Archives for posts with tag: personalities

A little trouble shooting

January 15, 2013 //

I asked all the Dedes individually what they thought of Foreign Correspondent’s performance and whether we should go ahead with his proposal. Most of them couldn’t care less as long as it didn’t increase their workload. The one who really had to think hard about it was Mouse, as she does all the work around here. When she realised there was something going on, she watched Foreign Correspondent closely, but couldn’t fault him. He is a professional. Over the weekend he translated all the background information and recreated the blog in German, so he could start as soon as the Dede Committee gave him the green light.

Foreign Correspondent had also been watching Mouse and last night he approached her. “Do you think we could fix the problem with the images?” he asked “I don’t want to start posting when this problem isn’t solved.”

Mouse was taken aback at first. She felt he was making demands, despite him being the newbie. In her opinion newbies have to keep their mouth’s shut, just watch and slip into place once they had observed enough and found their own little niche. They are not supposed to make suggestions, not on the first day at least… Unfortunately, Mouse herself knew something wasn’t working correctly, but she pretended she didn’t know. “What’s wrong?” she asked with a surprised tone in her voice and a tad defensive.

“When I first look at a new post, the pics are crunched up in tiny little boxes” Foreign Correspondent described the problem. “I have to double click first to see them in full size and they don’t show up in the Reader either.”

Mouse admitted that she has had the same problem, but initially thought it was just a little glitch with her computer. She thought she had fixed it when she double clicked on it and the visitors wouldn’t have a problem. Indeed, she had asked some people and they were totally unaware of the problem she was talking about, while others said they had also experienced it.

“It all worked a breeze before, until the WordPress people made changes to the library module” Mouse explained. “I don’t know what I can do about it. I’ve tried virtually everything!”

“I’ve noticed” Foreign Correspondent answered. “Now I can’t even double click anymore.”

“I am at the end of my tether. I even sent a support question to WordPress, but have had no response yet. It might have something to do with the template I am using, maybe I have to change this.”

Foreign Correspondent suggested I should give him a lift to my office, while Mouse stayed at home and made changes. Then he could use the computer at work to check whether it worked or not.

When I went to bed last night, Mouse and Foreign Correspondent were busy skyping and changing things, but without the usual screaming and cursing. I don’t know if they have fixed the problem or not.

We will see when this post goes up.

It would be great if readers who have had this problem could let Mouse and Foreign Correspondent know if it has been fixed. Or if not, does anybody have an idea what’s going on? Your help is very much appreciated!

Tags art, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, imagination, life, personalities, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Decision making

January 14, 2013 //

Last night the second post of the Dede story was launched at ||:VEGGIETORIA:||. For the Dedes it is an absolute must to watch, just like a riveting mini series on TV. As I had them all in one place, I told them what Foreign Correspondent and I had nutted out recently. Surprisingly we received very mixed reactions. I was so convinced they would be excited and I realised I don’t know them as well as I thought I did.

The main reservation was that the Dedes believe most Germans speak better English than they let on. They wouldn’t need the extra summary. Foreign Correspondent just stood there and smiled, but he didn’t try to convince them of his plan. In the end Devil’s Advocate said: “Can we discuss this later? I want to know what Miss Viwi has to say today!” And he invited Foreign Correspondent to take the floor.

Foreign Correspondent stood there calmly, looking very credible, and started his speech: “Thank you Dedes for giving me the opportunity to talk to you tonight. I believe you would like to be known to a wider audience. Is that right?” He paused for effect, and all the Dedes obediently nodded their heads. Then he continued. “I can help you to achieve this and I would be delighted if you would accept my proposal. ” He took charge of the computer and switched to Miss Viwi’s page.

“First of all, I want to thank Miss Viwi again for her kindness in publishing a series about the background of the Dedes. Let’s see what she has to say:”

{dede puppets | second act}

[The book:]

‘Hermit’s web or the few friends I need, I hand-craft myself’. The story of this book introduces the first fifteen Dede characters.
dietlind: „The idea for the story was conceived when someone I didn’t know invited me to become friends on face book. Not only was this person a stranger to me, I don’t have a face book page. So I go on and tell the world that I have enough to do with my real friends, my Dedes. The book is written in easy-to-understand English, similar to the blog.

[the blog]

dietlind: „I started the blog shortly before the book was launched. An artist friend of mine had advised me to document the entire process. A year on, I am really happy I have heeded this advice. The thought of selling [the puppets ] has disappeared into thin air and the blog has definitely strengthened the relationship between the Dedes and myself.

top left to right.: Detail, Snippedy, Devil, Mouse and Socialite || below left to right: Monkey, Pig, Professor, L’Artiste Dede, Foxy Lady and Fairy Godmother

miss viwi: So you can’t imagine selling puppets?

dietlind: „Not at the moment. In particular not those that appear on the blog and there is no way I could part with the first ones, the ones from the book. But at one stage there will be so many, and I should be able to let some go. I can envisage, though, creating some puppets specifically for an exhibition and to sell them before I get used to them, before I come up with their character traits.“

[Exhibition]

Exhibitions are a relatively new subject for the artist, she never considered it with her previous work, but „The Dede puppets are a category of their own, they really want to be seen.“

Apart from a few low key photographic exhibitions, the puppets were on show at the book launch.

Book launch April 2012, Auckland, Visitor examines L’Artiste Dede (Foto: © Sonya Roussina)

An installation by the artist Dietlind Wagner had been selected as a finalist in New Zealand’s prestigeous „Wallace Art Awards“. The installation of five dede puppets was exhibited in a gallery in Auckland.
Further solo exhibitions are planned for 2013.

dietlind: „I also had two workshops for Senior Citizens and would love to explore this area further. Hand puppets are often used in therapy with kids, but I am convinced they could be equally useful with the elderly.“

—

The interview will continue next Sunday 20/1/13, at 8 am CET at |:::VEGGIETORIA:::|.

P.S.: If you have any queries, wishes or comments feel free to write in

“Good, good” Devil said. “Now, Foreign Correspondent, this was a very literal translation. But you have to prove to us that you can summarise, if we are to give you the responsibility of looking after the Dede’s German blog. So how would you summarise what Miss Viwi has said?” Mouse turned to Devil and gave him a hi-five.

Foreign Correspondent was unfazed and said: “In brief, Dietlind loves us all. And all of us, who are currently in the room are safe. She won’t sell any of us. She believes the blog strengthened our relationship, but she also knows we are attention seekers and she would like to comply by presenting us to the non-digital world in exhibitions and workshops. If you have any queries, leave a comment or send an email!”

“I hope your German summaries are a bit more comprehensive, but I would say give it a go!” Devil concluded.

Tags art, artist, background, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, fun, personalities, story, story telling

Categories Art, Books, Fun, Hand Puppets, Relationships, Social Network

Foreign Correspondent

January 13, 2013 //

Today is Sunday again and the Dedes are all curious about what the second installment from Miss Viwi on ||:::VEGGIETORIA:::|| will be like. I am pretty sure they will be hanging around the living room tonight again so they don’t miss the new post.

Miss Viwi’s series got the Dedes thinking. We got a few comments lately from German speaking readers and friends who said they use the Dedes to brush up on their English, but sometimes they are not sure about the meaning as the blog is quite colloquial. During the week this fellow introduced himself to me. He claimed to be a foreign correspondent. I didn’t believe him at first, he looks more like a tourist to me, but then he put forward his ideas and I changed my mind. He seems to know what he is talking about.

Here is what he suggested: He is going to scan all the posts on the dedepuppet blog and will write a summary twice a week in German. These summaries will be posted on dedepuppetsde.wordpress.com, not on this blog here. There will be no new stories on the German blog at all, as all the Dedes are in New Zealand, so new stories can only happen here and they will continue to happen in English. Of course Foreign Correspondent will report back to us if any interesting comments are made.

I haven’t put it to the Dede committee yet to find out what they think, but Foreign Correspondent was proactive and translated the site anyway. He says he wants to be ready to roll as soon as he gets the go ahead. I said he should hold his horses as we will put him to the test when Miss Viwi’s post needs to be translated again. So tonight he will be presenting his proposal and translation to the Dedes.

What do you think?

Tags art, character traits, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, imagination, personalities, story, story telling, thoughts

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Hello neighbours

January 12, 2013 //

The weather here is just fantastic at the moment. During the day it is hot, but still bearable, and when night falls, it becomes balmy. This is the time when it is lovely to sit outside for a little, before the mosquitoes start their battle for dominance outdoors. Last night a few of us where sitting on the deck, having a quiet wind-down from a busy week, when Nosy Neighbour and his wife Two-faced walked by. They only got married last year and we don’t see much of them. We see him more than her, though. We really only know her as a shadow behind the curtain in their living room. He, on the other hand, is out and about. He does some gardening or fetches the newspaper and I even think he does the shopping for the two of them. He particularly likes to be out after the Dedes have had a loud party. Sometimes I suspect he is only hanging around in the open in order to catch me and have a good old rant about my lot.

“Hello neighbours,” I called out when I saw them passing “Want to join us?”

They looked at each other and Two-faced shook her head. “Would love to catch up” Nosy Neighbour replied, “but we have to keep going. We have to do something about the kilos we gained over Christmas.” Nevertheless, he approached the deck a little, but Two-faced was anchored firmly to the footpath and didn’t move an inch.

“Lovely evening for it” Devil said to keep the small-talk going.

“I’ve just started to read your blog” Nosy Neighbour told us, when he finally stopped a few paces from where we were sitting.

“What do you think?” Mouse wanted to know of course.

“Interesting read” he said and looked at me. “I don’t even know why you bother. They are such a nuisance.” He pointed with his head towards my little friends, and continued talking as if they weren’t there. “Why don’t you kick them all out and that is it. No more problems! Myself? I wouldn’t put up with their crap!”

All the Dedes that were with me started laughing. They thought it was a big big joke. Only I knew he was serious. I had too many similar conversations with him before.

“They are not that bad” I appeased him. He rolled his eyes, turned around and mumbled: “You really have to mow your lawn too” while he walked back to his wife, who was still waiting on the foot path. She waived at us with a smile, before they walked on.

“He has such dead pan humour, I just love it!” Devil said.

“We should invite them to our next barbeque,” Mouse added. “It’s a pity we know so little about them, they are Dedes just like us, aren’t they?”

Tags art, character traits, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, fun, imagination, life, personalities, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Philosopher’s thought

January 10, 2013 //

On Wednesday mornings Philosopher comes round and picks me up for a walk. I treasure this hour with him. There is no need to talk, if there is nothing to talk about. Sometimes silence in company can feel awkward, you certainly know that feeling, but with Philosopher quietness feels comforting. He has a very good head on his shoulders. And if you talk, you can be sure he would never pooh pooh any ideas – even if they are miles off the beaten track – nor would he speak badly about anyone.

So we walked in silence for a while and then I had to ask him: “So, Philosopher, what do you think about Witch’s comment on the blog yesterday?”

“Sorry, I don’t read your blog,” he answered honestly. “What happened?”

“You don’t read my blog?” I asked in disbelief.

“A lot of your friends don’t. Everybody knows you will tell them what’s happening anyway next time you see them.”

“Do they really?” I tried to remember the barbeques I had been to lately and started to wonder if everybody is getting sick of me. Am I quietly turning into a bore? I have to admit, Philosopher is right, the Dedes are my favourite subject.

“Oh, yes,” Philosopher smiled benevolently. “But don’t worry, they all like your passion – and not just that, they love us Dedes.” Before I could think more about my real friends, Philosopher got me back on my original train of thought: “So what did Witch say?”

I told him that Witch was taken aback by my remark the Dedes are for fun. It was just an aside and I wished Witch wouldn’t read my blog and wouldn’t pick up on little throw-away phrases like that.

“Do you think we are for fun?” Philosopher inquired.

“Not always… but what do you think, Philosopher, what is the agenda of the Dedes? Help me out here, please.” I know for a fact Witch would love to have more space on the blog to promote a frugal and healthy lifestyle. Cash Cow might support her, but it would displease most of the other Dedes, as this is really just Witch’s hobby-horse.

Philosopher didn’t think long: “In my opinion, the Dedes are celebrating diversity and they are having fun while doing it. This, my valued friend, is a good enough reason for their existence!”

Tags art, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, fun, imagination, life, personalities, Philosophy, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

My word!

January 9, 2013 //

Cash Cow and Witch popped in for a cup of tea. They seem to have become good friends over the last couple of months and hang out together a lot. As soon as they had their mugs in front of them Witch started to raise her concerns about my post yesterday, where I wrote about Pirate‘s business preposition.

“You know, I am not happy with what you’ve said” she started. And Cash Cow nodded eagerly in support.

I was very surprised about this comment, as I know Witch is not into money. At least she never tires of telling the rest of us that… Though be careful when you ask her to look into her crystal ball for you; she charges an arm and a leg for that service. It is her only source of income and of course being self-employed she never knows when the next payment will come in. (I have no idea how many people use her services.) So over time she adopted an extremely frugal life style, living off the land. I admire her for being able to make a meal out of virtually nothing. She is also very generous and happy to share her concoctions with others – unfortunately most of the other Dedes are not too keen to take up the offer. So she is a bit of a loner and just does her own thing. It can’t be good for anybody, and I was pleased when Cash Cow took a liking to her. It seems to work both ways and I assume Witch has taken Cash Cow under her wing, sort of as an apprentice. We all know Cash Cow is strapped for money, and she certainly can learn a thing or two from Witch about how to make a bob stretch further. I hope she doesn’t teach her how to read the crystal ball though. I can not imagine a cow doing a good job in this profession.

“So you would have taken up Pirate’s offer then?” I replied flabbergasted.

“Of course not,” Witch looked at me sternly. “What is it with you people, why is it always about money?!”

“Aren’t you just talking about my missed business opportunity?”

“No, no, I agree with you on this one. I wouldn’t trust Pirate as far as I could throw him.” Witch shook her head fiercely.

“What else did I say then?” I tried to recall the conversation with Pirate, but all I could remember was him trying to sell me his latest scheme. In fact I couldn’t remember saying much at all.

“You said we are here to have fun!” Cash Cow blurted out.

“Do you really think we are that shallow? We only want to have fun?” Witch asked. It certainly didn’t feel like fun right then, it felt more like the inquisition.

“Forgive me,” I begged “it was just a thoughtless comment. It didn’t mean anything.”

“You have to be a bit more careful with your comments, my dear, you certainly devalued us Dedes with that one!”

Tags art, character traits, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, personalities, relationships, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Pirate’s proposition

January 8, 2013 //

Last night we had a storm. Nothing unusual really in our neck of the woods. However, this time the storm blew Pirate back home. I haven’t seen him for ages. I think last time was when he wanted to sell me his dad’s old vinyl records, because he thought I still had a record player to listen to them.

Pirate is rather an odd one. He calls himself an entrepreneur. I am not sure, but I think in the old days you would have called someone like him a wheeler and dealer. Nobody really knows what he does for a living. Sometimes he has pockets full of money, other times he has to conveniently leave for an important meeting before the bill can be settled.

He has tried his hand at everything… pyramid schemes, that truly weren’t pyramid schemes (his words, not mine), fixing computer viruses via phone and selling grandmothers…. But if you know all this, and can withstand the pressure to buy, he is actually a really lovely Dede.

So last night he came round to my house and asked if he could stay for dinner. ‘Oh!’, I thought to myself, ‘watch out, he is poor at the moment’. I am not too keen on his company when he is poor. Not because of the fact that he has no money. No, no, I don’t like him for the hair-raising schemes he devises when he is desperate. But then, he is always happy to take us out to posh restaurants when he is rich, so how could I not share our simple meal with him?

“So, I hear the Dedes are doing well” he said, while he was watching me cooking dinner. “They even had something written about them in Austria!”

“Yes,” I confirmed, but didn’t want to say more.

“Are you making money yet?” he came straight to the point.

“What kind of question is that?” I asked. “We are not in it for the money – We are having fun!”

“Bullshit” he said. “Don’t give me that airy fairy crap…”

“And you watch your language” I interrupted.

“I am a pirate for god’s sake,” he reminded me of the obvious. How could I forget looking at his hideous mustache.

He came back to his proposition: “You know, you are sitting on a gold mine. Just let me be your manager. I will organise everything for you.” He pushed a piece of paper over the breakfast bar in my direction. I glanced at the heading: ‘Manager’s Contract’. “We could do T-shirts and printed coffee mugs and, oh, the mind boggles…” His eyes glazed over.

“Dream on….” I said to him, while I fished spaghetti out of the pot. “We have to sell the Hermit’s Web books first!” I didn’t have the heart to tell him outright that he would be the last Dede I would entrust with my affairs.

“But…” he started again. I stopped what I was doing and stared deep into his one good eye.

“Just asking…” he said a bit huffy, but I knew he’d got the message.

Tags art, character traits, Characters, creative writing, friends, imagination, personalities, relationships, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Pig’s secret

January 4, 2013 //

Okay, the Dedes have decided their New Year’s resolutions will be published on the 31st of January, because everybody will have forgotten by then and it will be a good reminder. We can see who lasted and who didn’t.

Personally, I put my bet on Pig giving up first. It wouldn’t really count, as he was forced to sign the resolution by Witch. It is not really his own wish to stop drinking. To our big surprise, he hasn’t touched a drop since New Year’s Eve, mainly because the slept most of the time, but it also might have something to do with a comment Smuggy (as Smug Little Devil is now called for short) dropped in passing. He remarked he’d heard beer fed pork was especially tasty. Professor got really angry and told Smuggy to piss off. Harsh words, we usually don’t hear them from the old fellow.

When Smuggy finally went, Professor told us that it is not entirely Pig’s fault he is drinking so much. The farmer who raised his mother believed in giving his sows beer in time of farrowing. It is supposed to help reduce aggression and aid the sow to accept her off-springs. It didn’t do much good in Pig‘s case. The old sow still didn’t care about her piglets, but at least she wasn’t aggressive towards them. She was just out of it.

We didn’t know what to say, and felt terribly embarrassed about making fun in the past.

Tags art, character traits, Characters, customs, dede puppets, life, personalities, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Star signs

January 3, 2013 //

On Wednesday mornings Philosopher and I go for a walk. We have done this since we first met. Philosopher lives in a derelict boat at the bottom of my garden and like clockwork he comes up to the house on Wednesdays and picks me up for a stroll around the sports ground. We usually discuss what has happened during the last week. But of course yesterday there wasn’t much to talk about, as all the Dedes have been pretty much together 24/7 since I came back from my Christmas holidays a week ago.

He was at the brunch the day before and I know he would make the New Year’s resolutions public, as he thinks publicizing them would put more pressure on the Dedes to deliver. But in the meantime, I have spoken to some of the other Dedes who were asleep that day and they aren’t too keen to have their intentions made public. Basically, they don’t want to lose face if they can’t stick to it.

So I had to find another subject to talk about and I mentioned to Philosopher that Jürgen and Buchalov commented in their birthday wishes that the Dedes would be Capricorn as their birthday is on the 30th of December. “Hmm”, Philosopher said, “that is quite interesting.”

“Why?” I wanted to know, I am not very familiar with astrology.

He explained to me that in German the star sign of Capricorn is an ibex, a mountain goat. But the constellation of the stars in the sky is a combination of a mountain goat and a fish. That means a Capricorn wants to climb to the highest heights but at the same time wants to explore the deepest depths. Their mottoes are ‘good things take time’ and ‘success is to 10 percent talent and 90% hard work’. They are not particularly creative and have the tendency to be dogmatic. But they certainly want to be successful and noticed.

In my inner eye I compared the Dedes that were born in December with what I’ve heard. Philosopher, yes, he certainly explores the depth of things. We all know Mouse is a hard worker but not creative, and Devil is certainly dogmatic.

The more Philosopher told me about the star sign, the more I started to believe that there is something in it.

In the end he asked me: “So what’s your star sign then?”

“Libra” I said. Philosopher stopped in his tracks and said: “Now that is a match made in heaven. Opposites attract, don’t they?”

“So what’s Libra like then?” I was really curious now.

He told me they are supposed to be very creative and open-minded with a very strong sense of fairness. Libras avoid taking sides – to the point that they annoy everybody with their ambivalence – and aim to be well balanced.

And then he went on that in a partnership between Libra and Capricorn there is a lot of tension, but it can be very successful if they work out their differences.

I liked what I heard and thought I really have to read up more on this.

Tags art, character traits, Characters, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, imagination, life, personalities, story, story telling, thoughts

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

And the Winner is…, sorry are…

December 29, 2012 //

We have the ‘Super Dede 2012’ result. The winner is… Mouse!

Congratulations!

Personally I am surprised, as her performance during the competition wasn’t entirely convincing. But looking back on the full year, she is certainly the one who most deserves this title. She works relentlessly on behalf of all the Dedes to keep the punters happy and organises events and celebrations. As I write this she is putting the finishing touches on the big birthday celebrations that start tonight: The first Dedes are turning ONE! But, pssst, I don’t want to give away too much …

Devil and Detail, the organisers of the Super Dede competition, had a hard time rustling up some interest in the prize giving today. Everybody is already looking forward to the next event. In their little Dede minds the whole competition thing is so yesterday…. Smug Little Devil commented: “The timing was just out! You should have had it all done and dusted before Christmas…”

Devil turned to him and hissed: “Shut up” and Detail added: “I am so sick of your negativity! Even if you were right… I just can’t take it anymore!” Smug Little Devil was totally surprised by the reaction he got: “Wha, wha, I am just trying to give constructive criticism!” I had to chuckle, as I felt it was about time somebody said something. But of course I couldn’t let on. I try hard not to take sides, even though it is really difficult at times.

There are more winners of course. Any comments to a post during the competition went into a draw for a signed copy of the original Dede puppet book Hermit’s Web or the few friends I need, I hand-craft myself and two packs of Dede puppet postcards.

Detail had asked Fairy Godmother to do the honors and draw the lucky winners.

And here they are:

The book goes to Arindam. Congratulations and thanks for all your comments! You have indeed been a great supporter of the Dedes and not just during the competition.

The postcards go to Whichwillitbe and leopoldinealferi. Congratulations to you two as well.

I will get in touch with you all via email.

Tags art, Characters, competition, creative writing, dede puppets, friends, personalities, story, story telling

Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships

And the Winner is…, sorry are…

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