Tag Archives: Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

December 4, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Something I Wish Would Come Back Into Fashion

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A photo of a large, spotted, white and black dog wearing a black and white cloak while sitting in the snow in front of an evergreen forest. I have one word for you all today: cloaks.

Why should they come back into fashion?

They are versatile. Other than being used as a coat, you can wrap up in one if you need a blanket, take it off and use it to carry all sorts of things, or spread it out and share the warmth with someone else.

They fit people – and animals – of all sizes. It’s uncommon for a cloak to be too large or to small for someone as the fabric is purposefully designed to have a lot of extra space in it just by the nature of how such items are made. This means that you don’t have to try six different cloaks on to find the right fit.

They are unique. The colour or pattern of a cloak can make one of them look quite different from the next.  I think there’s something to be said for standing out from the crowd sometimes.

They are beautiful. I adore the way the edges of cloaks seem to float through the air when someone wearing one is walking at a fast pace. It almost looks as thought they’re flying from a certain angle!

In short, cloaks are amazing and I wish they were popular.

 

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November 27, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Musicals I Liked

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A red rose lying on a sheet of musical notes. When I was a kid, I loved Chitty Chitty Bang Bang because I was fascinated by the flying car and the child catcher in the other world the characters ended up once their magical flight ended. I desperately wanted to ride in that car. While I didn’t want the child catcher to steal me away, I did understand his desire for peace and quiet and wished he’d make an exception to his child-stealing ways for kids like me who could silently amuse themselves for hours as long as there were plenty of books to read.

For a long time, I thought that was the only musical I liked, but I eventually found a few more of them that appeal to me.

The sorts of musicals I enjoy these days are generally the ones that are aware of how silly it is to suddenly burst out into song in the middle of conversation and that either poke gentle fun at that aspect of this genre or purposefully lean into the oddness of it all.

Let me give you two examples of what I like.

Schmigadoon!, which was about a couple who accidentally end up stuck in an overly-cheerful musical after going out for a hike in the woods,

and

Avenue Q, which was about muppets and humans who are friends and who all have real-life problems that a lot of adults have. It was sort of like a PG-13 version of Sesame Street.

Another musical I liked that did not follow this pattern was Hamilton because it tapped into my love of two topics that aren’t mixed together very often: history and rap music.

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November 20, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: How I Spend My Weekends

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Of course, there are often errands and appointments to take care of over the weekend like dental cleanings, getting this year’s flu and covid vaccines, grocery shopping, mailing off birthday cards to relatives, or buying a new shower curtain.  My assumption this week is that we’re focusing on fun things we do on weekends instead of the necessary grownup stuff.

I’ve already talked about a lot of my interests in previous Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge posts, so I’d imagine this isn’t going to be a particularly surprising post for anyone who has followed me for a while.

How I spent my weekends depends on the season. If it’s spring or autumn and rain is not in the forecast, I like to go outdoors and enjoy places like walking trails, parks, or beaches (which, aside from the general lack of waves and saltwater creatures, look and feel a lot like Pacific or Atlantic beaches because of how huge Lake Ontario is. You can gaze out upon it and see nothing but water shimmering from here to the horizon. It’s spectacular.)

Toronto Island is a particularly fun place to visit because of how much there is to do there. They have an amusement park, a maze made from large trimmed evergreen bushes, beaches, petting zoo, cycling trails, golf courses, haunted lighthouse, and so much more. It can be an expensive day if you want to ride all of the rides, but it can also be a free one other than the cost of your ferry ticket and whatever food you pack for a picnic. I love versatile options like this.

Nature is so soothing to me.

Late November is a tossup when it comes to enjoying the outdoors. It might be relatively warm and dry (about a high of 10 Celsius or 50 Fahrenheit) on the odd day, but it can also easily be snowing, sleeting, foggy, raining, and/or bitterly cold at this time of year.

A photo of a painting called “Woman With Bangs” by Pablo Picasso. The painting is of a sad-looking woman who does, indeed, have bangs in her dark brown hair. She is looking morosely to the side in this painting. There is a blue hue to the painting that only makes it look even sadder. On damp, chilly days, I do things like:

  • Go to the library for bookish events or to visit their free little museums of vintage books
  • Buy a tea or a vegan donut at a coffee shop
  • Do dance, kickboxing, yoga, or weightlifting workouts at home
  • Watch Spanish films (I’m understanding a lot more Spanish now!)
  • Take short walks out in the snow if it’s only moderately cold
  • Go out for coffee or dinner with a friend
  • Get all holiday shopping done ASAP so I can avoid the huge crowds next month
  • Take a nap
  • Play board or card games
  • Spend too much time on social media (If we’re being honest here 😄)
  • Find fun, free cultural events like food festivals, musical events, art shows, vegan Christmas markets, etc.  They’re not as numerous now, but they do still happen!
  • Visit museums that have cool new exhibits. A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to see some of Picasso’s paintings, one of which I included in this post. It just depends on who they have in the gallery.

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November 13, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Thoughts on the Mystery Genre

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Photo of a magnifying class that is enlarging a cryptographic message printed on a white piece of paper. The message includes a few letters but is mostly comprised of symbols and pictograms. Mysteries are a great form of escapism.

I love the way that books in this genre virtually always end with justice being served and criminals being held accountable for their actions, especially since neither of those things are at all guaranteed to happen in real life.

Figuring out how clues fit together amuses me, too. I’ve previously mentioned not being a big fan of red herrings, but I do like when a clue can be interpreted in more than one way. This leaves plenty of space for readers – and protagonists – to change our mind about who the culprit is depending on which explanation of what is going on we decide to accept as the most accurate one. It can also be a nice way to practice skills like critical thinking, observation, and developing a stronger memory.

While I don’t read a lot of romances, paranormal romantic mysteries can be appealing to me. This is especially true if they’re set in the past, involve ghosts, and/or are about a cold case. It makes me smile to think of a ghost helping to solve his or her own murder case before finally being able to rest for good.

My favourite niche in this genre are cozy mysteries. Not only do they often have delightful puns in their titles, many of them seem to be set in or near cozy places like bakeries, libraries, or coffee shops. This softens the edges of the murders in them and makes it more likely that I’ll keep reading.

Historical mysteries can be interesting, too, as they generally feature characters who lived many years before the development of modern investigation protocols like dusting for fingerprints or testing blood or hair left at the scene that might have belonged to the culprit. This can leave a lot of room for other types of evidence like eyewitness testimony, letters or diary entries that talk about the crime, or, if the investigator is lucky, maybe even a straightforward confession!

In short, I think this genre is cool  to visit on occasion and am open to any suggestions you all may have from the cozy, paranormal,  historical, and/or romantic mystery subgenres.

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November 6, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Things I’ve Learned from Another WWBC Blogger

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A photo of a white neon sign that says “think about things differently.” The word differently is spelled backwards. This sign has been placed against a black background so it really stands out!Here are my answers for this week’s prompt.

George taught me that food can be a sensitive topic for some people. I appreciate his candor about his eating disorder and am proud of how far he’s come so far. (I hope I’m not embarrassing him by bringing this up as it’s truly not my intention. He is a gem.).

On a lighter note, Michael introduced me to Festivus Geekiatum, a holiday he invented to help deal with the doldrums of winter at the end of February when it feels like spring may never arrive. What a fantastic holiday to look forward to at that time of year!

I celebrated it last year and intend to again this year. If anyone else wants to join in, I’ll happily promote your post on my blog, too.  Just leave a comment with a link to your post or let me know through some other way if we’re friends elsewhere on line.

Thank you both for widening my perspective of our world. I appreciate it.

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October 30, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Superstitions I Secretly Believe In

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Photo of two teardrop shaped mirrors in wooden frames that have been hung on a black wall. Reflected in the mirror you can see the white covers and white pillows on a bed that’s been made but is still a little rumpled. (I received my annual covid and flu vaccines yesterday, so I may be a little late responding to other people’s posts depending on how I’m feeling today.)

I am not a very superstitious person, but these are the superstitions I do follow. Yes, I know most of them are nonsensical, but somehow they still feel important to me.

Crossing fingers for good luck.

When someone I care about is waiting to hear if they’re being offered a job, or what their test results are from the doctor’s office, or any other number of things that could change their lives for the better or worse but that I have no way to influence in a positive direction, I cross my fingers for them and hope for the best.

 

Don’t walk underneath ladders.

I mean, honestly, this is common sense. A collapsing or unsteady ladder could really hurt you or someone nearby.

 

Saying gesundheit or bless you after someone sneezes.

Can I assume that the majority of you know about gesundheit? It’s the German word for health and a pretty common blessing after a sneeze here in North America. I cannot hear someone sneeze without saying either that word or bless you even though logically I know they’re not actually a cure for anyone. It simply feels wrong to ignore sneezes or not wish other people good health.

 

Four leaf clovers bring good luck.

I have never found one, but I have searched for them now and again since childhood. Maybe someday I’ll find one and reap the good luck of not plucking it as I’d rather let it grow in peace!

 

Knocking on wood for good luck and/or to avoid tempting fate.

I didn’t know about the history of this practice. It’s simply something I saw happening occasionally when I was growing up that was presented as a good idea.

 

Don’t place mirrors so that they face each other in a room. 

My spouse taught me this one. It’s apparently bad luck, and I’ve seen too many spooky tv shows about spirits coming out of mirrors to test fate on this one even though I logically know that nothing would happen.

 

Don’t kiss babies

This is a superstition in a few different cultures. In the southern United States, they would warn not to do it because it will make babies drool, but this is also good medical advice in general. Babies, especially very young ones, have underdeveloped immune systems. What presents as a cold in healthy adults or older children could make a newborn dangerously ill if, for example, you happen to be infected with a cold sore, RSV, or the flu but don’t yet know it.

I did not realize kissing babies was so dangerous when I was younger, but I would not do it now! My apologies to the little ones I kissed before I knew better, but so far as I know I didn’t get any of them sick.

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October 23, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What I Do When I’m Bored

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A photo of an autumn forest. The trees are still holding onto about half of their orange leaves. The rest of the leaves have fallen to the forest floor and are covering it and the trail between the trees. If I’m bored but cannot leave my surroundings because I’m sitting in a waiting room or the weather outside is frightful, I’ll probably people watch, read a book, or play Royal Match (a tile matching game) on my phone.

Those are all pretty common answers I’d bet, though, so let’s talk about other possibilities. Most of them are free activities and the rest are inexpensive.

Taking Long Outdoor Walks

If weather is okay for some outdoor time, I’ll go take a walk.

Walking is free, good for you, peaceful, highly customizable, and lets me discover all sorts of new shops and other places that have recently popped up or been renovated in my area. If you ask me, this is a highly underrated form of entertainment.

Asking Lots of Questions

I’m quiet, but every so often I get the urge to be talkative and share some of the thoughts that I normally keep to myself. When I was a kid, my parents and siblings were the relatives I’d bless with questions. Now my spouse gets to hear them. (The questions are normally about topics we’ve spoken a lot about, so chess or Star Trek for example).

Gazing at the Ceiling

Ceilings are often an under-appreciated aspect of architecture in my experience. I love looking up to see what sort of light fixtures, sky lights, or decorative objects might be up there. Some of them can be rather plain, I’ll admit, but others are works of art.

Exploring Library Events

I’m lucky to live in a city with a large and active library system. There’s something going on there multiple times a week, so there is a decent chance I’ll see an event on their website that would be fun to attend either virtually or in person.

Visiting Coffee Shops

I love the ambiance of coffee shops that offer seating.  They’re such cozy and friendly places to visit as I enjoy a beverage or snack.

Enjoying the Park 

The squirrels are currently searching for food to store away from the winter, and watching them find it can be amusing. Since some people feed them, they can also be unnervingly friendly at this time of the year. Last autumn I had one follow me for several minutes until it realized I’m not the sort of human who feeds wildlife.

I like snapping photos, so going to the park is also a good chance to look for moments that I want to capture for posterity.

 

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October 16, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Something That’s Improved Since I Was a Kid

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Six speech bubbles lined up in three equal rows. The row on top is coloured peach, the middle row is pink, and the bottom row is sea green. One of the biggest improvements I’ve seen since I was a kid has to do with how much easier it is now to find people who share the same hobby, interest, identity, or diagnosis.

Among countless other possibilities, if you are:

LGBTQ+,

A fan of a specific book series, tv show, or obscure hobby,

Trying to learn more about a new hobby,

A llama herder, or

Just coming home from the hospital or doctor’s office after you or someone you love has been diagnosed with disease X,

 

You can find communities of people online who are in the same boat.

This is valuable for everyone, but it is even more important for folks who are living in rural areas or with health conditions that limit how much they can travel and who therefore may not be able to find anyone in their neighbourhood to discuss such things with in person.

When the Internet became something that virtually everyone in the western world has daily access to, countless people were finally able to meet others like themselves online for both serious and lighthearted purposes.

For subjects like life-changing illnesses, this means that information about the latest tests, studies, and treatments can spread much faster and farther than it could have a few decades ago. There is no doubt in my mind that this has saved a lot of lives as well as reduced suffering.

But even if you’re only searching for likeminded folks online who share your interest in topic X, it is still a wonderful thing to find those kindred spirits and finally get to dig deeply into the minutia of what you enjoy. Hobbies are an important part of living a fulfilling life, and I love how much easier is to meet other people who like the same very specific things you do these days.

I am so grateful that such things are possible and common nowadays.

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October 9, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Something That Was Better When I Was a Kid

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A semi-opened laptop. It is in an otherwise pitch-black room, and the light from the screen is illuminating the keyboard with all sorts of soft, pastel colours. This is one of those topics that makes me wish I could take a peek at all of the other answers before publishing my own! Will most folks choose serious or frivolous answers, I wonder?

I’m going to bend the rules slightly and give two answers this week so that I won’t be out of place for giving a serious answer while everyone else bemoans the loss of their favourite snacks from decades past or for giving a lighthearted reply while everyone else soberly talks about recently extinct species of animals or something.

My Serious Answer: Winter

Winter was better when I was a kid because it was colder and snowier. This meant that there was more water to fill our aquifers when spring came and that fewer harmful species like ticks survived the deep freezes of that season.

Last winter was worryingly mild and dry in Ontario. We received less than half the usual amount of snow and some veterinarians here are now recommending that pet owners give their dogs tick medication year-round because they were still finding ticks on dogs in late December when the ground should have been far too frozen for any of those creatures to be crawling around, much less being alert enough to bite.

Climate change is here, and it’s rapidly affecting everything in our environment.

My Lighthearted Answer: Message Boards

I remember a time when there were active forums and message boards everywhere online for any topic you could imagine and probably many more for subjects you’d never think would have such numerous or devoted fans. Sometimes a thread would be started about a specific question and it would sit dormant for weeks or months until someone with the right knowledge discovered it, bumped it to the top, and answered it.

Social media is useful for a lot of other things, but it usually does not inspire deep conversations on niche interests that unfold over many years or reward people who are experts in their fields and genuinely know what they’re talking about.

I desperately miss having access to all of that knowledge and having the opportunity to add to it when I could.

If only we could experience both of these things thriving in 2024: social media for what is predominantly lighthearted, surface-level conversations and forums for people who want to dig deeply into a specific topic and either share their knowledge of it or become well-versed in it themselves.

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October 2, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Genre I Want to Read More Of

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Last winter I reread the first few books in Jean M. Auel‘s Earth’s Children series. They reminded me of how much I enjoy historical fiction novels that have been well-researched and include the latest data about what life was like for average people in that era.

For example, the Earth’s Children books described what the characters ate, how they hunted and gathered, what their clothes and tools looked like, and so much more. Specific plants and animals from 30,000 years ago are explained in great detail, including species that have since gone extinct. The author extrapolated when necessary as not everything can be fossilized, of course, but she did an incredible amount of research for these books that really made ice age Europe come alive for me.

A photo of an abandoned stone cathedral on a grassy hill. It still has walls but no longer has a roof or glass in its windows. There is a stormy grey and slightly pink sky behind it. I love becoming immersed in a world so unlike modern life.

Years ago I adored how the Pillars of the Earth series by Ken Follett took a similar approach to English life in the 12th century. It was written from the perspective of one of the many working class men who was hired to build a cathedral.

They worked long, hard hours for low pay at a time when workers’ rights were much less protected than they are today. I was fascinated by how they managed to survive under such conditions.

If you know of other historical fiction novels that are similar to these ones as far as accuracy and research goes, I’d love to hear about them.

Generally, I do not enjoy reading about war or royalty, but I’m open to just about any other setting and era anywhere in the world.

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