"Tag! You're It!" or "Time Out Tuesday with S.Kemp"

Remember running around with your friends during a summer day playing tag or red rover or kick the can? Have you ever had to watch (or baby sit) someone's child and the first thing out of the whippersnapper's mouth is "Lets play" and play involves running around saving imaginary people or fighting imaginary monsters?

These Italian children showed me that "let's play" can also
mean "run around and chase pigeons".

 A couple of weeks ago I went to a friends house for a cook out. Their granddaughter came over a little later and the first thing she said after she met me was, "You be the sparkle ninja and I'm the rainbow unicorn pegasus. We can change into any animal but we gotta save the people but first we gotta fight each other". I kid you not. I knew it was going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.

It turns out, I'm not as fit as a seven year old. I don't just run around the yard for fun any more. (OK, look. I don't have a yard to run around in anymore.) I was out of breath after 15 minutes of changing into dragons, tigers, sea monsters, rainbow sparkle unicorns and the like. I called a time out. It's a magical phrase.

A time out can be called when you need to catch your breath, when you've been running around with someone 21 years younger than you and you need some water, or when you're about to be tagged "It" but you don't really want to be tagged so you pretend you're out of breath just before the "It" person tags you, so when the "It" person stops running you call "Time in!" and run away. (Apparently, this tactic is only allowed if you are between the ages of three and seven and the "It" person is, like, 28 years old.)

I know it's only Tuesday and Friday seems like a distant star in the glimmering weekend universe, but call a time out, catch your breath, and check out these links before you go running off to something important... like fighting off rainbow sparkle unicorns.

Cutie egg tarts! Yummy source here.

I just love cupcakes. If you do too check out this photo series called "cupcake wars". Cute "edible" things made out of yarn.

I really want to read "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs. Children with extraordinary abilities, old photographs, and a mystery... yeah. Check out this teaser video for the book.

Fan of BBC comedy? Me too. Watch this trailer for the movie "In The Loop". If you think this is funny I'm told you'll also laugh hysterically at the BBC series called "The Thick Of It".

Love writing and you've always wanted to submit something to a contest but don't know where to start? Check out Poets&Writers Magazine's list of contests. It's tidy and sorted by application fee and application deadline.

This link is for Lucy. Fast cars and motorcycles. The Selvedge Yard has some pretty fun photos and links. (The film "Shutter Speed" has a lady motorcycle rider, Lucy! But watching parts of it made me sea sick...)

I love taking photographs of my daily activities as boring or pretty as they come. I also really enjoy looking through photos taken by others to see what their life is like. Aan de dijk is a collection of bright photos taken during everyday Dutch life. (Check out the list of photography links in the "some info" section.)

The art work of Johan Potma. Whimsical cartoonish pantings and sketches. Check them out.

Also. If you haven't seen this yet it's a video of Neil Gaiman when he addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012. It's an inspiring piece for anyone who wants to write or make good art.