Lydia Schoch

This is the final post of On the Other Hand. The last six years have been wonderful, but it’s time for me to move on to a new website and a different approach to blogging.

Effective today, I will be blogging at lydiaschoch.com. There’s a post there explaining why I made the move and what you can expect to see from me next.

I hope to see all of you over there!

Why Your Next Move Should Be to Orange County

Orange County, CA is best known for its many tourist attractions. It is home to Disneyland, Downtown Disney, Huntington Beach, and Laguna Beach. Some would consider it a surfing mecca while others come to see the cities themselves.

Whale watching, sunbathing, hiking, shopping, and events are all awaiting every tourist that enters Orange County. However, OC might just be your next home if you’re an active, social person with a love of events, mild climates, and beautiful natural scenery. Here are a few reasons you should make your next move Orange County.

The Local Culture is Diverse and Vibrant

Orange County is home to a wonderfully diverse community of people. The internationality of the area is celebrated by its many festivals and events, the largest of which being Orange County International Street Fair, the Tet Festival, and the Irvine Global Festival. While both the Irvine Global Festival and the International Street Fair celebrate all of the cultures found in Orange County, the Tet Festival is the largest Vietnamese Lunar New Year Festival in the U.S. and is well worth a visit.

The Climate is Perfect 

The mild climate of Orange County offers plenty of sunshine without the excess heat of other sunny locations. These lovely temperatures allow year-round dwellers to enjoy outdoor activities all year long, including sunbathing, swimming, surfing, boating, and hiking.

Of course, this also means beaches. Orange County falls on a coastline with 45 miles of beach along its edge. Living this close to the ocean would give you an excuse to spend day after day soaking up the sun, catching some waves, exploring tidal pools, and even building bonfires in the shoreline coves.

Natural Beauty Combined with City Life

While Orange County may be full of cities, city amenities, and city populations, there is also a component of natural beauty for the nature lovers. A Californian version of the Grand Canyon called Red Rock Canyon, can be found just down a leisurely trail while the county’s highest peak, Santiago Peak, is always available for the more rugged climbers. State parks and wildlife reserves are plentiful, featuring the native plants of both the shoreline and forested areas.

Meanwhile, in the cities, you continue to enjoy things like aquariums, museums, events, and even tourist attractions such as Disneyland. Things such as First Thursday Art Walk in Laguna Beach or the Elvis Festival can be on the agenda for one day with a full day of hiking the next.

Moving to Orange County may seem a little preposterous at first with its famed tourist population. But Orange County is a bright, colorful place to live that permits the city dwellers their activities and comforts while simultaneously satiating the needs of the avid outdoors-lover. Between state parks, wildlife reserves, hiking trails, festivals, museums, and the famed Disneyland, even a quick vacation to Orange County may end with you never wanting to leave. So take the leap. Move to the bustling Orange County and experience life in a way you may have never thought possible.

Image via Pixabay by larsen9236

Vee Cecil is a wellness coach, personal trainer, and bootcamp instructor. Vee is passionate about studying and sharing her findings in wellness through mynewwell.com. 

1. It gives you a hopeful vision of the future.

As I’ve mentioned on Twitter, my spouse and I have been slowly watching Star Trek: The Original Series over the past few months.

One of the things I appreciate the most about this show is its unbridled optimism. The characters live in a time and place where no humans go without the stuff they need to survive.

Everyone always has enough food, shelter, clothing, medical care, and education. Regardless of who you are, you have a chance to explore the deepest galaxies. Nothing will hold you back from fulfilling your potential if you’re willing to work for it.

To run a society otherwise is completely unthinkable to them.

If anything is possible for Captain Kirk and his fearless crew, the same might be said for us as well one day.

2. It warns about darker times ahead.

Not all science fiction series are cheerful or hopeful, of course. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

The world Offred lived in before the Sons of Jacob took over was nothing at all like the quietly terrifying life she lead a few years later as a citizen of Gilead. She’s lost her partner, her only child, her name, her identity, and her ability to make even the smallest decisions about how her life turns out.

I like the fact that this genre switches between warning us of the dangers of fundamentalism in any form and giving us tantalizing glimpses of what could be in store for humanity if we uncouple work from money and learn to stop discriminating against people for things that should have no influence how they contribute to society.

We’ll need both the lure of the carrot and the rightful fear of the stick to have any chance of creating a better world.

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3. It defies your expectations.

Not everything in life is always as it seems.

Think about the opening scene in Buffy the Vampire Slayer where late one night a teenage girl is followed into a deserted alley by a menacing stranger.

In most shows, this would end with her being attacked or killed.

Buffy isn’t like other teens, though. Without giving away too many spoilers about a nearly 20-year-old show, she isn’t the one who should be worried about what could happen when no one else is watching.

As soon as I saw this scene, I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen to her next. I’d never seen a female character like her before, and I was thrilled to imagine a world where a girl doesn’t have to worry about who might be following her or what their intentions were.

4. It teaches skepticism.

One of my favourite things about watching The X-Files episodes back in the day was trying to figure out what would happen to the victim of the week when he or she ran into something or someone that defied explanation.

You had to be pretty intelligent and resourceful to survive one of these encounters. There was little room for self-doubt or for going back to get a second glimpse of whatever it was that sent a shiver down your spine.

The mainstream media wasn’t necessarily something to count on, either. How it described a situation after the fact was almost never correct.

You had to rely on your own observations instead of what they wanted you to believe. While this isn’t always the best way of figuring out the truth, I’d much rather have people think critically about what they’re told than swallow everything hook, line, and sinker.

In Conclusion

Science fiction is such an important and unique genre.

It pulls us away from the dangers of fanaticism.

It pushes us to imagine brighter futures for everyone, not just a select few.

It challenges our preconceptions about what life should or could be like.

Humanity will need more of all of these things in the coming years. I, for one, will be reading a lot of science fiction and dreaming about all of the futures that could be in store for us. Only time will tell if it will be closer to Gilead or to the Federation.

Do you have a favourite sci-fi show that wasn’t mentioned in this post? Tell me about it in the comment section below! I’d love to hear from you.

Here is this week’s list of paintings, confessions, advice for setting boundaries, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

It’s extra large this week because I couldn’t bear to cut anything out. Everything was important, so I hope you enjoy all of the bonus links.

Confessions of a Dirty Shoe Dancer via maryanne_pope. Let’s start off with something lighthearted and funny today. The photo on the left captures the feeling of this link beautifully, I think.

On Fire. I wish Klara Bowman was still with us. I would have loved to talk to her about the meaning of this painting. Isn’t it gorgeous?

Approaching the Holidays with Trump-Supporting Relatives. The advice in this post doesn’t only apply to US politics, by the way. I’ve used and will use them for all kinds of sticky situations. The first point that the author made was the most important: you are under absolutely no obligation to spend time with someone just because they’re related to you. It’s always okay to RSVP “no” if they’re being nasty.

Why We Write at Times Like This via LindaWonder. Stories are such an important part of life for many different reasons.

Rainy Mood. The sole purpose of this site is to play recordings of thunderstorms. If you find them as relaxing as I do, enjoy.

Too Rich to Be Poor, Too Poor to Get By. My thoughts jumped from “the system is broken,” to “Wow, I need to donate to the food bank way more often than I already do,” to “no one who works that hard should suffer that much” while reading this.

This Is Not My Beautiful House. Keep reading this one until you reach the end. The last sentence is 99% of the reason why I’m recommending this to you.

5 Self-Care Tips During Recovery from a Suicide Attempt via iamsteveaustin. This was a very good article.

What have you been reading?

Photo credit: Tony Hisgett.

Lately I’ve been scouring the web for distracting and silly news stories.

One of the nicest ones I’ve come across so far was the semi-official announcement of Canada’s national bird.

The link above shares facts about grey jays as well as discusses why they were selected for this honour.

It also talks about the other species of birds that were being considered for this position.

I am not the kind of person who spends a great deal of time thinking about national symbols.

I’m not against having them. They simply don’t strike me as particularly interesting or important.

So I was surprised by how many people had strong feelings about this decision when I read what folks were saying about it on Twitter.

Some of them had some incredibly strong opinions both for and against this idea.

A few of them were genuinely offended.

What really made me giggle, though, was the thought of asking grey jays themselves what they thought of becoming our national bird.

They’re birds!

They don’t care what humans call them.

In fact, they wouldn’t understand the conversation at all.

Yet people still argue over this.

I don’t know why this strikes me as so funny, but it does.

What are some of the offbeat news stories you’ve been amusing yourself with lately?

Karma – Brandyn Burnette from Minhal Baig on Vimeo.

This short film includes a brief scene from something horrifying that happened in the U.S. recently. I don’t normally like to give spoilers for the stuff I share here, but I think this warning is vague enough to brush away if you don’t mind violent scenes while also specific enough to pay attention to if you are triggered by such things.

The message of this film was fantastic, though. I can’t recommend it highly enough.