Category Archives: Something Good

Something Good

Lee Martinez Farm, image by Eric

1. Some “What Ifs” For Dealing With Fatphobia In The New Year from Dances with Fat. In related news, How to Deal When Your Friends Go On Diets and New Year’s Resolutions That Aren’t Diets, also from Dances with Fat.

2. More book lists! My reading year, 2019 from Austin Kleon and 100 Must Read Books of 2019.

3. CREATE.2020 with Karen Walrond, “a 15-day, self-guided journaling course to help you reflect on the previous year, dream about the new one, and help guide you to actualize your best intentions for 2020.”

4. When Your Expectations of Others is Making You Frustrated from Zen Habits. In related news, Toward peace, from Seth Godin.

5. Journaling Prompts to Relieve Stress: 10 for Morning + 10 for Evening from Be More With Less. Even if you don’t journal, these would work as contemplations too, I suspect.

6. These are the charities where your money will do the most good, a great set of tips and strategies for giving.

7. Artists Photographs 25 Kids From Around The World With What They Eat In One Week.

8. 7 Questions for the New Year.

9. The Best Advice You’ve Ever Received (and Are Willing to Pass On) on The New York Times.

10. I Was A Cable Guy. I Saw The Worst Of America. “A glimpse of the suburban grotesque, featuring Russian mobsters, Fox News rage addicts, a caged man in a sex dungeon, and Dick Cheney.”

11. 20 Tiny Changes You Can Make in Your Home to Make Life Simpler in 2020.

12. Hand-Stitched Flowers and Landscapes Revitalize Found Photographs by Artist Han Cao.

13. Ilana Glazer Strikes Out On Her Own In New Stand-Up Special.

14. 1,000 people sent me their addiction treatment stories. Here’s what I learned. “Here are four reasons America’s addiction treatment system is broken.”

15. Why America loves — and hates — outspoken young women. “Women like Greta Thunberg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were leaders in the 2010s. And they were vilified for it.”

16. Civil Rights Leader Rep. John Lewis To Start Treatment For Pancreatic Cancer. May he be well.

17. How Women Are Using Knitting And Needlework As A Form Of Protest. From a year ago, but still relevant.

18. 10 Black Web Series To Put On Your Binge-Watching List For The Holidays.

19. You Can Now Download a Collection of Ancient Japanese Wave Illustrations for Free.

20. Move over, Avengers! This little girl is one incredible superhero. (video)

21. #NotAllHistorians: Some White People Are Upset That the New York Times’ 1619 Project Isn’t Centered in Whiteness.

22. Recipe I want to try: Onion Bacon Jam.

23. How a Stock Photography Project Is Confronting Fat Bias.

24. Philadelphia Man Wakes Up To Find Malnourished, Stray Dog In His Home After Accidentally Leaving His Front Door Open.

25. Calories In = Calories Out is BS.

26. If You’ve Survived A Gaslighting Parent, You Won’t Love ‘A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood.’

27. Parents Give Toddler A Banana As A Prank And The Video Of Her Delighted Reaction Goes Viral.

28. The Instagram Community That’s Decolonizing Fitness.

29. Kids Retell The Christmas Nativity Story While Adults Act It Out In This Hilarious Video.

30. Bonsai Master Masahiko Kimura Creates Gravity-Defying Mini Forests.

31. It’s None Of My Business If Homeless People Use The Money I Give Them For Drugs.

32. Our Year in Poems on The New York Times.

33. Dog Is Stolen, Found 2,000 Miles Away, And Returned Via 30-Person Relay Team In Time For Christmas.

Something Good

Image by Eric, from their walk

1. 27 Responses to (Never-Ending) Diet Talk. “For fat people and those with eating disorders, diet talk isn’t as benign as it may seem. Here are some ways to respond to it.” In related news, World’s Worst Holiday Diet Tips and If Diet Company Slogans Were Honest, both from Dances with Fat.

2. Successful creatives from Seth Godin, because this, “the most reliably successful people I know are precisely the opposite. They are desperate to see and know what’s making other people tick. They actively engage, and they do it with empathy and generosity.”

3. More reading lists! Twelve feminist books everyone should read, The Award-Winning Novels of 2019, Happy Merry Memoir Reading, and The 50 Greatest Coming-of-Age Novels, and Decolonization and anti-racism: a reading list, 160+ novels by black women, 2000 – 2019, Favorite Books of 2019, and These are the top 20 books of 2019, according to Goodreads users, Award-Winning Novels of 2019, The most anticipated memoirs of 2020, and The Best Queer YA Novels of 2019.

4. Roo’s Story – Pet Cancer Awareness Month from one of our favorite trainers. Roo really was something special, and this story reminds me so much of both our cancer dogs.

5. Black Women Led the Way to Trump’s Impeachment. “We have never been Team Trump, and we never will be.”

6. Grief Becomes You by Maya Stein, “a collection of poems, essays, images, and other narratives of loss, a compilation of work from nearly 60 contributors from the United States and abroad.”

7. New Zealand man sets up ‘stick library’ for dogs.

8. the_happy_broadcast on Instagram, “Anxiety free news, a counter hate & fear project that features positive news from around the world illustrated by @maurogatti & friends.”

9. Fifteen Ways To Survive The Coming Collapse Of Civilization, from 2012 but worth a reread.

10. Your output depends on your input from Austin Kleon.

11. 31 Days of Devotion hosted by Adreanna Limbach, who is joined by “6 teachers for this FREE, online, annual mediation series that was developed to help you get grounded, clear, and intentional in the New Year.”

12. Koala-sniffing detection dog the latest weapon in saving wildlife after devastating bushfires.

13. I’m Not Your Typical Ultramarathoner. Here’s What I Want Everyone To Know About Size And Fitness. “Ultrarunner Mirna Valerio is here to tell you that the trails don’t care what you look like.”

14. Ram Dass, spiritual pioneer, dies at 88. In related news, The Wisdom of Ram Dass Is Now Online: Stream 150 of His Enlightened Spiritual Talks as Free Podcasts.

15. 70-Year-Old Woman Cleans Up 52 Beaches in a Year “For Her Grandchildren.”

16. Reforming My Relationship With Food and Exercise. “I deserve to be nourished and fulfilled. I deserve to be abundant. I needed to stop thinking of exercise as a punishment for the way I look.”

17. Striking Portraits Featuring Powerful Women of Color Painted by Artist Tim Okamura.

18. In Defense of McMindfulness. “Modern mindfulness may not bring about a social revolution, but was that the practice’s original goal?”

19. The Decade in Pictures on The New York Times.

20. 69-Vehicle Pileup on Virginia Highway Injures 51, Police Say on The New York Times.

21. Letter to the Editor: Historians Critique The 1619 Project, and We Respond on The New York Times. “Five historians wrote to us with their reservations. Our editor in chief replies.”

22. ‘The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show’ Revives A Classic Holiday Tradition.

23. UPS Delivery Guy vs. Icy Driveway. (video) “Last week we had an ice storm. My driveway was smooth, wet ice… super slippery. I heard the UPS truck pull up so I opened the garage and told him to just leave the package at the sidewalk and I’d figure out a way to get it, but he insisted on getting it to me. Above and beyond… this guy is awesome.”

24. Vaping Patients May Be Prone to Relapse, C.D.C. Warns on The New York Times. In related news, CDC Confirms A THC Additive, Vitamin E Acetate, Is The Culprit In Most Vaping Deaths, and Researchers still striving to understand cause of vaping-related illnesses, and Young people who vape are basically in denial about the risk of lung damage, says study.

25. Burnout Symptoms and Treatment. This is such an accurate description of what happened to me, what I’m experiencing, it’s almost embarrassing. Apparently, I’m a total cliche.

26. They asked, you answered: Heartsick Richmond animal shelter overwhelmed by locals’ love – and food.

27. The “four right exertions” of Buddhism teach you how to regain control of your own energy.

28. How Do You Even Get Started Writing a Book?

29. The House just voted to impeach Trump. In related news, Trump Wanted to Get Something Off His Chest, and in His Letter to Pelosi He Did on The New York Times, and President Donald Trump has officially been impeached.

30. Recipes I want to try: Raspberry Cream Cheese Sweet Rolls and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars.

31. 11 memes that captured the decade.

32. A Georgia family found an owl hiding in their Christmas tree.

33. SPLC, allies sue ICE for ignoring medical, mental health and disability needs of detained immigrants. #AbolishICE

34. How Do I Get This Out? Your Guide To Stain Removal.

35. Lynda Barry: A Comic Exercise in Building Character. “Create Your Characters and Build Their World in Less Than an Hour.”

36. 7 Comedy Specials That Transformed Stand-Up in the 2010s.

37. Four Students Wrote A Letter To Neighbor Asking If They Could Walk Her Dog, And “The Dog” Wrote Back.

38. Man Refuses To Pay Babysitter, So She Shares Their Text Convo To Shame Him.

39. Review: ‘The Rise Of Skywalker’ Makes For An Exciting, Exhaustive, Effortful Ending.

40. So, I’ve Been Breaking Up With Random People Over Text Message Again.