A Little Lighthearted fun, because I feel the need.

And here is some lighthearted stuff from zazzle, who currently have 15% off t-shirts. Enter coupon code BTSRULESHIRT runs until Friday.

fish in 3D by eworks
Browse other prints & posters at zazzle.com

Skull Fairy by creampufart
Design a custom t shirt with zazzle.com

Party Chick - Cool & Fun Ladies T-shirt by Animatastic
Make a custom t shirt on zazzle

Funny, strange & downright confusing place names.

Another one of those random thoughts that pop into my head!! I was thinking of some Scottish towns annd villages that have really bizarre spellings for their names and the confusion that it causes. Case in point - Milngavie. Anyone who doesn't know would pronounce it "mill-n-ga-vee" but it's actually "mull-guy". Could be confusing if one were to tell a visitor to Scotland to take the train to "mull-guy" and all they saw on the station signs was Milngavie!!

I know of one or two other confusing places nearby to where I live and I thought I'd look around for some more to compile a list. So here it is:

1. Kilncadzow, pronounced "kill-caig-ee". One of my particular favourites, lol.
2. I have to add this as my fiance always gets it wrong - Edinburgh. He pronounces it as he would Pittsburgh but it's actually "ed-in-burr-uh" or "ed-in-burr-oh" depending on whether or not you're posh, lol.
3. Culross and Culter are both pronounced with a "coo" but in the case of Culross, the 'l' is silent.

Moving away from Scotland now:

4. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in Wales. I won't even attempt to guess how to pronounce it!!
5. My fiance's home sate: Arkansas. Most of my family pronounce it exactly how it's spelled (I do too in my head when I'm writing/typing it, lol) but as most people know it's actually pronounced "are-can-saw".

Some fun names rather than mis-pronounced ones:

6. Okay, Oklahoma
7. Nameless, Tennessee
8. Girdletree, Maryland
9. Back to Scotland for another one: Assloss
10. This last one is so poular there is one in USA (Arkansas) AND one in Australia (Queensland). And it is .......................... Bald Knob.

The sign at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrnd by rahulbiswas	Bald Knob, AR City Limits Sign by city_limits
OKAY by statetostate	Cousins With Benefits by archwear

 

Differences between USA/UK; fun facts

Whenever I'm in the USA I get asked what it's like in Scotland. More often that not I now say "It's much the same as here" But I guess on my first trip I saw a LOT of differences. Of course, I've only been to Northwest Arkansas (and just over the state lines into Oklahoma and Missourri) so some of my observations may be state-specific, but here are a few of the differences that I recall noticing that first trip.

In the UK we:

• don't have drive through banks (nope, got to find somewhere to park your car, walk to the bank and get your cash). We don't have drive-through pharmacies or Utility providers either.
• don't have 50 different fast food chains (pretty much we have McD's, BK, KFC and Dominos the same as USA but that's about it - yes there are a few others dotted around but not real nationwide chains)
• get a lot more rain!
• we think 77 Degrees Farenheit is a hot day!
• sit on the right and drive on the left
• have a lot more smaller cars with smaller engines (probably because our gas prices are around 3x those in the USA)
• already have tax included in the ticket price, you buy a £20 shirt, it's £20.
• call it a supermarket (as opposed to a grocery store) and it's pretty standard in the UK to buy your cigarettes and alcohol there as well as your groceries
• call a grill a barbecue and a broiler a grill (still causes confusion when I visit the USA)

In the USA they:

• don't have a National Health Service (most people I personally met can't afford to visit a doctor when they get sick,  and one or two even went thousands of dollars into debt when they needed an operation, a scary thought to me!)
• have drive-in movies (I went for the first time ever last summer, lay on an airbed in the back of the pick-up truck and thought it was sooooo cool)
• are really Patriotic and it's common to see small versions of the US flag in people's gardens
• don't have roundabouts (okay, where I  have been in the USA they don't)
• can turn right at a red traffic light

That's the tip of the proverbial ice-berg, but spending time in the USA, I hardly notice a difference at all anymore. Feel free to comment with any observations you've made.

Made in the USA	Multi Union Jack
American Flags	Pink Union Jack

More patriotic gifts here.

My attempt at micro/flash fiction.

I recently set up a new zazzle store called Animatastic, filled with fanTASTIC ANIMAls. I filled it full of cute cartoon animal designs, some PD and some original creations. To help advertise the store and products, I created an off-zazzle website hosted on weebly, again called Animatastic. To make the website a bit more interesting than just a duplicate of the store, I decided to have a go at writing some micro/flash fiction using the characters I had created. This is my first attempt:

One boring afternoon Perkin was sitting in his favorite spot lazily munching on a juicy bamboo shoot. Suddenly something very bright and colorful flashed quickly infront of his eyes. It was gone again so quickly that he hadn't been able to see what it was but he liked the pretty colors and looked around to try to find it again. He looked behind the bamboo tree he had been sitting under. He look behind the big rock he had been leaning against. He looked along the banks of the stream that ran close by, but he could not find the pretty, colorful thing that had caught his eye.


'Hmph! Nothing fun ever happens here' he said out loud before plopping back down and picking up his bamboo shoot once more.

Just then Perkin saw another flash of the color pass by and go right behind his head. He turned around to look and as he did, a bright and pretty butterfly landed right on top of his nose, tickling him and making him giggle.

'Hi, I'm Bella. Would you like to play?' the butterfly said.

'Oh yes!' Perkin replied, 'I'd love to have someone to play with.'

'Let's play tag' said Bella, flying off of Perkin's nose 'You're 'it'.'

Perkin the Panda Bear

image copyright Animatastic 2010, all rights reserved