Transcience of All Things in Life
The 2013 Hugo Awards were announced this week. Tansy Rayner Roberts won for Best Fan Writer, which I found exciting as I’m a fan of her blog writing and podcasting, as well as her published work. She is also the first Australian woman to win a Hugo.

Ken Liu’s Mono No Aware won Best Short Story, and I really enjoyed it.

“Everything passes, Hiroto,” Dad said. “That feeling in your heart: It’s called mono no aware. It is a sense of the transience of all things in life. The sun, the dandelion, the cicada, the Hammer, and all of us: We are all subject to the equations of James Clerk Maxwell and we are all ephemeral patterns destined to eventually fade, whether in a second or an eon.”

A couple of other pieces of fiction from the shortlist that I enjoyed reading were Catherynne M Valente’s Fade to White, and Aliette de Bodard’s Immersion.

Feeding Your Baby’s Brain, With Its Nasty, Big, Pointy Teeth
Subversive Reader is doing a series of “provocations” with her son, the first of which she writes about here. Provocations are a concept from the educational philosophy of Reggio Emilia, and are a collection of materials presented to a child, based on the child’s past knowledge or interests, to provoke and extend the child’s thinking.

I am going through a stage of parenting that I go through every few months, where my son’s abilities and development change, and I am yet to catch up in terms of providing him with interesting, engaging experiences. (I mean, obviously he is not locked in a featureless room all day, but I like to occasionally provide him with more stimulation than “here are your toys, have at it.”) I like the idea of providing the occasional structured activity like this – putting together items that Edward may not have played with together before. I haven’t done any water play with him outside a pool or bath, and I think he would probably enjoy another activity with water (as long as I have a change of clothes nearby. Edward is quite… enthusiastic when it comes to water. “An ocean! Let me crawl into it at full speed!”)

Pretty Things
I imagine being able to create art like this (and being able to collaborate with your child to make such beautiful drawings) is immensely satisfying.

This is an incredibly beautiful picture of Mars (created from several layers of images).