Tag Archives: Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books I Discovered on Social Media

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There is a glowing red heart icon hanging suspended in an otherwise pitch black room. A person’s finger is reaching up to touch the heart icon but has not quite reached it yet. 

The red glowing light from the icon is just barely bright enough to illuminate this scene. Mastodon is the social media site I spend the most time on. Their Bookstodon hashtag is a particularly great place to learn about new books, but I’ve also found great reads Goodreads and, up until about two years ago, Twitter.

Here are some of the many books I’ve discovered on social media, several thanks to my friend Berthold Gambrel. The links below are to my reviews of these books.

Veterans of Love and War: A First World War Ghost Story by Steven Glick

War Bunny by Christopher St. John

Only the Living Feel Remorse – A Ghost Story by Ash Deza

The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz

The Future Is Female by Lisa Yaszek (Editor)

The Future Is Female! Volume Two, the 1970s – More Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women by Lisa Yaszek (Editor)

Vespasian Moon’s Fabulous Autumn Carnival by Berthold Gambrel

Samantha, 25, on October 31 by Adam Bertocci

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: 10 Unusual Things About Me

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The word “today” is written on a sheet of lined paper in a spiral notebook. Beneath the word there is a numbered list that hasn’t been filled out yet. All we see are numbers 1 through 4 with space to write whatever was supposed to be on this list.Hmm, let’s see….

1. I have an ancestor named Deacon John whose true identity has never been discovered and who I am fascinated by. We have documentation of him in the mid-1800s in the U.S., but the area of Germany he always claimed to be from has zero records about him.  No notice of birth, no baptism records, nothing. Our family tree is almost entirely German and French according to those DNA test kits that were popular a few years ago, so he probably really was German instead of from some other ethnic or racial group. Maybe he changed his name or was from a different town in that corner of the world, though?

2. I abhor the smell and taste of olives. If you eat olives around me, I will graciously leave the room or turn my head and hope for a gentle breeze between us. Under no circumstances will I help you eat them, but I will wish you well if this is a food you like.

3. Several years ago, I was filling out a family history form for a doctor’s office and started writing down a mild medical condition that one of my nephews has. Then I remembered that he’s adopted. (Our family loves everyone equally, so I don’t spend much time thinking about who is and isn’t a blood relative unless there’s a pressing reason to do so like answering family medical history questions).

4. I have been known to hug trees in the spring when they finally have leaves again. I so miss leaves and other greenery during the winter!

5. Sometimes I’m a little too stoic. Once I visited my family doctor for a suspected case of pneumonia. When she asked how I was, I said, “oh, alright.” I was not, in fact, alright until after the antibiotics kicked in and the simple act of breathing no longer lead to coughing and the unpleasant things a body can do when you’re unable to stop coughing.

6. I occasionally have dreams about blogging, from writing posts to visiting other people’s sites and commenting on their latest content. Some of these sites don’t even exist in real life, they’re just apparently run in dreamland by friends I’ve made online. It’s one of my happier types of dreams other than the ones where I get to explore old mansions and try to find their attics before I wake up. If I can find the attic in time, I get to talk to all sorts of famous dead people and pick their brains which is quite rewarding.

7. Sometimes my dreams have commercials in them which vexes me terribly as one can never fast-forward through them. I’d much rather have a nice, calm lucid dream instead.

8. I spent years petitioning my parents for a baby sister and even went so far as to help pick her name: Grace Marie. It never happened as they had enough children to raise already, but I still sometimes wonder what little Gracie might have been like if she existed.

9. There’s a specific clicking sound a mouth can make that can draw squirrels to you. I enjoy being a squirrel whisperer on occasion with that noise, although I’m still not sure what it means to them.

10. I have an occasional, light stutter.

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Characters I Never Want to Meet

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A drawing of a hand making the thumbs down gesture. This week’s list was much easier to come up with than the prompt from last month that asked us to list characters we want to meet.

So who would I never want to meet?

The kid from The Giving Tree.  There’s so much selfishness, greed, and codependence in this story. It’s a one-way relationship where the tree gives literally everything it has and the boy (who later grows into an adult and then an old man) is still never satisfied or willing to reciprocate. Yikes!

Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs.  Can I assume most of you are familiar with this film or the book it was based on? If not, know that Hannibal was a violent man who did unspeakable things to his victims without an ounce of regret.

Rufus Weylin from Kindred. The protagonist in this novel is a young black woman (yes, her race is important to mention here due to reasons that will soon be clear) living in the 1970s who keeps being pulled back into time to save a brutally racist and sexist slaveowner. There’s a metaphor involving him in this book I’ll leave up to other readers to figure out for themselves, but Rufus isn’t someone I’d ever want to meet in person due to how violent and unpredictable he was.

Humbert Humbert from Lolita. This book disturbed me so much I stopped reading within a few pages and will never return to finish it. Let’s just say that there was something seriously wrong with this man and the way he thought about children.

Kevin from We Need to Talk About Kevin. What I find chilling about this villain was how ordinary his origin was. He had a safe and healthy childhood with two committed parents as well as countless other adults who tried to help him as his behavioural problems escalated. Seeing what he grew up to be frightens me as he had every reason and opportunity to become a peaceful, law-abiding citizen instead.

The Lady of the Green Kirtle from The Silver Chair. I’ll bet many of you read this book as a kid, but if not it’s a good read. This character scared me because of how convincing she could be even when she was obviously wrong. Her magic made it hard for people to remember the terrible things she had done which added extra layers of difficulty when the protagonists confronted her.

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Comfort Foods and Why (+ Recipes)

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The word recipe spelled out with each letter on a separate beige plastic tile. There are two small bouquets of dried flowers lying next to the plastic tiles on the white surface they’ve been placed on. The meals I make are filling and made from common and generally inexpensive ingredients. That is to say, I’m no Martha Stewart or Megan Sussex, but I do like experimenting in the kitchen.

While precise measurements are necessary for certain recipes, I tend to prefer dishes that are more flexible so I can add in little bits of this and that if there’s something in the fridge, freezer, or cupboards that needs to be used up soon. I find it comforting to avoid food waste as much as I possibly can.

Carbohydrates are also comforting to me as you all are about to find out. 😉

 

Cleaning Out the Fridge Rice

(Or fridge rice for short. Ha!)

This is the sort of food I make when I need to make something for dinner and maybe have a few leftovers to use up but don’t have the energy to do anything fancy.

Cook 1 cup of the rice of your choice according to package instructions. Generally, this means about 2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice.

This is a comforting base that needs some extra flavours now like:

  • Eggs (scrambled or hard-boiled)
  • Instant ramen (cook them in about 30-50% the usual amount of water before mixing them in. You want the noodles soft but not to have a ton of extra liquid left over.)
  • Nearly any sort of vegetables you have in your freezer, especially mixed veggie options
  • leftover bits of seafood, chicken, beef, or other protein options from previous meals
  • Beans
  • Sliced almonds or other small nuts
  • Canned water chestnuts

Or whatever else you have in the fridge, freezer, or cabinets that seems like it would go into a rice or stir fry dish. If you like hot sauce, soy sauce, or VH sauce, these can be substituted for the ramen noodles flavouring pack if you wish or sparingly added in if you’re really craving salt.

It’s cheap and tasty way to use up various bits of food that aren’t enough to make a full meal on their own.

 

Mom’s Chicken Taco Soup

This recipe is straight from my mom!

Ingredients:

1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
I can diced tomatoes, or 1 fresh tomato diced
1 can corn
1 can chicken with juices
3-4 cups water
½ cup rice

½ teaspoon each of:
Cumin
Chili powder
Paprika
Garlic powder
Thyme
Rosemary
Marjoram
Oregano
Salt
Pepper
Cinnamon
Vinegar
Hot sauce

1 tablespoon each:
Cocoa
Ketchup
Brown sugar
Oil

 

Mom’s Instructions:

I heat the oil in a pan first, and then, if the tomato is fresh, I add that next and let it cook for a bit. Then I stir in the rice and the spices and just keep adding ingredients until everything’s in there. simmer it for an hour or until the rice is soft.

 

Strawberry Spinach Salad

I know salad might not seem like the quintessential comfort food at first glance, but this is one of my all-time favourite salads even though I’m generally not a big fan of spinach. The sweet, tangy dressing pairs with the strawberries and spinach perfectly.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon minced onion
10 ounces fresh spinach – rinsed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces
1 quart strawberries – cleaned, hulled and sliced
1/4 cup almonds, blanched and slivered

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce and onion. Cover and chill for one hour.

2. In a large bowl, combine the spinach, strawberries and almonds. Pour dressing over salad, and toss. Refrigerate 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

 

Brownie in a Mug

This is a great way to make a single serving of brownies if that’s all you need.

Ingredients

1/4 cup flour (30 grams)
1/4 cup sugar (50 grams)
2 Tbsp (13 grams) cocoa (natural, unsweetened)
Pinch of salt
Tiny pinch of cinnamon
1/4 cup water (60 ml)
2 Tbsp canola oil or vegetable oil (NOT extra virgin olive oil, it’s too strongly flavoured)
1 to 2 drops vanilla extract
1 small scoop of ice cream,  1-2 teaspoons (13-26 grams) heavy whipping cream, or dairy-free alternatives  (optional)

Instructions

Place flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, and cinnamon in a microwave safe ceramic mug. Stir with a fork or spoon to mix well and break up any clumps.

Add the oil, water, and vanilla to the cup and stir until the mixture is smooth and there are no lumps.

Place in microwave and heat on high until the mixture is cooked through, about a 1 minute and 40 seconds for a 1000 watt microwave. You may have to experiment and adjust the time depending on your microwave. Begin with 60 seconds increments and increase until the brownie is done. It should still be moist when cooked through, not dry.

Let cool for a minute and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a teaspoon or two of whipping cream poured over.

 

 

I look forward to seeing everyone else’s recipes!

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Blogs

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The last time we had this prompt, I recommended some well-known sites that I enjoy. This time around, I’m going to try to stick to bloggers who sites I enjoy and who I believe should have much bigger audiences.

The word blog is spelled out in Scrabble tiles. Ruined Chapel. My friend Berthold Gambrel reviews films, books, and occasionally other types of media from many different genres on this blog. I’ve discovered some great indie and older stuff through him, so go say hello if you’re in the market for stories that are a little off the beaten path. He’s a friendly person who loves meeting new folks.

Black Outdoors. I don’t know Jacqueline personally, but I love reading her posts about all sorts of outdoor activities that she’s tried. She writes such descriptive posts about what she enjoyed (or, occasionally, didn’t enjoy so much) about them.

Voices for Vaccines. This site share stories about people who caught vaccine-preventable diseases. With measles cases currently surging in North America, I think it’s critical to remember why vaccination is important and what happens when a community loses herd immunity.

Dr. Grumpy. Yes, I’ve recommended him before, but he’s a perennial favourite. While Voices for Vaccines is often tragic, Dr. Grumpy is the place to go for funny medical stories about things his patients have said and done.

Mock Ramblings. Michael and I met in the comment section of someone else’s blog many years ago, and I’ve been following his blog ever since. He talks about writing, Dungeons & Dragons, science fiction, music, and more. My favorite posts of his are about the funny things his kids have said over the years.

Bookwyrm Knits. Nicole is someone I met through Top Ten Tuesday several years ago. She talks about knitting, reading, and random bookish things.  One of these days I’m going to learn to knit so I can emulate her and share my creations, too, because she is a good influence on me. 🙂

Dini Panda Reads. Dini is another kindred spirit I met through Top Ten Tuesday who talks about the most interesting books. Every once in a while, she shares cool stories about life in Indonesia which I also enjoy reading. The climate she lives in is so different from cold and snowy Canada at this time of year!

Leah’s Books. She is Top Ten Tuesday kindred spirit #3 on this list.  We have such similar taste in books that what she reads often sounds really good to me. Her friendly personality is delightful, too. Even though we’ve never met, I kind of feel like we have because of how easy she is to talk to.

Deb@Readerbuzz. And here is Top Ten Tuesday friend #4. Her Sunday Salon posts make the blogosphere a friendlier place.

Sabeeha Harehman. We first met on Twitter probably about 10 years ago. While I don’t talk her as much since leaving that site in 2022, seeing a new post from her in my RSS feed still makes me smile. She is an intelligent and thoughtful person whose blog posts are well worth reading.

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Characters I Want to Meet

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The word “hello” written in white chalk on a black chalkboard. Here are some characters I’d like to meet.

Sister Monica Joan from Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth would be a good pick because of how creative, funny, and knowledgeable about the past this character was.

She joined Nonnatus House as a young women around the turn of the 20th century when antibiotics, chemotherapy, (the vast majority of) vaccines, genetic testing, and other modern medical advancements were still decades away from being invented. By the time the author of this book was hired to work as a district midwife in the late 1950s, Sister Monica was showing clear signs of cognitive decline and forgetfulness.

Her memory for the past was still strong, though, and she helped the young midwives solve some tricky medical cases involving diagnoses that they hadn’t personally treated before. I’d focus on the past with her and ignore anything she said about the present that didn’t quite make sense. It’s good to meet people where they’re at and learn about what life was really like generations ago.

 

Matthew Cuthbert from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery is my second pick because I love spending time with fellow quiet, gentle people. I feel like I could help him with a few chores around the farm without either of us feeling like we had to speak if there weren’t any words in that moment. There’s something relaxing about hanging out with folks who are comfortable with silence.

 

Yetu from The Deep by Rivers Solomon. (The mermaids in this book don’t have last names). Like Sister Monica Joan, Yetu struggles with memory issues for reasons that would be spoilers to share in this post. I loved seeing how her curious and intelligent personality found ways around the holes in her memory so she could share her tale. She was thoughtful and filled with opinions about what her life should be like. I could sit and talk to her for hours.

 

Connie Ramos fromWoman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy would be another interesting person to meet. I think that once she realized I believed that she had time travelled and wanted to help her we could have all sorts of productive conversations. She was not the sort of person who reacts well to being misbelieved, but I  would hope she’d open up and share her deepest thoughts with someone who did treat her well.

 

 

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Book I’m Nervous to Read (and Why)

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Photo of a wooden fence with barbed wire strung at the top of the fence. The sign on the fence reads, “private no public right of way.” On the other side of the fence you can see a large grassy area and, in the distance, a grove of trees separating this grazing area from the next one. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman is my answer for this week’s prompt.

Why am I nervous to read it?

While I’m usually pretty good at ignoring short-tempered curmudgeons in real life, I developed that skill by emotionally distancing myself from them, setting firm boundaries, and accepting that they are (probably) never going to change.

From what I understand about the plot, Ove does eventually change and become a (slightly? moderately? dramatically? ) more tolerable person to spend time with.

I’ve avoided reading this book so far because I’m worried about being annoyed by how unrealistic the character development will be and how much the narrator will expect the kind characters I’m assuming the protagonist meets to bend over backwards to accommodate his surliness.

I am courteous to people like Ove and help them if I can do so without harming myself in real life, but I also don’t think the onus should be on those of us who are easy going to absorb other people’s anger. It reminds me of when teachers would sit me next to the class troublemakers because I was one of the quiet and  studious kids in the classroom. (Yes, I know teachers in some districts have limited options when dealing with disruptive students, but expecting their good students to be the first line of defence against kids who can’t or won’t follow simple classroom instructions is a terrible strategy!)

People like Ove are presumably competent adults who are choosing to behave badly while many of us are quietly dealing with all sorts of problems without ever taking our pain and frustration out on others. A one-time or rare outburst can easily be forgiven, of course, but I avoid people who turn such behaviour into a habit or make excuses for it.

Frankly, I have my own troubles to deal with and simply don’t have the time or energy to try to “fix” the Oves of the world. I wish them well and genuinely hope things improve for them while also believing that it’s ultimately up to them to decide whether or not they will choose to behave in a way that makes others enjoy their company.

Yes, this can be harder for some people than it is for others for a variety of reasons, but part of being an adult is developing these coping skills and taking accountability if you hurt someone else just like you’d work on any other fault. I don’t expect perfection, just effort.

Maybe someday I will have the time and energy to read this book and see if my assumptions about it are valid, though!

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Hobby and Why

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You all might have noticed this already, but I’m easily amused, and I think that’s a good thing. I cannot narrow my answer down to just one hobby, but I’ll try to keep this brief.

I love:

Reading and writing, of course.

These ones basically go without saying. If I have sufficient access to good stories and writing materials, I can amuse myself all day.

 

Lydia, a white woman with curly brown hair who is wearing jeans, sneakers, and a light jacket, is sitting in a comically oversized red beach chair. She is smiling slightly. Taking long, meandering photography walks

This is a fuzzier answer, so let me give a couple of examples.

About 2 years ago my spouse and I took a bus to a beach that’s a bit of a trek from our house. We walked up and down the boardwalk and I snapped photos of my favourite things there like trees, boulders, and a ridiculously large but delightful beach chair. (See photo).

Then we bought two hamburgers, an order of fries to share, and a soda to share.  I wanted to stay there all day!

Last autumn we spent the day at High Park and did something similar. First we enjoyed our hamburgers, fries, and soda, and then we spent a few hours walking around the park and snapping photos of the wildlife and plants there.

Every walk is different. Sometimes i find a fun, new dairy-free bakery to visit, a live musical performance we weren’t aware of, a new mural, or a little park I didn’t know was recently built.

I love these free surprises. You don’t have to spend money to have fun, and when I do buy things on occasion it’s almost always something like lunch that I would have needed no matter where I was at that time of day.

Walking is a healthy, easy habit to get into as well. I know I spend far too much time online or watching tv shows when the weather is bad, so I try to make up for that by taking long walks when it’s mild outside.

 

Jigsaw puzzles

I love the challenge of putting them together. They’re such a fantastic distraction from whatever else I might be worried about or dealing with in life.

 

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Fictional Worlds I’d Rather Not Visit

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Science fiction and fantasy is fun to read, but I don’t know I’d actually want to visit a lot of the places I read about because I enjoy things like a warm home (or air conditioning in the summer), internet access, regular meals, clean bedsheets, and not being in mortal danger. 😉

A red Do Not Enter sign. Here are some fictional worlds I would not like to visit due to how dangerous they are:

Jurassic Park (or Jurassic anything)

Pan’s Labyrinth from the film by the same name

Shutter Island from the book and film by the same name

The Overlook Hotel from The Shining

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (So many deaths in this universe)

Minecraft (Imagine a monster exploding right behind you while you were trying to build a house.)

The Purge

Plague Inc. (Surviving one pandemic was more than enough, and I’m going to hope that the H5N1 bird flu peters out and does not give us any trouble)

Silent Hill

Now let’s see how many answers we all have in common.

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What to Read to Learn About Canadian History

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A person wearing a red jacket is walking into a snowy forest. There looks to be about a foot of snow on the ground and the fir trees have branches filled with snow, too. The person looks small when compared to how tall the trees are. Here are some books I’d recommend reading if you’re interested in learning more about Canadian history.

This is not an exhaustive list by any means. Canadian history is still something I want to learn more about myself, especially when it comes to the lives of ordinary people. I think those stories can be the most interesting ones of all in many cases because that’s how the vast majority of people actually lived back then.

How a prime minister or a queen or king lives is nothing like the experiences of millions of us who quietly go about our business every day.

I will be adding context to a few of these answers as I don’t know how much you all already know about Canadian history.

1. Canada: A People’s History (Volume 1) by Don Gillmor

2. The New Peoples: Being And Becoming Metis In North America by Jacqueline Peterson

3. Influenza 1918: Disease, Death, and Struggle in Winnipeg by Esyllt W. Jones

Here in Toronto we have a statue and drinking fountain dedicated to the memory of Dr. Young who treated many patients who had this disease, caught the 1918 flu from one of them, and sadly passed away from it. What a hero.

4. Blacks on the Border: The Black Refugees in British North America, 1815–1860 by Harvey Amani Whitfield

5. Once Upon a Tomb: Stories From Canadian Graveyards by Nancy Millar

6. Laying the Children’s Ghosts to Rest: Canada’s Home Children in the West by Sean Arthur Joyce

7. Shingwauk’s Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools by J.R. Miller

8. Terry Fox: His Story by Leslie Scrivener

Terry was a young man with bone cancer who decided to run from one side of Canada to the other in hopes of raising enough money to find a cure for his illness. There are still Terry Fox runs every summer here!

9. War of 1812 by Pierre Berton

Canadians sometimes like to joke about how we burned down the White House in the war of 1812 even though we were still part of Britain at that point in history. So, technically it was the British who did it…but we still take credit. 😉

10. The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede

All joking aside, we love our American neighbours!  This is the heartwarming story of what happened when all North American planes were ordered to stop flying immediately on 9/11 and a small Canadian town stepped up to help the confused passengers from one of those flights who were suddenly stranded far from home.

This title is written more like a memoir than a history book, so it might be a good place to start if you don’t typically read a lot about the past.

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