Search Engine Funtimes

On this blog’s dashboard, there is a section that tells you what people typed into search engines that led them to this blog.  Often, mine are quite ordinary.  People have googled my name or something equally unsurprising.

But this week, I have had a bumper crop of search engine terms that made me wonder.

What, for example, were these people looking for, and did they find it?

How did juan antonio samaranch inspiration women

wordplay made from great gatsby

I can kind of understand how

x files coat

led them here, (I do love a good coat) and I know what post

Fairy tales of women salons

led to, but I’m a long way from knowing what they really meant by it.

I hope that

women who made their blogs well known

is prophetic and I was quite delighted to find

Girl with books in hand

led to me.

But I am at a loss to understand why Mr Google thought that the people who typed in:

smiles for email sexy

mansexy cop

would want to come here.

But none of these are a patch on my favourite (I swear I didn’t make this up):

Full fathom five+pollock

So, what weird search terms have you come across?  Or what weird results have you got while googling?  I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg…

And while you’re thinking, here’s a little Friday tune to bop you into the weekend…

Photo from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

And now the recipe I promised (and the comp is still open)

On Wednesday I promised you a recipe for chocolate pie and since I would hate to be called a chocolate tease, today I will come good on my promise.  (Update: this should have been up yesterday, I don’t know where my brain is this week!)

I must apologise for my presentation and photography: my food styling is not going to win any prizes any time soon.  But the taste will make up for it.  This pie will silence a table of guests, make you friends and possibly even sway a lover into your arms – and it’s EASY.

Here’s the recipe:

An interview and a recipe (to come)…

I was all fired up to post a recipe today, then I realised that I don’t have a photo of the finished dish to show you – and you really should see it in all its chocolately goodness.

So I am going out to get the ingredients and I will make one tonight and take a picture, just so you can see it… what?  You don’t believe that I am making chocolate pie just for your benefit?  Oh ye of little faith! 😉

But in the meantime, you might want to read my guest interview over at my friend Jenn J McLeod’s blog, in which I mention chocolate pie.  She’s running a great series of interviews with Aussie writers, so check them out.  You might find a new favourite!

I’m off to the shops – come back later and there will be pie!

Imelda

Friday Favourites eschews ranting and goes for links instead

I wrote a post for today, I really did.  It was ranty and long and potentially controversial – all those things that ‘they’ say blog posts should be, to get attention and make a name.  With the possible exception of the long.  I don’t know what they say about long.

But then I looked over at my bedside table.  On the top of the pile of books is a copy of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.  He was a Stoic, was Marcus; a philosopher.  And one of the principles of Stoicism is not to fret about things over which one has no control.

It’s a good principle.

Another one is that happiness is achieved, not by lusting after what one does not have, but by being satisfied with what one does have.

So instead of posting my rant, I have put it and the angst that goes with it away and instead I am going to share with you some of the great articles I have found in my cruising of the interwebs this week. (And a completely random picture of ‘The Dish’ at Parkes, just because I like it!)

First, an article from the NYTimes about how scientists have been staggered to discover that fitness matters more than weight and that fat people with certain conditions are actually more likely to live longer than thin people with the same health conditions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/health/research/more-data-suggests-fitness-matters-more-than-weight.html?_r=2&ref=health

Sunday Sounds

This week, I have been strangely obsessed with music.  Not that I don’t love it, in many forms and styles, but I normally avoid it while working.  This week, though, I had some old favourites on high rotation and in digging them out, I came across Extreme.

Extreme is basically a heavy metal band (or at least they were at the height of their fame in the late 80’s, early 90’s), but they achieved possibly their greatest hit with a gentle acoustic love song.  More than Words is a showcase for the superlative guitar of Nuno Bettencourt and the sweet voice of Gary Cherone and might be familiar, even if you have never heard the band name.  I find it quite inspiring when writing romance!

PLEASE NOTE: It is possible that the videos will have a loud and annoying ad at the start of them.  Just mute it until the proper video starts, is my advice.  All of these videos are black and white, so it’s easy to see when they start. (Note to VEVO – if you would match the music being advertised to the music being watched, your ads might be more effective.  Just sayin’…)

More Sunday Recipe Frolicking…

It’s still school holidays.  So I’m still at the zoo.  Or possibly the Museum.  Or the Art Gallery.  Or playing on the Wii.

So, in lieu of doing anything too strenuous for a Sunday post, I thought I would direct you to my other favourite recipe blog, The Nutrition Guru and the Chef.

These two are a couple and seem quite delightful and have delicious recipes that are also mostly healthy.  Really, there is nothing here not to like!

The picture above is of their tiramisu and if you click on the link you will be taken straight to that recipe.

Or, for all their sweet and savoury goodness, here’s the link to the blog proper:

The Nutrition Guru and the Chef.

Enjoy!

Look! I have a proper picture!

A while ago, when I started blogging and tweeting and all that jazz, I realised that the only headshot I had of myself was one I took with a webcam.  Consequently, that is the one I have been using as my web identifier.

Now, while the web-cam shot is passable at thumbnail size, I hope the time will come when I need a photo for the back of a book (oh, happy day!) so recently, I decided the time had come to do a little better.

So, with great fear and trembling, I took myself to the hairdresser and the makeup lady and the professional photographer and had some pictures took.

The photo above is the result.  I have some other nice ones too, but this is the one I think I’ll use to replace the web-cam one.

What do you think?

Oh and if you want a proper Monday writing post, Friday’s Wordfest sort of turned in one. It’s here, if you’re interested!

Last Friday Links: Book Bloggers are awesome

A little while ago, two very nice readers of this blog bestowed blogging awards on me.

I know that not everybody accepts these awards and I can see why.  I’m sure the popular bloggers get them several times a week and it would be impractical to accept them all.  But I am not yet there* and I like accepting them because it gives me an excuse to share links to blogs I love.  And I love blogs way more than I should or have hours in the day.

The two awards are these:

The Reader Appreciation Award was given to me by Tom Lucas.  He’s a lovely bloke who writes all manner of things. You can find his blog here (or by clicking on the picture).

The other came from Resa McConaghy, who is one of the sweetest people I have met in the blogsphere and also, to my low-maintenance, jama-clad self**, almost impossibly glamorous.  She’s a costume designer.  For real. She blogs about that, and her corner of Toronto at Queen’s End.

To accept them, I need to link to several other blogs and today, inspired by the titles of the awards, I am going with a theme.

All of the blogs listed below are devoted to books.  To reviewing them, to sharing them, to celebrating them.

Is that the time? Another Quick Winter Dinner

It’s June, which in Australia means winter and in the Romance Writers of Australia means the 50k in 30 days challenge. (For the non-writers, that means trying to write 50, 000 words in a month.)

I’m not doing the full 50k – I’m only(!) trying for 40k.

But this means that other things – minor things, like shopping and cooking – get shoved down the priority list.  At times like these, having some reliable store-cupboard-and-freezer ‘recipes’ (if something this easy can be called a recipe) up your sleeve is very handy.

Here, for your delectation (and speedy hunger satisfaction) is one of our favourites. It is known, in our house, as meatball soup, although it doesn’t contain any actual meatballs.

I’d like to thank the Academy…

I feel a little like Sally Fields that time at the Oscars, when she said “You like me! You really like me!”  In the last week or so, I have been given two blog awards by two sweet fellow Blogistes.

The first is this one:

which was bestowed upon me by the lovely Lea of Lea at Sea, who has a charming blog about books and writing (and often, beautiful photos).

The second is this one:

which was given to me by the brave and mysterious ‘S’, who has undertaken, for the sake of her health, to eschew sugar forever more and is documenting the process in her blog, S Isn’t For Sugar.  Sooner her than me, say I, but I am following her progress with interest!

I’m very touched and would now like to spread the love by nominating some other blogs that deserve some lovin’.