I'm not going to mention Peanuts, Gold And Happiness...

My latest short story
'Peanuts, Gold And Happiness'
which I'm not going to mention
at all this week.

My latest short story, 'Peanuts, Gold And Happiness' was recently released, and usually on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, whenever I release a new short story or new book, I traditionally feature a blog post promoting the short story or book.

However, I've decided that it's kind of egotistical to use my blog just to advertise my short stories, so instead I've decided for once that this week I'm not going to promote my latest short story. In fact I'm not going to mention it at all.

Instead this week I've decided to feature a selection of totally random clips, memes and puzzles...

1) Giraffe or dolphin

Readers may remember the 'laurel or yanny' audio clip which went viral a couple of years ago. It was a rather weird audio trick whereby two people could listen to the same audio clip, and one person would hear the word 'laurel' while the other would hear the word 'yanny'.

Giraffe or dolphin?
You(r ears) decide!

Here's a similar audio trick with the words giraffe and dolphin. The voice narrator is actually saying 'giraffe', but a few seconds of introductory ambient noises have been added to the audio to trick the human mind into hearing the word 'dolphin' when the narrator's audio begins.

It only works on people with sharp mental reflexes, so if you hear the word 'dolphin' you're quite possibly a genius! Whereas if you hear the word 'giraffe', your brain is too slow to be deceived by clever audio engineering!

Anyway, have a listen to the clip and see what you hear...

Cakes gone wrong

It's National Cake Day in a few days' time, so to celebrate this week's blog post is on the theme of cakes. And when you're buying a cake for someone, perhaps for their birthday or some other special occasion, what could be better than getting a personalised message written on the top of the cake!

Well, as the following examples demonstrate, if you do decide to buy a personalised cake, make sure you give the bakery very precise instructions for the message, otherwise you could end up with a cake gone wrong like some of the following examples...

1) Blind girl blond girl

This first cake was ordered by a Scottish lady who asked for a birthday cake with 'a wee blond girl on top'. Unfortunately, autocorrect changed 'blond' to 'blind'...

This was the original tweet:

"My mum ordered a cake for my sister's birthday and asked for a blond girl on top but it autocorrected to blind girl and we got this."

10 happy birthday messages

An elephant Fudgemuffin never sometimes forgets...

From time to time you hear of husbands or wives, or boyfriends or girlfriends forgetting their partner's birthdays*, and their partners getting understandably annoyed. However, you generally don't hear of people forgetting their own birthdays ... but that's what I did last year on my own birthday!

* Although admittedly, it's probably mostly the husbands and boyfriends doing the forgetting.

I got up and went to work as normal, as if it was a normal day, and went into the staff canteen for a few minutes before I was due to start work. By coincidence, the office where I work was officially one year old that day, so there were 'Happy Birthday' signs up everywhere to celebrate the building being one year old. So I was sat there looking at all the 'Happy Birthday' signs when I suddenly remembered, "Ee, it's my birthday today!"

Random thoughts (part 8)

It's been a few month since my last batch of random thoughts, so that can only mean one thing. It's time for another collection of yet more random thoughts...

Happy birthday to Tu Youyou!

1) Happy birthday to Tu Youyou!

The winner of the 2015 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine was Chinese chemist Tu Youyou.

Rather impressively, Tu Youyou discovered new antibiotics which are used to treat malaria. But even more impressive is the fact that Tu Youyou has the world's most confusing name to sing happy birthday to!

Tu Youyou's friends: "Happy birthday to you!"
Tu Youyou: "No, it's Tu Youyou."

10 weird websites (part 2)

I often like to recycle ideas on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, and this week is no exception! This week's blog post is based on a theme that I've featured before ... weird websites.

So without further ado, here's another batch of 10 weird websites...

1) Windows 93

Windows 93

If you're in a technology shop and you want to play a sneaky trick, then go to the website below on one of the display PCs, and it will appear as if the computer is running Windows 93! It's so authentic that you even get the old Windows start up jingle!

As an added bonus if you click on the icons each icon brings up a weird 'app'. I highly recommend playing a few games of 'BrianSweeper' and seeing how well you do. I completed it on expert on my first go! #NotReally

www.windows93.net

True or false: Old fashioned insults

October 28th is National Insult Day, so on that theme this week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog takes a look at old fashioned insults.

Some of the following terms are old fashioned insults which were used in the olden days, but to keep you on your toes I've also included a few made up insults. Some fake insults may be fairly obvious, but others may be a little trickier to spot.

Take a look at the following insults and see if you can guess which of the following used to be real insults in the olden days, and which are made up...

Look at that total cabbage head!

1) Cabbage head

An easy one to start things off. As you can probably guess, a cabbage head is someone who is incredibly stupid, or seriously lacking in intellect.

Real insult or fake insult?

2) Lubberwort

Sticking with the theme of vegetables, a lubberwort is quite a bizarre insult as a lubberwort is 'someone who has eaten a mythical vegetable which makes them extremely stupid.' In reality of course, eating vegetables doesn't make you stupid - unless you eat Brussels sprouts, which taste horrible and therefore you would have to be stupid to eat them.

Real insult or fake insult?

How many ... does it take to change a light bulb? (part 2)

"How many light bulbs does it take to change a light bulb?"

From time to time on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, if a blog post is about an important enough subject, I like to cover it more than once. And what could be more important than National Light Bulb Day!

For those who didn't realise, as ridiculous as it sounds, yesterday was National Light Bulb Day, so in honour of light bulbs everywhere, here's another round-up of light bulb jokes...


1) How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
One ... but the light bulb has to want to change.


2) How many clickbait headline writers does it take to change a light bulb?
14. Number 7 will shock you!