Ariel Ashira

@seekjustice Oh my goodness!  The awkward head nodding thing with male friends! 😛  Sometimes the guy is confident and just goes out to shake your hand, but if he’s not sure if you want to and you’re too shy to initiate the handshake, it’s kind of awkward.  Especially if you just hugged his sister or something… 😉

Um…hmm…of course! 😀  Wha…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Well those other greetings are pretty standard here, particularly the fake kissing when it comes to older people. I often shake older peoples hands and hug my female friends and do some kind of awkward head nodding thing with male friends.

Um…hmm…I was wondering if I would be able to ask a favour of you?

@seekjustice It’s about the least awkward greeting I can imagine, for men.  They won’t go in for a hug usually, but a handshake is never awkward.  Then they can show they’re a bit more friendly by adding a half hug on to the end of it.

Women do it sometimes, but it’s mostly a guy thing.  And a guy greeting a woman will usually either shake her ha…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Our anthem is quite long too, and we usually only sing the first two verses.

Well I guess its not weird…I’ve just never seen anyone do it. It just sounds awkward, trying to handshake and hug at the  same time.

@jenwriter17 No, I do not. 🙂  How does that work?

(I do know what Goodreads is, of course!  I use it all the time to look up books.  I’m just not sure what an author account would do or how you would set it up.)

@ariel-ashira I’ll be praying!

@alia  Oh, I’m so glad you like them!  Yes, they do look similar.  Ha.  Funny.  🙂

@seekjustice Most Americans only know the first verse of the National Anthem, but it’s a very long verse.  The second verse talks about God, so Christians sing it in church or when we get together for hymn sings, but regular people don’t know it.  Have you ever heard the American National Anthem?  It’s famous for being an extremely complicated so…[Read more]

@waterlily The standard way to get around age limits is to use the joint venture approach. Basically, someone older than you (a parent, probably) agrees to be part of what you’re doing. They can create an account on MailChimp and let you use it. If they ever stopped letting you use it, legally that would be fine unless you had signed some sort of…[Read more]

@rochellaine

I understand that feeling. It’s so easy for us writers to become besotted, isn’t it? 😉

I guess the way I love my characters stems from my desire to maintain objectivity in my writing. As evil overlordish as this sounds, my characters are, ultimately, tools. Since I personally know so much about my characters, it is easy for me to…[Read more]

@rochellaine

I saw a meme on Pinterest the other day about Aussies singing the national anthem and it was so accurate. Basically, we’re usually only asked to sing the anthem during Anzac Day or other military commemorations. We’re asked to take off our hats and stand, then we hesitantly begin to sing “Australians, let us all we rejoice for we are…[Read more]

@rochellaine Ha, that’s hilarious! Sounds like you had a great time 😉

@jenwriter17 It was wonderful!  As I was telling SeekJustice, we had the guy who played Mr. Pulitzer as our waiter, and my dad joked about not tipping him if he had realized he was the bad guy beforehand. 😛

@seekjustice Oh, okay.  I know it’s an Asian thing, and I’ve heard that it’s European too, but what you’re describing in Australia seems p…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Yes, that’s what I read. We have a much higher minimum wage here, but if you go to a nice restaurant, particularly an Asian one, there’s usually a bowl for tips on the counter. But tips are usually an indication of “You went above and beyond expected service so you deserve a little extra” and also its more like tipping the whole…[Read more]

@valtmy And now it’s the dead of night for me… 😛

Thanks!  I did enjoy Newsies very much!

Yes, that makes sense.  Actually the paramedics scene was very easy for me, but it’s the longer bridge sections that are harder.  I’m pretty much having the problem you just described: I have to have some things happen between the important scenes, wi…[Read more]

@rochellaine AH! How was it? 😀

@seekjustice Yes, I was considering asking you about that.  I’ve heard they don’t tip in Europe, but I wasn’t sure about Australia.

In America waiters are paid very little, and nearly their entire wages consist of what tips the patrons are generous enough to leave.  I believe a 15-20% tip is considered reasonable most places, and a lot of times t…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Ha! Did you know that I was researching American culture the other day for my novel and I was reading about tips. We don’t give tips in Australia. Just a curious thing I learned.

@seekjustice 😛 It was really funny, because they give out the tip trays before the show starts, and you don’t know who is playing what, since they’re all in their waiter uniforms.  So my dad left him a big tip because he was a good waiter, and then he got it during intermission, and came back to thank my dad.  My dad teased him that he didn’t k…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Awesome!! *tries harder not to be jealous* I love the fact that Mr Pulitzer was your waiter!