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

Never shave too much off of yourself to fit into something. You are fine how you are. Sometimes the holes you try to fill just don’t fit. – @CoyoteSings

Peacefic. An interesting idea for the writers out there.

Imitation Pasta and Cheese. After a long hiatus my friend Teresa is back to blogging! Go check out her blog for vegan and vegetarian recipes. This one uses a surprising ingredient to reinvent macaroni and cheese for people who don’t or can’t eat cheese.

An Open Letter to the AGO About Frida Kahlo’s Unibrow. In local news some Torontonians are unhappy with the Art Gallery of Ontario advertising their new Frida Kahlo gallery by encouraging visitors to wear unibrows. I don’t know what I think about it all yet. What are your thoughts?

She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry. I’m rooting for this documentary on the rise of the Women’s Liberation Movement to raise enough money to be made. The western world seems to be forgetting how terrible life was 50-60 years ago for women. Even if you aren’t old enough to remember a society in which help wanted ads were segregated by gender, you had to show a marriage license to get birth control and women weren’t allowed to sign up for a credit card without their husband’s approval your mother or grandmother lived through this. This is not ancient history.

Travelling Colours: Great Salt Lake. Achingly beautiful aerial shots of Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

From How to Overcome Your Biggest Phobia:

A lot of people have phobias. And phobias aren’t just everyday worries—they’re serious, intense fears that sometimes (or often) interfere with day-to-day life….But new research shows that there’s a quick and simple way to temper any type of phobia. All it involves is a certain kind of self-talk.

The Book of Mormon Girl is a funny reminder that childhood influences are not easily forgotten. In it Joanna Brooks tells the story of her Mormon upbringing and how even though she no longer agrees with many of the things she was taught she still deeply appreciates the good it brought into her life.

Joanna, if you ever read this and are visiting the Toronto area this former preacher’s kid would love to meet up for a cup of tea and swap stories with you!

What have you been reading this week?

This is a video about the things men and women do on a daily basis to prevent being sexually assaulted.

The men do almost nothing. Each woman has a long, detailed list.

I find this so fascinating and never would have guessed that men don’t think about stuff like walking in groups whenever possible, being hyper aware of their surroundings in dark or lightly populated areas, or keeping a close eye on your beverage at parties.

To me this is such automatic behaviour that I’m stunned to hear they aren’t universal actions. This is in no way to say that I believe people who have been sexually assaulted are in any way to blame for what happened to them.

It was just quite eye-opening to see the gender differences in this video. I’d love to hear your stories in the comment section. Have you noticed similar differences in your circles of friends?

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

Cat Bounce via my aunt @JackieWyse. It’s exactly what it sounds like.

I’m So Glad I Was Wrong. One man’s experience with returning to his rural hometown for the first time after transitioning from female to male. Some Torontonians I know who have always lived in the city have terribly classist ideas about small town life. Just because I moved away doesn’t mean I hate my roots or agree with the prejudiced stuff people say about rural communities. If only I could take my “city mouse” friends on a tour of Northwest Ohio. I think they’d be pleasantly surprised.

DIY Self-Care: Make-It-Better-Box. What a great idea!

From A Skeptic on a Ghost Hunt:

I didn’t actually tell anyone that I was a skeptic, of course. In fact, I really, really, REALLY wanted something unexplainable to happen. I’m a little bit Scully and a little bit Mulder like that. The ghost hunter groups were very nice and friendly, and most of the people who showed up really didn’t know what to expect.

How Can We Stop Pedophiles?  I suspect the answer to this question would also help people in many other areas of life as well.

The Rhetoric of Inclusiveness. This makes me so glad I was homeschooled for the first several years of elementary school.

Have you ever made a decision you grew to deeply regret? As a child Gittel witnesses something horrific happen to  her friend Devory but says nothing because of the code of silence in their strict religious community. Eishes Chayil’s Hush is about the secrets we keep, the truth we bend and what happens when it begins to come to the surface.

What have you been reading?

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

From Illumination:

There’s light everywhere, even in these darkening days. You just have to look for it.

Do I Look Fat? I often get uncomfortable when other people bring up weight loss/gain. It’s too easy to unintentionally offend someone so I end up saying nothing at all.

Open Thread: Book Recommendations. Someday I’d love to invite all of my readers out to dinner. We’d eat and drink delicious things and talk about books all night. Who’s in? 🙂

How an Invitation to Tea Curbed a Slew of Suicide Attempts. What would you do if you moved to a new house and realized that it was across the street from a cliff where desperate people often chose to end their lives?

Marriage Was Not Designed to Make You Happy. This isn’t to say that marriage was designed to make you miserable, just that there’s no such thing as being completed by another person. Love is wonderful but it isn’t a magical potion that fixes all of your problems.

From Silhouette of a Sparrow:

I was born blue. Life ripped me early from my safe place and thrust me into the world. It was all so astonishing that I forgot to breathe.

My mother gave me life that day, but I was the one who decided to take it. I claimed it for myself.

What have you been reading?

Today I learned my friend Bruce Gerencser is shutting down his blog. While I completely understand his reasons for doing so I’m really going to miss his voice in the blogosphere.

There’s only so much time in an hour, a day, a lifetime and sometimes you have to prioritize to fit the important stuff in.

Just after I read Bruce’s final post I stumbled across this video of the history of the world. It compresses 13.75 billion years into 1 minute, 37 seconds of wonder. Somehow this seemed like a fitting tribute to all of the things Bruce has shared over the years.

Mike Hanttula recently shared some Halloween links on his site. This one was my favourite: