Things That Are True - List the Fourth

Ten Things I'd Really Rather Not Say Again Ever But Which Will Probably Escape From My Lips Within Ten Minutes of Writing Them Here:

• Please use your fork, not your fingers.
• Stop picking your nose.
• Too loud!
• Please don't touch things that don't belong to you.
• Please don't hit [insert random noun here].
• What happens when you don't listen?
• Please don't wave things right in my face.
• No, you may not have my [insert random food noun here].
• No finger guns at the table.
• Chew your food and swallow it, then speak.

You may conclude from the above that breakfast was a little more challenging than usual this morning.

Things That Are True - List the Third

Ten Photos I Took That I Love So Much I Call Them My Art and I Don't Care if Snooty Art Experts Don't Consider Them Good Enough So There*:
 

A photo of a photo - a shot of the Woodwards building reflected in Stan Douglas' vast window photograph of his recreation of the 1971 Gastown Riot. Article about his piece here.

Wormhole! Sitting in the front seat of one of the trains on the Canada Line, looking down the tunnel ahead of us. I love the ghostly reflection of the person sitting on the other side of the train.

Sunlight hits one of the statues of Yue Min Jun's A-Maze-Ing Laughter public art installation in my neighbourhood.

The light in Chicago was amazing that day.

The Imp fell fast asleep in a busy cafe. I couldn't resist.

In Paris, even the graffiti is romantic.

If I ever release an album, this will be the cover image.

A bit of whimsy in my own neighbourhood.


So what do you think? Should I open an etsy shop? Sell prints?

[Edited to add: I took all of these with my iPhone, using the Hipstamatic app.]


*File under: If I Created it and I Say It's Art, It's Art. Neener neener.

Things That Are True - List the Second

Already Friday again, and here I sit, at my computer after 10pm, as usual. Thus, my second of 100 lists:

Ten Songs I Love and Know How to Play on the Guitar Even Though I'm Supposed to Be a Music Snob and Sneer at Some of Them

• Closer to Fine - Indigo Girls
• Hotel California - The Eagles
• Never Set the Cat on Fire  - Frank Hayes
• Icy Blue Heart - John Hiatt
• Famous Blue Raincoat - Leonard Cohen
• If I Needed You - Townes Van Zant
• King of the Road - Roger Miller
• 38 Years Old - Tragically Hip
• Romeo And Juliet - Dire Straits
• I Don't Like Mondays - Boomtown Rats

Wanna come over and jam?

Things That Are True - List the First

I don't know the first thing about building a readership for this space.

Well, that's not entirely true. I do know a few things. I know I'm supposed to write keyword-rich post titles, I'm supposed to know what my niche is, I'm supposed to post new things here on a regular schedule, I'm supposed to reply to every comment, I'm supposed to strategically hit publish at the right time of day on the right day of the week, and pimp out my posts no more than three times a day on each of my social networks.  I know what I'm supposed to do. And yet, I blunder along, not posting for weeks at a time, not writing post titles that are in any way google-friendly, and not having any idea what my "niche" is. I don't have one. Sometimes I write about food, sometimes about the absurdities of parenting, sometimes about social issues. Mostly I just write.

Actually, mostly I just avoid writing, but I'm working on that.

Hell, I'm still surprised and grateful that there are people who bear no familial relation to me that come to visit these pages from time to time.


I know that writing a new post and hitting publish at ten o'clock on a Friday night is completely useless.

Yet here I am. More often than not, here I am. Since I seem to love the quiet wasteland of the Friday night post, instead of berating myself about my ridiculous writing habits, I'm going to celebrate them. Celeberate! Hey everyone, it's a CELEBERATION! A hybrid of congratulatory self-loathing!

(Cue Kool and the Gang, y'all. There's a party going on, right here.)

For the last few weeks, I've been making lists on index cards (I know. Pens! Paper! How delightfully Neo-Victorian of me!) as a sort of personal project, an exploration of subject matters and aspirations and other things that make no sense to anyone but me. So from now on, I'm going to type out those lists on Friday nights, and publish them after ten pm. To embrace (and also mock, a little) my own eccentricities.

I love arbitrary rules that I set in place for myself - an idea I totally stole, by the way, from Schmutzie. (I mean, she talked about it publicly in a session at Blissdom Canada last year, so it was an idea ripe for annexing is my defense, your honour.)

The arbitrary rules I just made up are simple:
1) 100 lists
2) 10 items each list
3) 1 list published every Friday, after everyone's shut down their computer for the day and will never see it


And here's my first list:

I've Done a Lot of Stuff in My Life But Here Are Ten Things I Want to Do But Never Have*:

• spontaneously join a street musician/busker and sing harmonies for no reason at all
• successfully knit somethinganything
• have read all the books I own
• take an introductory photography class
• take fencing lessons
• post every day for a year at Vancouver Daily Photo
• get past week 3 of The Artist's Way
• make ravioli from scratch
• live in Paris for a year (and yes, even I gag at the cliche of it, but there it is)
• climb the Grouse Grind in under an hour

Feel free to join me, if arbitrary rules are your thing too. 

*See? That title is not google-friendly. Not even a little bit.

Things That Are True - Just Write

The Imp comes to me, all fresh from the shower and little boy clean, looking for a hug. I gather him into my arms and lift him onto my lap. He's so gangly now, all legs and elbows and accidentally banging his head into my chin when he comes in for a hug.

I marvel at this child who just keeps growing, which is a ridiculous thing to say, because of course he keeps growing. That's what children do. I know that, intellectually, but I still struggle to understand on a cellular level that this being who once tucked in under one arm to breastfeed now spills out off my lap and onto the floor when he leans into me. Other developments, like language and socialization and his quirky sense of humour have nowhere near as much impact on me as the sheer undeniable size of this boy.

As he walks away from me, the hallway light shines on six inches of bare leg and ankle where once a bath towel dragged on the floor.




This post was written as part of Just Write from Heather of the Extraordinary Ordinary.

Things I'm Doing - VMNO

Every now and then, I just need to get out of the house. I just need to break up my routine and get out for an evening with some girlfriends, and that is exactly what I'll be doing on Thursday night. About three years ago, a bunch of social media women/moms/entrepreneurs decided, on twitter, to get together for drinks, with no purpose other than a night out. They called it Vancouver Mum's Night Out, and the hashtag #vmno was born. I didn't really know anyone, but had been stalking following people on twitter that I wanted to meet in real life, so I invited myself to the party.

It was a much needed child-free evening among my peers.

Since then every time I've gotten restless and needed a night out, I've gotten together with my friend Tracey and we've planned another VMNO.

Well, we've been restless, Tracey and I. And we found a great venue for a get together, so VMNO, March 2012 edition, is happening on Thursday evening, at 7:00pm at the Lunapads office.

It's a great evening - the anti-networking event. No scheduled speaker, no polite chitchat, no agenda. No swag, no one trying to sell anything, no need to bring business cards. Just a chance for people who don't get to see each other in person very often to mingle in real time. Yummy foodie bits, a little music, and some lovely wine provided by our exclusive wine sponsor, South of France Wines. (We'll also have non-alcoholic slushie drinks for the non-drinkers and designated drivers in the crowd.)

I've been looking forward to this all month.

If you're interested in joining us, more information can be found here.

Now, to decide what shoes to wear...

Things That Are True - Newton's Laws

"Newton's First Law of Motion states that a body at rest will remain at rest unless an outside force acts on it."

"I'm hiding, Mommy. You don't see me."

"A body in motion at a constant velocity will remain in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force."

"If a body experiences an acceleration ( or deceleration) or a change in direction of motion, it must have an outside force acting on it. Outside forces are sometimes called net forces or unbalanced forces."

"The Second Law of Motion states that if an unbalanced force acts on a body, that body will experience acceleration ( or deceleration)."

Today was a day of unbalanced, outside forces, if you define outside forces as sunshine, fresh air, and the irresistible appeal of things that need climbing. Which I do.


All that business about Newton's laws was scanged from this NASA page, because yay science!