Everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All
of the people in the whole world, I mean everybody — no matter how dull
and boring they are on the outside. Inside them they've all got
unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds... Not just
one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe.
Neil Gaiman
Monday, 31 December 2012
Friday, 28 December 2012
Me, Myself & I
There are various sides to my personality – sides that conflict with each other.
Take my optimism for instance. While outwardly I saying “I’m sure it’ll be fine”, the pessimist in me (locked in a cupboard in the back of my mind) hammers on the door shouting “it’s going to go spectacularly wrong!”
Little things that I forgot to do or didn’t get or whatever throw me in to a brief panic. Then the (slightly) more chilled side of me walks over switches off my over-reactor and says “what are you getting so worked up about? It’s not the end of the world”.
Then there is my personality over all versus my wardrobe. I am a very shy person. I don’t like to be the centre of attention. I’d rather sit back and listen, take in the information (most of the time) and make as little input as possible.
But then there’s my wardrobe – I've managed to narrow down my style to tattooless-rockabilly-goth-geek. Nice and specific. I like vintage clothes, t-shirts with classic cartoon characters printed on them, Converse, Dr. Martens, printed/brightly coloured jeans, Iron Fist, flowers in my hair... I could go on and on and on.
Basically my wardrobe makes me stand out from the crowd… which is one of the things my personality doesn’t want to do.
But maybe deep down I really do want to stand out… otherwise I wouldn’t dress that way… would I?
Do you have conflicting sides to you personality? Or should I think about seeing a professional?
Take my optimism for instance. While outwardly I saying “I’m sure it’ll be fine”, the pessimist in me (locked in a cupboard in the back of my mind) hammers on the door shouting “it’s going to go spectacularly wrong!”
Little things that I forgot to do or didn’t get or whatever throw me in to a brief panic. Then the (slightly) more chilled side of me walks over switches off my over-reactor and says “what are you getting so worked up about? It’s not the end of the world”.
Then there is my personality over all versus my wardrobe. I am a very shy person. I don’t like to be the centre of attention. I’d rather sit back and listen, take in the information (most of the time) and make as little input as possible.
But then there’s my wardrobe – I've managed to narrow down my style to tattooless-rockabilly-goth-geek. Nice and specific. I like vintage clothes, t-shirts with classic cartoon characters printed on them, Converse, Dr. Martens, printed/brightly coloured jeans, Iron Fist, flowers in my hair... I could go on and on and on.
Basically my wardrobe makes me stand out from the crowd… which is one of the things my personality doesn’t want to do.
But maybe deep down I really do want to stand out… otherwise I wouldn’t dress that way… would I?
Do you have conflicting sides to you personality? Or should I think about seeing a professional?
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
Monday, 24 December 2012
Friday, 21 December 2012
Christmas: I'll Be Glad When It's Over
If you are reading this then clearly the world has not ended so we'll carry on as normal...
In the Friday before last's post I talked about something (carol singers) that I included in my list for the Bah Humbug Blahgfest that I took part in last year.
Well this week I’m elaborating on another one. You can call me Scrooge if you want… but I happen to spend a lot more money than Scrooge ever did. Don't get me wrong I like Christmas... just not some of the people who you encounter during this time of year.
So anyway…
What is it about this time of year that turns people in to complete and utter morons (I may have to start another new category)?
Not only does the World and his dog crawl out of the woodwork and clog up the shops but they seem to loose the ability to walk down the street properly (presuming they had that ability to start with).
And they have no manners. You hold a door open or step to one side to let someone past and about 50% of the time you won’t even get a look of recognition let alone a thank you. Did they think the door opened itself? No, it didn’t. It’s just someone who’s still clinging on to their manners, who is now stuck holding the door open or wedged in to a corner as a tidal wave of people swarm past.
Then there are people who don’t seem to comprehend that the pavement (or whatever you are walking on) isn’t just for them. They do not own the pavement. There are other people using it. People who may be in a hurry. People who would easily be able to get past you if you could walk in a reasonably straight line, instead of meandering back and forth before stopping dead and causing a pile-up of pedestrians behind you.
It is at this time of year that I thank the gods of the internet for online shopping. So I can spend as little time in the actual shops as possible.
Granted that won’t be the case after Christmas – I love a good sale (I'm a natural born bargain hunter after all).
Another reason to look forward to life after Christmas!
In the Friday before last's post I talked about something (carol singers) that I included in my list for the Bah Humbug Blahgfest that I took part in last year.
Well this week I’m elaborating on another one. You can call me Scrooge if you want… but I happen to spend a lot more money than Scrooge ever did. Don't get me wrong I like Christmas... just not some of the people who you encounter during this time of year.
So anyway…
What is it about this time of year that turns people in to complete and utter morons (I may have to start another new category)?
Not only does the World and his dog crawl out of the woodwork and clog up the shops but they seem to loose the ability to walk down the street properly (presuming they had that ability to start with).
And they have no manners. You hold a door open or step to one side to let someone past and about 50% of the time you won’t even get a look of recognition let alone a thank you. Did they think the door opened itself? No, it didn’t. It’s just someone who’s still clinging on to their manners, who is now stuck holding the door open or wedged in to a corner as a tidal wave of people swarm past.
Then there are people who don’t seem to comprehend that the pavement (or whatever you are walking on) isn’t just for them. They do not own the pavement. There are other people using it. People who may be in a hurry. People who would easily be able to get past you if you could walk in a reasonably straight line, instead of meandering back and forth before stopping dead and causing a pile-up of pedestrians behind you.
It is at this time of year that I thank the gods of the internet for online shopping. So I can spend as little time in the actual shops as possible.
Granted that won’t be the case after Christmas – I love a good sale (I'm a natural born bargain hunter after all).
Another reason to look forward to life after Christmas!
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Random Thought #45 - You Wait Ages For An Advert To Come...
Given that it's nearly Christmas I thought I'd treat you with an extra random post this week (my regular Friday post will still come along tomorrow - although be warned it's not in quite the same spirit as this one). I say extra but for the second week in a row I've missed Teaser Tuesday due to Christmas card production. So technically this means you are getting the regularly advertised number of posts this week.
But anyway...
For me I never start to really feel that it's Christmas until I've seen the Coca-Cola advert on TV (watching on the internet wouldn't have counted). And although the internet assured me that it had been on TV since 10th November and other people assured me that they had seen it (it's not Christmas until I have seen it) I only saw the advert for the first time on 16th December. I clearly have been watching the wrong channel since November as after I saw the advert for the first time I then saw it another two times.
So in ninety minutes I saw it three times. You wait ages for a bus to come and then three come along at once. Well the same can now be said of adverts.
(If you haven't already seen this advert on TV then this doesn't count as the beginning of Christmas - you'll just have to watch more TV!)
But anyway...
For me I never start to really feel that it's Christmas until I've seen the Coca-Cola advert on TV (watching on the internet wouldn't have counted). And although the internet assured me that it had been on TV since 10th November and other people assured me that they had seen it (it's not Christmas until I have seen it) I only saw the advert for the first time on 16th December. I clearly have been watching the wrong channel since November as after I saw the advert for the first time I then saw it another two times.
So in ninety minutes I saw it three times. You wait ages for a bus to come and then three come along at once. Well the same can now be said of adverts.
(If you haven't already seen this advert on TV then this doesn't count as the beginning of Christmas - you'll just have to watch more TV!)
Monday, 17 December 2012
Random Quote #114
Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the
other organisms. It's by talking nonsense that one gets to the truth! I
talk nonsense, therefore I'm human
Fyoder Dostoyevsky
Fyoder Dostoyevsky
Friday, 14 December 2012
Deja Vu Blogfest - The Day Of The Do Over Returns
I only found out that this blogfest was taking place again this year a couple of days ago. So it was a mad scramble to find a post I wanted to repost.
DL Hammons has decided to make the Deja Vu Blogfest an annual event.
So I decided to repost A Tale Of One Tortoise that you can read in it's original June post here.
A Tale Of One Tortoise
Before I share this tale let me tell you that tortoises aren’t as slow as everyone thinks. Once they warm up and get going they can move at some speed (OK so the hare would probably still win as long as it didn't take a nap). One minute they are there the next… GONE!!!
So anyway…
We have a pet tortoise who goes by the name of Lily (I’ve no idea why her name is that).
 |
| Lily the Tortoise |
When she gets quite warm and active she starts trying to claw her way out of her tank. So we let her out for a walk around the house.
Lily seems to have a fondness for hide and seek as she will wander off and hide in a corner, often pushing things out of the way to get to them (she’s quite strong for her size).
And then we spend ages looking for her under and behind various pieces of furniture, under the curtains, those kinds of places.
With the recent warm weather we have been letting her have a jaunt around the back garden (she likes dandelions) but only if there is someone out there to keep an eye on her.
The other day it was my Dad… who seemed to have forgotten the speed at which tortoises can move at once they get going (especially in the sun – she must be solar powered).
So one minute our house was peaceful the next my Dad is bellowing the war cry that he had lost the tortoise – last seen heading for around the back of the shed.
So I started looking for her, then my brother and Mum were enrolled by my Dad for tortoise hunting duty.
While my Dad grumbled about it not being funny and the rest of us telling him that he was supposed to be watching her I noticed through the chain link fence (and whatever the plants are growing in front of it) that our next door neighbour was acting strangely. He put a box upside down on the floor at the end of his garden.
After a few more minutes of searching the neighbour seemed to notice us… given that we were all stood behind the shed under a tree and asked us if we had lost a tortoise.
Lily had only found a hole in the chain link fence!
Who knows where she would have ended up if the neighbour hadn’t spotted her?
Well it took us slightly longer to get her back as the neighbour, having never come across a real life tortoise before, was reluctant to pick her up.
We assured him that she didn’t bite and she wasn’t that heavy… after all she’s not an alligator snapping turtle nor is she a giant tortoise (if she was a giant tortoise she’d have probably taken the fence with her!).
So until we can get some sort of run made for her Lily has been grounded!
***
She still likes to play hide and seek with us... my Dad ended up building a little makeshift wall about 6 inches high out of bricks. Lily patrolled it and investigated for structural weakness - so far she hasn't found any but at this time of year she is confined to the house anyway.
Click the link at the top of this post to go and check out other Deja Vu posts.
Monday, 10 December 2012
Random Quote #113
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward
William Arthur Ward
Friday, 7 December 2012
Last Christmas...
As I mentioned last year in the Bah Humbug Blahgfest I don’t like carol singers who come round to your house.
Last year I opened the door to a youngish boy (maybe 11 or 12 – I’m not very good at guessing ages).
He immediately started to sing. He wasn't the greatest singer in the world but he did give me a montage of various Christmas songs. So I thought ‘oh go on then I’ll give him some money’.
I was further impressed when I told him I was going to close the door (to keep the greyhound in – not a euphemism of any kind!) whilst I went to get some money – and he continued singing.
I handed over some money he said thank you and he went away.
Not five minutes later there was another knock on the door – I opened it to find two boys (probably about 10 or 11) standing there who launched in to a very lack lustre, unenthusiastic version of Jingle Bells (I think it was Jingle Bells and maybe ‘launched’ isn’t the right word).
What they didn’t realise was that I had seen one of them stood in the garden when the previous carol singer had been there. So clearly they were following him waiting to see which houses he was successful at.
I clearly unnerved them a bit when I stepped out of the house and peered up and down the road trying to spot where the other boy had got to.
After about a minute I asked them if they had in fact been with the other lad. Their singing deteriorated further at this point and they began to look nervously at each other out of the corner of their eyes. One boy kept forgetting the words (to Jingle Bells?) and the other was trying to prompt him.
They then went silent and I suggested to them that they perhaps go in to partnership with the other lad to avoid irritating anyone else.
And then I closed the door.
A couple of days later I saw the first carol singer standing outside the local shops singing, with one of those huge plastic Coke bottles to collect money in - an entrepreneur!
The other two weren't with him...
Last year I opened the door to a youngish boy (maybe 11 or 12 – I’m not very good at guessing ages).
He immediately started to sing. He wasn't the greatest singer in the world but he did give me a montage of various Christmas songs. So I thought ‘oh go on then I’ll give him some money’.
I was further impressed when I told him I was going to close the door (to keep the greyhound in – not a euphemism of any kind!) whilst I went to get some money – and he continued singing.
I handed over some money he said thank you and he went away.
Not five minutes later there was another knock on the door – I opened it to find two boys (probably about 10 or 11) standing there who launched in to a very lack lustre, unenthusiastic version of Jingle Bells (I think it was Jingle Bells and maybe ‘launched’ isn’t the right word).
What they didn’t realise was that I had seen one of them stood in the garden when the previous carol singer had been there. So clearly they were following him waiting to see which houses he was successful at.
I clearly unnerved them a bit when I stepped out of the house and peered up and down the road trying to spot where the other boy had got to.
After about a minute I asked them if they had in fact been with the other lad. Their singing deteriorated further at this point and they began to look nervously at each other out of the corner of their eyes. One boy kept forgetting the words (to Jingle Bells?) and the other was trying to prompt him.
They then went silent and I suggested to them that they perhaps go in to partnership with the other lad to avoid irritating anyone else.
And then I closed the door.
A couple of days later I saw the first carol singer standing outside the local shops singing, with one of those huge plastic Coke bottles to collect money in - an entrepreneur!
The other two weren't with him...
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
Teaser Tuesday - I'm Back!
I have returned!
The last few weeks I have been busy NaNoWriMo-ing. And so I kept forgetting about Teaser Tuesday - oops!
But NaNoWriMo has come to an end and I am back.
So all you have to do to take part in Teaser Tuesday is:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Then head over to Should Be Reading and add your link to the comments.
So here are my teasers:
The cat hissed, trapped in a dark corner with two large beasts hovering above it. The two of them were in their element, a man and his dog hunting for a cat.
Page 32, 9 Lives by George M. Moser
And this book counts towards the New Author Challenge 2012 hosted by Literary Escapism and the Horror & Urban Fantasy Challenge 2012 hosted by Book Chick City.
The last few weeks I have been busy NaNoWriMo-ing. And so I kept forgetting about Teaser Tuesday - oops!
But NaNoWriMo has come to an end and I am back.
So all you have to do to take part in Teaser Tuesday is:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Then head over to Should Be Reading and add your link to the comments.
So here are my teasers:The cat hissed, trapped in a dark corner with two large beasts hovering above it. The two of them were in their element, a man and his dog hunting for a cat.
Page 32, 9 Lives by George M. Moser
And this book counts towards the New Author Challenge 2012 hosted by Literary Escapism and the Horror & Urban Fantasy Challenge 2012 hosted by Book Chick City.
Monday, 3 December 2012
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