Dusty O'Bear

I spent a very interesting time sewing my own teddy bear. I bought the pattern and then sewed him by hand. He's not quite the same as the pattern owing to a few sewing errors but I'm rather pleased with myself. I think his rather odd head and ears give him character!

Ian xx

Faceless

Hmm, after logging on I find my profile picture is missing. And I can't upload another one. Very puzzling. Annonymous Moi.


Ian xx

Blackberries

Hello,
So at lunch time I spotted a patch of brambles growing over the wall at work. After a little thought I decided to partake in the lost art of Blackberrying. When I was a youngster I used to go blackberry picking with my Granny. Then later relive the experiences through Eind Blyton's books - no idea which ones sadly but I'm sure in those stories every second page there was some sort of baking or blackberrying. Anyway it was curiously fun, productive, yummy and even a touch nostalic so I can recommend it as a free and very enjoyable way of entertaining children (or adults). Who knows I may even kick start my own Blackberry picking revolution
Vive la mure!

Ian xxx

Cleaning out the cupboard

Hello,

so as you might know I have a myspace page (if you've not been there's a link on my website). Now once upon a time, back in 2006, I used to post on it quite a lot. No one used to read it, no one reads this, but I posted all the same. Anyway, whilst deleting these records of long forgotten memories I discovered a short piece called 'The Patented Misery Fairy'. Basically this was the first thing I had written since the daft page-long stories I wrote at school. So by reding this you are witnessing the birth of my writing career! Okay so it's not great but I still like the idea and it was the start of this whole adventure! For years I had been concocting stories and never writing them down, and this little thing was the first time I put pen to paper. It's only a paragraph long, but I've posted it below so you can have a read!

Ian xx

So, imagine the scene, you wake up in the morning and, despite feeling perfectly happy the night before, you feel wildy depressed. Well I have discovered the truth behind this condition - the Patented Misery Fairy. Having seen her in my semi-conscious state last night I know this to be the truth. Last night I rather unwisley left my widow open and was visted by the flying old bitch, a close species relation to the tooth fairy and the sandman. Looking like a 2foot tall saggy 90 year old Jordan wrapped in a curtain, with a pair of wings knitted out of old stockings, she flutters through the window with her bag of wickedness* and sprinkles a handful of its contents upon the sleeping individual. She then farts mightily (although this might have been me), cackles and departs leaving you to wake up with nothing but gloom and misery. You now know the reason why you go to bed on top of the world and wake up feeling like you fell off.

* the bag of wickedness is available from all good fairy shops and has a similar chemical composition to dried mayonnaise. However it is only available to those with a Misery Fairy fanchise hence the 'patented' at the beginning

The Death of...

I don't know about you but I get tired of hearing it's'The Death of...[insert your favourite old fashioned thing here]. Be it vinyl, Cds, Nu-metal, Britpop, literary fiction, free news, traditional familiy values, every headline I seem to read annouces the death of something I use. Personally I think it's a bit of a misnomer. What they mean is 'The retiring from the mainstream of...' Or 'You can no longer make mountains of money from...' but then neither of these make good headlines.
None of the things I've just listed have 'died' I know that all of them are still being produced and consumed on a daily basis. As I write this I'm listening to Definately Maybe by Oasis, okay it's on my ipod not Cd or vinyl but that's not the point. The point is that Britpop sounds alive and well to me. Provided someone is enjoying them it can't be dead. I know for a fact that bands are still producing it too. And whilst we're on the topic of music, I'm a big fan of cds. There's something about actually buying a hard copy with artwork and a plastic case that makes the listening experience, in fact I won't listen to anything I don't have on Cd (call me fussy I don't care). However Cds are bulky and it's not practical to carry them around (there are 700 well lsitened to albums on my ipod- i'd need a lorry). So whilst I have followed technology for the sake of ease and choice I'm not advocating killing my favourite art form.


And with quite a lot of these things too its the very people writing the headline or article that kill it. My favourite example is an article in Kerrang magazine about Nu-metal being dead. Suddenly , with one statement they had started a landslide in which all 'hip' people stopped listening to that genre. "Ah not listening to that mate, it's old news'. By saying it was dead they killed it (or retired it from the mainstream - see that's the point all this rambling is trying to make).
Literary fiction is also is in its death throes, it was an article about that which sparked this off. So I'm going to have to give up reading Atonement. Or this year's literary fiction. See, it's not as easy to kill as you think. Just because it's declining doesn't mean it's going to die out. Pandas anyone? They're thriving in some places- see I've extended my metaphors :-)
So please, it might not be as headline grabbing, but less of this 'Death' thing. I'm off back to my niche.
Ian xx

Ps. As usual this ramble has lost its way, this is why I write stories, not articles :-)

A new pet?

Okay, okay so maybe you have to be a bit of a geek to enjoy this short film but check it out;
It's about a pet AT-AT, no idea what that is? Then you'll just have to watch it :-)

http://vimeo.com/12892083

Hmmm, I don't think I've ever said, or written for that matter, the phrase 'check it out'. Now does wondering about that make me a geek too? Not that it matters I've been a geek and proud since...forever.
Thanks

Ian x