Author: Absidity Art

My son is going to be an artist?

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I just finished cleaning up after my seven month old son Riley made me a finger painting, on the bathroom tiles, with his own spew.

I was in the bathroom and Riley was sitting on the floor next to me, right when I was unable to grab him he vomited (milk spit up) and proceeded to rub it around the tiles and make patterns. He made a rather large mess on the floor and was looking up at me smiling proudly.

He just frowned at me as I picked him up and moved him then continued to clean up his ‘art’.

Oh the Joy of Parenthood.

 

 

Here Among The Ruins

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Here Among The Ruins by Regina Puckett

There is no Goodreads Synopsis with this one, just a line stating that it is a poetry collection, then a sample of one of the poems.

Drink Our Fill:

Ever once awhile and again

I think back to where it begin

A tracing of a fingertip

A momentary trip and slip

Goosebumps and shivers

Moments sliced into slivers

A pause and then a glance

Wondering if there could be a chance

If only time could somehow stand still

While our hearts drank their fill

 

My Thoughts:

This is the second poetry collection I’ve read by Regina and yet again she has put together another appealing collection. I find Regina’s poems to be elegant, easy to read, understand and enjoy. There is rhyme and sing song and the pages are filled with heart felt emotions, the good and the bad.

I found in this collection as with the previous one I’ve read (Reaching for the Moon) that her poems flowed beautifully and I could really connect with the emotions in most of them and enjoyed reading them all.

You can find out more about Regina and her multiple published works here > >

http://reginapuckettsbooks.weebly.com/index.html

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Selfie

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When I hear or read the term ‘Selfie’ I immediately think of drunk young women taking photos in pub toilets with their girlfriends or little teenagers dressed like underage prostitutes taking photos of themselves in their bathroom mirrors or even muscle bound men wanting to so off their guns.

So it’s was nice to see some more artististic versions like the photo given as an example for this weeks challenge (Link Bellow).

I hate my photo being taken and my form of a selfie is more like this, me just being silly >>IMG_5724

 

I’ve had to learn to get over my photophobia though as i’m always taking selfies with my son these days. So here is a Self Portrait I just took, I really couldn’t think of anything very artistic to do with it, I don’t have any interesting reflective surfaces etc around me at the moment.

. Selfie Me

 

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/weekly-photo-challenge-selfie

The Mark of Athena

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The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus) by Rick Riordan

Goodreads Synopsis:

Annabeth is terrified. Just when she’s about to be reunited with Percy—after six months of being apart, thanks to Hera—it looks like Camp Jupiter is preparing for war. As Annabeth and her friends Jason, Piper, and Leo fly in on the Argo II, she can’t blame the Roman demigods for thinking the ship is a Greek weapon. With its steaming bronze dragon masthead, Leo’s fantastical creation doesn’t appear friendly. Annabeth hopes that the sight of their praetor Jason on deck will reassure the Romans that the visitors from Camp Half-Blood are coming in peace.

And that’s only one of her worries. In her pocket Annabeth carries a gift from her mother that came with an unnerving demand: Follow the Mark of Athena. Avenge me. Annabeth already feels weighed down by the prophecy that will send seven demigods on a quest to find—and close—the Doors of Death. What more does Athena want from her?

Annabeth’s biggest fear, though, is that Percy might have changed. What if he’s now attached to Roman ways? Does he still need his old friends? As the daughter of the goddess of war and wisdom, Annabeth knows she was born to be a leader, but never again does she want to be without Seaweed Brain by her side.

Narrated by four different demigods, The Mark of Athena is an unforgettable journey across land and sea to Rome, where important discoveries, surprising sacrifices, and unspeakable horrors await. Climb aboard the Argo II, if you dare….

My Thoughts:

You’d think what with four different demigods narrating the story it would get a bit confusing, but even though the story keeps jumping between the characters Riordan manages to make it flow so that you don’t get lost. I think if you weren’t familiar with the story and hadn’t followed the whole series you may find this the third instalment rather overwhelming with so much going on. The extreme pace and non-stop action of the story propels you forward, the story races over the pages. I’m only dropping it to Four stars instead of Five because in places I felt like some events got rushed as Riordan was trying to fit so much in. The hard work for our favourite demigods has only just begun! Unfortunately the story ends and the cliff-hanger with Percy and Annabeth will have you racing out to get the next book (the House of Hades).

I will add though that I really missed Tyson and Mrs O’Leary, their presence always warms my heart, I am rather hopping we will see them back again in the last book (The Blood of Olympus) for the final battle.

Four out of Five Stars – Bring on the House of Hades!!

Midnight Sun

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Midnight Sun (Twilight #1.5) by Stephenie Meyer

Goodreads Synopsis:

Midnight Sun is the much anticipated retelling of Twilight from Edward Cullen’s perspective. An unedited partial draft was illegally leaked onto the internet in 2008; consequently, author Stephenie Meyer put the project on indefinite hold.

Shortly afterward, she posted a letter to her fans on her website including a link to the entire partial draft of the book so that those who wanted to read it could do so legally and with her consent; see URL for more information.

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html

My Thoughts:

Before I start I am going to point out that I am a Twilight Saga fan, I have the four books as well as the Bree Tanner novella and the official guide with all the character background stories that Meyer’s put out.

So this is the first books story again but from Edwards point of view. While I was reading it I couldn’t help thinking that I needed to read Twilight again as I don’t remember the events happening the same way. I found that Midnight Sun dragged on in some places. But I must admit I did like the parts where Edward was with his family, the bits we didn’t get to see, that we could only guess at when Bella was telling the story. I’m really upset that Meyer’s doesn’t intend to finish it because completed and polished up it could be quite good and would fit really nicely into The Saga to be read after Twilight.

My advice is; if you thought the first twilight was ok, don’t bother reading this, but if you loved the first Twilight than you’ll enjoy this to. There really are some amusing bits where we get to “hear” what everyone around Edward is thinking.

2.5 out of 5 stars.

Writing Workshop

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Today I attended a Newcomers Writing Workshop run by The Hunter Writers Centre. We talked a lot about different forms of writing, finding our own voice, practice exercises and ways to improve our writing.

We did a Memoir Exercise in which we had thirty minutes to write out a memory, then we read them aloud and dissected them as group. I really enjoyed hearing all the different things we’d all dredged up from our memories. The memory I picked out, well I’ve just posted it as its own post – http://sarahalison27.org/2014/02/01/learning-to-drive/

We did a Random Photo Exercise where a bunch of photos were spread out and we had fifteen minutes to write a short piece drawn from one of the photos. It took me awhile to pick a photo. The photo I did go with was of a man wearing a hat in a 1950’s style convertible automobile. I just focused on the guy and his hat >>>>

I slid down and slumped back into the cars seat. I was wearing a black bowler hat pulled down to partly obscure my face, but not so far down that I couldn’t see. I has hiding out in an anonymous looking black sedan with out of town number plates.

I was keeping tabs on a young girl named Audrey for my boss, she was his daughter. She didn’t like her father interfering with her life, so I was tasked with the job to tail her from time to time and keep tabs on who she was hanging out with

He was at her place again, that boy named Bob Brown. That filthy no good rat was harassing her again. I could see him through the window. I drove off. I’d report what I saw to my boss later tonight.

She was a lovely young girl, but she had terrible taste when it came to men. Her last boyfriend had put her in hospital, then my boss and I had put him in an underwater grave.

My boss was a powerful guy, not a fella to be messed with.

<<<< And that’s as far as I got.

I really did enjoy myself today and everyone there seemed to get something out of the workshop. Now I’ve just got to sit down and write out the scribbled notes and advice I took down and look into some of the things we talked about. I think I’ll definitely be joining the Prose group run by the HWC. Today was a fun, entertaining and interesting day :-).

Learning to drive

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Memory: Learning to drive.

My father is a very calm man, but I’ve never seen him as stressed as when he was trying to teach me to drive.

He was in the process of fixing up an old Manuel Toyota Corolla for me, when I first got my learners licence. He had previously let me drive around in country paddocks in his 4WD Patrol. But after the first time we took his rather wide and powerful Nissan Patrol on the road he decided he was going to get me a small automatic car with power steering and he quickly sold the Corolla and got a Ford Laser. The Laser was immaculate once he was done fixing it up. I loved that Laser. It was nice and easy to drive.

I should add that my dad is a panel beater and this was back in the day when you could buy a write-off and repair it, which is exactly what he did with the Corolla and the Laser.

My dad refused to try and teach me to park, so he paid a driving instructor with a Toyota Rav4 to do that.

There was a time in-between him fixing up the laser that he took me for a lesson in my mother’s Holden Commodore, which for a 16 year old with not much driving experience was an army tank, big and powerful. I loved it. He gritted his teeth the entire time, I think it made him get the laser fixed quicker.

It was a fine day and we heated up to visit my grandfather at Kurri. A lot of the roads on the way the speed limit is 80/90, but I doubt I was going anywhere near that as it was one of my first times on the road. My dad would keep getting me to pull over to the side of the road so all the cars behind us could go past. I can remember on one of these pull out of the way stops, I was gliding to a nice smooth stop before a road marker and he was jumping up and down in his seat saying STOP! I was very cranky because I thought I did a beautiful smooth breaking job just like the paid driving instructor had been teaching me. I explained this to my father and his response was ‘’Break harder and faster when you’re in the car with me” The more I think about it, I think that was the only time he took me out in my mother’s car.

The difference between my mother and fathers teaching Technics where like night and day. My Dad would freak out and tell me to slow down and STOP!! and the radio was always off!! My Mum would sit in the passenger seat, relax and tune out to the music on the radio as I drove around collecting my minimum hours.

I would also like to point out I got my licence first go and scored 98% on my test, losing only two points for my reverse park (which is really amusing as I nearly always reverse into parking spots these days). So both my parents’ methods of teaching me to drive worked. The fella in the Rav4 paid off to, as neither of my parents had to try to teach me to park.

Life Lately

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I haven’t had time to post much lately, things have been rather hectic.

I’ve lost many hours and been through a great deal of stress trying to get everything organised for my son to start day care next week. So I’m already upset at the fact that I’m losing my baby boy to strangers, then I get dicked around by the government over child care rebates – NOT HAPPY JAN!!! Anyway I got it all sorted today finally, but DAMN why does everything have to be so hard!

I’m constantly on edge at the moment and it’s really starting to get on top of me – I NEED A BREAK – but as a mum I’ll never get one again. Just when I think I’m at my lowest point, in the darkest frame of mind I’ve ever been in, I get lower and it gets darker, I’m swinging like a god damn chimpanzee.

I did have a high light on Tuesday, it was my son’s first swimming lesson. I was really nervous, but Riley seemed to have a good time. He loves the water, he was one of the few babies who didn’t cry. When he was supposed to be floating on his back he kicked his legs and when he was supposed to be kicking he was just staring at the ceiling or watching the other babies – Yep that’s my boy easily distracted and doesn’t do what he’s told (sounds just like me all the way through school).

Tomorrow is February first so I’m going to get back on the band wagon with the 365 post challenge, I haven’t managed to do it for a few days now.

Also tomorrow I’ll be attending a day course on creative writing run by the Hunter Writers Centre. Really the last thing I feel like doing at the moment is going to a course in town, I’d rather stay in bed for a month straight in a dark quiet cave, but I know I’ll enjoy myself one I get there. I hope! I’m going to have to try a shut the real world out for the day.

The Son of Sobek

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The Son of Sobek by Rick Riordan

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this e-book short story, Carter Kane is investigating rumoured sightings of a monster on Long Island when he runs into something else: a mysterious boy named Percy Jackson. And their meeting isn’t exactly friendly. . . .

My Thoughts:

I haven’t read the three books in the Kane Chronicles but I am a Percy Jackson Fan. I found The Son of Sobek to be a Percy Jackson & Kane Chronicles short story mash up – which I quite liked. I needed a quick Percy fix and this did it, even though Carter was the narrator. It’s a fast paced, quick story to read and I would highly recommend it to any Carter Kane or Percy Jackson fan! Both Carter and Percy can tell that they are not from the same worlds but they come to an understudying, they come to a truce to fight a common foe (a monster) and at the end Riordan seems to be setting up what could be a very interesting and entertaining coming together of the Carter Kane and Percy Jackson worlds.

Four out of Five Stars.

The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus #2)

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The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus #2) by Rick Riordan

Goodreads Synopsis:

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call, To storm or fire the world must fall. An oath to keep with a final breath, And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

Percy is confused. When he awoke from his long sleep, he didn’t know much more than his name. His brain fuzz is lingering, even after the wolf Lupa told him he is a demigod and trained him to fight with the pen/sword in his pocket. Somehow Percy manages to make it to a camp for half-bloods, despite the fact that he has to keep killing monsters along the way. But the camp doesn’t ring any bells with him. The only thing he can recall from his past is another name: Annabeth

Hazel is supposed to be dead. When she lived before, she didn’t do a very good job of it. Sure, she was an obedient daughter, even when her mother was possessed by greed. But that was the problem — when the Voice took over her mother and commanded Hazel to use her “gift” for an evil purpose, Hazel couldn’t say no. Now because of her mistake, the future of the world is at risk. Hazel wished she could ride away from it all on the stallion that appears in her dreams.

Frank is a klutz. His grandmother says he is descended from heroes and can be anything he wants to be, but he doesn’t see it. He doesn’t even know who his father is. He keeps hoping Apollo will claim him, because the only thing he is good at is archery — although not good enough to win camp war games. His bulky physique makes him feel like an ox, especially in front of Hazel, his closest friend at camp. He trusts her completely — enough to share the secret he holds close to his heart.

Beginning at the “other” camp for half-bloods and extending as far as the land beyond the gods, this breathtaking second instalment of the Heroes of Olympus series introduces new demigods, revives fearsome monsters, and features other remarkable creatures, all destined to play a part in the Prophesy of Seven.

My Thoughts:

There was so much going on and so much happening in this book I’m not sure where to begin.

Non-stop action. More New Characters. Percy Jackson back and better than ever, even with the Hera brought on case of amnesia he has at the start of the book.

This book pulled me in and I couldn’t put it down. I’m hanging out to read the next one! These books really do keep getting better and better!!!

I actually shed a tear when Tyson & Mrs O’Leary re-enter the story, lovingly and longingly looking for Percy. My husband asked me what was wrong and I blurted out something along the lines of “Poor Tyson he keeps looking for Percy and whenever he manages to track him, by the time he gets there Percy gone, poor adorable sweet Tyson’’ my husband just stared at me so I gave up trying to explain. I’m sure any of you who’ve met Tyson in the previous books will totally understand why I got upset reading about the kind hearted Cyclopes distraught looking for his brother. I was so happy Tyson & Mrs O’Leary got to join in the fight to save Camp Jupiter. The image of Percy riding Mrs O’Leary into battle ready was fantastic.

The last pages see the ‘Greek’ warship Argo 2 descending into the ‘Roman’ Camp Jupiter and you just know that the next books going to be just as good if not better!!

Five out of Five Stars – Outstanding and Spellbinding!!