The Flexi Crevice Tool… November 24, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Life, Chatter & Politics, Wordy Business.Tags: amazon, dyson, funny stories, humor, humour
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Sometimes life is just plain odd… but this little oddity made me laugh.
Ben is a little terrified, as I am sure we all have been at some point, of the strange associations that the Amazon “other people who purchased this also bought…” tool recommends. Whereas we are all familiar with the strange things this tool throws up, such as people who buy books about fluffy bunnies also enjoy reading books about a boating in the south of France (I made that one up…), the suggestion today was a little odder.
As Ben happily browsed Amazon’s well-stocked shelves, he was informed that other people looking at the same item had also had a tendency towards buying the rather ominously named ”Flexi Crevice Tool”. Good god, he though, what could this terrifying item be? A strange and intimate sex toy? Perhaps a flexible tool for performing an enema? I must be honest, us dirty minded souls went through a whole host of possibilities.
Until, that is, we looked at the product. A useful little attachment for a Dyson. Now – who woulda thought?!
Dyson Flexi Crevice Tool (Ooh eh?!)
Common Decency is Down the Bowl October 23, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Wordy Business.Tags: poetry, puns
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I was asked at work to produce a little humourous sign encouraging people to stop putting paper towels down the company toilet. After a little thinking, I can up with this cute little poem that I think got the meaning across!
When drying your hands with a towel
Please try not to be foul
Why go and block the loo?
When the bin is just next to you!
The lost art of letter writing October 21, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Blogs, Crafting, Life, Chatter & Politics, Wordy Business.Tags: blog swaps, communciation, letter writing, Social Media
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Life isn’t being very kind to my friends at the moment, and I can only say that I desperately hope I can help them through the bad times and that they will be OK again as time passes. Life is mean sometimes, and resisting dropping into that pit of dark dark depression and pessimism is more difficult now than it has been in a while.
Anyway, miserable-ness aside, I am currently involved in a letter writing blog swap with the lovely Sarah Lee from xo.sorcha.ox. The task is to write each other a letter on any topic and send them. As she lives in Oz and I in the UK, I am looking forward to some trans-continental communications, and am just hoping that my rudimentary letter writing skills are good enough!
Letter Writing Blog Swap
You see, this letter writing business got me thinking about how the art of written communication has all but died. Once upon a time it was the only way that messages of love, and passion, and sadness could be conveyed to distant cousins and far away climes. Now, however, we text and we message – and as useful as these are there is a certain chunk of culture that is dying and fading away.
After all, eloquence isn’t a pre-requisite in texting. Flowery language, elegant prose and a wide vocabulary in fact defeat the point, and are avoided so as to keep the word count down. Where once communication was often just for the sake of communication, it is now based on achieving goals, or communicating specific information. Writing a letter because you love someone and want to stay in contact – it is pretty much unheard of in the modern age.
I have friends who are letter writing moguls. Their correspondence boxes are jam packed with delicate cards, scented paper, fountain pens and other such crafty creations. They write thank you cards and “missing you” letters, and don’t rely on the internet or technology to keep them in touch.
Having written my letter (on the computer I am afraid, I don’t have good enough handwriting to write a whole letter by hand!), I am sold to the whole idea. Hopefully Sarah will want to keep the contact up, and I may even have a new writing buddy. I need to train myself to write thank you cards, and to become a true writer.
Do you write letters? Do you think that the art is dying? Or, perhaps, you think letter writing should die and is irrelevant for modern times?
Literary Pleasure October 12, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Books, Wordy Business.Tags: Books, Reading, stephanie meyer, the host, twilight, Writing
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Finally, finally, I am getting back into reading books. It has been a long time since I read my last book, as I lean towards coming home from work and slumping, exhausted, in front of the TV. There I used to sit for hours, staring blankly, before traipsing off to bed, crawling in, and being dead to the world in 10 minutes. Now, however, I have found the energy to pick up where I left off. I read the entire “Host” by Stephanie Meyer yesterday (which, incidentally, I really really enjoyed!), and it has whet my appetite for more words, more letters, for the feel of paper beneath my fingertips and the scent of ink in the air.
Stephanie Meyer The Host
What does happen when I read, that I had forgotten until now, is the after effect. I will passionately devour a tome in a remarkably short amount of time – I am not a long slow reader at all, and will rush and skip through the pages until I reach the end. Then, once the book is finished, I will often retire to bed, or wander around the house catching up on housework. As I do this, I will be thinking little random thoughts as normal… but I will be thinking them in the style that the book was written in.
Odd, isn’t it?! Does anyone else do this? Get so caught up in a story and a narrative that even when it is finished it still carries on in your head? That you can absorb the attitudes and mannerisms of the protagonist for a few short hours, so you would understand exactly how they would respond, what they would say, how they would feel?
Fun and odd as this is, it wreaks havoc on any distant dream I may have of one day writing a book. Like human blotting paper, I take the style of any books I have been recently reading and write that way for a period of time, until the familiarity wears off. At this point it is replaced by a new tone, every pause is punctuated with a new style, genres interweave and mix. My writing isn’t consistent, too influenced by the world around it.
Do you get anything like this? How do you find your own writing style?
My First Feature Article October 6, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Blogs, Fashion, Wordy Business.Tags: blogging, Fashion, fashion blogging, journalism, style, Writing
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I am, officially, a feature writer. The lovely Tamia from Style Sample mag was kind enough to offer me the opportunity to interview the delightful Emily from Cupcakes and Cashmere. After surmounting seemingly insurmountable technical issues the article was finally written, and was published today. I am, need I say it, slightly excited!
Go read it, and even buy it! Style Sample is a mag for fashion bloggers by fashion bloggers, and you can read it online, or actually order a hard copy!
Style Sample Fashion Magazine
Paint by Numbers September 9, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Rants, Wordy Business.Tags: computers, digital media, internet, Life, passwords, the future
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Life is ruled by a series of passwords, usernames and email addresses. I sign in at work, identified as not even a name, but a long series of numbers. I type in my username – which has to be exactly 8 letters long, with one capital and one number. I log onto my Hotmail account… I sign out and log into my other Hotmail account. I check my bank account with a customer number and my pin. I draw out money with my pin, identified by a little metal chip. I check twitter, I blog, I switch constantly between accounts.
I worry, sometimes, that we will all forget who we are. That maybe, one day in the future, we will be little more than a username, and a password you have to constantly update.
Life in Typos August 12, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Wordy Business.Tags: copywriting, editting, proofreading, spelling, typos, Writing
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As someone who spends the majority of her day in front of a computer screen, the typo is a strong and resilient enemy. Whilst my spelling ability is actually spot on, I still have to religiously and repeatedly proofread everything I write. To admit something to you, I generally don’t proofread my blog that much, as posts are usually written and posted before I have blinked! I will change this, honest!
(Image from here)
So, if my spelling and literary skill is actually quite advanced, why do I make so many typos? What is it that I do that totally confuses my typing fingers into common errors, amusing mistakes and more?
I feel like a brief folly into psychology is perhaps appropriate. Forgive the inaccuracies and speculative nature of this, but I’m not doing my degree any longer and so am allowed to make things up off the top of my head!
The psychological aspect of the typo is likely to be this: Association. As many of the words I write aren’t written wrong due to the proximity of the incorrect keys, it cannot be just finger error. Instead, I often type their instead of there or vica versa – clearly my brain types aurally and just puts down whatever the word sounds like regardless of typing. This doesn’t happen in handwriting, where there is more time for communication between brain and hand!
We have all experienced the surreal feeling of accidentally typing that which we are thinking, reading, saying or listening to. Things other than that which we are meant to be writing can hijack our consciousness and be channelled out in a stream of incomprehensible type. In the same way, if distracted, we can simply repeat ourselves, as if our brains get locked in some challenging pattern of brainwaves.
Of course, on top of the interesting ppsychological errors, which work rather like Freudian slips, we also have the much more mundane. The little routines that your fingertips get into, tapping out certain letters in the wrong order nearly 80% of the time. It is a case of practise makes perfect. Your fingers follow the path of least resistance for easy typing – and if you don’t notice, this is reinforced and reinforced. For this reason I battle with a constant influx of thansk (thanks!), maanger (manager!) and more. Oh, and my eternal ability to write UNiversity, IMage and lots of captials! Little tiny mistakes that ruin the style of a piece.
Thankfully, my proofreading skills have improved immeasurably in the past year. All my freelance has made me an accomplished proofer – in both English and American English. When I bother (and when I am not being lazy with my own blog), I rarely leave errors there. But I do question how much time would be saved if Typos didn’t happen at all!
Spellcheck July 20, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Rants, Wordy Business.1 comment so far
Why Oh Why does the WordPress spellchecker not have blog, blogger or blogging in its dictionary?!
Postsecret.com March 8, 2009
Posted by Lauren Cooke in Depression, Graphic Design, Inspiration, Life, Chatter & Politics, Wordy Business.Tags: art, community art, Depression, Life, postsecret, secrets, truth
7 comments
Those of you who read the observer of a Sunday will probably already be familiar with the concept of “Postsecret”, a fantastic community art project in which the public is invited to submit their life’s secrets on postcards, with no worry of judgement or guilt. It is an excellent (and very expressive) collection of confessions, and art. It is filled with humour, with deep emotion, with guilt and with horrors I hope I never have to face.
For my birthday, my sister got me a perfect present – a book of these secrets (I will post my other lovely pressies later this week). I flicked though them on the way home, reading them out to Ben, and bounced between hilarity and deep sadness. I cried, I giggled, I recoiled in shock.
For those of you interested in the concept of art based therapy, you can see the blog here: http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
Anyway, I decided to be brave. Please don’t judge, but here are my deepest darkest secrets, out there for the world to see. I am not proud of them, but I am not ashamed of them either. Unfortunately they make up part of who I am, and I am glad to be able to admit them to the world. Hopefully I make make someone realise they are not alone, as those postcards in the book made me realise just how similar humanity is.
1. Sometimes I wish I was still depressed, because it gives me an excuse for when I fail.
2. I long to get terribly ill, just so people will realise that they do love me after all.
3. Sometimes I wish I could leave you and experience the world, so I could come back to you a better person.
4. I worry I will never be satisfied with my life, even if I get everything I want.
