We try to contain you

21 March, 2010

in at home, commentatrix, we are family

le="FromA little over ten years ago, I arrived home from abroad with the exciting knowledge that the puppy I had chosen before leaving would soon be old enough to come and live with me.  In that brief interim I did a lot of shopping, choosing pet toys, food bowls and a crate to double as a bed.  I went the round of the pet stores; none of these things were inexpensive.  Some survived our first six months together while others were chewed to bits or broken.  I learned a lot, too, about the utility that dogs bring to objects of all kinds: a cardboard tube could bring young Arthur as much enjoyment as a brand-name chew toy.  (I also learned to keep my laundry basket above floor level, after more than one occasion on which he raced through the living room, a bra flown aloft from his jaw as if the pennant of a winning team.)

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H-Bird’s Weekly Twitter-Spatter

21 March, 2010

in O internet

  • RT @AccordionGuy: …the [Las Vegas] water pressure …is freakishly strong. You could easily flush a Shetland Pony down any of the toilets. #
  • Fire alarm! Fortunately, evacuation did not clash with my 3pm class. There is a lot of content to get through today. #
  • http://twitpic.com/18phdx – First meal cooked and served on our new pizza stone by @knedd #
  • RT @knedd: Also known as dirt sharks http://yfrog.com/17hkslj #
  • Today in a meeting with senior management I gave into the dictates of baby-related comfort and reclined with the elegance of a seal. #
  • Tonight's puppy novelty: they all got up to greet me when I came into the room. #
  • Have returned from union dinner at Holy Smoke in Woolston. The babby is reducing my capacity for noms but I did my best. Good times! #
  • Splendid mid-afternoon interlude receiving caffeination at the hands of @CherylBernstein. #
  • It is four years since first I met the @knedd, who impressed me by drinking a festive vodka and jelly snake shot that I had prepared. #
  • Howeve, 'twas not until a year after this that the circle of good impressions was complete, thanks to a jolly round of Wii tennis. #
  • RT @publicaddress: RT @AliIkram: … does anyone care about the Aeneid? Clarke / Bingle moved by similar plot structure as Aeneas / Dido #
  • The articles I sourced on focus groups in higher ed have unexpectedly printed on pale pink paper. Does this mean they are girl articles? #
  • All the best to @southernkbelz for tonight's reading. I will be there in spirit (in body I will be at home covered in puppies). #
  • I've answered fifty questions. I'm sure you'd like to ask me fifty more: http://bit.ly/7sRZoE #
  • Persons with children: would I be in any condition to attend this (possibly with @knedd & 5-mo-old harvestbaby in tow)? http://bit.ly/aroKZF #
  • Work email arrives saying "be firm down there". Sadly it's spam and not a union directive from national office. #
  • Puppy update: Jackie and Tom are studying Edwin and Evie through the pen bars for all the cool roughhousing moves. The reverse is also true. #
  • Thanks everyone re conference/baby query. I think I shall submit my abstract and take it from there! #
  • Long day was loooonnng. Fortunately, Finnmar will shortly be here for some [stop!] puppy time. #
  • Question: I upload links to various kinds of ephemera on Tumblr several times a day. Would you like to see these, or would it be spammy? #
  • The powers of Woolly, the neighbour's cat, are near-legendary. He can send Arthur into a frenzy by sitting down twenty metres away. #
  • Puppies snoozing the snooze of ecstasy after Finnmar's visit. Adults dogs also happy with levels of pats and chin-scratchings. #
  • Anyone looking to do some remote toasting on Monday may wish to raise a glass during the hours of this event: http://bit.ly/cNOFGO #
  • The range of things I have to do today is manageable, and yet I feel like I need hugs and little cakes. #
  • Not sure by which more to be alarmed: the amount of work I've just taken on or the fact I don't feel particularly fazed by it (yet). #
  • I forgot to specify the file format in which students should send their assignment. Many are weird and wonderful, and unopenable by me. #
  • Weekend puppy update: I have christened the puppy pen the Poo Palace, and opened the window. Our red wheelie bin is full of used newspaper. #
  • 2 days of sanding doors has meant @knedd has washed his hair 2x. It's a good thing he loves me, because I can't stop giggling at the bouff. #
  • Confidential to commentators: a little cultural sensitivity, please. The correct pronunciation is Ree-Kee Pawn-Teeng. #
  • 30 mins of puppy time surprisingly tiring. Jackie & Tom tested my toes for bitiness & Rosie pulled the large bag o'newspaper across the room #
  • When #brunch is vanilla & cinnamon French Toast with fresh pineapple and maple syrup, I'm not too proud to tweet it. #
  • I am liking — a lot — Phrazes for the Young. Related: I am also liking — a lot — Julian Casablancas. #

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Narrow and Winding Channel[s]

20 March, 2010

in commentatrix, in Aotearoa, writing & research

Dissolved in memoryThe enrolment requirements for doctoral students have tightened all over the country since I was such a one.  My more-than-four years spent spelunking in various imaginative destinations productive and less so was made possible by generous funding, an indulgent supervisor and a postgraduate office that would not, in my experience, scrutinise what students were doing too closely unless their supervisor(s) abandoned their support.  (The vulnerabilities of students working within a system are not the subject of this post).  This left me free, in the time-honoured fashion of the humanities, to follow research hunches until such a time as I had an argument that hung together.  Not everyone I worked alongside was so fortunate; some did the former without achieving the latter.

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Three Poems at Bat Bean Beam

17 March, 2010

in poems

Not the post authorFor better or for worst, I am catching up on my literary commitments.

This is in part enabled by the exhaustion of work and pregnancy, which means I am not tonight attending this event.

This, I should admit, is just one more thing in my list of good problems to have.

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H-Bird’s Weekly Twitter-Spatter

14 March, 2010

in O internet

The development of the puppies, the development of the baby, the development of Change Proposals.

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Two poems for Bat Bean Beam

13 March, 2010

in poems

One could argue that getting behind in your poetic commitments falls into the category of good problems to have.  As mentioned earlier, I find that my lyrical confidence is decreasing rather than increasing at the moment, but there is only one solution to this and it is the opposite of not-writing.

I am struck by how my theme is largely stories about my family and my ancestors.  Against the big themes I keep offering the small, or rather, intertwining the small with the big.  I’m not sure why, but don’t suppose interpretation is particularly my responsibility in this regard.  However, it may worth mentioning, with regard to what appears below, that I find images and stories from Pompeii too upsetting to consider directly.  It’s a particular quirk of mine that has persisted since childhood, when it was part of a more generalised terror of disasters.  (Gosh but I was easy to wind up in those days.  I must remember that when I come to write on Giovanni’s more recent post about starting school.)

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Minor anniversaries

13 March, 2010

in at home, dogs

… a spunky little dog that loves to know what is going on, who is going to be there, and generally be the center of anything that is going on.

The puppies are a one-month-old delight today. The only regret I have is the limited amount of time in the day there is to spend with them, narrowed as it is two-fold by my working schedule and their sleeping schedule, each of which is extensive. They are making a good fist — or rather, face-full — of solid food and Tom, physically the most precocious, is already cutting teeth.

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Since you asked

7 March, 2010

in commentatrix, in Aotearoa, we are family

Over at The Hand Mirror, Julie raises the question of what a citizen’s to do when encountering personal questions about one’s fertility, pregnancy, and family plans more generally, and the general social judginess and boundary-crossing such queries often evoke.

At five months pregnant, I am somewhat in the thick of such experiences myself; hence using my own webpages rather than posting a comment on-site to consider the matter.  My impression has been that conversations around fertility and natality fall into two broad general groups.

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H-Bird’s Weekly Twitter-Spatter

7 March, 2010

in O internet

A week that called for all my unionista powers of determination and tenacity was offset, on Twitter, by my continuous and cheerful babbling about puppies and babies.

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A Short History of Stuff: DIY Edition

6 March, 2010

in at home, dogs, in Aotearoa, we are family

The hard work that produced this state of affairs on TwitpicDespite being New Zealand-born and having lived in this house for nearly eight years, I have done little in the way of renovation and redecoration.  There has been some moving of beds, some purchasing of couches, and some routine maintenance, but not a lot else.  I tend to caution, renovations-wise, I think, since in the back of my mind there’s always a worry that I’ll run out of money, time or taste.  I haven’t minded living in a house that’s in effect a period-piece, since most fixtures have stayed in reasonable order, save some harrying by the dogs.

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