Category Archives: Uncategorised

Gea, the main character, has been living a quiet existence for millions of years. She saves what little energy she has for creating the most important work of her career. Everything is moving smoothly until a greedy, robotic stranger shows up and tries to steal everything that she’s created.

This film was a little slow in the beginning. If the premise interests you in the least, though, give it time. The payoff in the end was well worth the wait.

I was also impressed by how everything was put together visually. It was beautiful even when Gea’s world was being destroyed. This was a real feast for my eyes.

Recently I decided to take a diabetes risk test for fun.

Let’s get a few things out of the way before I continue this post. Yes, this might be a slightly odd definition of the term fun. I am pretty good at amusing myself with stuff that most people wouldn’t immediately think of as entertaining. (I credit my years as a homeschooled child who had hours of glorious freedom after the daily schoolwork was finished for this ability. Ha!)

Yes, I’ve taken similar quizzes for other diseases and disorders out of curiosity as well. No, I’m not worried about being diagnosed with any of them. Sometimes I’m working on story ideas involving characters who may be less than perfectly healthy, for example.  I am also the kind of person who is irresistibly driven to complete quizzes and surveys of any kind. There is something fascinating about giving this kind of feedback even if I’m the only one who will know the results.

There were certain questions on the diabetes quiz that no one can change like your ethnicity, age, and family history of diabetes.

Many other risk factors can be tweaked, though. Exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy weight lowers the chances that someone will develop this disease. There were times when I played around with the questions and got wildly different responses based on whether on the hypothetical people I was answering for did these things.

It isn’t currently scientifically possible to prevent everyone from developing diabetes*, of course, but your choices still matter. There are small decisions we all make every day that have a big impact on our lives over time. For example, I’m slowly learning a new language. If you start taking brisk walks today, you could work your way up to running marathons in a few months.

*Although how we might manage to change this would be great fodder for a science fiction short story.

We can’t affect everything. It’s perfectly okay to admit that those limits exist. There may come a time when you can push past them. Then again, there may not.

We can affect a lot of things in life, though. The older I get, the more value I place on focusing on those things we do have control over and seeing exactly how much we can change them.

You decide where the line is and how you’ll react when someone else crosses it.

You decide whether, if, or how to forgive.

You decide if you’ll be looking down at the cigarette butts and broken glass in the gutter or up at that glorious sunset at the end of the street.

You decide whether to keep trying.

You decide when it’s time to give up and try something new.

You decide if you’ll exercise today.

You decide if you’ll take that second helping at dinner.

Life is full of choices. What choices will you be making today?

Happy Victoria Day long weekend to my Canadian readers! Here is this week’s list of poems, blog posts, videos, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

Her Therapeutic Walks via CPCranes.The imagery in this poem was fantastic.

Perfectly Imperfect via eralbertson. I absolutely loved the message in this post. Perfectionism is something I’ve struggled and struggle with. It’s difficult to let go and accept that there’s no such thing as being perfect.

Why I Crave the Hermit’s Life via HMJonesWrites. There are days when I have these thoughts. It’s not something I’d want to do forever, but I can see how it would be peaceful to live the hermit’s life for a short time. How about you?

How Bad Biology Is Killing the Economy. What a thought-provoking theory. This is the kind of stuff I really enjoy reading about.

The Reductive Seduction of Other People’s Problems. Part of me hopes that young, bright-eyed people from other countries will start coming to where we live and trying to solve our problems. Turnabout is fair play and all.

This is a video my husband shared with me a while ago. It’s an honest look at all of the amazing advantages we have in 2016 and what future generations might think of how we (mis)used them.

What have you been reading?

http://juliemorgenlender.com/2016/05/16/5-simple-ways-stop-overspending/

I found this blog post a few days ago on Twitter while reading through the #MondayBlogs hashtag. I loved Julie’s ideas and wanted to add to her list.

These things won’t be quite as quick and easy as what she recommends, but they are incredibly effective over the long haul.

#1) Cut out as many advertisements from your daily life as possible.

It’s easier to be content with last year’s styles or models if you aren’t being bombarded with their replacements. The more often I watch advertisements, the more I find myself wanting to replace things that are still perfectly serviceable.

The simplest way to avoid this temptation is to be unaware of what they’re selling in the first place. If you have cable, mute the commercials and go stretch your legs or grab a snack for those few minutes. If you’re surfing the Internet, use an adblocker.

Once I saw someone cover up the entertainment screen in front of her with a piece of paper during a long flight because she was so tired of seeing silent commercials flickering on the screen. These are a few of the many ways you can reduce the number of times companies try to convince you to buy their products.

#2. Consolidate your trips.

When I could use a new spatula, I try to avoid visiting the kitchen supply store until there are a few other things on my list. I do the same thing with shopping trips for other non-perishable items as well whenever possible. There’s something to be said for waiting a few extra days weeks, or months to shop.

This won’t work for food or toilet paper, of course, but sometimes you discover that you don’t actually need that spatula right now after all. There might be another tool in your kitchen that works just as well, or a friend might turn out to have one that he no longer needs.

If it turns out that you do need it, consolidating trips means that you’ll spend less time being exposed to store jingles, sale flyers, cashier spiels, flashy displays at the ends of aisles, and all of the other sources of advertisement that are used to push products and services onto customers.

#3. Embrace minimalism.

As you might have already guessed, I am a proud minimalist. There is something incredibly freeing about only buying things that you will use regularly and that will bring you joy. A $200 waffle iron might be a good deal for someone who makes dozens of waffles for family and friends several times a week, but it’s probably not something you should be buying if you’re planning to make a few waffles once or twice a year.

Think long and hard before purchasing something. I own a pair of shoes and a pair of sandals. This amount of footwear is perfect for me. Your perfect number might be different, but you’ll save a lot of money if you pare down everything to the bare minimum and don’t replace it until you genuinely need to.

#4. Choose the right friends.

It’s easier to save money over the long haul if your friends share your values.

My favourite people in the world to hang out with are the ones who are content to share a picnic in the park, watch Netflix, or go for a hike. There’s nothing wrong with splurging once in a while, but I generally prefer cheap or free entertainment. The nice thing about living in a city as large as Toronto is that there’s almost always something fun going on that won’t break the bank.

This isn’t something that will happen overnight, of course, but I have been on a slow and steady quest to meet people who share my idea of a good time.

The title explains it all.

I had no idea that walnut leaf singing was a thing. Isn’t it amazing to see what creative things people come up with when they’re trying to amuse themselves?

Tom Thomson was a famous Canadian painter who died nearly a century ago. His landscapes influenced the Group of Seven. Had he lived longer, there’s no doubt in my mind that he would have become an official member and they would have been called the Group of Eight instead.

If you haven’t heard of this artist or the kinds of paintings he and his friends became famous for, the links above will tell you all about them.

What I want to talk about today, though, is why you should be following Tom Thomson on Twitter. He also has a blog, although he is much more active on Twitter.

His paintings are beautiful in an understated way. My favourite one from him is included below, although there is something I like about every piece of art I’ve seen from him. They remind me of what it feels like to stand outside on a freezing January morning, or a breezy May afternoon, or a hot and muggy August evening and feel everything that nature has in store for me on that particular day. The weather can’t always be tied up into neat packages, and neither can Tom’s work.

There are many things we know about the ordinary fabric of this artist’s daily life. His recent tweets have discussed everything from what he ate for specific meals to how he liked to spend his free time to what sketches he was working on in the last few weeks and months before he died. More than once I’ve been impressed by his descriptions of the small details of his life. Yesterday he mentioned eating boiled potatoes and stew, for example. I barely remember what I ate for dinner last week, so have those details of someone’s life from a hundred years ago is surprising and fascinating.

In the months I’ve been getting to know him, Tom has been kind, funny, and personable. There are times when he seems unsure of himself or when he doesn’t know what he should do next. Yet he still picks himself up the next day and tries again. These are the tweets I’ve come to appreciate from him the most because of how much they reveal about his personality and character. He’s the type of person I’d invite out to dinner if we were living in the same century.

Exactly how he died is a matter of debate. We know he was alone at Canoe Lake and that his empty canoe surfaced days before anyone found his body in the water. Did he have some kind of medical emergency that lead to him falling into the lake and drowning? Did his canoe accidentally tip over or bump into something submerged in the water, leaving him to drown before he could be saved? Did he stumble across someone who was doing something illegal and who didn’t want any witnesses of their crime?

There are so many different possibilities. I’ve mulled over many of them as I read this painter’s latest tweets and wished there was a way to reach back through the decades and save him.

If only every piece of history could be this relatable and memorable.

Until that happens, you should be following Tom Thomson. I’d love to hear what you think of his paintings as well as what your theories are about how he died.

Here is this week’s list of tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

This Is the Best Way to Improve Every Part of Your Life. There’s a lot of truth to this.

How Tuberculosis Shaped Victorian Fashion. When people lament the passing of the good old days, I wonder how much they actually know about daily life in whatever era they wish we could return to. This is something I think about a lot when I watch Call the Midwife. As fascinated as I am by the characters on it, I’d never want to live in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Life was simpler back then, but it was also incredibly difficult. Medical care was limited and a lot of people were trapped by strict social conventions that were only just beginning to loosen a little. All of these thoughts were tumbling around in my mind as I read this article. It’s a great one.

Mom Says: Catechism or Soccer, You Pick via 4AreaFrenchman. I absolutely love the mom’s response in this essay. It reminds me of how my parents raised their kids as well as how my brother and his wife are raising their family. Freedom is a very good thing.

Preventive Mastectomy: The First Week via PrairieHeels. Fair warning: this post includes some pictures of what the author’s body looked like as she was healing after surgery. What I liked the most about her story was how honest and positive she was. Too often people either seem to share horror stories about medical stuff or gloss over what it’s really like to recover from procedure X. If I was going to have this kind of surgery for some reason, I would have felt so reassured and comforted by her descriptions of how everything went. It was absolutely lovely.

The Difference Between Being Nice and Being Kind via Dan_Salerno_. This isn’t something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, but Dan’s definitions make sense.

From My Mother and Polio:

There’s a reason why I don’t get into arguments with anti-vaxxers.

My mother had polio when she was a young child, maybe a year older than Secondborn is now. Prior to that, she’d been a very active little girl — the fastest runner on her block, she once told me.

Then she came down with polio.

What have you been reading?

This is a short, science fiction film about a dry world. The creatures living on it survive by hunting clouds and extracting the water from it . One day their hunt doesn’t exactly go as planned.

There were several scenes that reminded me of old Warner Bros cartoons because of how comical they were. The characters’ facial expressions in them were absolutely perfect.

I wonder if people will still be watching stuff like this in 50 years? I hope so!

Don’t worry – we’re not ill or injured in any way. This post is based on a hypothetical conversation I had with my spouse over the weekend.

Imagine that you’ve just been hospitalized. Maybe you won a fight with a polar bear or you found out you were severely allergic to mushrooms the scary way. (I’ll leave it up to your brilliant imaginations to come up with more creative backstories for this scenario if you don’t like the ones I’ve suggested. Ha!)

Either way, you’re in the hospital now. You could be drugged up due to severe pain or recovering from surgery. You are definitely not feeling like your normal self at any rate.

A message appears on your cell phone asking which room you’re staying in. There are a few cars full of people who want to come up and visit. What would you say to them? Will you want to see everyone? Only a few people? No one at all? How do you decide who, if anyone, to invite up?

I’ve never been hospitalized, but I’ve recovered from enough injuries and illnesses at home to know that I wouldn’t want any visitors (other than my husband and possibly my parents) in that scenario. When things are going wrong with my body, I’m incredibly quiet and withdrawn. More than anything, I crave peace and quiet on those days. The last thing I’d want to do under those circumstances is to make small talk or be a cheerful host.

Yes, I know that no reasonable person would expect wittiness or a great hosting experience out of me. I’d still feel pressured to hide how much I was hurting, though, and that’s not a good or healthy thing. Some people heal best when they’re given a lot of privacy, and I’m one of them.

This has nothing to do with how much I love anyone else in my life.  My brain simply shuts down when I reach a certain level of discomfort. Socializing isn’t fun for me then. It’s incredibly draining. All I want to do is to sleep, watch Netflix, or read quietly while my body recovers. Depending on what’s bothering me – a throat problem that makes it hard to talk; an injury that reminds me it exists in agonizing ways every time someone accidentally jostles the bed or touches me the wrong way-  it could even be physically painful to entertain guests.

Due to this, I’d turn all of my surprise visitors away. The people I’d actually want to see would never show up that way to begin with. My recovery would be quiet, peaceful, and beautifully hidden.

How common is this reaction? Do other people find it soothing to have many guests when they’re very sick or in pain?

Google has answered a lot of offbeat questions for me over the years, but it hasn’t been able to tell me how most people react to this situation. This makes me even more curious to know what my readers think. I’d love to hear your thoughts.