L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 47

Belated Happy New Year

A belated Happy New Year to you all!

There should be a surprise right around the corner.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Stay safe, have fun, and have a Happy New Year too.

Currently Overseas and a Status Update

For various reasons, I am currently overseas. Unfortunately, internet is slow or intermittent where I am, which will make updates somewhat unlikely for the time being. Depending on the stability and speed of my internet connection, I hope to have The Hungry Dragon Cookie Company available by New Year. Failing that, I will be back in Australia in the second week of January, and it should be available then.

As an aside, it will not be filed under The Unconventional Heroes Series on Amazon due t...

Neighbourly

I have a habit of waving or nodding at people I see around my neighbourhood on a regular basis. It doesn’t really matter if I know them well. If I see someone often enough, the odds are pretty good that I will either wave at them if they’re on the opposite side of the street or nod at them if we are passing each other on the footpath. Since I live in a fairly friendly neighbourhood, I will usually get a wave or a nod back.

You’re probably starting to wonder where I’m going with this. Well, so...

Progress Report (11-12-2017)

I’m back with another progress report, and I come bearing mostly good news. I’m not finished… but I am very close.

The current collection of short stories that I’m working on is set in The Unconventional Heroes Series, and the stories occur at various points in the timeline. For example, some occur prior to Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat, and an Elf while others occur after Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire.

The good news is that I have finished writing it. It weighs in at roughly 157...

Handwriting

I have always been enamoured with beautiful handwriting. There is something distinctly old-fashioned yet appealing about a handwritten letter, as opposed to something more contemporary, like an email or text message.

I want to believe that the very formation of the letters in each word gives some clue as to the mindset of the writer. Harsh words written in a harsh hand are far more striking than harsh words neatly typed in Courier or Times New Roman. Likewise, a sentimental expression of deep...

Good, Better, Best

Good, better, best.

Most of us have heard words to that effect in which we are encouraged to constantly work to improve, making our good better until we can give our best. I think this is good advice, but it can often be misinterpreted, especially when it comes to writing.

One of the single most common mistakes that I see in writing is people trying to perfect something too quickly. For example, I’ve seen many students over the years spend far too long on a first draft of an essay or report b...

Progress Report (09-11-2017)

I’m sure many of you are wondering when I will be releasing something new. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been working on a collection of short stories set in The Unconventional Heroes Series. I had originally planned to have this collection released some time in perhaps August or September. I was, it seems, far too optimistic.

But that’s the bad news.

So what’s the good news?

The good news is that when the collection does come out, it will be a lot longer than I originally expected. It’s cur...

Sample Sizes and Representativeness in Psychology and the Social Sciences

One of the biggest issues in psychology and the various social sciences (e.g., sociology) is that they involve people, and people are not always easy to work with. To apply the scientific method correctly requires devotion to both adequate repetition and adequate samples.

Consider a coin. If we assume that a coin is unbiased, then flipping it should result in heads coming up 50% of the time and tails coming up the other 50% of the time. Coin flipping is also an excellent way to illustrate the...

A Note On Spelling

As some of you have undoubtedly noticed, I am Australian. However, I was not always a proud citizen of the mighty land of koalas and kangaroos. I actually spent some of my formative years in the United States. As a result, I am something of a linguistic curiosity.

Ask another Australian, and they will swear that I sound like an American. Indeed, I still pronounce words like ‘comfortable’ and ‘water’ in a distinctly American way. However, if you ask an American, they will swear that I sound li...