Entertainment Corner

K is Kindly: K is for The Kite Runner

The Book and the Movie:

The Kite Runner is one book both I and my son(16 yo now) have read. He read it twice (once as part of reading for school, right after he finished reading it a couple of summers ago). It has made a few appearances – brief mentions – on my blog already – in top ten lists and such. In one, I said – I cried a lot shedding silent tears and making my husband wonder what he did wrong! 🙂 This book stays with you for a while; and leaves an emotional footprint on your soul.

The movie had a few redeeming points but it missed a few critical parts of the book that should have made (at least a brief one) an appearance. I liked the movie but…

The Question: The Book or the Movie:

Poetry Corner

K is Kindly: K is for Kyrielle

What is kyrielle?

The kyrielle is an old French poetic refrain form that originated in the 15th century with traveling troubadours. It was used Like many of the old French refrain forms, the kyrielle originated in the 15th century. The name comes from kyrie, which is a form of prayer where each section ends with the words ‘kyrie eleison’ (Lord have mercy upon us).

How to write kyrielle?

The kyrielle is rhythmic, syllabic, and a fun form to write. It is written in quatrains (four-line stanzas), and each quatrain contains a repeating line or phrase as a refrain (the last line of each stanza). Each line consists of only eight syllables. The kyrielle can have any number of stanzas with an accepted minimum of three stanzas.

There are many rhyming schemes that are seen in kyrielles and this is completely up to the poet (the only thing to maintain is the last refrain line). Some popular rhyme patterns are:

• aabB, ccbB, ddbB etc with B being the refrain
• abaB, cbcB, dbdB etc with B being the refrain
• axaB, bxbB, cxcB etc with B being the refrain
• abcD, abcD, abcD etc with D being the refrain

So, the kyrielle has:

• Multiple quatrains (4 line stanzas) – accepted minimum of three so the refrain is actually a refrain!
• Each line in the poem has 8 syllables
• The 4th line in each stanza is the refrain
• The rhyme scheme is left to the poet – one of the few mentioned above, or any other rhyme scheme. Just make sure you have the refrain!

My example kyrielle:

This one is from a previous post on my blog. I had to make a couple of updates since I had not followed the 8 syllable rule earlier for all lines (crossed out/added as needed). I will attempt to write another shortly in keeping with the spirit of National Poetry Month; but for now, here is the one I already wrote(years ago now, in 2012 actually, but everything still …):

QA Corner

K is Kindly: K is for Keyword Testing

What is Keyword Testing?

Keyword testing uses keywords or action words to develop tests. This uses a table format/spreadsheet to define the keywords for each action that needs to be executed.

Each keyword corresponds to an individual testing action. This could be a mouse click, selecting items from a drop-down list or menu, opening/closing a window, among others. And the test created using keywords thus becomes a sequence of actions.

This concept has its advantages:

• using keywords/action-words does not require scripting knowledge
• yet enables earlier/easier automation
• having keywords reduces duplication (note that this also requires that keywords do not get duplicated) of tests/automated scripts thus reducing the overall costs
• increases reusability of tests

h/t: smartbear; wikipedia; tutorialspoint; logigear

Wrapping up the K post

“Because that’s what kindness is. It’s not doing something for someone else because they can’t, but because you can.” -Andrew Iskander

What are your comments or questions about today’s post? I would love to hear from you. Check out previous posts in this challenge using the links below.

Day 0 Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6Day 7 

Day 8Day 9Day 10Day 11

Linking up to BlogChatter A to Z, A to Z Blogging Challenge, and the Ultimate Blogging Challenge