green stuff on a cat

this is so funny. I'll be thinking about it all day.

little nuggets

I have not written mad things,
For mad things do not enchant me;
But I have written the small and simple,
Lest the mad things haunt me.

Mary Gilmore, from 'Los Heridos', 1936


That's the most sense the old girl has made for days.

I was talking to someone today today who had heard someone else (!) reminisce recently about being a child meeting Dame MG. Her main memory was that MG was very old and she smelled funny.

Ah, don't you love those kinds of stories?

DOH! moment

GAH!!!! Sorry, all your comments got backlogged in blogger cos I'm a dickhead.

I enabled comment moderation to edit a sensitive comment a few days ago and then forgot to check the comments (and didn't tell blogger to send them to me)!

I thought it was a bit quiet out there...

{blush}

Thanks, y'all.

&Duck grows up, just a little bit more

This is so dumb. It's half past midnight. I went to an opening today yesterday for that textile artist I mentioned ages ago (I'm not going to find the link, I'm half asleep as it is), and it was splendid. Wine was drunk and speeches made. The catalogue I designed for her was launched, and it was a great success. We did a paperback version, but also a special hardback limited edition covered with bookcloth that she printed herself. It looks terrific, lots of people were buying it.

Anyhoo, I've changed my business name to Ampersand Duck recently. I've decided to do everything I do under one 'umbrella' name rather than a few little names, and I'm a bit fond of the &Duck moniker. So this catalogue was my first commercial Duckie production, and on the publication imprint page I'd rashly put my web URL, the one I've been hoarding for two years without doing anything about except a placeholder.

On my (tipsy) bikeride back from the opening/launch I suddenly thought that since the books were selling like hotcakes, I'd better do something about that placeholder on the web in case people went home and looked me up. So I decided to spend an hour or so putting a bit more info on it. That was at 5pm. And what is it now? GAH! Gawd, can't the interweb SUCK UP TIME?!!! Poor old Mary Gilmore was forgotten about in the frenzy. Never mind, I'm child-free this week, I'll be able to lavish lots of attention on her layout tomorrow today, after I wake up all bleary.

AHEM! So today, Sunday the 8th, is Ampersand Duck the Blog's second birthday. To celebrate, let me introduce you to my new enterprise, Ampersand Duck the Website. Warning! Only some of the buttons work, but those that do will hopefully work well. I'll leave it to you to find out which they are.

If I only had a brain...

Having done half of the Mary Gilmore job with less than half the time left before it's due means !panic stations! It's not from lack of time spent on it -- setting scholarly editions is a fiddly, tweaky, whole-brain and time-consuming type of activity. Thank goodness I only do it once a year or so these days.

Having only part a brain these days, I gave myself a good fright this morning: rushed around getting Bumblebee ready for circus school, put a saucepan of water on to boil, FINALLY thought about taking with me a few of the posting items that have been sitting beside me on my desk, and ran out the door. An hour later, walking towards the post office, I suddenly remembered the saucepan of water sitting on the gas. And equally suddenly I was fanging home from Woden to Downer hoping desperately that [a] my kitchen wasn't on fire and [b] there were no speed cameras on the way. (I've had both speeding AND parking fines in the last ten days, so much for the magic of birthdays. meh.) Luckily negative for both. Phew!

I uploaded a Youtube video today, while I was working. Check out what Bumblebee and his friend did on the ferris wheel at Floriade on Sunday. Heh. The guys running the wheel played along, holding their noses every time we passed. At some point I sound a bit stressed, that's because B started jumping around which makes me nervous when I'm trapped in a cage above the ground.

When I checked the video upload, I noticed one of the Youtube feature videos is an animated mockumentary posing the question: what if George Lucas had made Lord of the Rings? If you have broadband, watch it. It is *hilarious*, especially the spoof of Hayden Christenson. Fyodor, if you haven't seen it, do. I'd love to hear your opinion.

Enough. Back to work. Keep yourselves nice.

it's not easy, being green

This post makes me green with envy.

We don't have many printing and letterpress 'happenings' in Australia, and the San Francisco Centre for the Book has long been on my travel must-see list, along with Hagia Sophia in Turkey and St Brides in London.

Back to work. I hear the Deadline Dogs baying.

A platter of bits and pieces

Poo bum, really no time to do a properly thought-out post (if I've EVER done such a thing). I think it's time for the [DA DA DA DAAAAA] dot points:

-- Best Beloved's sister and her family have moved to the US for a year and have asked us to be their mail recipients. Suddenly our mailbox is awash with magazines featuring pin-ups of the Pope and articles about Intelligent Design and newsletters with lists of 'Events to Pray About' (actual headline). The upside is that each piece of their mail has a bright yellow sticker announcing that it's relocated mail, so at least the mailman doesn't think he's found us on the road to Damascus.

-- Bumblebee is attending circus school for this week of the school holidays. I wrote a little bit in the last post's comments about the trouble we've been having lately with his school, and we thought a bit of positive and confidence-building activity might be a goer. Yay! He's bouncing out of bed, happy to see the day, learning to ride a unicycle and to juggle, and tomorrow he's apparently going to be part of a human pyramid. He's had no gameboy or tv for two weeks, and it's been really easy (and pleasant). Next week it'll be undone when he spends a week with the Albatross; they do a lot of hands-on making and fun stuff, but they also spend a lot of time in front of predominantly commercial tv. It's amazing how many ads B can quote verbatim after a week like that. Sigh.

-- TJ has just posted an hilarious overview of her latest book find. Read it and weep.

-- Ms Maker is asking for contributions to Slow Making. If you're interested in the idea of helping people to understand why what you make/design/do is valuable and/or worthy of respect, drop her an email on slowmaking [at] gmail.com.

-- I've got a mystery tool at the Book Studio which I'd love some help in identifying. My dad says I should send it in to The Collectors for their mystery item segment, but I think the whole point of that is that they know what it is before they ask everybody. in this case, I haven't a frigging clue!

POSTSCRIPT: I love teh interweb. Foo knew, and emailed me with a link as proof: it's a grinding wheel dress, for keeping grinding wheels toned and buffed and thus your knives and tools sharp. Who would have thought? I think we may still have a grinding wheel around here somewhere, too! Thanks, Foo! I owe you a beer.

-- Craft Australia have a new bloggy thing called Youth@craft.design which is a resource for young craft makers (although I'm sure your eyes won't be burned out if you happen to gaze at it with older eyes. I managed to survive the experience). There are four blogs with different purposes, like a knowledge portal. It's a nice concept. Check it out.

-- My birfday was great. I got brekkie in bed (pancakes with stewed rhubarb/apple mix & yogurt), had a nice picnic at Floriade, got some nice pressies, including a dvd of the first series of Absolute Power (gawd knows when I'll be able to watch it!) and cosmetics (old things need moisturisers!) and chocolates (mmm, Terry's dark choc Orange...). And much wine was imbibed, and back-episodes of Extras watched. It was the eenie-mini-break I needed.

-- I hate the fact that Canberra is full of brand new cars with defective indicators.

-- I went to a fitball class last night run by a very young woman who seemed to think keeping up with the beat of her utterly boring and very fast dance mix was more important than actually making sure your muscles were doing the right thing. I think I'll stick to the more sedate Saturday class, where the pace is slower, the exercises feel more productive and the instructor plays Arty Fufkin so that your mind can move along too.

-- I love this time of year for riding my bike. Today was glorious. Hooray!