The European Union is passing a set of laws to protect people's personal data online. As a result, a metric ton of online companies are sending you e-mails about updating their Terms Of Service.

Is it time for ou to update your own personal Terms Of Service? Let us know what rules and personal boundaries have changed since the last time we agreed to our social contract.​

April is National Poetry Month. To celebrate, many poets commit to a 30/30 writing exercise, wherein they write or significantly edit one poem per day for the entire month.

You're busy. April is also Pay Your Taxes Month, and Clean Your Stanky House Month. You don't have time to produce thirty pieces of stunning poetic art. Instead, produce just one measly stunning poem of exactly thirty words. That's just one word a day, You Can Do It!  

In 2001, an unassuming hotel guest left a suitcase of pepperoni, which he had planned on giving to some friends, near an open window in his room, in order to "keep the meat fresh". He then stepped out for a bit, and returned to find "about forty" seagulls in his room, dining on the pepperoni. His arrival freaked them out, and his room became a crime scene of guano, feathers, and meat.

He was banned from the hotel.

This year, he wrote an apology letter to the hotel, asking if he could stay there again. They said yes.

Write an apology for something you did back when you were a younger and different person or write a note of forgiveness for someone who wronged you long ago, who you believe has changed since the incident you are forgiving them for.

It's Adam's birthday, so instead of coming up with a new prompt, he's stealing one from the 30/30 Prompt Blog (link is in the right hand column of the page).

Create a deconstructed sonnet:

1. Write a sonnet. In a nutshell, a sonnet is a 14-line poem made of 3 individual 4-line stanzas with alternating rhyme, and concluding with a rhyming couplet (read: 2-line stanza).  Additionally, every line should be written in pentameter, or be 10-syllables long.  The visual breakdown for this (with rhyme scheme indicated by letters) is below.   If you want to cheat, you can print this out and use it as a fill-in-the-blanks-type worksheet.
A
B
A
B
C
D
C
D
E
F
E
F
G
G

2. Go outside and walk around the block.  The goal of this is not to get exterior inspiration, but to clear your head of the writing that has just happened.

3. Return to your sonnet.

4. Rewrite/retype your sonnet as a single paragraph, minus the line breaks and punctuation.  Do NOT use this as a chance to edit.  Everything but the appearance of the lines on the page should be exactly the same.

5. Reread the poem.

6. Cross out/erase/delete any words that don’t serve a purpose/only serve as filler/were only stuck in to preserve the rhyme.

7. Seek out any nonspecific pronouns (i.e. he, she, it, they) and replace them with specific words or phrases that give them an identity.  You do not have to come completely clean about the source of every single line, but make sure that whatever nickname you use for the person/place/thing still has a definite metaphorical tie to the party that inspired it.

8. Reread the poem.

9. If the piece (as it is) seems to have a singular theme developing, identify it and get rid of any lines, words, or stanzas that distract from the reader’s perception of it.  If it has multiple themes emerging, pick the one that can be expanded/clarified most easily, and get rid of any lines, words, or stanzas that don’t concern it.

10. If the theme you chose feels undeveloped, expand it, but in a disciplined manner: only extend metaphors until they become clear. Do NOT overexplain. Do NOT get flowery.  Clarification is the name of the game here.

11. Rewrite/retype the poem, with the edits from Steps 9 & 10, adding in punctuation as necessary.