February 2012
1 post
bite of pythias: A few thoughts on new tumblr... →
biteofpythias:
I haven’t had the time to fully work through my thoughts on this (so I may shift), but here is my reaction to tumblr’s new policy, which seems to be being very positively received.
1) Tumblr is a private company and has complete decision-making authority over what users can do with their service….
I agree that if a social media platform bans certain content, people will...
January 2012
1 post
December 2011
2 posts
Why Our Baby Did Not Freeze...
Action: 10pm Board overnight train from Istanbul to Ankara with my husband and baby 2 moth old girl.
Thoughts: Woohoo! We made it!
Speech: "Chris, Iona, this is awesome!"
Blankets etc: There are sheets and 2 enormous blankets on the bunks. The train compartment is toasty warm. Train conductor comes in, sees baby Iona and gives us another enormous blanket, I toss them all in the corner.
Action: 2.30am Train is stopped, Iona wakes up, chortles with delight as we're doing a diaper change.
Thoughts: We've been stopped for rather a long time, Iona's fed, when we start up again it'll be easy for her to go back to sleep. There's no way Chris can sleep through Iona's happy squeals...
Speech (Chris, sleepily): "Hey little Iona, are you wide awake?"
Speech (me): "There's quite a kerfuffle outside, Chris, there's all these train personnel in the hallway messing with the electric board."
Blankets etc: Train compartment is pretty warm but getting cooler. Electricity is out. Conductor comes in with a torch while I'm breastfeeding and gives us 2 more enormous blankets. Maybe I will need one after all...
Action: 4.30am I have moved all our blankets except the 2 for Chris onto the bunk I'm sharing with Iona. Iona's also swaddled with all her burping cloths, her snowsuit, her hat and is pressed against me.
Thoughts: Fuck I'm cold and poor little Iona's face (the only part of her exposed) is getting cold.
Speech: Groan, shiver.
Blankets etc: If I make Chris come down to our bunk then maybe we can share body heat...and those 2 extra blankets? Could we even all fit?
Thoughts: 6am Argh! It's so cold! Iona's asleep but if she wakes up or needs a diaper change how in the world can we keep her warm?
Speech: Chris! We have a problem!!! Iona's going to get really cold and our train won't get in for 2hrs...I don't know what else to do?
...Action: Chris (dressed in running shorts, T-shirt and short white socks) awakes and gets a primitive look in his eyes. He leaps from the top bunk, races outside into the freezing train compartment and down the train screaming for a train conductor. A few compartments full of frozen Chinese tourists crack open and women swaddled in parkas and blankets watch Chris race about. Chris locates a train carriage which does have electricity and a few conductors. He explains we have to move into the other compartment right now.
Blankets etc: A wagon full of people, who look more like plaid blankets than people, follow semi-clad Chris to the warm wagon.
Action: 8 am We leave our toasty compartment in the new warm wagon and head out to find a cab.
Thoughts: Mmmmm, my husband, my hero...
Speech: "Hey look Chris, all those Chinese tourists are smiling at you!"
Blankets etc: It's good to be home...
August 2011
1 post
July 2011
1 post
June 2011
3 posts
2 tags
May 2011
2 posts
April 2011
4 posts
Woah...let me tell you why I almost had a panic attack today and how a Turkish police officer ended up helping me carry my shopping to my apt...
So this afternoon, armed with a great recipe involving octopus, I decide to go shopping for vegetables. Having been recently disappointed by the onions at my local market I take the bus downtown and explore some of the produce markets. Chris, my husband, is at home working. I have great success with the vegetables and walk up to the bus stop to wait for the bus, congratulating myself that although I'm a little hazy with the details of the weekend bus stop schedule, I'm definitely 10 mins early and it's bound to come within 30 mins. It should be noted that I am almost 6m pregnant now, that this was a steep hill, a beautiful sunny day and when I got to the bus stop I put my bags down, took off my cardigan and tried learning some turkish vocab from a notebook.
A Turkish policeman walked up to me and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was waiting for a bus and realised that he was staring at my breasts. It should also be noted that my breasts have taken on somewhat cartoonish proportions since I became pregnant and these last couple of weeks it's just got silly. Our gay male friend spent quite some time describing how distracting my breasts have become in our pilates sessions to my husband at dinner last night. Anyhow, I tell the policeman that I'm waiting for the bus to take me back to the university where my husband works and that I don't speak Turkish...the policeman happily starts speaking to me in English. He tells me I'm very beautiful and that I am a single woman at a bus stop at the wrong time. I feel sillier and ask if he knows what time the bus is going to come. He looks me up and down again and we begin a rather peculiar conversation:
Polis: Will you recognize a Turkish policeman?
Me: Yes, I mean no...I...
Polis: And you recognize that police van?
Me: Yes, I see that police van...
Polis: I want to take you...Police, we are gentlemenly, we help foreigners.
Me: Well that's very nice of you, I'm very happy waiting here though, do you know when the bus is coming?
Polis: The Turkish police, we help people
I'm going to have to get in the van. This is fine, they help foreigners, they're going to give me a 20min taxi ride home, why am I protesting?
Me: Thank you very much
I get in the van with my bags and sit behind the policeman, another policeman starts up the car and we head towards my home.
Polis: My name is ______
Me: Pleased to meet you, my name is_____
Polis: Yes, a nice name, but it could be Princess, you are very beautiful
Me: It's very nice that you help foreigners like this.
Polis: Yes we help children, foreigners, beautiful women
Me: Well that's great and I'm 6m pregnant so, you're helping my child too!
Polis: No! You are 6m pregnant? You do not look pregnant! You are hiding it!
Polis [to his colleague who doesn't speak English as well]: Do you understand that? No, well...Turkish men, we like the European women, the physique of European women...Can you move to the other seat, it is hard for me to see you, with you behind me.
Me: Yes, I'll just move over, Turkish women are gorgeous...do you have children?
[wife and children, let's get him talking about his wife and children...]
Polis: Yes....
We have a 15 min conversation about his children, his trips to Australia and the UK, his interest in the English language...we are almost at my home
Polis: Do we go left or how do you say, straight?
Me: Straight and you say it fine, like an Australian.
Polis: An Australian! [laughs, takes my hand, kisses it] Just think, if we had not been able to help you, you are still at bus stop! The time we have saved you! Is there a cafe near your house, we can stop and get coffee or waters, it is good for me to talk to a native speaker...
Me: Yes, um, why don't I drop my groceries at the apt and I'll get my husband and then we, the four of us, can all go to a cafe!
Polis: Let me help you out of the police van. Yes, you are very impress.
Me: Thank you so much, I'll be right back with my husband and then we can go to the cafe.
Polis: I'll help you with the bags...where is the door?
Me: I have to warn you, we live at the very top of the building, there are 5 floors, lots of stairs, you can definitely wait here and I'll be right back.
Polis: I will help you
Me: OK
[4 flights later]
Polis [breathing heavily]: You have something in your dress
Me: ?
Polis: some pieces of tree [he shows me that some sticky leaves have attached themselves to my dress and proceeds to brush them off the back of my thighs and body, I begin taking 3 stairs at a time. oh please Chris, be home, please, please, please be at the apt.]
Polis: Stairs, so many stairs! You will get me some water!
We stand outside my apt, I put my key in the lock and look at the gun by his hip. I'm properly scared. What if Chris has gone out? I rush into Chris' room, the policeman is putting the bags down. Chris is not by his computer. I shriek his name. Chris answers from the bathroom. A great wave of relief. I feel tiny Iona kick kicking somewhere in the left side of my waist...
Me: Come in, let me get you some water, my husband is just coming...
Chris emerges from the bathroom, and having heard the panic in my voice he's all taut and at his most intimidating. I am ridiculously happy to see that my husband is quite a bit taller than the policeman, that the policeman looks surprised, that all talk of going for coffee is over. We make small talk for 5 mins or so. I try and make myself believe there was nothing to be scared of after all, a friendly policeman was just helping out a lost foreigner, practicing his English, brushing leaves off her...whatever. I'm home, I'm safe, I skype my best friend and make catty comments about royal wedding fashion choices, I go see Thor, have dinner with my friends...but far too rattled to cook the octopus!
me: Hey, do you know what the etymology of your home state is? Tragos: Beautiful California from the Greek kalos, καλός? me: Nice try, but apparently that’s unlikely. Somewhat circuitously it comes from caliph or خليفة / ḫalīfa / khalīfa, the arabic word for the head of state in a Caliphate… Tragos: Circuitously… me: Well, Queen Califa/Calafia ruled the island of California...
March 2011
1 post
February 2011
4 posts
January 2011
7 posts
That random erotic pic, I knew you were going to...
Do you have any sense of what’s going to appear on your dashboard before you refresh? Could you have a stronger, more accurate premonition if the post you were about to see was erotic, violent or scarey?
There is “evidence” for this kind of phenomena and it’s about to cause a stir. Dozens of news sites including the New York Times and The Daily Telegraph are reporting...
1 tag
We are in San Diego, where the beach, sea and sky are dazzling and where Tragos grew up.
Tragos was sitting in the kitchen tapping away on his laptop and I walk in and nibble cashews at the kitchen counter...
Me: Did you read that nytimes article on "sustainable love" and "self-expansion"?
Tragos: Hmm? [He comes over and joins me at the cashews]
Me: There's this article by Tara Parker-Pope on what makes a happy marriage, she's that wellness columnist who's written the book, For Better: The Science of Marriage?
Tragos: Did she write the article about how to train your husband like Shamu?
Me: No, that was a great article*...No, she keeps writing articles that reference her book, you know, like cannibalizing a dissertation into articles...Some of them are interesting. I've heard her discuss Gottman's relationship research; remember the Four Horsemen of the (Divorce) Apocalypse: Criticism, Contempt, Defensiveness and Stonewalling? [Tragos looks like he's really into the cashews]
Me: That's why it's so good that we don't roll our eyes at each other, that was one of the "Contempt" behaviors they noticed in couples headed for divorce? [Tragos comes over to hug me, my hands are clasped behind his back, my cheek on his chest]
Me: So yeah, this article explained how the more self-expansion a person experiences through their partner the more satisfied and committed a person is in the relationship...[Tragos takes a gigantic breath, his ribs push into me, my hands snap apart, I grudgingly take a step back and look up at him, his cheeks are full, he looks like he's about to pop)
Me: Err...Are you OK? [Tragos inexplicably continues to grow]
Me: Do you have hiccups? [Tragos, all blimpified, shakes his head and gestures that all is manifest within him or something. I come out to have a constructive relationship conversation and he's clearly just messing around and not even listening to what I was trying to explain. I'm annoyed. I think about rolling my eyes.]
Tragos [deflates in a rush of air]: Self-expansion!
Me [giggling incredulously]: I love you.
It should be noted that I was in one of those we need to discuss things modes. So we went down for a walk along the beach (I much prefer walking around during "discussions"). Compared to me, Tragos is about 100% more articulate and comfortable discussing relationship stuff and stays focused until we meet whatever goals we need to. It was me then, during our walk along the coast, who broke off to comment "That's the fourth naked man I've seen. Are we on a nudist beach?" Yes, dear readers, of course we were...
* "What Shamu Taught Me About A Happy Marriage"
http: //www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/fashion/25love.html
December 2010
4 posts
My little brother (age 22): I'm tired, man, I stayed up watching your downloads and stuff...
Me: Downloads? Erm, Tragos?
Tragos (my husband): The bestiality and necrophilia? because most of it's that...
My little brother: Urghhh, no I...You're married to my sister!
Tragos: Just necrophilia?
My little brother: Nooo! Why are you married to him?
Tragos: Dead on dead?
Me: Not much action, just great stills...
My little brother: Argh!! When am I going home?
"Do you have a tendency to peace?" she asked
I was slowly drinking icewater in the waiting room of an x-ray and ultrasound clinic in Turkey and a woman smiled at me, put her hands over her low belly and asked “Do you have a tendency to peace?”.
I considered the question carefully. I’m actually quite interested in peace psychology and I often wonder about the characteristics that equip communities and individuals in...
November 2010
6 posts
odd humour of the man
‘The big trouble with you, mate,’ Doug would tell him, ‘is that you know too much fer your own good. All it does is make ya mournful. Now I ask you, what’s the use a’ that?’
‘I’m not mournful,’ Mac would insist.
‘A’ course you are. You’re about the most mournfullest bloke I ever laid eyes on. Honest, Mac, you oughta take a...
October 2010
13 posts
Gone for a bit
“Love is an attraction to a single person: a body and a soul. Love is choice, eroticism acceptance. Without eroticism, without visibly entering through the senses, there is no love; but love goes beyond the desired body and seeks the soul in the body, and in the soul, the body, the whole person. ”
Tragos' translation of Octavio Paz’s book La Llama doble: amor y erotismo [The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism], Editorial Seix Barral, 1997, p. 33.
Today I fly about 6000 miles. I’ll be apart from my husband, Tragos, so earlier we got a little overexcited testing ichat, skype, jabber, aim etc:
me: booya
Chris: i think you need to make yrself available, to me, ms. booya
me: Voice/video chat is not yet available for Chris’s system. Learn more
Chris: oh, it’s available, trust me. you just need to switch your status to available I think or accept me i’ll try giving you a little video call right this second.
me: do i accept you through eroticism?
Chris: actually you’re right. I can’t and… amor!
me: can’t what?
Chris: video chat you
me: because skype’s still open?
Chris: i don’t think so when i look at the jabber thing it says ‘not authorized’
me: skype may desire a monopoly on the erotic
Chris: i think you need to add me as a buddy again skype has a monopoly on the sclerotic easy mistake
me: I WANT YOUR LOVE I DON’T WANT TO BE FRIENDS
Chris: press the eroto-mania button. it looks like a ‘+’ sign
me: apparently the only options i have are to block your advances or go off the record…i feel either way this would subtract from our current relationship…How do i add?
Chris: block my advances! now? press the ‘+’ button at the bottom left hand of the Jabber list then add me as a buddy
SAD TRUTH #1: I will have a dodgey internet connection while I’m in Toronto.
SAD TRUTH #2: I’ll miss Tragos like CRAZY
SAD TRUTH #3: I’LL MISS ALL OF YOU TUMBLRS
SAD TRUTH #4: You’re actually lucky I won’t be posting because my tumblr would just devolve into variations on the theme of “i miss Chris”…Have fun posting all kinds of things that amaze, inform and entertain me! xx
Childhood Today: What are you doing to make it... →
childhoodtoday:
If I am to be honest, I will begin by saying that I am conflicted over this wear purple today effort. My conflict has nothing whatsoever to do with whether I feel this is an important issue that we should be addressing, instead it is around whether this is a meaningful way to effect change?…
This is a great post. I particularly like the emphasis on setting out “to...
douche
I was in a tired funk and decided to go swim it out at an indoor public pool.
I get to the pool and have two more tragic realizations; I’ve forgotten my flipflops and I’m not properly shaved. So I shower and shave and imagine the range of foul fungi that are inevitably fondling my feet.
I put on my bikini (dry), grab my swim hat and some goggles and take long, tip-toeing strides out...
Torn Sheets: The Ditches of Grey County →
tornsheets:
We spun in long loops up a hill towards traffic and then slid backwards into a wide ditch, facing the right direction, but at a steep angle, falling down on the passenger side. And when I ran us off the road in my Dad’s truck, Jack was still calm and that morning we talked on the way to the…
Another short story from Torn Sheets. Biting, eerie and sensitive. Felt a quick...
