Tentativity.

It’s a new word, I just invented it. If a person can be sensitive and display sensitivity, it seems reasonable that someone can be tentative and display tentativity. For example, you might read a story about Ben watching game streams and assume that it’s the beginning of a whole new activity. However, while the activity did begin, it did not continue. There’s a long list of activities that haven’t continued: motorbike riding, fossicking, eating salmon many times a week, computer use, tap dancing, reading SMS’s, music lessons, long walks, making Warhammer models and so on. The difficulty with tentativity is that it’s hard to know what will last and what will cease. And it’s always a surprise when an apparently strong interest simply vanishes.

Ben had a night out last night, staying at Tooradin with mum and her friend. Jazz and I had a quiet night in.

Thinking about psychology.

I’m still not totally clear what psychologists do; except for listening to people and charging for the experience. It’s nice when someone listens and, I’m told, psychologists don’t just listen, they talk a little and offer suggestions from various books. We recently met a former psychology student who was very keen to help people but found the detailed study of statistics to be a considerable impediment.

The reason psychology comes to mind on this particular day is presently basking in the sun on the decking. Jazz has an intermittent psychological barrier to climbing stairs; she’ll get to the first landing then hesitate and can go no further. Last summer, when I told the vet about this problem, she joyfully ruffled Jazz’s ears and said, “Ooh, you’re psychological!” in the same way that someone would say, “Ooh, you’re a lovely dog!” Having owned a dog for a while, I understand a little about dog psychology. I’ve tried placing her food bowl at the top of the stairs, without success as she struggled yet failed to step off the landing. I’ve carried her up the stairs on several occasions and 26 kilograms of wiggling labrador is a very difficult load to manage... and of course, doing it for her doesn’t solve the problem. The solution is to do a “reset”: go downstairs, play for a while, say the word “hungry” which causes her to jump and bump into my shoulder, then say “up”, quickly go inside via the garage and close the door. That’s the usual queue for her to run up the outside stairs. Today it took two “resets” but eventually worked a treat. Perhaps a detailed knowledge of statistics would reveal a better way to solve the problem but I doubt it. Some barriers are there and we just have to work out a way to go around them.

Camping in the kitchen.

The wattles along Dandenong Creek are blooming, so too the cherry blossoms along nearby streets. According to the calendar, it’s not yet Spring but flowers and trees have their own, more flexible, calendars. Ben’s camping gear has been packed away for over a year and it’s time to air out the two sleeping bags and the small tent. (The large tent is still in Tassie). Of course, once you put up a tent, it’s hard to resist the urge to get in it. This is advertised as a two-person tent but I think two would be uncomfortably cosy. At full stretch, Ben doesn’t quite fit and has to lie down diagonally, corner to corner. We don’t have any plans to travel, although we do talk about places like Tasmania, Berlin and Benalla quite often. For now, the tent’s just getting some air in the kitchen.

Gaming again?

Journey (web image)

Once upon a time, Ben was an avid gamer who won a trip to play competitively in the US. After that, his interest in games diminished to absolute zero for a couple of years. Lately he's been watching Starcraft streams and marvelling at the strategies used by high-level players in fast-moving and lucrative competitions. In addition, we're still watching DVDs and our viewing has recently been enhanced by the purchase of a Blu Ray player that happens to be contained within a Playstation PS3. The return to gaming is somewhat tentative and the first-person perspective of games like Portal are disorientating, even though Portal does seem to be a very interesting game. One game that impresses the most-disinterested of gamers (that's me) is Journey. Its images are beautifully cinematographic and the music, sounds and effects are almost spell-binding. About twenty minutes of play is the current comfort limit and that's more than enough time to get from one save-point to the next. Progressing gradually through the levels and another boundary slowly crumbles.

Art class.

With his old Nazareth College bag on his back and a plastic toolbox full of new paints and brushes in hand, Ben attended a Neighbourhood House art class today. At home, in the kitchen, he sometimes draws detailed pencil sketches of nearby objects. This class teaches oil painting so the level of detail will be different however the ability to sketch will be a great advantage. Ben, being the only beginner, is learning to mix colours while other class members work on their projects including a portrait of a Golden Retriever and a painting of Napoleon on his horse. He enjoyed the first class and claims to have lowered the average age of the group by approximately twenty years.