Archives for category: Competition

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It looks like the idea of a Super Dede Competition 2016 has found general approval. The preparations are running high and the competition will start on Monday the 4th of June.

Not everybody is excited though. Smuggy, who was mainly noticed for his heckling last time, tried to prevent it all from happening by running away with the curtain. But Chambermaid held on tight, she does not want to let go of her dream. This morning Snippedy, the clown put Smuggy in his place. He said it is okay for Smuggy to be opposed, as he doesn’t have any talent whatsoever. Snippedy on the other hand, has been working hard in the past years to improve his skills. You might remember that last time Snippedy didn’t make it into the final group of five contestants. He had absolutely no votes from the viewers. This won’t happen again, he is adamant. I had to bite my tongue. Don’t you think the comment was very imprudent, knowing that this guy’s talent is definitly heckling.

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We had a really tough weekend at the Dede household with lots of crying and desperation. Devil was frustrated. His “Freeday” didn’t turn out as he expected. One of the Instagram readers suspected that it is just another devilish ruse and who knows how much you really have pay for it in the end. The reader made a good point. Devil has no idea how other people perceive him. Of course, he thinks he is the nicest Dede on the planet. We won’t burst his bubble, but it does explain why his generous offer wasn’t taken up in droves. He has kindly extended the offer until the 5th of June 2016. And no, it isn’t a devilish ruse. The book really is free (go to Smashwords.com and enter the code VV39S before you check out to get your free copy).

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One of our followers,  Jessie Martinovic in Australia, downloaded the book and sent us a wonderful message (see comment in the previous post). Thank you so much Jessie for this amazing feedback, it made my day. Unfortunately it was too late to lift Devil’s spirits.  You know how it is, once you are in this downward spiral, you go down, down, down until you hit the ground. So Mouse and Devil, who are usually an excellent team, sat down together and cried their little hearts out. Each of them tried to outdo the other as to who is the poorer puppet. In the end Mouse pointed out that it is dire for them all as I have set up another instagram account called beyond_the_dedes. I won’t tell you what Devil called me on instagram, but I can assure you, he wasn’t the nicest puppet on the planet then :)) I knew very well they won’t like it. They really want to have my full attention. But I can’t help it, I do other stuff as well! At least now we have proper separation.

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Yesterday, the benevolent King had enough of their antics. He looked at the sorry pair and remarked that it doesn’t help anyone when they drown themselves in a sea of snot-drenched hankies. That made them think and when Chambermaid came along this morning to clean up their mess, they listened to her suggestion.

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Once she had picked up all the hankies, Chambermaid dragged a big piece of fabric into the room and suggested they should make a theatre curtain from the material and run another Super Dede Competition. The 2016 version. Devil wasn’t entirely convinced. He knows how much work it is and they would also need support from the readers to make it work. But don’t forget, a minute earlier he was still very depressed, and just putting the idea to the readers is something of a victory for Chambermaid. She of course dreams of becoming a contestant and that could mean “good bye snotty hankies for ever!”

Mouse doesn’t have an opinion. As usual, she just wants to be busy. Faster than you can say boo she got her clipboard out to make notes about how the whole thing could work across two platforms: Instagram and the blog.

So what do you think?

 

Time is flying. It seems like only yesterday that I had the booklaunch, but no, it is already two weeks ago. Must be because it is Christmas and there are so many things to organise before the end of the year. Anyway the Dedes are working in the background and for now, because it is Christmas, they have set up a giveaway on Goodreads. It runs from today to the 3 of January. All you need to do is enter by clicking on the link below. No questions asked (at least if you are a goodreads member, if not, you will have to answer a few questions about your reading habits to become a member) :)

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Artist's Survival Cookbook by Dietlind Wagner

The Artist's Survival Cookbook

by Dietlind Wagner

Giveaway ends January 03, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/widget/166074

Today was the big day of the inaugural scarecrow competition at the Beach Haven Community Garden. All I can say: it was such a wonderful event. We had 15 scarecrows in the running, many of them created by groups, rather than individuals. And yes, I thought, judging scarecrows would be easy peasy… No it wasn’t. In the end I had a list of points they had to fulfill, such as being scary, withstanding weather, making noise… Looking great, wasn’t good enough, as they all did.

We were totally overwhelmed by the participation. We had 290 votes by the end of the day and I got a bit nervous, as the one I had selected for my Artist’s Choice Award, was also looking to be winning the People’s Choice Award. In the end a different one turned out to be the people’s darling. One I wouldn’t have chosen, even though it looked scary, it was made of cardboard and the first big deluge (not uncommon in Auckland) would see to it.

Here some impressions of the day.

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I don’t know if I have already mentioned, that I have been assigned to judge the inaugural scarecrow competition at the community garden here in Beach Haven tomorrow. This will be a very busy day for me. I have to go to the garden to look at all the entries, then I have to come back home to run a Dede workshop and back to the garden to announce the winner.

The community garden is relatively new and as it is with such groups, money is an always short. So, I decided to reinvigorate one of my favourite prizes I awarded at many occasions while still studying. Take one bayleaf, spray paint with metalic gold (donated by the artschool) and put in a nice looking but cheap frame from the bargain bin. I wanted to have a leaf in gold, silver and bronze. Unfortunately there were only cans in gold, silver and red. Never mind, red is a nice colour too. The local chocolate shop has also donated four boxes of chocolates. I hope the scarecrows will be happy and the weather gods are favourable.

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Yesterday my friend and I went to Waiheke Island to deliver the Lil’Dedes to their temporary accommodation at the Upcycle Gallery. Here you see Lil’Devtoo on the ferry when he first spotted the island. He was really excited and proudly wore his new dress my friend had made. Doesn’t it look better than the tiger print dress Lil’Devil bought at the two dollar shop?

As skeptical as they all were in the beginning, I think they are very happy now that they have made the trip across. Nora, the lady who organised it all, is absolutely wonderful and loves them to bits (I hope she doesn’t spoil them too much). I am confident they will thoroughly enjoy their stay. I will go and visit them on the 7th when I have a talk at the Gallery about my work and my book.

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I wonder whether Pavlova is spoiling the Dedes too much. They don’t seem to be in a hurry to come home. There’s no way their strategy meeting can take two weeks. I think that’s how long it has been since they’ve moved to the burrow. It seems ages.  I hope they’ll know when they have outstayed their welcome and come back before they come to blows.

Pavlova certainly tries to make a good impression, but at some stage looking after 40 Dedes and going to the lab everyday might just become a tad too demanding. She might end up having a nervous break-down. I pray one of them will recognise the tell-tale signs and shepherd them back home in time.

I was hoping Devil and Mouse would be back today as the competition has finished. I even went up to the burrow to ask them to come back, but Devil had no inclination to do so. Ah well, on second thought, they wouldn’t be much help anyway. I really can imagine them sitting in the burrow bickering over whether the competition was a success or a failure. Mouse will defend its success and Devil will pooh pooh it. This can go on forever without reaching a decisive conclusion as neither want to give in. I know my Dedes!

In my mind Alien is definitely the winner. Without the competition he would have never known that he is not alone. There are other aliens at the Ohio Falls. However, they seem to be from a different planet. They are certainly more outgoing and inquisitive than the Dede Alien.  The Dedes are painfully introverted and mainly concerned with their own little world. But it was very clear in all the stories that nobody considered Alien a threat or even remotely vicious. He (or she) was welcomed everywhere. Everybody just assumed, or maybe hoped, he/she came  in peace. What else would you expect from somebody with such a big smile?

We had 4 entries in our little competition and originally I said  the prizes would be one book and 2 sets of postcards. This makes – if my math is right – 3 prizes :). What can I do?

I will add another book. So everyone who has gone to the trouble of writing will receive a Thankyou from the Dedes. ArtistatExit0 and Leopoldine will receive the book “Hermit’s Web” and Arindam and Armin will receive 10 Dede postcards each. How did I come to the decision of who gets what? Simply because I know that Arindam and Armin have the book already :). So I hope you find this a fair solution!
I will be in touch via email!

And thanks again for your invaluable support of the Dedes!

We’ve received another story from a fan in Germany via facebook. This is really exciting. It is written in English so everybody can read it. Thank you so much, Armin!

However, I am still unsure how facebook works and I have to admit, I am very worried about privacy issues and all that. I am also not sure how to link from facebook back to the blog. The other way round works well for me :)

So I decided to copy Armin’s story to the blog here.

The Northern Hemisphere is moving into spring and it is very clear everybody is craving for more balmy, sunny days.  The healing power of the sun is just so amazing, isn’t it?

Here is the story:

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Alien tries to catch this big red star falling down into her hands. It’s spring on earth and everybody is looking up to the sky. This clear and wide open sky. Looks like heaven. Most people are looking for this near and at once far star called sun. Our yellow star. In spring this sun shows all her power. Suddenly the days become longer. And man and woman are excited. And the plants also spring.
A long time they had to live without light and delight. And many people were made insecure, if sun would ever come back. One day at a time it was dark and dull. And everybody became more and more tired. Some fall in depression.
But since yesterday all the dark clouds had left the sky and our mind. We feel good and lucky. We feel strong and so brave, that we would like to make this great world a better place.
So it will be, and nothing will stop us on our way to this bright future. Let’s work together. Nobody should stay alone. We will live together in love and peace under our helpful and supporting sun.
And Alien will catch a second sun for us just to make our live greater.

Yesterday another story scraped in at the eleventh hour. I am usually not a fan of simply reblogging articles, but this one is a must read – I have to make an exception… I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.

artistatexit0's avatarArtist at Exit 0 Riverblog

image of Earth from space, 2013

Unknown hackers have recently posted images on the worldwide web reputedly obtained from government sources that state extraterrestrial aliens are among us.  The pictures go a long way in answering the question: “Are we truly alone in the universe?”.  The answer would be a resounding “no”! The information was lifted from top-secret computers from around the world, but seem to be centered on information purloined in the United States and New Zealand.  The group responsible for this posting call themselves members of “In Vino Veritas” and state their purpose is to let the truth be known.  In their communique “In Vino Veritas”  believes we are now  “evolved enough to handle the truth”.  Regardless, the cat is out of the bag…whatever that means?  Following are excerpts from their sensational posting which has gone bacterial on the internet.

Styrosian and crayfish, March 2013

Much of this stolen information centers around a lone alien that is believed to…

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philosopher cleaning

This morning we received another story for the competition. This time from our longstanding friend Arindam in India. He had exams and only got round to writing the story yesterday. He tells us how the image came about on a lovely spring day.

Unfortunately the Dedes are still missing and I can’t share my excitement with them. But I hope you all have a look. Don’t forget you can still write something about the image. The deadline is tomorrow (the rules are here).

I received a concerned question from Leopoldine asking what the skull in yesterday’s post was. It is nothing malicious, just a cow’s head I found when I rambled through the woods. The cow certainly died of old age. We don’t have predators in New Zealand that could be dangerous for animals the size of a cow. We don’t have venomous snakes and only one rare type of venomous spider. So life is pretty safe here. (Though I should add there was a fatal shark attack on Auckland’s West Coast last week. The first one in 37 years.)

This morning I finally made my way to the bottom of the garden and found Philosopher doing chores on his boat.

“Where are all the others?” I asked.

“With the builders in the house it was too noisy. We were only fighting and everybody got more and more agitated. No way we could have made any decisions. So Harvey invited all of us to his new burrow on the mountain top!”

“And why are you here and not with the rest?”

“I can’t stand decisions by committee. When you try to please everybody you will always end up in the middle of the road!”

“Tell me, what are they trying to do anyway?”

“I can’t reveal that. I have no mandate for it. You will have to wait!”

“When are they coming back then?”

“Who knows… When they are ready!” Philosopher looked at me and added “Didn’t you say earlier in the week we will quickly find out who needs whom more?”