This post is pretty much an advertisement for my funny husband Ben, who has been dabbling in stand-up comedy of late (although those who remember his performance at the 2007 Moore College Revue will probably correct me and say he's been dabbling in it for a while). It started with him going along to Mug and Kettle Comedy (an open mic comedy event and perhaps the only one of its kind in Sydney). Now he's putting together his very own Sydney Fringe Festival show, which will debut in September.

So don't say I didn't tell you! Here's your notice—three months in advance:

How to rate your music collection in 36,000 easy steps

It's easy to rate songs in [redacted music application] but you're not doing it. Why? or how come? I can't give your life meaning but I can teach you how and why you should allocate 1 of 5 values to short aural experiences. [*Not a real course.]

“Five stars”—how Bohemian Rhapsody should be rated, for example.

“An hilarious journey into nihilism.”—someone who has seen the show, which is impossible.

QUOTES AND REVIEWS

“Comedy with authority. When he says ‘Knock-knock’ you say, ‘How High?’”—Leigh Csont, Cad

“Ben Beilharz is a filthy prop comic”—Daniel Muggleton, Mug and Kettle Comedy

Thursday 19 and 26 September, 7:15 pm at the Loft Bar, UTS. 60 minutes. Tickets: adult: $15; concession: $12. Book online.

For a taster of Ben's thoughts on iTunes rating, read this.

You may also be interested in the show he is doing with three other Mug and Kettle comedians: “Does the fun ever start?” (Saturday 28 September 8:15pm 60 min).

(P.S. Kinds of Blue is now back in print!)

I reckon it would be fascinating stuff. (Ben disagrees; he was bored just by me talking about it.) Who wouldn't be interested in how other people live—or rather, how they can afford to live? In addition, perhaps seeing what life is like on the other side of the fence will cause audiences to ponder their own financial circumstances and how to make things work better for themselves.

Done well, it would hit the right note of voyeurism combined with judgementalism (with a dash of public-service-educating-the-public-about-personal-finance-ism) so typical of reality TV—Supernanny crossed with Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The current post-GFC climate is ripe for this sort of thing, I reckon.

So TV people: feel free to use my idea. It's not like I'm going to be able to do anything with it!

I've been thinking recently about ways of working—different approaches to time and tasks. Sometimes I think the world can be divided into two groups of people: people who think in terms of structures and people who are more unstructured. The structured people are (to stereotype heavily) generally more organised, and tend to think naturally in terms of categories, grids and segments. The unstructured people tend to be more spontaneous: they live in moment (or so it seems to me; I confess I'm in the former camp) and they take things as they come in whatever form they come.

Anyways, I thought it prudent to run it past someone with more theological training than me before I made anything public. I also had some ideas about what needed to be fixed, and it turns out I was right. And then the project got set aside as I strived to finish the first draft of my graphic novel script—mostly because the graphic novel script was more fun, but also because I knew I'd have to teach myself how to use iMovie. (And it's not that I'm anti-learning new things; it's just learning new things takes time and energy and effort, and no matter how many video tutorials you can watch, nothing beats getting in there and trying to do what you want to do (with the aid of Google).

This week I've been sick with some sort of viral infection thingy manifesting itself in the form of a sore throat and a mild fever (though if that was mild, I'd hate to have a serious one). Being sick while trying to look after a small child is challenging, but fortunately for two of the days, I had booked half-day childcare in advance, and on the other day, Ben was also home sick, which made things feel easier even though he was also not in very good shape to share parenting duties.

This morning, hearing of my situation, a very kind church friend invited us over for a playdate—and even offered to mind Astrid without me and take her up to childcare when the time came if I was too ill. I was functioning on four hours of sleep, but I was feeling better—and as it turned out, well enough to stay for the duration of the playdate and enjoy my friend's company while Astrid enjoyed my friend's children's. The three of them played together quite happily and relatively independently, allowing us to actually have some semblance of a continuous conversation throughout the morning.

And I was struck by several things—firstly, how less intense parenting seems once the adult-to-child ratio rises above 1:1 (even if the ratio is in favour of the children); secondly, what it's like to juggle and attend to the needs of two little people (a skill I haven't yet needed to master); and thirdly, how important and valuable it was for me to be able to witness the lives of other people's families and their particular mix of personalities, the ways in which they operate from day to day, their attitudes and methods when it comes to parenting (which also arise from the personalities of their children), the things that the parents struggle with, and so on.

Since I last did an update, I have:

Marc is also the author of Catalyst (The Passage of Hellsfire Book 1), a young adult fantasy coming-of-age romance, and its sequel, What Once Was One. (He's got six books planned for that series.) His work is mostly available through e-readers, however, if memory serves correctly, you can now get Catalyst in print.