Chewing the cud

Bloggie friends!

There is something very wrong with this advert and it’s annoying me! LOL!

I wonder if you can spot it? You don’t need sound for it – just scroll to about 20 seconds in!



If you can’t play it, the scene is basically this. A woman feels peckish and searches for chocolate. She finds one, takes the wrapper off and pops a chunk in her mouth.

The problem?

SHE DOES NOT CHEW. She pops a bit of chocolate in her mouth AND DOES NOT CHEW.

Now I know as writers of stories, authors are able to create make-believe worlds, characters and situations – but I truly think as story writers, authors should also make their stories a tiny bit believable too.

Now I also know this is an advert so realism is not to be expected but surely (don’t call me Shirley! LOL!) if someone puts solid food in their mouths, they ought to chew the darned thing? LOL!

Especially when it’s chocolate.

Charlie says: After I eat, I snooze


Nearly the weekend, bloggie friends!

Ecstasy

Bloggie friends!

Now I could wax lyrical about how much I’m looking forward to the weekend BEFORE my birthday week (yay!) but hey, this is Blogger so here’s a visual showing just how it feels like to look forward to something so much. In writerly terms - I am showing not telling! LOL!



Charlie says: My birthday was on the 4th of July. I turned 9. Yes, the human forgot.


Have a brilliant weekend everyone!

Holy Macaroni Batman!

Sorry dear bloggie friends - but I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this, so I thought I'd share the cause of my hilarity here.

But ya know!! It's Saturday - so let's just CHILL.

Charlie says: I'm staying here until the madness ends.

On a writer-ly note the gorgeous and adorable Welshcake (who was a STAR by being very kind and constructive with my writing when I first dipped my amateurish toe into the writing thing - many moons ago) has won the YouWriteOn 2010 children's book of the year. Yay for her!! Go Justine!

Have a silly Saturday everyone!

Over the rainbow doggy stylie

Ok.

This is going to be a silly post!!! You've been warned! :-)

Now the BBC have an ongoing talent show to find the whole or part of the cast of the Wizard of Oz to be staged by that Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.

I think they're still trying to find their Dorothy. But now it's Toto's turn.

And this - beautiful bloggie friends - is their rather spiffing promotion for the show to do just that. Enjoy!



Charlie says: Hmmm. Methinks someone has got far too much time to waste...

I say: it's in keeping with my writerly bent: Wizard of Oz the musical is based on a beloved children's classic book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L Baum.

And er.... that's all folks!

Have a lovely Thursday everyone!

It's all about perspective

Ok so today I hear one of my stories that I sent off for competition waaaaaaay back in January didn't win.

Ok it didn't even make the shortlist.

But I comfort myself that there were over 2000 entries - over TWO THOUSAND entries!

Now I know maths isn't my strongest point but the way I look at it, I had erm... minus zero chance of getting anywhere with it. LOL!

See, it's all about perspective.



If I don't laugh and take the philosophical route, I'd cry.

So yep, it's all about perspective.



Have a lovely Thursday everyone!

Plant inspiration with a Husky

Suffering from a bout of writer’s block today, I turned to YouTube and played these to get my senses working overtime.

The first clip is from Little Shop of Horrors - a musical about a guy called Seymour who buys a plant that is really from outer space!

But enough about that!

What I love about this clip and this song is that Seymour who is a bit gawky and terribly insecure declares his love for Audrey – a stereotypical Marilyn Monroe type stuck in an abusive relationship.

Audrey and Seymour – losers in life – finally find their voices and each other – literally and metaphorically. Just listen to the lyrics. Lovely.



Similarly, this second clip just makes me laugh! It's the way Mishka obliges her humans with utter disdain!



Charlie says "Stop wasting time watching Youtube clips and get writing"!



Happy Saturday everyone!

Friday quick reads, knitting and music

As the weekend beckons, I thought it would be nice to share a couple of bits n pieces with you lovely bloggers.

First are quick reads from two simply fab writerly bloggers.

Theresa Milstein's snippet from her novel is currently On Ms Snark's First Victim Talkin Heads competition. Go Theresa!!

Fellow shoe-fetishist Ann has her piece Melting Pot Avenue up on her blog, Inkpots n Quills. It shoulda been a contender in another competition but her pc decided to be all nasty so she missed her deadline.

And here is a worthy reason why I wish I could knit!

And finally, how could I resist? This always, always, always cheers me up!



Happy Friday!!!!

My nth attempt at loading a YouTube thing. :-) And other writerly things.

To keep within the theme of the winter weather, here is Snow Business, parts 1 & 2.

I waited a LONG time for part 2 and here is the ever wonderful and ever lovely Simon's cat.

Before any of you go "Lordy not another kitty thingie" just think - it takes Simon forever to create a 2 minute cartoon sequence AND he has to create a story too. And if that isn't writer-ly I don't know what is!

Oh and if you really, really want a writer-ly fill, I found this piece from the BBC Writer's Room. It may be concerned with scriptwriting but I think the topic discussed here goes to the very heart of writing, i.e. just how many minutes - oh ok - hours- do writers spend a day actually writing?

I WILL get a YouTube link darn it!

Please Muppets/Queen trademark copyright owners, please don't be meanies like those lovely people who own Glee and who pulled that heartwarming Glee clip from my innocuous blog...

Please let this clip play here... it cheers me and The Cat up and I suspect a lot of others too. Thank you kind Muppet owning people...

Would it help my cause if I inform you that Ms Piggy is and has always been my idol? I'm certain she would approve.

Hi-YAH!

:-)

The art of being chilled - YouTube rants

As part of my Open University creative writing course, I need to produce something that sembles a poem by February. One of the many exercise the course book recommends is to listen to a musical composition lasting 10 minutes and then to write a reflective piece on what emotions this music conjures up.

Simple, I say.

YouTube! Because the only piece of music I can think of lasting 10 minutes would be something classical and I ain't got many of those.

I find Jacqueline Du Pre's version of Bach's Cello Suite no. 1. This should last around 8 minutes. That would do, I say.

So I listen. Ah, peace, music, classical, art, the sound of a cello wailing away all sad and lonely. I'm in the zone. I'm feeling all sorts of passionate emotions listening to this. I conjure up images of the sea, of blue skies, of a rich field brimming with wild flowers, of isolation, of hope, of love - I'm really liking this!

Then it finishes and I think, oh, how nice - how refreshing!

But this is YouTube and this is the age of virtual communities, communication, connections and conviviality across the ether, across the globe.

The net has released us from our shackles and we are able to voice our opinions freely, without shame!!!

What do I read under this most beautiful piece of music? Lots of effing and blinding as to whether Ms Du Pre's version is not as good as Rastropovich or that this cellist is better than that etc, etc, etc. I am back in the playground minus the musicians.

A few months ago I watched a clip of Rihanna's interview where she speaks about her experience of physical abuse from her ex. I cannot even begin to understand those who left verbal abuse directed at her as "comments".

There is a famous clip of a baby panda sneezing. The comments descend into racial mud-slinging. ??!!??!! It's a panda sneezing, people!

Chill!

She says, ranting.