Author Archives: lydias

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

A Metronome for Breathing. Isn’t this cool?  I think it would be a great breathing rhythm for meditation.

The Case of the Missing Spoons via cunninghamb103. I lose socks, too, although so far I’ve managed to find (most) of them again.

Never Saw This Coming via bobnailor. Before you read this, think about who and what you thought you’d be when you grew up.

In the Day After the World Stopped Being. I really hope the author writes a sequel to this soon. It needs one.

I Weigh 200 Pounds, and I’ve Never Been Happier via LorenKleinman. This made me so glad that I grew up in a family that never shamed anyone for how much they weighed. As an adult, I’m horrified by this behaviour.

From Why Self-Compassion Trumps Self-Esteem:

Continually feeding our need for positive self-evaluation is a bit like stuffing ourselves with candy. We get a brief sugar high, then a crash. And right after the crash comes a pendulum swing to despair as we realize that—however much we’d like to—we can’t always blame our problems on someone else. We can’t always feel special and above average.

What have you been reading?

Earlier this summer I did a GIF interview with Kate Tilton about writing. It was published today, and I can’t wait for all of my readers to check it out.

What is a gif interview, you ask?

Imagine answering questions with gifs instead of with words. It’s a fun and creative way to have a conversation.

For example, this is how I feel about the interview you’re about to read and watch:

A geologist on Mars discovers something unexpected on it.

This is all I can tell you about the plot. Go discover the rest for yourself!

The Red Witch from Aron Bothman on Vimeo.

Photo credit: Nelson Alexandre Rocha from Portugal.

I’ve been revelling in silence lately.

Just like it’s okay to say no and that’s (not) just the way it is, silence is an answer.

It doesn’t need to have anything added to or subtracted from it.

It’s enough on its own.

It could last thirty seconds, or six months, or forever.

Silence doesn’t need an explanation. No one must try X other responses before falling back onto it. It’s not a last-ditch option.

It’s not a first-ditch option either. It just is.

If silence were a place, it would be a cave.

My parents took us on a tour of a cave once when we were kids. It was in a state far away from the one we were living in at the time. The weather was extremely hot humid at that time of year, and so my first memory of the cave was of how good it felt to step into such a cool, relatively dry place.

My strongest memory of it was of how dark it was when our tour guide turned the lights off. I couldn’t see my own hand in front of my face even when my fingers were less than an inch away from my eyes.

There was something peaceful about being surrounded by such complete darkness, though. I could hear water dripping onto a rock nearby. I could hear the people next to me breathing. There was no place for words in that moment. It was a (mostly) silent place, and I loved it.

I’ve never been back to that cave since, but I carry my memories of that silence with me everywhere.

Silence is an answer. Sometimes it’s the best possible one of them all.

I will be deleting the spam today and tomorrow. If I get rid of one of your legitimate comments by accident, please let me know.

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, comic strips, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

How Neil DeGrasse Tyson Are You? This is the first time I’ve ever recommended a BuzzFeed quiz on my blog. I scored 11 out of 26, which apparently makes me pretty Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Ha!

Why I Picture My Inner Critic As An Evil Disney Sidekick via 10minnovelist. This is great.

When Bad Thoughts Happen to Good People. I agree 100%. It’s taken me a very long time to get to this point.

We Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy. Is it weird for me to think of this as fun? I’m really motived by the little things in life.

Decade Old Negatives Found in Thrift Store. Go take a look at these photographs.  It’s a long shot, but wouldn’t it be cool if one of my readers recognized the woman in them? The guy who found and developed them thinks these pictures were taken sometime between 1940 and 1950.

From Is It Rude to Say No?

All right, what about hugging. It’s bad manners not to want to hug someone, right?

As a matter of fact, indiscriminately wrapping your arms around people is not only horrible manners, Miss Manners herself would describe it as assault. Offering is okay, sure. But refusing the hug is perfectly fine manners.

What have you been reading?

Photo credit: Caroline’s Cakes.

My blog is 5 years old this week!

If we all lived in the same neighbourhood, I’d invite everyone over for ice cream and devil’s food cake. (Seriously, though – doesn’t this cake look delicious?)

Let’s talk about some blog business.

On a silly note, by far the most unique phrase that has lead someone to this blog over the past year was synonym for stepping on toes that starts with u. I still haven’t been able to think of any words that fit those criteria.

It looks like my Link Love section needs to be updated . If you’d like to have your site included in it, leave a comment below.

I’ve been busy writing my next book. I’ll leave the details a mystery until I’m further along in the process, but I think you’re going to love what I’m working on.

My mailing list has been sorely neglected these past few years. Can anyone offer advice on how to restart an old mailing list? I’d like to get back into the habit of sending it out occasionally again.

On a more personal note, what have been your favourite posts from this blog over the past year? Share them below if you have any.

Thank you all for reading my blog over the years. I really appreciate all of your comments and links to my site.

TYPEWRITERHEAD from Eric Giessmann on Vimeo.

A man with a typewriter-head tries to get rid of his out-of-control thoughts.

This short film reminded me of two things:

1) what it feels like to ruminate and worry.

2) what it feels like to be in the middle of a writing project that isn’t going the way you want it to.

The ending reminded me so much of what it feels like to finish a story, but I can’t say anything more about that without giving away spoilers.

I was amazed by how accurately it captured all of these scenarios. I’d highly recommend checking it out if you’re even slightly interested in any of these topics.

Photo credit: Tiia Monto
& Anna Frodesiak.

Life is smooth here in Toronto. It seems like a good time to talk about what’s going right for me.

Why does this post have a rabbit in it, you ask? Well, they’re my favourite animal. They make me happy. No, I don’t have any rabbits of my own. Small, furry things tend to make me very itchy, so I rely on other people to share cute pictures of their bunnies with the world. Luckily, the Internet is full of such photos!

My spouse and I have found a good balance between spending time with friends and enjoying quiet moments alone at home. It’s something I’ve been trying to figure out for a while, so it’s nice to see things fall into place there.

Almost all of my favourite fruits and vegetables are in season now. I’ve been scarfing them down so regularly that my diet is almost vegan these days. If eating seasonally and locally was always this easy, I’d do it year-round!

Last week’s heat wave has given way to temperatures in the 30s on the Celsius scale. (That’s roughly 85-95 degrees for those of you who use Fahrenheit). I am so much happier living with these numbers!

My word count is finally picking up. I struggled with a story for a few months there before deciding to move onto something else temporarily. It feels really good to write regularly again.

The first season of Fear the Walking Dead will be premiering in just over a month. I’m a (tentative) fan of The Walking Dead, so it will be fascinating to see where this spinoff goes. So far I’ve avoided any major spoilers about it. I can’t wait to compare it to the original. Here’s hoping for more character development and less gore.

What about you? What has made you happy recently? What is going well in your lives?

Here is this week’s list of blog posts and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web. I can definitely tell that a lot of people are taking blogging breaks over the summer. It’s been a little more challenging for me to find good material to share with everyone recently, although I definitely enjoy  sifting through all of my sources.

Resilience Is Futile: How Well-Meaning Nonprofits Perpetuate Poverty I’m not surprised by this at all.

It’s 104 Degrees Outside. 10 Reasons Why That’s a Good Thing. Last weekend Toronto felt like it was 104 degrees outside when you factored in our extremely high humidity. I found this post while googling something related to this topic and thought my readers would enjoy it.

Blind, Orphaned Red Fox Kit at Buttonwood Park Zoo. It’s been a long time since I shared a cute animal video with my readers. This one made me want a pet red fox. They’re so playful and cute.

They All Scream For Ice Cream…In Hell via Austin_Hodgens. This was great.

From The Myth of the Ethical Shopper:

First, we wanted them to ban all the terrible things we read about in magazines. No more child labor, choked ventilation, abusive bosses, confiscated passports. Companies should apply U.S. working conditions or, at the minimum, follow local laws where they operated. Second, we wanted them to send inspectors to see if those commitments were being met.

And most companies did these things. That was the easy part. The hard part, it turned out, is that these structures aren’t designed to make factories take better care of their workers. They’re designed to make factories look like they are.

What have you been reading? How do your reading habits change from one season to the next?