Britain currently. For a superb family day out, why not visit Buckingham Palace London with Enjoy England.

Buckingham Palace is used primarily as a place of work, but can additionally be converted into an entertainment venue for the fifty thousand visitors asked to the Palace annually. There are well over 600 housings, including 19 state lodgings, 52 royal & visitor bedrooms, seventy-eight bathrooms, 92 offices, but more impressively an in-house cinema & swimming pool.

All over the spring & summer, foreign visitors can take a trip around the incredible state bathrooms, which help to form the heart of the Palace. These fabulous digs are enriched with a selection of the finest riches from the Royal compilation of works, including sculptures by Canova as well as paintings by the many famed artists such as Rembrandt, Rubens & Canaletto.

For years, many people from the East or West Coast snickered when Branson, Missouri was brought into a conversation. They seemed to look down their noses at the Midwestern people flocking to beautiful Branson to camp out, stay in their RV, fish, boat, and enjoy down-home music and variety shows. Somehow the honesty and simplicity of the people in the Midwest was mistaken for stupidity and lack of sophistication. How could the historical culture of the Ozark Mountain area be entertaining? The big city critics just didn’t get it. The working man’s vacation dream was, and is, to be able to take their family where it’s still wholesome and full of traditional values. Branson represents the America that the working family has tried to hold on to.

Guess who’s laughing now? This vacation spot, nestled in the inspiring Ozark Mountains is host to over 7 million people a year. It offers the best of both worlds. Visitors come to enjoy an 1880’s-style theme park called Silver Dollar City, with its all-American venue and a newer addition with thrilling rides. Many people come for the entertaining live shows in at least 45 theaters… With more seats than Broadway. This Tri-Lakes area (Table Rock Lake, Taneycomo, Bull Shoals) bestows visitors and residents with gifts of nature, including great fishing, camping, boating, swimming, water skiing, hiking, beautiful golf courses, caves, bald eagle watching, hunting, cruises, a well-known winery, and more. The Sunday Christian services are usually packed. This once small town is attracting a more and more sophisticated following. Branson has a $400 million, 95-acre, lakefront complex with a huge convention center and top notch shops. There’s a new 141-acre development which will include more shops and restaurants over the next four years. The first phase will cost $33 million with 300,000 square feet of space available for lease. Over the next 10 years, this will expand to 1-million square feet. The City of Branson’s new 42-acre state-of-the-art sports and recreation complex is a 44,000 square foot center featuring two gymnasiums, a fitness center, indoor track, locker rooms, community rooms, game room, and a concession area. It is easy to continue to list the growth of Branson, but, you get the picture. Branson is happening!

There’s a huge variety of nightly rental options. Stay in a cabin, in your RV, check into a motel/hotel, or rent a comfortable home-style villa, condo, or lodge. For those that do not want to leave this gorgeous resort town, real estate offerings include dream-like luxury living. Some are staying to join in the growing business community. Others consider Branson to be a retirement destination where leisure time offers an array of delightful activities. Country western and other types of popular stars have made their home in Branson and there are plenty of million dollar homes. However, generally speaking, housing prices are very reasonable especially when compared to other entertainment, resort communities. An average single family home costs around $125,000. Luxury homes come in a wide range of prices. Neighborhoods are pristine, schools are excellent, crime is low, and there’s consistent upward growth for real estate investment. The area residents seem to be on an unending vacation. There is a fantastic lifestyle and innumerable opportunities in Branson. Many maturing Baby Boomers are seizing the chance to invest, set up a business, or retire.

Branson has always represented American patriotism with God still in the picture. That’s what makes Branson the kind of place so many Americans want to visit and live. Casinos have been voted out of Branson because most residents stand firm in the belief that working for your money and keeping a wholesome atmosphere is everything. Got a passel of kids? Bring ‘em on. But, can the ideals set forth in the original Branson be retained for future homeowners? Let’s just say that everyone heading to Branson to live is banking on it.

Donna Harper, a Kansas City free-agent writer, has been delighted to visit Branson, Missouri with her family since she was a young girl… Back as far as the fifties and sixties. As her own child has grown up, they have often visited Branson for wholesome family fun. The magic shows were a big favorite. She has happily written this article with the gorgeous StoneBridge properties in mind. You can find out about them at www.stonebridgenorth.com

Because if members of the public or clients come to your premises or you go to theirs, you can think about looking into investing in public liability insurance. This class of insurance will often cover various things, any awards & monies passed to a member of the general public for the reason that of injury and damage to the client’s properties caused through you yourself or your business.

There are countless circumstances, exclusions & warranties that may be applied to risk insurance policies. It is thus vital that you yourself discuss with your insurance advisor any that are applicable to your business liability insurance policy.

A super brand who focus in this are Insured Risks. The small business insurance company recommend business insurance available at a very reasonable price. The insurance firm will often guarantee that you and your business take out the correct business liability insurance policy that is suitable for you and your corporation. Owning risk insurance is not a compulsory requirement nonetheless it does however make tremendous business sense. Local authorities will generally demand a minimum level of over 2 million public liability insurance for works to be undertaken at the client’s workplace or on their behalf.

Insured Risks public liability insurance cover is available for well over two hundred and ten contracting trades and professional occupations. Business insurance cover is available on steps of one million two million & for the majority of cases £5m. The small business insurance firm is specially designed to cover individual tradesman, professionals & start up businesses up to a total of 20 people, with or without limited company status. Insured Risks will give you Public Liability Insurance at fantastic prices.

The most popular choice for advanced pond constructions is the pond liner, because it offers an unlimited potential for design creativity, dependable longevity, and low maintenance. However, make sure you invest in a high quality pond liner, because a low-quality liner may leak, be toxic to marine life, and/or cause many other headaches in the upcoming months after your installation.

The purpose of a liner is to retain the water within the pond basin, while providing the water gardener with the complete flexibility of shaping his/her own pond design. Durability is one of the primary yardsticks used to measure the efficacy of pond liners. In areas where earth tremors occur, liners do not crack as easily as preformed liners or concrete, and will thereby last longer than their preformed cousins. However, depending on the liner material, liners are adversely affected by UV light to varying degrees.

A secondary consideration is the suitability of the liner material towards marine life. Plastic-based liner material (E.g. polyethylene, polythylene, PVC, and polypropylene) contain stabilizers which allow the plastic to bond. In liner materials such as polyethylene, polyethylene, and PVC, these stabilizers are lead- and barium-based, which are heavy-metals that are known as carcinogens. Another liner material, Polypropylene, utilizes Di-Octyl Phtalate (DOP) as a stabilizer, which is a toxic substance that is extremely corrosive and harmful. Envision what would happen to your aquatic life if a crack were to develop in a plastic liner, and plasticizer were to enter the pond eco-system.

There are five main types of liner constructions: Polyethylene, Polythylene, PVC liners, EPDM/rubber, and polypropylene. Polyethylene and Polythylene liners typically cost half that of polypropylene and EPDM. While they are both lightweight and inexpensive, they typically only last one season. Polyethylene will readily conform to any shape, however, it does not have the sturdiness that is required for a permanent pond liner. Polythylene, on the other hand, is extremely rigid and can be stiff to work with. Polythylene can be damaged easily by rocks, and has to be handled with care. If polyethylene is damaged, it cannot be seamed together without expensive welding equipment.

PVC and PVC-E liners are the next step up from polyethylene and polyethylene, and they can last for up to 10 years. Compared to other liners, PVC is somewhat more affordable, while being somewhat puncture resistant at the same time. In terms of durability, the typical 20-mil (I.e. 0.020″) thick PVC is somewhat mediocre; liners need to last a significant amount of time, because no water gardener wishes to replace their pond liners with any frequency. Therefore most water gardeners opt for liners that can last at least 20 years.

Polypropylene is an expensive material, however, it is the most durable pond liner material in existence because it can last for up to 40 years. Polypropylene, however, is not as flexible as EPDM liners. The main advantage of polypropylene is that it comes in large sheets larger than 50′ x 100′. If you are building an extremely large pond, polypropylene may be a viable option. Otherwise, the majority of pond builders prefer EPDM rubber liners.

EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) rubber liners are recommended for most pond installations because of their delicate balance between longevity, flexibility, affordability, and their lack of toxic plasticizers. Because EPDM liners are rubber-based, they are extremely flexible (much more so than PVC liners), and they do not contain any plasticizers that can make the liner brittle and crack with age. The lack of plasticizers also makes them completely fish and aquatic safe.

The extra flexibility of EPDM comes in handy when working with irregular folds and shelves that are commonly found in a pond. While more expensive than Polyethylene, polyethylene, and PVC liners, a 45-mil EPDM liner can last for up to 20 years because of its natural resistance to UV, and its puncture resistance. However, a limitation of EPDM is its size; they typically arrive in sheets ranging from 5′ x 10′ to a 50′ x 100′ roll. With some training, landscapers should be able to join small sections of EPDM liner with seaming tape.

EPDM rubber liner is currently the standard liner for most water gardening installations. However, before you go out and buy an EPDM liner, make sure you do the prior calculations to determine how much liner you need. A handy calculator that can be used to calculate the required EPDM liner size can be found at http://www.gardensupermart.com/tips/calc.asp

To maximize cost savings, it is recommended that you consider purchasing EPDM liner as part of a pond liner kit.

For more information about EPDM liners, please go to http://www.gardensupermart.com/buypond/pics/pondliner.html.

When everyone you are around is chatting about the hottest stocks, it can be hard to resist investing in that stock. Maybe your colleague doubled his money in some interesting new medial stock. Possibly your newspaper is promoting a specific company as “the next big deal.” Perhaps you read it in a financial newsletter. No matter where your stock tip came from, invest your money right on the spot can all too easily have a negative consequence.

Investing in the stock tips you receive is almost always generally a very bad idea, for a variety of reasons. The first reason is quite simple; most “hot stocks” became hot simply because folks like an idea of a company. However, financial viability and likeability are extremely different from each other. If a company cannot come up with a business plan that is sound, then it will likely not be very profitable in the end, it does not matter how many people invest into their company. One prime example of this is the internet technology that surfaced in the 90’s, it was during this time that it was extremely easy for any type of internet business to get funding. Then what happens is that we have a dozen or so funded business that did not include actual strategies that were concrete to become profitable. This led to many businesses falling through and no longer existing to this date.

It is possible to avoid losing when accepting any type of stop tip, there is one thing that will remain unavoidable. Unless you have a very good friend that is liberate and financially active, it is highly likely that the “Hot tip” you receive will come to you, already cold. Stocks can be traded at the drop of a hat, and with new information constantly being traded amongst investors, it will quickly have an effect on the price of the stock. One good rule of thumb is that if you have heard of this stock tip from anyone rather it be a good friend, a newsletter, or the newspaper it is highly likely that others have heard the exact same tip. Then what this will mean is that the stock market has already been adjusted to meet these expectations of the tip, generally if the tip was readily received by numerous investors, the price could become inflated and this will cause great losses when the price is readjusted.

It is extremely important that you be extremely aware of all the risks that are significant and real. It is not a good idea to follow most of the stock tips you receive, but trading stock can be fun and rewarding for anyone who has the ability to afford the risks that are taken. Do not allow yourself to be sucked in by what could sound great; keep your principals in investments smart and knowledgeable.

Jeff Lakie is a contributing author at our website where
You can get a free Secured Loans Quote right now. Take a moment and see
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A Renters Insurance Policy is an inexpensive way to protect your personal belongings and your personal liability. Your belongings are protected against fire and theft, and they are covered anywhere in the world.

Say you went out to dinner and left your expensive leather jacket in the car. When you got back from dinner you discovered that someone had broken into your car and stolen your leather jacket. Not to worry. You are covered, minus your deductible. It is advisable to carry a small deductible because the differences in premium for the different deductible options are generally small, and small losses would be covered.

So how much coverage should you purchase? Everybody is different so coverage varies person to person. The big question is how much is all your “stuff” worth? You don’t want to overinsure, but you shouldn’t underinsure either. First look at your big ticket items: your furniture - the bedroom set, the dining room and the living room. Home entertainment may be another expensive item: your tv, your stereo, your vcr, your dvd player. How much did all your dvds cost? Your cds? Your tapes? Your records? (Come on, I still have mine!) Your computer - hardware and software? Cameras? Sports equipment - golf clubs, skis, bicycles, firearms. And don’t forget your clothes. If your apartment burns down, you will be starting from scratch. Do you have lots of expensive suits, or are you a casual jeans person? Don’t sell yourself short - a pair of Levis is not cheap! And don’t forget your underwear. Are your drawers full of Victoria’s Secret items, or do you just get the department store stuff?

The more documentation you have in the case of a loss the better. The insurance company is not going to nickel and dime you, but they are not going to give you carte blanche either. You really should have some kind of inventory list. Model names and serial numbers are especially helpful. Pictures and video tapes help as well. Tape an entire room focusing on individual items. Duplicate your lists or tapes and store them in a separate location - your safety deposit box, your friend or relative across town. I suggest you look into a replacement cost endorsement. For a modest extra premium, in the case of a loss, your items won’t be depreciated - they will be replaced at today’s cost.

Another benefit of having a renters policy is that it may make your car insurance cheaper. Many insurance companies will give you a discount if you have multiple types of insurance policies with them. Many landlords also require their tenants to have a renters liability policy.

In summation, a Renters Insurance Policy provides coverage for your personal belongings anywhere in the world. It gives you personal liability coverage and it may make your other insurance less expensive. Consult your insurance agent about how much coverage you need.

Douglas T. Zinkevicz has had over a decade of experience servicing the auto,home and life insurance needs of his clients. Let him help you with your insurance questions by visiting http://www.insuranceplus.blogspot.com.

Britain’s rich and frequently turbulent past is most likely most shown in it’s historic structures and nowhere is this further perceptible than in those buildings owned by the Royal Family and their entertainment.

For an ongoing occasion now the English Monarchy has been deemed as being very significant to the achievement of the United Kingdom. They have captivated overseas guests for many years and continue to keep the curiosity of overseas guests of all age band. Buckingham Place has been regarded as the Capital’s home of the English monarchy since Queen Victoria became inaugurated as queen in eighteen thirty-seven. it’s one of a tiny amount of working royal palaces enduring in the United Kingdom today.

Buckingham Palace is used mostly as a place of work, but can additionally turn out to be an events venue for the 50,000 people asked to the Palace every year. There are over six hundred housings, including 19 state bedrooms, fifty two royal and visitor bedrooms, seventy-eight bathrooms, ninety two offices, but more remarkably an in-house cinema & swimming pool.

Throughout the spring & summer, overseas day-trippers can travel around the dazzling state dinning rooms, which form the heart of the Palace. These marvellous rooms are decorated with a range of the most excellent assets from the Royal compilation, including sculptures by Canova and also paintings by the many famous painters for instance Rembrandt, Rubens & Canaletto. England tourist board the online home of tourism in England.