Tag Archives: inspiration

Enjoying Music Again: Home Free

31 Friday Mar 2017

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music mood mover pixabay Music plays a different role for everyone. I’ve always found it to be a huge mood-influencer. If I’m happy, it’ll pump me up. If I’m melancholy, it’ll carry me away. If I feel one way and want to feel another, I turn to music.

However, as I’m coming out of a stressed-out, depressed and burnt out episode of my life, that it’s been a while since I’ve really, actively, enjoyed music. For the last while, it’s mostly been filler, background noise, and a distraction. But it’s been ages since I’ve sat at my computer and cruised YouTube for new tunes.

And I’ve rediscovered Home Free. They’re an a capella country band, and the sound that makes them them is delightfully unique. They do occasionally cover other genres, and while I enjoy the novelty of it, I enjoy their country stuff best.

I’ll probably have to source their CDs now…

How about you readers? What have you been rocking out to lately? I have a fairly eclectic taste in music – I might like it!

The Hedgehog Cafe

11 Monday Apr 2016

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Today, in Adorable News, I bring you: The Hedgehog Cafe.

pat this lil hedgepig

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons


Now, we all know, thanks to the internet, that something this odd (though adorable) could only be the brainchild of Japan! Thanks, Japan. We owe you one for this. In fact, we may just refrain from making any remarks about the next truly bizarre thing you come up with. (Maybe.)

Anyways, the Harry Cafe can be found in the Roppongi District of Tokyo.

The name “Harry” stems from a wordplay on the Japanese word for hedgehog.

For $9-11, you can go pet and play with hedgehogs (presumably while drinking tea? It is a cafe after all… Then again, maybe not.)

Mizuki Murata, who works at the cafe, told Reuters, “We wanted to show people the charm of hedgehogs, which give the impression of being hard to handle. We wanted to get rid of that image by letting people touch them.”

She added, “The cutest thing about hedgehogs is getting them to finally open up and show you their face.”

And what cute faces!
cute hedgehog
P.S. Did you know that a group of hedgehogs is called an array or a prickle? A prickle of hedgehogs!

So what do you think, readers? Would you like to pet a hedgehog, or are they too prickly for you?

How Would You Like To Have A Penguin For A Best Friend?

10 Thursday Mar 2016

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‘Cause this guy has one. Check it out:

This penguin swims thousands of miles every year to visit the Brazilian man who saved his life. Joao Pereira de Souza found this Magellanic penguin crippled with oil-slicked feathers and close to death near his home. Joao cleaned him up and nursed him back to health. Now the penguin, dubbed JinJing, has adopted him.

“I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,” de Souza told Globo TV. “No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up.”

Picture credit: TV Globo

Picture credit: TV Globo

Although it’s not common, penguins do sometimes end up in Brazil after getting sent a little off course by currents. But I’m pretty sure this is the only one trying to replace dogs as man’s best friend.

Crocodiles Are Awake While Sleeping

16 Monday Nov 2015

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IFLS wrote New Study Confirms Ancient Legend About Crocodiles

Essentially, scientists found that crocodiles can remain on watch even while they’re sleeping.

…they are able to undergo what’s known as unihemispheric sleep, where only one side of their brain shuts down for sleep at a time, while the other half remains active. Not only that, but they apparently do so while keeping one eye open to watch out for potential predators… or prey.

People always ask writers, “Where do you get your ideas?” The answer? Everywhere. Especially after reading an article like this. The animal kingdom is full of strange, cool, and sometimes terrifying abilities like this. The trick is farming and combining the bits and pieces into something new to present to the readership.
crocodiles are awake while sleeping
But seriously, how badass is this? It turns out that a bunch of animals can do this, including marine mammals like dolphins and sea lions. Dolphins can actually continue swimming while sleeping.
Check out the article if you want to know how scientists figured it out (it’s interesting).

Books Needing Love

26 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by in Writing

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Hey guys,

Today I’m taking a break from the usual programming to ask for your help. Yes, you.

As you may know, I’m a pretty new author. I have two books out, and I self-publish. I put in the time and money to make sure I did it right, too, and the end result is two books that I’m very proud of. Unfortunately, most people have never heard of them.

Calling On FireSo here’s what I’m asking. If you read my books and liked them, could you leave a review? You can leave it anywhere you like: the platform you bought the book from (like Amazon), or on other sites (like Goodreads). Reviews are SO important for new authors. When readers look at books, they want to know what it’s about, how much it costs, and how other people liked it. I can control the first two, but the last one is entirely up to you.

If you feel like sharing my books with your friends, that would be totally awesome too.

Fire Within fantasy book cover by DamonzaAnd if you’ve never read (or heard of) my books, please check them out. And The Wolves Danced is a free short story/teaser preceding my two novels, Calling On Fire and Fire Within. If you like fantasy, check them out!

And if you do check them out, or you do leave a review: thank you. It isn’t easy trying to make a go of it as a new author. Writing full time is my dream, and it’s one that you can help make happen.

The High School Cat

24 Thursday Sep 2015

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Bubba the Cat Has Become a California High School’s Star Pupil

Bubba lives near Leland High School in San Jose, California and he loves going to school. Every day he’ll venture out, get treats from his favorite teachers and hang out with friends until the school day is over and everyone has gone home. He started by following his owner Matthew to the nearby Bret Harte Middle School and graduated to Leland High School with him. He has since dedicated himself to getting a good education.

Student ID

Bubba the Cat goes to school

Bubba the cat in class

Buuba the serious student

cat treats at school

stays for after school sports

kitty makes school magazine and yearbook

bored in class

naptime

Einstein’s Riddle: I Solved It, Can You?

21 Monday Sep 2015

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Here’s a fun one for you guys, straight from IFLS. I love riddles (even if I’m not always good at them). I solved this one. Can you?

The following riddle is claimed to have been written by Einstein as a boy. It’s also sometimes attributed to Lewis Carrol, although there’s no evidence that either of them actually wrote it. Either way, it’s fiendishly clever and is popularly called “Einstein’s riddle”. It’s rumored that only 2% of the world can solve it.

There are five houses in five different colors in a row. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage. Other facts:

1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.
5. The green house’s owner drinks coffee.
6. The owner who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The owner living in the center house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The owner who keeps the horse lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who drinks water.

The question is: who owns the fish?

The fish is in the green house with the German who drinks coffee and smokes Prince.
If you can’t figure it out, here’s a video to help:
https://youtu.be/ELVWdaNESkk

Fire Within: the cover revealed!

01 Monday Jun 2015

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Thank you very much to Damonza.com for this amazing cover for my upcoming book!

Fire Within fantasy book cover by Damonza

Look forward to the novel soon!
If you haven’t yet, check out my first book, Calling On Fire, or my free short story, set before the events in Calling On Fire: And the Wolves Danced

If you want to be notified when this book comes out, sign up for my mailing list!

Epic Origami

12 Thursday Mar 2015

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I’ve always been fascinated by origami. I mean, you can take a piece of paper – ANY piece of paper – and turn it into a three-dimensional creature solely by folding that piece of paper. How awesome is that? Who came up with that idea? “Gosh, I’m bored and all I have is this piece of paper. I know, I’ll fold it until it looks like a bird.” Really?

Now, I can do a bit of origami myself:

Origami dragon

My origami dragon. Of COURSE I can make a dragon.


origami flower lotus

The most complicated origami I can do. Still amateur level, trust me.

The problem with origami, however, is that it comes in three difficulties: easy, medium, and epically difficult. For example, compare the above to the below:
origami master of awesomeness
Now, I don’t know if this guy follows the “rules” of traditional origami (no cutting, gluing, etc, just folding), but who cares? This is awesome. And I will never be able to create anything close to these even WITH cutting, gluing, etc. Dinosaurs, skeletons, insects (centipedes!), angels, he does it all. Want to see? Check out his Flickr.
Btw, here’s HIS dragon:
origami dragon
My favorite? Probably this one:
origami angel

So readers, have you ever tried origami? Do you just make cranes? (Love cranes. Especially the ones with flapping wings.) Or are you an origami god like this guy? Or would you rather see the fruits of others’ paper-folding labors? Comment!

Giving Laughter

26 Thursday Feb 2015

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My taste in humor isn’t always the same as everyone else’s. So much humor on TV (and elsewhere) just seems cruel to me. A comedian will say something “funny,” and I’ll be dumbfounded when people laugh, because I just found saw it as hurtful (not necessarily hurtful to me, but to someone). Cruel humor is everywhere these days. But when I saw this video, I thought, hey, here’s someone who has the right idea.

In his mind, it’s not “I’m going to get laughter from these people,” it’s “I’m going to give these people the opportunity to laugh.”

It’s not about getting, it’s about giving. And it’s not just in comedy.

What do you think, readers? Do you find much of today’s humor to be more cruel than funny? Do you like humor that gives better?