Ataraxia
Sunday, 01 July, 2007
(Definition.)
This week has been fun because Ben has been coming to work with me! It makes me happy that we're doing the same thing again—if only for a short amount of time—because we used to do the same thing and we saw each other a lot more often than we do now. It was great when we both worked at UNSW because we would travel in together and travel home together, and we both understood each other's job because we were doing pretty much exactly the same things but in different faculties. And it great doing MTS together in Wollongong (even though that was hard) and college together at Moore for much the same reasons. 2006 was the first year when we suddenly weren't doing stuff together any more and only saw each other in the evenings when we came home.
Ben coming to work has meant I've been starting slightly later though and I think it's mucking up my productivity a little. (That and Facebook. Yes, I caved and now I have 74 friends [Ben has 103]. Let us not speak of this again.) I tried in vain to get The Daily Reading Bible (Volume 12) done this week but then hit a brick wall so I will have to try again this week. But I did manage to get Just for Starters 2 done and off my plate. And then there was Briefing stuff to do on Friday, endless CHNs (not written by me) and problems with the online store which meant I couldn't send out Briefing e-news (that's tomorrow's job).
Monday we went to Tho's for lunch (where Ben ate raw pork—Tho's favourite food—and then freaked out about it later) and then Pinocchio's for dinner and then New College for the ISCAST/CASE lecture on Darwinism, Creationism, Intelligent Design and Theistic Evolution lecture. It was very interesting and it helped that the speakers tag-teamed one another—the change every so often helped me to pay attention.
Tuesday was lots of CASE work where it slowly dawned on me how much I'm going to have to do for The Faithful Writer conference (I hope people register early—hint hint. I also hope we get at least 20 more registrations—hint hint hint.) I left a little later than planned (bad sign!) and drove to Westfield Bondi Junction in the rain to buy an electric blanket with my birthday money (and I'm so glad I did! There are few things in life as wonderful as getting into a toasty warm bed on a cold cold night!), Suddenly 30 on DVD, four white soup bowls and four soup Chinese soup spoons. (When we got married, we didn't have a wedding registry but in hindsight, I probably should have realised that the majority of our guests, not being Asian, wouldn't have thought to buy us stuff like Chinese soup spoons, chopsticks, and soup bowls big and deep enough for things like won ton noodle soup. After we got married, I bought us two of those bowls and four Chinese soup spoons, but we've since broken two.) I had a very pleasant evening at home doing various computer-type things I don't remember and watching Grey's Anatomy and going to bed early.
Wednesday evening we went to Naomi and Simon's for dinner, and then to Pilates. Naomi and I prayed together afterwards, and then she made yummy soufflé for dessert.
Thursday we were late to work because Ben was feeling sick, and then later than expected home again. Ben decided not to go hear Greg talk on Dawkins and The God Delusion at All Soul's Leichhardt because he needed to work on his sermon for Sunday. I was going to go to my make up Pilates class at that time but since he wasn't going and I had missed the 6 pm class, I decided not to go at all and just stayed home, watching television all evening.
Friday was Friday Thai Day with AFES (yay!), and then Elsie and I met to read the Bible and pray. In the face of the world's preoccupation with money, career, getting ahead and “keeping up with the Joneses”, 1 Timothy 6:17-19 is such a comforting passage. I didn't have counselling because my counsellor was away so we worked until 5, drove home in silly traffic and then cleaned up the house in preparation for people coming over for my jewellery party. There were eight of us for dinner (we ordered in Thai, plus I made coconut basil chili chicken) and then 12 people for the party. It actually went fairly well, considering the number of people and the small amount of space we had. After getting a bit lost, the girl who was teaching us to make jewellery (Taz) managed to get to our place and set up everything. She had base prices for making the jewellery (so if you only wanted to make earrings, you paid $x plus the cost of the beads, and obviously the more you made, the cheaper it was. I chose to make a set—earrings, bracelet and necklace). And I found that actually putting them together was fairly simple once you got the hang of it (photos to come later). Everyone left at around 11 and there wasn't much to clean up because Ben had done most of it already (thank you Ben!).
Saturday we got up early and Ben went to the church prayer breakfast whereas I went to my make up Pilates class. The instructor on Saturdays is this young woman who is extremely good at Pilates. Unfortunately she seems to expect everyone to be at the same level as her, so we would do one exercise and go straight on to the next and the next one and the next one. We were doing The Hundreds at the halfway point in the class (I think The Hundreds is probably one of the hardest—if not the hardest—Pilates exercise you can do). At that point, I felt like I was going to die if I didn't have a break, so I stopped and rested for a bit, and I think that made her realise she was pushing us a little too hard because the second half of the class was a little less intense.
When Ben came home after the prayer breakfast, we went for a walk down to Webba, the café near Annandale, and had a hot chocolate (it was an okay hot chocolate). We came home and had lunch while watching NCIS, then Ben spent the afternoon writing his sermon (or trying to write his sermon) while I ended up watching lots of television and then Mean Girls while knitting the collar of Jess's cardigan. In the evening we watched Law & Order over dinner, then Ben went back to sermon writing. I had finished doing all the knitting of the cardigan by the end of the day. Now the ends just need to be woven in and the button sewn on. Oh, and I'm wondering if I need to block it. I'll see if it fits Jess okay tomorrow and then decide on the blocking later.
Today we slept in, then I did laundry and cooked lunch and tried to get through my To Do list but instead ended up watching Wimbledon on DVD (courtesy of George). Band practice was at 5 and it went pretty quickly for some reason. Ben preached excellently on Ezekiel 36, then dropped me home so he could go out with church friends to Newtown. I ended up doing CASE work and blogging.
Current:
seen: Moon 15/10/2009
read: The Incredibles 11/10/2009
seen: She's the Man 05/10/2009
read: I Kill Giants (Joe Kelly and J. M. Ken Niimura) 04/10/2009
read: Astro City The Dark Ages Book 1: Brothers and Other Strangers (Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross) 04/10/2009
seen: Children of Men 02/10/2009
seen: Metric (The Metro) 30/09/2009
seen: 500 Days of Summer 25/09/2009
seen: The September Issue 18/09/2009
seen: Gilmore Girls: Season 1 17/09/2009
read: Flight (Volume 1) (edited by Kazu Kibuishi) 16/09/2009
seen: Ponyo 11/09/2009
read: Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert) 05/09/2009
heard: Aimee Mann (Enmore Theatre) 04/09/2009
heard: Ben Folds Solo (Opera House) 31/08/2009
read: Phonogram: Rue Britannia (Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie) 26/08/2009
seen: Northanger Abbey 20/08/2009
read: The Princess Diaries (Meg Cabot) 18/08/2009
seen: The Phantom of the Opera 17/08/2009
seen: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? 10/08/2009
seen: District 9 10/08/2009
read: Shortcomings (Adrian Tomine) 02/08/2009
read: AIR Volume 1: Letters from Lost Countries (Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker) 28/07/2009
seen: Persepolis 25/07/2009
seen: Ghost Town 25/07/2009
heard: Gutter Twins (Seymour Centre) 23/07/2009
seen: Coco Avant Chanel 20/07/2009
seen: Gutenberg! The Musical (Seymour Centre) 16/07/2009
seen: So You Think You Can Dance? Australia Live Tour (Sydney Entertainment Centre) 11/07/2009
seen: Every Little Step 07/07/2009
seen: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen 03/07/2009
seen: Synecdoche, New York 30/06/2009
seen: Charlie's Angels 27/06/2009
seen: Penelope 26/06/2009
seen: Coraline 10/06/2009
seen: The Sky Crawlers 08/06/2009
seen: The Bourne Ultimatum 07/06/2009
seen: The Bourne Supremacy 07/06/2009
seen: The Bourne Identity 06/06/2009
seen: Stick it 05/06/2009
Comment:
Congratulations again 
Don’t laminate your ultrasound picture That is my advice.
Congratulations! This is so fantastic!
Thanks so much for sharing all of this… people swap engagement stories but rarely pregnancy stories! And it’s kind of similar don’t you think, all this excitement leading up to a big day!
So happy for you guys! Actually never been more excited for anyone except my sister! I think it’s because I think that you will both be amazing parents and love the idea that someone could grow up in your family.
Looking forward to many more posts on the topic.
Lovely news, Karen.
Thanks everyone! I will be sure to ask for help when I need it!
Great pic!! Peanut is cute! :D
Praying for you all!
xx
:D
I had a similar sort of morning sickness.. except I threw up! I’m suitably impressed that you coped OS.. that must have been tough.
It sounds like you’re doing marvelously otherwise!
Book recommendation on something a bit less technical and a bit more human: ‘Birth’ http://www.birthnet.com.au/
Praise be to God indeed! Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
Congratulations, Beilharzen! Welcome to the slightly-bewildering world of pregnancy (and birth...and children...). God has blessed you greatly with this new life. We’ll be praying for Peanut’s growth and development, and for you guys as you prepare.
I’m sure you’re surrounded by baby veterans, but always happy to help with books/advice/recommendations/listening.
B&L;
Excellent job Karen! You SHOULD be pleased with yourself!
Have you discovered http://www.ravelry.com ? It is an excellent site with thousands of free patterns in its database, lots of support, tips, forums etc and of course - friends like me? Look me up when you get there - fionag77
PS Are you just wearing a bulky dress or are you sporting a bump under that dress?
oooh.... It’s done and it looks great on you! xxx
Well done on all that hard work! It looks great and will be very snuggly come winter!
Thanks for letting me know, Timo!
Hi there,
Thanks for pointing out the shortcoming on our website. I’ll pass it on to my colleagues and hopefully it will be rectified soon.
The documentary at Fashioning Now was by Holly Kaye-Smith; I’d be more than happy to put you in touch with her if you’d like.
Again, thanks for the comment, much appreciate it!
Kind regards,
Timo Rissanen
Thanks Mark! Much appreciated!
Rich survey, Karen. Particularly I was struck by the notion of Jesus being clothed with our sins. I heard recently somebody suggest the crown of thorns was a kings crown but it was made of the symbol of the curse in the Garden - thorns. I would like to read your thoughts about Joseph’s coat of many colours.
Looking forward to the next installment. Regards,Mark
It is lovely - and looks great on you.
You’ve made me want to read it - though I may need an interpreter at times!
Well done with the sewing!
I think it looks good - very relaxed and spring-y.
Hey Sandra! Thanks for the tip! I read it yesterday, but I struggled a bit because Lewis doesn’t start from the Bible. I wasn’t convinced by his argument. What did you think?
Interesting post Karen - Thanks
I like the ending too! :D
xxx
Fantastic post, Karen. Just great. Thanks!
Thanks Bec! Eternal life just keeps getting better and better ...
I do like the way you ended this post - excellent thought.
Personally I don’t feel that way. Maybe that’s something you should blog about?
Wow. Lots of things to pick up on there. It’s been interesting to see the changes to your blog these last 6-12 months: Twitter is certainly more immediate, but are there (gasp) downsides to having its constant buzz in the ear?
Is our (already fractured) ability to concentrate on a single relationship at a time further jeapordised by the regular buzz of tweetdeck (and worse yet, by the imagined sense of loss that goes with being off the grid)?
Or am I just projecting my own fears?
Hi Karen!
If you’re still thinking about this… I just read CS Lewis’s essay “Learning in War-time” which exactly addresses this issue (ie. how can we justify cultural & aesthetic pursuits when people are going to hell around us?). Have you read it? i’d be interested to hear what you think..
(i have it in his little volume “Transposition and other Addresses”, but it’s easily findable online)
I’m doing my own series on the trials and tribulations of writing on my own blog here http://sedshed.blogspot.com/search/label/From%20Head%20to%20Hand
It’s coming along slowly
Coincidentily, I stumbled upon the above Phonogram vs. the Fans cover when digging around for ID concepts for Salt. A disturbingly brilliant image.
Thanks Karen. At the very least, this post gives some context to your myriad of phonogram tweets. At best, it has reinvigorated my stagnated appreciation of comics.
Seriously, though 4,549 words. Is that the best you can do? I say, longer!
Hey @RodeoClown! Yes, I neglected to mention Gillen writes about gaming. Guan said once he had the ideal job: writing, comics and games.
As far as I know, McKelvie doesn’t trace photos; he just draws (so talented ...)
You should give Phonogram a try. Be warned, though: series 1 is a little different to series 2—still clever but there are some things that are a bit strange in it if you’re not used to the fantastic.
Whoops, I stuffed up that link, sorry.
It was to Rock Paper Shotgun where he writes (he also has a standalone blog as well.
I didn’t know Gillen wrote comics until I saw the last phongram reference you made on here. It’s odd as I only knew of him as a videogame jounalist (which he is also really good at).
I read the sample issue of phonogram they have up at the Image comics (I think) site.
It looked pretty interesting - I like the subtlety involved in telling the story - the references aren’t all forciby thrust into your brain by the writer.
Do you know if the art is done by tracing photos or just dtawn?
I certainly don’t understand enough about pop music to really get that comic series, but I’m glad you’ve shared how you came to appreciate comics.
I’d say go and make some short comics. Seems like it will make the longer stuff easier to put together.
You’re right. I don’t really understand. But I do so love reading your writing. It’s like you’re speaking inside my head and excitedly telling me something.
Thanks Sarah! Feel free to share your own thoughts on the subject.
I’m a Christian, I’m a writer (well, I’m working on my first novel which is nearing completion) and I felt your post so PERFECTLY captured the dilemmas I’ve been thinking about.
KAREN!!!! it looks so amazing!!! i cant believe how beautiful it is. Everyone at work is just amazed at how talented you are. I’ll get in contact with you soon xx
I love it, Karen. You must teach me how to do this.
Blinks:
Vision therapy as a treatment for ADHD, learning disabilities and even autism. The scientific community's opinion. The results of concentrated therapy.
Kieron Gillen on Phonogram, Siege, Ares, Loki and his collaborative relationship with Jamie McKelvie.
Superheroes and how they have changed the way we see urban landscape. Their attraction to New York.
Kieron Gillen talking about Phonogram's run and the effect it had on its audience.
Guy Gavriel Kay's official website.
ESV in MP3 form: complete BIble is USD 30.00.
The hazards of noise for children because their ears are more sensitive.
Digital billboards: distracting for drivers or will the regulations keep them from becoming hazards? Do the benefits outweigh the disadvantages?
By William Poundstone. Sounds like an interesting book.
The future of shopping with mobile phones. Aggressive merchandising. Privacy issues.
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Comments
All of which reminds me that I have a very small, very wintery and decidedly unknitted present for you, so would you mind refreshing my memory of your address and I will actually put it somewhere I can find this time?
K.
Friday Thai Day reminds me of Friday Tie Day at St George Girls. Did you have that? We would try to flick everyone’s tie out from under their tunic. Very creative.
Heheheh ... no, we never did that! And I emerged from high school with my tie untouched. I eventually gave it along with all my old uniforms to my sister-in-law when she started school.
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