Advent Calendar 2010: 2,3,4,5,6 and 7 Dec 2010

We're sorry for not updating our Advent Calendar on time after unveiling it but we plan to keep it daily from here on in and to make up for the lost days today by doing a post today that has six stories one for each day!

As we promised at the unveiling...yes from time to time we will talk about something we like to eat or some extra special treat...but generally inspired by our nanowrimo experience and the fun we had at the Production House last year with all the animals staying over and the three wise men and the birth of a baby boy...this year we will mostly post stories about the Christmas adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse as daily installations on our Advent Calendar 2010! So let's begin our six stories for today-one for today and one for each day we've missed!


THE CHRISTMAS ADVENTURES OF THE PURPLE ELEPHANT AND THE LITTLE MOUSE!

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 2: 2 DEC 2010

The Purple Elephant was a bit anxious today as he hadn't a clue where the little mouse had disappeared to and he was for some reason worried. You see this Christmas there seems to be quite a proliferation of cats in town...some say they were caught and let loose from another town. So the Purple Elephant has been warning the little mouse not to go out to town alone because in addition to all the people who get scared when they see the little mouse in the market so much so that he has to hide behind the Purple Elephant's big ears well now there are cats! But does the little mouse ever listen to his big purple friend? Well if he does it's less times than more! And so the Purple Elephant had been searching far and wide for the little mouse. He even went in to ask the monkeys who same as last Christmas were watching DVDs in the entertainment room all piled in a hoard of them...twenty odd or so...and guess what DVD they had on? Well no wonder the Purple Elephant's big ears began to flap and his little tail twitch because it was 'Tom and Jerry Special-The Night Before Christmas'! OMG! The Purple Elephant just ran out of there making the whole house shake until he got to the front door and was about to trumpet when he saw the little mouse walking with a bunch of bananas for the monkeys followed by the owner of the Production House with two bags of things from the market in her hands!

The Purple Elephant was never happier to see his little friend than then! He didn't scold him as after all he didn't go out alone but with the owner and lady of the house and he couldn't meddle there! But he was so glad to see him, he started to tickle him with his trunk and the little mouse then slid up his trunk and perched where he normally is… behind his ears.

Then the Purple Elephant complained about those monkeys for being so riot filled in the house...piled up in there all day watching DVDs...but then the little mouse slid down from his ears down his trunk on to the floor before him and gave a long soliloquy about the spirit of Christmas that made him sound a bit like Linus out of the Charlie Brown Christmas special. The speech went something like this:

"My Purple Elephant listen to this message from the little mouse. It is the spirit of Christmas to be giving to all. The monkeys are our friends and part of the animal kingdom. Monkeys will monkeys be and you see as part of the Christmas spirit of giving and sharing we've even gone out to the market to buy them bananas you see. But my purple elephantine friend we've not forgotten you either! For here a bag of peanuts for thee!" the little mouse tossed the peanuts up for the Purple Elephant to catch in his trunk and then he curtsied!

And the owner of the Production House applauded and to that the Purple Elephant then trumpeted and the monkeys actually lo and behold came out to see! They apologized for scaring the Purple Elephant by putting 'The Tom and Jerry Christmas Special-The Night Before Christmas' into the DVD player when he came in. And all forgave them for they said monkeys will be monkeys you see!

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 3: 3 DEC 2010

The cats continued to be in town and the Purple Elephant continued to be worry about the little mouse. So much so that he took to dialing up a dog security firm to protect the little mouse. The monkeys couldn't help but be cheeky and although they had promised not to taunt and tease the Purple Elephant again they went and cue up this Tom and Jerry episode where Jerry gets a dog to protect him from Tom if only for a little while! :)

It was then and there that the Purple Elephant said Christmas or not the monkeys needed to earn their keep around the house and so it would from now on be up to them to protect the little mouse...no dog security firm necessary! Also he reminded the monkeys of how they had reformed for Christmas last year and should recall this and try to again be on best behaviour. Additionally as it was quite a hoard of them not all were needed to guard the little mouse and the others should start building extensions to the production house. After all going from last year's expectancy three not so wise men might show up and that lady could very well be back with her male companion to a baby make. But for sure the bears would be coming they had already sent word via e-mail!

So ten monkeys were put to work on construction and ten were put to take shifts guarding the little mouse. The remaining odd few were to help with odds and ends around the house like cleaning up after all the monkeys and buying bananas for them. Now monkeys… the Purple Elephant explained to them are said to be very smart among the animals in the animal kingdom and if they were to hone their talents and try not to engage in delinquent ways they could for sure devise brilliant ways to protect the little mouse even if the monkeys could not physically fight off the cats. Also they could develop monitoring and tracking devices to keep up with where the little mouse was. After all monkeys were smarter than the average bear!

So the monkeys all lined up with bent heads and listened and amazingly went to work right away obeying the Purple Elephant...well at least for now...

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 4: 4 DEC 2010

As we said yesterday the monkeys were listening to the Purple Elephant but...yep as you might expect the monkeys being monkeys by nature started a set of mayhem as soon as the Purple Elephant had gone to the airport to pick up two bears from the Ashdown Forest in Sussex, England. These bears were distant relatives of the famous Winnie the Pooh and often like Pooh did not know what to do. So the Purple Elephant had a hard time tracking them down in the airport but finally got them on his back and brought them to the Production House. But when the poor Purple Elephant thought he was about to see the new extension completed for the two bears to sleep well... oh bother! What you think? The ten monkeys working on construction for the extension to the house had all gotten into a big gigantic pillow fight with each other! There were down feathers everywhere! And where were the one or two odd monkeys who were there to clean up after all the monkeys? Well oh well...what again do you think? They had felt that there wasn't enough work for them earlier (when all the monkeys were on best behaviour) and so had made some banana splits for themselves and had locked themselves back up in the entertainment room and were looking at this DVD of one of the classic and favourite Christmas movies of all times where a house was being up heaved as well but for other reasons...‘Home Alone’:



And having seen that DVD on the Purple Elephant realized it was best he from now on never leave the monkeys home alone!

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 5:5 DEC 2010

Now the Purple Elephant made the monkeys clean up things and get back to work...he even had the other ten who were in charge of guarding the little mouse come and help since the little mouse was safe at home. This way the extensions were eventually completed such that the two bears could have their own room. However it left another dilemma...none of the pillows in the Production House had any down in them now! So the poor Purple Elephant had to set off to get some from the birds. The birds gave them some but not enough for all the pillows and when the Purple Elephant inquired as to why this was the case he was told because the ducks were on strike and so the volume of down being produced was reduced. From there he went to the bees to get some honey for the bears and luckily so far this year they weren't on strike!

When the Purple Elephant came back to the house the monkeys again had a dawning of enlightenment and were heads bent low. They came up to the Purple Elephant fidgeting and said that they had heard of the duck strike and figured as much… that the Purple Elephant would not get enough down for all the pillows so that the monkeys would be willing to first of all re-stuff all the pillows...well as much as they could with the down that was got. And they would then forfeit sleeping with pillows since monkeys didn't need them as such anyway as they slept in all sorts of contortionist's positions hanging from a tail here and there!

The Purple Elephant was very proud of the monkeys of the house and for their regret, gratitude, seva (service to fellow man or animal as you have it) well he just trumpeted and he and the little mouse made every monkey in the house a banana split while the bears had some honey and said cheerio!

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 6: 6 DEC 2010

The monkeys were really earning their keep now and the house extensions were all complete. And they had moved on to building a crèche outside in case the lady were to show up again this year although really if she did there would be plenty of room inside but then if she came with a donkey he might wish to stay out in the crèche and feed on some hay. Two other bears had also arrived …Canadian Black Bears. They kept complaining about the tropical heat and one started to wonder if they were about to replace the monkeys with mischievous behaviour when they tried to shave all their fur off to beat the heat! The Winnie the Pooh related bears had to stop them and said that they too were from a place not this warm and they weren't complaining or looking to shave off all their fur! Luckily after that talking to between all four bears…good sense prevailed and the Canadian Black Bears began to acclimatize.

But as is known the Production House always has some drama or the other and it normally peaks at Christmas time so if it's not one thing it's the other! The monkeys set up to guard the little mouse had invented a contraption that would send off an alarm if the cats had come within a two metres perimeter of the little mouse however it blew up! And sadly two of the monkeys got injured! Now all the animals were very, very sad and as such they all took turns taking care of these little two injured monkeys. It was surprising here to see how caring the Canadian Black Bears turned out as neither left the side of the monkeys and they used their Canadian health care plan to have medicines shipped to administer to the monkeys.

Luckily the monkeys were on the mend...

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 7: 7 DEC 2010

After the incident with the two monkeys being injured the Purple Elephant, the little mouse, the owner of the Production House and a few of the guys in the Production House who write from the desk of UCP…Meady's Musings sister blog agreed and hatched a plan that instead of trying to ward off or combat the cats from attacking the little mouse...i.e. fighting violence with violence or counter violence...they'd try out the Gandhian principle of satyagraha on the cats!

So off they went to the library to study and research the principles and then the ten monkeys were called in to see how this satyagraha business could be strategized and implemented in the battle of the cats against the little mouse!

Stay tuned for Day 8 of the Advent calendar...tomorrow Wed 8 Dec 2010 when you will find out how this plan of satyagraha fared!

The Grand Opening of Meady's Musings Advent Calendar 2010!

Nanowrimo is done and we are pleased to say we were declared a winner (look to the left for our banner) and have come out of the process with some very key and critical learnings about the writing process, procastination, self discipline and how writing can be done effectively and not so effectively but still the words be done! You see Nanorwrimo is about getting the word out...sure you might have a heck of a task editing after but it sure does get the word out but more so your creative juices get kicked out of you! We were so glad that with the kick we were able to cough up a cast of lovely characters-one of them this gorgeous little four year old girl on whose dress we got a grip of and flew to a parallel world with. You will be sure to hear more from her when we're done with the book and be sure that some of the topics in the book are normally discussed on Tumultuous Thursdays and vice versa! Also the book might even turn into a set of chronicles now since our creative juices are so flowing! So thank you Nanwrimo for giving us the big kick we needed to let her (the four year old in my book) come forth!

But guess what as nanowrimo is through guess what we have to do?

Well open the Advent calendar of course! Now the seamstress is a bit slow and she promises us she is working on lovely new clothes for the animals this year but for now they have donned last year's things because they are so lovely still and they know that the lovely seamstress will be done soon and make them even more aglow!

Brother Greg couldn't come to say an opening prayer over on UCP so we will say one of our own and declare the Advent calendar open there too. But we are sad to say that this year we will not be opening the calendar on the Books and Films Corner...

Here is how our Advent calendars will run this year. We will instead this year run it as a real bonafide Advent calendar in that is will start today 1 Dec 2010 and end on Christmas Day! And it will run only on Meady's Musings and UCP as follows:

-Meady's Musings

As we have so been inspired by Nanowrimo to stories and stories, write and write and last year we really did have fun telling Christmas stories in a sense when we had the monkeys over and this and that...so this year each day we will feature a story about the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse and how they are preparing for Christmas. In the stories they may talk about specific things they like to use, eat, cook, read, watch or listen to but it will always be a story about them and what they are up to and whoever chooses to drop by the production house. And as last year I suspect they will have many guests!:)And who knows at the end of it we may even compile their adventures into a little e-book for you to have a constant continuous look! :)

-UCP:Universal Collective Prayer

We will keep it true to the name of the blog and explore the spiritual themes and meaning of the Advent each day on UCP's Advent calendar. Of course expect too to see Christmas Carols...good ole John Denver and all the angels and earthlings you love to join in UCP with during the Advent and all year through! And of course expect Brother Greg to join us for a special prayer on Christmas Eve night! :)

Now we ordered our lego calendar last minute so we don't have it delivered as yet...you can sure grab one last minute if you like too at Amazon as it sounds so exciting to build a Lego a day until you get to Christmas day!


And we also can't wait to get our copy of the deluxe edition dvd Peanut's Holiday Collection


So on that note...here's a tune from one of those classics!


But that Charlie Brown can be so depressing...come to think of it he ranks right up there with Melvin the depressed robot from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh! We know how it is as this feeling down thing happens to lots of us around the production house and sometimes more so at Christmas time. But hey you gotta cheer up too so here is a funner tune bringing in the Advent too!

Slumbering Saturdays: Gearing Up for Nanowrimo 2010!

We're sorry for not posting any blogs on Maniac Mondays, Tumultuous Thursdays or even Funtastic Fridays this week but the Production House has just been a beehive of activity! Everyone's been swamped with their day jobs (which are needed to bring in much needed cash to buy honey and bread) and with Diwali activities...just check out UCP! So to make up for that we bring you a Slumbering Saturdays post today! Of course the house will be even more a buzz next week because some of us are going to be doing the Nanowrimo challenge for 2010! I think the cartoon says it all though! :)

So on Mon 1st Nov 2010...Nanowrimo 2010 here we come! :)

Funtastic Fridays: Auras Rising!

Today on Funtastic Fridays we decided to take a break from all the talk about writing, writers and novels, and dabble into some fun of a Metaphysics kind! Many or you readers must have heard of or read of auras before...but even though it's a Friday of fun let's get the definitions clear...after all there is no work without play and so if we flip it around play can be funner if it involves and challenges the mind at times too no? Hey it must be...after all why is sudoku and other puzzle games so famously fun then?

So let's have our own kinda metaphysical puzzle fun here today on Funtastic Fridays...

According to Wikipedia an aura can be defined as follows:

Aura: "In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object (like the halo or aureola in religious art). The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. Sometimes, however, all people, or all living things, or all objects whatsoever are said to manifest such an aura. Often it is held to be perceptible, whether spontaneously or with practice: such perception is at times linked with the third eye of Indian spirituality.[1][2] Various writers associate various personality traits with the colors of different layers of the aura.[3][4][5]

Skeptics such as Robert Todd Carroll contend that auras may be seen for reasons such as migraines, synesthesia,[6] epilepsy, a disorder within the visual system, a disorder within the brain, or due to the influence of psychedelic drugs such as LSD.[7][8] Eye fatigue can also produce an aura, sometimes referred to as eye burn."

Now let's say two people of auras of very high intensity of light meet...and well if auras are light well then according to Physics they will have some wave properties and as you study Physics at higher levels such that you bypass Newton and get to Einstein well then you have to deal with wave-particle duality but let's just stick with good ole apple falling on our heads Newtonian Physics then! :) So let's say auras are light and so then they are waves...

So if two beings with high intensity auras were to meet well if their auras were to collide that would be one very bright light! :) Wouldn't it? And wouldn't that be exciting...a meeting of auras...a meeting of minds...such that two very bright auras got even brighter...wow northern lights watch out for that natural fireworks display! :)

So let's look at it as wave theory for some puzzle fun...you see if the two auras meet to do positive i.e. for a greater good it can be seen that they meet as waves interfering in a constructive manner as oppose to a destructive manner...and the Physics of it goes well like as described on this site...

"Let us now consider two waves A and B, such that A moves to the right, and B will move to the left. At any point, the displacement is the sum of the separate displacements due to each wave. This is called the principle of superposition.

Observe what happens as the two waves move towards each other. Note that the maximum displacement of a particle in the medium is the sum of the amplitudes of the waves. If the displacement is in the same direction, as is the case here, we have a superposition called CONSTRUCTIVE INTERFERENCE."

"Consider a special case where two waves have the same amplitude and wavelength (you only see one because the one obscures the other) travelling at the same speed from left to right. The two waves are in phase, since their maxima and minima coincide exactly. The resulting wave is simply one with the same wavelength but double the amplitude:


So you get...that if two big large bright silver auras collide we'd get one big gigantic silver aura of good! :)

And according to those who claim to see, read and analyse auras like on this site...silver auras mean:

SILVER:This is the color of abundance, both spiritual and physical. Lots of bright silver can reflect to plenty of money, and/or awakening of the cosmic mind.

Often when you see a silver aura it is hard to distinguish if you are not also seeing a lot of white...so here is what white auras means as well...

WHITE:Reflects other energy. A pure state of light. Often represents a new, not yet designated energy in the aura. Spiritual, etheric and non-physical qualities, transcendent, higher dimensions. Purity and truth; angelic qualities.

White sparkles or flashes of white light: angels are nearby; can indicate that the person is pregnant or will be soon.

So sounds good huh?! :)

Maniac Mondays: Doing the Nanowrimo Thing Again!

Yep we're back to talking about writing here again on Meady's Musings...the blog action is over and done...we've had our water and cleaning fun and all animals are safe, clean and dry within the house again. Some are tucked into bed...some are watching DVD after DVD in the den while others like the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse included have made it back to the library to get back pen to paper or paw to laptop!

So as readers would know some members of the Meady's Musings Production House are writing a novel...in fact one such member is the leader of the Production House herself and as crazy monkey madness as it might be she's decided to give Nanowrimo a whirl again this year! She sort of signed up for Nanowrimo in 2006 but it was more for the fun of the experience then...she had donated on behalf of the production house, bought the T-shirt and the cool poster but didn't really write much...as really 50,000 words all in the month of November...November Nonsense! But she's decided to be as mad as a March hare...crazy monkey mad and try again this year!

You know why? Cause the monkeys convinced her no doubt! LOL! But nope it's not that...it's cause Nanowrimo might just be the kick start she needs to get those words coming! If she makes the 50,000 words or not that we'll all follow and see!

In the mean time check out Nanowrimo which is a competition held every year in November where writers try to churn out 50,000 words all in the month of November...the prize being...simply meeting your goal or achieving the milestone at the end...and who knows bragging rights for your blog?

Anyway it's not quite November yet so the official word count is yet to begin so in the mean time you can catch us sharing peanuts between the Purple Elephant and the monkeys...not sure if blogging on here will count in the word count or if it must be on a specific writing project but we'll see in November...until then look for our Tumultuous Thursdays posting and remember our Funtastic Fridays blog was completed since last week but held for publishing to this week...so make sure and catch it this Friday!

Blog Action Day 2010-Water for All and Global Handwashing Day!

Copyright Meady's Musings Production 2010

OMG! It's finally here...Blog Action Day 2010 and Global Handwashing Day! But if you look above you'll see the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse have been at it cleaning a while now...you see we at the production house luckily have water but not everyone is so lucky and it's what this Blog Action Day 2010 is about!

However we have a bit of another kinda housekeeping to do before we blog on about it! The Purple Elephant and Little Mouse are all a cleaning today courtesy a member of the production house that doesn't exactly live in the house but comes over ever so often to decorate things! It's the lovely Adriana Ochoa ladies and gentlemen! Thank you again so much Adri for your always fantastic and fantabulous artwork! OMG!And such a Mexican diva you are! Just look at mi elephante morado y mi ratoncito! Aawww...so hardworking are those two! :) Also there will be no Funtastic Fridays posting today although we are still having some fun with a message today but just in a different format on Blog Action Day 2010! But look for Funtastic Fridays next week as we already had a treat prepared but opted to publish this blog instead...so here it goes...

Water!

Everyone needs it to live...the human body is roughly 60% water and ideally we should drink 8 glasses a day...roughly 64 ounces...but the truth is most people can't get that much to drink in many parts of the world...and if they are lucky to even get one glass well they aren't always lucky enough that it is safe for drinking...i.e. free of waterborne diseases! Aaaw and that statement just made my purple elephant's ears droop! :(

The catch too is that disease can also spread not just in water but due to a lack of water and also soap! As many diseases are spread when germs get from one person to another who has not washed their hands properly and to do that you need soap and water! Unfortunately many people have neither!

Which is why we here at the production house are so proud of the Clean the World people for getting soap to the world and celebrated their niceness on Monday last. We hope they continue the good work...and there is always a need so keep those bars coming as they are six million bars and counting! And as a result we are joining with them today to mark Global Handwashing Day!

However the problem of water still remains adrift on the sea of need...last year we here at Meady's Musings blogged quite a bit about water for Blog Action Day 2009 as it was about Climate Change but we figured they were interconnected issues...and we have also explored the fact that water is such a great need that some religions and people of the world have chosen to deify and worship it! Check out our sister blog UCP's posting on the God series about God as Water!

So how we resolve the issue of water though?

Well for starters sign the Blog Action Day 2010 petition that appears on the top left of our screen which lends a positive voice to the UN's work to bring clean, safe water to millions.

Then...well it gets harder but here are a few suggestions from the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse who are all serious now but still having fun cleaning...but they aren't wasting water at all...you see how they are using buckets and not hoses...so there!

But here is the list seriously now of a few charities involved in getting water to the world!

Clean Water for Haiti

Project Clean Water's Give a Drop

The Water Project: Clean Water to Africa and India

Give Water, Give Life

Tumultuous Thursdays: Getting into Character

We slip back into the library for today until we head back out again tomorrow for Blog Action Day 2010. And as we sit here those characters are in our head again as this week on Tumultuous Thursdays we continue our Writing series (producing the blog we should have last Thursday when we ended up slipping down that rabbit hole for too long and never came back in time to write it) So here it is this week...
So recall first of all our cartoon from that Funtastic Fridays posting...



Now recently J.K. Rowling aka Jo shared this on Oprah:
"At age 25, Jo was riding on a delayed train from Manchester to London when one single idea flashed into her mind: Boy doesn't know he's a wizard, goes to wizard school. After that, Jo says her mind was flooded with ideas for Harry Potter.
"I don't think I had ever felt so excited. I thought, 'I'd love to write that,'" she says. "I'd never thought about writing for children—I'd never thought about aiming anything at that age group. And yet it was the thing that I was meant to write."
"
And the lady who wrote the Twilight series, Stephenie Meyer says this about her inspiration to write on the bio of her official website:
"woke up from a dream featuring seemingly real characters that she could not get out of her head.
"Though I had a million things to do, I stayed in bed, thinking about the dream. Unwillingly, I eventually got up and did the immediate necessities, and then put everything that I possibly could on the back burner and sat down at the computer to write—something I hadn't done in so long that I wondered why I was bothering." "

So it's making us here at the Meady's Musings Production House wonder if could it be that this post is very fittingly written on a Tumultuous Thursdays slot? Because could it be that these characters in the heads of these others are really people and beings in parallel worlds trying to make a connection here with our world through the hands and minds of our authors? Could it be?...

So our authors here on earth in this world are merely like mediums they are just the vessel...the conduit through which the message comes...well that's not so farfetched a thought as many authors officially write as mediums...they tell you up front they are 'channelling'...and then of course there is the concept of the muse...so maybe it's a combination or a bit of this and a bit of that...

So maybe it's not one thing but perhaps at least three! Either one or the other or a combination of the three as below that makes writers write!:

1. Mediums: authors who really are just challenging some being's thoughts through their pens...or typing fingers!

2. Semi-Mediums: authors who get these thoughts or flashes or ideas or characters popping into their heads but still are very much in control of their own thoughts when they have them...and then combine their thoughts or are just inspired by the one off flashing idea or thought to put forward their thoughts as stories.

3. Muses: Celestial or spiritual beings or animals or things that just come before authors and enable them to write. Their very presence or passing through the author’s however momentarily enables the author to write. And we here at Meady’s Musings Production House have our share of those we will tell you so! Apart from the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse that lives with us...there is the little manicou that started it all...and he doesn’t live with us...as one can really never entrap a muse...it is a free flowing being that comes and goes as it pleases...so he sometimes comes to the production house but doesn’t not live with us like the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse as they aren’t exactly muses but our animal characters that more represent the spirit of the house...our mascots or logo so to speak...different from our manicou muse!

Now as to whether these beings come from parallel worlds well it could be quite true you know...well look at how many authors even write of parallel worlds in a way...Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland....C.S. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles...and even in Harry Potter they go off into this parallel world no? So it must be true...it must be true we think!

So what are the characters in your head? Come on...you can tell us...can’t you?