Most Common Surnames [Last Names] in the United States (top 1000)

People Bucket Arthurian Legend Baby Names Aballach Arthurian Legend - Male The definition and meaning of the name Aballach is: Father of Modron. Currently 2.08/4 stars 1 2 3 4 Rating: 2.08 (25 votes) Accalon The definition and meaning of the name Accalon is: Lover of Morgan le Fay. Currently 3.33/4 stars 1 2 3 4 Rating: 3.33 (12 votes) Acheflow Arthurian Legend - Female The definition and meaning of the name Acheflow is: White flower. Currently 3.29/4 stars 1 2 3 4 Rating: 3.29 (14 votes) Aglaral Names that sound similar to to Aglaral are: Aglarale The definition and meaning of the name Aglaral is: Brother of Percival. Currently 3.00/4 stars 1 2 3 4 Rating: 3.00 (5 votes) Aglarale Names that sound similar to to Aglarale are: Aglaral The definition and meaning of the name Aglarale is: Currently 3.14/4 stars 1 2 3 4 Rating: 3.14 (7 votes) Aglaval The definition and meaning of the name Aglaval is: Currently 3.40/4 stars 1 2 3 4 Rating: 3.40 (5 votes) Agravain The definition and meaning of the name Agravain is: Brother of Gawain. Currently 3.20/4 stars 1 2 3 4 Alain

photos of abandoned places Making an ordinary person your hero. A Swinburne quote, since I haven't done one in quite a while. From "Tristram of Lyonesse," Swinburne's take on the Tristan and Isuelt story, and one of the few I like: And the king waking saw beside his headThat face yet passion-coloured, amorous redFrom lips not his, and all that strange hair shedAcross the tissued pillows, fold on fold,Innumerable, incomparable, all gold,To fire men's eyes with wonder, and with loveMen's hearts; so shone its flowering crown aboveThe brows enwound with that imperial wreath,And framed with fragrant radiance round the face beneath. I've heard some people say that a protagonist without incredibly powerful magic, dazzling good looks, or incomparably true love can't be a good fantasy hero, since he's "too ordinary." I say this is Not True, and there are plenty of ways to take an ordinary protagonist into the hero realm without making him either "special education" special or SPESHUL. 1) Showing, not telling, is your friend. 2) Tell the story from her eyes.

The New Monogamy - Marriage With Benefits Claire is a pretty, 31-year-old Park Sloper who studies furniture design. Her husband, Alex, is a 32-year-old Web-design consultant with a fondness for floral shirts. He’s the center of attention at a party; she’s the one off to the side, seemingly aloof but really just shy. “I was totally confused, because I’d assumed that once I found ‘the one,’ I would be done with all that,” says Claire. For much of human history, monogamy (or, at least, presumed monogamy) has been the default setting for long-term love. “I realized I really didn’t care what he did, I only cared how he felt,” says Claire. For years, we have said—to each other, to our boyfriends, to people writing in to our advice column—that monogamy is a choice, and if you expect it to come naturally, then your relationship (or your shot at one) is doomed. But lately, these questions have become more than just theoretical. The idea of jimmying the lock on monogamy is not new, of course.

Problems and Promises of First-Person Fantasy (There, that sounded pretentious enough, didn't it? I thought it had been some time since we had a pretentious title). Confession time. I like first-person fantasy, most of the time. I enjoy seeing how authors can use the first-person voice, what kind of explanation they'll craft for how it tells the story, and the fact that first-person mostly locks the author into one viewpoint instead of bouncing like a mad thing all across the countryside (Robert Jordan comes in here for his share of kicking as usual). But there are definitely ways to misuse it, especially when someone who's never told a story before goes for first-person because she thinks there's no other way to do it. So, some ways I think are good for using the power of the first-person voice while avoiding the common pitfalls. 1) Decide first what mechanism you're using to tell the story. However, if you pick this convention, stick with it. 4) Don't give your narrator all the best lines. Cut down on this.

21 Sites To Find Out What’s Hot Online | MakeUseOf.com Is it important for you to stay informed of daily news? Do you try to always be up-to-date with what people are talking about throughout the world? If “yes” is the answer to both of the questions, then today’s post on what’s hot online and how to spot internet hot trends is right for you! Use meme trackers to spot daily hot trends: Google Blogsearch that was turned into a meme tracker only a few months ago tracks memes throughout all topics and naturally has the biggest index to check.Megite separates memes into categories (technology, entertainment, business, science, etc) and often publishes completely irrelevant memes in each. Use blog search engines to spot daily hot trends: Technorati Popular gives the list of top searches and top blogs (that have become hot in the past 48 hours).BlogPulse key phrases allows for a “trend this” option that graphically represents the hot trend history. Use search engines to spot daily hot trends: Yahoo Buzz. Use Twitter tools to spot daily hot trends:

Secondary character turn. Guess who finished her 20-page paper on Jane Austen and her writing for today and can now write a rant on secondary characters in fantasy? Yep. Me. (Not that either was much of a chore. I'm pretty pleased with how the Austen paper turned out, and it isn't going to be THAT great a chore to go back in and add the page references for the quotes I pulled conveniently off the Internet. Different kind of disclaimer this time: I know whereof I speak. Which doesn't make them less annoying to encounter. 1) Don't create secondary characters whose sole purpose is to make your protagonist look good. I have never understood what is wrong with making sure that the protagonist has some real competition- powerful, intelligent, equal people who don't take stupid actions for the sake of the plot or fall fawning at the protagonist's feet. Which leads me to... 2) Your main character may be the center of the story, but do NOT make them the center of the universe. This, I think, is one of George R. Ahem.

The DIY Multi-Level Desk by unsat_rbd. The Design:It was essential that the design be able to accommodate a number of my daily tasks. I wanted enough space to be comfortabe checking my emails and playing online games partybets.com, whilst still being able to organise my various files and other bits of equipment. I did a measurement of everything in my bedroom, and put them into Illustrator to get an idea of how much space I had to work with.

Rant on fantasy teenagers. Well, so far I'm taking a break today after all. I suppose it could be justified, since I really didn't expect to finish the grading yesterday. Anyway. Again, I need to admit my biases here. 1) Teenagers whose perceptions are identical to reality. This is very fucking boring. It makes even less sense with a teenager than with an adult. This has no basis in reality. They're not, really. 2) Education, or the lack of it, is romanticized. I think a lot of this is work is avoid the nerd stereotype, but unfortunately all it does is dump the protagonists into the "instinctive genius" trap again (see point one). Of course, a much simpler explanation is the author interfering again to grant advantages that are never granted to any other character. 3) These don't look like teenagers. Not very high, is it? Now, some people might argue, "Who wants to read about zits?" 4) Immaturity. The converse is also true. That's another thing to consider. As another example, consider Robert Jordan's characters.