September 2010

and the knockers are out with their secataurs, ready to chop down those tall poppies…

by frogpondsrock on September 29, 2010

in blogging

I need to state from the outset that I have a vested interest in the Australian Blogging Conference as my daughter Veronica is one of the organisers. I am also speaking on a panel, so maybe that makes my perspective a bit skewed.

But, I have never let vested interests or skewed perspectives stop me before, so onward and upward.

The overwhelming response to the inaugural Australian Bloggers Conference has been positive and if the ticket sales are anything to go by there will be a lot of personal bloggers gathered in Sydney next March.

Sadly,along with the positive responses there are always the inevitable knockers and naysayers. The bitter bunnies who are so choked up with bile that all they can do is throw verbal stones and barbs at those bloggers who have dared to actually stand up and do some hard work and organise a conference.

The naysayers are loudly complaining that the Australian Blogging Conference is all about Mummy blogging and that the attendees will be a very narrow clicky group.

I call bullshit.

I pulled this straight from the Aussie Bloggers, website

Aussie Bloggers Conference is a conference ‘by bloggers for bloggers.’

It is the first ever blogging conference focusing on the mum, parenting and personal blogging communities of Australia. We’ve long wanted to see a blogging conference in Australia and now, sick of waiting for ‘someone else’ to do it, we’ve created one ourselves.

Organising a conference in a city like Sydney is quite expensive and there is a considerable financial committment required from the five organisers. So as to keep things manageable the organisers had to choose a blogging niche and theme for the conference. I think that they chose a niche which is quite broad in its appeal.

I think that the title “personal blogger” encompasses us all out here in the blogosphere. Aren’t we all writing from a personal perspective? Whether our blog is about politics, photography sustainable living, art, craft, food, family, fashion, Human rights or a combination of some or all of these topics. Surely our blogs can all comfortably fit within the umbrella of personal blog. Unless of course your blog is written by a robotic ninja then you are in a design class all of your own.

I would like to remind the knockers that as the conference is only a day long event there were only so many topics that could be covered on the day. In order to find out what people were interested in there was a questionnaire circulating before the conference programme was announced, with nearly two hundred respondants.

There are still places open on the panels, so instead of whingeing that you aren’t included, get your submissions in and be a part of this exciting conference celebrating Australian bloggers and blogging.

.

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Sunday Shots.

by frogpondsrock on September 26, 2010

in Arty stuff..,friendship,Joy,photography

I have been trying to go for a walk up the road every morning.  Here are some photos that I have taken in the past couple of days.

I have just finished Robin Hobb’s latest novel from The Rain Wild Chronicles and every time I read her work, I see Dragons in the sky for days afterwards. This was the sky this morning at about 5.40 am.

This sunrise silhoutte was taken Thursday morning, I love the way the light moves through the leaves of the gum trees.

I like the shot in black and white as well.

I was photographing the reflections in a dam.

When I disturbed a pair of black mountain ducks.

I like the texture of the bark peeling away from the trees and I am not sure which of these photos I like the best.

Other than that, I haven’t got a lot to say, time is moving along at a cracking pace and I am constantly surprised by how fast the days are slipping through my fingers.

How are things with you?

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The three Cs, cement, a conference and confidence.

by frogpondsrock on September 21, 2010

in blogging,friendship,Fun,potential insanity

There was a time when the sight of a cement truck driving into our front yard would have had my son jumping up and down with excitement. As a small boy he was obsessed with heavy machinery and I well remember his blissful excitement, when the council workers left a front end loader and grader in my front yard overnight when they were doing up the road. This time it was me that was excited because the cement slab for my studio was poured over the weekend.There really isn’t any way I can make a photo of a cement slab look attractive so I have included a photo of the cement truck for all you mothers of small boys out there instead.

I have bought my ticket for the Aussie bloggers Conference in March next year and Veronica has booked our room, so it looks like I will be meeting some of you lovely people very soon.

I am speaking on a panel at the conference, the subject of the conversation will be,

” My Blog My Story.”

I am a gregarious extrovert, prone to dramatic statements and theatrical gestures. I enjoy being the centre of attention and always have a lot to say about most subjects. But to be honest with you I am shitting myself. When I think about having to talk in front of over a hundred people I start to have a little panic attack. Even now writing about it, my heart is starting to beat a bit faster and I can feel the butterflies.

So help me out my lovelies, what sort of stuff would you like me to talk about? I have the bones of my conversation worked out but together we can flesh it out a bit.


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Australian Bloggers Conference.

by frogpondsrock on September 19, 2010

in blogging,friendship,Fun

The Australian bloggers conference has been organised and the website with all the details is now live.

The conference will be held on the 19th of March 2011 at the Grand Ballroom (Level 1) of Bayview Boulevard, 90 William Street Sydney NSW. The conference  is the first ever blogging conference in Australia, focusing on the mum, parenting and personal blogging communities of Australia.

When I first started blogging, Australian blogs were very thin on the ground and when I told some of my family and friends that I was writing about my life on the internet the reaction was always the same. Friends thought I was mad and “The Spouse” worried about me. Colleagues rolled their eyes at me because a proper website was acceptable but a blog, even the word sounded dodgy. Everyone knew that “The Internet”, was full of porn and scamsters, there were dire warnings not to talk to anyone on the internet. Everyone knew that I was going to  get  ripped off, have my identity stolen and go blind from seeing all that porn.

Luckily I had my daughter, Veronica to talk to, as she was the one who talked me into starting my blog. Together we found a whole community of bloggers out there and the rest is history.

Three years down the track, Australia is starting to catch up to America in regards to blogging being an acceptable mainstream thing to do and there are wonderful Australian blogs everywhere you look.

Veronica and I had always been a bit green with envy, when the American bloggers talked about blogher and all the fun they had meeting their bloggy friends at a blogging conference.

Now there is an Australian blogging conference and we dont need to wistfully read the stories about blogher fun. We will be the ones writing the stories and finally meeting our blog friends.Yay.

Photo montage created by Kate

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It is time to grow up, Australia.

by frogpondsrock on September 17, 2010

in On my soapbox,politics,real life,social justice

When former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd apologised to the Aboriginal people of Australia, I cried. I was, in that moment so very proud to be Australian and I felt that there was hope for the future of this country.

During the recent election campaign, Tony Abbots sloganism and simplistic chanting of “Stop the Boats” and “No Big New Taxes” brought me back to earth with a thud.

Scratch the surface of white Australia and you will find  racism in all walks of life. From the milkman who mutters,”bloody Abos,” to the white school boy at Cronulla with the crude slogan on his t-shirt, We grew here, You flew here to a Prime Ministerial wannabe with his appalling catch cry of, “Stop the Boats.”

And it makes me tired.

Here in Tasmania, the Aboriginal people are a marginalised people trying to save their shattered culture. The enduring myth in Tasmanian society is that there aren’t any Tasmanian Aboriginals left at all, that the line stopped when Truganini died. The differences in our society are highlighted very clearly by the treatment of two groups of protesters at the hands of the Police here in Tasmania.

Aboriginal protester Sara Maynard was arrested for trespass while  protesting at the Brighton bypass construction site last year,

Ms Maynard said it took her a long time to recover from the trauma of being strip-searched before facing the Hobart Magistrates Court.

“I was told that if I refused they would hold me down and take my clothes off for me,” Ms Maynard said yesterday.

“When you’ve got five men standing around and I’m the only female there … it was quite terrifying.”

She refused to be strip-searched in a cell with cameras, so was forced to undergo the procedure in a toilet by a female officer.

Gardening guru Peter Cundall was also arrested last year for protesting on the steps of Parliament house in Hobart. Mr Cundall  is quoted as saying he was appalled by the treatment meted out to Ms Maynard. Mr Cundall also said that he and his fellow protesters were treated like royalty, with the police making it very clear that they didn’t want to arrest the 58 anti pulp mill protesters and treating them with the utmost courtesy.

Sigh, and there you have it in a nutshell.

Until we the ordinary people of Australia stand up and say this is wrong, this sort of appalling behaviour will continue on through the generations.

My friend has started a blog and I would highly recommend that you read this post, A day in the life of an Aborigine.


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