Lydia Schoch

Happy Fourth of July to my U.S. readers! Here is this week’s list of blog posts and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

America Explained to Non-Americas. I don’t actually agree with any of these definitions, but they’re still funny.

An Atheist Parent, an Evangelical Grandmother, and a Six-Year-Old Girl via lovejoyfeminism. This is a really interesting approach to teaching kids about atheism and theism.

How to Find a Quiet Place to Relax in a Crowded Foreign City. This is brilliant.

Because I Haven’t Known What to Say via juliaparktracey. One word: regret. That’s the only hint you’re going to get about this one.

Locke: The Most Beautiful Dumpster Cat via HCWrightAuthor. Quick, someone invent a cure for allergies so I can go adopt a few pets from my local shelter! On a serious note, this is a great post.

From Who Owns the Dead?

Just 100 years ago, the sight of a dead body laid out in someone’s front parlor would not have been at all unusual. Indeed, the home was the province of the funeral for most of U.S. history.

What have you been reading?

I wasn’t originally planning to share anything on my blog today, but this was good.

I’ll tell you why there wasn’t a post scheduled for today in a few days. In the meantime, keep me in your thoughts.

Photo credit: Stéfan.

Every year at about this time I notice a dip in visits to this blog.

It alarmed me the first time it happened because I thought I’d done something to seriously annoy my audience. I soon realized, though, that it was normal and temporary.

The question is, what do you do when everything is quiet?

Do you start writing posts in Pig Latin to see if anyone notices?

Do you recycle old posts?

Do you post a lot of gifs?

Do you share things that scare you, safe in the knowledge that fewer people will read them than might a little while from now?

Do you seek out Dr. Slump comics?

Readers, how do you respond to things like this?

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

In Historic Decision, Court Strikes Down State Bans on Same-Sex Marriage. I’m sure you’ve all heard the news already, but I really liked how the Scotus Blog explained in plain English what this means for LGBT people living in the U.S.

Why Are People Changing Their Minds About Same-Sex Marriage? This research is fascinating. I’ve seen it play it over and over again with acquaintances, friends and family members.

Summer Solstice via everettpoetry. I know I’m sharing this almost a week after the actual summer solstice, but I love the imagery in it.

Is Lousy Sex Better Than No Sex? 70% of the reason why I’m sharing this with you is because the title is so eye-catching.

Rainbow Sky via JAHesch. Joe (the author) picked the perfect picture to accompany his poem. Every time I see it, it makes me grin.

Let’s Bring Back Mourning Clothes via snail_5. There’s definitely something to be said for this. It shouldn’t become obligatory, but it would be a good thing to have some kind of visual clue that someone is in mourning.

Two weeks ago I recommended a dinosaur expert’s critique of the new Jurassic Park movie. This week you should check out this video about what this franchise would have been like if the characters have visited different geologic eras.

What have you been reading?

This would make such a fantastic full-length movie. It would be like Toy Story for a more mature audience.

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by figurines like these. Logically I knew that they didn’t get up and walk around when no one was looking, of course, but it was still fun to imagine them having adventures after all of the human left the room.

Did you have similar thoughts growing up?

Photo credit: Khaydock.

The characters in my latest work-in-progress have been giving me a terrible time over the past two months or so.

Every change I try to make to their storyline falls flat. I’m not satisfied with how the plot is currently flowing, though, due to some abrupt jumps between scenes that really need to be smoothed out in my opinion.

Fellow creative people, how do you get unstuck? I’m willing to try anything at this point!

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

Frontier Families. I’ll be curious to see what the kids created from these technologies have to say as they grow older. In some ways, this reminds me of all of the different reactions people have to being adopted. How parents handle the topic of how their children entered the world seems to have a huge influence on how their adult kids approach it.

Make a Depressive Cycle Less Oppressive via HMJonesWrites. This is good.

Why Is America Obsessed with Perfect Teeth? A long but interesting read.

Dear Young, Gay Couple in 1993. Who else is hoping that there’s a happy ending here?

R.I.P. Champis. If you read this in Safari, the browser will give you the option to translate the post into English. I’ll summarize it for those of you who can’t or choose not to do that. Remember the video of the rabbit, Champis, who herds sheep that I shared here a year or two ago? He died peacefully in his sleep a few months ago. His son, Champis Junior (CJ), has now taken over the sheep-herding at Farm Hill. I love the fact that this has become a bunny dynasty in  Örnsköldsvik. Go click on the link if you want to see pictures of CJ!

From The Agitation via MsForrestRaven:

I’ve felt that way, too, but you
can’t make love when the past is
ambiguously sneaking up on, and behind, you—
or possibly my imagination is the inspiration.

What have you been reading?

Photo credit: Salim Virji.

Happy (early) Father’s Day to all of the dads who read this blog.

I don’t blog about holidays like this every year, but I have some fun stories to share about my dad today.

Little Ones and Big Ones on Rye

Both of my parents were responsible for meals when I was a kid. Mom did more of the cooking and baking when I was little, but after she went back to college Dad started spending more time in the kitchen.

He had a few fast, inexpensive specialties when it was his time to cook. We ate a lot of egg bread and various types of rice + veggie or meat dishes.

No matter what he was making, though, his answer to our question about what we were having for lunch or dinner was the same: little ones and big ones on rye.

The funny thing is that I don’t remember him ever serving us rye bread, and none of us ever knew exactly what little ones and big ones were. I always imagined them to be sausage, though.

Maybe someday I’ll serve him rye bread with various types of sausage!

Black Ice.

The problem with scheduling exams in December in Ohio is that sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate. At all.

One year when I was in college, we had a nasty ice storm the day before my final exams. My school was a half-hour drive from home. A huge part of the drive took place on quiet, back country roads that weren’t always salted right away.

I was an okay driver, but that particular route on that particular day made me nervous. These were the kinds of roads that didn’t see a lot of traffic. If I’d gotten into an accident, it could have been a while before anyone noticed that I was in trouble. It (probably) would have been even longer before anyone drove by who had first aid training.

Enter Dad. It wasn’t strictly necessary for him to drive me to school that day, but I was so grateful for his help. It made me feel really safe.

Permanently Borrowing Aiden’s Toy.

My nephew, Aiden, was given so many toys as a baby that Dad decided he wouldn’t mind permanently sharing one.

It was a soft, baseball-shaped stuffed animal. Dad used it to prop up his laptop when he wanted to surf the web in his La-Z-Boy. It worked surprisingly well. The baby never even knew it was missing, but I quietly chuckled every time I saw Dad use it for the next few years.

What are some of your favourite memories of the fathers and father-figures in your life?

This game involves spotting small differences between two shades of the same colour. It advertises itself as a free colour vision test. I don’t know if that is accurate, but I did have a good time playing it.

I made it to level 31 before I could no longer tell the colours apart. The game says that this is a better result than 92.7% of the world’s population. (I’m not sure if I believe that, although it might be true!

What were your results?

Drew and I saw Jurassic World this past weekend. We both really loved it. No, I won’t be sharing any spoilers in this post. It irks me when other people give away the entire plots of movies or TV shows that have just come out.

1. The storyline was evenly paced. Those of who you have followed me here for a while might remember how particular I am about pacing, especially in the middle of a story. The nice thing about this movie is that it never had a dull moment. I was always interested in what would happen next, and that doesn’t happen for me with every movie.

2. The scenery was beautiful. One of the things I liked the most about Jurassic Park was how much attention was paid to everything happening in the background.

3. It had a little bit of everything. The science fiction and action genres were strongly represented, but there were also a few surprises tucked along the way. I can’t say anything else about this without giving away spoilers.

4. The Easter eggs were clever. I really like it when films assume the audience has a longterm memory. Once again, I can’t go into any detail without giving away spoilers. They were good, though.

5. Velociraptors do not make good pets. Although seeing them run around in the movie made me want to domesticate them anyway. They were surprisingly cute in a predatory sort of way.

6. Chris Pratt and Omar Sy are handsome. There’s something to be said for  good-looking movie stars. Ha!

7. It’s nostalgic. I actually rewatched Jurassic Park a few days before this one  came out. I don’t remember how old I was when I first saw it, but it was fun to relive that part of my childhood again through both movies.

8. The characters were interesting. While there were some big changes I would have made in this area if I could have written the script, I was curious to see what would happen with all of the characters. All of them had some sort of quirk or habit that made me like them.

9. The special effects were well done. I especially liked seeing the herbivores. They looked so calm and friendly.

10. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. Summer blockbusters aren’t meant to be serious social commentaries. This one knows exactly what it is (and isn’t) capable of. That’s a good thing!

If you’ve seen this movie, what did you think of it?