…my true love brought to me three strange friends, two purple gloves and a chicken in a dead tree.
Three strange friends? What is this about? Aren’t all friends strange to some degree? One of this crowd is obviously severely depressed and they found the skeleton in my closet. Maybe they want to remind me of one of the Dede’s mottoes: Embrace Diversity! Or maybe it is a hint I should appreciate my friends more!
Previous presents
No, no, no, I am not talking about Devil. He will stay my friend forever. No, I am talking about the old dunger of a mobile phone, my trusted Nokia. I actually loved that thing. As I am sitting in front of the computer all day, every day, I only needed the mobile to send some text messages. For example: “leaving now” or “there in 10 mins”. Everything else could wait. It is actually quite nice to ride on the bus and watch the people around you, and not being tempted to look at emails or the internet. The trusted Nokia was a hand-me down and now I got a new hand-me-down that takes me into the smart phone era. Uhuuuuh. I gratefully accepted the gift, as I can now add instagram to the mix. Devil and I looked at how it all works this afternoon but we weren’t very successful. We had a battle with the mobile and with instagram and with each other. The worst was sharing the images on facebook. We haven’t figured that one out yet, should be easy really…. Anyway, in the end it was too much for Devil. You know how it is when two people who think they know what they are doing, but in fact don’t, try to use the same device. Finally he let me figure it out on my own and wandered off into the garden to watch the grass grow. But when he came back and I was still tearing my hair out, he decided he’d better put the trusted Nokia in a safe place. Who knows. Good on him!
I can assure you, the Dedes are wrong, I wasn’t slack in the past months. I just had an energy-sucker of a job. I have recently resigned from this absolute terrible workplace. Let me rephrase that, the job as such wasn’t terrible, to be honest it was my dream job. I loved the students and every minute of teaching, but the school was suffering from a bullying culture, created by a bunch of alcoholics. One of them also showed very strong signs of a cluster B personality disorder. I only realised how much the situation sucked me dry – particularly my creativity – once I had resigned. It was an, how can I say that… “interesting” experience and I am surprised that I got to my age without having come across such a dysfunctional workplace before. Unfortunately I am very loyal person and often stick around longer than I should, because I so believe I can make a difference. Not!
Okay this was my rant for the day!
I hope the Dedes understand now why they have been a little neglected lately. And they were right, they didn’t get as much attention as they deserved. My first peace offering to them was, that I set up a new zazzle product for sale: An apron with the image of Milky Bar Devil presenting his delicious hamburger bun – the cover shot of The Artist’s Survival Cookbook. My old mate Devil got all emotional after he’d realised I am back on board. He shook my hand and said we should renew our pact. I didn’t know we had one!
It’s so typical. First the Dedes insult me, then they send a peacemaker to say they are sorry. Obviously they weren’t entirely serious about sacking me as an artist. I am not sure whether they had a meeting last night, as I was out with real friends. So they had the chance to discuss our relationship without running the risk of me eavesdropping. Anyway, today Fairy Godmother brought me a bunch of flowers she picked from the garden. She apologised for the rude behaviour of her peers yesterday. At first I thought it was very sweet, but then I had the feeling it wasn’t heartfelt. They must realise that they need me as much as I need them. Maybe they are aware that I might drop them if they continue to treat me as if I was their lackey. We are in it together. Sure enough, she then added “but there is a bit of truth in what they said yesterday.”
“I know” I admitted. “But honestly, I don’t know what to do anymore. You guys expect the impossible.”
“Look, I can see where you are coming from” said Fairy Godmother in a conciliatory voice. “I’m in the same boat. Everybody expects me to work wonders too, but it is evident that I have hit a brick wall on more than one occasion” and she pointed to her forehead. “You simply have to keep going!”
“I need more support from you, though. You have all these wonderful ideas but you just dump them on me and you never stick to anything!”
“What do you mean?” Fairy Godmother asked surprised. “Don’t forget we are only puppets!”
Now my dear readers. What do you think? Are they an ungrateful bunch or what? Does anyone have an idea what I should do with them?
I have to tell you more about the launch of the Artist’s Survival Cookbook. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my amazing friend Carly. We had exactly one hour to set everything up. She just came in with boxes of lovely stoneware and props, I had done the baking, and in no time flat she magically threw together the most fantastic display. On the day, nobody, absolutely nobody, noticed the chairs in the back and how run down the old church hall was. Everybody was stunned by the food display and in the beginning no one dared to help themselves. Everything on the table was there to nibble on. Except for the eggs, they were raw. :)
I will dedicate a post to Carly, who is a photographer and stylist soon, when I have more images.
Now I am getting nervous. The book launch is on Saturday and I have made plenty of lists: What I have to take, what I have to buy, what I have to ask others to help me with and so on.
Yesterday I had to swing by the venue again because all of a sudden I realised I don’t even know where the toilets are and then I was told the fridge is broken. So I will have to organise a chilly bin for the milk and the butter. I don’t have one of those.
Today I went to the shops to buy flour. Surprisingly, the 1.5 kg bags were more economical, because they were on special this week. So I bought 8 packets of white flour and 4 packets of whole meal. The lady at checkout was so curious, she couldn’t resist asking me what I was doing :). I knew that will happen. Honestly who would buy 12 packets of flour in one go. It wasn’t really that cheap that it justified hording. So I gave her an invitation to the launch.
The worst thing is, I have absolutely no idea how many people will show up. I have had some replies to my emails and a lot of people said it is a great idea. I didn’t ask for RSVP as it would make it too official and I really would like for people to just drop by.
Back to the Pecha Kucha presentation why I play with puppets.
Later in that year (2012) the Dedes came up with the Super Dede competition, a three-week-long talent show leading up to Christmas. In the first week they had to talk about themselves, in the second week they had to answer questions and in the third week they had to show a special talent. The readers of the blog voted five of the puppets into the competition and in the end they also decided who was the overall winner.
Pig was put forward by Professor. And the readers selected him into the competition along with L’Artiste, Harvey, Mouse and Cash Cow (from left to right)
The Dedepuppets started out as observers of life. These two are pals from the book Hermit’s web or the few friends I need I handcraft myself, that I did in 2012. The brainy Professor and his buddy Pig. They are a couple. The professor loves to talk and drink and comes across as being intelligent. His mate pig loves to drink. Fullstop! He doesn’t say much. And in the book the story goes, he is not a connoisseur at all, he just quaffs down the wine until he is plastered.
(Note: Little did I know back then what it actually means if you have to work with Professor and Pig. Back then I only knew them from a social setting. Socially they can be fun, but at work, oh dear… you don’t want go there!)
Motivation is the second pillar of emotional intelligence, in particular where your motivation stems from. For emotional intelligent people the motivation comes from within. External motivators such as money, titles or status symbols are less important, as is the approval from friends and teachers or other people you would like to impress.
In my opinion – and you can argue with me here – your true motivations for your actions (the ones only you will know) will indicate whether you are self-aware or self-centred. If you are motivated by your true and honest beliefs, you are aware. When you need approval from the outside you are self-centred.
I have finally uploaded the Artist’s survival cookbook to CreateSpace and ordered two copies. It is not available for purchase yet. The next step is to proof the quality of the images. I have printed two copies here on two different digital printers and both came out a bit too dark, with the blacks clogging up. Knowing how tempramental printers can be (as many small digital printers are not regularly calibrated) I have to get a print from the machine the book will be printed on. Then I’ll have to make a call on whether I need to work on the images to improve the result.
In the meantime, good old Mouse is still on Devil’s case. No matter what Devil says, Mouse is deeply concerned that he is not coping well at the moment. After enough pestering, he finally he told her what he is currently working on, just to shut her up. But she is not allowed to tell anyone else. Now this is a real test of will power for Mouse, as she is such a big gossip. Surprisingly, she has managed to keep the secret so far, though she let slip that all will be revealed by next weekend.
dedepuppets 