“Kikipotamus the Hobo!” was the answer I blurted out when my father asked four-year-old me the name of my imaginary friend.
My blog banner is the creation of Karen Smithey, mixed media artist and raiser of goats.
Books that have become a part of me: Dancing in the Flames: the Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness, the Tao Te Ching, The Tao of Physics, Ishmael, The Power of Now, A New Earth, The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster,
I don’t listen to recorded music at this time, but enjoy live folk in small venues. When I did/do listen to recorded music, I like: Tom Waits, Bach, Bob Dylan, Feist, CSN&Y, Eric Clapton, Björk, Nellie McKay, Peter Paul & Mary, Leonard Cohen, The Be Good Tanyas, The Band, Soundtrack of the movie Dead Man Walking, Soundtrack of the movie O Brother Where Art Thou, Leo Kottke, The Roches, CCR, CSNY, Peter Paul & Mary, Simon and Garfunkle.
Movies that have seared themselves into my memory and psyche include: Everything is Illuminated, Gandhi, Magnolia, Amelie, A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Serious Man, Babette’s Feast, The Color Purple, The Triplets of Belleville, Sling Blade, Smoke Signals, Schindler’s List, Crash, Chocolat, O Brother Where Art Thou, Dead Man Walking, Reservoir Dogs, The Motorcycle Diaries, A Taste of Cherry, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Shall We Dance, Sicko, Fargo, Bowling for Columbine, Together, Winter’s Bone.
Joke: There are 10 kinds of people in this world ~ those who understand binary, and those who don’t.
Quote: “Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you.” –Rashi
I’ve had many many names and renamed myself as often as weather changes in Wisconsin. However, as I grow older…the more I love my given name Gwendolyn. Boy am I lucky!
Me – Year of the boar; Sag. Born on Thanksgiving day which only lands on the 25th every eleven years.
Favourite joke – The capitol of Wyoming is W.
Movies – Amelie, Gandhi…I’ll take these two and raise you Nightmare Before Christmas.
Music – Yes!!!!
Books – Tao Te Ching; Being Dharma; many.
Quote – “To affect the quality of the day, that is the art of living.” Anyn.
Heee! I love your Wisconsin joke! It’s like the linguistic counterpart to my binary joke. You’re neat, Gwendolyn. I like you. K
Hi: Great blog. Pool was fun. TTYS –G.
Wow, thank YOU for blogging this stuff. If only people could be more honest about themselves! I am happy that you found this blog to give a voice to what you are and what happened to you. Keep saying things how they are for you, readers of the blog can take it or leave it. No more faking! I like that, lots.
love your ee cummings quote.
love this blog
E
Your blog is beatiful, fascinating. It reflects a very interesting person, that of a good woman. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, feelings and experiences Kelly!
hello all,
fun blog!
i noticed you have mentioned the stitch and kitch sale in waterloo, do you know who to contact to get involved in that?
also do you know of any other sales/ festivals in the area in which i could show/sell (hopefully) my art?
anyone please feel free to email me directly jackandcubby@hotmail.com
thanks, nik
Hi Kikipotamus,
just wanted to drop you a note and tell you how much I appreciate you sharing my book on your very lovely and authentic and vibrant and red blog. It’s inspiring me to start my own blog (finally! hee), so thank you.
many red blessings and delicious divine winks,
sera
Give Scott Walker a listen.
Hi Kelly,
I’ve been reading your blog off and on since last summer when a friend told me about it. We both liked reading about your adventures in Kitchener and Waterloo, and your community-minded approach to life.
I know you’re moving to Windsor now, but I thought you might be interested in this website I just put together of audi0-based memories and reflections I collected on the Iron Horse Trail. I plan to continue adding more, so if you know of anyone who has stories to share, I’d love it if they got in touch. http://www.ironhorsetrailstories.ca
I think you may have mentioned catbirds in one of your latest posts. When I went walking on the trail with a birder friend as a part of this project, he pointed out two catbirds to me – and I got to hear one of them mewing!
Anyway, take care. I’ll miss seeing K-W through your eyes, but look forward to learning more about Windsor.
Sarah
I’m just learning how to navigate wordpress blogs, and yours is the first I found that connected with my tag words. This is beautiful! I’m looking forward to reading through your posts and discovering things about you and your writing.
Carol Anne
What about a trinary code?
0, 1 and Phi?? ;-)
Kristina
http://kristinasworld.wordpress.com
Enjoying your creative inspirations; Thanks for the link – dropping one back at ya :-)
after reading favorite films, I have to ask you to see La Vie en Rose if you have not already…she is black madonna and elvis and tao all at once, Rachel
Hi,
I stumbled upon your blog, and thought it was cool you started chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo (I’ve been doing so for about 20 years) and my wife is Japanese and was born into the pracice, and of course so is my beautiful daughter who just turned 7. Then I realized you were introduced by NST, the sect that has corrupted Nichiren’s teachings. I hope you can find your way back to praciticing with the Soka Gakkai, the people’s movement for peace, who stood up to the priesthood’s authoritarian, narrow minded deviations. Sharing buddhism with others should well forth from one’s compassion in a natural way, not in a forced dogmatic way.
I wish you infinite happiness and hope you can re-connect with SGI where ever you are.
http://www.sgi.org
http://www.sgi-usa.org
To better understand the difference between nst and SGI, please read this:
http://sokaissues.info/split.html
Today is my birthday, and my birthday present is finding you. Have a happy day!
Fred
hi,
i stumbled upon your blog while looking for windsor murals (my friend is about to finish one somewhere downtown and i haven’t been to windsor lately to see it). you’re writings are so interesting and i enjoy reading them. thank you.
kelly
ps.
why don’t you go join some shake and rock and roll band!
I am curious about word “-potamus” and want to know what “-potamus” does mean, I saw a lot of names including part of “potamus”, I am not sure its real meaning, what language does it comes from? could you tell me.
Julia,
-potamus is greek for river :)
Love & Light
Benedetto
Hi- Lela from After the Bubbly here. Can’t wait to have more time to poke around your blog. I’m really interested in your age categories. I do a lot of life-writing as well. Someday we can call it memoir! Good luck not complaining, I’m still on Day 1! Again!!!
I love the story behind the name!
Have you ever read the Tao of Pooh?
I went to the bookstore years ago looking for it. I couldn’t find it in the humor section so I asked for help. We found it in the Eastern Philosophy section. :)
When she was four, my daughter had an invisible playmate named Long John. We lived in the country and she had no playmates. We were never sure where the name came from, but at the time there was a little boy actor on Sesame Street named John John. Long John was often accompanied by “The Kids”, an unnamed crowd that followed her around. When a family moved in next door, Long John and the Kids vanished.
I discovered your blog today while Googling for Pierre Berton’s recipe for beef heart soup. I ended up at your brilliant essay on the difference between Canadians and Americans, and have been noodling around in your archives all morning. Welcome to Canada, and keep up the good writing. I hope you make it out to BC sometime – it is a completely different world out here.
How creative…
it starts with the name of blog.. i loved the idea so much…
How sincere and frank…
i read some of the posts and couldn’t stop reading…. this happens when peole are talking about themselves and their experirnces honestly not just to show off…
How thought-provoking…
you don’t touch the surface ; you go deep down .. .you want to understand… this is my attitude toward life…
good place to come and learn about life.. to live…
:)
Hello there,
I discovered your blog while searching for the perfect picture of a muskoka chair to use for a blog I’m setting up for the Muskoka Novel Writing Marathon. I enjoyed discovering not only the perfect picture, but also a great blog. I just blogrolled you. Now… to ask the big question. Can I use your muskoka chair with Anne Lamott’s book on it on the new blog? I will give you photo credit and have a link to your blog on the site. I’m creating the blog to chronicle the marathon this year to attract more writers to future marathons. The marathon takes place in Huntsville, Ontario every July… a three day sit in at the Muskoka Literacy Council… writers collect sponsorship monies and they are all donated to the council for literacy programs. The fact that Bird By Bird is on that chair… it just makes it perfect for the blog. Would you be kind enough to allow me to use the image?
Kevin
Hi Kelly, thanks for stopping by yesterday, great to share in our musings. I’m so sorry you missed Leonard Cohen and hope he’ll come around again for you to take a nice splashy swim in his presence. My parents who live in Italy got tix to see him in Venice on Aug 3, right on Piazza San Marco – I wish I could be there for it.
I’ll be poking my head in when I need some nice refreshing soul juice, and linked you on my blog so others will too. Keep on surfing the big wave of little things!
hi
found you while trying to find photos and information on wheatberry, the vegetarian place that was in little rock, arkansas.
any photos or information you might have would be appreciated. i missed out on it by many years.
thanks, and i love your little chipmunk!!!
Hello,
I was wondering if you accept guest post for your blog. If you do, I would like to submit a few. You can see a sample of my work at LaptopComputers.org under the author James Mowery. I’ve also written for several high-profile blogs like Mashable, Performancing, and CMSWire. Thank you for your time.
- James
I don’t know. Maybe I should leave it up to a vote by my readers. Can we choose the topic? ;) Kelly
Hi ,
Your first post just appeared on Urbanspoon! Check it out:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/19/1607499/restaurant/Detroit/TenKa-Sushi-Windsor
I encourage you to claim your blog, which allows you to add a picture and change some settings. The blog photo shows up next to your posts wherever they appear on Urbanspoon. Here’s how to claim:
– Make sure you’re logged into Urbanspoon
– Go to your blog page on our site: http://www.urbanspoon.com/br/19/6355/Detroit/Kikipotamus-the-Hobo.html
– Click “Claim your blog” in the left sidebar
After you submit it, we may contact you to verify your claim. Check your spam email folder if your claim hasn’t gone through in a day or two. You’ll also find some interesting badges and widgets on your Urbanspoon blog page – look in the right sidebar.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Ken
http://www.urbanspoon.com
Dear Kikipotamus the Hobo,
Thank you for the Like for my post
http://ubpdqnmathematica.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/thinking-fast-and-slow/
I am shocked that anyone reads my musings. So thank you for this kindness.
I have been reading your posts. From my viewpoint, they are thoughtful, beautifully descriptive, and I am inspired by your indomitable positive spirit and your reminder (to me) of the joys and miracles in the small things.
Unknown Blogger
Hello
I am indie film maker coming to Waterloo with a documentary I shot on Mt. Everest called, 40 Days at Base Camp. This is hot off the press as John and I just did the deal, like minutes ago. I just accidentally ended up on this blog looking for theatre website. And I believe in synchronicity, so voila. The fill will screen from May 10th-May 12th at the Princess Cinemas, Waterloo. These screenings are part of a cross country tour I am doing from Victoria, BC to St. John’s Newfoundland. Less then 1% of Canadian films get a theatrical and so if I want it done, I gotta do it myself.
Spread the word.
http://www.40daysatbasecamp.com
dianne whelan
rebel sister productions ltd.