/karen/

Hello! You know this is the first site, which i really like GOOD!.
I am from Guinea-Bissau and learning to write in English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: “Visit lambert vet supply for spot ons supplies such as advantage flea control, bio spot, capstar flea treatment, freedom at great prices.”

Best regards , Stephenie.

Hi all. Our lives teach us who we are.
I am from Malawi and learning to read in English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: “When dusting dark specks off your pet fur always try to check it out as they could be flea dirt.”

Thank Greer.

Excuse me. Man is only miserable so far as he thinks himself so.
I am from Great and bad know English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “Your online garden supply store offering organic fertilizers, natural pest control, organic gardening flea bites make some animals, who are allergic to the.”

Thanks in advance. Al.

Wonderful and informative web site. I will recomend this site. Excelent work.
I am from Ukraine and learning to speak English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “Flea allergy is the most common canine allergic skin disorder, affecting dogs in reaction to flea allergen, allergic dogs will have inflammation and.”

Thanks for the help , Quinn.

I should probably add that the scarf was done on 10mm needles; the shawl was done on 15mm needles.

@Karen I don’t get many comments either. I think I figured out Twitter and Facebook are eating into our blogosphere. I used to spend my internet half-hour manually visiting everyone’s blogs; now I check FB and Twitter and leave Google Reader to last, if at all.

@Elsie: Not to be confused with Thierry Henry.

@Haoran: wow, ennui! I’ve learnt a new word today. Must remember it for Scrabble.

In the words of Napolean Dynamite’s brother, “I love technology”.

@Haoran: I’d much rather you left comments on my actual blog than on Facebook! On Facebook, I doubt I could ever find them again. And I don’t seem to get heaps of comments these days anyway!

I know what you mean about ennui. I’m looking forward to smartphones becoming ubiquitous; then maybe I’ll get one.

@Bec: I love it when you ramble on my blog!

@Little Rach: That is sad, and a very good point. I’m sure I wouldn’t get so much out of Twitter if my closest friends weren’t on it! (Incidentally, most of my school friends, who I am also relatively close to, are into internet-y things ...)

It’s interesting that Twitter helps you feel connected. It is starting to have the opposite effect on me. Pretty much all of my close friends who I hardly see anymore don’t go on Facebook often and don’t use Twitter… so the more I get updates from acquaintances the further and further I feel from the people with whom I wish I still shared my life. :(

actually correct that - not necessarily free to myself can be with others… . but if something’s on, I have decided to participate in it on saturday morning by choice, not just cos it has to be done then!

having saturday morning free to myself is kind of important
- it means I get sleep
- it means I can enjoy something like breakfast.
- slowly do some chores, and do some vegging.
there’s no pressure to be anywhere. or necessarily do anything. bit of time out. found that otherwise I get grouchy.

Great post K.

I noticed this online/offline distinction when I was in Adelaide recently - my uncle is a technocrat and my aunt not so (she’s not afraid of tech, she just doesn’t spend much time using it and isn’t interested in learning the intricacies because her husband knows them all). I kept getting my laptop out in quiet moments to catch up on email/feeds/twitter and it was said more than once, in a mocking tone, “oh, you’re just like him, always have to be connected”.

Though I have found that being able to be connected to friends and just the minutiae of my everyday life has helped me in stressful situations.  Like when I’ve been overseas and feeling adrift, misunderstood or lonely, to be able to just open my laptop and feel some sense of normalcy is so good.

Having said that, there is still the buzz of getting a good piece of snail mail from someone, or disconnecting and spending time with people face to face. But I don’t understand why some people seem to find these things mutually exclusive. Why can’t you be a fully functioning, sociable technocrat?  I think that’s where your point about tech being simple comes in - when it doesn’t mean you have to be a nerd to understand it, then it just becomes part of everyday life.

I’ve rambled again. Oops.

Maybe I’m old-school, but I prefer leaving comments on your blog rather than Facebook

Dunno about you; I haven’t reached the point of technology fatigue, but I’m certainly at the point of ennui.

Maybe I started younger than you (yes, that’s possible, just!) but I’m now at the point of pragmatism. Things aren’t cool just because they’re new; things are good because they let me do things that weren’t previously possible, which improves my quality of life.

Being online 24/7 with smartphones may be the way of the future, but it doesn’t yet make me particularly happier or more efficient, so I’m not losing any sleep about not having an iPhone.

Lots of things have come and gone without making a tremendous blip, and a lot of them weren’t worth getting that excited about....

It’s really up to you, Justin! If it’s not your kind of movie, I wouldn’t bother. But if you like action and escapism, give it another go.

I couldn’t make it past the first 10 minutes.

Of the movie that is. Not my marriage!

Should I reconsider?

Sitting in coffeeshops sketching passersby.

Playing games without rules - just pulling out the trivial pursuit cards and answering questions, or taking three storytelling elements cards and thinking of stories that use them.

Hmm. I hadn’t thought of it that way. I will have to watch it again.

I think I’ve always been distracted by how close it is to the Mark Knopfler song Nobody’s Got the Gun.

I find it interesting that you picked up on Bella’s complete rejection of her human peers as companions in favour of Edward. That was the one thing my husband couldn’t understand in the movie, either. (We watched the movie before reading the book.)

However, I find this to be one of the most real aspects of the book. How many times do I remember friends complaining about how as soon as a love interest was developing, the friendship would go by the wayside in favour of the romance? This is stock and standard teenage experience.

So too is the immense selfishness of teenagers. Much as we might desire that they should think of others before themselves, they generally don’t. Bella, with her obsession with the developing relationship with Edward and the mystery over his otherness, seems quite realistic to me when I think about the teenage girl I was and the teenage girls I know now. Frankly, I don’t know any teenage girls who actually do ask others for their opinion on clothes - they are all far too self conscious to risk getting a negative response. But they sure spend a lot of time worrying and fretting over how they look in the eyes of others - just as Bella does.

And the book also makes it clear that from the very first, Jessica will be jealous of Bella for her growing relationship with Edward, because Jessica had tried to win him and failed. “He’s gorgeous, of course, but don’t waste your time. He doesn’t date. Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him. She sniffed, a clear case of sour grapes. I wondered when he’d turned her down. (p19) So Bella’s reluctance to develop a friendship with Jessica can hardly be criticised. It is Jessica’s jealousy that prevents the relationship from developing, unlike Bella’s friendship with Angela, who harbours none of these negative emotions.

~ Sharon

Yes! I think that every time I see it and is the primary reason why I enjoy it so much. The moment in the car when they are confessing to every lie they ever told… ^-^

Thankyou Karen!

After moving to Sydney I had various experiences of not coping, so I made a list of 5 things I plan to check next time I’m at a low ebb.

Food (esp getting enough iron)
Exercise
Sleep
Sunlight
Advice (talking to my Dad)

11 Days of No is very helpful too, if busyness is the cause.

I’d love to see the pics…

How would we do that?

J.

@Di: Good point! I’m an introvert so I tended to think of introverted things. I suppose the list would look a bit different for an extrovert.

@ChinaJackie: Welcome! Bec is indeed wise, and I’m glad you enjoyed my post!

Karen,

the wise Bec has sent me a link to your blog.  I hope you don’t mind, but it was such a light to me today to read this insightful post.  Thank you for sharing your articulate observations. 

I’d add greenery, gardening or sitting in a park, and watching or hearing the power of the ocean to my list of refueling ideas.

chinajackie xx

I think it’s really interesting that a lot of the activities that you’ve listed can be done by yourself and don’t need a group to make it work.

I’ve found that most people find introverts who need down time *alone* as rather odd. The ‘norm’ seems to be to wind-down and chill out in a group with all your friends (getting drunk etc.)

I’m just glad to see lots of individual activities listed. Group activities are never things that help me ‘restore my well’.

Showers too. And baths.

Yes - exercise, although it seems contradictory to relaxing, actually helps you to feel much better.  More endorphins (was just saying to Guan today how if I make myself do yoga even when I don’t want to, I usually feel really good afterwards).

And eating a good, nourishing and tasty meal - especially when someone else has prepared it for you!

I love shopping too. Its the whole looking at pretty and creative things, especially since I’m not very creative. Less about the buying, more about the immersing yourself in another world and going awwww! (Like all those second-hand retro shops in Newtown)

I wonder if I should have included exercise and eating in the list.

I second what George said!

And also I think singing is a good thing. Just putting on some music and singing at the top of your lungs, whether angry, sad, joyful, reflective, silly, funny or just mellow. It can really help deflect your mind off the grating feeling of hitting the bottom of the well (or wallowing in the dregs).  I think I heard somewhere that singing releases endorphins too, so, you know, that helps…

Hi gorgeous K, even though you blog less, you blog deeply when you do blog. I enjoy it.
And I think I’ll blog about what restores me, rather than writing a long comment. Hope that’s ok.

You’ve just convicted me that I need to update my blogroll.

What surprises me is the number of people who use my blogroll to find other blogs they want to read...

That’s how I found my husband!

I think the preview function is working now.

@George: It was a great book, wasn’t it! I thought about blogging about it, but, yeah, there’s the spoiler thing. Will wait ‘til Bec is through it.

@Elsie: You need to see ‘The Principal and the Pauper’.

@Philip: No, definitely not.

I thought you liked fairy tales as it returned your mind to a state of innocence, before growing up, before the adult world. Not growing up is part of fairy tales, i.e. Peter Pan.

Excellent post K. May post a more thorough comment when I’ve digested some of this, but just wanted to say thanks for writing it!

Wonderful, wonderful post! Worth the wait. I’d like to make a few comments:

1. I didn’t know Seymour Skinner’s mum is not technically his mum. I’m confused! I must have missed an episode somewhere. Can you briefly explain?

2. I get annoyed when people say Mr Darcy is an unrealistic person. And its not about Pemberley! And I don’t understand why men supposedly dislike him. What appeals to me about Mr Darcy is his character. He uses his power to lessen the shame on Lizzie’s family caused by Lydia and Wickham, all for Lizzie’s sake. And he does it quietly. He does what is honourable. Is that such a bad thing to look for in a man?

3. I also wish school taught us how to iron clothes. And how to be organised! No one teaches you organisational skills and they’re vital in running a calmer and more efficient life (Ok, I think they did do a seminar in Year 11, but its not the same). I don’t think I started to learn how to be organised until I starting working in a day job. at webpages, tv shows and books on the topic.

4. About the roast - I can come over and show you sometime! Once you get the hang of it, its one of the easiest meals to make. I can do chicken roast and vegies. I’m not so experienced with lamb or beef (still happy to give it a go). Jess, my ex-flatmate does a mean lamb roast *drools* My boss says you can do a good turkey roast with the frozen turkey meat portions - moist and tender he says!.

5. The NY Times is great isn’t it! I only read it because of your delicious links. I did a search on the history of teeth and found this article http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/05/science/roots-and-all-a-history-of-teeth.html

6. Do blog about Alain de Botton! I have to add my name to the waiting list for that book.

7. I’ve always thought the key to being a happy or successful single is to be thoroughly independent so that you don’t have to rely on anyone (except for God!) simply because you don’t have that spouse to lean on. But you’ve reminded me that is a falsehood. Certainly, you do need a degree of independence, but you still need people for relationship at the most basic level. Plus I still need to rely on other people’s help for so many things simply because I lack the skill, confidence or knowledge for it.

(PS Your preview button didn’t work for me. Am using Firefox on Mac OS X)

Cool post Karen. It did not feel “long”. That’s the secret of good writing I guess! And I feel honoured to be mentioned more than once. And I’ve read the book now, but I’m still glad you didn’t reveal the ending, because I want to lend it to Bec.

That was a bit me-me-me for a post on listening, sorry. I’m called on to listen more than the other way around.

(Just an aside, my dad used to take notes while he was listening so he could listen, but have the questions to hand later). I’m a Ms Fixit, so I’ve had to learn to ask people if they just want me to listen, or if they want suggestions.