Hearting Things (3)

Don't you just love it when you acquire a bunch of interesting articles / random passions / new hobbies, and you want to share your obsessions them with your blogger friends, and you wonder how you should label and title such a random blog post, and you decide you're going to label it "Hearting Things," and you look through your already existing labels and realize that you'd already written several Hearting Things blog posts last year? Your past self outsmarted your present self! Whoa!

I'm quite tickled.

Anyway, here are some things of awesome I've been immersed in as of late, and as bloggers are typically a passionate bunch, it would be really cool if I could spread my love and interest in these things to a wider audience, to increase conversation etc.

Postcrossing

This is so not a recent passion, as I've written about it before, but it's become a passion that's only grown over time and pulled me more and more into its seductive world. So with all of the junk that usually stuffs our inboxes, who doesn't like receiving actual, tangible snail mail? This website that started out with a simple concept--send a postcard to a random stranger in the world, receive a postcard from a random stranger--has grown into a lifestyle for some members. Join, and I guarantee you that within two received postcards and five sent ones you'll be addicted to the anticipation of finding something unexpected in your mailbox. Then you will start acquiring postcards and noticing them everywhere and thinking about how cool it would be to find a person who'd appreciate you sending it to them... and pretty soon you will be surrounded by dozens of awesome postcards, all just waiting for a perfect recipient... and then you will start cursing how slow international snail mail is, for you want your sent postcards to arrive faster so you can send moarrr postcardsss....

Okay, you get the picture. But spoken from the heart of a postcard addict. So join me in this exciting community and make people's day!

www.blog.paper-source.com

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

I am probably far from the first blogger to write about LBD, but there is no harm in gushing over it some more, because there are always people out there who have not yet been exposed to this awesome. A requisite summary: LBD is a modern interpretation of Pride and Prejudice using social media formats--primarily the web video. Oh hey, sure, you've experienced doesn't of media forms that attempted to recreate P&P's irresistible blend of social satire, humor, and romance. You've even, secretly, furtively, attempted to write a modern version of P&P yourself. (Oh, come on, own up: I can't be the only one who's done this.) "It's impossible to update P&P successfully!" you say. "What difference in social status can cause Darcy and Elizabeth to shun each other's social circles nowadays? What the devil do George Wickham and Lydia Bennet have to do in the 21st century to really scandalize everyone?" Thus spoken, you return to hugging your well-worn copy of your Colin-Firth-as-Darcy DVD set, lamenting the fact that you were born in into the wrong century.

Ah, but you would be missing out on what is arguably the most successful modernization of Pride and Prejudice. Ever. It's fresh while maintaining all the elements beloved from the classic. It's well-written, and acted so naturally that some viewers who've never heard of P&P actually believe these are real people, vlogging their problems in real time. Start, and I dare you to not watch 20 episodes at a time. What are you waiting for??

"Why I Choose to Be Child-Free" Article

Getty via thedailybeast.com

One of the most resonant articles I read recently was one in The Daily Beast about the growing number of people who are choosing to remain childless--or "child-free," as some readers prefer to be called. This article started the discussion and asked for readers' stories, and the result was a whole bunch of fascinating and thought-provoking responses. I was riveted by this pair of articles, as it was the first time I was able to see some of the thoughts that have been percolating in my own head over the years written out articulately.

My first, startling realization upon reading these articles was just how little this choice of lifestyle is discussed, let alone supported, even though it's 2013. I think that many people grow up with this unspoken understanding that someday they, too, would rear children of their own and hope that their offspring grow up into decent human beings. My heart ached as I saw myself reflected clearly in some of the readers' stories. Regardless of your own thoughts toward being parents, whether you are parents or adults who chose not to have kids or you're too young to have thought seriously about it yet, I hope you will give these articles a moment of your time and think a bit upon societal expectations toward reproduction, and societal reactions toward those who wish to consider a different lifestyle.

HarperTeen Epic Reads E-Book Sale

Last but certainly not least--HarperTeen's Epic Reads is having an EPIC E-BOOK DEAL this month. For $1.99 each, you have a choice of recently released, critically acclaimed titles, as well as access to some classic favorites that you may or may not have been waiting for a great e-book deal on. I mean, we're talking about The Miseducation of Cameron Post, one of my new favorites, published just last year, and which I have been gushing on and on about recently. And JELLICOE ROAD, whose greatness I hope I don't have to explain at this point. All for $1.99. You can't get a better e-book deal than that! I immediately bought those two for my Kindle, which should motivate me to reread them sometime, and I am eyeing some of the other titles, such as Never Fall Down, Patricia McCormick's latest.

-

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, the latest edition of Steph's Hearting Things! What are some things you've been hearting lately that you want to share with me?