Author Archives: lydias

I don’t normally rant on this blog, but I’ve been having issues with pop-ups lately. Pop-up advertisements are one of the fastest and most efficient ways to drive me away from a site. It doesn’t matter how much I loved the article I was reading, what the pop-up is saying, or how long I’ve been a fan of that blogger or website.

If the administrators interrupt my concentration with an unwanted pop-up, they’re going to lose a reader for good. If their pop-up includes a video that starts playing automatically, I’ll be so annoyed that I will tell friends and family members to avoid that site as well.

No, I’m not opposed to the use of advertisements on websites in general. They’re a necessary part of making money on the Internet, and I completely understand that. Banner ads are fine, as are advertisements that are inserted halfway through whatever essay or article I’m reading as long as they don’t make noise or cover up the text.

I don’t care what kinds of racy pictures an ad might include or if they use clickbait titles to grab the reader’s attention. Those are some of the things I’ve come to expect from the web. Non-intrusive online ads are like billboards: sometimes they’re silly; often they’re cheesy; rarely they might even be helpful or interesting.

When a website decides to interrupt me when I’m reading one of their articles by launching a pop-up that I never wanted, though, they’re sending a very clear message about how little they value my time and attention.

It would be like a server interrupting you in the middle of a meal to take your half-finished plate away and ask if you wanted to order another entree. I can count the number of times that is acceptable on one hand, and every single one of them would begin with you asking for help due to something like undercooked meat, a fly in your soup, or food allergy issues.

You don’t just randomly start taking things away from people if you want them to keep coming back.

So, please. For the love of pete, stop using pop-up ads.

Here is this week’s list of comic strips, poems, essays, short stories, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

Consider the Lilies. I’ve wondered the same thing many times.

To Human Barbie, From Barbie via femininecollect. I absolutely love this.

Every Night We Do the Speaking. This made me shudder. It really should be a full-length novel.

Mental Illness Is a Result of Misery, Yet We Still Stigmatize It. What an interesting essay.

A Special Kind of Radio via nazmaniatweet. It’s amazing to see how much technology can change over the course of a few decades.

From Vacuum Wars via StuartRWest:

Little did I know how my life would change when I took the vacuum cleaner in to be fixed. A tale of woe and caution…

What have you been reading?

Five years ago I published a post about blogs I thought everyone should follow. I thought it was high time to revisit this idea, especially since many of the sites I recommended back then have either gone inactive or no longer exist.

You should know in advance that I have eclectic tastes and I don’t necessarily agree with everything I read. If I recommend something, it’s because I’m a fan of the author’s ideas or writing style. I’m also purposefully not including the blogs that I link to in the Link Love section of this site. They’re all awesome, but I wanted to branch out and pick other links for this post.

With that being said, let’s get onto the list. They’re in no particular order.

Raptitude. This one of the few personal development blogs that I actually like. David, the guy who runs it, has such a personable writing style. It’s like he’s having a conversation with you as equals instead of preaching a (secular) sermon. I really like that about his writing style.

Geekologie. A collection of wonderfully bizarre things from every corner of the globe. I’m  not sure how else to describe it. Every post is different from the last one, often wildly so.

Nerd Fitness. I was always one of those awkward kids in gym class who hated being there and wasn’t good at any of the sports we played. This is a fitness site geared specifically for those of us who aren’t naturally athletic or coordinated. I love the fact that stuff like this exists now. Exercise is actually something I enjoy these days, and that isn’t something I ever thought I’d say.

Full House Reviewed. This blog reviewed all of the original Full House episodes a few years ago, and it will soon be reviewing Fuller House as well. It has a snarky tone that contrasts the sentimentality of these characters nicely.

I Work at a Public Library. The funniest site I currently follow.

That Deaf Guy. The second funniest site that I follow.

Letters of Note. I don’t have the penmanship or the patience to send hand written letters to anyone.  Maybe that’s why I find this site so fascinating?

Poor as Folk. This is a blog about the cycle of poverty, living on a shoestring budget, and how to remain hopeful when you feel hopeless. I love it.

Talking Ethics. It’s rare to find discussions about ethics and morality that come from a strictly secular perspective. What I like about it the most is that there are so many intelligent people involved in it as commenters and bloggers. I listen far more than I participate, but I’ve learned a lot from this site.

IFL Science. I’ve learned so much about medicine, technology, biology, physics, and chemistry from the writers on this website. If any of these topics interest you in the slightest, I highly recommend checking it out.

Lately I’ve been fascinated by the personification of death in fairy tales and other stories.

This is a fantastic example of that. I was amazed by how many different emotions Death shared with the audience without ever saying a word.

Anyone who has read this blog for a while knows that I have a rabbit obsession. If not for my allergies, I’d have a house full of them!

I grin every time I see a pet rabbit sniffing bushes in the park or being rolled down the street in a customized stroller when I’m out and about.

(I’ve also seen people take their pet rats, parrots, cats, and snakes out for some fresh air at various times. It’s by far one of the coolest parts of living in Toronto).

When I’m having a bad day, I look at pictures of pet rabbits online. They soothe me for many reasons, some of which I’ll share with you today.

They have expressive, little ears that give away all of their emotions. I’m the kind of person who gives away a lot of my thoughts with facial expressions that I don’t always even know I’m making. It’s nice to be on the other side of the table for once!

They’ve got soft fur that not everyone is allowed to pet. You have to earn a rabbit’s trust before you’ll be allowed to touch it. I respect that about them. There’s something to be said for taking things slowly in life even when it comes to simple things.

They also have noses that wiggle up a storm even when no other part of their body is moving. There’s something about this that I find incredibly endearing.

Their unmistakably impatient expressions make me giggle. (I hope this little guy got the vegetables he’d been waiting so patiently for!)

Not everyone is obsessed with them yet. You can find millions of cat and dog memes and pictures online, but you have to dig a little deeper to find decent rabbit pictures. I like the thrill of the chase…or, rather, the thrill of the googling.

They can never be fully tamed. Many dogs seem to think they’re human. Like cats, rabbits never make this mistake. There will always be an untameable streak in even the happiest bunny. It’s something I like to see in humans and animals alike because it makes them more challenging to figure out.

Oh, and at least one of them knows how to open your mail. You have to admit that’s  pretty handy!

Here is this week’s list of comic strips, essays, poems, short stories, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

The First Warm Day via CuriousSnowflak. Toronto has already had its first warm day of 2016. I hope the same can be said for all of my readers who live in cold places.

What Happens to Old Batteries. This made me a little sad.

Zip the Drapeline via cdthieringer. What I liked the most about this essay was how the last paragraph tied everything together. Very nicely done.

The Revenant. Fair warning: this poem is snarky and irreverent. It was also extremely funny, though.

Ten Simple Ways to Serve Your Local Community via OperationWarm. The most interesting thing about this list to me is that it didn’t include anything that was flashy or glamorous. It was all quiet, simple stuff that won’t get you a spot on the evening news but that is desperately needed in a lot of communities.

From Why Your Brain Actually Works Better in Winter:

You could even think of this reduced winter neural activity as your brain entering a kind of “eco mode,” allowing it to perform as well as it does in summer but while consuming fewer resources.

From Anabaptist:

Once we got started, my brother and I talked for hours on end. We talked about what heaven was like. We wondered what life was like outside of New Lancaster. We talked about the best way to button suspenders— for some reason Jakob just couldn’t see that one strap running over the right shoulder was superior. We argued over the best way to milk and who was the better singer of hymns, but we never questioned where the light came from, until we lost it.

What have you been reading?

This question has been bouncing around in my mind as I follow the Marco Muzzo trial.

For anyone who hasn’t heard of this case yet, Marco is a man who drove with a blood alcohol level almost three times the legal limit last September. He crashed his car into another vehicle, killing three young children and their grandfather as well as seriously injuring two other members of that family.

The children’s’ names were Daniel, Harry, and Milly Neville-Lake.  They were 9, 5, and 2 years old. Their grandfather was named Gary. You can read the rest of the details of the crash in the link above.

Every article that I’ve read about this case has talked about how devastating their deaths have been for their family. Their parents lost a father and all of their children in one terrible day.

This is the first article I’ve found that talks about how Marco has been affected by this. His sentencing hearing has been going on this week, so this case has been featured regularly in our local news. No one knows yet how long he might be in prison, but some people are guessing it could be between 10 and 12 years.

I’m hoping it’s much longer than that.

I went to school with someone who is now serving a 20+ year sentence for killing one person. While the circumstances of that case were nothing like this one, it has sprung to mind several times over the last six months. Stolen property can be returned, but nothing in this world can ever bring someone back from the dead. Murder is one of those crimes that can’t be undone.

So causing the deaths of four people should have a similar sentence, especially in cases like this where the accused was knowingly breaking the law and endangering other people’s safety.

If this was a situation where an old piece of equipment broke down at exactly the wrong place and time, it would be different.

If this was a situation where someone temporarily lost control of their vehicle due to a seizure or asthma attack that they’d done everything they could to prevent, it would be different.

If this was a situation where a patch of black ice on a dark night caused a car to suddenly spin out of control, it would be different.

It wasn’t, though.

This was all completely preventable.

Nothing can bring the victims back, but I’m hoping an appropriately long sentence will make it clear that their lives mattered.

We’ll see what the judge says…..

My knowledge of Japanese history is sadly pretty limited, so I can’t say for sure how true any of this is other than the World War II section.

It was highly entertaining, though!

The topic of this post was suggested by a reader.

Get in touch with your inner rock. That is, start behaving as neutrally and blandly as possible when you’re around the person who is pushing your buttons. Make your responses as interesting as it would be to talk to a rock. Sometimes people act like jerks because they enjoy stirring up conflict. If you can succeed at disengaging, they’re (probably) going to grow tired of you and move onto someone else.

Change your environment. If it’s possible, change when, where, or how you spend time with them. Sometimes people are much more aware of how they’re behaving if they have to interact with you in public or in a place they don’t find quite as comfortable. It can also be helpful to change who you have around you if you’re able to influence who else is in the room. Some combinations of personalities work better in these situations than others do.

Play bingo. I’ll admit that this is one of my sillier tools for dealing with people who really rub me the wrong way. If you know they’re going to say the exact same things every time you see them, start playing bingo with their monologues. I like to keep a mental scorecard of what I expect them to say and then check things off as they’re introduced into the conversation. (No, I don’t randomly exclaim Bingo! out loud. This is only something that goes on in my private thoughts).

Reward yourself. I do give myself small rewards later on for earning bingos, though, and I usually spend little to no money on them. Watching an old, favourite episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer can soothe a lot of irritation away. Long walks work well if the weather is decent, and chocolate is appropriate for almost everything else.

Get really comfortable with silence. Not everything the unavoidable jerk says actually requires a response. Sometimes the best thing you can say to them is nothing at all. I’ve just started to use this technique, and it can be a good way to keep yourself from getting sucked into conflicts that you never wanted to be part of in the first place. I’ll admit that it feels extremely awkward in the beginning. If you can stick with it, though, it can be a great way to keep some emotional distance between you and them.

Here is this week’s list of essays, poems, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border. Here’s hoping that all of us live to see this day.

Why I Sit Out the Pass-the-Baby Game. I don’t go quite this far, but I definitely do share the author’s questions about what it is babies would tell us if they could speak. I suspect that some of them would strongly prefer not to be passed around so much. (Others might love it, of course). What I try to do is pay close attention to the body language of the littles ones in my life. If they don’t want to be held or keep reaching out for their parents, I don’t press the issue. There will be plenty of time to bond when they’re older, after all. 🙂

How Intelligent Do You Have to Be to Be a Parent? What an intriguing question. I don’t have an answer to it, but I found this article to be incredibly thought-provoking.

839 Reasons You Are Buying the Wrong Lettuce via TheSarahFader. Need to laugh? Click on this link.

Is It Stupid to Look on the Bright Side? via amysanomalies. I couldn’t agree with this more.

From Celtic Time-Keeping via word_seeker:

The first ploughing begins at the start of February when the ground is warmer and softer following ‘cold-time’ (December/January) and lambs are born, which perhaps is why January-February was known by the Celts as ‘Anagantios’ (stay-home time). No point jetting off on that late winter-sun holiday when all the pregnant sheep are about to drop!

What have you been reading?