Update on story “Old dogs can learn new tricks” 11 July 2010

Alas my partner and I parted at the end of October 2011. My trust was breached in several ways and there was no resolution possible from my point of view. Life has gone on with wonderful support of my family and friends.

Fantastic words from Steve Job

“Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It clears out the old, to make way for the new. It is life’s change agent…..”

Steve Jobs (2005) Address given A Stanford Graduation Ceremony

10,000 Paper Planes @ the State Library of Victoria

A fine sunny day dawned for the 10,000 Paper Plane event Ross Coulter the artist behind the project was a little more nervous that I’ve seen him in the past. The fact that he hadn’t shaved, was a tell tale sign bearing witness to the fact, he’d had a late night on Sunday getting all the gear in place.

There was a lot of waiting around, as on any film set, but we proceeded into the Latrobe Reading Room around 1300. My Squadron Leader exercise firm discipline of silence over her crew. As the planes were launched and we were 100% silent the sound of them whooshing in the air, crashing into the walls and landing on the floor of the great dome was magical.

Domed Reading Room

Going green, going greener!

Not only did I vote Green in the lower house for the first time on 21 August, I also became carless on 6 August. I plan to join one of the car share schemes that operate in the CBD of Melbourne.  I started my new job in March 2009. It’s within easy walking, cycling and public transport distance from home. I’ve found that I only use my car occasionally on weekends. Even then some of my car use has been for reasons of laziness eg driving 1.2km to the Queen Victoria Market!

The great thing about car sharing is that you can hire a car for as short as one hour or whole days. The cars are spread around the city so the theory is that you will walk to the car, use it, return it to it parking location then walk home. It will be interesting to see how I go, one thing is for sure I will be walking to the QVM pushing my jeep from now on!

New header image

I hadn’t posted for ages and was surprised to find the banner I’d been using since I started this blog, in September 2007, had been taken down by wordpress. Now I’ve customised my banner! The image is a picture of me manipulated in PhotoFunia

Old Dogs CAN Learn New Tricks!

Reconciling with my lover after a five year break feels very comfortable, like nestling into my favourite dressing gown or a well worn pair of gloves but we’re both weary of slipping back into our old ways of relating. Independently we’ve decided to strive to communicate, from day one, in the way we wish to continue. A more mature way of being together than we had five years ago.

Maintaining a stance of walking the fine line between caring and mothering is difficult for me, of accepting we are both struggling with the conflict over mutual jealousy, that the situation does not need to be resolved instantly. Five years on I’m sitting in a very comfortable mature headspace of knowing that we differ and knowing that I do not need to take on the responsibility of feeling bad because we are in conflict. I don’t need to check if he’s OK or even fix it if he is not, I’m confident that he is quite capable of doing that for himself and that he will discuss it with me if he cannot. In the last five years we’ve both finally come of age!

5 years on…

from flickr creative commons, fotopusch, accessed 4 July 2010
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotopusch/3179601402/sizes/o/

personal growth,

strong enough

to love again?

Acronyms

With the widespread adoption of mobile phone we have adopted a huge range of acronyms, I was going to title this post TGIF (Thank God it’s Friday) but then decided to write about acronyms in general. What others do I use regularly?

HAGD Have a good day!
LOL Laugh out loud
BF Boyfriend
GF Girlfriend
BP Blood pressure
u you
ur your
2 to
4 for
XOXOX Hugs and kisses
@ at

Occasionally I receive a text message from a friend who has a teenage daughter that I cannot figure out, he’s exposed to and uses many more acronyms than I.

One of my colleagues, who happens to be a role playing enthuasist, uses many more acronyms on a daily basis eg GM Games Master, Wilco Will cooperate, 10K for 10000, BRB be right back, g8 great, AWOL Absent without leave, CYA See ya! and others.

Here are links to a couple of lists of those used in SMS or mobile texting:
http://www.acronymslist.com/cat/sms-chat-and-text-acronyms.html

http://www.lingo2word.com/lists/acronym_listA.html

17th Sydney Biennale

Took a couple of days off before the Queen’s Birthday weekend to fly up to Sydney and attend my first Biennale. The theme was “The Beauty of Distance – Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age”, the focus contemporary art. The art works and installations were spread over seven locations. Cockatoo Island (Short ferry ride from the Museum of Contemporary Art) housed the bulk of the works.

http://www.biennaleofsydney.com.au/

The highlights for me were:
Kader Attia (Born Paris, lives Berlin) Kasbah 2010 a powerful installation made up of many rooves, using recycled corragated iron and timber. Each roof was about the size of an Australian “dunny”. Visitors were encouraged to walk all over the installation.

AES+F The Feast of Trimalchio 2009 A video projection, completely in the round onto three huge screens, using actors ranging in age from 10 to 90 years, all of model quality. The projection also contained fantasy background material relating to an exotic cruise and Alice in wonderland. The  work challenged consumerism, branding and race stereotypes.

Shen Shaomin Summit 2010 Summit has the political leaders Vladimir Lenin, Ho Chi Min, Mao Tse Tung and Kim all embalmed in glass cases. They are joined by a raspy, breathing Fidel Castro on his deathbed.

Slave Pianos Penalogical Pianology: The Timbers of Justice 2010
http://www.bos17.com.au/page/slave_pianos.html

Althea Thauberger La mort e la miseria 2008

Chilly wind hits Melbourne

Strong, chilly, biting winds lashed Melbourne overnight. My bedroom is on the 3rd floor of the building, the wind sounds stronger up there. Yes Winter is here and I put the first Osso Bucco of the season into the oven to cook slowly this morning, it will be very hearty when I get home this evening.

Today I was intending to ride my bike but it might be safer to walk to work. I need to arrive early, enrolment opens next Monday and the new library research classes are not yet on the Timetable. We experimenting with a new approach, one hour discipline targeted classes. Hopefully with short classes offered at more times more student will be able to attend.