No, it isn't a nice improvement, it's a GREAT improvement!!!!

Thank you for the punctuation jstro... And thank you for the poem Charmz, of course... I don't know if you ever think about it, but for a non English reader poetry is more difficult than prose, and it's also almost impossible to translate poetry... That's the reason I prefer to read English poems in English, but it becomes pretty hard if the poet asks some effort to the reader... I didn't read the comments first, I tried to read the poem more than once... and of course I felt like I understood it at the end... But I've appreciated you poem much more when I read jstro's post, as a matter of fact I really liked it... Now I'm going to ask a very silly question: I understand that the lenght of the verse can make some difference, but how can the adding of a point or a comma spoil the feeling of a poem? Just curious, you know, I'm not a poet and I think that if someone choses not to use punctuation he must have some reasons to do so...

Congratulation Shanna! It was very difficult to put just one vote. Congratulation to everyone, thank you for sharing your pieces... (and thank you for being so kind with me)

Maybe it's a little silly, but did you hit 'upload before leaving? (if I dare suggest such a simple thing, it's just because I tried adding genres to mine four times before realizing it)

Oh thankyou! Before going to put my cuckoo clock under the new 'object' category, I thought I'd to stop by to say my BIG THANK YOU to everyone who's working to make this place better! I appreciate it very much, and this possibility of sorting picture by genre and keep the sorting by software... I think it a big improvement... Thank you again!

I just noticed that there isn't a category for generic objects... I don't want to add another category, but where can one put a camera, a cuckoo clock, a chessboard, a bottle or a tyre...? I'm not an artist, I'm a modeller, and I suppose I'm not the only one...

I like this very much, great combination of image and words... I usually don't comment on pieces here, I find difficult to say anything on pieces that aren't written in my language, moreover I'm not a poet (not even in Italian)... Of course I have my tastes and I like something more than some other... This poem, in combination with the image, I like particularly, and this is the reason I venture to give my opinion... I find a little out of place the 4th stanza... In the first the two medium are put tigether, the second is dedicated to the paper, the third to the pixels... if the couplet arrived just then, not prepared by the sense something missing in the previous one... it would be of greater impact, and simply perfect! (at least for my personal taste)

Okay, a very hard choice... I can go only by my personal taste, and really there are some pieces I like very much, even if for different reasons... The piece I like better is jstro's piece (I'm very willing to read the whole novel), but I have some difficulties in feeling the difference between the two scenes, maybe just because of my difficulties with the language... Inexplicably enough, I find a the even more subtle difference in ChuckEvans' entry very intriguing... So, considering the theme of the challenge, I think I'll go with: CHUCKEVANS!

Okay, here my poor attempt... It's not so easy to give slightly different emotions in a foreign language... but I promised myself to enter the next prose challenge... takes a deep breath and hides her shyness... my first pieces in English... Here they are: SCENE 1 "The horoscope! What a nonsense!" Lisa said to herself, a little annoyed. She was putting order in the kitchen after breakfast, the radio turned on to keep her company, so she couldn't reach the button to shut up 'The Advices by the Stars' and couldn't help to hear her sign. - Virgo: in this busy period keep a day for yourself, today try to relax and enjoy the doing nothing. Damned zodiac! Those conjurers writing horoscopes should really go to work for their life instead of giving such silly advices to busy people! SCENE 2 "The horoscope! What a nonsense!" Lisa smiled to herself. She was putting order in the kitchen after breakfast, the radio turned on to keep her company, even if she thought that people listening to 'The Advices by the Stars' before beginning the day were a little silly, she couldn't help to wait till the speaker reached her sign. - Virgo: in this busy period keep a day for yourself, today try to relax and enjoy the doing nothing. Doing nothing! She wished she could! She shook her head a little amused: maybe the people writing horoscopes couldn't understand that people working for his life couldn't to spend a whole day doing nothing simply because they choose. As I said, English is not my language, so every kind of advice, correction and criticism is more than welcome!

I love that metal insect, so my vote to Kixum!

I like your piece, jstro... I like the way it put out such a theme, the death is a natural thing... and it shouldn't be really so sad to end a well spent life (I mean a full life)... Ok, I don't really know what I'm trying to say... I've just lost an aunt (yesterday)... and somehow I find the atmosphere you convey in your piece so fitting with her life and with her going... no possibility to say her our last goodbye, but I can immagine it could have been thus... Okay, forgive my intruding here... It is strange how a piece can go to your soul if read in a particular moment...

Very interesting reading! I agree with Dialyn about the unnecessary descriptions of meals... however it happens that a writer mention food in an ordinary description, and too often happens the kind of food is 'out of place'; maybe being the food not the main object it can pass unnoticed, but it certainly doesn't add to the realism of a scene... One should be careful of such details while writing...

I like ijack999's one...

Chuck, I wasn't apologizing for my English... I was apologizing for not letting you know I enjoy your writing in more proper places (like under the written pieces)... ;-)