Tuesday, August 3, 2010

On recycling

Since I am still lost in the Norwegian mountains, I have decided to take the advice of blogging buddy DL Hammons. He suggested that we all start a blogging recycle station, where we can repost posts (you have no idea how long I struggled with that phrase. "Repost posts" isn't exactly the height of elegance, but what to do? I already spent ten minutes trying to figure out a better phrasing, and I failed. I'm doomed!) from way back when we were blogging nobodies. Many of the blog posts I wrote when I was in the US, for instance, would probably entertain many of my US readers who didn't even know I existed back then. So, since I am away and not writing anyway (or at least not writing blogs. I'm fairly sure I will be writing about trolls. There is just something about those mountains that make it completely impossible to fend them off), I'm taking this opportunity to recycle one of my early posts. Ironically, I am choosing one of the posts that has the most pageviews (according to the Blogger stats, anyway). I don't think the reason it has so many pageviews is because it's been read so many times, though. See, my hit counter occasionally informs me of google searches that lead to visits on this blog. One of the top hits is someone searching for pictures of fraggles...


With no further ado (after all, there was quite a lot of ado in the previous paragraph), this post was originally posted (there we go again! Post posted! If I die of shame, please make sure to do a post-mortem on me!) on September 5th, 2009, and I was trying to make sense of living in the US of A:




Remember the Fraggles? I used to love that show (dubbed to Norwegian, of course). I knew the songs, I loved the characters, and I dreaded every visit into the Gorgs’ garden. One of my favourite parts of the show (apart from the Doozers), was the recurring event of the postcards Gobo receives from his Uncle “Traveling” Matt.


These postcards are video-clips from “Outer Space” – aka our world. They show “normal” human activities or items, seen from Matt’s outsider perspective. It always amused me how the creators could make something everyday and normal so exotic and foreign, and I enjoyed Matt’s interpretation of the situations he observed. What I didn’t realize, though, was that someday I would feel just like him:



Dear Gobo (aka everyone at home),

The Silly Creatures have really outdone themselves. Outer Space is just so BIG! The cars, the roads, the shops… It’s a miracle they don’t all get lost.

In addition to being big, Outer Space is also very, very different. It started the minute I stepped off the plane – the driver who was supposed to take me to my lodging was blabbering in this strange tongue of theirs (I must say I’m starting to get the hang of it now). He continuously asked me about something he called “the AC” – I still have no idea what he was talking about, but I wish he would have opened a window, since the car was sweltering.

The next thing I noticed about the Silly Creatures is their fondness for cinnamon. Everything either tastes or smells cinnamon. Bagels – a little unusual, but actually delicious. Coffee – I can get behind that, sometimes. Chewing gum – on this they lost me. Public bathrooms – that’s just weird.

A possible explanation to this is that the Silly Creatures have developed different taste buds than us. This would also explain why they have yoghurt that tastes sweeter than sugar. How that is possible – since there is bound to be something else besides sugar in the yoghurt – I have yet to figure out.

Now I must run to the shops which I’ve heard are crazy this weekend. The Silly Creatures are talking about preparing for “Labor Day”. I don’t know what they mean by that, but it sure sounds like hard work.

May this postcard not be intercepted by Sprocket.

All the best from your Uncle

15 comments:

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

A wonderful post, hope you find your way. Enjoyed about the Fraggles, The whole post was a joy
to read.

Yvonne.

Nicole said...

so cute! Love it :)

RosieC said...

Really cute. I'm sure the song will be running through my head all day now. Down at Fraggle Rock...

PS--I was thinking about it for a while, and I don't think there's a much better way to say you're going to take a post that you've already written and reuse it. Recycle the post? If you're doomed, so am I :)

Erinn said...

Nice post, down in fraggle rock. I did the idea of recycling posts while you're on vacation.
Have fun!

Unknown said...

Oh, I love the Fraggles. And, I think that you're allowed to recycle. I've done it while on vacation. Enjoy!

CD

Deb and Barbara said...

Adorable! Now I want something with cinnamon...
B

February Grace said...

Oh, you know I love all things Muppet...basically because I am one, you know...

Fraggles is the Muppet franchise I've seen the least of- now you make me want to track down every episode and have a marathon just to see Uncle Matt's postcard segments! So very sweet and so entertaining...just like you!

thank you for the wonderful post, hope you're enjoying your trip! Oh and I did not forget about posting the wonderful blog award you gave me- had some posts backed up I just had to write, but I cannot wait to put it up. Thank you again.

hugs
bru

LTM said...

umm... I still feel like something of a blogging nobody as I haven't been doing it so long, and you were CRACKING ME UP w/all the post toasties. AND your letter. My AC was just out. Luckily it was only the flux capacitator... :D

yay, Fraggle Rock! sigh. How I miss the Muppets.

Hope you're enjoying your trip. See ya in the fall~ (pa-dum, pum)

Jemi Fraser said...

Fraggles are fun -hope you're enjoying your mountains :)

Katie Rob said...

I still love anything that can dance its cares away and save worries for another day. I want to be a Fraggle. Also, I deeply, deeply wish that my name was Boober.

Incidentally, the search phrases that lead the most people to my blog is "turquoise door" and "function of art". I discussed both of those things briefly once. Maybe I should talk about them more.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I remember Fraggle Rock.

Belle said...

Love the idea of recycling posts! I definitely remember Fraggle Rock :)

Sarah Callejo said...

Oooh, I loved the Fraggles and my kids see them now and look at me in awe (or embarrassment) when I sing the song.

Cruella Collett said...

Yvonne - glad you liked it!

Nicole - it wasn't always easy to be far away from home, but at least I could use my sense of humour to get by!

Rosie - tee hee, sorry about that. And yes, recycling is a good expression :)

Erinn - I did have fun! Even if I didn't get to visit Fraggle Rock, I certainly saw a lot of other rocks!

Clarissa - it was one of my absolute favourites as a kid :)

Barbara - my favourite was the cinnabuns! Mmmmm!

Bru - I didn't actually realize the Fraggles were muppets! I mean, I knew, sort of - you can tell from looking at them, I guess, but I didn't KNOW know... Now I do :)
And no worries about the award - I am horribly late in passing on most of mine!

Leigh - you're definitely a blogging SOMEBODY! And not just anybody either ;) Glad that you liked the post - I remember back when I first posted it I was actually afraid I'd offend someone.... Later I learned that I could offend much better that this!

Jemi - I really did. I must look through my pictures to see if anyone of them are worth sharing :)

Katie - you'd like Adam Hills, then ;) And I'm pretty sure you'd get a lot more hits if you talked more about "Boober" as well...

Alex - yay! The Fraggles rule!

Belle - the only problem with recycling posts is that I got quite lazy with writing new ones...

Sarah - haha, parents are SUPPOSED to embarass their kids, and I can't think of a better way of doing it than with Fraggle Rock!

Anonymous said...

I would like to exchange links with your site thegiraffabilityofdigressions.blogspot.com
Is this possible?

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