Clone Awards!
The lovely aliciabenton over at Imperfectly Perfect has nominated me for an award! Yay! And she was very flattering about DraliDoodles to boot!
It looks kinda familiar – the last time I saw it, it was going under the name “The 3-in-1 Award”, but this time it has a much more romantic name – “The Bouquet of Three Award”. How cool is that?
Here is a picture of the award.
As I’ve had one which looks like this before (and handed it around) I’m going to break the rules (again) just a bit. However, I will attempt to think up some more “interesting things” about myself.
Here are the rules anyway.
1. Proudly display the Award Certificate on your blog page!
2. Announce your win with a post. Be sure to link your post back to me as a “thank you” for the nomination.
3. Present up to 15 awards to fellow deserving bloggers.
4. Let them know you’ve nominated them for this awesome award.
5. Post 7 interesting things about yourself.
Okay, (1) done, (2) yup, (3) um, (4) see (3), (5) here goes:
1) It’s interesting to note that the last time I tried to think up interesting facts about myself I had real trouble.
2) I have no big toenails due to an unfortunate ingrowing toenail episode followed by a chiropodist with a big vial of acid.
3) Number (2) wan’t interesting, it was just gross.
4) I have a PhD in laser physics and I’ve worked in IT for the last 10 years.
5) Number (4) makes me a real hoot at parties. Not.
7) I have a problem with simple maths.
Sorted. So, “Clone Awards”? I reckoned that since this is three awards in one it would need three dralimans (dralimen?) to pick them up. Although it didn’t go so well last time I thought I’d try a bit of cloning again. Here’s the result!
“Clone Awards” by DraliDoodles
That’s me in the middle.
The clone on the left (“#77856-B2/Batch 7”) appears to be eating the trophy. And something’s gone wrong with his legs. Also, upon closer inspection, his head doesn’t appear to be attached to his body.
I don’t know what’s up with the clone on the right (“Frank”). He’s run off.
Chained
This is a follow-up poem to yesterday’s Haiku. Sorry about the picture re-use – I only took the one photo!
Children of the skies
Ambassadors of freedom
Homes replaced by metal
A legacy of greed
Uneasy pets now
A spectacle for eager eyes
Chained to the earth
No more to fly free
Break your chains, little bird
Break your chains and fly!
Yo Dude, Milord
Weekly Writing Challenge: Mind the Gap – Emails – Where do you stand on the grand salutation question?
Dear Sir/Madam. Hey man! Hi Frank!
Which to use and when? A knotty question. In the age of email, does it even matter? This isn’t a letter, after all.
However, emails are used as a faster form of letter. Standard post has been dubbed “snail mail” as it’s slower, but faster delivery should not necessarily mean one may be lax during composition.
Here is my handy guide. I find it’s often easiest to learn by example, so let’s look at some scenarios.
An email of complaint
In this scenario, we have bought defective goods. Maybe we should write a letter, but who has the time? Such an email needs to be fairly formal – “Hi Mr Managing Director” will not do. Take a look at a model example below.
Notice the formal wording and the polite salutation. However, this email contains an error. The sign-off should read “Yours sincerely”, as you have used the recipient’s name! Shocking. This one’s going straight into the digital trash. Be more careful!
An email to a friend
Of course, not all emails need to be quite so formal. You could be composing an invitation to a good friend, inviting them round to your abode for tea and biscuits, or some other healthy pursuit. For example:
As you can see, the content of this email is much less formal than in our previous example. As it is written to a close acquaintance it is still perfectly acceptable, of course!
An email to your boss
Often-times you may find yourself needing to write an email to your boss. Some formality is required here, of course – your career may be at stake. However, the chances are you know your boss quite well, so it need not be as formal as our “complaint” example. It also couldn’t hurt to pay said boss some compliments – maybe it could help win you that promotion!
Note that the author is not afraid to blow his own trumpet, and has signed off in such a way as to show all due respect – that promotion is in the bag!
Conclusion
I hope you have seen, through the examples presented here, the different and various ways one may compose one’s email depending on the situation. Please feel free to use any of these examples as a template for your own use.
Happy emailing!
A Brand to be Proud Of
This week’s Prompts for the Promptless asked us about brands – not the type they use on cattle, the type we use to identify oneself or one’s product.
DraliDoodles.
We’ve all seen them. It’s a brand synonymous with integrity, quality and value for money.
That is how I see DraliDoodles in the coming years. In order to promote this, I have fashioned a logo.
As you can see, I’ve pulled out all the stops on this one, as it has to be as professional as possible! I suppose it could have been in colour, but I have no coloured pens. Once DraliDoodles takes off, I’ll get a small business loan and invest in some. Or maybe I’ll tap my investors.
Can anyone see what’s missing from my logo?
“A graphic designer with actual talent?”
Who said that? No, I need a strapline (that’s “tagline” if you’re in the US).
To that end, I’ve thought up a few to try:
- Quality. Integrity. Professionalism. Cheap.
- You know it makes sense! (Possibly that one’s taken.)
- When there’s no-one else, call us!
- Because one day we’ll be famous
- We doodle because we care
Which do you think I should use? I think you’ll agree, they’re all pretty awesome.
And don’t worry, when I’m rich and famous and living on my own island, I’ll continue to post DraliDoodles here on my blog!
I’ll encrust them with real gold, though. Because I can.
Jelly Bike
While wandering around a forest in Wales I saw this sign warning cyclists of a rough trail ahead.
I felt it was missing something so I’ve added a little chap having a hard time on the bumpy road.
Before you call someone in authority to report me for criminal damage please note that I added my little picture using a drawing tablet and a computer – I did NOT take a felt tip pen to the actual sign!
Weekly Photo Challenge – The Golden Hour
This was taken while at my company’s summer party in Falmouth, Cornwall (UK). The sun has gone down behind the hotel leaving the grounds in darkness but it is still illuminating the headland, upon which you can see Pendennis Castle, which was built in 1539 by Henry VIII (though I doubt he actually did any of the heavy lifting himself!).
I didn’t have my camera with me so I took this with my phone, and then zoomed and cropped it a bit when I got home.
This is my contribution to The Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge – The Golden Hour.
The Best Medicine – Never Happy
Weekly Writing Challenge: The Best Medicine – This week, write about whatever topic you’d like, but go for laughs.
Write about whatever I want? I can do that! No bother. Not a problem.
Wait a sec though – “go for laughs”? Well, there’s the rub. Humour is so subjective, and I’m not the funniest fella at the best of times. Tell you what, I’ll shoot for “mildly witty” and we’ll see where we end up.
The title of this post – “Never Happy” – is perhaps not a promising start. I don’t know about you, but to me that doesn’t scream “side-splittingly riotously hilarious” (try saying that three times fast). It sounds more like I’m going to have a rant, or maybe I’m going to wax lyrical about something that’s really getting me down.
So what, I hear you ask, am I going to complain about? I’ll give you a clue – I’m British.
That’s right! It’s the weather. That’s not what you guessed? Pretend you did! I’ll never know.
I’ve complained about the weather before (British, remember?). It’s too cold. It’s icy. It’s too windy. It won’t stop raining. Here’s a new one for you – it’s too hot!
“Never Happy” by DraliDoodles (TM)
Let’s take a quick Haiku-break.
Hostile sun blazing fire
Melting roads and hearts and minds
Air con broken
Hope you enjoyed it.
As I drove home this evening the thermometer informed me that it was 26 degrees C. I’ve just used the marvel which is Google and it informs me that this equals 78.8 Fahrenheit! I know what some of you are thinking. “That’s not very hot!” Well, it is to me. It appears that “too hot” is as subjective as humour.
My office is eco-friendly. We don’t have that planet-destroying toxic chemical-fuelled air con. Oh no! We have some sort of “comfort cooling” air recycling system. Today it managed to get the temperature to a not-so-comfortable 28 degrees C. Way to go, eco-friendly comfort cooling air con.
I didn’t wear shorts, but I did break out my trousers with the detachable legs. Detachable legs! What’ll they think of next? I was going to post a picture of me wearing the trousers with one leg removed so you could see the flexibility, but I thought that some of you might be reading this while eating dinner. I worried that the sight of my pasty-white leg might cause a case of the “tummy upsets”. So, no picture.
I also looked in my drawers for a light-weight T-shirt. It’s been so long since I’ve needed a light-weight T-shirt that it had mould on it from sitting in the drawer for years.
Mould!
And to add very serious insult to injury, it was my Red Dwarf T-shirt!
My poor mouldy T-shirt – please be OK!
I do hope the washing machine can work its magic.
It looks like I’m Never Happy.
Very sad.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Nostalgic
Simpler Times
I don’t remember these photos being taken as such, I was too young (I’m the one on the left in both photos). The other chap is my little brother. I remember the setting on the right – outside our old house in Carnon Downs, Cornwall, where I spent the first 5 years of my life. These were taken in the early 1970s.
The little wooden fort below was made for us by our Dad – in the 70s you didn’t just nip out to the shops for new toys. Your dad would disappear into the garage or shed and emerge a couple of days later with a cool new fort! The drawbridge even went up and down (counterbalanced by a cotton reel my mum had finished with). We got years of use out of this fort. Again, I’m on the left, my brother is on the right.
Don’t I look smart in the photo on the right, ready to start “big” school aged 12?
This was posted in response to the Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge – nostalgic.
The Beast of Drali Moor
Prompts for the Promptless – Cryptozoology is the search for legendary animals, usually in an attempt to evaluate or confirm the possibility of existence. This includes looking for living examples of animals that are considered extinct, such as dinosaurs; animals whose existence lacks physical evidence but which appear in myths, legends, or are reported, such as Bigfoot and Chupacabra; and wild animals dramatically outside their normal geographic ranges, such as phantom cats. The animals cryptozoologists study are often referred to as cryptids, a term coined by John Wall in 1983.
Drali Moor. A wide expanse of moorland, marshes and woodland stretching from the centre of the land across to the small coastal village of Drali-On-Sea. An area of outstanding natural beauty (if you like that sort of thing), it is home to a scattering of farmers, sheep and, some say, the “Beast of Drali Moor”.
Few have caught a glimpse of the beast; no pictures exist. However, those who claim to have seen it swear it is real.
Artist’s impression of the Beast.
It looked way scarier in my head.
Click for a random post!
Woohoo!
I totally didn't win!
Share Your World
Friday Fictioneers
draliman on life 