Season's Greetings

Random Movie Trivia

Some random movie trivia for you.

The longest feature film ever produced was entitled 'The Cure For Insomnia' (1987) with a total running time of 85 hours (5,220 mins) It premiered in its entirety at The School Of The Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois from January 31 to February 3, 1987, in one continuous showing.

The cost of obtaining the rights to the soundtrack of Kevin Smith's Clerks (approx. US$27,000) far outweighed the entire production costs for his outstanding debut film (approx. US$26,800) -- a first in motion picture history.

Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee shared a movie fight scene albeit a rather short fight scene when Jackie Chan made a brief (uncredited) cameo appearance towards the end of Enter the Dragon in the big fight scene in the cave. Bruce Lee grabs his hair for a moment before snapping his neck. If this could have been filmed ten years later what a great fight scene it would have been between two of Hong Kong's all time cinema icons.

Harrison Ford was hired to play the principal in the Steven Spielberg classic E.T. in fact his scene was filmed but it was later cut from the finished film because Spielberg decided his presence would be too distracting. Ford's then-wife Melissa Mathison wrote the screenplay.

For the movie the Wizard of Oz (1939), Judy Garland was paid $35 a week while Terry aka Toto the dog received $125 a week!

In Carrie, the slow motion scene at the end of the movie was filmed in reverse and if you watch it closely cars can be seen hilariously driving backwards in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

TV trivia-
The Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie were named after the cop and the taxi driver from the movie "It's a Wonderful Life".

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Snow day

Well it's definitely winter now in Scotland we've had two days of constant snow and for once I'm quite happy to be staying indoors because that trip to the doctors this morning was a complete nightmare I even had to dig out the wheels of my Dad's car so he could get it up the drive. Anyhoo I thought I would share some pictures taken by moi from the safety of my upstairs landing and bedroom hope you enjoy.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

More Movie news

More movie news in this blog post, first up is...

THE GREAT GATSBY
Columbia Pictures are looking for a 2012 release for this adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic novel. Although the novel is set in Midwest America it appears this film will be shot on location in Australia by Aussie native filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and will star Leo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan who has beat out Anne Hathaway, Keira Knightley, Natalie Portman and Amanda Syfried to the role of Daisy Buchanan.

INTERSTELLAR
This is the long touted science fiction film from film making legend Steven Spielberg and based on the gravity fields theories of Kip Thorne and several hypotheses of Albert Einstein. Not to much is known about this project except the script is being penned by Jonathan Nolan brother and writing partner of Chris and is expected to be shot in 3d. Whatever else I hear about I'll post on the blog as this is definitely writing partner  got the potential to be a classic.

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E
Steven Soderberg and Warner Brothers are set to bring the classic television series to the big screen with George Clooney reportedly set to star. The script has been penned by Scott Z. Burns and should hit screens sometime in 2012 my bet would be a Christmas release date as summer 2012 is being flooded with other big budget action films.

UNTITLED ALIEN PREQUEL
Even though this is due for a summer 2011 release not much is known about this film besides Ridley Scott is directing from a script by Damon Lindelof. Rumours are endless but the most believable of them being that Ridley Scott wants Noomi Rapace (Girl with the dragon tattoo) for the lead role along with Sharlto Copley (District 9) although with little known about the plot other than it's about terraforming, it's hard to be 100%sure on what casting rumours to trust.

THE EXPENDABLES 2
Following the success of the first Expendables movie and fan pressure for a sequel it looks like Sylvester Stallone and crew will be back for another round of 80s inspired action. Stallone will once again direct and star alongside Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture and Jet Li. Also rumoured to be returning is Bruce Willis this time though as the possible head bad guy along with the rumoured Jean Claude Van Damme, Ray Park and Kurt Russell although these are just rumours at this point.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Hometown News

My hometown football team has made the front pages of many newspapers today but not for the best of reasons. Did they win a cup final? Did they win the league? These are questions that you may have asked but the answer to both is no (this is Airdrie United we are talking about after all, lol) what they did was screw up something incredibly simple causing great anger and for once even a life long fan such as I can't ignore their error.

To mark remembrance day, on Saturday Airdrie United used a World War 2 picture of soldiers leaving on a train as the cover of their official programme along with the logo for the services charity PoppyScotland and the words "Lest We Forget". What's wrong with that? You may ponder well the image they used just happened to be of Nazi soldiers.

Club secretary Ann Marie Ballantyne said "A few people have picked up on this. It certainly wasn't deliberate." she also added "We were told the soldiers were Australian." This is obviously a huge mistake on the part of the club but unfortunately when a small element of your fan base utilise the Nazi salute when singing football songs this isn't going over well with most people around the country and this topic has lit up a lot of Scottish football forums. Spokesman Leigh James of PoppyScotland said "Obviously the club meant well."

My guess is not many football fans will be forgetting this blunder and will be reminding the club from the Away stand at many Airdrie home games to come. Here's a link to the full story: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2010/11/15/football-club-s-poppy-tribute-backfires-after-using-picture-of-nazi-soldiers-on-match-programme-86908-22718341/

When I told my Gran about this story she had the opposite reaction to it than I expected she actually laughed and said "bunch of numpties." So maybe others will take that approach and acknowledge it for what it truly was a huge error and not a deliberate joke anyhoo...

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Movie News

There is a lot of movie gossip floating about at the moment some of which seems very unlikely but with Hollywood you can never really rule any of it out but for now I've decided to stick to the more concrete movie news and first up is the first of two Arnold Schwarzenegger films to be getting the remake treatment.

COMMANDO
Sam Worthington will step into Arnie's shoes for this one with David Ayer (writer of Fast and the Furious, Harsh Times and S.W.A.T) handling the directing and writing honours. Strange film to remake in my humble opinion as it seems very of it's time but maybe they are planning to put a new spin on it, see what I did there trying to be positive? Let's see how long that lasts, lol.

TOTAL RECALL
This has been long rumoured to get the remake treatment and actors from Denzel Washington to Russel Crowe have been linked to it but it appears to be Colin Farrell who has landed the lead role. Len Wiseman (Die Hard 4.0) will be directing from a script by Kurt Wimmer (Law Abiding Citizen and The Recruit). Could be a great flick and Farrell is an interesting choice for the lead role.

HIGHLANDER
yep another remake of another 80's classic this time with Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow and Fast and Furious) directing a script by Matt Holloway and Art Macum the writers behind Iron Man & Punisher: WarZone. Casting wise there is only rumour at this point but a strong contender seems to be James McAvoy which would make the Highlander actually played by a Scotsman for a change, oops positivity sliding.

MASS EFFECT
The popular video game title looks set to come to the big screen with a big budget to boot. A script penned by Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, Thor and The Cell) is in development with Avi Arad (pretty much all Marvel films) producing. Casting wise Matthew Fox is one rumour another is Channing Tatum but as this film is at the very early stages of development I'd take both with a pinch of salt. With the right director and cast this could be a great franchise for the studio and with this large a fan base amassed over the two games in this series it will have to be. Well almost kept the positivity up over the blog post, almost anyhoo....

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Dino De Laurentiis (1919-2010)

Legendary film producer Dino De Laurentiis has died today (11th of November) at the age of 91 in Los Angeles according to several Italian media sources. He has produced more than 500 films including Serpico, Death Wish, Flash Gordon, Tai-Pan, Three Days Of The Condor, the Hannibal Lecter franchise and the 1976 remake of King Kong.

Di Laurentiis has won two Oscars, one in 1956 for Federico Fellini's masterpiece "La Strada" and again in 1957 for the Fellini directed "Nights of Cabiria" which starred Giulietta Masina. He has undoubtedly made a huge contribution to both the European film industry as well as in Hollywood and will be greatly missed.

The Writeaholic's Drabble Challenge

Yep another seven days between blog posts and you guessed it for health reasons again this time I had a mixed bag of symptoms including my stomach ulcers playing up leaving me spending the last week vomiting up my stomach acid which is as gross as it sounds folks, lol and some kind of virus or what not leaving me with the headache to end all headaches and feeling lethargic. It's not improved as the week has progressed so I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go to my GP even though I hate giving in to things like this and taking meds for it as God knows I take enough pills as it is but to get past it I'll probably need antibiotics.

Anyway that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it for why this blog post wasn't done and dusted by Wednesday at the latest and I can only humbly apologise for the lateness of this drabble challenge post as I realised earlier today the next drabble challenge has already been posted up at http://writeaholicblog.wordpress.com/ and to top that I'm not just late with the post I'm also five words over the limit for the hundred word challenge, yeah been one of those weeks. Here it is anyway hope it's OK as I really struggled to write something this short, attempt one was 305 words and I was beginning a new paragraph when I realised I may have overshot the limit a smidge.

CAREER
The big bang echoes in my ears as my 6:45am wake-up call buzzed progressively louder. I reached over and as my hand kissed the timepiece my eyes gained that much needed confidence to welcome in the early Monday morning sun. My mouth still harbouring unwanted, unfading memories of the days before as I rise from my safety net and seek the sanctuary of the toothbrush to exorcise my weekend demons. My coffee stained tie hangs crooked as I await the cattle call of the underground what wondrous forfeits we so welcome for the burden of a paycheck and the love of a career.

If you love great writing (what the hell you reading this for then?) you should definitely pay a visit to http://thewritaholicblog.wordpress.com/ you won't be disappointed and trust me the stories on there are a lot happier than mine have been of late I'm working through some stuff and this is my outlet for it so bear with me it will get more upbeat eventually, I think anyway.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

EDIT: The link appears not to be working for some reason but you can find a functional link in the smart links section of the sidebar.

Short Fiction 3: Ballad Of A Dead Heart

This short is actually a story within a story as it is a tale told to one of the characters in a novel I am trying and failing to write entitled Orchid Grove. I thought I'd post it here today with it being Halloween after all. I got cold feet with this particular part of the novel for awhile due to the ending and changed it considerably recently but I thought I'd put it here in it's original form so I hope you like it.

Ballad Of A Dead Heart
By Andrew G. Carson

The reason behind the loss of light had run it's assault course through his already paranoia- overloaded brain his nervous attempts to force his eyes to become accustomed to the now pitch darkness he found himself blanketed within were evidence of that. So were the cold beads of sweat that dripped slowly, teasingly down the back of his now goose bump riddled neck sending a quiet scream to the very core of his soul. Day turns to night that was a certainty but here and now night was not the certainty he feared it was what night brought along with it, what it brought was the darkness and those who creep within.

His breath heavy and shallow his heart pounding in his chest and pounded in his ears as he tried to collect what was left of his once strong resolve, a resolve that had once helped him defeat his inner demons twelve years prior. A resolve that had help him stare the reaper in the eye and kept his nerves intact as the reaper blinked first. A resolve that was now abandoning him for the threat that lay ahead was far to terrifying and far to intense for it to remain, a threat from within the darkness. He knew his own mind couldn't be trusted the years of alcohol abuse had put end to that but he had nothing left to rely upon in his moment of truth a moment when a drink was the last thing he wanted and the last thing he was thinking about but again maybe that's what his mind wanted for him to put down his guard long enough for it to take advantage. No he would have to rely solely on instinct solely on his gut if he was to survive through the night and survive long enough to see his wife's face one last time.

He hugged the floor beneath him with all the strength he had and contemplated the path ahead, did he have the strength to push on till morning? Can he find the strength within his broken body to scrape and fight his way through hell to hold his wife's hand again? He knew deep down what the answer to those questions truly was but maybe that's why he can manage to try. Maybe after all the years of pain, distrust and heartbreak his final attempt to make peace with her to risk his life and/or his sanity would be what finally could lead her to forgive him or at least not hate him, he'd settle for her not hating him anymore. It was her hate for him that he couldn't take anymore and what had led him to this dark damp place and only her forgiveness could save his soul before he met his maker.

His hands shook as he slowly raised his blood covered body to a vertical stance, his jaw quivered with the memory of defeat and he struggled to fight off his knees from buckling as he took his first step in what seemed like a lifetime. CREEK, CREEK each step was accompanied by an echoing reminder of the extra thirty pounds he was now carrying around with him. CREEK, CREEK he almost found himself begging his feet to stay quiet but the absurdity of it made him laugh, "my God" he thought, "is that my voice do I really sound that old?" How drink has aged his thirty something body he now sounding something akin to his father a man of seventy three and a man he despised for being such a hard act to follow after all when your father has accomplished more in a lifetime than most could in ten how the hell do you follow it? No matter what you do or what you become you are destined to always be a disappointment and that's how he felt every time he looked into his father's eyes rightly or wrongly a painful disappointment.

As he reached the door he outstretched his hand slowly and carefully in search of the elusive handle and hoping to find nothing else. A sigh of relief thundered from within him as his hand touched the cold metal. He slowly drew in a large gulp of tainted air before methodically pushing down on the handle and freeing the door from it's frame and sending it wide open. He was greeted by a wave of emotion as his eyes became accustomed to the candlelit room laid bare in front of him. Wall to wall decorated in blood and it was at this moment he remembered what had led him to the hallway outside in the first place. 'No, NO what have I done? NO.' His pleads faded to a silent wail as the image of his wife flashed before his eyes. He remembered that he had tried to make amends with her but she pushed him away she had pushed him down and poured the devil's blood over him sending him into an unholy rage and leaving him hours later kneeling before her now cold, wet, patchwork corpse with nothing but hate and an empty bottle for company and all he can think about is "Where can I get my next drink?" His soul unsaved, his heart broken his mind lost in the darkness with those who creep within.

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

The Gamble

A wiser man than me once said "Life's a gamble and you haven't experienced it till you take a deep breath and roll those dice", for me life has been somewhat of a long wait on my turn to roll those dice and knowing my luck I'll crap out first go, lol. The gamble I've been considering taking is to step behind a film camera for the first time in close to a decade and to film my first short film since college. Not really a gamble many would say but for me it conceivably is as a mixture of health concerns and the fact I've practically been living like a recluse all this time is playing heavily on my mind.

My back and nerve problems (loss of feeling in hands and feet) are the least of my worries it's more to do with my memory not being what it once was hell I blanked on my dog's name the other day when I was trying to get him to stop barking and the fact the trigger for my seizures is anxiety and low budget film shoots tend to be very anxious places at the best of times is but if I don't take the chance what's the alternative? I'm to out of the way of studying to go back to college and I've taken far to many knocks to the head to be a competent student. In the current financial climate nobody is hiring a 28 year old with the kind of health problems and work or lack of work history like I have. The way I see it is it's up to me to forge my future career as a screenwriter and or film maker and the best way I can see to do it is to get one of my scripts on screen and the quickest way to do so is to film it myself.



I'll have to be very creative as my budget will make most low budget shorts look like Hollywood blockbusters in comparison as I'll be financing the project myself to hopefully showcase online as the festival route is always a costly one for new film makers. It will be a real guerrilla shoot and like Robert Rodriquez did with his script for El Mariachi I'll incorporate into my script props and locations I know I can get access to. Saying that for the first time in a long time I'm actually quite excited about something and hopefully it will lead to other things down the road. Anyhoo I'll finish this blog post there on a some what upbeat note.


Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Philosophy of writing

Recently I have gotten back in touch with a online friend of mine (Milo) from Germany that due to his college commitments had fallen off the radar over the last four months but hey I was off the radar for just short of two with a rather less creative reason. As per our usual the topic changed swiftly from the- how have you been my friend?/ What are you working on? Kind of questions to more philosophical ones about the craft of writing such as: Do you have to have first hand experiences of the subjects you write about to truly get to the emotional core of your characters and understand their situation? Does writing only about what you know expand the characters and create an authentic feel to your subject or just limit you as a writer and storyteller?

These are the kinds of things we will converse about for hours yet as a person I tend not to think about when writing. My stories all have some personal element even if my story was set on another planet I'd put something in their of myself, I guess I use it as my way of creating a bond with my characters and I've never really considered it to be a particularly bad thing but I guess it could be conceived that my writing has always got a slightly dark undercurrent running through it some may consider that to be my "voice" as a writer or others may realize it to be my glass is half empty outlook on life either way I'm probably stuck with it for the immediate future at least. In my opinion the old adage write what you know is good in principle if you know a lot more than me, lol, I write characters based in part on people I've met on/offline and tend to impart some of my life's tortures onto at least one of them in each story other than that I tend to let my imagination run free.

I don't think writing about your own life experiences is limiting for a writer's longevity as you will continue to experience them up until you breathe your last breath but I think taking creative risks and stepping out of your comfort zone regularly is vitally important to hone your craft as a writer even for a run of the mill hack like myself. Another question he brought up was has the loss of a definitive white hat and black hat divide within modern television and film creating the anti hero led to in part the influx of morally ambiguous youths? I know what your thinking what a time to give up drinking, lol, I was thinking the same thing. He likes to ask me questions that leave me scratching my head and thinking what are you smoking kid?

So for anyone in the dark on the white hat/ black hat reference it refers to the old myth that in the early western movies the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys always wore black. Personally again this is only my opinion not the gospel truth just one slightly daft Scottish guy's opinion here but I'd say the antihero isn't a new concept remotely and I think the same argument was raised in the late 70s early 80s during the boom of the video nasties (banned horror movies) that those horror films would lead kids to loose their morals and although undoubtedly some people can be effected by any violent content be it in film or a TV show for the most part I think it's not a valid argument. TV and Cinema shouldn't be responsible for teaching children morals that is the job of their legal guardian and their teachers at school unless of course we're talking about Sesame Street or any other show like that.

The anti hero is a character type that is popular because she/he is usually anti authority and who wouldn't want to talk trash to their boss and get away with it? I don't even work and I'd love to do that, lol. I think in general it's the fact that most people have a strong moral compass that leads to these characters being so widely appreciated as they get to do the stuff we would like to do but know to be wrong that is what makes them so darn interesting. Anyhoo I've babbled on long enough and can't actually remember what I was originally going to write in this post as all this was going to be paragraph one only, lol, oops.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

51 without a bullet

This would have been blog post number 52 rather than 51 but as usual I was distracted over the weekend by other things and never seemed to have the time to sit down and put fingers to keys. I'm sitting here with the live coverage of the Chilean Miner's rescue attempt running on the television beside me which is 12 hours in and 13 miners have been successfully rescued and reunited with their families so far. It is events like this that really puts the minor league crap in our lives into perspective it truly is amazing the things we will let get to us and determine our moods for the day.

I recently got new glasses for the first time in 6 years and although I thought my eyesight hadn't really changed over that time I quickly discovered at my eye test that I couldn't even read the second line with my old glasses on. So a weekend of headaches and feeling cross-eyed for some bizarre reason later I'm finally getting used to the new stronger lenses but it hasn't stopped me moaning about them. As I was saying it's amazing what we complain about in life here is me complaining about having better eyesight and these 33 men have been stuck in a mine for over 60 days and they are coming out with big smiles on their faces, they have stayed so positive throughout their struggle it really makes me feel like a complete muppet for complaining at all, lol, but I'm only human after all.

I was checking out the stats page for my blog which I will admit I hadn't actually done before shockingly and was surprised and delighted to see that the joint second most popular place for my blog was Saudi Arabia. I knew the majority of my blogs' following would come from across the pond in America as I'm only really listed on American blog directories as I didn't find any UK ones that interested me but to find this blog has a following in Saudi Arabia is really cool so "shokran jazeelan" to you all, I think that was right you can never really 100% trust translation websites they rarely have Scottish slang translations right so what chance do they have of getting it right with Arabic?

In movie related news Hollywood legend Morgan Freeman is about to join an exclusive club joining fellow members Steven Spielberg, Orson Welles, Clint Eastwood, Alfred Hitchcock, Al Pacino and Meryl Streep as the Oscar-winning actor has been selected by the American Film Institute to receive the 39th Life Achievement Award, the organisation's highest honour for a career in film. A well deserved honour for a great actor in my opinion anyhoo that's enough rambling from me.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Hangover Blues

It's feels kind of strange sitting down to write this after such a long break from blogging, a break that was not planned but was probably much needed. I've been doing a lot of soul searching as of late and contemplating the future and for the first time in a long time not in a pessimistic fashion. It's been a long road to travel down over the last decade and for a brief moment there I was considering heading up the next off ramp but I guess the journey isn't over quite yet. I've dusted off an old script of mine recently and have begun the long rewrite process on it to get my eye back in as any writer will know all to well the worst thing you can do is take to long a break away from honing your craft.

A mind is a terrible think to waste they say and being someone who has had little outlet for creativity over the years mine is all but dust and faded words that no longer rhyme. I even stopped writing recently and am finding even that brief break from it has effected my writing style greatly. The last few short stories I've written have all headed in one direction head first straight through an unhappy ending. My attempted scripts of late have lacked my usual jokes in the 'action' for the reader's benefit but luckily for me I am slowly starting to change this unfortunate and unwanted trend. Don't get me wrong not every story should have a happy ending and depending on tone and subject matter not every screenplay should have in jokes for the reader but the subjects I tend to write about do, my work has been effected by my mental state at the time of writing I guess. I had even started to feel that writing was becoming like a chore for me to do and I've never felt that way before and hope I never will again.

A fellow writer friend of mine named John Cooper Smith, who I met online at a screenwriting forum, sold his first spec script to a small production house who specialise in making straight to DVD horror films and my first reaction instead of being happy for him was flat out jealousy, how wrong is that? His script is about a girl who finds out she was adopted as a baby and begins to search for her parents. Describing the rest would give the ending away so I'll just say it'll be gory for sure. The working title is "Family Dies" and should be released late next year, I'll try to get a link to the website for the film when it's up and running.

Anyway I can hear my wee niece getting in from school so no doubt she'll want her daft uncle to give her a hand with her homework. Thankfully she's only 5 so it's writing words like 'do', 'as' or 'cat' three or four times so nothing to difficult I dread the first time she gets the times tables to learn, lol, I know them all except for the 7 and 11 off by heart I guess I've had to many head knocks to remember them all.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Leave of absence

The Housebound Writer will return in 6-8 weeks.

And The Winner Is????

Well first off I'd like to thank all you guys for entering into this competition I really enjoyed reading all your entries some of which were great some of which were just well pornographic to be honest yeah I mean you CherryBiscuit, lol, referencing Bad Lieutenant very funny but give a guy some warning before hand. Some came close to winning in fact one in particular was the leading candidate for along time but then I read this one and it blew all the competition away it was that well crafted and the blend of this writer's style and my own worked perfectly which was my main concern with the comp.

My original idea for the prize was to simply post the story here and then a link to the winner's blog but the quality of this writer's work deserves better than that so I will only post a link to her blog where she has posted the story this way you guys will get to experience her work in it's own surroundings and give you the chance to enjoy her other posts while you are there.

So without further adieu the winner of the first Housebound Writer Short Fiction Award is (drum roll) the lovely Ms. Lovy Boheme (standing ovation) here's the link http://lovyboheme.blogspot.com/2010/08/carson-challenge.html and remember to read her other posts as well you will not be disappointed she is an amazingly talented writer, enjoy.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Stressed outside in

I'll post the winner of the short story competition this weekend so Friday will be the deadline and trust me some of the entries so far have been everything from hilarious to downright creepy, lol, good work guys. Just a short post today to talk about a seminar thing I was at last night I'll post again tomorrow or Thursday with some movie news I have received but can't release the info till Thursday at the earliest.

Last night I was at the first of the series of six of the stress control seminar things I have to attend as part of my psychotherapy treatment. They each last 90 minutes with a ten minute break and how those 90 minutes drag, I'm sure I'll get something out of it but sitting in a room full of stressed out women and being sober is unnerving to say the least, lol. There was literally only my brother, two older guys and me and the rest of the 12 or 14 people there were women I guess not a lot of guys want to admit to being stressed.

Night one is all about stress and what stress actually is apparently it's a mix of anxiety and depression and it can come with sleep problems, panic feelings and anger, sounds about right.

Here's some test questions:

Do you find it hard to relax?

Do you find it hard to stop worrying?

Do you worry about worrying?

Do you brood about the past?

Do you find it harder to get through the day?

Do you find it hard to be cheerful most days?

If you can answer yes to any of these questions then you are suffering from stress, the more yeses the more stress you are under. I could answer yes to them all so I'm way stressed going by this seminar.

Here is what I basically learned:

Stress is not a mental illness.

You won't become mentally ill because of stress even if the stress is severe.

You can't die from stress- no one ever has.

Once stress gets a grip of you, it feeds itself.

You can't cure stress only manage it better.

-Once stress gets a grip:

- Self-confidence drops

- Self-esteem drops

- You feel threat from all sides

- You doubt your ability to cope

- You can't stop your mind racing

- You start to avoid facing up to stress

- Your body reacts easily to stress

- You may feel your back is up against the wall

- You may feel that stress brings out the worst in you

- You feel you can't control you life

So with that said I'll find out ways to cope with these stresses over the next five seminars at least I think that's how it works, lol, the whole thing was quite stressful.

Here's a link to the folk that organise it http://www.glasgowsteps.com/

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Lazy Housebound Writer

I've been incredibly lazy when it comes to my blog as of late there again four days between posts and this time it wasn't because of writer's block just a mixture of laziness and the thought that my last post was on Monday rather than Saturday.

I meant my next blog post to be the second of my French cinema reviews I had picked two films to watch "A Prophet" & "Mesrine part 1" to recap on them for the post but I never got around to actually watching them. I've posted movie news a lot more than normal recently which I never actually intended for my blog to be quite this movie heavy but a mixture of breaking news that interested me, some of which I have gotten praise online from other sites for being one of the first to break, and the fact that my health issues are seemingly improving (touch wood) I haven't really had much else to blog about.

I also considered posting a short story I had been working on entitled "False Shadow" but it ran to about 15,000 words and I have a 1, 000/1,500 word limit for my shorts that I post on here as most people wouldn't read a blog post any freaking longer than that, lol, and I couldn't bring myself to make 15 blog posts out of it as it isn't that kind of story. So what to post about, do I give in to the inevitable and write another movie news blog post and give my spin on it or something else?

Competition Time!!!!!!!!

I thought what I'd do was write the first couple of paragraphs of a short story and you guys write the conclusion and I'll pick the best one and post it on this blog along with a link to your blog if you have one, yeah you win nothing other than your story getting posted, lol, woohoo right?

Story:

It lacked that new car smell but even at the age of 25 this Mercedes Benz was a new car to Travis. It was the first car he had ever bought and although it may be showing it's age he felt like a million dollars sitting behind the wheel as he watched the coast zip past him as he got lead footed with the accelerator. "Damn it" he thought as he spotted the blue whirl in his rear view, he pulled his car into the nearest lay by and awaited his fated ticket for speeding.

He fished out his documents and awaited the inevitable rap of knuckles against glass and wasn't waiting long. Travis wound down his window and handed his driver's licence over to the awaiting outstreched hand of the officer. 'I know, I know I was speeding I just got a Little bit carried away with my new car.' Travis said in the faint hope that what his Mother always told him to be true, "Honesty is the best policy", but as the officer doesn't respond Travis questioned his own logic maybe keeping stum will serve him better this time.

The officer without warning leans into the Mercedes and retrieves the car keys before strolling back to his car it was at this moment that a sudden shiver stooped through Travis' body as he realised the car parked behind his own wasn't a police car. It was a dark coloured sedan with tinted windows, "Must be an unmarked but aren't there always two cops, where's his partner?" Travis felt a second shiver descend through his body as he realised this guy who now had his ID and car keys was not a cop so what was he?

So in conclusion you write as long or as short a conclusion to this setup as you like and create your own title. I'm interested to see how you guys run with it, will Travis peg it or survive? It's completely up to you guys. Here's the Email address to post your stories to: thehouseboundwriter@hotmail.co.uk good luck.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Mixed bag part 3

Well it's time for another mixed bag collection of random not linked at all stories from Hollywood and elsewhere.

Movie News

Kane & Lynch has now gone into production after several false starts and a couple of Actor changes. The computer game adaptation is likely to be a Summer 2011 smash hit which may surprise those not aware of the game. Most Video game adaptations well they suck to be perfectly blunt but this one is different for two reason, reason 1= The perfect casting of Bruce Willis to play Kane and reason 2= The weird left field casting of Jamie Foxx to play Lynch a part many considered destined for Steve Buscemi or Billy Bob Thornton as the character is completely nuts.

Here's the little plot the game has, two death row inmates, one a mercenary named Kane the other a schizophrenic named Lynch, escape during a prison transport and team up to steal a fortune, I said it was a little plot, lol. The film will be Directed by F. Gary Gray who previously Directed Law Abiding Citizen, The Italian Job (crap remake) A Man Apart, The Negotiator and Be Cool and is written by relative newcomer Kyle Ward who's other credits include the yet to be filmed Hitman 2 and the Lionsgate project Deal With The Devil.

In other Movie news Brian J. Conroy's directorial debut "Darkened Bloom" is finally ready to go into production after 7 months of stalled starts after his original financial backer and distributor disowned the project after he rejected to recast the lead actor after they demanded it. Now what could this actor of done that's so bad that a financier would back out I hear you not say well I'll tell you anyway, after all look at actors like Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Eddie Murphy, Kiether Sutherland have all done things that would jeopardise them if they worked in any other profession well Conroy's lead actor's brother was suspected of terrorism.

He was found innocent but apparently as this guy is his brother the financiers wanted him replaced but Brian being Brian held his ground and now after finding new financiers he is ready to start shooting in Austin Texas so if your from those parts feel free to find the set and tell him AC sent you, lol, he's a cool guy and all you Texans should be proud of him.

Football (soccer) News

East Fife 3-3 Airdrie United

Well the Scottish Football Second Division got officially underway today and the recently relegated beloved club of yours truly faced the stern test of playing East Fife not stern because they are a good team no stern because they are a dirty team and the Airdrie United squad featured players as young as 16 years old as the club is so financially strapped they are relying on former Airdrie under 19 youth players and players they have taken on loan from larger clubs who are also under 19. It wasn't the prettiest of games at times and the inexperience of the young players was evident at all of the East Fife goals although ironically it was Airdrie's most senior player Paul Lovering, 34, who sold the 3rd.

But alas with youth comes greater resolve and greater fan support and they battled back from 3-1 down to level the game and come close to winning in the dying minutes. The team left the pitch to uproarious applause from the Airdrie fans something I haven't heard for a long time. So all in all a good game and a great result for the team to build upon.

The Wager

So recently I was played into making a wager with Emma that if anyone asked for it I would write a poem on this very blog and dedicate it to her and low and behold someone asked. Now that someone just happens to be a close friend of Emma's you could even say they are like sisters, lol, so now I'm stuck having to write a poem something I have done very few times in my life and place it on here and be treated to the inevitable slagging off from friends and family alike.

I thought as my poem will undoubtedly suck big time I would post a rather famous poem by the great Robert Louis Stevenson also so at least some of this blog post won't be a bad read so here goes.

Romance

By

Robert Louis Stevenson

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight

Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.

I will make a palace fit for you and me,

Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.

I will make my kitchen,and you shall keep your room,

Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom,

And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white

In rainfall at morning and Dewfall at night.

And this shall be for music when no one else is near,

The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!

That only I remember, that only you admire,

Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.

And unfortunately it's now my turn so here goes nothing.

Winchin

By Andrew G. Carson

She is truly as bonnie as can be

Wi' the opposite can be said fur me

But she calms mi nerves wi' her smile

So full of love and a hint of guile.

Her banter at times is pure bewildering

I havenae a scooby whit she's uttering

She uses text speak tae confuse her man

I have tae Google tae answer back as quick as I can.

She through me a chance when she came a winchin

Cannae for the life a me see whit she was thinking

Aye she never tells me tae haud ma wheesht

For her lugs carry favour and keep the peace.

She thinks she got one over me with this dare

She doesnae know how much I truly care

If she had asked fur a poem fae mi h'art

I would have gladly recited mi love fae the start.

Barf bags at hand for all who managed to get to the end, lol, and the usual service will be resumed from my next blog post honest.

Index of Scottish Words/slang

fur= for

banter= chat

Scooby= (Scooby doo) no clue

whit= what

tae= to

winchin= courting/ dating

cannae= can't
Aye= yes

hauld ma wheescht= shoosh/ shut up

lugs= ears

doesnae= does not

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

2 times a Baby

9:54-9:55am(24 rip off alert, lol)

Today's post will be written at two different times today to cover my two hospital visits, yep that's right two hospital visits in one day. The first was a morning appointment for 9am a time I haven't seen on the clock from anything other than a horizontal position in a long time. It was an appointment with the cardiology department to have a mobile ECG fitted for 24 hours so the usual mad panic to get to the hospital on time ensued and as always I was left waiting past my appointment time to be taken, ever noticed if you turn up slightly past your time they don't like it, they make a big song and dance about it and make you feel 2 foot tall but they expect you to be courteous to them when they run late? Double standards or what?

Anyhoo I digress once taken into a tiny side room to get the electrodes attached via a lot, LOT of tape and a quick check to see the machine is working right and off on my way I was, you wonder with turn around like this how they can ever run late. The one piece of advice they gave me 'Go about your normal daily routine', sure as my daily routine always consists of trying not to accidentally rip electrodes of my chest along with hair and a nipple. At least I can see the funny side in it but I just know my weekly trip to the Physchologist later on today at 3pm is not going to be comfortable sitting in that narrow low backed chair I'm going to find it incredibly hard to stay focused on the subject at hand with this gizmo sticking to me.

16:42-16:43pm (still going with the 24 rip off)

Just back from the psychologist office with more homework, I swear it's like being back in high school except maybe it's more believable if you say your dog ate it or you ate it now, lol. This week's assignment is to fill in a form about "Situations which make me feel anxious", is it only me that thinks it would be funny to write filling in this damn form made me feel anxious? LOL just me then, here is a rundown of the various parts of the form.

box1 Situation

Where was I?

What was I doing?

Who was I with?

When was it?

box 2 Anxiety/ subjective Units Of Distress Scale (SUDS) 0-100

basically you fill in on a scale of 0-100 how stressed the previous made you.

box 3 Thoughts (or images)

What was going through my mind?

What am I afraid of?

What does this mean about me?

What does this mean about what the other person thinks about me?

What is the worst thing that could happen if this is true?

Page 2 Putting my anxious thoughts on trial in court

Box 1 Thoughts (or images)

What was going through my mind?

What am I afraid might happen?

Basically a condensed version of page 1

box 2 Evidence for thought

what evidence do I have if any that supports this thought.

box 3 Evidence against this thought

What evidence do I have to prove this thought wrong.

box 4 Summary & Conclusion

What conclusions can I make given all the evidence in box 2 and 3.

This is actually a really great way to work out a lot of issues as much as I loathe filling in forms due to my incredibly poor penmanship (I should have been a doctor) this is a task I look forward to undertaking to discover if I can actually realise when a thought is fuelled by anxiety or not when I'm right there in the moment and if it effects the number of seizures I endure.

Anyhoo I've rattled on enough.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Block Off

I just realised I haven't posted since Sunday, I actually though it was more recent than that. I've been distracted this week by a mixture of personal distractions and creative ones as well as the Mother of all Writer's block which has moved over from one particular troubled writing project to encompass all of them. Annoyingly this seems to include my blog also but I'm going to work through it by posting today on the subject of writer's block itself and hopefully by doing so it will free up my creative flow.

In 2004 writer and Neurologist Alice W Flaherty argued in her book The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block And The Creative Brain, that literary creativity is a function of specific areas of the brain, and that block may be the result of brain activity being disrupted in those areas. Sounds believable to me as someone who has suffered brain damage it would make sense that it would corrupt my creative process from time to time I just wish it wouldn't do it when I'm on a role with my latest story.


Reason For Writer's Block


1. Lack of Inspiration
2. Distracted by other tasks that need doing first
3. Poor planning
4. Depression
5. Physical Illness
6. Sense of failure both personally and professionally
7. Intimidated by a previous success
8. Stress
9. Boredom
10. Lack of energy




Cures For Writer's Block

1. Outline your story fully
it's amazing how many people don't outline I for one never outline unless I'm writing a script but it can be a valuable resource to come back to later in times of writer's block.


2. Remind yourself that the first draft doesn't need to be a work of art it is just a blueprint for the many that follow.

3. Switch off the phone put on some music to chill out to and relax your breathing take long deep breathes and close your eyes.


4. Stretch as many muscle groups as possible as a way to relieve your body of stress, sounds stupid but is recommended by a very reputable writer and psychologist.


5. Force yourself to write down your thoughts no matter how poorly worded, this is helpful to distinguish between a creative block and a block for another reason such as depression or self doubt.


6. Talk over your project with someone whose opinion you respect not a family member or someone who can't give you creative feedback someone who will tell you straight. This is often said to be the worse thing you can do but I have found this helpful in the past.


7. Break the writing into smaller steps
If it's a novel don't think of writing the whole 90,000+ words think of the first 500 it's a less scary proposition and we all know we got 500 words in us.


8. If it's boredom you are suffering from take time to do something else you enjoy and always remember to break your writing time down into manageable chunks of time to stop boredom creeping in.


9. Lack of energy is usually down to lack of sleep take a break relax and come back to your writing later when you feel refreshed as there is nothing worse than sitting staring at a blank screen and you can barely keep your eyes open.


10. Sometimes if you're working on an assignment and the subject is just not talking to you maybe what you need to do is look at it from a different angle and find something in the genre or subject matter that you can relate to and if the assignment allows go with that.

Anyhoo I'm back writing again so I guess this post has helped me and I hope something in here will help you guys.



Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

Mixed bag part 2 more mix less filler

Just a short post today guys as I have been busy trying to write an E-Book which I'll get back to talking about later but first here is some Movie News I meant to post last night.

Movie News

As I stated a few posts back the role of Bruce Banner will be recast for the upcoming Avengers movie and recast it has been step forward Mark Ruffalo. This to me is a great piece of casting and will certainly relieve a lot of fans awaiting this movie as there had been fears that Ed Norton would be replaced by an unknown for financial reasons but alas it's just as I speculated previously it's due to Mr. Norton's poor communication skills with directors shall we say to not get sued, lol.

I heard the news yesterday evening that a friend of mine named James L. Aaronson has been hired to script a new film for a major studio which is loosely based on the 1970's Italian horror film "Till The Blood Drips No More" which was about a vampire who due to hate of what he had become tries to kill himself only to be saved by a beautiful medical student who he falls in love with. The rest of the film is basically him trying not to give in to his animalistic urge to feed by draining her of her blood. The movie had a great central theme for the time but was poorly executed as it developed into gore for gore sake and that late 70's horror tradition of excessive nudity but I think the new version will be more akin to the modern Vampire tale like in "Let The Right One In" so one to look out for next year, and of course congratulations James you deserve it buddy.

Me News

It's been relatively quite of recent for me not much to report, (hehe) I have been experiencing some major back and neck pain as of late that I'm looking to get checked out more extensively very soon and I had a scary moment the other night when I lost the feeling in my legs for about 45 minutes which caused me to have a panic attack but luckily I remembered the breathing exercises my psychologist has been teaching me and that calmed me down. On the seizure front I've been having less of late (knock wood) and my memory has improved slightly so all these mind numbingly boring memory tests must actually be working for me.

On the productive front I've been suffering from terrible writer's block as of late when it comes to the E-Book I have been writing so I thought I'd tell you guys about the plot to get your feedback and to see if you think it sounds OK or not, I know this is the exact opposite thing every book about the writing process tells you to do. The story is about an ex SAS officer (a UK military special forces unit) who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and frequent seizures due to a bullet lodged in his skull, I know I'm projecting some of my problems onto him but they say write what you know. Anyhoo he is pretty down on his luck when his old commanding officer pays him a visit to hire him to help find a missing teenage girl who happens to be his ex commanding officer's Goddaughter.

He accepts out of loyalty only as he no longer has faith in his previous talents but as the plot unfolds he has to rely more and more upon the things he did for his Country that his Country wouldn't like to know occurred, to find the girl. I weaved in possible culprits along the way I've implicated her father a powerful business tycoon, her step mother a slush and a gold digger and I've implicated various police and members of our hero's own team the problem lies with this, how do I get over the problem of him thinking like me instead of me thinking like him? What I mean is he has started to sound like me I've lost the character's voice along the way and am interested to hear if this has ever happened to any other writer's out there. I think it may have happened when I took my eye off the ball and changed the story from character driven to plot driven around the middle of the story.

Anyhoo I look forward to your comments guys.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Guest Post

Well today's post will be a little break from the norm as it will be written by Ms. Emma Murty, I met Emma online at a discussion board about independent cinema where we discovered our mutual dislike for Paul WS Anderson films and his crazy fans, now Emma's never blogged before so go easy on her guys and all I can say is thank God for spell checker, lol.

Hello to you all,

With an introduction like that the only way for this to go is downhill fast ,lol, well some people who read this blog will know my name from the comments pages on here, discussion threads and an Interview on BlogCatalog but others won't so here's a quick bio for you. I'm Emma, I'm 21 years old, I hail from Hamilton Scotland, I'm the oldest of three sisters and I recently graduated from The Royal Glasgow Institute Of Fine Arts with a degree, yippee, and I'm a very good, good friend of the blog master himself Drew (DB) Carson the DB thing is a private joke don't worry if you don't get it. We talk everyday and share a lot of our lives together, hint, hint.

Now when he double dared me to write a blog post for him I of course said yes but then quickly found myself wondering "what the h*** will I write about?" I won't do the whole film reviewing thing justice compared to Drew and my life troubles are nothing compared to Drew's own so I thought maybe I'll just blabber on and hope at the end of it all something not to embarrassing or off putting to Drew's audience would be created. (wipes sweat from forehead) Man this is hard how do you guys do it?

The one thing I can definitely write about is art well art and coffee I love my coffee, lol, but I think I'll stick to art for now and in particular my photography. I've always had a camera in my hand as far back as I can remember and take my Canon Digital Rebel T2i everywhere I go because inspiration can grasp you anytime and you need to grab onto it.

These two are two of my favourites in my collection because I think there is real emotion on display well as close to real emotion as you can get out of an old boat and a deserted beach, ROTFL, but I think you guys know what I mean.

I always find that the hardest pictures to get right are nature pictures. You get very little time to line up the shot get the focus right and shoot (poor choice of words I know, lol) but they are so worth it when you get a good one.

I like to think these two represent hope and inspiration but I'm not quite sure if they pull it off (another poor choice of words, ROTFL) I think they are at least optimistic in concept and helped me gain that degree I mentioned as I turned both into paintings for my course.

These are two Glasgow landmarks, the one on the left is the S.E.C.C building where many concerts and shows are put on and to the right is the Clyde Arc or as it's affectionately known in Glasgow The Squinty Bridge. I just love the modern design of the bridge which is not far away from the classic sandstone buildings Glasgow is famous for, it truly can take your breath away at the right time of day.

I think I've taken up enough of Drew's blog now, hehe, hope this wasn't to painfully bad big man. I would like to thank everybody who reads this and please don't stop following this blog this was a one off trust me, lol, I'd also like to thank Drew this was actually really fun and I'm glad you talked me into it, I'll need to think of something to make it up to you (thinks hard, smiles) ROTFL, see you soon Drew.

Well let's hear it for Ms. Murty's very well written blog post and great pictures to go with it, we'll make a blogger out of you yet girl. I bet you used the spell checker almost as much as me though, am I right?........ Thought so.

Anyhoo

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Aller au cinema

This is the first in what will become a regular feature, not that regular, possibly do it again feature on foreign films. A fellow blogger and outstanding poet Kenia Kris asked me via comment on this blog if I liked French Cinema? And if I would write a blog post about French films well the answer is yes but where to begin on dissecting the film industry of that great Country? If I started a blog post about the influences of French New Wave cinema on Hollywood in the 60s and 70s I would need to start an all new blog for my other topics.

Well thankfully another friend had the answer 'Blog about the last French film you watched and go from there, du'h', the immortal words of some girl named Emma something or other eh, eh.... Oh yes Emma Murty, lol. The last French film I watched was the modern day classic known in France as "Ne le dis a personne" and to the English speaking part of the World as "Tell No One".

Tell No One (from 2006)

The film is adapted from a novel by Harlan Coben, Coben originally auctioned the rights to his book off in Hollywood with director Michael Apted attached but after that deal fell through Coben turned to French actor turned director Guillaume Canet who had been calling Coben up for months telling him his take on the book. Coben was impressed by Canet's vision for the story and his understanding that the book was a romance first and a thriller second something Coben believes Hollywood never truly realised. Starring Francois Cluzet who also appeared in French Kiss and Round Midnight and the always wonderful Kristin Scott Thomas, this is a must see movie and a great introduction to modern French cinema for anyone interested in the Foreign Film section of the local DVD store.

The plot centres around Alexandre Beck still tortured by his wife Margot brutal murder 8 years previously, a murder for which Alex was the prime suspect. Alex soon finds himself the prime suspect once again when two bodies are discovered near where the corpse of Margot was dumped 8 years previous leads the police to reopen Margot's case . The mystery escalates when Alex receives an E-Mail showing Margot older and alive. The supporting cast is fleshed out with familiar faces from modern French cinema including Andre Dussollier, Gilles Lellouche, Philippe Lefebvre and Florence Thomassin.

In my opinion Tell No One is one of the best thrillers of the last decade and has something for everybody, romance, action, twists and great performances all through the cast a real 4/5 stars film and it is also blessed with an outstanding soundtrack.

(oh and if any of those names are spelled wrong just remember I'm Scottish I can barely spell English words right)

Future film reviews in this series will include:

Mesrine

Prophet

36 (Quai Des Orfevres)

District 13

Two Days In Paris (don't blame me, picked by Ms. Murty)

Me News

Today was my weekly visit to the psychologist which I always look forward to, no that's not at all sarcasm. Today we were talking about the "3Rs" Relaxation, Recreation and Relationships and how important for someone in my position it is to not neglect any of these. My homework last week was to fill in an hour by hour schedule of what I did and how stressed it made me to do it. This homework was slightly annoying to be honest but it gives them something to work with to see if stress affects my seizures in any way, shape or form.

The one thing I noticed about this schedule was the amount of time I actually spend writing, the best part of six hours a day not including my blog or my activity on the discussion boards. Scary amount but apparently this counts as being productive towards one of the 3Rs, recreation. The other somewhat startling statistic is the lack of sleep I get, I hadn't ever sat down and tried to work out how many hours sleep I get a night before it turns out on average this is less than two and a half hours a night.

Don't be alarmed if you are in the same boat as me on the sleep front as lack of sleep doesn't really have any long term problems associated with it other than feeling sluggish, moody and forgetful and forgetful oh wait I already wrote that, lol. The other topic discussed today was me getting angry with myself when I'm in pain this adds to the stress levels so when I get angry towards myself I'm to remember and say 'What would I say to a friend that was in this position?' I'm guessing I would say something like 'I'm sorry to hear you're so ill that must really p*** you off, eh buddy?' Maybe that's an answer I'll keep to myself and think of a better one for therapy.

Oh and as it will really annoy my good friend Emma here is a picture of Ms Murty, say cheese!

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Quote 1 Quote all

Recently I was called up on the fact I tend to use quotes a lot on discussion boards to enforce my point of view, to be honest I just use them cause they tend to come to mind at the time and I use them as a kind of title for my comment.

Now a lot of these quotes are from such greats as Plato, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Robert burns, Oscar Wilde and of course Billy Connolly but I also tend to throw a few of my own into the mix and I have decided to make a blog post out of them. Now I'm not a philosopher, great poet or a wondrously funny comedian but as a writer I find that opening myself up to writing different styles helps me in developing my own.

Now most of the sites out there with quotes on them tend to have photographs of amazingly beautiful far off locations to inspire the reader I'm going to go a slightly different way myself and showcase my home town Airdrie, Scotland to the World and maybe up it's profile a little and by little I mean little, lol.

I'll post the quotes and underneath I'll try to give a little info on the subject I used that quote for. "The bravest of them all is the one who asks for help the earliest."
This quote was one I came up with for a discussion on what gets in the way of people seeking help for depression, my opinion was it is often pride and/or lack of self worth.

"A minority is less in number but equal in value."
This is a quote I posted on a discussion thread that I found the author of to have a very bigoted view of minorities in his local area.

"Scotland is a land of faith, faith that the wind will always blow and the National team will always suck."
This was a quote I used for a sport thread, I thought it was quite funny at the time.

"To know the truth ask one friend to know a lie ask three more."
Now I'm not 100% sure this is one of my own but I used it to describe the difference between a true friend and Friends that will tell you what you want to hear.

"To trust another with the truth is to trust yourself with a lie."
I can't quite remember what this was used to represent on my part I remember I was feeling quite depressed when I wrote it.

"The bonnie heart, scented by the flower of spring beats in time with my fretful heart."
This one came from a challenge by a person who thought that no man would have the guts to post a romantic verse on that thread.
"Fortune is to some the frivolous fold of green and ink but to others the joy of a warm embrace."
This was a comment header on another blogger's blog post about greed.

"Scotland is a lot like Heaven, cloudy."
This was first used by me on a comedy thread about describing your Country or town.
"For each a new day and for each new day a smile."
This wasn't posted on any thread but instead on the comments page of a friend's blog where I was trying to cheer her up, I hope it worked.

"To Hope for sun is to ask for rain."
I used this on a discussion thread about people who never have enough and always want more.
I think that will be enough and I thank any who managed to read this far, I'll be getting back to my normal posts about movies and myself very soon, anyhoo....

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer