What I learned is that there appears to be a part of our brain called the ventral striatum, that’s the technical term, or you also could call it the seeking system. And this system is urging us to explore the boundaries of what we know. It’s urging us to be curious. And, by the way, […]
~~ Continue reading Sunday Snippet: Daniel Cable on Boring Work on Beyond the Rhetoric.
Adulting is hard. I think we’ve all established that at this point. When you’re balancing all sorts of responsibilities, both personal and professional, it’s easy to feel guilty about taking any time for yourself. How dare you curl up with a good book when there’s laundry to be done?! Truth be told, we could all […]
~~ Continue reading Vlog #89: Self-Care and Craft Beer on Beyond the Rhetoric.
Exactly one year ago today, I published a blog post discussing some of the concerns I had about starting preschool. It was both a nerve-wracking and an exciting time for us as parents, because it meant our little baby wasn’t really a baby anymore. She wasn’t even a toddler anymore; she was a preschooler. We […]
~~ Continue reading On Going Back to Preschool (and Afternoon Naps) on Beyond the Rhetoric.
By now, you’ve surely realized that English is a very strange language filled with numerous rules being broken right, left and center. I wrote on Facebook that “colonel” and “geoduck” are especially confusing, as they way they are spelled is nowhere near how they are pronounced. And that got me thinking about words like quay, […]
~~ Continue reading Grammar 101: Quay, Cay, and Key on Beyond the Rhetoric.
I often espouse a general philosophy in my life of pursuing a discipline of one sort or another. But it’s not to ever approach any level of perfection. You start, you go in knowing that as human beings we never can achieve perfection, and so I feel like mastery of any skill or art form […]
~~ Continue reading Sunday Snippet: Nick Offerman on Beyond the Rhetoric.
I know. It feels like it hasn’t been that long since we got back from Toronto and New York, but the wanderlust is strong in the Kwan household. However, it’s not always practical (or cost-effective) to fly all the way across the continent. So, we decided to head up the road to Squamish and Whistler […]
~~ Continue reading Vlog #90: The Whistler Family Staycation on Beyond the Rhetoric.
What ever happened to predictability? No, today’s post isn’t about milkmen, paperboys or evening TV. I’ve had a few conversations lately that got me thinking about whether it is better to plan everything out ahead of time or to embrace spontaneity and fly by the seat of your pants. On the one hand, structure and […]
~~ Continue reading On Structure and Spontaneity on Beyond the Rhetoric.
In many ways, I loved this life — loved my husband, adored by kids, was so thankful to be a writer. But it’s like I was pulling a little red wagon, and as I pulled it along, I filled it so full that I could hardly keep pulling. That red wagon was my life, and […]
~~ Continue reading Sunday Snippet: Shauna Niequist (Present Over Perfect) on Beyond the Rhetoric.
So, as you might recall from last week’s vlog, our family recently enjoyed a short staycation up at Whistler. We rode the Peak 2 Peak Gondola and explored Vallea Lumina. For the couple of nights we were there, we decided to stay at the Westin Whistler. It’s literally steps away from Skiers Plaza where you […]
~~ Continue reading Vlog #91: The Westin Whistler Hotel Room Tour on Beyond the Rhetoric.
That’s it, folks. All it took was a blink of an eye and perhaps a few too many $1 iced coffees and summer has drawn to a close. Well, not really. Google tells me that the official last day of summer is September 22. For me, it’s always been Labour Day (the first Monday of […]
~~ Continue reading What’s Up Wednesdays: Happy Days on Beyond the Rhetoric.
“More than you can afford, pal. Ferrari.” Many of us are familiar with that iconic scene from the first The Fast and the Furious movie. And for most of us, that line will certainly ring true. I don’t know about you, but I most certainly cannot afford to buy a Ferrari. Instead, I drive a […]
~~ Continue reading Hedonic Adaptation and the New Normal on Beyond the Rhetoric.
We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that’s all. I was a mere toddler when The Breakfast Club first came out in 1985. While I’ve known about the cult classic reputation of John Hughes 1980s teenage comedies, I’ve never really thought to explore them. Based on my experience with […]
~~ Continue reading Sunday Snippet: The Breakfast Club on Beyond the Rhetoric.
The late Anthony Bourdain once said, “If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel – as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them – wherever you go.” I’d […]
~~ Continue reading Vlog #92: Top 5 Travel Destinations on Beyond the Rhetoric.
A parent participation preschool (PPP), sometimes called a parent involved preschool (PIP), requires parents to take active roles in their children’s education. Each parent is assigned a job, like maintaining the yard, getting books from the library, or acting as the school’s registar. There are some other responsibilities, like attending regular meetings too. This keeps […]
~~ Continue reading Why a Parent Participation Preschool Is Worth It on Beyond the Rhetoric.
The English language is filled with words and phrases that sound similar (or the same) but have different meanings. “Complement” is not the same as “compliment,” just as authoritative and authoritarian cannot be used interchangeably. And the same can be said about “pour over” and “pore over,” even though they’re pronounced exactly the same way. […]
~~ Continue reading Grammar 101: Pour Over and Pore Over on Beyond the Rhetoric.
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? It almost feels like a lifetime ago at this point, but did you know that I minored in English literature during my university days? Perhaps this contributed to my career choice as a freelance writer, […]
~~ Continue reading Sunday Snippet: William Blake, The Tyger on Beyond the Rhetoric.
Apparently, being invited to speak at Freelance Camp isn’t exactly the same thing. Or so I’ve been told. As you might have heard, I’m about to embark on a little camping trip with some other local dads. This wouldn’t normally be a very big deal, except most of us are hardly experienced campers. Is “campers” […]
~~ Continue reading Vlog #93: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? on Beyond the Rhetoric.
Between preparing for #5DadsGoWild, going back to preschool, and keeping up with my regular professional duties, as well as everything going on with this blog (and the weekly vlog), I’ve been pretty busy. Many things I’ve been wanting to do have fallen to the wayside. But I’ve got to embrace the journey, right? I had […]
~~ Continue reading The Journey of Life on Beyond the Rhetoric.
One of my longtime friends was telling me that her favorite sushi restaurant in Vancouver is Green Leaf Sushi. The challenge, at least for me, is that it is located on West Broadway and almost Alma Street, a hop and a skip away from the UBC Point Grey campus. And I’m practically never out in […]
~~ Continue reading Green Leaf Cafe Japanese Restaurant, Burnaby on Beyond the Rhetoric.
Super entertaining to see some sort of big meltdown and I laugh at the reactions just like you laugh at the reactions. But we’re an interview show first and it really is about the interview. And you know what? If we don’t approach these interviews with a certain degree of thoughtfulness, then maybe a guest […]
~~ Continue reading Sunday Snippet: Sean Evans (Hot Ones) on Beyond the Rhetoric.
