Cardbored

This project was inspired by my good friend and fellow blogger Ostinato Seaker.

The establishment bought some outdoor furniture to (finally!) make the front patio hospitable.

The boxes that protected the flat-pack sofa and cabinets were huge.

I proposed an opportunity for my young clients. The response was unanimous.

Given the time available and no real time for Front End Engineering and Design, I applied the KISS principle.

1. I taped up four equal sides.

• The doors and windows were a delight to cut out. Just had to make sure there were no clients on the other side during the construction process

• The interior and exterior decorating process was completely client driven

• The roof was a client requirement, a late variation that I could cater for without blowing the budget or schedule

• The new space integrated seamlessly with existing client facilities

Overall the client feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

Given how well the project went, Phase 2 might even be on the cards.

Out of the Blue (Disc)

So most of you know that Wii games are not blue.

Sam really thought we broke the Mario Kart game today when he could not get the game to work.
It's like you can't insert any discs into the Wii controller.

To ease the disappointment and give me space to clean up the table, I naturally sedated him with some ABC Kids TV time.

So as I tuck Sam in as usual afterwards, he probed about his Wii playing odds for following days.

I said, "Daddy has lots of work to do." Referring to doing the dishes and a few other paper errands.

And out of the blue, Sam tells me,

"I don't want you to fix our Wii."

Surprised, I asked why.

"I want you to do your work so we can have food to eat."

And this is the reason why you marry a woman who reads good parenting books.

=========

Further investigation

After a few questions were asked, it was discovered that Mimo was spotted (but not stopped!?!) inserting this into the Wii disc drive.
Turns out the Kmart jukebox imitation CDs are not supported by Wii.

The Wii controller thought it had a legit disc but could not eject it due to the size.
So a calibrated plastic feeding spoon belonging to said Mimo was used to retrieve the said disc.
The trick was to power the controller down after hitting the eject button (to retract the locking pins normally designed to prevent said disc and other similarly sized objects).

Of course we had to test the controller operations after the fix.

Of course it was Mario Kart.

Photo of said disc after it was retrieved by his dad after tucking Sam in.

When I reach out.

When I reach out.

You have the freedom to not reply.
You have the freedom to pretend you didn't read it.
You have the freedom to pretend you didn't read it in time.
You have the freedom to not agree with me and not tell me why.
You have the freedom to agree with me and not tell me you agree with me.

Individually, normally, I'm ok with the above.



In the past, I've emailed something to you about an experience of mine.
It was a painful lesson I've learnt.
It was something great I've experienced.
It was a great idea.
I was keen to hear your thoughts.
I wondered if we could take that and make it so much more.
Here was a chance we can build a stronger connection.

But you didn't reply.
When I bumped into you, you didn't mention it.

================


I don't know if you've ever given it a thought.
But did you know that a no-reply is actually (slightly) negative?
A wave of no-replies is like a multitude of people not voting, (quite) negative.
You don't need to look far to see the effect of not voting, not speaking up.

When this happens, it take effort on my part to think the best of the situation.

I try.

But I then wonder, has my message not moved you enough to even say, "Agree!" or "Not sure about that."
It hurts more when what I share with you is important or sensitive to me.

If I pour out my heart...

Please exercise your freedom to reply.
A word.
An emoticon.
Not just because I'm a millennial.
But because I am human.

==============

Is it just email?
Is it just social media?
Shall I resort to snail mail? (And take it that as a lesson of sharing via social media).

Everybody needs a hero.

A convo between Daddy and Jimmy on the way back from Springfield Parklands.
Bats fly across scene left as dusk develops further into night.


Dad: Look at those bats. I wonder if batman is flying up there?
Sam: What? Batman? 
Jimmy: No, no. There are no superheros dad.
Dad: What do you mean there are no superheros? Who told you?
Jimmy: I just know.


And that's all I got out of the little man.
Everybody needs a hero.

To listen without judgement

It takes great effort to listen without judgement.

• What does it take?

If you don't know how hard it is, try listening to someone criticising something you've done.

• Do you arc up and be defensive?
• Do you look to justify why it was so?

Listening without judgement comes with great difficulty.

But I have been blessed to have come across a great bunch of people who have modelled listening.

 

Enter Bill.

• Bill taught me to carry out incident investigations
• Bill has a quiet, respectful and inquisitive demeanour.
• Bill disarms the aggressor by the way he listens without judgement.
• Humbly observing, Bill seeks to improve his understanding of the situation, rather than trying to take control of that person's view point.

What does it take to listen without judgement?

I'd appreciate your comments and the convos to follow.

Finding the Mimo

For a number of reasons, our #3, Naomi, has a number of pet names.

• Mimi.
• Nomi. 
• Mimi the noosh.
• Mimo. 

Over the holidays just gone we camped in our backyard.

Yup.
Yes, you might call it glamping (glamorous camping).
No noisy neighbours with generators.
No awkward showers.
Short walk to the dunny.

Anyway, one of the things we also did was set up an outdoor cinema.
Borrowing a projector, we tied up a bed sheet to our carport.
We invited some friends over for an outdoor cinema.

That day, Christmas eve eve, I was working most of the day but was able to get home a little earlier.
When I got in the door, Sam ran up to me excitedly.
Obviously mummy told him about it.

"Dad! Dad! We're watching a movie tonight!"

What movie was that, Sam?

"It's called Finding the Mimo!"

The best place for the Mimo was in bed.
Her real bed.