February 7, 2019 · 1:00 am

My Review of Fitness Blender’s Toned, Lean Arms Workout

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and this post is in no way intended to give out medical advice. Please seek the advice of a qualified medical professional before beginning this or any other type of workout routine. 

In addition, I’m not receiving any kind of compensation for this post, I’m not affiliated with anyone at Fitness Blender, and there is never affiliate marketing of any sort on my site in general. I’m reviewing this workout simply because I loved it and think some of you might, too.

About the Toned, Lean Arm Workout

This is a 20-minute upper body workout that exercises your rhomboids, shoulders, biceps, triceps, and chest. There is no warmup or cool down included in it, so be sure to get those routines in before and after completing it. 

I’m brand new to this routine, and I find it challenging. Unless your upper body strength is much more developed than mine, I wouldn’t recommend it to beginners. 

You will need a pair of hand weights for this workout. A yoga mat is helpful, too, although it is not strictly necessary. 

Fitness Blender’s Toned, Lean Arms Workout

My Review

I’ve been having such a great time sharing my thoughts on various workouts with you over the past nine months. While I do plan on writing further instalments in this series as I try new videos, it will probably be a while before I update it again. The Brutal Butt & Thigh, Ab Blasting, and Toned, Lean Arm workouts are part of my current routine, and I don’t see that changing in the near future. 

What I enjoy the most about the Toned, Lean Arm workout is the diversity of moves in it. My weightlifting sessions didn’t happen as regularly as usual over the past few months for various reasons, so I have lost a bit of my former strength. 

While this does make this routine more challenging, the fact that it includes easier moves between the more difficult ones keeps me motivated. I probably would have moved back to a different, lighter workout if not for this fact. 

This is something I’d recommend using a lighter set of weights for than you would normally choose. I scale back to the lightest set of weights I currently own (at 7 pounds each…maybe I should buy smaller ones for this routine?), and I still have trouble doing some of the moves because of how many different muscle groups they work at once. It does give me the motivation to keep plugging away at it, though! 

There were some nice modifications offered for a few of the moves. For example, Kelly (the instructor and demonstrator) recommended doing standing pushups against a wall if you weren’t yet strong enough to do a traditional one on the floor. I appreciated that, and I would have liked to see more of those alternatives offered for other sections of the workout. Fitness Blender has done this more often in the past than they did in this particular video. It’s one of the reasons why I generally recommend them so highly. Hopefully, they’ll go back to their old patterns in the future. 

In general, this is something I’d recommend. I was pretty pleased with the way it was set up and how much effort I had to put into keeping up with the pace of it. 

Every time I review a Fitness Blender video, I comment on the lack of music in them and how much I appreciate that. The only thing I will say on that topic this time is that I’m once again pleased to see such a distraction-free routine. 

Previous Reviews of Free Youtube Workout Routines:

The Challenging Chair Workout 

Bipasha Basu’s 30-Minute Aerobic Dance Workout

Fitness Blender’s Brutal Butt & Thigh Workout

Fitness Blender’s Ab Blasting Interval Workout

 

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February 6, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favorite Movies of All Time and Why

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Oh, this week’s topic is a tough one. How can I possible narrow it down to a list that won’t take half an hour to read? I think I’m going to accomplish that goal by choosing films off the top of my head that I’ve already seen multiple times and would happily rewatch over and over again in the future. There is something to be said for enjoying a film as much the fifth or tenth time you’ve seen it as you did the very first.

  • The Princess Bride
  • The Matrix
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
  • The Babadook
  • Pan’s Labyrinth
  • Dead Poets Society
  • The Wizard of Oz
  • Selma

I find it interesting that Selma is the only piece of nonfiction on this list. Normally, I watch a lot of documentaries and films based on historical events, but this was the only one from those genres I could think of that I’ve watched over and over again without wanting to move on and see something else. There is something about the battle for civil rights in the 1960s that always feels relevant and timely to me.

Dead Poets Society originally struck my fancy because I was pretty young when I first watched it and it showed me a side of being wealthy that i’d never considered before. Not everyone who has access to wealth and power also has love or attention from their parents and other relatives.  Money can do a lot of things for other parts of your life, but it can’t make up for emotional neglect or growing up knowing you were unwanted.

The rest of the titles on this list are among the best that the (modern-ish) science fiction and fantasy genres have to offer. I’d happily show any or all of them to someone who was curious about these genres and wanted to learn more about them.

How did you decide what to put on your lists? Did any of the titles I select make your cuts?

I’ll end this post with a stock photo that reminds me of The Matrix and makes me want to rewatch that film right this second:

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February 5, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Upcoming Releases I’m On the Fence About

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I’m going to be very honest with all of you today about my mixed feelings on the mystery genre. What I’m about to say is not a judgement on anyone else’s reading habits in any way. Theoretically, I do like the idea of reading or watching something that requires the audience to pay close attention to the clues in order to figure out who the murderer was before the main character does.

What I don’t like about the mystery genre is its fixation on what can often be pretty gruesome crimes, especially since  they seem to happen to young women in so many tales. I don’t have much interest in gory stuff in general, and I really don’t like reading about all of the horrible ways innocent people can be killed.

So I really don’t know what to think about these titles. I’ve added links to their interesting blurbs for anyone who would like to check them out, but I don’t know if I actually should read any of them. What do you all think? Are you planning to read any of these books? If you read mysteries in general, can you recommend any stories that break this pattern?

1. The Ghost Manuscript by Kris Frieswick

2. The Escape Room by Megan Goldin

3. If You’re Out There by Katy Loutzenhiser

4. Fake Plastic Girl by Zara Lisbon

5. Call Me Evie by JP Pomare

6. Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

7. The Blameless Dead by Gary Haynes

8. American Heroin by Melissa Scrivner Love

9. The Promise by Teresa Driscoll

10. House on Fire by Bonnie Kistler

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February 4, 2019 · 1:00 am

Blogging Advice: Social Media and Networking

This is the fourth instalment of the series on blogging that  Ruth Feiertag asked me to write late last year. Scroll to the bottom of this post to read about how to begin a blog, how to brainstorm ideas for it, and where to find visual images that won’t violate any copyright laws.

Now that you’ve gotten your site set up and have some posts published on it, how do you find readers?

Today I’m going to be discussing some strategies for attracting new those readers, connecting with likeminded fellow bloggers, and getting the word out about your site that I’ve found useful.

It all begins with how you behave online and what kind of reputation you’ve built up. The Internet can feel like an anonymous and impossibly large place sometimes, but it’s been my experience that word can travel very quickly about how someone behaves on it. Anything you write or share as an update could go viral at a moment’s notice, so be mindful of that when you’re deciding how to present yourself online just like you do in real life.

Play the Long Game

None of the tips I’m sharing today are going to turn you into a fabulously wealthy, world-renown blogger or writer overnight. It takes time and effort to build up a loyal following, and no one is guaranteed success in three easy steps or anything like that. Just like many other things in life, there is no shortcut here. Anyone who tells you otherwise may very well be trying to sell you something.

Be Generous

No matter what strategies you decide to use to hopefully attract new readers to your site, be generous with your time and attention when you stumble across things that resonate with you.

For example, if I read a blog post that I really love, I’m going to leave a comment on it telling the blogger how much I appreciated that post if their site allows comments. I will probably tweet or retweet it, and I might even send links to it to a few friends or relatives who are interested in the topic it discusses if they’re not on Twitter.

Not every post I like receives all of these different types of attention, of course, but I do regularly promote the things that bring me joy without any expectation of reciprocation.

In my experience, people can tell the difference between you sharing something because you feel obligated to update your feed X number of times a day (and are hoping to get similar signal boosts from others yourself) and you sharing something that you genuinely loved without attaching any strings to it.

Be the second kind of person online. Speaking of social media…

Social Media

No, you don’t have simultaneously maintain Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, Youtube, Tumblr, Reddit, and Instagram accounts. The thought of that is exhausting!

Pick one or two of them instead, and focus on getting to know those sites as well as possible. Ideally, they should be places where you and people you know already spend time.

The culture of a (generally) anonymous, teen and twenty-something site like Reddit is completely different from somewhere like Facebook where the audience tends to be older and everyone is expected to use their real name. I can’t tell you which social media site(s) to choose. So much depends on what you’re writing about and where your audience is located.

What I can tell you is that Twitter is what works best for me. The hashtags on that site make it easy to connect with potential friends who are also into underwater basket weaving (or whatever your passions are in life), and I enjoy the fast-paced conversations that happen there.

Once you’ve chosen a site or two to follow, begin sharing updates about your life. I like to see at least two-thirds of the tweets I read from any given account be non-promotional in nature. That is, don’t endlessly tweet links to your website, book, or product. Instead:

  • Tell a funny story about something that happened to you recently
  • Ask a thought-provoking question and discuss it with anyone who responds
  • Reply to other people’s status updates
  • Share a quote, picture, or meme
  • Talk about something you’re struggling with (or doing well at)

In short, treat social media like a dinner party, not a sales pitch. Of course you can and should occasionally share links to your site, but those updates should be the garnish instead of the main course. I generally tend to mute or unfollow people whose accounts feel like never-ending advertisements.

How Often to Tweet

Some of the people I follow on Twitter post new tweets multiple times an hour from morning to night. Others might pop in once a week, once a month, or less.

In general, I think it’s best to tweet at least one new, non-promotional thing every day if you can. For example, your tweets for a week might look something like this:

  • Monday: Post a link to your new blog post for #MondayBlogs* and retweet other participants, too.
  • Tuesday: Ask your followers an open-ended question and reply to their responses.
  • Wednesday: Tell an amusing story about your dog running around in the backyard and trying to catch falling snowflakes during that big snowstorm last night. You’ll get bonus points from all of the animal lovers if you include a picture, too!
  • Thursday: Share a thought-provoking quote.
  • Friday: Talk about one of your hobbies or interests, especially if it’s somehow related to your blog’s subject matter.
  • Saturday: Grab a post from your archives and share it on #ArchiveDay.*
  • Sunday: Start a conversation with your followers about how everyone’s weekends went. Did you or they do anything interesting during it?

*I’ll talk more about these hashtags in the next section of this post.

Any retweets you want to share can be interspersed between these snapshots of your everyday life.

This doesn’t mean that you should spend twelve hours a day on social media. I know many people who set strict limits on how long they spend on Twitter and similar sites. After their 10 or 15 (or fill-in-the-blank) minutes are up for social media time, they close those windows or apps and get back to writing and other work.

One of the downsides of social media is that individual tweets tend to only attract an audience for a short period of time. By tweeting and retweeting regularly, you’ll begin to build rapport with the other people you meet there as they see you pop up over and over again on their timelines.

How to find new people to follow on Twitter might be worthy of its own post, so I won’t say anything else about it today.

Recurring Hashtags to Follow

Some of the hashtags I use are meant to be tweeted only on specific days of the week. If you’re able to spend a bit more time on Twitter sometimes, I’d recommend checking out one or more of the following hashtags.

#MondayBlogs

Rachel Thompson created this hashtag in 2012. Use this hashtag to share links to your blog posts on Mondays. You can use a current post or something from your archives, just don’t share anything that is pornographic or a promotion for your books. Be sure to retweet other participants as well!  Click on the link above for more information about this hashtag and the woman who came up with it.

#ArchiveDay

I believe that #ArchiveDay was originally created in late 2010 or early 2011 by Rosh Sillars so that he and other bloggers could share links from their archives and attract new readers. It wasn’t associated with any particular day in the beginning so far as I’ve been able to determine, but  for the past few years it has become a Saturday tradition for many of us. This is the least well-known hashtag I’m sharing today, but I love the idea of digging through your old posts and introducing them to new audiences. I hope it will become more popular in the future.

#SundayBlogShare

This hashtag was created in 2014 by Suzie81. As of April 2018, she is no longer participating in it, but I still see people using it to share old and new posts every Sunday. To the best of my knowledge, any posts that don’t include pornographic content are welcomed to be tagged with this hashtag.

If you only have time for one of these events, I’d recommend going with #MondayBlogs due to it’s large, active, and diverse population. Definitely don’t feel obliged to participate in all three of these hashtags every week unless you truly want to.

Leave Relevant Comments on Other Sites (and Allow Comments on Your Own)

Let’s say that last week you wrote a post about how to keep sharks from getting tangled up in your underwater basket weaving supplies. Today you noticed someone on Twitter sharing a post on their struggles with the same problem. You love their writing style and really want to connect with them.

This is the perfect opportunity to comment on their post to discuss what worked for you and, if their comment system allows for it, share a link to your post on the topic.

Relevant is the key word here. I definitely don’t share links to my blog posts in the body of every single comment I leave. In fact, most of the time my responses have nothing at all to do with what’s on my site and everything to do with reacting to whatever it is the other person is blogging about that day.

Many bloggers appreciate comments, especially when they know that you’re genuinely interested in who they are and what they’re talking about. If they’re interested in learning more about who you are, they’ll click on the website link that’s included in most commenting systems.

By allowing comments on your site, you’ll give your readers a chance to do the same for you.

Linkup Parties

A Linkup Party is a special type of blog post that is created specifically for people to leave links to their sites in the bodies of their comments. Some of them have specific themes (e.g. share a link to something you wrote on the topic of history, or it might be a linkup for LGBT+ bloggers only). Others are open to all participants.

Generally, the host will ask you to give a brief summary of your site, share a link to a post, and then visit other posts in the comment section of that post. Be sure to follow any additional instructions they give you and check out the other sites, too. You might find some that are right up your alley!

Blog Hops

Finally, we come to blog hops. A blog hop is a weekly prompt that a group of bloggers all write posts about. The site that created the blog hop will provide a space for you to share a link to your response and click on links to the responses of other participants as well.

If you can think of a topic, there is almost certainly a blog hop for it somewhere. That directory I just linked to is just one of many out there.

Top Ten Tuesday and the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge are the two I participate it. They’ve brought quite a few new readers to my site over the last month or so since I first began doing them.

How many of these strategies have you tried? Ruth and anyone else who would like to chime in, what other questions do you have about blogging?

Additional reading:

15 Things I’ve Learned From 15 Years of Blogging

Blogging Advice: How to Begin Blogging

Blogging Advice: Brainstorming and Idea Management

Blogging Advice: Finding and Using Visual Images for Your Site

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January 31, 2019 · 1:00 am

4 Reasons Why You Should Try Walking Meditation

As anyone who has followed this blog for a while probably already knows, I’m always on the lookout for new meditation techniques. Recently, I discovered something called Walking Meditation that was so interesting I felt compelled to tell my readers about it.

 What Is Walking Meditation?

There are several different types of walking meditation out there: Theraveda, Zen (also known as Kinhin), Thich Nhat Hahn, Yoga, Daoist, and Mindfulness Walking Meditation. I’m going to focus on the last one  in today’s post because I found it the most helpful, but do feel free to click the link above if you want to explore other options.

Mindfulness Walking Meditation is quite similar to the types of meditation you’d do while sitting or lying down. You begin by doing something simple: taking a walk. Where that happens is entirely up to do. I didn’t always have a name for it, but it turns out I’ve been practicing Mindfulness Walking Meditation in many of the places I talk walks at: the mall, local parks, sidewalks, and even in front of washers and dryers on laundry day.

When you are walking, focus on nothing other than the sensations your body is feeling as you walk. Remain engaged with all of the things you can see, hear, feel, and touch as you walk. Do your best to call your attention back to the present moment every time your mind begins to wander.

Now that we’ve clarified what we’re talking about and how it’s done, let’s move onto the four reasons why I think you should give Mindfulness Walking Meditation a try as well.

Reason #1: You Can Do It Anywhere

You can walk and remain in the present moment in a noisy place or a quiet one. It can happen in a busy waiting room, a park, a corridor, or any other place where you can find a small area to pace or walk around in. You might be surrounded by thousands of other people or no one else at all.

Unlike some of the other forms of meditation, you don’t need to close your eyes or find a place to sit to do this one. I find that incredibly appealing.

Reason #2: It Gives Restless Meditators Something to Focus On

While I’ve grown more used to sedentary forms of meditation over the years, there is still a part of me that finds it challenging to stay seated for this practice.

The beautiful thing about walking meditation in general, including Mindfulness Walking Meditation specifically, is that it provides you with something to focus on that won’t distract from your goal. It’s so much easier for me to remain in the present moment if my legs are moving!

Reason #3: In Months That Don’t End in “uary,” It’s a Great Excuse to Spend Time in Nature

Yes, I’m being a little tongue-in-cheek here. Of course you could go on a long, meditative walk in January or February if you wanted to. Just because I stay indoors as much as possible during the coldest part of the winter doesn’t mean everyone must do that

There is something meditative about spending time out in nature even if you’re in a month that ends in -uary. One of the things that surprised me the most about Toronto when I first moved here was how many trees this city had, so I spend more time in nature than I thought I would when I became a city person.

There are small parkettes sprinkled throughout the general Toronto area, and we have quite a few large, well-maintained forests to explore as well. Walking through them is one of my favourite things to do in the entire world.

Reason #4: It Helps You Stay Connected to Your Body

Have you ever tried walking any distance when you have a pebble in your shoe? What is mildly annoying at first can quickly become  something that needs to be fixed as soon as possible.

One of the unexpected benefits of Mindfulness Walking Meditation that I’ve noticed has been how it encourages me to pay attention to what is going on with my body. For example, I recently figured out that I have a higher chance of developing a headache on days that I don’t practice good posture. This wasn’t something I was aware of before, but I’m now trying to correct it thanks to this practice. How cool is that?

If you’ve tried any form of walking meditation or are planning to in the near future, I’d love to hear what your thoughts are on this topic.

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January 30, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Characters I’d Name a Baby After

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Here’s a link to this week’s prompt. I’ve never named a baby, and, barring unforeseen circumstances, I never will. If I did have the opportunity to do so, though, I’d pick one of these characters both because they have beautiful, classic names and because their names would work just as well for babies as they would for children, teenagers, adults, and senior citizens.

There’s something to be said for picking a name that grows with a person like that!

Cameron from the TV show Modern Family

Cameron has a fantastic backstory. He’s a gay man who grew up on a farm in a very rural part of the United States. As an adult, he moved far away from home, but he’s never forgotten his roots. There have been many references on Modern Family over the years to all of the things this character misses about rural life, from football games to the joy of having pet pigs. I love the fact that he honours his heritage while at the same time living in a place that has more opportunities for his husband and daughter.

THIS IS US — “The Right Thing to Do” Episode 111 — Pictured: Sterling K. Brown as Randall Pearson — (Photo by: Ron Batzdorff/NBC)

Randall from the TV show This Is Us

Randall was transracially adopted by a white family when he was a baby. As an adult, he’s a dedicated husband and father who – spoiler alert – decided to become a foster parent in order to help the next generation and pass on all of the positive things he learned from his family. I love seeing the flashbacks to his childhood just as much as I do watching him navigate adult responsibilities and conflicts in the present day. He’s such a nerdy, funny, and genuinely kind person. All of those traits are things I find quite appealing. (Yes, it’s possible that I have a little bit of a crush on this character).

Celie and Sofia from Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple

Ideally, Celie and Sofia would be twins, but they could be non-twin siblings, too. I loved the relationship between these sisters in this story, especially after their lives grew difficult and they couldn’t see a way out of their troubles for years at a time. My hope would be that any children named after them would have the same resourcefulness…and happy ending!

Calvin from Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin and Hobbes

Yes, Calvin was a mischievous character. Sometimes he was downright naughty, but he was also incredibly intelligent, imaginative, and resourceful. I always admired those parts of him. He definitely gave his parents a few grey hairs growing up, but I’d bet all of his positive qualities would make him turn out to be a wonderful adult.

Fern from the children’s novel Charlotte’s Web

Fern was such an empathetic girl that I wouldn’t hesitate to name a baby after her. What a good role model she’d be for any child who was learning about death and hardship for the first time.  Although Charlotte is a nice name, too. (Also, I didn’t realize until today that I like so many names that begin with the letter C. Ha! )

Who would you name a baby after?

 

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January 28, 2019 · 1:00 am

My Review of Fitness Blender’s Ab Blasting Interval Workout

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and this post is in no way intended to give out medical advice. Please seek the advice of a qualified medical professional before beginning this or any other type of workout routine. 

In addition, I’m not receiving any kind of compensation for this post, I’m not affiliated with anyone at Fitness Blender, and there is never affiliate marketing of any sort on my site in general. I’m reviewing this workout simply because I loved it and think some of you might, too.

About the Ab-Blasting Interval Workout

This is a 24-minute bodyweight workout that does not include a warmup or cool down. It can be broken down into three groups, each of which includes four different exercises that are repeated once. Each exercise is done for 45 seconds, and there is a 10 second rest period between exercises.

I’m still pretty new to this routine, so it’s nice to have natural stopping point at various points throughout it if necessary.

The only equipment required for this video is a yoga mat.

It’s hard to know what fitness level it was intended for. I wouldn’t recommend it to an absolute beginner, but you might want to check it out after you’ve been doing ab exercises for a while and want to try something new. It’s neither the easiest nor the more difficult workout I’ve ever done.

Ab Blasting Interval Workout

My Review

If you’d like to know what workout is currently keeping me on my toes, you’re in the right place. I recently moved up to this routine after growing strong enough to stop using the previous ab video I’d been following. (I’ll write a review for that routine in the near future!)

As I’ve mentioned when reviewing the Brutal Butt & Thigh Workout, I love the fact that the owners of this channel don’t have any background music in their videos. It makes it so much easier for me to concentrate on the moves I’m supposed to be copying. I hope they never change that.

The variety of exercises in this routine is nice, too. I find some of them  challenging, so it’s helpful to switch things up so often as I work on improving my flexibility and strength.

As usual, the hosts gave suggestions of alternate moves for viewers who don’t have the strength or flexibility to do the same exercises that are recommended for the audience. This is something I really like about these videos in general, and it’s a big part of the reason why I use them so often.

Since there wasn’t a warmup or cool down included in this workout, I also like the fact that not every exercise is intended to be equally difficult. Some of them are clearly meant to focus on our flexibility and range of motion, and I find those portions a bit of a relief after the tougher moves.

I also appreciate the calm demeanours of the couple who runs this site. No matter what they’re encouraging their audience to do, they always explain it in a soothing tone of voice. I am not the kind of person who find being yelled at motivating in any way, so it’s nice to find exercise enthusiasts who take a more mellow approach to the topic.

Honestly, there isn’t anything I’d change about this routine. Everything about it was well done, and I’m planning to continue using this video for quite a while yet. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

Previous Reviews of Free Youtube Workout Routines:

The Challenging Chair Workout 

Bipasha Basu’s 30-Minute Aerobic Dance Workout

Fitness Blender’s Brutal Butt & Thigh Workout

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January 24, 2019 · 1:00 am

Hopeful Science Fiction: Astraea

Last June I blogged about my desire to read more hopeful science fiction. Since then I’ve talked about Woman on the Edge of Time, The Lovely Bones and Semiosis. Today I’m back with another recommendation for hopeful sci-fi, and this time it’s a film! 

If you have recommendations for future instalments of this series, I’d sure like to hear them. Leave a comment below or send me message about it on Twitter.

Astraea

Film poster for Astraea. Image on poster is drawing of main character that also doubles as a map. Astraea is a 2016 film that is set in a slightly futuristic version of what used to be the United States. The main character, Astraea, is a young girl living in what’s left of human society after an epidemic killed off a huge percentage of the population. She’s convinced that their brother and grandmother are still alive, and tries to convince her older half-brother, Matthew, to travel around North America in search of them.

Unlike a lot of post-apocalyptic societies, this one is pretty peaceful world. The human population is so small that it’s rare to run across another person in general, much less one who might have bad intentions.

I’ve reviewed several science fiction and fantasy movies for this site so far. This is the first truly hopeful one I’ve come across, so I thought I’d add it to the Hopeful Science Fiction reading (and now watching) list instead of writing a regular review for it.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find photos of all of the characters like I normally do. This was an Indie film, so I’m guessing their fan base wasn’t large enough for them to have the resources or time to commit to such a thing.  I was able to find photos of the two main characters, though, which is the most important thing.

Nerea Duhart as Astraea

Astraea is the protagonist, a teenage girl who may or may not have telepathic abilities. By the time she and her brother begin travelling to find their parents, there are very few living people left in North America. They spend the majority of their time with no company other than each other.

Scotty Crowe (left) as Matthew

Matthew is Astraea’s older brother. He is fiercely protective of his little sister. While he has doubts about whether or not their journey to find possible surviving relatives is a smart idea, he’s determined to travel with her and keep both of them safe.

Dan O’Brien as James

James is one of the few survivors of this plague that Astraea and Matthew met while travelling.After a tense misunderstanding during their first meeting, James and his wife, Callie, agree to give Astraea and Matthew food and shelter over the winter.

There Is Goodness In Our World

The first thing that struck me about this film was how ordinary life was for the characters despite the fact that they were technically living in a post-apocalyptic world. Their days were filled with going on food runs at the nearest grocery store, doing the occasional bit of hunting, keeping the fireplace burning, and finding ways to amuse themselves when those basic chores were finished. Their story happened during the winter, so their to-do lists were much shorter than they would be if the characters also needed to plant a garden or preserve food.

Honestly, I actually found the storytelling a little slow at times. It felt a lot like how real life unfolds. Most days are fairly ordinary and peaceful. Occasionally, someone might get into an accident, have an argument, or need medical treatment, but that is by the exception to the rule and it is always punctuated by other people doing everything they can to help.

This isn’t to say that the characters lived in perfect harmony all of the time. They had disagreements like any group of people living together are bound to do, but that was as far as the conflict went. Unlike violent shows like The Walking Dead, there were no roving bands of humans waiting to hurt the innocent folks they met on the road. The survivors were simply trying to stay alive through the winter.

Speaking of innocence, I was pleasantly surprised by how well all of the adults in Astraea’s life were able to protect her. She was seen as the child she was, and there was always someone around to make sure she had a nutritious meal to eat and a safe place to sleep. That isn’t common in this genre at all, and I found it refreshing. It wasn’t until I’d finished the scene that I looked up her name and realized that it is also the name of the Greek goddess of innocence. I’m sure the filmmakers did that on purpose. It was a wonderful reference that I’m glad I took the time to google.

Grief and Hope

All of the characters in this story lost people they loved in and shortly after the epidemic, so there were references to their deaths sprinkled in with the happier scenes. I appreciated the fact that the storytellers mixed these emotions together. There is hope after grief. You can miss someone who died recently or a long time ago and still find a reason to believe that tomorrow will be a brighter day.

In my quest to find hopeful science fiction, I keep circling back to stories that acknowledge the pain people experience during the course of a lifetime. There’s something immensely appealing to me about this sturdy kind of hope that thrives in difficult circumstances.

If you feel the same way, I highly recommend checking out this film.

 

Astraea is available on iTunes and Amazon Prime Video.

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January 23, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Things to Do in the Winter

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Part of the reason why I’m so intrigued by this week’s prompt is that winter is my least favourite season of them all. Y’all, I have to admit that I do get a little grumpy by the end of it when it feels like we’re never going to have a warm, sunny day again, and this is coming from someone who actually lives in one of the less snowy parts of Canada!

I can’t imagine what it would be like to live somewhere like the Yukon Territories where “winter” weather essentially begins in late September and lasts until May or June.

Luckily, there are fun things to do when the weather outside is frightful. This is what i’ll be keeping myself busy with over the next few months until the temperatures rise again in April.

Filling Out Adult Coloring Books. There’s something so meditative about them.

Watching Netflix. See also: documentaries (especially if they’re about NASA or nature), goofy comedies like Fuller House, and ghost stories.

Catching Up on My To-Read List. There are so many books out there I’ve been meaning to read. Let’s see how many of them I can actually finish before the weather warms up.

Studying Spanish. Enough said there. Learning a new language is so good for your brain, and it gives you a lot of sympathy for people who are learning English as their second language, too!

Braving the Cold. I do occasionally enjoy going out in the cold and watching the snow fall for a little while. It makes me grateful for the warm, indoor places where I spend most of my time.

How about all of you?

 

 

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January 22, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Meant to Read in 2018 But Didn’t Get To

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Does something count as a TBR list if it’s simply a list of library books you haven’t gotten around to requesting yet? If so, today’s post is going to be a simple one! I’ve been meaning to read all of these books, but I haven’t actually requested them from my local library yet due to the incredibly long wait times for them.

Hopefully, those times will be reduced in 2019. This is a real grab-bag of genres, styles, and topics because that’s exactly what my reading habits are like in general.

1) Heart–A History by Sandeep Jauhar

If you ask me, the history of how humans slowly figured out more and more effective medical treatments for various ailments is a fascinating one. This book spends a lot of time showing how doctors came to understand the heart well enough to perform serious operations like heart transplants.

2) Fierce Fairytales: Poems and Stories to Stir Your Soul by Nikita Gill

Possibly feminist (or at least more modern) retellings of what were originally pretty stereotypical fairy tales? Sign me up!

3) The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias by Dolly Chugh

This book is so relevant to our current age it’s not even funny. I can’t wait to read it.

4) Anger Is a Gift: A Novel by Mark Oshiro

People are almost certainly going to compare this to Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give, but I’m going to do my best to avoid that. It sounds like it will have a unique spin on the topics of racism and police brutality.

5) The Cowkeeper’s Wish: A Genealogical Journey by Tracy Kasaboski

Genealogy is such an interesting topic. My family knows a decent amount about who our ancestors were and what they were doing over the last couple hundred years. I love seeing other families get that same opportunity, too. There’s something really cool about knowing basic things like what a great-great-great grandparent’s occupations was, how many children they had, and where they were born.

6) The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

I absolutely loved the Netflix series based on this book! It’s going to be a lot of fun to see how the original differed from it. My fingers are crossed that more time will be spent explaining the backstories of the various ghosts since many of them weren’t given much screen time in season one of this show.

7) This Is the Way the World Ends: How Droughts and Die-offs, Heat Waves and Hurricanes Are Converging on America by Jeff Nesbit

Obviously, I hope our collective future is much brighter and more hopeful than this. It’s still good to know what the less optimistic predictions are as well.

8) Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited by Elyse Schein

Oh, this is heartbreaking. I can’t imagine separating twins on purpose simply to see how similar or dissimilar they might be if they were raised by different adoptive families and had no knowledge of each other. The best way to learn from the past is to study what happened, though.

9)  The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

So many of you lovely Top Ten Tuesday bloggers have mentioned this book that I simply must read it for myself.

10) The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner

Once again, a lot of Top Ten Tuesday bloggers have talked about this story. If everyone is gushing about it, it just might be amazing! Either way, I must find out for myself once the wait list for it is less than eighty years. (I’m joking….mostly. It is pretty long, though).

How many of these books have you read or do you hope to read?

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