November 2011
21 posts
5 tags
It's official
I guess it’s too late to change my mind once I’m on the program. :)
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What branches grow....: All I want for Christmas... →
stonyrubbish:
… nothing.
Even before I began to trim down my Stuff in earnest, I had been uncomfortable with how my material possessions gained a non-trivial increase in number at Christmas time. Having been fairly well-off financially as an adult, I had become used to simply buying something if I wanted it or…
This goes pretty perfectly with my last post about gifting and excess.
9 tags
The power of presents.
The holidays are coming. Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? To me, it means good and bad stuff - fire in the fireplace, extra lights that we wish we could leave up all year, and it’s time to fill and use the hot tub. It also means family stress and melancholy, being guilted and yanked into too many gatherings than you can afford the gas or emotional bandwidth for, and some of the worst...
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This is not easy to write.
I went through a period a few months ago where I was filled with guilt and shame. Why? I actually let these words pass through my head:
“I wish I didn’t have kids.”
I was in Seattle when the thought first hit me. I was at SNAG, a conference for goldsmiths, and I was blown away by what people who graduated at the same time than me were accomplishing. Not to mention what...
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p.a.d. 14 - Yeah, Baby.
This photo was taken on March 20th, 2004, at the Hyatt in Savannah, GA.
Tyme and I had been married for 9 months already, but people wanted a party, and who can deny our friends a good time? So we did the big gig, and man was it fun.
This beautiful person next to me is my Grandmother Logan, the lady that I named my second daughter after. She is an amazing individual; the matriarch of our...
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p.a.d. 14 - It's true.
This photo was taken on July 27th, 2007 when Carmen was 7 months old.
You know how people say that the kids prefer the box over the toy? It’s totally true.
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p.a.d. 13 - Union Square in Miniature
This is a photo of Union Square. I took the photo and manipulated it in photoshop to make the objects and people in the photo look tiny and fake when, in fact, they are normal sized and real. This technique is called “tilt shift.” It looks best when it’s large and viewed on black, which is what will happen if you click on it.
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p.a.d. 12 - Bones
This photo was taken on June 13th, 2011, by my four year old daughter, Carmen. We were visiting Fernbank Museum in Atlanta, GA with her sister Carolyn and our good friend, Toby.
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p.a.d. 11 - Epic Nap
This photo was taken on April 10th, 2008, in Santa Ana, California. This is a 15 month old Carmen, taking a snooze in the sunlight in our hotel room. I had been on the computer, probably answering emails while she wandered around the room and played. I realized that she was being more quiet than usual, and turned to find her passed out behind me. I let her stay about ten minutes, then gently...
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"So if you don't believe in God, than what exactly...
I’ve had to write this, or something like it, twice now since coming out as a godless person on the internet. So I’ll put it here, and if anyone asks again, they’ll get a link.
(For the record, I am A-OK with you having a religion. If you like it, and it’s working for you, then great. By all means, keep on keeping on.)
*Instead of God, I believe in physics and chance....
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Stuff Carmen says - A round up
2.5 years old:
*pointing to 3 month old sister* “Uh oh! Carolyn’s pacifier fell out of her face!”
*on sharing* “Sorry, you can’t have my butt. But you can have this spoon!”
3 years old:
Whenever we put Carmen down for a nap, Carolyn scootches down the hall to her door and harrasses her through it. I hear Carmen in there saying “Be quiet, Carolyn!...
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p.a.d. 10 - Baby on the green
This photo of Carolyn was taken on June 10th, 2011, in one of the squares of Downtown Savannah, GA. She was two years, two months, and two days old, and is accompanied by her best stuffed friend, “(S)nowman.”
We came down to participate as henna artists at the Savannah Asian Festival, as we do every year. With our family, however, Savannah is never a hit and run situation…...
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How to not be a dick about your non-beliefs.
Let me start by saying that I’m aware of the ironic nature of this post…. Ok, now that that’s out of the way:
There is a pretty major difference between my non-believing self and the non-beliefs of other people that I’ve met or have read about… I am not a rabid anti-religion dickhead. I do not care what you practice or believe, so long as you are cool with me,...
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p.a.d. 9 - Mermaids?
This photo was taken on December 5th, 2009, at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. As my friend, Riffat, puts it, “No wonder sailors thought they saw mermaids.” Watching these sea lions dance and dart underwater was mesmerizing. We could have watched them all day.
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A few new photos from Carmen, 4
About a week ago, I posted about Carmen, our daughter, who has shown an interest in photography. Here are some of her recent photos from our trip to Taccoa Falls and Halloween… click on the photo to enbiggen:
You can see all of her photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizebeth_joy/sets/72157625550359310/with/6306955770/
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p.a.d. 9 - Singing House
This photo was taken on April 3rd, 2005. This is the street view of the Singing House; the home that we own in Savannah and lived in from May 1st, 2002 until October 26th, 2007. We were married (in the kitchen), Carmen was born, I got a degree, and Tyme went from working at SCAD to being lured away by Evisions while we lived here. We made a myriad of friends, drank a lot of great beer, and...
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p.a.d. 8 - Come with Me
This photo was taken on April 4th, 2009, at Carrell Farms in Monroe, GA. Click for a bigger version.
We take our alpacas, Machu and Picchu, to be shorn once a year. Carrell Farms is a beautiful place where about 65 alpacas live the good life, as well as water buffalo, giant jack donkeys and some seriously spoiled exotic birds.
We usually take the time to explore their acres while there -...
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p.a.d 7 - Jaws
I can’t pinpoint when or where this photo was taken.
I am pretty sure that it was at an aquarium somewhere, or maybe a natural history museum… perhaps in Atlanta or Chicago, but probably in California (LA or Monterrey). My kids love aquariums, and we spend a good deal of time staring at the marine life and trying to decide what is edible and what might see us as lunch, instead....
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Dear Carmen and Carolyn...
Your father and I were talking tonight about our role models for parenting. It seems like we both had a mixed bag while thinking back on our own experiences growing up… In some cases, it was easier to list anti-role models and things we would have wished we had from our own parents, rather than ideals. However, as we sat there, we ended up creating a list of quite a few of our hopes for...
Fun... totally random photos from our flickr...
http://www.krazydad.com/gustavog/FlickRandom.pl?user=67733812@N00
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p.a.d. 6 - Books for Babies
This photo was taken on November 11th, 2007, three weeks after we had moved into HoneyWine Hollow, and one month before Carmen turned one.
The bookshelves were one of the first things that we set up in the house. Our family believes that reading is absolutely imperative for a person, young, old, or in between. Both Tyme and I remember devouring books as young people, which enriched our lives...
