Project Bowl

The Typewriter Trials - Part I

After speaking with Silk the other week, I have been kindly welcomed into the Fictional Friday group.  The stories will follow a series of letters written between to rival newspaper editors in The Great Metropolis region... enjoy!

TMC: Season II, Episode I

Ladies and well...ahem... this is what you have all been waiting for since summer started... The return of The Men's Club and The Demystifying Divas! Are you ready for some hot, wild and passionate moments with screams, moans and thrusts?  Are you ready to have some Irish in y... wait, wait... sorry, I got my diary mixed up.  This is the introduction for the...uh... private little get together I arranged to 'welcome' the sexy new guest Diva's and to personally greet them as they - uh - get on-board.  Ahem.

*Fumbles around to find the right introduction*

Ah here it is... *Clears throat*

Ladies and gents, in the return of the great debaters we ask the questions: Do women want a nambi-pambi man or some with more brick than the Pentagon?  Do they want a GI Joe or Barbie's Ken?  How emotional do women want us to be?  Do women really want the strong silent type?  Stiff upper... erm... lip... and all that, eh?

Well, obviously all women are different (although this could be a newsflash for most guys out there, I feel I am stating the obvious for the female readers) and all have different needs and desires.  But I honestly cannot think of a single woman that actually wants either of those alternatives as absolutes.  Hear me out and don't touch that knob dial...

There are times when a girl is going to need her guy to be strong, unwavering and unemotional for her - to be her rock and bulwark.  But there are times when she needs him to show his emotions because as most women know, showing your emotions is not a sign of weakness.

There is a difference between being caring and being a wet carrot - and no, guys, I'm not talking sexual body parts right now - and there is a positive and negative side to being either strong or emotional.

In fact, the strong silent type doesn't have to be devoid of emotions because it is all about the situation.  As far as I know, a woman doesn't like the silent type because she can feel shut out.  There are times, however, when a woman just wants a guy to shut the hell up.

There is an old Derringher saying that says if a woman sticks three men in a room she will get the latest sports result, beer stains on the carpet and a half-assed opinion.  But if a guy sticks three ladies in a room he will get fifteen opinions and no supper.  This topic, I fear, was suggested by one of the female readers because I believe it is something of a trick question where there is no right answer.  There is possibly no wrong answer either... except any answer offered by the men of this blogging group. :P

One of the sitcoms I cannot stand and do not even find funny happens to be Everybody Loves Raymond.  Sorry, it doesn't do it for me and is just not my cup of tea.  Give me the obnoxious Doug from King of Queens.  I digress, last evening I was sitting with the delectable Va-va watching TV when a trailer for a re-run of Everybody Hates Loves Raymond came on.  I must confess it was the funniest clip I have ever seen of the show and had both of us laughing.  I still cannot stand the show but it was a classic clip! Raymond was sitting in bed with his other half (Debra) when she asks him, "You know what I think?"

Raymond replies, "If I say 'yes' does it mean you won't tell me?"

I shall now pause for dramatic effect whilst I deliberate my closing to tie up all these loose ends.

This is, then, my point.  An individual woman's needs and wants differ from day to day.  One day she wants something one way, the next it will be totally different.  Maybe it is the moon or maybe it is hormonal but if a woman tells you today she needs you to show your emotions and stop being so silent and unapproachable, for the love of money (which, incidentally, is a saying that came from when a husband let his wife borrow his credit card) do not go ahead and think you can show those emotions again tomorrow.  Come tomorrow, next week or even next month (depending on how often you dare converse) if you suddenly show your emotions as she had specifically requested previously, she will probably snap your head off and tell you to toughen up because she needs a real man.  Her needs changed (the moon moved into a different phase and she is stocking up on tampons from the local Target/Tescos) and somehow you were supposed to know that what she wanted was a stiff upper lip and not a wet willie, so to speak.

Now, for those that are not regular readers of my blog or for those that do not know me (yet) you may think I am sounding sexist where, in fact, I am just calling it as it is.  I have this great expression I use when talking with Va-va (guys, get your notebooks out here) which is, when I sit with her, I look her in the eyes and say, "honey, tell me what you are thinking/feeling right now because I can't read your mind" and even if she doesn't know or can't feel she can't share, at least she knows I'm trying and I am there for her.  Use this method to work out if she wants you to open up or if, indeed, you need to put it on ice until later.

I know one thing though, in all seriousness, that a woman who loves you will want you to express your emotions but a relationship is about being strong for each other.  When one is weak, the other is strong.  It is the karma of life.  The balance of the force.  Just be aware if your loved one is going through something when you hit an emotional low.  If you both hit it together, don't dump it on her, but talk it through at a gentle pace.  That way gives less room for misunderstanding or emotional roller-coaster rides.

Whilst I am on relationship tips, I suggest guys that every morning, before you get out of bed, as soon as you wake up, roll over, wake up that adorable woman you love so much and tell her, "I'm sorry" because it will make things so much easier for the day ahead.

She will ask, "sorry for what honey?"

You can then reply, "for being a man.  For burping.  For scratching.  For all the things I'm going to do today that defines me as a man.  Just remember this moment throughout the day and know I'm sorry."

You can't lose with that and you may even get some early morning woohoo.  Heh  ;)

For the other takes of this subject we have in the pink corner: Fistful of Fortnights, Cake Eater Chronicles, Just Breathe, and Villains Vanquished. And in the blue corner: Down For Repairs, Phin's Blog, Naked Villainy, and a special welcome to Jamesyboy - The Future's Bright.

Star War Kid Tribute

Remember The Star Wars Kid?  Wll he made his cameo in American Dad on Sunday night.  I finally found the clip online after being in fits of laugher when watching the show on TV at the weekend.  Missed it?  Clicky.

Routine

What is your [usual] daily cyber-routine?

I am rather curious as to when people do their mail checks, blog writing, news surfing or anything else.  I'm sure some of you are extremely geeky and check emails all the time at every given chance but somewhere all of us have a modus operandi.  Email checking first or blog reading?  Blog reading in the afternoon? Gaming in the evening? Forums or BBS?  Is it daily or weekly?  Are the weekends different?  Why?

In a new series of articles I am writing on the subject of etheropology (a completely made up word based on anthropology but meaning the study of human behavior relating to computers in particular the internet) I am asking for all of you to help.  How?  By asking the question of yourselves and perhaps ask the question on your blog or co-workers too.  The more information gathered the better the cross-section of answers will be and hopefully the results will be interesting to read! :)

The subject of routines is the first in this series.  Your replies can feature in the comments in this post or even on your blog (you can trackback to let me know or just drop me an e-mail here if you do that so I know to gather the information) or even just e-mail me your answers. Thanks in advance for all of your help. 

RenFest: The Director Cut

Last weekend a bunch of us took a trip to the Renaissance Festival to laugh observe the costumes that folks seem very keen on wearing to such events.  It seems that this place doesn't just attract medieval look-a-likes but also feature film director look-a-likes:

George Lucas was spotted filling up his car at the local Super America gas station on route to the event.  He declined to comment on if he would be wearing any kind of outfit for the proceedings.

Peter Jackson donned his Middle Earth costume (it is rumored there were some left over after they finished with Lord of the Rings) and also a pair of goblin teeth in an attempt to disguise himself whilst providing riddles and wisdom to the punters.

Weekend Round Up

Whilst pondering the ageless question of what to have for breakfast I thought a quick round-up of the posts that tickled or impacted me from my morning of regular blog reads would help in the decision making process.  I must admit that I still, an hour later, am none-the-wiser about what to nosh, but my soul certainly feels nourished from these scribbles:

Silk finally blogged (with pictures) some of her experiences when on safari in Africa from the last couple of weeks and, although this has been up for almost 2 days now, for those that have not read it - go read now!  You will certainly get bitten by the travel bug by the time you reach the comment section and find yourself wanting to experience it first hand for yourself!

Kathy treats us to a beautifully worded nostalgic post as she looks back over Autumnal days of old. Celeste also momentarily slips her fingers in the memory jar because she and Tilesey celebrate their first anniversary of being a couple today!  Congrats to you both from all at The Project Bowl! :)

Sadie points out the uncouthness of poor manners whilst The Wizard goes in search of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. 

I, on the other hand, still sit trying to decide what to eat and curse mutter evils at Typepad for not solving a continuing problem on their server which is stopping me from completing updates, fixing links and making changes to the site... so apologies for buttons still not working in the sidebar... and someone answer my damn tickets!!!

No longer Lost!

Yes!  It is not something I usually like but this deserves a copy & paste moment because it is good news for those who lost power last Wednesday:

"The highly-anticipated season premiere of 'Lost' will be rebroadcast in it's entirety on KSTP-TV Channel 5 Wednesday, September 28 at 7 p.m. The original broadcast was seen on Channel 45, KSTC -- the sister station to Channel 5 -- due to severe weather updates."
ABC 5 Eyewitness News

Kathy will also be pleased that she doesn't have to write up a detailed synopsis of the show to send to us! Thanks for being the wonderful offer hun! :)

Updates

Just making some site changes to the blog at the moment so things may look messy for a few hours and some of the links may not be fully available.  I will sound the all clear when everything is running as it should be :)

Registries!

For those that have already searched and discovered you will have found the fact that we had registries for Puffy Jr at both Target and Babies R Us.  For those that took a step further and noticed that the registries contained a lot of pink items as well as blue, let us just put your minds at rest that we made the registries before we discovered his gender.  Today Va-va and I spent the afternoon updating and organizing the Target registry (we were able to successfully solved the BRU registry online) in store.  This meant that Daddy-to-be got to run around the store (yet again) with the scanner gun shooting things.  Things being, sadly, only bar-codes and not aliens on a mission to take over the planet.

For those that want to know and/or are interested in looking/gifting to Puffy Jr then click on the links below and have fun shop-shop-shopping for baby stuff off our lists!  :)

          

This post was brought to you by the letter Q and the number 9.

Wind-a-blowin'

Recorded the other night in the wee hours of the night after the tornado hit whilst all the power was off, the members of The Project Bowl decide to babble a little for the listeners! :)

Clicky to listen!