I’m feeling a bit burnt out as a blogger, so I’m taking a bit of a break for a while. Apologies if I’ve been a bit over the top at times - I do feel passionately about a lot of what I write about, but maybe I need some time out to get it all in a bit of a broader perspective. There’s a sense in which this blogosphere thing becomes a bit of an entity in itself and has its own dynamics which can be quite negative and can sweep you away if you’re not taking sufficient care. Maybe some times I’ve been a little personal when I shouldn’t have been and I’m sorry for that… Anyway, love youse all!
61 Responses to “A bientot!”
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Enjoy a well-earned rest, Kim. Look forward to seeing you recharged and reloaded down the track!
Enjoy your back Kim. I hope to keep reading your posts in the future. I feel that you have much that is worthwhile to say. Take care.
Love youse too Kim. Don’t worry about being a bit over the top from time to time. You’ve got a heart of gold and it’s a good look when you wear it on your sleeve.
Have a wonderful break. But do come back.
break, I meant to say break (I think I was thinking, I hope Kim comes back!)…When will I learn to double check my posts before hitting submit? and this forum has such a good preview function!
“Apologies if I’ve been a bit over the top at times”
When? I must have missed that.
Are there levels of access not available to the average reader?
Thanks so much Kim for all your posts and comments and the work that goes into the back end of LP and everything else.
Have a great time doing whatever it is you are going to do more of, or just less of and look forward to seeing you back bigger and better, if that is possible!
Lots of hugs and stuff.
Over the top? Definitely not. It’s nice to see bloggers with some passion, if I wanted to read impersonal, bland posts I’d go to msn or somewhere.
Ah Kim here lies another sublime distinction betweem the business of MSM reportage - whatever the facts - and blogging. That you can call time out, admit to a few excessess and herald a return. No such admission is possible in the deadline world as any critical corespondent to the ‘letters’ editor will attest. I know which one I prefer. See youse soon.
Did a bit of RSS housekeeping the other day and not for one second did I think of removing you, now that affection!
My RSS feeder and I will miss you. Have fun, be good, and come back.
A “Sammy Newman” break? I bet Kim never thought she’d share a parallel with him.
Never mind, from all reports blogging is indeed stressful - god knows how the lone wolves of the world like Glen Reynolds cope with it. At least on a group blog like this you don’t have to feel like everyone’s depending on you.
Enjoy the rest. The weather must be better up there than it is down here, and there are more enjoyable things in life than blogging.
Kim,
If you need something that’s a pleasure to read, very informed (but not angry), and kind of restores your faith that life can be varied and satisfying and intelligent … if you need a restorative break from ‘news & current affairs’, please try the essays of Anne Fadiman
When a saw the header to this I read it as ‘a biotent’. A fine place for an internet-free escape, yaks’ milk and all.
Enjoy the break, Kim.
Bllody Hell, Kim, that was a bit sudden. Hope you return well rested
Don’t make it too long, Kim!
Enjoy your break. Will look forward to your return.
Quelle catastrophe!
Enjoy your break, Kim. (And if you happen to swing by the States, give a holler.)
“the only thing to do is simply continue
is that simple
yes, it is simple because it is the only thing to do
can you do it
yes, you can because it is the only thing to do”
– F. O’Hara, “Adieu to Norman, Bon Jour to Joan and Jean-Paul”
Top posts from you, Kim. Have a break, and come back soon, y’hear?
Well I agree with you Kim that can get over the top.
Wise moves, rest and perspective. The blogosphere will still be here when you get back. Step back, relax, and remember to laugh a lot.
I don’t think you’re over the top at all, Kim. In fact, I think you’re quite the antidote to the serial stuffiness that seems to have taken over LP in recent times.
Sorry, I’ll miss you.
Kim your excess Zeal for feminist & leftist ideology has finally caught up with you and the bloggophere will definitely benefit from from your protracted absence.
Maybe the standard of debate will actually improve here and a few more conservative voices will be willing to make the discussion less a case lefty group think and more like real debate.
I will miss your ever thoughtful work and hope you will not be away long, Kim.
And Hall@21 you are such a goose.
Hands up all RWDBs whom Kim has intimidated into silence…
Wimps.
(And I second Joe2’s observation.)
I thought your last two posts were cracking.
Iain, I’m not sure that was a necessary sentiment.
I think blogging should always be put into perspective and it should be avoided when required. And the bullshit should always be avoided because it’s just energy depleting. Who gives a fuck what some untalented hack thinks? And that’s my cue to post something else.
Katz#23
they can’t put their hands up because many of them have been banned or put into permanent moderation
I have noticed when this sort of post goes up there is always a flurry of “hail fellow well” met type comments which have their place I suppose but when some one has gone too far over the top,as Kim has, don’t shoot the messenger when someone like me suggests that yes they do need a break and that a little personal re-invention may be useful while they are away.
ah the rare meta-over-share, in which the blogger tells us too much about how they’ve been telling us too much….well executed
I see the comments box is full of grace and good manners this morning.
You’re absolutely entitled to your opinion, Iain, I just think when someone has expressed that they are feeling a certain way, a little sensitivity doesn’t go astray.
I know that you’ve been subject to a lot of crap re: blogging as well.
“I know that you’ve been subject to a lot of crap re: blogging as well.”
In his case, pretty much well deserved from what I have seen, Darlene.
I’ll miss you Kim, and hope you’ll be back soon, refreshed and reinvigorated.
IMHO, you ‘aint been ‘over the top’ at all and the self indulgent bleatings of Iain Hall tell us more about his particular obsessions than anything else. What a goose indeed.
Have a swell blogbatical, Kim. Learnt heaps reading and participating in your posts. Thanks.
When the time is right may Pirate Queen once again ply the ever changing waters of the cyber sea.
Have a good rest, Kim, but son’t stay away too long.
I won’t lower the tone of the thread by expressing my sentiments about ungenerous RWDBs. The re4st of you have done it so well.
Ignore those r/w bastards, Kim. They’re wrong.
Hear, hear!
“Kim your excess Zeal for feminist & leftist ideology has finally caught up with you and the bloggophere will definitely benefit from from your protracted absence.”
What a stupid comment. These blogs are exactly the place to promote alternative & confronting views, views that might be considered mainstream in some less ocker regions of the planet. I can imagine all the drunken scrums, bum slaps & deep-throated howls to the moon going on in the Gippsland region last night & tonite…& every children of the corn, wheat & meat town…as THE BOYS crawl trembling & pissed as a curious goat into the wives’ nighties & high heels in anticipation of the next trip to Sydney.
I don’t always agree w/ some of Kim’s views or approaches, but she’s wide thinking enuff to split a McMansion in half…and I’m sure she feels occasionally likewise about some of our fonts of vomit, but I reckon she generates interesting, cognitively challenging threads & I’ll fight to the last Neapolitan ice cream for her right to post them.
Yes because the good Lard knows that the RWDB male view is completely drowned out on LP. [/Sarcasm]
Have a good break, Kim. Read books, listen to music, catch up on history, get a cat (if you haven’t already). It’s a funny thing: you can lose the blogging addiction quite quickly. I know I did. Come back before you do too.
OTT at times? Well, yeah, but then again, who isn’t?
Over the top, Kim? Nevah!! Just provocative - we’ll miss that.
Have a great break. Come back more provocative.
Auf Wiederlesen. Luv ya.
Rob’s right; the blogging addiction can be cured quite quickly. It’s nice to do, but being addicted is never a good thing.
Getting a cat is always a good idea if you like cats. That’s my cat filling in as my avatar.
a bientot, et au revoir
hurry back at your own pace
cheerio
Kim’s a little unstable?
Duh.
A bientot, Kim. Have a lovely break and come back keen and refreshed. Cheers!
I’m going to leave that charming comment from Raoul there.
Let me just say that I find it interesting that our friend Tim Blair first objects (I assume) to a post which he subsequently classifies as an “on line meltdown” on the apparent grounds of civility (!), and then we get claims that RWDBs have claimed a scalp. Just lovely.
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/these_people_are_insane/
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/time_out_needed/#commentsmore
… and then we get the chorus from the wannabes:
http://rwdb.blogspot.com/2008/06/fame-claims-victim.html
http://leonbertrand.blogspot.com/2008/06/suspended-without-pay.html
But apparently they’re motivated not by point-scoring, but by their deep respect for civil public discourse and their desire to debate the issues.
I think pablo at 8 is spot on. Rather than either the MSM gotcha model or its mirror image in the right-wing blogosphere (whose only high traffic site in this country is now hosted at News Limited anyway and was created by a professional journo and editor), a genuinely independent blogger can push some limits, accept when those limits have been pushed perhaps a bit too far, and stand back and reflect. That, I think, is laudable.
Anyone who actually had some sort of genuine commitment to civility might also consider whether that extends to taking an apology at face value, and reacting graciously to such a gesture.
Nor would I necessarily assume that the post which Tim Blair disliked has anything to do with this.
Haven’t seriously visited for a long while (and we never agreed when I did!) - only stuck my head in for a quick dekko occasionally. But I’m with Rob - take it easy and enjoy the break, girl. Return refreshed and revived - read a good book or two.
Your posts and the sheer number of them have been heroic. Thankyou. It hasn’t been in vain. Have a good rest. Ciao
Them: “Art Vandelay replied to Jono
Thu 26 Jun 08 (08:58pm)
It must be the first poem a Lefty has written without getting an arts grant first.”
Thunderous ever twilight
smoke drifts
rage assumed
as temples of experience burn
history is rewritten
in the sacking
the knowing spirit
hangs above the pall
weak
barely glimmering
losing solidity by the moment
Lie-tellers in battalions
the fed & the imbed
speak the great untruth
trash reputations
the white flag is raised
unexpected
four great defenders walk
Rudd, Gillard…Obama, Clinton
For the sake of the kingdom
Our contemporary Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Media beheaded
These Warriors as Ghosts swirl
As Rebels
In supernova
they
enlighten
Corvida swirls above…confused…waiting…uncertain
Bear ignores…as anger, conviction, destiny wells up
Mini tornadoes form amidst the sand
Many pillars of wisdom
Bear revolves w/ great stick in hand
Charges
From the Left & the Centre…even a few from the Right
He’s joined
He sobs & grins in unison
w/ the beauty of it all
the desire to be Free
It’s pandemonium
Conventions fall
The battle is ensued
Death some way nearly certain
In the darkness of the new Laws
But still
They light their fires
Keep up the yell…the grilling
Determined to drive back
This arrogant army of Corporate schills
These boys from brazil
Overt shades of Hell
Cover the battle field
Cyber space is riddled w/ stars exploding
the new humble & the future Grinch
Are reborn…Lazarus rules
Red states, blue states merge into chaos
Uncertainty reigns
As political affiliations
Movements
Fall into the melee
Alliances are renewed
Or misconstrued
Traditional enemies
Drift
Into entropy
Randomised
They’re spat out anew
Pain realised by every life spark
Eliminated in the Real
Reality becomes surreal
Bear, bloodied
Battle wearied
Takes a deep breath
A week unafforded to the many
Over there
& gasps
reflects
on the ferocity
the courage
of his allies
the opponents alike
and sees few friends
amidst the carnage
hears some are associates
now in the midst of the other camp
unsurprisingly
he sheds tears
in the fatigue of this twilight revisited
Bear rises to the war drums
Looks up to that circlimg one
repeats to Corvida the timestood words
‘I’ve seen them,
the immovable
those mountains
of judgement
mock…
the move
the jump
the rave
the flow
that’s you…’
this time fatigue enters
as sly Fox
and feeds
consumes his intentions
diverts his compassion
Corvida twitches…snarls…
Dives to the tip of Bear’s nose
then smiles…
this plain ole knowing all soul
‘watch Bear…’
as he shifts
Corvida Chameleon
Becomes
Friend of the Earth
Above
Below
& in-between
Tree roo….
Frantically
Leaping
Into oasis
Amidst protected forests
To the sound
Of
Tom Waits
From perch to Sauna
Creator
Of
The heat of the day
Magnificent
Adaptation
Bear absorbs the crush
The know
The fear
Of the loss
Of the rare
The few
Realises the fact
The all knowing truth
For better or worse
THIS IS YOUR WORLD
Bear turns his head
A pillar in the sun
Illumination sung
Filtered in effervescence
Truth crashes like rays
Bear burns in shame
For the blood kin
Bipedal race
As then
erupts from the Earth
A crooked majestic mile
Towering, ageless
Spirit of the trees
Talking, moving within, without
dimensions
He
Runs for the shadow
Safety…cover
The forgotten
The risen
Grand Eucalypt
He stands
beneath
In the reveal
Of the truly
Loved…
Corvida’s wise,
Furry John…
As Koala he peers down
From comfy vantage point
A gnarled limb
Of this leviathan tree
Apple in one paw
Leaf in other
Chews, observes, then speaks
‘Took you so long to get here Bear?’
speaks ruminating to the sound
the didgeridoo
long way
cross land
browned & red
land enormous
claustrophobic
‘We Koala’s sit here high
to survey & contemplate
awsome aesthetic eaters
gum leaf munchers
in the time of the dieback
we uplift & defend against the Chlamydia
judge not the circumspect
nor label the silence
…the chronic fear-mongers
your paranoid viruses
have lied
to the you
that is the all & sundry
your adolescent personalities
the boycub who stood afeared
in too many lines
airports & hospital gowns
know such…
in your fight to resist
the American Dream
mass production of souls
crash of metal on our shores
& in all that is suffering
…you’re not alone
…not alone…alone’
Bear
Listens
Sits…Low
Steadies
As the waves of old
eternal
Oceania
Roll
radiate outwards
From Uluru
To the snaking coasts
He feels the crescendo
This tsunami of Truth
Crashes…
buries the Dozers & the Mechs
their many intrusive thousands
In one immense onslaught, cacophony
Of
The shattering…
The Dreamtime
N’…excerpt from a 2005 poem. No grant. Just an urge to hug the enemy.
Hey, maybe nasking could take a break from blogging, too.
Only kidding, pal, only kidding.
Cheers, Kim (if you’re even still reading this)! You’ve done heroic work here and you’ll be sorely missed! Come back tan and rested, and don’t be *too* long about it!
Here’s a poem done without an arts grant:
Some boys need to feel big and strong
Some boys need to write nasty words on blogs so they feel big and long
Some boys pick on people when they’re down
There’s a name for people like that…bully
Okay, it doesn’t rhyme at the end and it’s a tad didactic, but I’m applying for a grant now. Nasking, that was a big effort.
Mark @ 42 - how touching that Timmeh should care enough to link!
Hi to all the flying monkeys!
*waves*
Every click-through helps LP’s bottom line - thanks Timmeh!
Have fun Kim. Jeebus, there sure is a lot of angst in the room over a little ‘I’m taking a break’ post from certain simians.
“Make love when you can, it’s good for you.”
– Kurt Vonnegut
Something similar might be said for jokes, Darlene. Relax. There’s this thing called…. (long pause, then) timing. It’s actually sort of funny, once you acquire a taste for it.
Some boys, you just shouldn’t trust with yer money.
Some boys just think a funny joke’s funny.
Some girls think all kinds of rough play are mean.
Some girls never laugh when they watch Mr. Bean.
It seems to me that nasking is a perfectly smart, healthy, serene, and enviously accomplished critter, who won’t simply collapse whenever a faint summer breeze blows his way. Neither of us is made of glass. Do correct me if I’m wrong, but I doubt that will be necessary.
Umm, I am confused. I wasn’t in the least directing my poem to nasking. It was to all those boys who are so desperate to label others, who so need to prove they’re big boys by being jerks on the interweb and who need to feel part of a gang. That’s who my poem was directed to; the talentless toadying types.
My smile was for nasking and his effort of poetry. The two points I were making were separate. If that wasn’t clear, I apologise.
As for jokes, two blokes walked into a bar….and now we can all get some (insert punchline here).
All the best for your rest Kim.
Consider that a poem.
To all the flying monkeys: have a look at how some of the right-wingers above can bring themselves to express cameraderie with their erstwhile opponent in argument. These people are your betters.
Enjoy your break Kim, I too have much appreciated and enjoyed your blogging.
Bring on more lefty zealI say! You can come back and become the Roy & HG of progressive blogging - when too much feminist ideology is barely enough!
If that wasn’t clear, I apologise.
It was clear to me, Darlene. I didn’t have the foggiest what JPZ was on about either. He may not, from his long geographical and cultural distance, be fully across the whole ongoing Blair/flying monkeys thing.
Kim,
I have really enjoyed your many posts and your insightful comments too. Given some of the argy bargy in the blogosphere, I think you have handled some sensitive and out there topics (and comments) really well.
Have a well-earned good break and come back (please) refreshed.
I look forward to you returning refreshed and full of vigour to continue fighting the good fight. The Hivemind will miss you, but will be strong and here when you return.
In early 2005, I was reflecting on the losses of both Kerry & Latham. I said to my wife in the car coming back from town, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Obama & Clinton could take control of the White House?”…”America is a diverse country, but racism & misogyny run rampant”…”It will be a difficult campaign”.
She was convinced that one day such a DREAM would become reality. I had HOPE.
That night a story of Mole that transforms into Bear started running thru the little grey cells. I began typing. We each have a poem…a story…that we follow…adding bits & pieces, making adjustments to it as time passes, recognising underlying meaning that we didn’t comprehend & recognise initially. The epic poem speaks, assists growth, guides & predicts.
Above is only a part of Corvida, the Bear & the Dolphin.
Kim will have her own epic poem. Or a series of them.
Many of us on here do. Those written during the darkest days…Serves as a motivator. An act of catharsis….And provides insight to your light.
And I’m sure that Kim did not require a grant to feel the need to write. To express her LIGHT.
My epic poem, if you can call it that, was primarily written to the LP
Immortal Memory
by Lisa Gerrard and Patrick Cassidy…and friends & allies.
N’
Immortal Memory: Lisa Gerrard & Patrick Cassidy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXds_l8UyHI
I hope Kim & others find this song healing. It and the album helped me enormously. As did Lord of the Rings. And writing…& soaring thru cyberspace.
Right, that’s it.
Come back now, Kim, because everybody is missing you bigtime and this thread should never fade.
Pretty please with fudge topping and stuff…..
Kim comes and goes and when she’s not here I miss her, I really do.
Although part of The Collective and living in Brisbane, I’ve never met her, but she’s one of those people of whom one can say there’s no-one like her. No-one at all.
So I hope this absence ends as all the other little absences have ended with Kim simply turning up one day as live and vigorous as always, giving ‘them’ heaps.