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April Fool’s and Zombie Bunny Cakes
We are fast approaching one of the most important days of the year–April 1st. Not only is it an excellent day to have a birthday, it’s also a good excuse to eat bunny cakes and torment loved ones.So in the spirit of this fine day, please share some April Fool’s gags so I may replicate. Last year’s tape-the-sink-sprayer-in-the-on position was a hit (thank you Ms. Barlow). Mostly because I kept forgetting I’d taped it and sprayed myself a number of times. Doh!
Also here’s the google of “bunny cake recipe.” If you have one that you’ve tried and loved, please share. The most often used pattern in the Brown house results in a bunny like this one. Although I must say Eriks H’s is entirely too happy. I’m feeling the need for a zombie or fantasy version. I’ve also moved away from frosting–too sweet. Now my cakes must be topped with real whip cream.
Mongoose Robot Duo
I always thought mongooses (or is it mongeese?) were cool. I mean, they kill and eat snakes. What’s not to like about that? But it appears they’ve got more than one trick up their sleeves.
Mongoose-robot duo sniff out landmines on the cheap
Here’s more at NewScientist if you’ve got a sub.
Maya, a character for a thriller?
Maya lives in a yurt.She has glorious garbage floors.
And chickens that run around and lay pastel eggs in odd places like buckets–Easter every day.
Here’s a list of her most popular blogs.
So, folks. Maya has a fascinating life (as do most people when you start to get the details). So fascinating that you can’t help but want to write about someone like her to see where the story goes. Go read her blog and tell me you don’t agree. It doesn’t get any better than this.
In fact, what would happen if I took a Maya and put her in that thriller I’ve got incubating?
Oh, baby. Zing.
“The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination” by J.K. Rowling
This is J. K. Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement speech, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination.” It’s one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard. Watch and then watch again. Read the full text here.
Two quotes that in no way can do justice to the whole thing.
And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
. . .
Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.
