Dodo Au Go-Go

I've never done much painting. Between being too daunted to try it - despite being an enthusiastic drawing doodler, and having a cripplingly fierce inner editor/ inner critic, I never really explored the painting side of art.  Until LittleOne came along - at which point, paint supplies, painting and arty-ing became staples of our playing and learning time. Then I figured I really should take advantage and learn to paint and play . I tried to play with this piece, and ended up jumping between physical and digital media to reach a final painting pic which I think is pretty cool. I started off here: I started off here because LittleOne wanted to be the one to pour out the paints. Which meant we had quite a bit of leftover paint. Which also meant it was my job to use up the rest of the paint when paint-play was deemed over. I quite liked the effect of the original painted image. It initially didn't have a sky. But I liked it enough I thought it deserved one. Now I actua...

So. On Sunday morning, I was up at my usual pre-dawn hour. After a Saturday of clouds and rain, when Sunday started with golden pre-dawn light, the birds got very excited and had a glorious symphony of chirruping-chitter-chatter and clear calls to each other. I put down my teacup and slipped into the cold outside to record a soothing 13-odd seconds of it.  Social media might appreciate this lovely clip of peace and zen, I thought, and shared it to Twitter and Instagram.  Well. Within 30 seconds, Twitter got its knickers in a supreme knot about the video, declared I'd violated their rules, and locked me out of my account for 12 hours.  For the record, here's the offending vid: Now, I'm the mildest of the mild social media users, focusing exclusively on things that interest me like writing, creativity, nature and animals. In other words, I don't go near the creepy edges of content that might violate Twitter ToS. Being locked out was absolutely a new experience for me. It...

I realised recently that I've been needing to brace myself before I open my Twitter account. Deep breath. Do I really want to go in there?  Deep breath. Get-ready-to-skim-scroll-really-really-fast-to-find-friends'-tweets. For me, this has become a necessary, if over the top, approach to entering twitter, simply because of the relentless politics and social issues commentaries that seem to be clogging my feed lately.  The thing is: I'm not trying to follow these issues on Twitter. I want to use Twitter to be inspired and to develop connections with writing and creativity communities. Yes.  I know it's hard to have focus on something like writing without social issues. They are, in many ways, intrinsically interconnected. I have a higher degree in sociology/cultural studies, for goodness sake! I know writing - and who we are - is connected to the world and to issues we care about. But. Yes. I know Twitter has always had politicking and sharing of personal experiences and...