Throwback post from 28 Nov 2011
I am not a Mall person. Malls make me anxious.
I don’t know if it’s due to the throngs of people who meander slowly ahead of me when I’m trying to chase down my wayward children, or a sub-conscious fear that if the Zombie Apocalypse was to happen while in a mall, I’d be trapped with a shitload of annoying teenagers and office girls enjoying an ‘extended lunchbreak’.
God forbid. I wouldn’t know whether to run from the brain eating zombies or the girls stampeding their way to Supre for a free-for-all. Either way… Though, least if I were trapped in a Mall, I could find refuge in the confectionery isle of K-Mart – no self-conscious teen or stereotypically skinny office girl would be seen undead there, right? (Edit: In the years since writing this ancient post, K-Mart seems to have become cool. Maybe not for teens and office girls, but certainly for Scandi-stylin’, geometric-loving plant-hoarding house mums. Am I trying to offend as many people as possible in this paragraph alone? It appears I am)
Wait, it’s the zombies I’m meant to be running from in this scenario, isn’t it? Damn it, I forgot what nightmare situation I was writing about for a minute there.
In fact, I completely forgot what I was writing about from the moment I typed the words ‘Zombie Apocalypse’.
Oh. That’s right. Christmas shopping.
For the most part, we’ve got Christmas sorted, but there’s going to come a time – very soon now – where I’m gonna have to suck in a big brave breath and negotiate my way through a mall teeming with crazy-eyed shoppers and brain-eating teenagers.
It is inevitable that in the next three weeks, I will find myself trapped in a unbearably long checkout line with my six rolls of gift wrap, shopping basket of ‘stocking stuffers’ and a box set of American Chopper for the Lad that no staff member will be able to find the discs for. I will worry that my card will decline, even though I know there will be enough money on it to cover what I am about to purchase (I’ll know, because I would have checked seventeen times on my to the checkout.) The children will transform into snarling Wargs and Grumkins as soon as they see the shelf of lollipops alongside them. Someone will begin to cry. It will probably be me.
The walls will close in on me as the anxiety attack takes its hold. I will consider eBay as the source for the Lad’s box set, rethink the necessity of Christmas stockings and start wondering if we really need all this wrapping paper, or if we could just upcycle the kids impressive stash of Playcentre paintings…
Looks like they’re painting Christmas colours to me! Or as the Lad suggests, Zombie brain splatter patterns!
All of this will happen. It’s a scenario that’s as much a nightmare tradition for our family as leaving up the Christmas tree for the first four months of the new year and drawing a face on a toilet roll and calling it the Xmas tree fairy because we’ve lost the original. (Okay I just made that last one up. But, pfft, sounds as good a plan as all my other bad plans!)
But as far as choice in shopping malls go, I’ll have my say in that at least. And I’ll take my chances with Westgate. It’s spacious outdoor design and dead boring selections of shops should filter out most of the teeming hoardes, and if all else fails, there’s a Hunting and Fishing shop up the road, just in case I need to score myself some guns to deal with any f#%^ng annoying zombies.
On the morning of Indie’s second birthday, he was introduced to Monster Trucks. A ten-minute Monster Jam video on youtube that became the catalyst of a year long obsession. He had always been interested in wheels, or rather, the rotation of wheels. He’d lie on the floor and roll his Hot Wheels cars across the carpet just to watch the motion of their wheels.
Jarrod figured that since wheels were so intriguing to him, he might like the giant wheels of a monster truck. Well, he wasn’t wrong…
Months later, Indie had a decent collection of monster truck toys, and wouldn’t go anywhere without them. Without ALL of them.
Somewhere within the bowels of a misplaced backup hard drive, there is a pictorial documentary of just how much monster trucks became a focal point of his life. Photos of Indie attempting (and succeeding through dogged determination) to climb a ladder at his favourite playground – with up to eight monster trucks in his hands. Freestyle tracks carved out of Narrow Neck sand..
Eventually – sometime during the age of three-ish – the monster truck obsession wore itself out. I admit I was relieved. Maybe now he’d take up a new interest! In something that wasn’t so… one-track.
But he didn’t. Try as we might to engage him in other interests, Indie floated lost in his own little apathetic world of Complete Disinterest In Most Things. He couldn’t engage in anything. And he was unsettled because of it.
Finally, one day – and I can’t remember how but I’m guessing it had something to do with Iron Man – we engaged him once again with… Superheroes! It revitalised him. Intrigued by flying metal suits, indestructible shields, and magical hammers. (As a family of Marvel fans, this was an obsession we were all happy to jump in on. ;))
Angry Birds followed. First the app, then the little plastic figures with their catapults, which gave him hours of fun setting up intricate towers (we sacrificed our Jenga blocks for this cause) and finding the perfect place to set up his catapult and knock it all down again. There was real-life, physical play inspired by the game, too…
After that? Plants vs Zombies.
I wasn’t so rapt about what was a fairly pointless and brain-numbing computer game. But it turned out that game had its positive side effects. Inspired by the game, we planted flower gardens with Sunflowers and Snapdragons. Then once an interest in gardening began to take hold (for both of us) we moved to growing herbs and veggies. Because of that initial interest in a pointless computer game, Indie’s interest in gardening remains to this day. And, I became a gardener. Like, as a job. One I get paid for. As my regular weekly thing.
Lastly (on the subject of Plants vs Zombies that is) the game inspired Indie to draw. Intricate, amazing, packed with details… those drawings were stories in themselves.
Minecraft followed. Connecting with him on both a creative and constructive level.
Almost all of Indie’s interests have originated from a movie or computer game, but they’ve tapped into other areas of expression and interest for him. They’ve resonated with him in a way nothing else has and enriched so many other aspects of creativity.
This can be hard for others to understand. Particularly for those who hear him talk non-stop about a computer game, without understanding that this interest has inspired him to create his own engaging ideas and concepts.
Bree also has a single driving obsession which she has carried with her since she was two and a half. She lives, breathes, eats, sleeps and probably even poops… Dinosaurs.
No one ever blinks an eye at the fact that, nine times out of ten, all of her imaginary play, her drawing and her story telling revolves around dinosaurs. No one ever questions whether such a long-standing all-consuming obsession is healthy for her. And why would we question it? Dinosaurs are educational. Dinosaurs are science. Dinosaurs are history.
Some may question whether it’s healthy for most of Indie stories, drawings, and general thought processes to stem from movie and gaming related topics such as superheroes and Minecraft. These interests are unhealthy! They’re corrupting his mind! His attention span! His behavior!
On the contrary – and this is something I feel people find hard to believe or accept – these interests help him. These ‘pointless’ things have inspired in Indie an interest in science. And technology. And innovation. He dreams of a future where he can build his own flying suits. Where he can build robots that carry out certain tasks. Even where he builds his own apps or games. He doesn’t yet know the intricate details of ‘quantum physics’, but he has long dreamed of creating wormholes and portals into different dimensions.
Is that not educational? Is that not science? Is that not innovation? And is that any less valuable than Bree’s love for dinosaurs and paleontology?
One dreams of our planet’s history, while the other dreams of its future. But isn’t it just great that they dream?
It seems to be becoming a rare thing in Auckland these days, but our family happens to be living smack-bang in the middle of a sizable section with ample space for the kids to run about. The landscape, however, is pretty bare, and while that would be great if our kids were interested in backyard cricket, their play doesn’t so much involve kicking balls but immersing themselves in their imagination. It involves dinosaurs, superheroes, cute furry animals, monster trucks and Minecraft figures. Often all mashed together into one grand sweeping saga of fantasy play.
We live in a rental property, but it’s been our home for a good 15 or so years now, and our landlady has been happy to allow us to take care of it as if it were our own. Thus, in an effort to provide the incentive for our kids to play outside, as well as do something with the bland boring landscape that our house otherwise sits upon, I recently decided to create a ‘dinosaur garden’ in the backyard.
Oh, this isn’t the finished thing. This is just a pile of rocks on the lawn. Though given how much our daughter instantly enjoyed it, I probably could have just kept it as a pile of rocks on the lawn…
The inspiration for this natural play garden came from our dinosaur-obsessed daughter. A long time ago, with the help of our then-puppy, she scooped out a ‘dino pit’ directly at the base of the back steps. Her reasoning was that it was perfect for use as a dinosaur waterhole and, better yet, trapping anyone who forgot to mind their step when venturing out the back door.
Finally, growing tired of watching visitors fall into the trap (it was fun initially, of course), I picked up the spade, marked out a circle (or thereabouts) in the middle-ish of the back lawn, and started to dig.
Bear in mind, our dinosaur garden is nothing fancy. Everything was sourced as cheaply as possible. We bought a stack of volcanic rock from Trade Me, the pumice used on the path was sourced by a gardener friend and bought at ridiculously low-cost from a glasshouse, and while we did buy most of the plants, a few were gifted from friends or pulled from other parts of our own garden. Even those that we bought were paid at rock-bottom prices as they came from a local nursery which was, quite unfortunately, having a closing down sale.
20-something bags of pumice and a hodge-podge collection of whatever-plants-caught-our-eye. Because that’s how we roll.
But so far as providing a child-focused nature area for the kids to bring their imaginations to life in… This interactive little rock garden does the trick nicely!
Note to self: Next time I decide to dig up the lawn, wait until enough rain has fallen to soften the ground. Ye gods. Someone bring me a beer!
But seriously, is it beer-o-clock yet?
There’s loads of thyme to play in this garden! (oh no… Worst. Pun. Ever. Please someone, take the Internet away from me…?)
Just needs a few shrubs around the outer edge and we’re good to go.
Stay tuned for another photo update in spring/summer when the garden has had a bit more time to establish (I’m crossing my fingers that the magnolia’s survive.)
So there you have it! How to create a magical play garden for the kids – on a shoestring budget! Now go forth, and start digging!
…And please feel free to share any questions or tips of your own in the comment section. 🙂
Even the frosty mornings can’t deter Dino Girl from playing in this garden!
At the risk of sounding like I’m losing my mind, I’m pretty sure we’re in the grip of an arachnid alien invasion.
From Whenuapai to Herald Island, these spider webs appear to have sprung up overnight, and they’re everywhere. They were beautiful with the early morning sunlight shining on them and the remnants of frost still clinging to their gossamer strands, but once the sun shifted and the dew dried, they became virtually invisible. Guess it was lucky that we came along at just the right time to catch the magic.
Remember Spiderman; with great power comes great responsibility.
In effort to get some exercise, break free of the weekly humdrum and find inspiration in my surroundings, I’ve been going on near-daily excursions around the neighbourhood and nearby suburbs. With a friend we walk and chat; venting and brainstorming as we go. While on the days that the dog accompanies me, she takes on the role of my personal trainer; pushing me to jog a few km – using her ‘aww gummon!’ eyes to drive me on whenever I start to lag.
Herald Island wharf and waterfront is particularly inspiring on a misty winter morning
It’s a dangerous thing to bring along my camera during these excursions. I run the risk of spending the entire day ambling at a snail’s pace while photographing every last little interesting thing that catches my eye, and then lugging home a memory card full of pictures I’ll likely never look at again – and all without achieving any kind of cardiovascular workout.
Walking the rural fringe of West Auckland is so much more interesting than driving. Everything inspires me. No really. Everything.
It’s ordinary. It’s every day. It’s depressing. It’s grotesque. So naturally I had to photograph it.
Take the way that cardboard McDonald’s packet stands out against a grassy Whenuapai berm, while a car blurs by in the background. It’s bleak. It’s ugly. It’s corporate-branded pollution. The fact that so many cars can whizz by without even noticing the McTrash is just a sad example of the blind-eyed self-centered bubble we as individuals live in. And all the while the consumeristic machine that is our society powers on towards its own destruction; contaminating everything that’s pure and natural in this world as it goes.
Or something like that.
I’m feeling a need to change something in my life. To pursue a new direction. I don’t want to spend the rest of my existence sitting before a screen. This outdoors thing is really quite nice.
While admiring the beauty in the mundane, I start thinking about whether or not I could plausibly make a living from selling photographs of spiderwebs, dead pukeko, or the interesting placement of an ancient wheelbarrow in an overgrown field. What could we call this? Urban rural street photography?
Then I stop and remember that the reason I enjoy photography is because it’s a hobby. Not something I’m trying to make any kind of living from. Thus there’s no pressure to be outstanding at it. No pressure to churn out photos that other people will want. I only need to concern myself about what I find interesting through the camera lens. Not what anyone else might perhaps possibly find interesting.
That’s not to say I won’t consider a photographic job opportunity should one come up. Let’s be real here. But maybe I should start practicing portrait or product photography, and stop admiring roadside weeds and rusting things.
I’m launching a new thing today called Freebies For a Cause. It’s my effort to contribute towards good causes with free graphics, because I’m too financially-challenged to actually donate money.
So which worthy cause is first on my freebie hit list? Well, whether or not you’re a fan of jumping on social media bandwagons (and generally I’m not. Unless it involves Whittakers chocolate), there’s a campaign building momentum amid factions of social media, and it’s one I can identify with. It’s called Project Semicolon, and it’s a movement that aims to bring support to anyone who struggles with depression, self-harm, suicidal thoughts or addiction.
Project Semicolon was started in 2013 by a person named Amy Bleuel, as a tribute to her father who had committed suicide. This awareness campaign uses the semi-colon (;) as a symbol of solidarity – to show you are a survivor of depression/suicidal thoughts/etc, and that you are not giving up. Or alternatively, as a show support for someone close to you who has been effected by these often-debilitating feelings.
Why a semicolon?
A semicolon is used when an author could’ve chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you and the sentence is your life.
– projectsemicolon.com
Whether it’s in the name of their own struggle or in support of someone else’s, participants use this symbol (often via tattoo or ink drawing) to declare their support for the cause and commitment to staying strong. And while internet-fad led tattoos are another thing normally guaranteed to set my eyes rolling faster than a set of marbles down a staircase, I can understand the sentiment in this. What better than a small obscure punctuation mark shared by thousands of others around the world to remind you that you’re not alone during your most darkest desperate moments?
“It’s a reminder for me that I made the choice to fight for my life instead of giving up.”
– Alex Bieger, a recovering addict who is one of the many people with a semicolon tattoo. Buzzfeed News
So is this the part where I say “hey look guys, I got a new tattoo!”? Not quite. But this is the part where I say I’ve made some free-to-download timeline covers and profile pics that anyone is welcome to use if they’d like to kit out their Facebook page in support of the cause. Either for themselves or for the sake of someone they’re close to. There’s a range of colours and styles, with potentially more to come.
Check out the full range and download ’em right here!
If you’d like to suggest a design idea or would like any of these designs in a different size (for use on other websites), feel free to message me or leave a comment.
