Category Archives: Uncategorised

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

The White Rabbit. I want a sequel to this!

I’m Going Back to Minnesota Where Sadness Makes Sense. This isn’t a feeling I’ve ever had, but I sure loved the way it was expressed.

Why Parents Should Have Child-Free Friends. I agree with this 100%. There are so many important things you can learn about life from befriending people who fall outside of the norm in some way. To give one example, I love listening to my friends who have visible and invisible disabilities/illnesses talk about what it takes for them to get through the day. It’s hard to admit this, but I know that I take my good health for granted. Talking to my friends whose lives look so different from mine in certain ways has made me so much more compassionate and understanding than I might have otherwise been.

Lost in a Fishbowl via KStuckInTraffic. This is the kind of thought experiment that blows my mind.

How Graphic Is Too Graphic? via Kathleen01930. None of my stories have been graphic yet, but this is definitely something I think about when toying with new ideas. Your reason for including violent or disturbing content matters. Some plots can be just as effective without these things, but others truly cannot.

The Great Backyard Bird Count. Every February the Cornell  Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society asks volunteers from around the world to count the birds they see and send in a short report about it. The count started yesterday and will end on the fifteenth. I think I’ll be participating. It only takes 15 minutes, although you can do it for a longer period of time if you prefer.

Valentine’s Day: Like or Dislike via SusanStovall. What surprised me the most about this post was how much I ended up agreeing with the person who wrote it. As someone who has never really celebrated Valentine’s Day, I was expecting to have a totally different reaction to something with this title. I suspect we’d get along well if we lived in the same city and every struck up a friendship.

What have you been reading?

For anyone who hasn’t heard the good news yet, J.K. Rowling is revisiting the Harry Potter series. The play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will be performed this summer in London, although all of the tickets for it have already been sold. It will also be released as a script at midnight on July 31.

I am so excited about this release because of how much I loved these books as a kid. I reread the first seven books over and over again. Sometimes I still have moments when I see or hear something in my ordinary life that instantly reminds me of a character or scene from this series.

Waiting five months to read the new instalment feels like an eternity.

How will I be passing the time?

By rereading all of the previous Harry Potter novels, of course!

I’m about 50 pages into Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at the moment. (If there’s anyone out there who hasn’t read it yet, be prepared for mild spoilers from a nearly 20-year-old story. Haha).

As a kid, I didn’t notice – or maybe I simply didn’t remember – that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were never asked if they were willing to take in their nephew. They didn’t even know that he was coming to live with them after his parents were murdered until Aunt Petunia opened the door one morning and found baby Harry sitting on her doorstep with a letter tucked beside him.

Surprise!

This wasn’t something that struck me as odd back then, but I sure would be discombobulated to discover any of my nieces or nephews on my doorstep as an adult. What if they grew hungry, frightened, or cold between the time they were dropped off and the time I discovered them? Eek. That thought makes me wince.

It will be a lot of fun to see if there’s anything else I understand in a completely different light as I continue on with Harry’s story.

Who else is looking forward to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child? If you’re not a Harry Potter fan, what novels have you revisited as an adult only to realize that your opinion of certain scenes has completely changed over the years?

Winter Fox from mechanical apple on Vimeo.

Okay, so technically the title of this short film is Winter Fox, not Winter in Heaven.

I like the contrast between it and the video I shared with you last week, though. Winter in Hell was more visually striking, but I’d much rather visit this setting.

I have a confession to make: the amazing commercials (and the occasional performance from Beyonce) are the only reasons why I’ve ever paid attention to the Super Bowl.

This isn’t a judgement on how other people spend their time. I’m sure my love of stuff like the Harry Potter books is equally tedious for some.

Football is a sport that I find boring even when I’m playing it.  Sitting still and watching other people play football for hours simply isn’t something my brain is capable of doing.

So imagine how confused I was when owls started showing up on my  Twitter stream last night.

Someone – I’m still not entirely sure who – attempted to hijack the Super Bowl hashtag in order to talk about Superb Owls.

This image above was one of many graphics about how owls live and what they look like. I found them endlessly interesting because of all of the owls that were mentioned in the Harry Potter books and because this isn’t a species I know a whole lot about.

At least for me, owls are better than football.

Where do your interests lay?

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

Freedom and Apology via Kim_Batchelor. The author of this post teaches a creative writing class in a jail, and she’s learned a lot from her students. This was such an interesting peek into a part of society I know almost nothing about.

February. I actually found this poem last spring,  but I decided to wait until February rolled around again to share it with all of you. 🙂

Fear and Monsters via CamelaThompson. Isn’t it wonderful to stumble across blog posts that ask questions you’ve never thought of before?

Why Birds Fluff Up. Just the thought of this makes me shiver.

Powers. This is also true for those of us who are bisexual. Haha!

Confidence Trick via Hannah_Chutzpah. Yes, exactly.

From The Jellyfish Method Of Handling Criticism:

But the problem with developing thick skin is that there’s a tendency to start deflecting anything and everything that isn’t overwhelmingly positive.  After awhile, even a well-meaning critique runs the risk of being labeled as “hater talk” and disregarded.

What have you been reading?

I’d find this fascinating even if I didn’t currently have a cold.

Winter in Hell from Enrique Pacheco on Vimeo.

What a title, eh?

This is a video you can watch without listening to the background music if you’d like. It’s a collection of volcanic explosions, frozen meadows, and small icebergs bobbing up and down in the ocean.

Iceland isn’t my idea of hell at all. It’s actually a beautiful, peaceful place. I’m still not interested in visiting it at this time of year, though. Haha.

I just arrived home from a relaxing vacation in a warm, tropical place.

My pale, German skin soaked up as much sunshine as it possibly could without getting burned or otherwise damaged by UV rays. (Ha!)

If  I close my eyes, I can still feel the warm sun on my skin. Even the harshest Canadian snowstorm can’t chase that memory away.

The ocean looked just like the water in this photograph. I wish all of my readers could have seen it for themselves. It is so interesting and odd to be surrounded by sparkling water that is this particular shade of blue-green.

Ontario lakes are much deeper shades of blue, and they’re almost always filled with algae and other water-clouding things. Being able to see the bottom of a body of water was unfamiliar and beautiful.

My days were full of relaxation. I swam quite a bit. I read. I took long walks. I ate mounds of delicious fruit, which is my favourite thing in the whole world to have for any meal of the day. I laughed while playing silly card games.

In short, it was a perfect trip.

What makes you feel refreshed? I’d love to hear your answers, big or small!

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

Good for You, Not For Me. I identify with this so much. Some things don’t change from one subculture to the next.

Rivers. Who else is mesmerized by this?

Why Wait for Spring to Walk Outside? Those of you who have followed this blog for a while probably remember how much I dislike being outside in the winter. This article raised some great points about the benefits of exercising outdoors at this time of year and how you can do it safely, though. It was written with senior citizens in mind, but the tips in it can work well for anyone.

Dispossessed in the Land of Dreams. If I ever win the lottery or become a best-selling author, I’m going to do something about this. Nobody should live this way.

8 Research-Supported Ways to Bust the Winter Blues. I’m planning to try all of them this winter.

How to Tell if a Canadian Is Mad at You. As a Canadian, I can confirm that the entire list is true. This include item #4. 😉

Childhood Lost. This is heartbreaking, especially once you see the photos of the lost stuffed animals.

What have you been reading?

1. Some silence is okay. Don’t be afraid of it.

2. Ask them what they think of topic X if they haven’t spoken up yet.

3. Never comment on how quiet they are. I feel so awkward and self-conscious when people do this.

4. Give them time to respond. Sometimes it takes me a little bit to decide what I want to say.

5. Try to minimize small talk. There are so many other things in this world to discuss. We don’t have to limit ourselves to weather and sports.

6. Ask them what they’re thinking about. I can’t guarantee that every quiet person will enjoy this, of course, but I relish this question. It’s so much fun to share the weird, funny, and off-topic thoughts that are rolling around in my mind, especially when I know that general-you are genuinely interested in hearing about them.

7. Reduce background noise, if possible. I know that some people love having the television or radio on for hours at a time, but that kind of stuff  irritates me. I’d much prefer to socialize somewhere that doesn’t require me to tune out so many other competing voices.