Author Archives: lydias

There are people in this world that you’ll like immediately.

You might warm to up other people over time as you get to know them better or as your circumstances change. It’s much easier to like someone when you’re not competing for the same cozy bread hole, for example.

At other times you’ll meet people that you’ll never learn to like at all.

Maybe your personalities will clash. Your values could be coming from such wildly different places that you’ll fail to find any common ground at all. Both of you might have interests that won’t overlap no matter how far you stretch them.

Likewise, there will be people in this world who like you instantly, gradually, or not at all.

None of these are bad things. It really is okay.

I know I’ve mentioned this before on my blog, but it bears repeating. You don’t have to like everybody. Not everyone has to like you, either.

Life isn’t that simplistic.

Not liking someone doesn’t mean you stop being polite to them, but admitting to yourself how you really feel about them can make it easier to treat them with kindness.

There’s something so freeing about loosening these expectations.

Friendship is a gift. It’s not something you can demand from someone or have demanded from you. Liking someone is also a gift, so it’s something you must decide to give. Demanding it would be like demanding a smile from someone who was frightened or sad. What you’d actually get in that situation would only share the most superficial resemblance to the real thing.

So relax and allow things to develop however they will. I promise that it will be okay.

Here is this week’s list of tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

What Trans Men See That Women Don’t. What an excellent article. I wish every man could experience something like this, just like I wish that white people could experience what it’s like to be a racial minority, straight people could be treated like a member of the LGBT community, etc. The world would be a much better place if people from majority groups had the chance to experience the less-pleasant parts of being outside the “mainstream” in some way.

Sundays at the Table via JAHesch‬. The twist at the end of this poem was my favourite part of it.

Here’s What Happens When “Beauty” Becomes “Duty.” This doesn’t surprise me one bit. Similar things are still happening on 2016.

Obey the Berry via thatgirlmsshe‬. Do you know how to tell when a raspberry is ripe? I especially enjoyed how this blogger tied picking raspberries into her everyday life.

Artificial Sweeteners Not as Sweet as You Think via colleen_m_story‬. I’ve suspected this for a while. It’s interesting to see what the latest research says about artificial sweeteners.

Stop Spending So Much Time In Your Head. I really need to learn how to do this.

What have you been reading?

My friend Michael asked me this question a while ago. It was an interesting thought experiment and writing prompt, so I decided to share my answer with you today. I’d love to know how you’d answer it as well. Only time will tell if Michael is secretly an alien who wants to show us other planets, though. Ha!

If one of your friends turned out to be an alien hailing from the general vicinity of Betelgeuse, and offered to help you hitch a ride on the next spaceship to drop by, would you go?

It’s obvious in this scenario that there’s at least one other world out there that can support humanoid life. If someone from another planet could live on Earth for years without a problem, I don’t see why I couldn’t do the same. They clearly have the technology to travel from one place to the next, so I’d assume that I could always return home if I didn’t like it or if the living conditions didn’t agree with me for some reason.

It would be fascinating to see how life – intelligent or otherwise –  had developed elsewhere. Did my friend have to undergo any cosmetic surgery to look more human before they migrated here, or would every member of their species look more or less like a person on Earth from the outside? Could I blend into their society or another one like it? This sounds like a wonderful adventure to me.

If the planets I visited didn’t have intelligent life, what kinds of creatures could I find there? Earth has had many different kinds of animals and plants over its evolution. For the first three billion years or so, all of the life here was single-celled. I would be excited to look at those microbes through a microscope, although I’d might need extra safety equipment to survive on their surface if the temperature or atmosphere wasn’t right.

So, yes. Sign me up. I’m beyond ready for it.

This was one of the oddest and most thought-provoking things I’ve seen on the Internet lately. I can’t say much else about it without giving away spoilers, but I highly recommend checking it out.

Someone found this blog recently by searching for this phrase. I don’t remember blogging about this before, and I thought it would make an excellent conversation piece. I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say about it!

There are a lot of things that I admire about the modern skeptical movement: their intellectualism; their curiosity; their willingness to change their minds when presented with new evidence; their hesitation to take anything as the gospel truth regardless of who says it.

With that being said, it isn’t a perfect movement. Like any other group of people that is loosely tied together, skepticism has its own share of shortcomings.

1. Not everyone who uses the skeptic label actually knows what they’re talking about. This isn’t something I blame on the skeptical movement itself, of course. It’s human nature to want to belong to a group, but I still cringe when people get into debates about topics they know almost nothing about or use skepticism as a cover for beliefs they have that aren’t actually supported by current scientific research. (This is one of the biggest reasons why I don’t jump into online debates about a lot of the things that skeptics debate. I don’t have enough scientific knowledge to argue the finer points with anyone!)
2. Too much skepticism can devolve into cynicism. Is there something about our inquisitive personalities that leads so many skeptics to question absolutely everything? Quite possibly, but I don’t think it’s emotionally healthy to spend as much time on these things as I’ve seen with some of the skeptics I know. Sometimes you have to slow down, take a deep breath, and live in the moment.
3. It’s not our job to control other people’s lives. I have relatives who swear by alternative medicine. They take all kinds of untested supplements and vitamin pills every day because they genuinely believe that those things will cure their health problems. Some of those pills are probably harmless, while others have been shown to increase the risks of certain diseases for users who take large doses like my relatives do. Do I insist that they stop? No. While I hope their health won’t ever be harmed by their choices, they’re adults. What they do with their bodies is their own business.
4. It’s not our job to prove that other people are wrong about issue X. This urge was something that irritated me when I was a Christian and other believers tried to debate others into agreeing with them. It still bothers just as much now that I’m part of an entirely different group. While I completely understand the urge to set the record straight, I’ve become a much happier person since I decided to stop making this my job in life. People will either change their minds or they won’t. Arguing with them about it – especially online –  isn’t going to make a difference in the vast majority of cases.

I’m going to end this post with an old XKCD comic strip. As usual, the guy who makes them hit the nail on the head.

Here is this week’s list of short stories, photographs, jokes, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

History Explained for Toddlers via sillymummy88‬. This was so funny.

Do Yoga, and Show Kindness to Yourself via StellarJennifer‬. I was especially interested in this because I recently started trying yoga myself.

230:366 via hobnob‬. Be sure to read the tags on this photograph to get the full story. The photo itself was beautiful, but the explanation of what was going on in it made everything even better.

Here’s What Happens To Your Body When You Hike The Appalachian Trail. I’ve often wondered what it would be like to hike this trail. This was an interesting look at how all of that walking affects the human body in both positive and negative ways.

88 More Truths I’ve Learned About Life. I originally wanted to share an excerpt of this post, but I don’t want to spoil anything for you.

From I Remember Your Face:

“There’ll be storms tonight,” she heard her mother say to someone inside the bunker. “Kick up the dust.”

Storms meant sealed windows and no sunset. It meant masks as they slept, and the old car battery running all night, hooked up to the radiation detector. She was reluctant to go inside.

What have you been reading?

Photo credit: @weird_hist on Twitter.

Today has been a quiet and contemplative day.

There have been times when I skipped the polls because I didn’t think that my vote mattered. I know that’s an easy thought pattern to fall into, especially in political races where one candidate seems sure to win.

Your vote does matter, though. There was a time not too long ago when people would have done anything to have the opportunity you have to change the way things are run.

I’ve been thinking about the Suffragette movement on this quiet, contemplative day. On August 18, 1920, the Nineteenth amendment to the Constitution was ratified in the United States.

Women have had the right to vote in the States for less than a century. Several of my great-grandparents were children when this law passed (although not all of them were living in the U.S. at the time). One of them lived long enough for me to have many, clear memories of her.

Some of my extended family members are African-American. Disenfranchisement of their votes was extremely common until the 1960s in certain areas. It’s still happening today.

None of this is ancient history. There are still many people who remember when voting was a privilege that only certain folks got to have.

People who wanted to vote were threatened, arrested, and thrown into jail. Some of them died.

Think of them the next time you decide whether or not to vote this election cycle.

I’m not a big fan of Olympic games, but this video makes me feel like I could discuss it with someone who had been eagerly watching them since they began.

Watch the video regardless of what you think of the Olympics or how much you’ve been following the various competitions in it. John is such a witty, creative guy that I think he can find something to make just about everyone laugh.

A few weeks ago, my friend Michael asked me if I’d rather face a zombie apocalypse or a U.S. presidential election season. This post is the unexpected lovechild of that idea. It contains some spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen all six seasons of The Walking Dead yet.

Two things have been on my mind recently: The Walking Dead and the 2016 election in the States. They’ve both been full of unexpected surprises, both positive and negative. They’re both also threatening to go on until the end of time.

What interests me the most about The Walking Dead universe is that it’s a society without politics. Nobody there cares who you voted for or what party – if any – you align yourself with. It’s hard for me to imagine any of the characters arguing about abortion, marriage equality, the death penalty, police brutality, gun control, or any of the other issues that people have strong opinions about in our universe.

Rick, Michonne, and their friends have other things to worry about at the moment.

Still, it’s fun to think about what some of the main characters from that show would be like as political leaders. You don’t live very long in a zombie apocalypse without knowing how to finagle your way out of a sticky situation.  This is how I imagine they’d behave if they were transported to our version of Earth and decided to run for office.

Rick Grimes would start off by adding his name to the ballot and campaigning more aggressively than the average candidate. If he didn’t win, he’d pay close attention to the winner. An intelligent and fair one would have little to fear from him. Anyone else would be in grave danger of being deposed, especially if they threatened to reduce the funding of the public schools that Carl and Judith would and will be attending. Under no circumstances would he allow his children to run for office when they grew up.

Carol Peletier would skip straight to the deposing when her opponent won. She would be wildly uncomfortable with all of the schmoozing required to be a politician, but she also wouldn’t trust anyone other than herself to keep society chugging along.

Michonne would run a fair and honest campaign. She wouldn’t make any promises she couldn’t keep, and she’d treat her opponent with respect. For these reasons, she probably wouldn’t win unless the other characters were voting for her and she was running in a very small town. If she did win, though, she’d be the most competent leader out of anyone from this show.

Daryl Dixon would quietly disappear into the forest the second that anyone mentioned the possibility of him becoming a politician. He wouldn’t return again until someone else had been elected and he was sure he was safe from the possibility of being forced to take a bath and make small talk with strangers.  Morgan Jones would most probably leave with him, although they’d go their  separate ways once they were safely a few miles into the forest.

Glenn Rhee would relish the idea of being a mayor in a small town or in a quiet suburb of a bigger city as long as Maggie was with him. He would stand a good chance of winning, although he probably wouldn’t run for re-election. One term would be more than enough for him.

Maggie Greene would prefer the faster pace of life in a big city. She wouldn’t be opposed to running for more than one term if she won the first race, although at some point she’d probably want to move on to a more physically active career.

Abraham Ford would lie his way into office. Most of his constituents would love how much he accomplished, though, and wouldn’t have a problem re-electing him in the future as long as he wasn’t running against Rosita at any point and they didn’t find out about his trouble telling the truth until after he’d been in office for a few years.

Rosita Espinosa would only run if Abraham was also running. It would be a tight race, but she would probably be triumphant if she was willing to talk about all of the things her opponent was hiding from the public. She wouldn’t enjoy the pressures of being a public official, though, and would probably not run for re-election.

Which characters from The Walking Dead do you think would make good politicians? What characters from other shows have you imagined running for office?

To finally answer your original question, Michael: at this point, right now I think I’d take my chances with the zombies. 

Here is this week’s list of flash fiction and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

I included the picture on the right because it intrigues me. I sure wish I knew what book it was from.

Profanity Is Pretty F**king Good for Us, Actually. As true as this may be, I’d still feel weird about cursing in front of certain relatives. Ha!

Don’t Worry: Wi-Fi Isn’t Dangerous. This was a great article.

This Is the Best Way to Motivate Yourself to Exercise via SugarSavvyRN‬. I somehow managed to discovered several of these methods on my own when I started exercising regularly a few years ago. It’s nice to have confirmation, though.

Laying Down My Stethoscope via AnneLippin. Many professions are experiencing unrealistic pressures to do more with way less time, money, and support than even the most experienced and talented people working in them require to do their job safely. Pressuring health care workers this way is even more dangerous, though, because people’s very lives are at stake.

The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User. One of the things I enjoy the most about casually studying history is occasionally running across strangely hilarious stories like this one.

From The Original Underclass:

One of America’s founding myths, of course, is that the simple act of leaving England and boldly starting new lives in the colonies had an equalizing effect on the colonists, swiftly narrowing the distance between indentured servant and merchant, landowner and clerk.

From A Letter to the Sister I Ate in Utero via shawnamawna:

I’m not sure why it happened. You were there in one ultrasound. A shadow person. A double image. The doctor says I absorbed you. Mama says that makes me twice the woman I might have been.

What have you been reading?