Tricotomania and more

Mat took this picture this morning from our back door. We can’t even see the thermometer outside the kitchen window because it is all covered in snow and ice. Swearing might be appropriate.

It’s going to melt tomorrow apparently. Winter doesn’t really start this early around here.

For a happier photo check out my new header. That was taken on Thanksgiving weekend (Saturday, October 11th) on our way over to the Gatineau park for a walk in the woods. It is the north side of the Ottawa River taken from an island in the middle of the river. There are some other photos taken on our walk that I might have to post.

Now with photos.

I bought 2 oz of merino-tencell roving at Rhinebeck last Saturday (scroll down that linked page; I can’t identify the colourway I bought, sorry). Hand-painted in pink, orange and purple. I started spinning it later that afternoon, with my spindle, while waiting for my friends to be finished shopping or whatever they were doing. I finished spinning it yesterday and plied it into a really nice 3-ply. I’d stripped it lengthwise so mostly the colours matched with some heathery sections. It came out to just under 100 yards of about DK to worsted weight.

Today, I knit a baby hat with Kate Gilbert’s Shining Star pattern (which I just love). There were leftovers so I did a little scarf to go with it. I’m thinking that babies born in December might need scarves as well as hats. It looks great. I’m too lazy to take a photo right now and I should really wash both.  I’ve now washed both and taken some photos.

  The weather is rotten and the photo was taken in artificial light near a window but I think the colours are pretty true. The star on the top of the hat is well photographed in the link to the pattern above.

I am kind of amazed that I’ve gone from fluff to FO in one week. The yarn is really soft. The tencel seems to give it a sheen. I am regretting not having purchased more. But then I have quite a bit of plain white Blue-Faced Leicester in the other room (purchased several years ago) and a good selection of Kool-Aid…

I know I said that I mostly read books by women authors, but if I’m going to read men, it is usually Canadian men. I read something by Lesley Choyce several years ago and really liked it. I was reminded of him recently when looking through that magazine at the children’s librarian’s desk (apparently he writes a lot of YA stuff) and went and looked on the shelf. The Sea of Tranquility looked promising.

I really enjoyed it. It is very character driven, which I like. Set on an island off the coast of Nova Scotia, it focuses on a small group of what might be considered eccentric characters. Choyce explores themes of aging, love, knowledge, economics, and community through the interwoven stories of these people.  Some biting commentary on eco-tourism and ethical investing is neatly woven into the story, too. There is also a short section that deals very sympathetically with bipolar mental illness.

It is only reflecting on writing this review that the knowledge theme became clear to me. The main character, Syvie, is 80 and has lived on the island her whole life. Her knowledge of the island, the sea, the whales, human nature, and a whole host of other things is gradually revealed. This knowledge is not based on “book learning” and indeed one of her husbands (she has been widowed 4 times) makes this point explicitly in a memory passage. The nature of knowledge is thus explored subtly all the way through the novel in thought provoking ways. There might be some connection to the Charlotte Mason notion of developing the habit of attention. But there is something else about embodied knowledge.

The economic theme is perhaps particularly interesting in these times. This island is out of the mainstream. Historically important industries, like the fishery, are no longer possible. The ways in which they adapt and respond to their economic circumstances are intersting. Some of the characters are “from away” (a phrase not used in the book but common in Newfoundland and parts of the Maritimes). The decisions they make point up how one can get caught up in a particular culture that requires university degrees and high paying jobs  as well as how a crisis (personal or collective) can provide the impetus to question those values and really determine what is personally important.

This book might challenge your own ideas about what constitute “good choices” in love, in career, in day to day activities.

It is also gripping. There are passages that are very suspenseful and the writing carries you along masterfully. There are great metaphors. The characterization is good. All in all, this is a good read.

Great comments on the Swearing post. Who knew? Sheila’s comment, in particular, reminded me of a conversation I had many years ago with someone. We were talking about how some people use “fuck” as punctuation. Of course my addled brain can’t come up with an example right now. Investigating this might make listening to those teenagers a lot less tedious. Linguistic research, haha!

As I hope was clear in the original post, the argument against swearing that I find most compelling is the laziness argument. It is lazy use of language sometimes. And sometimes laziness is fine. But a lot of the time, we should just try harder to express whatever emotion we want to express. And having a wider vocabulary is always more interesting than using the same words all the time, regardless of whether they are swear words or not. I think of Julie’s attempts in her Bravewriter materials to get kids to go beyond “cool” as a description. Or my attempt to get Tigger to go beyond “it was good” when telling me about a book she read.

Which comes back around to the original point (mine and Pinker’s, I think), that swear words are not any different from other words. Yes, sometimes we want to offend or shock people. Yes, sometimes we want to insult or humiliate people. Yes, sometimes we want punctuation in oral speech. Far better to focus on expanding vocabulary and dealing with uncomfortable emotions than to make a list of “naughty” words.

So, maybe to counteract the swearing, I thought I’d let you know that Havi has a little promotion going on about yoga.

Like I said in the Procrastination post, I’ve tried yoga before. Not only in the ante-natal class but even at a local yoga place. And when I’m doing it, I like it. But getting there has been an issue for me. Mat and Tigger have been going to a place close to home and liking it. But I’m already paying for a couple of fitness classes and that just seems like too many commitments out of the house and too much money.

And then Havi comes up with her little promotion. She’s found a good yoga DVD (which is great, because I can’t even be bothered to look at the covers of those things, much less come up with one that would be worthwhile) and put together a couple of little booklets to help get from having the DVD in the house to actually putting in the DVD player and doing some yoga. If that stuff is anything like her Procrastination stuff, it’s probably worth it.

I have thought that maybe doing some yoga with Tigger would be a good thing to add to our routine (such as it is). I even e-mailed Rose once to ask about the program she uses but she said it was really for little kids and a kid Tigger’s age might find it too little-kid-ish. (If you have little kids, though, she uses Angel Bear and likes it.) I wish our dollar wasn’t tanking so very badly today (or the US dollar wasn’t recovering so well, or whatever is causing the difference in value) because that is making my buying decisions harder.

But if you have been thinking about this, then you might want to hop on over to Havi’s and see what she’s got.* Compared to actually signing up at a yoga place, the price is pretty good. You don’t get a lot of sessions for $66. And then there is the gas and the hassle. And she tells you why she thinks this is a good DVD, so you can tell if her criteria match yours. (That one about options suited to your anatomy seemed like a good one.) The promotion lasts until November 3rd (when she goes to bed; on the west coast) or she runs out. She’s got 54 copies. I have no idea how popular it will be. I guess if it sells fast she might do it again some time in a totally random way.

*If you buy with the link, I get a bit of a kickback, which would help with the old exchange rate.

I read a good article today, in The Atlantic via a link to Arts and Letters Daily from the Chronicle. In Freedom’s Curse Steven Pinker takes on the question of swearing and freedom of speech. He starts with a basic principle of linguistics…

A word is an arbitrary label—that’s the foundation of linguistics. But many people think otherwise. They believe in word magic: that uttering a spell, incantation, curse, or prayer can change the world. Don’t snicker: Would you ever say “Nothing has gone wrong yet” without looking for wood to knock?

Swearing is another kind of word magic. People believe, contrary to logic, that certain words can corrupt the moral order—that piss and Shit! and fucking are dangerous in a way that pee and Shoot! and freakin’ are not. This quirk in our psychology lies in the ability of taboo words to activate primitive emotional circuits in the brain.

But shifts into a political argument about freedom of speech and the appropriateness of the government regulating swearing on broadcast media. Added bonus, an imbedded YouTube video of George Carlin that is totally relevant to his point.

I have noticed a huge cultural difference between Britain and North America in relation to this issue. In fact, I recall an article in The Guardian several years ago (before I moved here so at least 6) about how “fuck” had lost its ability to shock. This is so obviously not the case on this side of the pond. As someone who normally swears a lot (except in labour, inexplicably) this is kind of interesting to me. Might be part of the reason I like Doc so much. This cultural difference is interesting though when we move into a mode of thinking about how the meanings of words, and the emotions they evoke, might change or vary.

For me, the particular words are of less concern than the intention of their use. Swearing I don’t have a problem. Even swearing while teaching. Swearing at students (or anyone, really) is another story altogether. I am sometimes struck by the way that parents who would chastise their children for swearing might leave them alone if they use made up words to express the same emotions. In particular, if a child is name-calling with the intention of making another child feel bad, I don’t think it matters whether he calls him a shithead or a boobledeeboo. The intention to make another child feel bad is what is wrong with the scenario, not the choice of vocabulary to execute that intention. And I think sometimes objections to “bad language” are standing in for objections to the emotions they express.

Of course that takes us into a completely different discussion about swearing as laziness. I agree that lots of times we could expend a bit more mental effort and come up with better ways to express whatever it is we are trying to express. You have to admit that regardless of their meaning though, the combination of consonant sounds in some swearwords has its own appeal. One of the reasons I am particularly fond of “bollocks”. Though on those grounds, we could bring back “poppycock” to express the same emotion.

Pinker is addressing the issue of official restrictions on language, something that concerns me less except as a general marker of cultural attitudes and contributor to the cultural milieu. But I think the issues he raises are thought provoking in other ways.

Edited to add that there is a filter on the comments for the homeschooljournal site. So if you want to swear in the comments you have to make creative use of punctuation, anagrams, etc.

A very good article on NPR talks about the importance of play. Nothing particularly new (to us anyway) but some interesting psychological evidence about the relationship between imaginative play and “executive function”. Also, the introduction has some interesting facts about the shift in cultural understanding of play from something involving an activity to something involving objects.

We’ve been remarkably successful in avoiding the toys needing batteries (and making noise). Right now the popular toy in our house is Playmobil, which is the basis of some pretty complex imaginative play scenarios. When Tigger was more into dolls (which we still have a lot of) we never had dolls that talked or were related to particular TV programs or books or anything. Just basic dolls. Again, lots of imaginative play used those dolls. Not to mention all the sewing and knitting that got done for them (by Tigger).

My friend J. will be here in a little while. She’s leaving her car with Mat and we’re taking mine for the trip. Drop Tigger at a friend’s, pick up our other travelling companion and we’re hitting the road.

The New York Sheep and Wool Festival is now quite a bit annual event drawing knitters, spinners, and related folk from all over the east coast. We went 3 years ago and had a blast. I’m going to meet up with all kinds of people like Elsie, maybe Queen Bee (if she’s feeling better), Ted, Mel, Juno, and who knows who else. And on the way home, we’re stopping for an early supper with Rose and Saille.

And I might buy wool. Who knows. I’ve got knitting for the journey and a spindle in case I need to sample any fleece.

Thanks to Andrea, I have recently found some really helpful business/life advice and I thought I’d share some of it with you. I started my own business a couple of years ago and after the first flurry of finding a few clients, I haven’t really worked that hard on growing or maintaining it. The work comes in big waves at predictable times of year and as long as I do a bit of work contacting existing clients at those times, I get enough work to keep those peaks maxed-out. I’m making a reasonable amount of money and have lots of time to homeschool and do other things. I went to a conference a couple of years ago where I met one new client. I got another new client by word of mouth. That client was also an organizer for another conference and hired me to give a presentation at that conference, out of which came a couple of new clients.

I love the work I do. Getting word-of-mouth recommendations is a good sign. As is all the repeat business. I also get lots of direct thank yous from people I work with, both the people who pay the bills and the people I help directly. I help university professors with their research plans and grant applications. Right now my clients are mostly university research offices or deans. They hire me to give presentations about grants to faculty and to review draft grant applications and provide comments. Like I say, they are happy with the work. And so are the faculty that I advise. And that work is some of what I want to be doing. I think it will remain a big part of my business. But it isn’t all of it.

One problem with that work is that the demand is concentrated in two 6-week periods. During those times I’m busy but the rest of the year is pretty slow. I can’t really do more work in those periods, so I can’t take on any more of that type of client because they will all want the same times of year. I started the business before I was homeschooling and one of the reasons that I slacked off on growing it was because I started to homeschool and needed to figure out how much time that would take and how I could balance the two. Now that we’ve been homeschooling for a couple of years, and Tigger is getting older, I think I can see how growth could be compatible. But growth means thinking differently about the business.

What I’d really like to be doing is something like life-coaching for academics. So still the focus on academic research planning, including grants, but working directly for the individual researchers/professors to help them be successful in their own terms and reduce their stress. Helping with grant applications might be part of that, but also helping people make longer term plans about their research and figure out when and where to apply for grants, helping with publication strategies, helping find time to do research and maybe provide some accountability so it doesn’t fall off of their to do list (as it so often does in favour of things like teaching preparation and administrative duties that have real deadlines and other people expecting things). I know people outside of higher education think that all academics care about is their research but most of the academics I know really struggle to find time to do their research because they are committed to teaching and it really can fill up all the space available.

Andrea pointed me in the direction of The Fluent Self. Havi Brookes has a bunch of interesting products and maintains a blog. She calls herself a “habits educator” and procrastination is one of the habits she can help with. I have her free sample material and thought it was interesting. Recently I took the plunge and purchased her Procrastination Dissolve-o-Matic. And I’m really liking her approach. I’ve been procrastinating about growing the coaching side of the business. I always wanted to do that kind of work, but when I started, the easiest way to get going was to use my contacts in research offices, to get the related work for them. Because the other thing was hard, I put it to one side and have basically been ignoring it. And I was getting enough work so it just stayed in the background and I didn’t pay it much attention. This kind of procrastination is what Havi refers to as “life procrastination”. It isn’t the little day to day stuff where you can say “If I didn’t spend so much time futzing around on the internet, I’d get that done.” It’s more of a big thing looming in the background that you are just ignoring while you get on with all kinds of other things, many of which are good things, like homeschooling, doing the business I am doing, … and a bit of futzing around on the internet.

I should note that Havi’s approach is what we in this household call (affectionately) “hippy shit”. We mean that in the best possible way. But it isn’t for everyone. (She has a page about what kind of people she wants to work with.) In fact, most people probably think it isn’t for me. When I was pregnant I signed up for an ante-natal yoga class (in North America you’d say “pre-natal”). It ran in 4-week blocks. And a few weeks in my partner admitted to me that he had expected me to come home from that class swearing and complaining and never go back. It’s not like I got pregnant at the beginning of our relationship or anything, either. We’d been together on and off for about 6 years at that point. He knew me pretty well.

I started going to that class when I was about 14 weeks pregnant and went every week right through my pregnancy. It was great. A bit of yoga. A bit of “what went right, what went wrong this week”. Some cool breathing techniques. Some basic anatomy instruction about birth. A bit of aromatherapy. All in all “hippy shit”. And it was great. My memory of labour is that it was tiring. Although there was some pain, it was all manageable. I had no drugs. I was in labour for many hours and did not swear once. Not once. In the normal course of a day, I swear frequently. I did not swear in labour. Most people who know me IRL think that is completely implausible. That’s how good that particular brand of hippy shit was.

As I was reading through the Procrastination Dissolve-o-Matic the other day, I come across similar things. A bit of yoga. A bit of breathing. And this piece of advice: “Resistance is futile.” The ante-natal class teacher said it this way: “What you resist persists.” This sounds crazy the first time you come across it. But it works. Really. I figure if it can work for labour pain, it can work for crazy emotional baggage. So I’m all up with not resisting (fighting, beating, or other violent resistance metaphors) my procrastination. And even just doing a little bit of Havi’s technique got me to write 2 e-mails today. One a response to someone I helped (paid for by her employer) who had asked me if there were any opportunities for me to help her with longer term research planning and one from someone I met (paid for by her employer) last spring who was very happy with how I made sense of her research plans (as presented less than clearly in a draft grant application) and wanted more of that “life coaching” for her research life.

I had no idea how to respond to these people who wanted the service that I most want to provide. I was stuck. Mostly on questions of how much to charge. But the intermediate stage in figuring that out is figuring out how much time people need in what kinds of intervals to do what kinds of things. And so I just e-mailed them and asked. I told them that I was stuck but this is what I really want to do and that I’d give them a deal on the coaching in return for some help with the figuring it out. Scary. But totally okay once I stopped worrying about it. And Havi’s techniques helped me do that. Hurray!

That was step 1. Which is more steps than I’ve taken in a couple of years on this particular project so Woo! Hoo! I’m celebrating that little step. And feeling like the next step might be easier.

The to do list (for growing the business) in no particular order:

• sort out a website (I’ve made some small steps on this)
• decide whether it is feasible to do in-person sessions with people or a workshop or something during a big academic conference in May
• figure out this pricing thing (there is a different brand of hippy shit to help with that here; I need to read his blog more because I bet there is more in there that would help me)
  
• talk to some more individual (potential) clients about how this thing might work

For those of you who are academics or know academics who might be interested. Here is my list of “who I want to work with”: social sciences and humanities; no economists (possible exception for feminist economists or other non-mainstream economists); working in Canada (or wanting to work in Canada). And one of my special skills is what one client called the “bablefish for humanists”. If that makes sense to you (or your academic friend), I can help. When I get my business website sorted, I’ll have more information about my background and qualifications, what services I offer, and all that stuff.

While looking for something else, I discovered the BBC Big Cat pages. The internet sure has changed things though the live webcams and the video streaming of the TV program is not available outside the UK. What a shame.

When Tigger was little, we used to watch Big Cat Diary on Sunday evenings while we had our dinner. It is such an amazing program, following specific lions, cheetahs, and leopards in the Masai Mara. Some of the same presenters are still with the program and as I watched an episode of Big Cat Raw on the website, one of the questions was about a leopard (Shadow) I remembered from that time. (I moved to Canada in January 2003 so that gives you a sense of when.) I notice that they now have a Masai presenter as well as the English ones.

Tigger used to be fascinated by this program right along with us. Sometimes if I thought about it, I wondered about watching a program that showed lions hunting and mating to a 3-year old vegetarian but she never seemed to be disturbed by it. In fact, after we had moved here (so she must have been about 6), I remember being in the video store considering renting Two Brothers. It was rated PG but from the blurb, I thought she’d like it. I was explaining to her that it was rated PG for violence but it looked like maybe the violence was tiger violence. She looked at me funny and said something like “But Mummy, tiger violence isn’t real violence. They can’t be vegetarians like people can.”

Anyway, even without the main program and the live webcams the Big Cat site looks like it has some interesting things to explore. I might have to check out more of the site with Tigger. I’m not sure whether she remembers the program or not. The extra features and links are also interesting and include maps and related radio programs. If anyone is studying African animals, this would be a great resource.