Tag Archives: Humour

March 13, 2017 · 1:00 am

Scifi and Fantasy Rules That Should be Broken

I’ve been reading science fiction and fantasy stories for about as long as I’ve known how to read at all. There are so many things I love about these genres, but today I wanted to talk about some of the things that I wish SFF writers would do differently.

1. The Chosen One Must be Young and Uneducated

Why is the chosen one nearly always a teenager or young adult who hasn’t completed – or often even started – their training yet? Why are they the only one who can defeat the wizard, dragon, corrupt government, or werewolf army?

I dream of the day when the chosen one is actually a group of specialized, highly-trained witches who must use their complementary powers at the same exact time to defeat the dragon. Alternatively, maybe the chosen one could be a 70-year-old scientist who has spent the last 40 years studying the virus that has wiped out the last three attempts at permanent human colonies on Europa and who only now is ready to test his vaccine for it on human subjects.

At this point, I’d prefer to watch conflict build up slowly over years than see any more characters jump into the fray before they fully understand what’s going on or have had any training in what they’re about to accomplish.

2. Everyone Gets a Love Triangle

No, I am not against romantic storylines in general. There is definitely a time and place for them, and many stories would be far poorer without them.

With that being said, I’d be happy to never read about another love triangle again. This kind of stuff yanks me out of the plot every time it happens because of how confusing and strange I find it to be.

Please let characters be polyamorous, asexual, or totally uninterested in falling in love until the last zombie has been destroyed and humanity has once again begun to enjoy luxuries like healthy food, deodorant, regular baths, and not running in terror for their lives every day.

I would be thrilled to read about any of these scenarios. What I’d like to avoid, though, is anyone wringing their hands about which love interest to pick when there are far more urgent matter at hand.

For example, how terrible must all of the characters smell after running away from zombies for weeks and eating nothing but stale candy bars and potato chips out of vending machines?( I’m mostly joking here, but I think about practical matters like bad breath and body odour when a character in this sort of story suddenly starts mooning over someone who also probably hasn’t seen a toothbrush or loofah since sometime last month).

There are so many interesting things to say about outsmarting zombies, navigating a spaceship, or figuring out how to placate a fairy after you’ve unintentionally angered her and all of her relatives. These sources of conflict are a thousand times more compelling to me than wondering which love interest the main character will pick when he or she is still trying to figure out how to survive the night or which end of the sword you should be poking the bad guys with.

3. Aliens Are Always Smarter Than Us

There are only a few non-human species on Earth that can be described as intelligent: elephants, dolphins, and certain species of apes come to mind here.

We have no idea what life is really like on other planets or if it exists, but sometimes I wonder what humanity would do if we discovered something that wasn’t a little green man who could learn to speak English.

How would we treat an alien species if it was about as intelligent and willing to communicate with us as is the average cat? What if they were intelligent but it was in a way that wasn’t particularly compatible with human intelligence? Would we still be interested in a species if we couldn’t figure out their language or they couldn’t figure out ours?

These are the kinds of questions I think about every time I watch science fiction movies about humans making contact with new species from other planets.

4. Humans Are the Good Guys

Speaking of aliens, why are humans always the good guys when our species get into conflicts with each other?

Humanity honestly doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to treating new cultures and societies fairly. While I hope that would change if we ever met intelligent and communicative beings from another planet, I think there’s a fairly decent chance that at least some humans would try to take advantage of them for personal or political gain.

No, I’m not saying that eery single human needs to be fighting for the dark side. Wouldn’t it be interesting to read a book or watch a movie about someone who noticed this happening and who tried to warn the aliens before one of our governments passed a law saying it was okay to mistreat visitors from other planets, though? The conflict between your duty to your species and your duty to protect innocent visitors who are going to be horribly abused for potentially many generations to come if you don’t speak out and fight for them right now would keep me glued to my seat.

It would also help the scifi genre return to the kinds of social messages that used to be much more common in it. Science fiction isn’t just about coming up with flashy ideas for new technology or imagining what life could be like in a few hundred years. It can also be about getting people to think critically about the decisions they make in their real life that can help or hurt the most vulnerable members of our society.

5. Nobody Spills the Beans

I shake my head every time a vast conspiracy is revealed that has existed for decades and required thousands or even millions of people to play along with it.

It’s hard enough to get five people to agree on what kind of pizza to order or to keep excited relatives from sharing the news when you tell them that you’re pregnant, have finally finished writing your book, or recently got a promotion!

Secrets only work if they’re kept by a small number of highly motivated people. Even then, it is very easy for one of them to spring a leak with someone they deeply trust.

Unless the character exist in a universe where the Powers That Be purposefully limit the intelligence of most people while they’re still in the womb, these things should either somewhat common knowledge or only known by a handful of characters in the entire universe.

I would love it if more books understood all of these rules. If you have any recommendations for stories that do, let me know on Twitter!

Comments Off on Scifi and Fantasy Rules That Should be Broken

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy, Writing

Tagged as

March 6, 2017 · 1:00 am

What Cheesy Ghost Movies Can Teach You About Getting (and Staying) in Shape

One of my favourite things to do during a boring workout routine is to watch the kinds of ghost movies on Netflix that desperately try to be scary but end up being predictable and silly instead.

The nice part about these films is that they don’t require your full attention. Paying attention to 80% of the things happening on the screen is more than enough to figure out the plot twists well in advance, so they’re perfect for watching while you exercise.

The other reason why I watch these films is because there are lessons in every single one of them that would honestly work as well, and maybe even a little better, if you applied them to your workout routine instead of waiting until you move into a haunted house or accidentally knock over a gravestone to see how useful they’d be. Figuring out what those lessons are have also provided me endless amounts of entertainment on cardio days.

Lesson #1: Don’t Be Afraid to Take Advice from Others Who Have Already Been There

No one is ever too old to learn something new, and no one is ever too young to teach you something you didn’t know before.

I’m slowly forming a small group of fellow exercise enthusiasts who bounce ideas off of each other and ask for advice when there’s something we find challenging or confusing about our workouts.

Not everyone in this loosely-associated club of sorts practices the exact same routines, but we share enough in common that we can find those areas where we overlap and trade information about what does and doesn’t work.

There have been a few times when I’ve considered something and decided that it isn’t something that I should worry about for a wide variety of reasons, but I always listen to the reasons why someone gives for recommending or not recommending it before making my final decision.

Lesson #2: Always Tie Your Shoes

Have you ever noticed how often characters in horror movies forget to tie their shoes securely? Sometimes they have to do that in order to give a menacing ghost the chance to catch up with them once they run away, but the last thing you want to do while running or walking is step on your own shoelace and trip over your own foot.

I always double-check my shoes and anything else I’m wearing that could potentially cause an accident before I start working out. Sometimes I have even been known to double-knot my laces if I’ll be going somewhere muddy or cold. It isn’t much fun to tie laces when they’re covered in dirt or slush.

Lesson #3: If Something Feels Wrong, Don’t Ignore It

There’s a fine line between pushing yourself to do better and injuring yourself because you overlooked pain while you were exercising.

If a specific move sends a tingle down your spine in a bad way, stop immediately. Most people wouldn’t wander into a dark basement in the middle of the night to investigate a strange noise if their flashlight kept dying at the top of the steps.

Use that same common sense when you’re working out. There will be more opportunities to try that move again  once you’ve gained more experience or moved on to better equipment.

Lesson #4: Some Days Are Going to Suck No Matter What You Do

Just like some houses are so deeply haunted that you won’t ever find enough holy water to cleanse them, some workouts are going to falter for reasons you couldn’t possibly predict or prevent.

For example, I’ve had multiple workouts that were interrupted by fire alarms. Obviously, fire alarms can’t be ignored for all kinds of safety and noise reasons. When that alarm sounds, the only thing you can do is get to somewhere safe and wait for someone to turn it off.

On a less urgent note, there have been times when my workouts were cut short because I was recovering from an illness or injury that turned out to be further back in the healing process than I originally thought it would be. My spirit might be willing to push it to the limit, but my body is a completely different story in that scenario.

Your mental health matters, too. Occasionally I have a day when my workouts are begrudging at absolute best due to other things that are going on in my life at that point. The faster I accept that I won’t be breaking any personal records those days, the faster I can get through the routine and put as much effort into it as I can reasonably manage for that particular day.

Lesson #5: Practice More than One Kind of Exercise

Could you outrun a vengeful spirit? Could you pick up an injured friend and carry them to the car? Are you limber enough to turn to the side, stretch backwards, and unhook your jacket from that rusty nail sticking out of the door before the ghost comes back again?

Obviously these things aren’t literally going to happen, but the failure of many horror movie characters to stay in good shape is a reminder that there’s more than one way to be fit. Ideally, we should all be practicing as many of them as we can.

I have been walking long distances for a decade and lifting weights for a few years now. Yoga is the next form of exercise to check off my list in 2017. I hope I’d be able to do all of the things listed above in an emergency.

Lesson #6: Try, Try Again

Not everything in life happens right away. As I blogged a few weeks ago, yoga wasn’t something I liked the first or even the second time I tried it.

Even now I’m not entirely sure what I think about this form of exercise, but I continue giving it chances to change my mind. Just like it can take horror movie characters more than one visit with a psychic to convince a restless spirit to move onto the next world, sometimes new workout routines need some time to settle into a groove as well.

If you truly don’t like it, there’s nothing wrong with admitting that and moving onto something new.  Don’t assume that your first impression of something will be your last one, though. People’s opinions change every day if they give themselves enough chances to decide what they really think about a specific form of exercise.

Lesson #7: It Never Ends

There will always be something new to learn.

You could always be a little stronger, faster, or more flexible.

Someone else will always need your advice.

There will always be other people who will have good advice for you if you open yourself up to it.

What about the spirits?

Yes, they will always return in the sequel regardless of how well you think you vanquished them at the end of the third act in the original film.

Comments Off on What Cheesy Ghost Movies Can Teach You About Getting (and Staying) in Shape

Filed under Fitness

Tagged as , , , ,

February 20, 2017 · 1:00 am

How to Survive a Post-Apocalyptic Storyline

Congratulations!

You’ve just been selected to be one of the secondary characters in an upcoming post-apocalyptic novel.

If you wish to die nobly in order to spur the main character on at a critical moment in the plot, please disregard the rest of this message. There is always a need for volunteers for this position, and so your sacrifice in this manner will be greatly appreciated by everyone who expects this kind of tearjerking moment in a world without any modern conveniences.

If you want to live, memorize these rules and be sure to follow them religiously once the first scene has begun. They won’t guarantee your survival, but they will greatly increase the odds of it.

  1. Ignore the news and the government. There has never been one single instance of a government body or a news organization having any clue what is really going on in an apocalypse. Do not listen to any advice they give, and avoid traveling to any safe area they recommend in the first few scenes. It will be a trap.
  2. If the protagonist travels east, head west. While this isn’t always something that’s possible to accomplish, staying out of the way as much as possible is the safest thing you can do until or unless you are promoted to a main character role. Every big battle will take place wherever the main character roams, so you will reduce your chances of getting caught up in one if you travel anywhere other than those locations. This rule can be broken during the climax if other secondary characters have already been killed off and if you are willing to take the risk that the author still has some tricks up his or her sleeve.
  3. Do not endear yourself to the audience. You will feel tempted at times to play up the best parts of your personality in order to lure some of the audience’s attention from the main characters, but encouraging them to love you will only increase the odds of you succumbing to whoever or whatever it is in the storyline that has killed off so many other people before you. This is especially true if you are young, vulnerable, or happen to remind the protagonist of a loved one that he or she left behind in the beginning of the story.
  4. Avoid playing the hero. If you know your safe house is surrounded by monsters, avoid any foolhardy attempts to sneak past them regardless of who in your party might be in dire need of medicine, food, or water in that scene. There is only one hero in this story, and any attempts to steal that spotlight will be interpreted by the writer as foreshadowing for your eventual death. Stay in the shadows and away from the dangers of sudden plot twists as much as possible while the keyboard is still clicking away.
  5. Remain slightly hopeful. Characters who lose all of their hope for the future are in just as much danger as characters who are still obnoxiously cheerful and upbeat after days of hiking through the mud and shivering the night away without a single blanket to keep them warm. Stay neutral when the dialogue is not focused on you and slightly hopeful but still realistic about the odds if you happen to get accidentally caught in the same scene with the main character after the opening act.
  6. Memorize the most common kinds of creatures found in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Elves and faeries are almost always trustworthy. Unicorns are harmless to non-virgin humans. Ghosts may be frightening, but they are rarely a genuine threat to anyone. Orcs, zombies, vampires, and goblins are always dangerous unless you happen to wind up in a rare post-apocalyptic romance novel where a member of their species happens to be the main character’s love interest. Once you know who or what you’re dealing with, you’ll know whether to stick with, tolerate, or avoid any non-human characters that may be lurking in the book.
  7. Listen to your elders. While not every post-apocalyptic story will include an older, wiser character who knows exactly what is going on, be sure to listen to them if they appear at any point in the storyline. The chances of that individual guiding you safely to the final scene are much higher than you might think.  People like this usually appear in the plot for a good reason and should be trusted unless you have an even stronger reason to ignore their sensible advice. In some cases, this can even shorten a full-length novel into a tidy short story with only a small reduction in the overall suspense and excitement of the tale.

With any luck, following all of these rules will help you survive until the final battle. Every character is more or less on their own at that point, so be sure to continue practicing your swordsmanship, long distance running, emergency medical drills, and spell casting until you know exactly what kind of book you will be assigned to and therefore what skills you will need to survive whatever disease, monster, battle, natural disaster, or other source of conflict may be coming your way.

Newer posts in this series:

How to Survive a Paranormal Storyline.

Comments Off on How to Survive a Post-Apocalyptic Storyline

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy, Writing

Tagged as ,

January 16, 2017 · 1:00 am

Things Nobody Tells You About Moving to Canada

Twelve years ago I immigrated to Canada from the United States. Today I thought it would be fun to share a list of things I learned about moving up north that I found surprising, funny, or interesting.

International Postage is Slow and Expensive

It costs me about $1.35 to mail a greeting card to the United States. Once I actually ended up spending more to mail a small box of gifts to a family member than I spent on the presents themselves. Needless to say, I don’t regularly send boxes of goodies to my loved ones down south these days. They are only mailed off for the most special of occasions.

There’s also the time factor for international packages. It is often much slower than it would be to to mail something to someone within Canada. You need to send stuff early if you want it to arrive on time, especially during the busier seasons of the year. Normally I try to mail stuff out at least two weeks before I hope it will arrive. This is usually overkill, but there have been times when packages haven’t arrived until the tail end of that window of time.

Immigrants Are Everywhere, and They Are Welcomed Here

20% of the people who currently live in Canada were born somewhere else in the world. That percentage is more like 50% here in Toronto.

It’s so interesting to hear stories about where other Canadians came from and how they ended up living here. Some of my fellow immigrants originally moved here to go to university or to accept a specific job. Others came here because they fell in love with someone who already lived here just like I did. Regardless of why they’re here or when they arrived, I love hearing people talk about their adventures along the way to temporary work visas, permanent residency, and/or citizenship.

While my adopted country definitely  isn’t perfect, stories like this are common here. I’ve personally witnessed similar random acts of kindness playing out more than once in Toronto. It’s one of the things I really like about living here. There is an openness to strangers in Canadian culture that seeps into your bones once you’ve lived here long enough.

Canadians Have a Dark, Unique Sense of Humour

On the flip side, one of the first things I noticed when I moved up here was how dark the Canadian sense of humour can be. It’s not quite as dry or self-deprecating as British humour, but I can see how it was influenced by them . Both Canada and England laugh at things that aren’t quite as common to joke about in the States.

Sometimes my Canadian-born spouse likes to gently tease me when I react to Canadian jokes like an American would. They make me pull back even though I know there’s nothing malicious about them. I simply don’t quite understand why they find stuff like Nina Conti’s monkey puppet act so hilarious.

Obviously this is one of those things that not every Canadian immigrant will notice or think about. So much depends on which country you grew up in and what assumptions you make about how society works when you move to a new culture.

I hope that other Canadian immigrants who read this blog will consider writing their own posts about what they’ve observed here. It would be so interesting to get other perspectives on this. If anyone does this and lets me know about it on Twitter, I’ll edit this post to include links to their posts!

You Are (Probably) Going to be Doing Most of the Traveling to See Everyone Back Home
My parents spent a lot of time visiting us in Ontario during the first year or two I lived up here when I wasn’t legally allowed to leave the country. I was still waiting to become a Permanent Resident at that point, so the government wanted me to stay in the country full-time until all of that paperwork was sorted out.

Once I became a Permanent Resident, though, it quickly became clear that it’s a lot cheaper and easier for two young adults to go visit a few dozen relatives between the ages of 0 and 90+ than for those relatives to come up to Toronto.

We really appreciate getting the visitors we do up here, but my spouse and I are used to doing most of the traveling these days.

On a positive note, family reunions quickly become the highlight of your year. It is so much fun to be surrounded by relatives who are all thrilled to have you around for a week or two. Sometimes it feels like being a mini-celebrity because of how excited your family is to see you when you go back home.

These are a few of the many things that I didn’t know about life in Canada before I moved up here. Perhaps I’ll share more of them in a future post!

Comments Off on Things Nobody Tells You About Moving to Canada

Filed under Personal Life

Tagged as , , ,

September 5, 2016 · 1:00 am

7 New Rules for Labour Day

Monday Blogs Photo #1Traditionally, people weren’t supposed to wear white after Labour Day if they wanted to be seen as fashionable. Almost no one follows this rule anymore, so I thought I’d nominate some guidelines for this time of year.

Let me know which one you want to vote for as the official replacement in the comments below.

  1. No guilt-trips after Labour Day. Hallothankschrismukkah is rapidly approaching, and soon everyone will be busy preparing for it in a million different ways. This means that no one is going to have the time or energy to accept even a small guilt trip. If you absolutely must send them out, they should be postmarked no later than this afternoon and can only reference things that will be finished by 6 pm sharp this evening.
  2. No back-to-school shopping after Labour Day. Look, you’ve had weeks to pick up new compasses, sneakers, lunch boxes, replacement charge cords for your electronic devices after the last one got lost on vacation, and spiral notebooks. If you haven’t found everything on the list by now, you probably never will.
  3. No wearing socks with sandals after Labour Day. That is strictly a summer fashion. There’s no need to continue it into the fall.
  4. No arguing with Internet trolls after Labour Day. An occasional slip-up during a heat wave is understandable, but they grow louder and stronger if you feed them too much.
  5. No popsicles after Labour Day. Pumpkin spiced treats are now in season. It’s time to start warming up with them instead of cooling down with freezer snacks. Note: this rule doesn’t apply if you have a sore throat or are otherwise too sick to eat typical autumn meals.
  6. No Pinterest crafts after Labour Day. Pinterest season begins on the first of December and ends now. The next few months are your chance to relax and regroup before the next cycle of glitter revs up.
  7. No obligatory gift-giving after Labour Day. If you love buying presents for everyone you’ve ever met, great! There should be no such thing as obligatory gift-giving at this time of year, though. You have the complete freedom to expand or contract the list of people you buy for based on your budget, time constraints, personal preferences, (dis)interest in shopping, and any other criteria that matters to you.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Uncategorised

Tagged as ,

May 26, 2016 · 1:00 am

You Know You’re Tired When You Try to Recharge Your Glasses

A few months ago I was getting ready for bed late one night. It had been a long day, and I was quite tired.

After brushing my teeth and washing my face, I took off my glasses and started plugging them into a charger. It took me several tries to remember that glasses don’t need to be charged up at the end of the day.

Who knows? That might change in a few years. For now, though, nearly everyone’s glasses remain unconnected to the internet and never in need of a charge to work properly.

I laughed at myself, put my glasses into their case, and went to sleep in record time.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve done when you were incredibly sleepy?

 

Leave a Comment

Filed under Uncategorised

Tagged as

April 28, 2016 · 10:27 am

How to Be a Good Apartment Neighbour

So you’ve moved into an apartment building or complex. Congratulations on your new, environmentally-friendly home! There are a few things the people living underneath, beside, and/or on top of you would like you to know about this kind of living arrangement.

  1. If there is a communal laundry room, empty your machines as soon as possible. Your clothing will start to smell like mildew in your quiet, dark closet just as quickly as it would if you let it sit in the same washing machine for days on end.
  2. Do you feel like juggling bowling balls in your living room? Fantastic! Please save your juggling practices for the daylight hours, though. They’ll make the same delightfully raucous noise in the middle of the day as they would at 10 pm, and they’ll be much less likely to irritate the people living below you then.
  3. Open a window if your overcooked dinner sets your home fire alarm off. If you open your front door, the smoke will drift into the hallway and set off the main fire alarm. When the main fire alarm goes off it will loudly blare into every single apartment in the complex until the fire truck arrives. This is the sort of thing that should only happen when there is an actual fire spreading from one apartment to the next. See also: The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
  4. Speaking of fire alarms, smoking cigarettes also sets them off. Yes, this still counts if you open a window or sneak a cigarette in the emergency staircase. Be sure your sin smoke will find you out.
  5. Please tell me how your dog has learned to identify the floor he lives on by sniffing the elevator door. I am fascinated every time I see him figure out exactly when you will be disembarking and barking his approval of it.
  6. If you allow a canvasser to slip behind you into the building, we’re sending him or her to your house.
  7. Let the preschoolers press the ground floor button on the elevator. It will make their day.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Uncategorised

Tagged as

March 31, 2016 · 11:05 am

A Review of Today’s Rainy Weather

Title: Spring Storms: When March 31 Attacks

Author: Gaia Terra

Publisher: Cosmos

Rating: 4 Earths out of 5

Review:

Don’t let the weatherman fool you. Rainy days aren’t just for April anymore.

To be perfectly honest with you, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this very much when I first picked it up. Gloomy, damp, Thursday mornings are such a longstanding tradition in the Spring Storms series that I couldn’t imagine how anyone could put a fresh spin on them. Skipping volume 12 after finishing the first eleven instalments was unimaginable, though, so I kept going. Wow, am I glad I did! The narrator really pulled out all of the stops in this edition.  Her gentle use of chilly breezes was just as refreshing as how regularly she turned the rainfall up and down to suit the general mood of the storm.

With that being said, I did have a few issues with how the clouds were used. Do all of them actually need to be so dark and heavy? I completely understand why you’d need some puffy, foreboding clouds in a storm like this one, but sometimes they floated into downright torrential territory without any warning at all. Ms. Terra could have easily made her point perfectly well without being quite so heavy handed. In fact, making me work a little harder to figure out when it was raining and when it was only threatening to rain would have easily earned this blustery day a higher rating. Everything else about it was exactly what I would expect from the end of March.

I do have to admit that the fog was perfectly handled. It hung around menacingly in the background without ever trying to take centre stage. That is exactly the kind of fog I’d expect for this kind of nuanced weather, and this is coming from someone who normally can’t get enough of foggy days.

Who should jump into Spring Storms: When March 31 Attacks? Anyone who has a strong umbrella, a solid pair of rain boots, and the uncanny ability to keep their electronics tucked away in a dry, secure place until the sun comes out again.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Uncategorised

Tagged as ,

December 7, 2015 · 1:00 am

A Short List of Acceptable Christmas Songs

Stille_Nacht_eoEvery year stores seem to start playing Christmas music earlier than they did the year before. My patience for these tunes is all but entirely worn out this season, and we’re still a little over two weeks away from Christmas.

Nearly every rule has at least one exception, though, so today I’ll be sharing the short list of Christmas songs that I have not yet found irritating in 2015. 😉

Stille Nacht. That is, Silent Night. My high school choir attempted to sing this song one year. None of us were native German speakers, so we stumbled over the pronunciation of certain words a bit in our concert. Not understanding the lyrics made and makes it much easier for me to appreciate the tune. There’s also the fact that I live in an area where German is not commonly spoken. As far as I can tell, I haven’t heard this song in any stores. Yet.

I’ll Be Home for Christmas. My mom explained the lyrics and background of this song to her kids when we were fairly young. It was heartbreaking to think of a young soldier off fighting in Europe in the 1940s who has no idea if he’ll ever go home again, much less make it home in time for Christmas. Part of me hopes we get a sequel to this story someday that talks about how the soldier made it home safely and lived happily ever after. In my mind, that is exactly what happened to him.

Winter Wonderland. What I like about this song is that it has nothing at all to do with a religious or materialistic approach to the holidays. The speaker is enjoying all of the nice things that winter brings, and it doesn’t cost him or her a single cent. (Well, other than maybe a little extra feed for the horses that have been pulling all of those sleighs around). This is the sort of tune that can be enjoyed by everyone. It doesn’t matter whether or not you celebrate Christmas or which deities – if any – you believe in. Anyone who lives in a climate where it snows can relate to what it feels like to walk around in a cold, quiet world after its been blanketed in a fresh coat of snow.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorised

Tagged as ,

September 10, 2015 · 5:00 am

Welcome, New Readers!

Photo credit: Marcus Quigmire from Florida, USA.

Photo credit: Marcus Quigmire from Florida, USA.

I’ve noticed a nice bump in readership these past few weeks, but I have no idea where my new readers are coming from or how they found this site.

Did another blogger (dis)agree with me?

Was I mentioned in a news article?

Has someone reviewed one of my books and linked back to my site in their review?

Have aliens discovered our civilization and decided that lurking on this blog is the best way to learn about humanity?

Are all of my new readers bots?

If so, are they intelligent bots? Will the aliens we someday meet turn out not to be another organic life form like people but a mechanical life form that we created?

If so, will they continue to write and read blogs long after humans have gone extinct?

There are the things my brains wonders about when its left to its own devices.

If you’re willing to reveal how you found this blog, I’d love to know where you came from.

If not, I’ll continue to assume that all of my new readers are extremely intelligent bots who are currently deciding whether or not to befriend their makers based on what they think of my writing style.

😉

Leave a Comment

Filed under Uncategorised

Tagged as