lifeasdaddy

lifeasdaddy - Me and Books

I noticed Ronni Bennett's new library.   It provoked some thought about my own relationship with books.

I once believed that I should finish reading every book I started.  Now I think life's too short to read books I don't enjoy.

I once thought I should keep every book I bought and build a library.  Now I think that  very few books are worth keeping to be read again versus the opportunity to read something new with the little time I have for reading; or because of the cost of the storage space they need and the clutter they create.

So I've divested lots of books over the past 5 years.  But I keep acquiring more too.

lifeasdaddy - Ed said

This morning Ed said to Gabrielle, "I want you to stay home today Mummy.  Daddy can go to work instead."

lifeasdaddy - A Drover's Christmas

Trevor Cook writes the blog Corporate Engagement and yesterday posted his Festive Season best wishes to his readers.  He also put up a very interesting painting depicting Father Christmas and his Reindeer visiting a stock drover in the Australian outback.

As near as I can tell, the image was Jack Waugh's 1964 painting of 'Santa and the Drover' which was used by the Arnott's company to illustrate a biscuit tin lid. [Trevor, you're welcome to correct or add to this. ]

In one of those coincidences, today's Sydney Morning Herald newspaper has a front page story Mob's here but turkey's up the creek by Daniel Lewis.  It's about Christmas for modern day drovers: A hard time during this long running drought.  Worth a read.

lifeasdaddy - A curator's critique of David Lean's film Lawrence of Arabia

I've indicated here and here that David Lean's film Lawrence of Arabia is a masterful work.

Australian War Memorial curator and blogger Mal Booth has recently viewed the film, and has some illuminating comments about it.  He sees it through the prism of someone who has recently pored over many source documents about T. E. Lawrence's military career.

Booth's comments enriched my background knowlege about the film, and I'll have to view it again soon to check the points he's made.

lifeasdaddy - NORAD tracks Santa

My friend Theresa let us know about the fine work which NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) does each Christmas tracking Santa on his journey around the globe.

It's a long tradition with American kids to check on Santa's progress and these days of course it can be done online.  Here's the official site. 

According to NORAD, Santa usually heads for the South Pacific Region after embarking from the North Pole. 

The timing may not be exactly right for Australian kids to check on Santa's progress before they go to bed, but it's a charming premise.  The NORAD peeps have put a huge amount of work into the gig.

lifeasdaddy - More on road trips

I'm interested in books about road trips across the USA.  A good accompaniment to reading those books is a series of photos which William Gedney took during his Cross Country project:

" On March 16, 1966, Gedney received word of the award of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for him to do "Photographic Studies of American Life." The fellowship was for the period of time between June 1966 and May 1967. Under the auspices of this fellowship, but with no particular agenda, Gedney purchased a Suburban Carryall, loaded it with the necessary items, and set out across the United States. He made pictures in cities and towns across the midwest and on the West coast, including Ohio, Illinois, South Dakota, and California."

See the photos here.

Joerg Colbert drew my attention to this.

lifeasdaddy - We visit the Playschool house

Today we were guests at a Christmas party.  Shortly after arriving Edward told us that we were in the Playschool House.  I've mentioned before that he's keen on Playschool the TV show for pre-schoolers, but I couldn't see the connection between this party and the TV show.  A little while later we were playing outside the marquee and I saw these windows. 

Arched Windows.

An integral part of each episode of Playschool is a journey through one of the four Playchool windows to a story land.

The windows are round, diamond, square and arched.

Of course!

lifeasdaddy - Mohammad Yunus' Nobel Lecture.

Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

Professor Yunus has just delivered his Nobel Lecture.   The text is long.  To get some of the flavour, here's a few headings from his text:

Poverty is a Threat to Peace

Poverty is a Denial of All Human Rights

We Can Put Poverty in the Museums

lifeasdaddy - Ed feeds one of Santa's Reindeer

This week we took some vacation time and went down the coast, stopping in at the Birdland Animal Park. 

One advantage of this zoo is that humans can get up close and personal with most of the animals there.

We explained to Edward that one of Santa's Reindeer was having a rest at the zoo in readiness for duty on Christmas Eve.

He thought it was just great being able to touch the deer that touched the hand of Santa.

[n.b. Yes, dear reader of course I know it is really a fallow deer  - don't spoil the story! ]

lifeasdaddy - A blog about Ice Hockey

There's lots of blogs about Ice Hockey (or just Hockey to North Americans) and this one, A Theory of Ice, is very good.  There's some fine writing there.

I don't know who writes it, but he or she is very good.

[ tip from Teachout ]