Work Room - Week 3

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

You're a clever bunch. You know a lot of things.

But what happens when you come across something you don't know?  Like, for instance, our new topic choices! http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/874412.html

Where do you start in researching it?

More to the point, how do you take this new term and find a way to get the heart of it into something that's authentically you?  After all, that is what you are doing - putting YOU down on a page for other people to experience.

It's not about "How do I fit this word or phrase into a story?"  It's about taking the concept and turning it enough that it's something you can relate to - something that you understand and can explore, in a way that is uniquely your own.

***

This is good place to hammer out those ideas, share discoveries as well as form any new teams or jump onto existing ones! 

Comments

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Darn it, I was kind of hoping this Work Room was going to say "Nyah nyah, fooled ya!" ;)

[lawchicky.livejournal.com]

Yeah- I have no idea what any of them mean!!

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

I'm always really excited (and more than a little nervous) to see a bunch of terms I don't recognize. Will this be super specific? Will it be so broad I can't quite figure out how to make it work and still be recognizable as itself? Is it just wonky? Or will it hit the sweet spot and immediately trigger loads of ideas? It's an adventure.

I only knew "panglossian" out of the list, and I'm busy googling now. I shall return with links... heh...

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

"Usichokoze nyuki." seems to be a Swahili saying that translates to "Don't provoke (the) bees." (source (http://www.kiswahili.net/3-reference-works/proverbs-and-riddles/proverbs-content.html))

Fremdschamen (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fremdsch%C3%A4men) - "to feel ashamed about something someone else has done; to be embarrassed because someone else has embarrassed himself (and doesn't notice)"

Jugaad (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad) - "a colloquial Hindi and Punjabi word that can mean an innovative fix or a simple work-around, used for solutions that bend rules, or a resource that can be used as such, or a person who can solve a complicated issue." (there's loads more at the wikipedia link. Good stuff)

Panglossian (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/panglossian) means ridiculously and stupidly optimistic, and is from the character Pangloss from Voltaire's Candide

Ferhoodle (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ferhoodle) - "to confuse or mix up:
Don't ferhoodle the things in that drawer."

petaQ! (http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/PetaQ#petaQ) - "One Klingon term used as an insult on numerous occasions was petaQ (also spelled "Pahtak", "Pathak", "p'tahk", "p'takh", "patahk", "pahtk", or "p'tak")."

(I have some suspicions about the origins of these prompts. Heh.)

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Now I can exhale.

[logical-fallacy.livejournal.com]

Well, at least I knew the Klingon insult without having to look it up. xD

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

I looked it up, and then I was all "OHHHH p'takh! Now I get it". Evidently my Klingon spelling is off these days.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Yep! Google is your friend! I got basically all the same stuff as lrig_rorrim. But I'll add a little to these two:

Jugaad: Basically, to put it into a more useful American terminology, to be able to MacGyver something - to have the ability to create something new/innovative/useful with meagre resources.

PetaQ! var: Pahtak / P'tahk: It's an insult/epithet that has various meanings - it can be someone who is being foolish or useless; someone who comes across as a "weak individual who doesn't carry the warrior spirit within," or a coward.

[logical-fallacy.livejournal.com]

I think "person who lacks honor" is probably also a good bet as a possible interpretation for "PetaQ!" because it's pretty much the Klingon insult and honor is a big thing. :)

[tijuanagringo.livejournal.com]

For the life of me I do not think I can repeat last week and put them all together. Whew!!! RELIEF!!!

I was starting to get worried that I would have to top myself. No. I can settle back, think, turn one of them around and around and write and write and re-write and then maybe write again. We shall see what comes up next.

THANKS FOR THE EXTRA TIME I have lots of work to do this week pulling together the traditional champagne open house at my Mom's place.

But what the heck do some of them mean?

Our master is not kidding about reseaching them oh my.

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

To actually answer the question - "how do you take this new term and find a way to get the heart of it into something that's authentically you? After all, that is what you are doing - putting YOU down on a page for other people to experience."

I sit with it, for a while. Luckily, we've got a while this time around! I also go through my idea file and look at the images and phrases and story snippets and thoughts I've jotted down there to see if any of them seem to fit together with a topic, like puzzle pieces, a different angle on a thing I had already been spinning around in my mind. I do a lot of rephrasing and restating of the topic (or topics, as the case may be) to try to find what feels like the essence of it, to me. I think of different ways to make a concept real, or make something concrete abstract. I throw random things at it and see what sticks, what feels right - mythological creatures, fairy tale tropes, imagining something in the vacuum of space. That kind of thing.

And if I haven't got a story idea by then, sometimes I'll just close my eyes and put my fingers to the keyboard with a blank page in front of me and see what happens. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it's crap. Ok, often it's crap. But I can work with that. Something's better than nothing.

[favoritebean.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I never thought I'd see a Klingon term in Idol. I guess there's a first for everything. Of course, I have theories as to whom submitted some of the topics. I haven't heard either fremdschaden or verhoodle used in a very long time, but both are pretty fun. My grandmother was Pennsylvania Dutch, so verhoodle was mentioned a couple of times when I was a kid.

I have the feeling this week's entries will be a very fun read.

As for research, I don't know. It varies by week. I generally look up what I need to know right away, then I let that knowledge on given topics sink in and marinate for a couple of days. From there, I can usually write something.

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

I actually already knew 1.5 of the 5 prompts -- I initially didn't recognize the anglicized spelling of the Klingon word, so that one only counts as 0.5.

They all look interesting, but no ideas are springing to my mind right now. Eh, there's time...

[tijuanagringo.livejournal.com]

Heh you were batting better than I : I only might have known the 0.5 and the others oh my way out there

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Right now Jugaad and PetaQ are speaking most strongly to me, but I'm still percolating. There's something to be said for Usichokoze Nyuki, too.

We shall see...

[dmousey.livejournal.com]

These topic choices are very cool! PetaQ made me laugh out loud! I was pretty close with both the German and Pennsylvania Dutch terms.

This is going to make for some wonderful entries! Good luck everyone! :) Happy holidays for those who celebrate and I don't see you beforehand.

Peace~~~D

[witchwife.livejournal.com]

Oo. This week may be a challenge for me. I had an idea in mind, but don't think it will work for any of these topic choices. Or rather, I'm excited about where these might go and don't want to try to force a pre-existing idea on them.

May write something outside of my usual style - awkwardly flawed or slightly self-deprecating protagonists with a bit of dry humor thrown in from the narrator - and do something a bit more..descriptive and serious. I don't know. It might be nice to try to branch out a bit and this seems like the perfect week to do it given that (I feel) the topics kind of cater to this.

To answer the question, "Where do you start in researching it?"

It seems that I let lrig_rorrim do my dirty work for me. ;)

But seriously. Thank you.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

I don't like multiple choice weeks, especially ones where most of the topics are words I don't or barely recognize.

It's a similar feeling to reading others' entries before writing my own: that of attention being spread too thin.

(I usually turn the topic 'round and 'round in my head, sometimes in writing, until it slots with some of my life experiences. But it takes an effort, and is much easier with just one topic, however outlandish it seems at first.)

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

I usually have a couple jump out at me during multiple choice week. There are two in this week's list...and as others have said, I let both of 'em roll around in my head for a bit until one begins shouting louder than the other. That's the one I'll write on.

As for the rolling around...a lot of the time I think of angles. Do I want to take the general theme I've been writing on and apply it to this? Do I want to write something totally different? If so, what? Would sticking to the theme work better? A lot of the time I'll go to work and mull all this over while I'm doing something else. Four times out of five I'll have a solid idea by the time I punch out.

[leni-ba.livejournal.com]

I'm only familiar with 'Fremdshämen', since it's a concept I've struggled to get across language and culture. Because, apparently, the idea that one can be embarrassed by something someone else did, is not familiar.

Like when your favorite singer has an airhead moment on live tv. :/

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Like when any teenager has to be in public with a parent. :)

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! For extra time..:D..this is gonna be my first Christmas post marriage so kinda looking forward to it..and yeah extra time surely helps..;)
The topics this week are quite interesting and let's see which one speaks to me first.The problem with multiple choice is - I keep on jumping from one topic to another..till last minute panic sets in..:P..and then I write..:D

[cheapxdate.livejournal.com]

Aw, congrats! When did you get married?

[dee-aar2.livejournal.com]

Jugaad was the only word familiar to me and that too not in complete meaningful sense... But I have to say I truly grateful to Gary for the extra time .... Generosity thy name is Gary this week !!!!

As of now inspite of the detailed google research provided here ... Nothing is really calling out to me ... Brain confused as of now and then multiple choices add to that confusion further.

I normally get a random strong thought about a prompt which I let grow and develop to become my own in some way. I wish I had concrete idea boards ... but havent ever got around to making those ... Its all in my head which hopefully I can retrieve at the right time ....

Happy holidays Peoples :)

[cheapxdate.livejournal.com]

Whoa, blast from the past! I read (and very thoroughly discussed) Candide in my Intro to Short Fiction class my freshman year of college, so Panglossian really jumps out at me. That said, I feel like I can work with quite a few of the words. I wrote horror last week so I really want to mix it up and tackle another genre, and a lot of there words really lend themselves to some comedy.

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

Ah! Comedy sounds cool..looking forward. Really enjoyed what you did last week.

work

[tijuanagringo.livejournal.com]

.

something I don't know
where do I start

the work room

then double back to google and google translate

finally listen to my heart and mind beginning to simmer

they whisper
memory, thought, feeling, idea, sensation

buzz buzz buzz oh dear
it looks like those sleeping dogs are starting to wake up...

no, wait, it's only a dream
chasing the rabbit

.

ssshhhhh be very quiet
we're hunting rabbits

.

;-)

.

RE: work

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Shhhhh!

I've got a net, and a big bag of carrots.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

Leave it to you petaQs to sit here arguing about the proper spelling of petaQ!

Totally my topic BTW. If anyone's wondering, I submitted the spelling I did because it's listed as the official spelling on Memory Alpha according to the Klingon dictionary - http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/PetaQ#petaQ (THIS IS SRS BZNS OKAY?!) and also because I'm a Voyager fangirl and that's how it tends to be spelled in Voyager circles and...wait. Why is everyone looking at me like that? What are you doing with those torches and pitchforks??

[redqueenofevil.livejournal.com]

Does this mean we can look forward to reading some glorious Voyager fic?

[i-love-freddie.livejournal.com]

I... have no clue about any of them. :(

[dreamsreflected.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly. I may be throwing myself under the bus for this one this week.

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

While many of the words have been explained I want to simplify things a bit and maybe it'll help or... maybe HINDER the work rate.

This is are all very basic terms when broken down=
Usichokoze nyuki is essentially "Let Sleeping dogs lie" or "Leave the past in the past"

Fremdschamen upon reading on it suggests empathy but it seems to apply more to feeling embarrassed because someone else is being embarrassed but not actually doing anything about it. Fascinatingly it might be the NEWEST word of the bunch. It's sort of like the more famous word schandenfreude cept without the pleasure part.

Jugaad as described above really is basically a way to say MacGyver when translated to modern American language/vernacular.

Panglossian is more than just optimism. It's being optimistic is the face of extreme pessimism and surrounding permeating pessimistic situations. You've been shot, you have no home, the hospital is 500 miles away, your phone is dead and no cars are driving by.... but you still think "I'm going to make it"

Ferhoodle is a PA saying... if I understand it it's a way of actually saying messed up or screwed up. Or to describe just complete disarray. A desk with everything piled up in no manner that makes sense. The aftermath of an accident.

It seems most of get the Klingon saying petaQ!, but from what I read it's ALL encompassing curse of a person for any kind of reason. It's as equal to motherfucker as it is to a derogatory racial term to just being a way to call someone prick or bitch.

And none of this helps. At least it didn't help me. Maybe it'll help you.

I'm kinda like a ferhoodled petaQ here, I hope none of you stand there with fremdschamen because I'm totally panglossian here. I may have to jugaad something here even if I ignore that classic advice to Usichokoze nyuki.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

This helps, because you have already dissected topics the way I always dig into them :-)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

There's a number of comments referencing "thanks for giving us extra time" but I don't see any such reference by Gary, and the deadline seems to be the usual 8pm EST Monday? So where are y'all getting this?

PS: Hello from Australia! At least I get 18 "extra" hours by being in this time zone!

PPS: Oh golly where could that swahili phrase about bees have come from :D :D

[idekmybffjill.livejournal.com]

Deadlinr is still on a Monday, but it's not this Monday but next Monday, the 28th.

[murielle.livejournal.com]

There is a germ of an idea...very tiny...an embryonic bunny sniffing around the edges of my subconscious. It looks like it may want to be a fairy tale...it's wearing the most ridiculous bonnet.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of bunnies in bonnets. :)

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

Anyone looking for an idea involving the prompt "fremdschämen"? Two words: "Steve Harvey."

You're welcome.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

And most of the so-called comics, sadly.