Miscellaneous Mum - Trying to find the objective correlative, everyday

These laces were made for tying

Karen — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:02:41 +0000

These are my sneakers.

Yesterday, Keira tied the shoelaces up all by herself.

And practiced and practiced until her father arrived home so she could show him her new skill.

As you can tell, she’s very proud.

So am I.

Local paper picture

Karen — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:26:39 +0000

I was photographed last week by one of the local papers regarding the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Alan Marshall Short Story Award.

Here is the short article

I suspected that the angle of the shot, and the laws of gravity, would not be friendly to my face, and I was correct. I now have the urge to run out and get a quickie facelift. Also, the fact has been confirmed again that I have The World’s Ugliest Hands.

Not that I’m vain or anything.

(My mother and sister and now doubled-over laughing)

But in all seriousness it’s a lovely honour and I am lucky to live in an area that is so supportive of the arts and the artistic community.

Wheels for a travellin’

Karen — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:09:37 +0000

Our family must make a funny sight of a weekend as we push the kids around on their bikes.

Remember our backyard reconstruction? Our attempt at future thinking so the kids could have a flat strip to ride along?

Turns out the bike theory was pointless. The turning circle isn’t wide enough for Keira’s bike at all, and even with Riley’s you pedal three times and you’re already at the end. Then you struggle to turn around, pedal three times, and run into the same issue again. So we need to go up and out onto the streets to practice. Of course, we live on a hill just as our entire suburb is a endless series of ups-and-downs, and so this process of helping them develop the skill of riding a bike – I fear – might be a draw-out one.

Not that my son would agree. I sometimes cringe if I wonder what the people in the cars who drive past us think as I jog after him when he decides to suddenly go full tilt and need to get my hand back on the toddler bar he’s got the back. He’s over-confident; you can see it when he grips the handlebars and leans his head over to concentrate on building up speed with his little legs. He overtakes Keira and flaunts it in her face: “I’m winning!”

Yes, poor Keira. She’s not been helped by the fact we bought her the wrong bike for her birthday. It’s at least a size too big, it’s too heavy, and when she complains it’s too hard to pedal I know her complaints are (at least partially) legitimate. This is a debate Adam and I keep coming back to, as I say she should get (or we could borrow) a smaller bike to learn on at this delicate stage, before she hates bike riding altogether because it’s scary and frustrating. None of that would be helped by my son who, at that very point, rides past gloating: “I’m winning!” My husband, on the other hand, thinks I’m being ridiculous and that there’s nothing wrong with the bike at all, she just needs to use her legs more and we need to disconnect the handle brake, which she taps at the slightest moment of hesitancy, and get her competent first with the pedal brakes.

We will persist, oh yes. It will also be interesting to see which child ends up taking off their training wheels first.

For my sister, and anyone else, who hasn’t seen this yet

Karen — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:08:26 +0000

Adam has contracted a Man’s Disease, and my hayfever has turned out not to be hayfever at all, or it was and morphed into a straight-up cold. Also this week has turned out to be full of events and information pertaining to Keira’s first year of school in 2010, which are all very exciting and have demanded my attention.

So, we’re a bit sick. Well, the adults in the household are anyway.

Making this the perfect time to show this clip of The Muppets doing Bohemian Rhapsody. Yes, if you’re on Twitter or any kind of social media you’ve probably watched it already because it went a tad viral this week. But if you haven’t, you’re welcome. Enjoy.

Drinking her milkshake, with extra sass

Karen — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:05:04 +0000

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Money, blogs, ads, and me

Karen — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:48:44 +0000

Earlier this week I was asked by my friend Lisa to do a guest post regarding the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ I monetise this blog and it’s now available to read. While you’re there you should take a look at the rest of the series she’s running this week called “Writers, money and the web.” There’s been some interesting discussion.

******

And while we’re on the subject of blogging, something particularly annoying happened to me last week. My blog RSS feed somehow made its way onto a ‘free post’ aggregator service without my permission. I only found out because I got clickovers from a certain commercial site which uses this service. Basically, this act was in breach of copyright, and to give props to this commercial site they immediately removed my feed with the deepest of apologies.

But that’s not what’s nagging at me and I wish I could adequately describe my feelings as I sit here typing this. My fingers are trembling, and I’m making lots of silly spelling mistakes.

I’ve long been an advocate of the benefits of blogging, for both personal and professional reasons, but I’m not blind to the downsides of it either. My content has been scraped before, but always by spammers, and I’ve just…let it go. But this case was different and I did jump up and down and say, “No. Stop it.”

And honestly? It’s made me tired.

Should we have to be so vigilant? Perhaps not, but that’s the way online life often demands us to be. And it is at those times when part of me can appreciate those writers and artists still out there, hoarding their work, secreting away from the rest of us their creative gems from the fear of this very thing happening. I do understand. On the other hand their reluctance to create an online life or profile ultimately may come at the expense of the successes they may have enjoyed if they’d gone down that path.

But, if nothing else, I will go on. If anything, let this be a cautionary tale.

Protect your work. Because who else will?

She’s been marked!

Karen — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:59:37 +0000

Or inducted, if you will, into the world of knowledgeably testing cosmetics.

Side note: Boy, those long lasting lip glosses are hard to get off aren’t they?

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She for who the Chimera fits

Karen — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:38:42 +0000

and then the writer asked her so what have you been working on? She said I’m writing something for Penguin which was a slippery answer, even a fib if your interpretation of the preposition ‘for’ equates to ’request’ or ‘want.’ I’m sending off a submission to Penguin this week would’ve been more accurate. Not that her answer mattered, she told herself.

But of course it does.

******

Before the rain, her garden suffered. The tomatoes slumped against each other, not giving in to the heat but not doing well despite it either. The neglected agapanthus had half as many shoots as the same time the previous year; the serpentine-shaped heads had formed and were there ready, among the leaves, to lengthen and bloom. She pulled out the pots from underneath the railing so they could catch the full dumping the news said the city would get over the next two days.

Later, when the rain did come, she stood and watched the drops fall onto the plant and she wondered if that act – beyond even the washing or feeding her children – had been the best, most compassionate, act she’d accomplished all week.

****

And then her mind wandered back to that previous conversation when the writer asked her so what have you been working on? What she should’ve said was I wrote 600 words of an essay the other day or last month I finished a stanza of a poem I think might work but she didn’t want to talk about those because they were unfinished and no one likes an unfinished story. Especially not her family, who suffered when she suffered, which was when she wasn’t writing. So at this point she decided it would be best if she just stopped

Our cat is hot

Karen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:27:55 +0000

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My Daughter’s Christmas Wish List

Karen — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:38:42 +0000

Okay, starting at the top left hand corner and going in a clockwise direction:

1) Swimming Pool
2) Hannah Montana Bed Covers
3) New Swimmers, Size 7
4) Strawberry (fridge) Magnet*
5) Pink Playdough
6) Picture Frame
7) Laptop**
8 ) Care Bear (purple)
9) Piano Keyboard
10) Hannah Montana Punching Bag
11) Folder for Homework

* I have no idea what this is supposed to mean

** Not one of those kid ‘play’ laptops. Oh, no. “I want a real laptop like yours, mum. I’ll need one for school next year, you know. For homework.”

(Now if she were starting at a private school next year she could possibly be correct! And I’m thanking my stars she’s not. Just buying the uniforms is expensive enough, I’ve discovered!)

I found #10 the funniest. Riley already has a Spiderman punching bag, via the sea of brands that is all boys toys. So Keira wants to even the score. Fine.

“Why don’t you get a regular punching bag and just stick a picture of Hannah Montana on it?” I asked.

That got a ‘no.’

And somehow I think that her idea of a punching bag with Hannah Montana’s face on it, and mine, are two very different things.

For example, mine might have a big red dot in the middle with an arrow that says “Aim Here.”