Category Archives: Uncategorised

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

Top 10 Topics My Sons Are Bickering About via GinaValley. I once had an argument with one of my brothers about the pronunciation of the word salmon. (I’ll leave it up to the sibling in question to reveal his identity if he chooses to do so).

The Case for Being a Terrible Person via UncredibleHallq. I’m not familiar with the groups discussed in this post, but I really like the author’s approach to personal development.

Blood Pepper and Brave Meat. This is one of the most interesting short stories I’ve read recently.

It Belongs in a Museum: Artist Adds Sci-Fi Characters to Thrift Store Paintings. These paintings were incredibly well done. Normally I’m not at all fan of rustic, rural scenery in art, but I’d buy a few of these remixes in a heartbeat if I had the funds for it. They really ignite my imagination!

The Case Against Positive Thinking via JeffreyGuterman. Good stuff.

From On Kindness:

When I think of my mother’s life up to this point, what I find most revealing is how much of the abuse hurled at her throughout the years came about solely because she showed care and love to the wrong kinds of people.

Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters was a hoot.

Whether you’re a fan of King Lear, Nancy Drew, or Harry Potter, imagine what it would be like to text them. The concept is so simple I’m not entirely sure what else I should say about it. This was a very fun read, though, and I’d highly recommend it to all of my readers.

What have you been reading?

Photo by Mdf.

Yes, I know that winter technically doesn’t begin for another month. Toronto has had a cold snap and a few light snowstorms this past week, though, so it’s difficult for me to look out the window and think autumn.

Pumpkin season has come and gone. It’s winter for the next 119 days as far as my mind and body are concerned.

Many years I grumble a little about all of the things I don’t like about the cold.

This year I decided to make a new list. This might not be my favourite season, but there are still good things to discover in it.

1. Watching snow fall is hypnotic. My youngest brother used to sit quietly on the couch and watch the snow fall down through our living room window. Kindergarten only took up half the day, so he had to wait a few hours before the rest of our elementary school was dismissed.

2. Being sick is a good excuse for a nap. It’s a nice escape from all of the sniffling.

3. Winter drinks taste better than summer ones. Hot chocolate. Apple cider.  Egg nog.  All delicious.

4. There’s no humidity. Anyone with naturally curly or wavy hair knows just how nice it is to have a break from the poof.

5. The New Year is a fresh start. It feels good to say goodbye to last year and embrace the new one. To me it’s kind of like turning to a fresh page in a blank book or rebooting your computer.

6. Baked goods are everywhere. Mmmm….Christmas cookies.

7. All the ragweed is dead. I’m sure there are some people who have horrendous winter allergies. (My sympathies are with you!) November-April is wonderful for my allergies because they rarely if ever cause an issue for me. It’s lovely.

8. A hot bath feels great. Nobody wants to soak in the tub in August, but it can be very cozy in January.

9. There are no mosquitos, wasps, or bumblebees. It’s refreshing to go to a park and not risk getting bitten or stung.

10. The sun (probably) won’t wake you up. A 5:30 am sunrise can wake me up during the summer. I’m naturally an early bird, but sometimes there’s a little too much of a good thing in June when the sun doesn’t set until 9 or 10 pm.

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

Another Reason Why Thoughts Are Not Facts via Mindful_Living. This is still sometimes a stumbling block for me.

Fleeting Thoughts and Butterfly Nets via jdubqca. My longterm readers might recognize this blog. I’ve featured J. Matthew Waters poetry here a few different times in the past, but occasionally I have to mention his site again. It’s not only good writing, it’s consistently good writing. That isn’t easy to do.

Snow Rollers: Nature’s Winter Treat. There aren’t many things that I like about winter, but this is one of them.

Into the Light.  I sat and stared at this photograph for several minutes. It took that long to think of all of the incredible things that might exist just beyond its horizon.

The Chocolate Game. If I were a teacher, I’d play this game with my students.

From The Target Effect via JillinIL:

Do I have any real kids or normal kids?  All of my kids are real.  If you pinch them, they will make a noise.  (Don’t actually touch my kids, k?)  Normal is up for discussion.

The Rush: America’s Quest for Fortune, 1848-1853 is the first history book I’ve finished this year.

I learned about the California gold rush briefly in high school, but there was a lot about this time period that those classes didn’t have the time to cover. What I enjoyed the most about this book was how readable it is. You don’t have to know anything about this topic in order to understand what the author had to say, yet I never felt like he was talking down to me.

It was a great blend of historical analysis and storytelling. I’d recommend to anyone who is interested in learning more about this fascinating time in history.

What have you been reading?

Social media is still so new that I don’t think the etiquette for using sites like Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram has been fully agreed upon yet.

For lack of a better analogy, I think of these sites as gigantic, virtual dinner parties. These are the rules I wish everyone would follow there.

Do:

Engage with your followers. Social media is a great way to build relationships with people you’d probably never meet otherwise. My favourite people on these sites are the ones who are interactive and friendly.

Share your life. I know that some people don’t appreciate hearing what their friends ate for lunch, but I actually really enjoy that aspect of social media. There’s something to be said for occasionally sharing the small, inconsequential moments.

Be honest. We all have embarrassing, sad, or difficult moments. It’s ok to talk about them if you feel comfortable doing so. I don’t expect anyone I follow to only talk about the happy stuff in their lives.

Post about more than one topic. Underwater basket weaving may be your passion in life, but there’s something to be said for branching out into other areas of interest. If the only things I ever tweeted about were writing and my love of the horror genre, the people who follow me would have an incomplete understanding of who I am as a person.

But bunny pictures are always acceptable.

Don’t:

Repost the same  links over and over again. Yes, I know that you want to guide traffic to your blog or website. It’s irritating to see the same thing posted multiple times, though, especially when it happens on the same day.

Send mass private messages asking for money or other favours. It’s tacky and rude.

Violate other people’s privacy. Anything you post on the Internet will be there forever. It’s not okay to share pictures of other people’s children, medical conditions, highly embarrassing stories, or other sensitive information without their permission. It’s never ok to post pictures of body fluids, oozing injuries, or childbirth photos that involve anything below the waist.

Engage the trolls. This one almost goes without saying.

This site rearranges the words of any text you feed into it.  Some of it’s sentences are gibberish, but others are pretty funny.

I gave it all of the written context of my last five posts here. This is the best of what it created:

There’s a friend’s cabin in that Cosmos TV show that has remained popular.

Now I stopped several deaths in so many different reasons: my mind. 

 but I would write “LOL” in a Universe of elderly

This is one year to me. 

I would like this instead of the actual news. 

swearing isn’t one of them but it’s a snowball fight or sweater

I also realize that this person I remember grieving over was placed on this blog. 

I have an elliptical orbit.

The last year, I know Christmas merchandise and terror.

I can tell that I don’t need to cook again for “earth-like” planets, but I stopped worrying about any of them

I’d love to know what it did with your words!

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

Annabel Lee. There’s something about early November that reminds me of this poem.

Umbrella. Imagine that Rhianna and Jay Z were born 700 years ago. Maybe they would have performed something like this instead of the songs they’re currently known best for.

What Show Choir Taught Me About Life via KellyRWriting. My high school was so small that we only had one choir and it didn’t perform any musicals.

Who’s the Sexiest, and Why Do We Care? via LoriLSchafer.  What’s really weird about this phenomenon is that it’s seeping into the actual news. This is one of the many reasons why I avoid watching the news whenever possible.

The Diagnosis. This is what happens when you try to self-diagnose.

Lessons From My Choose Your Own Adventure Walks via empoweredlife1. I’ve talked about my love of walking a lot on this blog. This type of walking is something I used to do regularly, but I stopped several years ago. Now I think I should jump back into it next spring. There are still a lot of neighbourhoods in Toronto that I’ve never visited.

Thanks to my mom for sharing this video with me. It’s fantastic:

The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities stretched my mind. I took an astronomy class in college, but this was a nice refresher of just how unusual earth is in so many ways. It orbits around one, small sun instead of two (ore more) big ones. It has an elliptical orbit. It has continents. It’s rich in minerals.

Based on the projections in this novel, there are a lot of planets that have some (or none) of these qualities. Thinking about what those worlds must be like blew my mind. You sometimes hear about the search for “earth-like” planets, but what does this really mean? It’s entirely possible that life has evolved in places that are nothing at all like the planet that we call home.

If you had any interest at all in that Cosmos TV show that aired last year, I think you’ll love this book.

What have you been reading?

I wasn’t originally planning to blog anything today, but this TED talk is excellent.

“Everyone is the best at something.” I’m paraphrasing her here, but I really liked this sentiment. She goes on to say that we are all opportunity makers. It’s fascinating stuff.