Yes, I will be releasing another official survey for On the Other Hand’s two year anniversary this summer. It will be so interesting to compare the results from last year!
In the meantime what topics would you like me to cover here? Is there anything I’ve blogged about that you really enjoyed?
I’ve settled nicely into that review-writing gig I mentioned last month and may be able to commit more time to this site in the near future.
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There is a short story encapsulated here.
Can you visualize the end?
(In my version he walks away from the collision with a few bruises and scratches. Hopefully that is what happened in real life as well!)
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It’s been a while since I’ve been able to update this series. Thank you to whomever it was who thought up this question. Lurkers, please don’t be shy. I’m happy to answer anything!
Recently anonymous asked:
What are your most strongly held beliefs?
1. Politics are useless. By that I mean that it doesn’t really matter who you vote for or which party wins. There’s only so much change that can be accomplished on a federal level.
2. It’s better to tell a story than preach a sermon. But never combine the two. You’ll only end up with the worst of both worlds.
3. A friend shared this quote with me a few years ago when I was horribly stressed out due to a series of unhappy surprises: everything will be ok in the end. If it’s not ok it’s not the end.
4. Every beer brewed since the beginning of mankind is terminally un-drinkable. Except for this one.
5. Give others the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes they don’t know that what they’re asking or assuming is offensive. Sometimes things don’t come out the way they were intended. That’s ok. Take a step back and clarify before deciding how to proceed with them in the future.
Do you have a question for me? Submit it through the contact form or in the comment section of this post.
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Here is this week’s list of blog posts, slide shows and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.
From Melting Glaciers Liberate Ancient Microbes:
With that ice melting at an alarming rate, those conditions could soon be at hand. Masses of bacteria and other microbes – some of which the world hasn’t seen since the Middle Pleistocene, a previous period of major climate change about 750,000 years ago – will make their way back into the environment.
@Loveszar retweeted a great Deepak Chopra quote last week: When the caterpillar thought it was the end of the world it turned into a butterfly.
People Riding Animals Other Than Horses. My favourite was the shark.
All It Takes is a Smile. I’m so oblivious to flirtation that I have no idea how I got married. (Well, ok. I might have some idea of how that happened. 😉 ) At least I’m not the only one, though.
24 Things You Might be Saying Wrong. I wonder how long it will take for these phrases to replace the old (correct) versions of them? Language does evolve after all.
Sex. Marriage. Attraction. Lust. Romance. Our understanding of these terms have shifted tremendously over the past few hundred years. There have always been people who are attracted to the opposite sex, of course, but it is only within the last 150 years that heterosexuality was created as a cultural identity.
Straight tells you exactly how that happened.
What have you been reading?
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Lajos Tihanyi’s The Critic.
About a month ago I began writing book reviews under a pseudonym for another website.
It’s been an amazing experience so far. I love combing through the review database and finding short stories and books to read. It’s exhilarating to discover new authors and even a new genre – I’m just now realizing how much I love a well-written mystery. In the past it’s always been a section of the library or bookstore that I’d overlooked.
Here are a few things I’ve learned from my first month of reviewing:
Be kind. It’s so easy to be snarky. (Or at least it is for me ;)). I’ve learned that there are many ways to effectively review a short story or novel that stirs up mixed emotions – you loved X but had reservations about Y, you don’t understand why Z happened.
Tone matters. What might come across as a light-hearted jab or playful phrase in real life can be interpreted in a much harsher light when you only have the written word. I try to sandwich even strong criticisms between praise for this reason.
Be honest. Of course sugar-coating your opinions doesn’t work either. Some stories are more interesting or well-written that others. There are polite ways to get this across but it isn’t helpful to pretend to enjoy something that you actually disliked.
And not liking something doesn’t mean that it’s a bad book! I refuse to read sentimental stories. I have a friend who hates science fiction and another friend who cannot stomach sexually explicit romance novels. Asking any of us to give an honest critique of these genres would be foolish. We’d have so little to recommend about them.
Be compassionate. Someday someone will (hopefully) review the short stories and book I’ve been working on. As excited as I am to share some of these things with the outside world later on in 2012 I’m also nervous. Will others like my work? Will they understand my sense of humour?
I hope that the people who review my stories remember that they were written by another human being and that I put weeks, months, or years of effort into what they’re reading. In the meantime I try to catch glimpses of the authors behind the stuff I review.
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Here is this week’s list of blog posts, quotes and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.
The Thing About [Prejudice]. This is a fantastic quote about internalized sexism. It could just as easily be about any other form of prejudice. None of us are immune.
From We Need Every Little Catastrophe:
It’s amazing how good we think we are at predicting the future when we’re predicting a gloomy one. From within a catastrophe, the easy times seem to be over, at least for now, maybe forever. The bigger ones seem to be so poised to kill you that you forget that not one of them ever has, and that at any given time all but a few of them are dead.
Music Treatment for Dementia. My great-grandmother had alzheimer’s disease. It was difficult to watch her slowly unravel especially when she stopped communicating with the outside world. I wonder if something like this might have temporarily jogged her memory?
Good stuff from President Obama. Maybe the 2012 election won’t be as cringe-worthy as previous elections:
“I don’t have a lot of patience for commentary about the spouses of political candidates,” Obama said. “Those of us who are in the public life, we’re fair game. Our families are civilians.”
Africans Shocked by Uncivilized Antics of European Savages via Undercovernun. A satirical look at recent controversies in Europe.
Hazel is in the process of dying from an aggressive form of cancer that has plagued her for several years. And then one day she meets a boy named Augustus at a support group for teens who have cancer.
The Fault in Our Stars is one of the funniest, most joyful books I’ve ever read. Don’t let the plot fool you – this is not your typical “kids with cancer” story. There’s no simpering, no stiff upper lips, no life lessons, no unnatural displays of courage in the face of death. Just two sarcastic, flirtatious sixteen year olds falling in love.
What have you been reading?
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Photo by Brocken Inaglory
Search engine queries from the last two months.
1. What would happen if the Americans gained control of the Niagara Peninsula? They’d probably end up annexing the rest of Canada, too. The U.S. has 312 million citizens…Canada only has about 34 million. 😉
2. Is a quiet husband better than a boisterous one? Yes.
3. How much sex on tv is acceptable? As much (or as little) as the plot requires.
4. What is it with quiet people that makes them interesting? You’ll never know what we’re really thinking about.
5. How [do you] catch up with old friends and acquaintances after many years? Invite them out for coffee/beer/ice cream floats. Share your life highlights from the last X of years. Ask them about theirs. Exchange phone numbers. Probably never see them again.
6. Was life easier in the 90s? Not for me. Your results may vary.
7. What happened to “the ooze” website? It was rebooted.
8. What’s the difference between socializing today and for twenty years ago? Embarrassing photos and stories are much more likely to end up on Facebook.
9. Is sex a kind of violence? No.
10. What would you ask your ancestors?
Many generations ago there was a woman in my family tree who gave birth to a disabled child when she was young and single (which was a very shameful thing in rural Germany at that time.) One day that child walked into the woods and “disappeared.” I’ve always wondered if someone covered up a murder with that strange little story. If so, was the mother involved?
About 150 years ago another ancestor changed his name and emigrated from Germany to the United States. We don’t know what his original name was or why he changed it. I’ve always wondered who or what he was running from. Was he really even German?
11. Is there more than one type of fear? Yes. That’s why watching horror movies is fun and actually being assaulted (sexually, physically or otherwise) is traumatic.
12. Why do people react nonchalantly to violence? They’ve grown numb to it.
13. What if someone doesn’t want our forgiveness? Forgive them anyway. You don’t have to tell them about it.
14. God will heal you atheist. If that happened I’d be grateful. And then I’d wonder why anyone would heal a non-theist from a minor illness (as I have no chronic health problems) when millions of believers die every day. Wouldn’t it make more sense to look after them instead?
15. Drinking is boring. Yes it is. Especially when you’re the only sober one in the room.
16. Awkward conversations you want to avoid. Anything with an agenda attached to it. Don’t have an agenda? Not interested in converting the rest of us to your religion/political party/choice of reading materials? Then no topic is off-limits.
17. When is grace appropriate and inappropriate?
It depends on what your position is in the conflict. Are you the injured party? It’s appropriate.
Are you a bystander trying to convince someone who has been hurt to sweep their pain under the rug? It’s inappropriate.
18. How can you let someone know something is yours legally? Say, “I actually own that.” If there’s still a conflict get legal advice.
19. Everybody I meet has to become a friend. No offense but I find that attitude to be sickly-sweet and patronizing. Be friendly by all means but please don’t try to force anything. It will either happen naturally or it won’t.
20. How many holes are there in a girl? explain the function of each briefly. I’m so grateful you’re not my kid. Go ask your parent(s) or look it up on Wikipedia.
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you see there was this sea cucumber and normally they don’t talk but for the sake of the story…
Last week someone typed that run-on sentence into a search engine and ended up here.
I don’t know who you are. I probably never will. But this is what happened next:
she did.
What she didn’t have was a name. She didn’t need one to be honest. All of the other sea cucumbers recognized her from the faintly-sweet taste of her hormones floating through the water. If sea cucumbers had names her would have been Strawberry.
But I digress.
One day Strawberry spoke.To her siblings and children (although she didn’t know the word for either of those concepts) the word looked like a tiny burp floating up from the ocean floor. Unremarkable.
What she meant to say was this: “Light.” They’d all seen it. Only she had noticed it.Strawberry swallowed her last mouthful of plankton and gingerly floated up.
The light grew strong and bright. The currents were stronger in the heavens. She found herself floating away from her herd.
A shadow fell across the water. Something large scooped her up in a painfully firm grip. She couldn’t breathe. Panic.
Pbbbth.
Some of her breathing tubes spilled out into his hands.
“Ewww,” the stranger said, dropping her back into the water.
She sank.
Down.
Down.
Down.
To the edge of her colony.
Plop.
Back onto the ocean floor.
Hearts quivering.
Her lungs grew back in a few weeks.
Her courage did not.
But sometimes when she had a fully belly and a quiet circulatory system she’d stare up at the surface again, looking at that light.
And when the eggs of her eggs hatch, when the moon hangs still and bright in the sky tomorrow, next week, next months she’ll hunker down with the hatchlings and tell them of the world without water.
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Here is this week’s list of blog posts, comics and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.
A Man and His Hummingbird. Start with one injured baby hummingbird. Add a concerned human. Mix well. Serve immediately.
How to Start a Fire. This is exactly what it sounds like. I don’t know why I found it so interesting. Maybe it’s because I’ve only ever tried to build a fire once (and failed miserably)?
Don’t Hold Hands Until Marriage. I grew up in a rural, midwestern community that believed in abstinence-only sex education. The sex ed curriculum was worse than useless – it actually taught us some horrifically inaccurate things about sex and relationships. For example, we learned that condoms have holes in them large enough for HIV to pass through. We learned that men and boys are only nice until a woman or girl has sex with them; as soon as they get what they’re looking for they’ll leave you. Words like pleasure, orgasm, clitoris, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered weren’t part of the curriculum.
Now students are being taught that it’s not ok to even kiss or hug one another. When will it end?
Humanoid Cartoons. How various species of animals reproduce. Hint: it’s not always as simple as you’d assume.
What have you been reading?
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Many years ago I read a fable about a boy who discovered he could fast-forward through life by pulling on the edge of a magical ball of yarn.
School is boring? Let’s jump ahead to graduation. Can’t wait to have enough money to get married? Skip to the wedding. Tired of waking up with a cranky baby every night? *poof*, that baby is now a child.
Eventually he pulls out so much yarn that he leaps to his golden years. His children are grown, he’s too old to work, his wife grows frail and dies and he is left alone with a patchy memory of the last 60+ years.
Just as he is about to give up hope, though, the old – now young – man wakes up and realizes it was all a dream. He solemnly swears to savour every stage of life and goes off to visit his sweetheart. I was all of eight years old at the time and even I knew that was an exceedingly poor poor way to end the story. 😉
Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. It’s very easy to gloss over the difficulties in life, though. Would it be great to have the boundless energy of childhood again? Yes! Do I want my parents to tell me what to eat, which television shows I’m allowed to watch and when to go to bed? Not in the least.
That story should have ended with Thomas (the name I’ve assigned to the old man – I’ve forgotten what he was originally called) either figuring out a way to wind the ball of yarn up again or dying peacefully, the last scene of the story showing someone new stumbling across this mysterious ball of yarn.
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