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 |  is paved with good intentions... |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Hi, I'm Elle. I'm based in Auckland, New Zealand. I'm the mother of two young adults, the wife of an entrepreneurial gamer and the Queen of Unfinished Projects. This blog will contain poems, short stories, possibly photos and book reviews if you're lucky, and my thoughts on a variety of topics. Hope you enjoy it. |
In your blog entry today, share anything interesting you found while exploring your blog’s statistics. What is the profile of your average reader? Do you consider your readership when composing a blog entry? Everyone has an “ideal reader,” as Stephen King says. Who is your ideal reader? ~ "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  Mostly I just write the way I talk. Sometimes people read it, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they 'like' or comment, sometimes they don't. I don't really have a strategy. With my offsite blog, I tend to play it safe and don't get too personal or too controversial. Which is probably why I don't have a lot of followers!  I have a routine now of posting a poem on Monday, a book review on Wednesday and something else on Friday. Which is amazing really considering I went whole months without posting anything. This WDC blog is pretty new. I only started it in July. Apparently my average reader is a married female, age 40-49, with some college education. Hmm, that's probably fairly accurate. Not that I doubt the system or anything, but if I'd been asked, I would have said female 30s+. What I find really interesting is that I've had 28 unique readers.  That's a lot of people who have checked out this blog! Only six of them have been guys. Take away Charlie and Norb, who are the other four guys? Oh, one will be Robert. Maybe SM because I tagged him in a post? Maybe Smitty?I probably have an ideal reader for my short stories, but not for my blog or my poetry. Those are so subjective. And you can like most of a blog but still not like or not be wowed by certain entries, and the same for a collection of poetry. Furthermore, you never know just what will catch people's attention. I do genuinely think you just have to write for yourself, and in due course the people who like the way you write will start reading your stuff. If you write to please an external audience, it makes every single entry hard work. |
[Embed For Use By Upgraded+] When we were expecting our first child, I distinctly remember Steve saying to me that the thing he was most excited about, in terms of becoming a parent, was being able to watch kids animated movies at the movie theatre. My kids are teenagers now, so I've missed some of the more recent ones. I did go and see Trolls with Caitie, but honestly I wasn't wowed by it. Nor was I wowed by Beauty and the Beast. I thought Frozen was good though, and I'll go with Caitie to watch the sequel when it comes out. Steve's planning to watch the new Lion King one. I think that was before Caitie's time because she says she's never even seen the original. My favourite kids movies were the Ice Age ones. Followed by the Nemo/Dory ones. But oh, Ice Age. So funny. Diego, Sid and Manny were just brilliant characters with the best lines. Even today, Steve and I still use quotes from those movies all the time. And when I'm rearranging myself in bed, I make the noises Sid made when he was trying to get comfy on his rock. Nyeh, nyeh, nyeh.  I mean, where else are you going to find a character that mouths off with lines like 'If you find a mate in life, you should be loyal. In your case, grateful.' Seriously, with all the snarky ass comments, that is a movie made for grown ups. It's just so clever. 'You know? This whole ice age thing is getting old. You know what I could go for? A global warming.' ~ Sid We use a lot of quotes from Finding Nemo too, like 'I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy'.  I don't think Frozen had as many adult jokes in it, but I did laugh at the 'crazy trust game' comment, which went right over Caitie's head. When I was a kid, I was never much into cartoons or animated movies. Steve was. He's super excited that they've brought out a series based on the old Dark Crystal movie.  What's your favourite animated movie? |
[Embed For Use By Upgraded+] Bliss by Th' Dudes For "Barrel of Monkeys" , the previous song was produced by Ian Morris, who was a member of Th' Dudes.I remember I once did a post about NZ music ("Invalid Entry" ), and someone commented that they were all so old and dated. Um, yeah. They are. Because I'm old and dated.  Fun fact, I just checked the comments on that entry and no one complained about them being old. I'm certain I had that conversation though, because I know it was Jellyfish - HAPPY 25th WDC!!  who made the comment about them being old. Anyway. We have a bunch of current NZ bands and artists. Obviously you've heard of Lorde. I'm not a big fan of hers, but I love Gin Wigmore. She has an amazing voice. But I grew up with small-town community singalongs, where Dad would get out his guitar and everyone would sing along, and it didn't matter if you could sing or not, it just mattered that you that you sang along. And that's how New Zealand music sort of developed. The songs weren't designed for radio, they were designed for people to sing along to. Simple words, easy to sing melodies. No Whitneys or Marias, just songs anyone could sing along to. And this song, Bliss, is the perfect example of that. It has virtually no words. It's kind of shouty. In fact, it's kind of like the NZ version of Tubthumping. It's designed for a crowd to sing along to. Specifically, a crowd in a pub/bar. I don't even know if a radio version of this song exists, but it's one of the most well known songs in NZ history. Everyone knows it. "Get yourself more bliss! Forget about the last one, get yourself another!" NZ music has evolved now, with artists aiming for radio air time. But these old pub songs are still the crowd favourites at concerts (and in pubs, obviously!).  |
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