the marriage of colour, a sick baby and other things...

Will has a cold and that meant the vast majority of the day was spent sitting under him while he slept and whined interchangeably. We did at least manage to catch both of Kieran's races at the swimming sports today - that was an unexpected plus! I've got three things to share...

I could tell you that the three things are the books I finished today... but they're, even though I did (no mean feat even if they were all kids novels!). My three things though are the three things that I was thinking about when Will and went for a walk on Monday.

The Monday before I had taken some photos when we walked intending to focus on a different colour each week- last week I did red and the plan for this week was to do green.... which brings me to the first thing I was thinking about. I chose to do the colour thing because it made me more aware of my surroundings (more on that in another post) and I found when I actually started to do it that it really made me think. I chose red the first week because I really like red I think it is a superb colour! And I chose green the second week because "Red marries green" I have that is quote marks because it is a quote- from me. I was obviously meant to be a scrapbooker because as long as I can remember I have always known about complimentary colour schemes- as a child I always said; "Red marries green, blue marries yellow, black and white and purple and orange".

So I set off to take pictures of green- obviously there is a lot of green out there I decided that I would only take pictures of green foliage if it had some other feature really going for it- like structure or form or patterns... this made it extremely hard to find green to photograph so I had to widen the constraints I put on myself and when I did I realised I needed to start again (which I will do sometime soon) that left me with some time to reconsider the marriage arrangements of the colours. Here's what I came up with...

• Green is the new brown, which is the new grey, which is the new black. In other words where black, brown and grey were the go to colours for matching with anything I now believe this is green. And I will prove it when I next go for a walk.
• Red marries green- but it also has purple as it's hot lesbian love interest on the side (purple is a girl colour as is red and yellow and orange- that's the way my mind works)
• Yellow marries blue but also gets round with that floozy purple, who is supposedly in a committed relationship with orange.
• Green and Blue are also involved in a gay marriage. Especially this green and this blue.
  
• And green is that gay guy who is everyone’s best friend... you know the one I mean (mine was called Michael we lost contact when I skipped town 13 odd years ago and I still miss him!)

I never realised that colours relationships were so complicated till I tried to photograph green. I should have known with all that triadic and other such stuff going on on my colour wheel- but I just didn't think beyond those traditional marriages... my mind was practically black and white or at the very least monochromatic.

By the way I only took one photo in the end... purple and yellow in a roadside tryst destined to end horribly.

The whole colour thing wasn't the only thing filling my head I was also thinking on a plan I have for doing something nice for Carolann and various other scrapbooking friends when the Universe makes the massive deposit our family is positively focused on currently (ala the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne). I can't tell you about the plan because it will ruin the surprise but it's a good one.

The third thing was a letter I was composing in my head to the Editors of Women's health magazine. The other day I got around to reading the issues of WH magazine that Les got me for my birthday (back in October) and the one I had subsequently brought more recently motivated by the headlines on he cover. What a waste of money! Here's why I think you shouldn't buy this magazine...

1. Trite little 'jokes' at the end of 50% of the quick fact material that magazine likes to use to fill pages. Not funny and VERY over done.
2. Repeated information- hello it's only been around for 5 months have they already run out of health and fitness info to report on?
3. The reference to people by their last names. "Stockley believes our magazine is crap and she has the evidence to prove it. In her latest blog post Stockley said that..." Maybe this is some sort of journalistic convention that I am unaware of but I didn't see it in the Weight Watchers, Healthy Food Guide or Next Magazine that I read subsequently. Isn't referring to each other by their last name the domain of boardroom Neanderthals who have problems expressing their emotions and like to indulge in a bunch of back slapping and other thuggish behaviour?
4. The promise from the editor in her first editorial that they did want to change me and thought I was just great the way I was. Yeah?
5. The feature in the second magazine where promised to make me over into a fitter, healthier version of myself and not just because it totally negated what the editor promised me. But also because it was so bloody hard to follow that I felt too confused to get off the couch let alone to do what they were suggesting- whatever that was? I have seen the same thing done in two other mags recently neither of which have exercise as a main focus like WH and they both did a much better job!
6. The type options... honestly I think I may need glasses now having TRIED to read some of this stuff... I assume their copy setter (is this the right person) has never heard of leading? The letters were a point short of overlapping and with the big square serif font used it was just plain hard work especially if the text was white in a colour box! I am assuming they never looked at the mag off the screen.
7. Finally I think that the magazine assumed their readers were either thick or just simply not interested in reading anything with any depth or substance... either that or the writers just aren't up to the task of producing a truly informative magazine that goes beyond what you would find in the leaflets in your doctors office.

It's a pity really 'cause considering the WH team most likely chose this form of revenue earning because the exercise/health bandwagon is such a popular one at the moment- it is because it needs to be- they had the opportunity to make a real difference to your average kiwi woman who knows the basics of healthy living but wants a bit more... some real meat to sink their metaphorical teeth into. They have fallen sorely short. I recommend you don't waste your hard earned cash.

Finally I read the Happiness project blog most days and found this recent post very interesting and quite relevant to me at the moment.