Funny Photo Friday

I hope everyone had a fabulous week and will have an even more fabulous weekend! At our house we're finally going to get our Christmas cheer on and do some decorating.

The other night I bought The Busy Writer's One Hour Plot by Marg McAlister. I'm excited to try out the one hour plot method on my current work-in-progress. I haven't been able to get past the first plot point, but after reading the book I had a couple of great ideas to increase stakes and get some action going in the middle. Maybe magic will happen this weekend!

An extra photo made it's way into the mix today. There were so many cute ones, I had to post them all. I hope you don't mind.

Last week's winner, by one, was:

And here's the new photos!

I tend to agree.

Been there, felt that.

Moose gone bad.  Actually, moose are quite scary and dangerous, so the caption is accurate.

Did you notice the color of the towel matches the cat's eyes?

Aw, player dog, you're so cute.

I love the cat's face. Is Grumpy Cat from a specific breed? Anyone know?

What can I say! He looks like Batman!

I love the Leia cat, but player dog has my heart (and my vote for favorite.)

Have you done any Christmas decorating yet?

Which is your favorite?

Can Failure Be Avoided?

Of late I've been freaking out. I'm scared to death my book is going to sink, people are going to laugh at me and I'll have to slink away to hide in the shadows of the blogosphere. I also am afraid I'm not going to be able to write a decent follow up book to Finding Meara.

Photo Courtesy freedigitalphotos.net

In other words, I'm scared I'm going to fail.

"Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out." Benjamin Franklin

Thanks, Ben. Part of me seized when I read this quote. Does he mean me, right now? Am I going to know failure? But then I caught on to how freeing it can be to embrace failure. Sure, we'll all know failure at some time, which means we might as well get on with it all. If we fail, we just do something different next time. No biggie.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Winston Churchill

Excellent point, Winston. Even if we do succeed once, there is no guarantee that we won't ever fail again. And no one is going to take away our respective birthdays if we do fail. In the grand scheme of things, at least for me, the stakes of writing aren't all that high. My ego is at risk, but that's about all.

"Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure." Confucius

The courage to continue on and keep moving forward becomes the previous preparation Confucius is talking about. We get better, we learn new things and can try different methods to accomplish that for which we are working so hard.

So I guess the answer is no, the option of failure can not be avoided.  But we need to be courageous and try, anyway. Otherwise, it's guaranteed we will never experience success.

How do you handle the fear of failure?

Funny Photo Friday

I can't believe it, but I actually forgot to get today's post together. I have been fighting to get well all week long and last night I just wanted to go to bed. So I did! Unfortunately, I didn't even think about my blog responsibilities.

Last week's winner is:

And here are some new funny photos for you!

Notice all the people are on the other side of the jeep?

I always imagined this would happen if you did "taste the rainbow."

It was too cute not to include.

The power of teamwork!

Even penguins have to have dreams.

Why do sloths always look so happy?

I kinds was thinking along the lines of torpedo. It sure is a cute little hippo!

The winner of Brian Pagel's book, Up So Down, is Kimberly Gabriel! I'll get in contact with you soon.

My favorite today is the baby hippo, although the lions made me laugh. Can I call it a tie?

Have a happy weekend. I'm hoping to finally get well!

Anybody else sick out there? Which is your favorite picture?