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After finding out she can’t have children, a woman kidnaps a young girl’s imaginary friend.

The post ‘(Otto)’ by Job, Joris & Marieke appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

What is life like after receiving an Oscar nomination? Dutch filmmakers Job, Joris & Marieke​ share their experiences.

By Michael Otto Dear First Lady Obama: I am writing this letter in support of your Let’s Move campaign against obesity. As you well know, traditional recommendations for physical activity and good nutrition have met with failure in the United States. According to the Center for Disease Control, rates of adults who engage in no leisure time physical activity have been in the range of 20-30% for over 20 years. Moreover, over 75% of individuals do not

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By Michael Otto

In the New York Times, Gretchen Reynolds posed the question, “Does exercise really boost your mood?” There is a clear, clean answer to this question – yes!  In fact, the evidence that regular, moderate exercise can boost your mood is overwhelming.  From population-based studies to well-controlled clinical trials – exercise is associated with better mood.  Specifically, exercise is linked with less depression and improved well-being, decreased anger, decreased anxiety, and greater feelings of social connectedness.  Exercise also improves brain functioning, and has dramatic effects on overall health. These findings have been documented repeatedly in both human and animal studies (in animal studies, depression and anxiety are assessed by behavioral responses to specific tasks).  So if the evidence is consistent, why question the effects exercise has on mood?

The motivation behind this question was a recent paper from German researchers that investigated the effects of a 3-week intense running schedule in mice.  The mice really were churning it out on the running wheel – pawing their way to an average of 12 kilometers (over 7 miles) each day.  But apparently they were not feeling cheery; the mice showed an increase rather than a decrease in anxiety behavior.  It is not clear what to make of these findings, and they don’t parallel findings in humans.  Even among marathon runners, who put in long distances similar to the mice in this study, the effects of exercise on mood appear to be positive.

This is not to say that exercise will always improve mood. For example, over-exertion and worries about physical appearance are great ways to sap motivation to continue exercise.  Also, feelings during exercise are highly variable, especially when the intensity of exercise is vigorous. The beauty of exercise for mood is that you don’t have to run yourself miserable to get the mood benefits.  Moderate exertion is enough to help you experience the desired mood benefits after exercise.

Yet the real challenge of exercise for most Americans is actually doing it.  Focusing directly on the immediate mood and stress-reducing effects of exercise can help with this challenge. Instead of drudgery directed at a distant goal of a fitter, slimmer you; exercise can be used to achieve the immediate goal of a happier, less-stressed you. But still people need to learn how to manage the thinking and procrastination patterns that can derail good exercise intentions. Motivation has been well researched, and there is an increasing role for psychologists in aiding the physical and mental health of Americans by helping them understand and change the many factors that can sap motivation.  It is now timely for Americans to take advantage of this accumulated wisdom for their own direct benefit, on or off the running wheel.

Michael Otto, Ph.D., and Jasper Smits, Ph.D., are behavior change experts and authors of Exercise for Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Proven Strategies for Overcoming Depression and Enhancing Well-Being.

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Our little fish out of water turned one this week!

Regular readers might remember my thing about birthday cakes. It’s my favourite bit. Otto’s party had an animal theme (I used these invitations from a favourite stationer, Poppies for Grace) and his cake was inspired by a favourite animal alphabet book, Alphabeasties.

Alphabeasties comes from the graphic design duo Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss. Each letter of the alphabet is represented by an animal made up entirely using the letter in question. It’s one of those very simple but extremely clever ideas, and so beautifully executed. You can tell these two girls just love typography and there’s more clever typographical fun in extra asides at the bottom of each page.

So the idea inspired by the Alphabeasties page for ‘O’ went from this:

to this:

I hadn’t really thought about how much surface area eight legs have… it was a lot of green icing. But yum.

An update from motherland… thanks everyone for the lovely comments and emails. Otto is doing very well - we are lucky that so far he seems very settled baby. This is considerate of him as Lou and I have been very busy with preparing the store for Christmas and Magnolia Square. Otto will be coming with us to Magnolia Square - he may just be the youngest member in the audience at our storytime sessions.

Here are some photos of cuddles with Rowan…

Planning to post some photos of some corners of Otto’s nursery soon.

We are having lots of exciting times at We Heart Books - we have been celebrating little Otto joining the fold and now we are frantically getting ready for TWO beautiful Magnolia Square markets before Christmas.

We are gathering some beautiful books and other lovely things to take. We will be running story times and having lots of fun.

Katie and I plan to do all our Christmas shopping at Magnolia Square because the line up of incredibly talented people is just incredible. Pop the dates in your diaries now and come by and say hello.