Category Archives: Uncategorised

This would make such a fantastic full-length movie. It would be like Toy Story for a more mature audience.

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by figurines like these. Logically I knew that they didn’t get up and walk around when no one was looking, of course, but it was still fun to imagine them having adventures after all of the human left the room.

Did you have similar thoughts growing up?

Photo credit: Khaydock.

The characters in my latest work-in-progress have been giving me a terrible time over the past two months or so.

Every change I try to make to their storyline falls flat. I’m not satisfied with how the plot is currently flowing, though, due to some abrupt jumps between scenes that really need to be smoothed out in my opinion.

Fellow creative people, how do you get unstuck? I’m willing to try anything at this point!

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

Frontier Families. I’ll be curious to see what the kids created from these technologies have to say as they grow older. In some ways, this reminds me of all of the different reactions people have to being adopted. How parents handle the topic of how their children entered the world seems to have a huge influence on how their adult kids approach it.

Make a Depressive Cycle Less Oppressive via HMJonesWrites. This is good.

Why Is America Obsessed with Perfect Teeth? A long but interesting read.

Dear Young, Gay Couple in 1993. Who else is hoping that there’s a happy ending here?

R.I.P. Champis. If you read this in Safari, the browser will give you the option to translate the post into English. I’ll summarize it for those of you who can’t or choose not to do that. Remember the video of the rabbit, Champis, who herds sheep that I shared here a year or two ago? He died peacefully in his sleep a few months ago. His son, Champis Junior (CJ), has now taken over the sheep-herding at Farm Hill. I love the fact that this has become a bunny dynasty in  Örnsköldsvik. Go click on the link if you want to see pictures of CJ!

From The Agitation via MsForrestRaven:

I’ve felt that way, too, but you
can’t make love when the past is
ambiguously sneaking up on, and behind, you—
or possibly my imagination is the inspiration.

What have you been reading?

Photo credit: Salim Virji.

Happy (early) Father’s Day to all of the dads who read this blog.

I don’t blog about holidays like this every year, but I have some fun stories to share about my dad today.

Little Ones and Big Ones on Rye

Both of my parents were responsible for meals when I was a kid. Mom did more of the cooking and baking when I was little, but after she went back to college Dad started spending more time in the kitchen.

He had a few fast, inexpensive specialties when it was his time to cook. We ate a lot of egg bread and various types of rice + veggie or meat dishes.

No matter what he was making, though, his answer to our question about what we were having for lunch or dinner was the same: little ones and big ones on rye.

The funny thing is that I don’t remember him ever serving us rye bread, and none of us ever knew exactly what little ones and big ones were. I always imagined them to be sausage, though.

Maybe someday I’ll serve him rye bread with various types of sausage!

Black Ice.

The problem with scheduling exams in December in Ohio is that sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate. At all.

One year when I was in college, we had a nasty ice storm the day before my final exams. My school was a half-hour drive from home. A huge part of the drive took place on quiet, back country roads that weren’t always salted right away.

I was an okay driver, but that particular route on that particular day made me nervous. These were the kinds of roads that didn’t see a lot of traffic. If I’d gotten into an accident, it could have been a while before anyone noticed that I was in trouble. It (probably) would have been even longer before anyone drove by who had first aid training.

Enter Dad. It wasn’t strictly necessary for him to drive me to school that day, but I was so grateful for his help. It made me feel really safe.

Permanently Borrowing Aiden’s Toy.

My nephew, Aiden, was given so many toys as a baby that Dad decided he wouldn’t mind permanently sharing one.

It was a soft, baseball-shaped stuffed animal. Dad used it to prop up his laptop when he wanted to surf the web in his La-Z-Boy. It worked surprisingly well. The baby never even knew it was missing, but I quietly chuckled every time I saw Dad use it for the next few years.

What are some of your favourite memories of the fathers and father-figures in your life?

This game involves spotting small differences between two shades of the same colour. It advertises itself as a free colour vision test. I don’t know if that is accurate, but I did have a good time playing it.

I made it to level 31 before I could no longer tell the colours apart. The game says that this is a better result than 92.7% of the world’s population. (I’m not sure if I believe that, although it might be true!

What were your results?

Drew and I saw Jurassic World this past weekend. We both really loved it. No, I won’t be sharing any spoilers in this post. It irks me when other people give away the entire plots of movies or TV shows that have just come out.

1. The storyline was evenly paced. Those of who you have followed me here for a while might remember how particular I am about pacing, especially in the middle of a story. The nice thing about this movie is that it never had a dull moment. I was always interested in what would happen next, and that doesn’t happen for me with every movie.

2. The scenery was beautiful. One of the things I liked the most about Jurassic Park was how much attention was paid to everything happening in the background.

3. It had a little bit of everything. The science fiction and action genres were strongly represented, but there were also a few surprises tucked along the way. I can’t say anything else about this without giving away spoilers.

4. The Easter eggs were clever. I really like it when films assume the audience has a longterm memory. Once again, I can’t go into any detail without giving away spoilers. They were good, though.

5. Velociraptors do not make good pets. Although seeing them run around in the movie made me want to domesticate them anyway. They were surprisingly cute in a predatory sort of way.

6. Chris Pratt and Omar Sy are handsome. There’s something to be said for  good-looking movie stars. Ha!

7. It’s nostalgic. I actually rewatched Jurassic Park a few days before this one  came out. I don’t remember how old I was when I first saw it, but it was fun to relive that part of my childhood again through both movies.

8. The characters were interesting. While there were some big changes I would have made in this area if I could have written the script, I was curious to see what would happen with all of the characters. All of them had some sort of quirk or habit that made me like them.

9. The special effects were well done. I especially liked seeing the herbivores. They looked so calm and friendly.

10. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. Summer blockbusters aren’t meant to be serious social commentaries. This one knows exactly what it is (and isn’t) capable of. That’s a good thing!

If you’ve seen this movie, what did you think of it?

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

The New Normal. This is a heartbreaking account of how one woman coped with her brother’s death. It made me want to give all of my loved ones big bear hugs, especially my siblings.

Alanis in Chains. Alanis Morissette was one of my favourite artists growing up. I played her first two albums so often that I memorized all of the lyrics to her songs. Can you believe that Jagged Little Pill is 20 years old now?!

The Lost Man. Wow. Just wow.

Why You Should Never Use Hand Sanitizer. This makes me glad that my parents were never obsessed with killing every single germ that crossed my path. There’s something to be said for finding a balanced approach to life.

Finding Zen. Okay, I’ll admit it. This is one of the sillier things I’ve shared with my readers. Don’t you just love the expression on the dog’s face, though? It makes me wish I could have my own striking collection of pets.

The video below is in honour of Jurassic World, the fourth Jurassic Park movie which opened this weekend. I think it would be fascinating to watch that whole series alongside this man. Dinosaurs are fun either way, but I’d sure love to hear what he thought about how accurately they were brought to life as far as their behaviours go.

What have you been reading?

DOTTY from Brett and Mick on Vimeo.

My husband and I are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary today, so this post will be short and sweet.

Dotty is a short film about an old woman who is really struggling to remember how to send a text message.

I love it. I think my readers will, too!

This is the tale of Lydia and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad night of sleep.

Last night I tossed and turned for two hours past my normal bedtime.

Normally sleep finds me easily. This time it did not.

When you’re in that situation, looking at the clock just makes it worse. It’s better to not know what time it is when you’re trying to fall asleep.

So what did my body decide to do this morning? Wake up at 6 am, as usual.

My brain is bleary. I feel like the edges of the world are blurring together. My thoughts feel the way grumpy cat looks.

Sleep is not for the weak. Everyone needs it.

Now if only I could get my brain to agree with that.

How do you handle a poor night’s sleep?

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

When Dreams Don’t Come True via AuthorIzzy. This is one of those links that works better if you don’t know what to expect when you start reading it.

The Little Red Hen Who Taught Me a Lesson via StoryRoute. This link made me wish I a) lived on a farm, and b) didn’t get itchy around so many different kinds of animals. I mean, I suppose I could write a heartwarming tale about the fruit flies that sometimes hatch in my apartment or the pigeons that fight over crusts of bread on city streets. Something tells me those creatures wouldn’t exactly make people warm and fuzzy like barnyard animals do, though. Ha!

Baby Bunnies Being Bottle Fed. I try not to let my bunny obsession completely take over this blog, but this video was too cute not to share.

Organic Offshoring: As Demand Rises, Increase In Imports Poses Safety Risks. Several of the blogs on my RSS feed are from experts who are skeptical of some of the things that happen in the alternative health community. Natural isn’t a synonym for safe. As it turns out, neither necessarily is organic.

From Foreclosure:

“Plenty of warm bodies at home. The debtor and the donor should be in there, with any luck.”

Colin looked up from the infra-red image on his laptop and grinned at Greg. The roll of the River Thames was making him queasy. If the Haywards were home, he wouldn’t have to sit in the boat and wait for them.

What have you been reading?