Lydia Schoch

NO-A [Short Film] from Liam Murphy on Vimeo.

It’s hard to tell you about this film without giving away major spoilers. What I can say is that it’s about a robot named NO-A [Noah] who is trying to save the woman who created him.

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, comic strips, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

Accidental Empathy via StephGolisch. What an interesting post. I’ve noticed the same thing happen in my life.

Why Are You So Quiet? I’d never actually respond this way, but there are times when I’m really tempted to say “why are you so nosy?” to people who ask this question. Do they not realize how ridiculous is it to ask someone something like this? (Probably not).

100 Homeless People Were Given Disposable Cameras and This is What They Captured. This is so freaking cool.

Caregiver Warrior Memories via CaregiveWarrior. There’s something beautiful about this sort of reaction to the death of a loved one.

Kittens and Cupcakes Day. No kittens for me. I’m allergic. But I will be doing something nice for myself today! I hope you do, too.

This Comic Perfectly Explains Why Anxiety & Depression Are So Difficult To Fight via jadedjenny71. What a great analogy. We need something like this for every kind of mental illness.

From The Case of the Missing Polygamists:

There is no greater mystery in human evolution than the origins of our sexuality. Following the trail of clues available researchers have independently concluded that humans evolved through systems of monogamy, polygamy, as well as polyamory. However, only one can be the culprit. Like a detective interrogating multiple suspects, the solution ultimately depends on which account you’re willing to believe.

What have you been reading?

This is one of the strangest short films I’ve ever seen. Go watch it before you read my commentary below (unless you’re the kind of person who doesn’t mind a few spoilers!).

I think it’s about the dark side of rivalry?

Who agrees with this? Who disagrees?

I am  better at finding the hidden meanings in stories than I am in films. Even the most subtle  background music can be distracting for me. The nice thing about stories is that they almost never have soundtracks. I can only think of one book I’ve ever read that broke that rule, and even then I ignored the suggested song list in it. Ha!

Photo credit: Andy Dingley.

My first few attempts to figure out the game Minecraft last year were short-lived and frustrating for reasons I’ll get into later on in this post. I loved the idea of the game, but I hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it yet.

Fast forward to earlier this week. After several false starts, I decided to give the game yet another try. This time I finally started having a lot of fun with it.

What changed? Well, I now have a computer that doesn’t freeze up when the game is running, for one thing. I’m also in a place in my life where I’m more willing to put the time needed into learning something new.

The first few times I played this game, I ended up accidentally damaging things in the game because my computer would freeze up just as I was trying to do something. If you hit the wrong button enough times, you can destroy a carefully-construsted wall or fence. When you’re playing a game where monsters come out at night and attack you, that is a terrible idea.

So what have I learned?

1. You need the right tools. My old computer was good for surfing the web, but it simply wasn’t fast or smart enough to play a graphics-heavy game like this one. Having the right tool made it much easier for me to learn basic things like how to run, chop down a tree, or build a house because I wasn’t regularly seeing everything freeze up at a critical moment.
2. Sometimes it takes a few attempts to figure out the basics. My spatial skills aren’t strong. I haven’t played enough video games to have an intuitive understanding of how they work. Some people, I’m sure, take to Minecraft like a duck takes to water. It took me a little longer to get into it, though, and that’s okay.
3. The extra effort is worth it. I’m not embarrassed to admit being a little obsessed with this game now. The extra effort I needed to get into it was so worth it, and I want to build  safe houses and farms everywhere in it so that I never run out of food or a place to stay when it gets dark outside. Ha!

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

Why Zombies Will Rule via yadadarcyyada. This isn’t what you think it is. Go check it out.

Would I Pray to Make a Religious Person Happy? Fuck No. I’ll sit quietly and respectfully while other people pray, but I totally agree with the author of this post. No one should ever be pressured to pray to someone else’s deity or deities for any reason. The very idea of it is absurd.

A House, Some Lives, Some Things…and Trying to Make Sense via maryjrowen. I’ve had many of these same thoughts after deaths in my family.

Hearing Loss and  Teens: The New Epidemic? via drheathernd. Despite the title this is good advice for everyone.

From A Stonewall Survivior Spills All:

Stonewall is practically causing riots all over again. Online protests recently erupted when a trailer surfaced for Stonewall — the upcoming Roland Emmerich-directed film about the legendary West Village uprising of 1969 that defined the modern gay movement — and it wasn’t exactly heavy on people of color, to name just one complaint about what was deemed a serious lack of inclusion.

From The Lost Summer:

“Our current school schedule has a negative impact on all kids, but it’s most devastating to the economically disadvantaged,” said Dr. David Hornak, Executive Director for the National Association of Year-Round Education, an organization advocating for shorter summer breaks.

From The New American Slavery:

Each year, more than 100,000 people from countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, the Philippines, and South Africa come to America on what is known as an H-2 visa to perform all kinds of menial labor across a wide spectrum of industries….

What have you been reading?

Photo credit: Luc Viatour.

There are two kinds of people in the world: those of you who are scared of spiders, and the rest of us who just don’t get it.

(If you are truly creeped out by them, don’t scroll to the bottom of this post).

Cars are scary. I’ve known several people who were killed or severely injured in them.

Dementia is scary. It’s heartbreaking to watch someone slowly lose so many pieces of themselves to diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Cancer is scary. I don’t even have to explain this one.

Even deer can be scary sometimes. One of the many reasons why I’m thrilled to not own a car has to do with driving down a quiet, country road at dusk or in the dark. It’s really difficult to spot a deer and swerve in time if one gets spooked by your headlights or decides to cross the road at the very last second.

Arachnids, though? Not scary. Not even a little bit. Humans are far more dangerous to them than they are to us.

It’s extremely rare for a spider bite to kill someone. Most spiders aren’t aggressive or toxic, and most of the venomous ones will cause a minor illness at most if they do end up biting you.

I actually like seeing spiders. They kill all kinds of bugs that can infest a house. They have fascinating little black eyes.

Photo credit: Viki from Wikimedia Commons.

And sometimes they’re even fuzzy!

Look at this little guy.

I want to put a tiny leash on him and take him for a walk around the block.

I want to make little hats for him every Halloween. He could be Santa one year and a leprechaun the next.

I want to read Charlotte’s Web to him and rewrite the ending so that all of the spiders live as long as Wilbur does.

He isn’t frightening.

He’s adorable.

This short film reminded me of what life was like when I was a kid who woke up a few hours before anyone else in the family did.

I spent many quiet mornings reading in my bedroom while I waited for everyone else to wake up. Often I’d reread the same books over and over again for the fun of it.

Fairy tales were more magical at that time of day and when I already knew how they’d end!

Photo credit: Camdiluv ♥.

This post is a response to So, Are You Happy? from zenandpi. 

1. Take inventory. What parts of your life are you dissatisfied with? What parts of it make you happy? What parts do you feel neutral about? Sometimes my list is short when I do this. Other times it’s long.
2. Pick the smallest thing that annoys you. Maybe you hate how messy your car is getting or you’re really not looking forward to volunteering at that annual charity event again this year. The possibilities are endless.
3. Clean it. Resign from it. Sell it. Donate it. Unsubscribe from it. Send your regrets with the RSVP.
4. Do not take no for an answer. This is not a time to feel guilty. Everyone needs to purge certain things from their lives occasionally.
5. You have a little wiggle room in your life now. What do you want to replace this old pattern with? Do you want to do nothing while you relish your extra time, money, and/or emotional energy for a while? Is there something new you’d like to try? You might have the answer for this right away, or you might not. I often don’t have a clue what I’d rather do until I’ve had some time to breathe.
6. Repeat these steps with a few other minor things that are easy to change. The reason why I recommend doing it this way is because I need a lot of instant gratification when I’m unhappy in order to stay motivated. Big payoffs can come later, but there’s something to be said for seeing small, positive changes right away.

Many big problems can also be broken down into little steps like these. You could send out X resumes a week or start taking a class to train for a different profession if you hate your current job.

If it’s an interpersonal problem, you could start making small changes in how you interact with the other person. Maybe you’ll decide to see them less often or for shorter amounts of time. Maybe you’ll frame your interactions in a way that gives you a more peaceful approach to those conversations.

With longterm issues like these, there are no quick fixes. There are many ways to make things just a little better than they were last week or last month, though, and that’s all you really need to do.