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

Fantastic. I love this way of looking at the world.

My Sweet Lady in Pink via jdubqca. The imagery in this is so crisp and clear. It felt like I was watching a short film instead of reading words on a page. Nicely done.

It Starts with a Bandaid via eralbertson. What a smart way to live. Incidentally, I do carry a spare bandaid with me at all times in case anyone needs one.

Anger Is Not My Brand via SarahMadisonFic. What I liked most about this post is how balanced it is. I definitely don’t like spending time around people who find reasons to be angry about everything, but I am also put off by people who appear to be hiding their true selves. It makes me feel like I can’t be honest with them when I’m genuinely struggling with or dismayed by something.

Witnessing Witnessing from the Outside. This was such a good essay. Sometimes it’s hard to explain all of the reasons why witnessing is so irritating, but the author did a great job of breaking everything down.

From What Is a Robot, Really?

 The human-machine relationship is rapidly evolving as a result. Humanity, and what it means to be a human, will be defined in part by the machines people design.

What have you been reading?

This is the story of how a group of sand soldiers attempted to defend their home from a dangerous enemy.

Like most of the short films I share on this blog, it has no dialogue. Feel free to watch it with the background music turned off if you prefer.

Dear Beverly,

I discovered you when I started attending public school in the fourth grade after being homeschooled for several years. Ramona the Pest was my first introduction to your books, and I soon read every single Beverly Cleary book that I could find at my elementary school and the local public library.

Your stories ignited my imagination. It wasn’t until a few days ago that I discovered that I never read some of them as a child. This will be remedied soon, though, because I can’t wait to rediscover some of the first characters I ever remember wishing I could meet in person as well as hopefully meeting some new friends.

Not only have I remained an avid reader as an adult, I’m also an author myself now. I wonder how many other young fans of your work have grown up to do the same thing?

A recent news article about you stirred up all of these happy memories. I hope you have a wonderful 100th birthday next month!

Sincerely,

Lydia Schoch

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

Polio Summer and Polio Summer II. This story made me shudder. I can’t imagine living with that kind of fear year after year.

Well-Practiced Douchebags. While I’m not at all a fan of the term douchebag, this was a fantastic explanation  of why some people create so much social chaos and who should be blamed for it.

Bride of the Rose Beast. I’d never heard of the original fairy tale before, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying this updated version of it.

How (Not) to Make an Easter Nest with Toddlers via SillyMummy88. This is one of the funniest things I’ve read in a long time. No, I will not be trying it with any of the toddlers in my life. Haha.

Achieving Normal Life via lifebyd4limbs.What life is like for a personal trainer who has had both of his legs amputated.

The 7 Don’ts of Social Media Etiquette for Bloggers via thatchamdad. I’d argue that these rules also apply to everyone else  online. Having good online etiquette is just as important as being considerate and polite offline.

What have you been reading?

“April showers bring May flowers.”

My husband quoted this old saying to me yesterday after I commented on how many rainy days are predicted for Toronto’s longterm forecast.

“What do May flowers bring?” he asked.

For a split second, I wondered if Canada had another stanza to this rhyme that I’d never heard before. There are small but noticeable differences between how Canadians and Americans pronounce certain words or how they describe what happened when the White House burned down.

As far as I can tell, this isn’t the case for this rhyme, though. It’s the same in both countries.

What could May flowers bring?

Pilgrims.

Death.

Hay fever.

Strawberries.

June bugs.

Wedding floral arrangements.

Bees.

Angry letters from your HOA if your landscaping doesn’t fit their strict rules.

Ethical dilemmas for the scientists who operated on Algernon.

Long, complicated conversations about the dangers of longterm exposure to pesticides in poorly regulated overseas greenhouses.

Lunch.

I have to admit that these people knew way more about U.S. geography than I know about Irish geography. Good for them!

One of the reasons why I love spring so much is that it’s the nicest time of year for taking long walks. The weather is usually warm enough to leave the hat and gloves at home, but it’s cool enough to keep my body comfortable if I start to sweat from walking briskly or up and down hills.

(I envy those of you who can spend a lot of time outdoors year round! I know that not all of my readers live in places that have cold, snowy winters).

For those of us who do, though, the beginning of spring is a relief. Why should you go take a walk like I do?

Walking is a great way to watch the world wake up. Soon I’ll start to see flowers poking through the soil and buds appearing on trees. Any remaining pockets of snow will disappear, and the ugly, brown landscape will suddenly turn a brilliant shade of green.

The squirrels that were pleasantly plump last fall will probably look pretty slender these days. I always like hearing them chatter as I walk past them in the park. Hopefully it means they’ve found some food or have spotted an old friend on a nearby tree. I always like to guess what they’re saying to each other, especially when the noises they make suddenly grow loud.

These are a few of the many small changes that you can notice more easily on foot.

Walking clears your mind. One of my favourite things to do when I’m in a bad mood is to pick a direction and start walking. It’s difficult to stay grouchy when you see an impossibly fluffy little dog wiggling in joy as their owner takes them to to the park. In a more rural setting, I’d keep an eye out for wild animals instead of domesticated ones. You can spot all kinds of creatures if you walk quietly and pay attention.

I also like to observe the people, places, and items, around me. You can learn a lot about them in the few seconds or minutes that you spend walking near them. It’s fun to imagine where they might be going if they’re human. Non-human sights can also be entertaining. Last year I saw a bicycle that was covered in dozens of artificial flowers. I still wonder how the owner had managed to attach so many flowers to that bike and why they did it. It was gorgeous, but it didn’t look very practical for riding.

Walking is good, low-impact exercise. There are certain types of exercise I strictly avoid because of how much they hurt. The low-impact nature of walking makes it enjoyable for me, so I do it much longer and much more regularly than I would something that was painful or left me gasping for breath.

I wouldn’t invite everyone I know to dance, swim, hike, or  lift weights, or try yoga with me. Our fitness levels for these activities could be wildly different, and some of them work best for people who have roughly the same stamina and mobility.

It’s easier to play around with the difficulty level in walking. In a group, I usually walk less briskly so that everyone can keep up. When I’m alone, I walk as fast I possibly can without actually breaking into a run.

Either way, you’ll get your heart pumping and your muscles working. That’s a good thing!

I hope I’ve convinced you to go take a walk today. Let me know what you think in the comments.

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

Eat Your Veggies. I don’t actually like the taste of meat very much. Fish is my exception to this rule, so I completely understand where these characters are coming from. Haha!

Snatching History’s Forgotten Women from the Evil Clutches of the Patriarchy. Wouldn’t it be interesting to uncover all of the people that were purposefully forgotten? I sometimes wonder what kinds of inventions, stories, or medical/technological breakthroughs we’d have now if our species had been more cautious about preserving knowledge.

The Gravekeeper’s Paradox. This kind of stuff makes me grateful that I’m planning to be cremated after I die. It’s cool if other people find meaning in what kind of gravestone they have, but it’s not the sort of thing I’d ever want someone to fuss over in my name.

Is Death from Pain a Natural Death via LynnRWebsterMD. What a sad but also interesting debate.

Why I’m Letting My Hair Go Grey via CTCsite. Readers, how did you (or how are you planning) to react to grey hair? I haven’t decide what I’ll do yet, but I might go grey naturally like this writer.

From To My Daughters on International Women’s Day via LithChronicles:

I know you’re scared; but I need you to know that it’s okay to be scared. I’m going to tell you something that I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time now. I have a secret: Being scared is a good thing.

What have you been reading?

Three of them matter for us: think of them as the Three P’s of the RPD. Players should

1. Be patient: Focus on the long-term benefits of finding a way to cooperate—don’t just focus on the short-run pleasures, whether it’s the pleasure of exploitation or the pleasure of punishment. Axelrod calls this “extending the shadow of the future.”
2. Be pleasant: Start off nice—make sure those bared teeth are part of a smile. And later in the game, take the ABBA approach, and take a chance on cooperating every now and then, even when things have gone south for a while.
3. Be perceptive: Figure out what game you’re playing—know the rules, and know the benefits and costs of cooperation.

I claim that people with higher IQs will be better at all three.

From Economist Says Higher-IQ People are Nicer and More Cooperative.

This is the most thought-provoking articles I’ve read in years, and I read for at least a few hours every day. It is well worth your time to check out the author’s full argument.

No, not every nice person I’ve met has been intelligent, and not every intelligent person has been nice. Every rule has exceptions.

When I think of all of the people I’ve known, though, I can see how these traits could be connected. Getting along well with others requires many skills that can’t be easily taught. You should know how to make small talk, solve a conflict, keep a conversation going, and make sure everyone is included.

You also have to memorize all kinds of small details about what others like, what interests them, and what topics are perfectly okay to bring up with Sonja but should be avoided completely when you’re talking to Pete.

I’ve known people who are far better at these things than I could ever hope to be. There have been other people I’ve known who push everyone’s buttons because they’re either oblivious of the rules or don’t seem to care at all about following them. (It’s never been clear to me which one of these is more true for them. Maybe it’s both).

Anecdotes aren’t date, of course, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on this topic. What patterns have you noticed in your social circles?