Ellie Di Julio's Blog, page 8

Things I found on the internet: freelancer badges, beautiful sentences, and Canada is weird

Freelancer Achievement Stickers by Jeremy Nguyen

How a Guy From a Montana Trailer Park Overturned 150 Years of Biology: There’s a missing link between lichen and algae, and the story is way more fascinating than it has any right to be.

The Arc of Gender Equality: A letter from a mother to her daughter about how to be an authentic leader by examining the roots and branches of social justice.

Listen To The Epic Of Gilgamesh Melodiously Sung In Ancient Sumerian: A taste of the ancient epic in it...

One desk to rule them all

Fair warning: This post is complete and utter office pr0n. If you’re not into that kind of thing, you’re excused until next post. If you are, though, hoo-boy are you in for a treat.

A little back story first.

I’ve always wanted one of those enormous wooden teacher’s desks, the kind that you see in old movies and that my mother had in her first classroom. There’s something reassuring about them, as if their sheer mass creates its own gravity. I’ve looked at them over the years, especially afte...

Things I found on the internet: Buffy studies, fake midichlorians, and appropriation vs appreciation

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
Our Facebook community just hit its 100th member (YAY!), so we’re throwing a party, complete with book giveaways, as much Q&A as you can handle, and the reading of previously patron-only Forgotten Relics short (or two). Join the group now and party with us on Saturday night!

The Fiercely Precise World of Competitive Table-Setting: These people clearly do not get their serving platters from the dollar store. I’m just sayin’.

I Thought My Marriage Was a Huge Mistake (I...

Things I found on the internet: Marvel bloopers, secret pants, and tomboys

 

12 Weird Things About Humans That We Would Have To Explain To Aliens: Why our food must vibrate properly, hair changing colours at will, secret pants under our regular pants, and so on.

This Simple Writing Strategy Helped John Grisham Sell Over 300 Million Books: A little bit of work, done consistently over time, adds up to big gains (in writing and in life). I really should try harder to change my work style to walk this walk.

My Daughter Is Not Transgender. She’s a Tomboy.: What you wear...

Let’s compare summer reading lists

I used to be one of those people who only read one book at a time. Every book was a mini project, completed with intensity, focus, and dedication to getting every last drop of goodness out of it. And it worked great! I’d regularly read 20+ books a year; in 2011, I finished a personal-record-setting 100 books. I’d laugh at others (*cough*mymom*cough*) who had two or three on the go, citing the futility of muddling up storylines and/or facts by dividing your attention.

But, uh….

This is my curr...

Things I found on the internet: silence, St. Louis, and the “screw this!” stage

A lot of neat stuff crosses my desk (read: phone) that I want to share, but because I often only have time for a drive-by “like” these days, I decided a link roundup is the way to go. If you find something interesting, too, leave a comment and let’s talk about it!

Science Has Great News for People Who Read Actual Books: Kindles are great, but comprehension and engagement go up, along with a sense of control and peace, when you read a physical book. (I feel vindicated.)

The Cheapskate Guide t...

The celebratory power of the TA DA! list

I’m a chronic list-maker. I come by it honestly–my childhood memories are sprinkled with my mother’s legal pads covered in notes–but I fell out of the habit after the baby. Now that I’m back at the desk, though, to-do lists are again mandatory, lest I waste my one precious work day each week.

Here’s an example of my weekly to-do list, which combines business stuff on the left, life stuff on the right, and a tracker on the bottom for daily tasks (please ignore that I wrote 5 instead of 6 for t...

Wonder Woman: How to save the world

I don’t watch trailers. They’re basically 1-to-3-minute spoiler videos, and mama don’t play that. Autoplay is off on all my social media, I hustle by posts containing titles, and on the rare occasion I get to the theater, I close my eyes and jam my fingers in my ears during previews. My husband tried to override this during the trailer for The Last Jedi by narrating it at my face and I sang the Meow Mix jingle to drown him out.

I’m telling you this so you know how serious I am when I say I w...

How do you measure a year?

Today, my daughter is
1 year
12 months
52 weeks
365 days
8,760 hours
525,600 minutes
31,536,000 seconds
old.

7 seasons of Deep Space 9
6 seasons of Bones
5 seasons of Once Upon a Time
4 seasons of Community
3 seasons of Brooklyn 99
1 season of The Wiggles

9 novels
1 memorized Sleep Book

3,000ish diapers
46 inches
21 pounds
7 teeth
6 words
4 animal noises
1 hip brace

I thought I’d mark the occasion with a profound essay, as is my wont. But I’m not entirely sure what to write. Jokingly, I’ll...

Merry Bookmas! A book-buying guide for the holidays

Stumped for gift ideas? Out of shopping days? Tired of giving socks and giftcards? (Seriously, why are you doing that? Amazon isright there.)

What you should be giving people is books. Your friends love to read (or at least they say they do on their Tinder profile), the authors get new fans, and you look super smart and cool. Win-win-win!

Here’s a handy list of books, short stories, poetry, and games(!)for all your gift-giving needs this holiday season. And hey, maybe pick up a present for y...