narrating kayoz

Narrating kayoz is open

This journal is now closed. For new entries join me at Narrating kayoz.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

Ocean View Verandah comes to an end

I am currently working an essay about online journals as life writing: their �phenomenal popularity� and the social and ethical issues involved in keeping one. So, naturally enough, I am doing a lot of reading about them. There's not as much out there as you might suppose. Oh, there are dozens of articles on blogging - hundreds even - but they are largely unacademic, repetitive, and focused more on filtering style weblogs and weblogs as journalism, than on web journals.

At the same time I am evaluating other blogging software packages, thinking about how they can help me to structure this site in a more useful way. And how an examination of the ethical and social issues of weblogging might impact on that structure.

A while back, as regular readers would know, I segregated posts into two areas - journal styles posts, or posts primarily about me, would remain here, while externally focused/current events posts I moved to a different blog. I did that because I'd been posting a lot of the commentary style at the time, and when I suddenly wanted to switch gears and write about a pregnancy 'scare' we had, it seemed out of place.

But this set up isn't really working for me. There are too many occasions where I am divided about which section to post something to. For instance, if I write about the different styles of weblog - journal/diary, filter-style, current events commentary etc - and then write about how I see them and want to use them, is that externally focused, or is it about me? And then there's the fact that quite frankly my political commentary isn't all that hot. It tends to consist of small rants and links to better commentary. So on it's own I guess I�ve felt it was a little inadequate.

So I started thinking about other setups. I was thinking that what I might do is have a blog as my main site, posting there as a default be it personal or critical writing, but have a separate section for longer, more thought out, journal style essays. But then, sometimes I might want to write longer, thought out, non-journal style essays. One solution is to use a system that allows 'click here to read more' entries, so that longer pieces only have to have the first few paras displayed on the main page.

That still mixes up all different types of posts of course, but if I combine that with category pages maybe it would be OK. That way, if all you are interested in is parenting posts, you can just go read that page and forget the rest -bookmark it instead of the main page.

I confess to being, theoretically, something of a weblog/journal purist. To me, until recently, online journal/diary meant exactly what it sounds like, while blog, or weblog meant a reverse chronologically structured collection of links with commentary. The links were probably based around a theme - politics, for instance, or programming - but the main idea was of a web filtering system. However, all the reading I did for the article I wrote last semester on the use of blogging technology in business (as yet unpublished BTW) showed that most of the mainstream world has decided that the term blog will do for both categories and various others. I assume this at least partly is because of the proliferation of places like Blogger.com which publish both types of sites.

It�s also probably to do with the 'phenomenal popularity' of the weblog style, which has resulted in the proliferation of other types of blogs. Sites like John Quiggin's or like Troppo Armadillo. Sites that combine political commentary with semi-academic (or even truly academic) essays, serious discussions in the comment threads, and perhaps the occasional personal essay/journal style post. They simply don't fit into either of the above categories.

Thinking about the ethics involved in online journaling, and in life writing in general, has led to another level of my rethinking this site. Back when I first started 'Kay's Journal' more than four and a half years ago, I didn't think too carefully about the ethical considerations. Unlike various other people, like Tamar or the author of Daddyzine, who use primarily initials or pseudonyms for their blog's 'characters', I used real first names and had a cast page. This didn't make me unique - I only copied what I had seen elsewhere. And I told my family and a selection of friends about the site, rather than have them come across it accidentally. But it was at least a little thoughtless.

Well it wasn�t long before someone with a quite distinctive name asked me to remove it from my journal. Not her stories as they intersected mine, just her name. So I changed her name to an initial, and gradually made some other changes.

First I added my real name, having originally just used a nick name. Then I stopped linking to the cast page, and now it�s completely gone, although the broken links to it in early posts remain. And gradually I stopped using most other people�s names, although only in an ad hoc, unconsidered way. Of course I still mention Liam and Chris frequently, but I am rather more careful about revealing personal details about the other people in my life. Still, I haven�t really sat down and thought the issues through and come to any �policy decisions�. I�ve just changed what I do on an almost unconscious level.

Now that I am thinking of moving this journal to a different platform and a different host, the obvious question is, what do I do with the archives? Some of them are in Blogger, so I could easily just publish them to a Blogspot site and leave them there for the record. But the older ones � the first maybe two years worth � I did the long suffering way in Dreamweaver. For historical purposes I don�t really want to trash them � or not all of them anyway. My journal has changed quite substantially since those days, and while re-reading some of those early posts may well make me cringe (as reading over some of my old paper journals certainly does) something about honesty[1] makes me want to leave them there. But I also feel I would like to clean them up � take out some of the names, maybe delete an injudicious post or two, and certainly take out any links to a cast of characters.

The obvious conclusion is to do nothing for the present. I have an essay to write. And a whole lot of other writing to do for that class and other projects.

But, I am moving. This will be my last post here at Ocean View Verandah. http://www.kayoz.com/ will still be my domain, but it will soon point to a TypePad site called Narrating kayoz. There will be a link back to Ocean View Verandah for the time being, and eventually I will probably archive most of the last four years either to Blogspot or to another TypePad site (since my money pays for up to three weblogs). Future Liam's log and Mountain View Commentary posts will be rolled into Narrating kayoz. The beautiful picture of my ocean will be gone, but my dreams of writing in front of my imaginary ocean view or my real mountain view will remain.

Now I just need to get myself a good lap top and a wireless home network. Oh, and a house at the coast.

PS. I will post a link to Narrating kayoz, and move the domain name, at the time I post my first post there. I will also send an email to my notify list.

[1] Of course, talking about honesty and 'truth' in life writing opens up a whole other can of worms, but we won�t go there today.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

The upside of being sick

The upside of being sick is that it is really nice to see how much Liam likes having us both around at once.  And not rushing around trying to DO things all the time. I started coming down with this bug on Friday night, so although I still tried to study on the weekend I ended up starting late each day.  Then I came home early from work Monday and didn't go in at all yesterday.  So Liam's had a lot more time with both parents around for the past four days than he usually gets, and it is really obvious that it makes him very happy. Which makes me happy, even if my eyes and nose are streaming at the same time.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

Paul's neoliberal economics vs Howard's lies and deceptions

Brian Bahnisch has a comment in a recent John Quiggin entry that I think is so on the money I'm going to send you over there. But first a few quotes:

Margo may have called a book "Not Happy, Paul" in the mid-nineties, but from what she has said, for very different reasons. Like many, she thought that Howard was a standard conservative, who would do no great harm, whereas Paul's neoliberal economic policies had caused a lot of grief. It was therefore reasonable to put Labor back into opposition to sort itself out and find its values.

I'm not sure I agree with him there. Or rather, I see his point, but unlike Margo I never supposed that Howard would do no great harm, so I could never have voted for him. And unfortunately, we effectively have a two party system.

Labor did some draconian things in the early nineties, but was always on the job and I think acceptably transparent about what was happening.

Compare this with Howard, who let 220 plus boats come and then cracked down on the Tampa in a brutal and opportunistic way. During the election period they were intentionally letting the boats coming further south so their interception was high profile and dramatic in the media, which is where they may have come unstuck with SEIV X.

Labor played their politics hard, but there wasn't the consistent use of fear to influence the Australian electorate, and there wasn't the serial lying and misleading both the parliament and the people. There also wasn't the blatant manipulation of events for political purposes and the total subvention of foreign policy to domestic politics, with scant regard for human rights and our international reputation.

There's more, but you should go and read it over there.

**This post was orginially published on Mountain View Commentary using Blogger.**

'The oceanic feeling'

And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, and rolls through all things. (Wordsworth)

This is why I want an ocean view, and preferably an ocean within close walking distance. And maybe it is also why on those glorious spring days when I have one, I can find nothing more appropriate to do than to simply experience it.

(I am indebted to Fiona Capp for the connection between Romain Rolland's 'oceanic feeling' and Wordsworth's sublime. That Oceanic Feeling pp.10-13)

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

PS I'm Sick

I'm sick at home today, which should theoretically mean I get to relax in bed, or at least mindlessly surf the blogosphere, but instead I am at home looking after Liam while Chris goes to the dentist. He has been in on-again off-again excruciating pain since Friday night with a cracked and probably infected tooth. The dentist put a temporary crown on it two weeks ago, to see if that would help. It didn't - there was no excruciating pain before, just a dull ache. Looks like root canal is on its way.

Anyway, so I'm home with Liam, and Play School is about to end, so I will be back to playing in the 'sand' (lego) at the 'beach' (family room floor) any minute. And feeling suitably sorry for myself of course.

PPS It's a bit weird that the PS comes above the original post (below) isn't it? But I guess not if you already read that one and just came back. You know, in case I had posted a PS in the intervening half hour or so.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

Jacked in

I came out of the shower this morning and said to Chris "You know what I really, really want? Something that would help me be a better, more effective writer?"

What I realised in the shower is that I need a microphone in there. One that is connected into some voice activated software that would record my thoughts and transfer them to a word processer, so that I could come out and there they'd be, ready for editing.

"I wrote three emails and two blog entries in the shower," I told Chris.
"What you really need is to be jacked in," Chris said.

 

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

Changing routines

Isn't it amazing how routines develop and change so quickly, yet when you're in the thick of them they can seem constant. I was just thinking how, if all goes to exactly to plan, I might not finish this menstrual cycle. Or more correctly, another one might not start for (based on last time) 18 months or so. And that seems odd. I am so used to that cycle governing my life, yet only a little while ago I had 18 months without it. And to have the cycle start up again seemed equally odd. For months I would complete forget about it and be caught unawares when my period came due.

But the same thing happens on a much smaller scale with Liam. When he was only a few weeks old I would find myself recognising a routine, only to have it change the next day. Now we have routines that last for longer periods - he's been having a (roughly) midday nap for five months now, for instance - but still, they feel like permanent fixtures, when in fact they change with startling regularity. Even within what seems like a clear routine there are lots of changes.

For example at the moment, Liam goes to sleep for this nap with me or Chris lying down in bed with him. Sometime he nurses to sleep, sometimes not. It seems like that's how it's always been. But actually, when we first came back from the States, in March, he would fall asleep nursing in the chair in the living room, and I would carry him to bed. If I were at work Chris would sometimes have to take him for a drive, or a walk in the pram, and then carry him into the house asleep. Then there was the phase when Chris could lie down with him and get him to sleep, but it would take 1/2 an hour, whereas I would lie down and nurse him to sleep in five minutes. Now it's different again (and frequently takes a darn sight more than five minutes, but to compensate he slept for over three hours today!).

It's like, we are so set up for adaptation that we don't even realise change happens, as long as it is relatively incremental. And so when it's not, when it's major, it feels like we'll never learn to adjust. But we do, of course.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

Spring picnics

I love Spring.

After being cooped up in side for most Winter, we've been outside just about every day for the past three weeks. Since the start of August in other words. I know (the Australian) Spring doesn't officially start until 1 September, but I always think August is the nicest month in Canberra. We've been gardening, going for walks (yesterday we had to take Liam's pink pram and 'baby dolly' with us - she's been a constant fixture for the past two days), playing the in sandpit...

Right now Liam and Chris are outside having a picnic lunch (Liam's idea) and I've 'gone to work'. Now I am going to buckle down and do some serious study.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

Post presidential election for us?

Is it possible that John Howard is for real in suggesting that we might have a late November election? I guess he thinks that Bush's chances of re-election are greater than his, so he's happy to wait until after the US presidential election in order to capitalise on a Bush win.  What depressing thought.

**This post was orginially published on Mountain View Commentary using Blogger.**

Howard lies, but who cares?

I am becoming increasingly despondent about the chances of Australia disposing of Howard at the (still unannounced) coming election.

It seems that Howard really did lie to us about the children overboard incident before the last election.  May I just say - not really all that shocked. But will this make any difference to his election chances? John Quiggin thinks it will hurt the government, but not significantly (he also has quite a good set of links to other blogosphere coverage on this issue).  I'm sorry to say that I'm inclined to agree.

Here's Scrafton's full letter, for the record.

**This post was orginially published on Mountain View Commentary using Blogger.**

Not my last pregnancy?

This time next week I could be pregnant. Actually, I could be pregnant sooner than that, given that my last cycle was only 25 days. I could be pregnant within a couple of days, although that's not all that likely. And either way we won't know for at least another week or two.

We haven't decided yet whether this will be our last child. We only ever planned on having two, until Liam was born. But since then we've tossed around the idea of having three quite seriously. It's expensive, this business of having children. Some people say that shouldn't be a consideration in whether to have another, but it is.

But there are other things too.

Age, for instance. If we space them all apart by three+ years, Chris will be forty, or very close to, by the time the third child is born.

Career? Yes, believe it or not, I am starting to get why people feel frustrated by having to put their career 'on hold' during their children's baby years. And I'm not exactly career oriented!

Patience? Yep, that too. I have a friend who has two children and simply says that she loves her children incredibly, but she doesn't think she has the patience to cope with more than two.

But the thing is, I don't feel like this pregnancy - the one I am hoping to embark on very soon - is going to be my last. I feel like if it were, I would need to know that now. I would need to be able to say to myself, this is the last time I will be doing this. Pay attention.

On the other hand, wait till I am in the throes of all day pregnancy sickness and see what I say then.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

Spring excitement

Sometimes when I am studying - often actually - an idea will trigger a thought about other writing: or about journaling or creative writing or my plans to eventually become a world famous, critically acclaimed novelist... and I feel excitement and restlessness and basically a desire to live in the future instead of the present. And my excitement about the future or about whatever idea I've just had makes it hard to knuckle down to do what I need to do in the present in order to get to that future.

Another example of the same feeling, and one that perhaps shows that I haven't really captured what's going on very well:

A beautiful spring day. I'm at home alone. The mountain view is as beautiful as a sparkling ocean view would be. The house is clean. Maybe the Betty Blue soundtrack is playing. I feel fresh and inspired. I imagine sitting down on the deck and writing... I make a cup of tea. But I can't buckle down to writing, to anything. Perhaps I feel inspired but have nothing actually to say. I am feeling so joyful I just want to sit and enjoy the joy. And part of how I know to do that is to write, but writing - doing anything at all - takes me out of the moment of just enjoying.

Or is it just that I am too restless and excited by Spring and the feeling of holidays it always brings to concentrate on any one thing?

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

This is a test post

This is a test post to see if Radio can really post to Ocean View Verandah, via blogger.  You see, I've been testing out Radio and TypePad and Inknoise as alternative publishing tools.  The main thing I want is categories, but I must say the fact that Radio sits on my desk top - so I needn't be online to create a post/edit a template etc - is quite appealing.

Anyway, theoretically Radio can mirror this post at a blogger website, so I thought I'd try it out.  That way I can really test Radio while still posting to Ocean View Verandah. 

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

Not weaning, but cutting down a little

Hey, Liam forgot to nurse tonight before bed! How weird is that? He's never ever done that before. We were finishing off his book, and some custard (a regular evening treat of late) and I asked him what we would do next.

"Go to bed," he said.

"Yeah, but what do we do first?" I asked.

"Get your dummy," was his reply.

"OK, but what do we do before that?"

No answer.

"Well maybe you better call Daddy," I said, thinking to prompt him with the next part of the routine.

"Daddy!" he called "Dad-dy! Turn that light off. Turn that light off too." This said while pointing at the relevant lights (not that Chris was even in the room yet, but that's all part of the routine). Daddy came and did his thing. This is the point when Liam usually throws himself back and starts saying "Mummy milko, mummy milko" with feverish excitement, as though it's the only time of day he gets it or something (it's not - not even close).

Instead, he was saying "Get your dummy now. Liam wants his dummy." So, off we went (Chris had already exited off to the bedroom) to the kitchen to clean his teeth and get his dummy. All the while I'm expecting "Mummy milko now" to pop out of his mouth at any second. A few times in recent months he's only nursed on one side, then we're half way down to the bedroom when he suddenly realises and demands the other side. But not today. Today he completely forgot. And so far there is no sound coming from the bedroom, so I assume he's really going to sleep. Amazing.

I am making no effort to wean, and truly, unless he really dislikes the taste once I get pregnant or something, I think he will be nursing until he's about 10. But he does sometimes forget in the morning these days, particularly if he wakes up with me (which is not all that common any more). Usually his first priority is to come and find me and have mummy milk, but if I'm right there then he's often happier to get a book and bring it into bed, or go wake up Daddy.

Also, I have started refusing him mummy milk when he wakes up from a nap and needs to go back to sleep. Even though we don't nurse in bed at night anymore, we were still doing it during the day. He still nurses to sleep during the day about half the time (or, about half the time that I am there). The rest of the time he nurses then falls asleep in my arms. Then I get up and get an hour-an hour and a half to myself. Then when he wakes up he wants to nurse again. But lately the waking up nursing thing has not been getting him back to sleep - quite the reverse: Chris could get him back to sleep (sometimes for another hour) but I couldn't. So the past week or two I've been saying the mummy milk's all gone, but he can lie in Mummy's arms. And he's been OK with it, and gone back to sleep. And if I stay with him then we usually get at least another hour, often more. On Saturday the two of us ended up sleeping from almost 2 until almost 4, and he's been asleep for over an hour before that too. Of course, this is tending to push his bedtime back to 7:30 or sometimes later. But it is nice to get that nap - for both of us.

Anyway, it's just interesting to me that although I am not actively intending to wean him at all, in a way I am doing it a bit. I certainly practice "don't offer/don't refuse", but in Liam's case I don't think that could be described as a real weaning technique - getting him to nurse multiple time each day has not involved me offering since he was - I don't know, a week old? Well, for a long time anyway. That whole nursing every hour or two around the clock thing (from six months to 18 months, on-and-off) pretty much turned me right off offering!

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

More on those lurkers

I'm still very interested in this question of the appropriateness, or otherwise, of lurkers on an online journal (people who read but don't comment/email etc). Is it even appropriate to use the term lurkers when talking about something that has always really been primarily a one sided conversation?

Sure, most blogs now have a commenting system, I even read an opinion somewhere (on some blog) that to not have a comment system on a blog is itself somehow inappropriate (feel free to add your two cents worth to that conversation too). But they didn't always, and lets face it, the journal form - even when published weekly in a (print) magazine - never expected much reader feedback before, did it?

So what do you think?

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

"I love you"

Liam said "I love you" for the first time last night. But - it was to one of my cats. Tonight he said it for the first time to me. That made me pretty happy.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

Slowing down

I had a run in with my son this morning. Not a terribly uncommon occurrence. He needed a nappy change. I wanted to do it between putting the water on to boil and making coffee. So, I carried him down to his room and put him on the change table. I jumped and leaped and made a game of it as we went down the hall but he wasn't fooled.

You see, Liam wanted to do it himself. He wanted to run down the hall, climb up onto the bed and thence to the change table. So as soon as I put him on the change table he started complaining, arched his back as I pulled off his wet nappy, and climbed down onto the bed. His next step would have been to climb onto the floor, so that he could climb all the way up again, but I intervened. I decided to indulge him and offer to change his nappy on the bed.

Then he decided he wanted a cloth nappy. Fine but it takes a bit longer to organise, and he already had no nappy on and was on his bed... Oh well, OK, whatever it takes, y'know? But then he decided he wanted to fold his cloth nappy himself. Now, that's not that easy. And the already mentioned bare bottom on the bed was making me nervous. But, I let him fold a couple of folds and then redid it as he lay down. Mind you, I didn't agree to this with grace. No, I resisted and grumbled just as much as him (I wonder where he gets it from?). But then, he wanted to shuffle his own bottom onto that nappy, on the bed. Now, getting him onto the nappy straight and without messing it up isn't that easy at the best of times. Getting him to do it himself was impossible. At this point, with Liam crying and me getting crankier by the minute I yelled out to Chris to forget the coffee in bed (it was his turn to have a sleep in) and get in the shower because I was going to have to 'go to work' soon (ie hide myself in the study for the day).

In the end my rushing made the nappy change take easily twice as long as it might have done otherwise, and I was left with a crying, grumpy child and no coffee to show for it. I just have to learn that with Liam, there is no point in rushing. He is learning to do things for himself, and I need to be patient. I need to allow not only the half hour I am used to to get out of the house, but another fifteen minutes for Liam to get himself in the car. I need to plan to go slow. I know this, and yet... I fail at it time and time again.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

New focus in my writing and study

I am feeling re-energised about both writing and study. I finished last semester feeling good, but in the break between semesters I had started to feel more and more despondent about the difficulties of breaking into the non-fiction writing market in a meaningful way (ie a day-job quitting way). I think I had started to focus so much on the idea of making a living from writing - outside of the public service - that thinking about the kind of writing I like to do had become secondary.

Which is silly, because I already am making a living from writing. It's just not the kind of writing I want to do.

Now semester two is well underway, with the first essay due in about four weeks. A big part of my new energy is because I have changed my focus. I was originally planning to do 'Non-fiction writing B' this semester and drop the other subject I was enrolled in (having discovered last semester that doing two subjects was just way too hard). But for a number of reasons I ended up deciding to go with the other one and drop non-fiction. So I'm taking 'Life Writing: Theory and Practice' now, and really enjoying it.

The course includes both looking critically at other people's life writing (it is a lit course after all) and doing some of our own, including doing quite a number of writing exercises and placing them online for peer review. This idea of a cross between a writing class and a literature class really works for me.

Also life writing is really more up my alley than feature writing (evidence the four years I've been writing this blog, and the sort of writing it primarily features). Even in fiction I like the sort of writing that imitates life writing, to write as well as to read. And I love the writing that challenges the boundaries between life writing and fiction writing, like Drusilla Modjeska's Poppy.

I was planning to do the non-fiction writing course partly because it sort-of relates to the work I do at the moment, and so my work was possibly prepared to pay for it - they paid for non-fiction A last semester. Wheres clearly a life-writing course, listed as a literature subect no less, was not something they would consider financing. Of course, non-fiction A focussed on short-article writing (which along with editing is a large part of what I do), whereas non-fiction B is about feature writing/creative non-fiction writing, which is really not much like what I do at all.

But also doing non-fiction B seemed like a good way to consolidate the learnings from non-fiction A. Makes sense right? And lets face it, as hard as it is to make a living from freelance non-fiction writing, it's easier than making a living from fiction writing, let alone literary fiction. So maybe it's something I should look into. Well, maybe. And if I ever do manage to go freelance (ie quit my public service job) I imagine there will have to be some non-fiction writing in there, but the fact is, it's not my passion. And reading Dawn's recent entry confirmed for me that I've made the write decision in switching my focus. Non-fiction writing is interesting, but it's way to hard for me to do it without loving it.

There's a reason I did a degree with honours in literature. It's that I love reading, writing, and talking about literature. So that's where I need to focus my energy, be it in studying or in writing.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

Pre-conception

So, did I mentioned that we are, in theory, back on our preconception diet/detox? I say 'back' meaning we're on a second preconception diet, the first one having been pre-Liam.

What that basically means is no alcohol, no caffeine, trying to eat healthy, balanced meals. Lots of organic foods and not too many refined foods. At least, that's what it meant last time. Prior to trying to get pregnant with Liam we did this for four months (plus the couple of months of trying) and were pretty strict, most of the time. This time we only allowed about 3 months, because we suddenly decided to bring our baby making plans forward a couple of months ago, and so far we are not doing all that well. Still, hopefully we're doing well enough, because next month we plan to start trying for another baby.

And the exciting news is my best friend has just found out that her partner is pregnant, so if I get pregnant the first attempt (which of course I am fully intending) our second children will be even closer together than our first.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

Lurkers and blurkers

Are people who read online journals but don’t post comments etc ‘lurkers’ or being inappropriately voyeuristic?

I came across this idea in an article I read recently, and have talked about it a bit more (with quotes) here - because I have a better comments system over there than I do here. I'm interested in your opinion so if you're interested, go have a read, and maybe even post a comment!

(PS other bloggers reading this – feel free to link to me and encourage more people to answer!)

**This post was orginially published on Mountain View Commentary using Blogger.**

Lurkers and blurkers

Are people who read online journals but don’t post comments etc ‘lurkers’ or being inappropriately voyeuristic?

I was surprised to come across this idea, which was expressed in an article titled ‘Teaching an old dog new tricks: the diary on the internet’ (Laurie McNeill, Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, Winter 2003, 26:1 p.24f). McNeill states that

Readers who follow the diary but who do not join in by signing the guestbook, posting in the forums, or contacting the diarist, are known as “lurkers”… Calling such passive participants lurkers…denotes a new role for diary readers. “Read-only” audiences for online journals may be seen as inappropriately voyeuristic…

I’m curious about what other journallers/bloggers and readers feel about this? Since I had neither comments nor a guestbook on this site for a number of years I would have to be a bit hypocritical to complain about people not contributing myself, but how do others feel?

Hey, now’s your chance to speak up and use the comment function!

(PS other bloggers reading this – feel free to link to me and encourage more people to answer!)

(PPS I know that technically this is about the world, not about me, and therefore in theory should be here, but I still only have Blogger comments on over there, which is less than ideal for a post I particularly want people to comment on. Plus this whole setup isn't really working for me, so I'm in the process of creating a whole new look, feel, and process - more on that later.)

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

leadership and change

People who take on the point of view of the universe may be daunted by the immensity of the task that faces them; but they are not bored and do not need psychotherapy to make their lives meaningful. (Peter Singer, How are we to live? Ethics in an age of self-interest, Random House, 1993, p. 264.)

I went to a conference on leadership today in Sydney, and I have to say, it was well worth the trip.  I expected it to be fun, maybe even inspiring, but not really all that worth the money.  I didn't realise that was what I was expecting though, until it far exceeded my expectations.  I will talk about it more later, right now I need to go have a cuppa tea.

In the mean time, go have a look at this article from Anne Summers, who seems to think that Mark Latham's recently released 'women's policy' might signal a widening of the gap between Australia's two major parties.  If so, it's about time. Either way, it's a welcome change from the breeding creed of the Liberal Party. (Warning: the article's fine, but the rest of her site is on a bright yellow back ground.  Why do people do that?)

**This post was orginially published on Mountain View Commentary using Blogger.**

Belly dancing

Shameless plug for my friend's new web site:  http://www.bellydancingaustralia.com.au/ is the web site of Isis Rising.

"Philippe & Morgan are proud to present their new range of belly dance accessories from The Middle East and India as well as gifts and home wares from Morocco.

Isis Rising supports Urban Goddess Expressive Arts which offers fusion style belly dance classes, performances and sacred feminine workshops. "

It is a small business run by my friends who arrived back from France last year with very little in the way of material goods, the cutest nearly three year old (now three and a half) who Liam immediately loved, and a baby on the way (now well over 6 months old and crawling everywhere!).  So if you're in Australia (especially the Canberra region) go take a look.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**

Canberra

While I'm in this links-away mode, Australia Blog has a post on Canberra. I am the first to admit that Canberra has some flaws and one of those is a sense of sterility: being too planned means it lacks the little alleys of Melbourne and Sydney with their groups of cafes and big city atmosphere, for instance.  And it does feel a little homogeneous - lots of the white middle class and only limited groups of anyone else. 

But, it also has a lot going for it, as Chris of Australia Blog discovered.  I'd like to add to his post that some friends of mine visiting from Victoria recently paid a visit to the National Museum (free).  They were suitably impressed and said they would like a return visit, just to spend more time there.  Personally I like all the parks and good schools and other family friendly aspects, but that's where I'm at in life right now I guess.

**This post was orginially published on Mountain View Commentary using Blogger.**

More on ACT politics

Another link to somewhere else... Dean of Elsewhere Today is also interested in local politics, and has some specific correspondence with Labor and Liberal candidates to comment on. Go check it out.

**This post was orginially published on Mountain View Commentary using Blogger.**

ACT election

The ACT election is coming up later this year (October in theory), and there are some people who are actually taking it seriously. 

I have been too tired and busy to post much just lately (I have about a half dozen half posts sitting in draft...) so I'm just going to send you elsewhere.  Marco over at Canblog has been thinking about the election and gotten quite a lot of comments from others too.  So if you are interested in ACT politics, go take a look.

**This post was orginially published on Mountain View Commentary using Blogger.**

Howard supporter endorses Latham

The article I referred to in my last post was in the Australian, not the SMH, and the relevant part is:

...the Labor leader's capacity to run a budget received endorsement from an unlikely quarter yesterday - Liberal alderman John Walker.

The former general manager of Liverpool Council and self-confessed Howard Government supporter told Sunday that Mr Latham had done an "outstanding job".

(Steve Lewis, 'King-hit tale ridiculous: Latham', The Australian, 5 July 2004)

**This post was orginially published on Mountain View Commentary using Blogger.**

Latham and the Liverpool City Council

Marco of Canblog says in this post that "If Mark Latham can do for Australia what he did for the City of Liverpool, we could be in for great times ahead."  And Marco was living in Liverpool at the time.

This is in contrast to the letter signed by several other previous mayors of Liverpool who claim he was a nightmare. Naturally enough Latham defends his record, and Kerison hopes that "some journo will actually do some work and present the figures so we can read for ourselves how well he did." I hope so too. Chris told me that he read somewhere in the SMH this week that a former Liberal councilor, one who was there at the same time as Latham, has refuted the letter. That a liberal member would be arguing in favour of Latham's record is encouraging, to say the least, but I haven't been able to find the article.  If anyone has the details, please let me know.

**This post was orginially published on Mountain View Commentary using Blogger.**

The meaning of life

Canblog has a short thought provoking post today about the meaning of life, to which I posted a relatively long comment.

**This post was orginially published on Ocean View Verandah using Blogger. Please let me know of any down links (especially to photos).**