Lydia Schoch

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

Global Indicators Database. How does the rest of the world really view the U.S.? Click on this link to learn the answer to this question as well as to many more questions.

Dramatic Mouse. Sometimes I share thought-provoking, educational links on Suggestion Saturday, and sometimes I show you an adorably dramatic little mouse. 😉

Food Morality and Marketing via dietitianblog. There’s a lot of truth to this.

Marginalized. I’d do the same thing in this situation. Would you?

From Such a Hypocrite via swbigvoice:

In fact I have come to realise that, shocking as it is, I am not always right and I don’t always make the best decisions. Even more shocking is the fact that that this is OK.

From The Honeyed Siphon:

For most of its history, diabetes has been about piss, death, and shame. Especially piss. Things are marginally different now, because now the primary metrics and metaphors of diabetic life turn around blood. Blood as number or proportion. Blood as an occasion for sugar. Blood over the long term. Blood to be tested and slowly placed at the heart of all affect, like a concept. Blood that gets everywhere.

I’d recommend Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend to animals lovers and history buffs alike. It tells the true story of where Rin Tin Tin came from, how he got his name, and why he became such a famous dog beginning in the 1920s.

This isn’t a topic I’ve ever studied before. To be honest, I barely even knew who Rin Tin Tin was before picking up this book. Longterm readers know how much I like true animal stories, though, so it didn’t take long to convince me to give it a try.

If you are familiar with the original Rin Tin Tin’s life, I’d love to hear your opinion on this telling of it.

What have you been reading?

This is fascinating. It was well worth the 5 minutes of time I spent watching it.

Waiting or Earl to Die and other stories is finally officially available.

I’d like to thank Daphne Purpus and my husband, Drew, for reading early drafts of my stories. Their beta reading and proofreading skills were greatly appreciated.

This is so exciting.

I hope you all enjoy it.

Photo by Roger and Renate Rössing.

My old friend, Bruce, is having surgery today. He and his family are waiting to hear if some of his most recent health problems are caused by an incurable form of cancer or by something that could potentially be treated.

Everyone who knows him is waiting to hear what the doctors say as well.

I think it’s safe to say that most of us on this side of the globe are waiting for spring. We’re rapidly approaching the time of year when it feels as though winter will last for eternity.

There are other people I know who are waiting for things that only they have the right to discuss online. The list felt incomplete without mentioning this, but that’s all I’m going to say about it.

Overall, though, it feels like a lot of us are in standby mode. The clock is ticking, but it’s not yet time to stand up.

On a lighter note, I’m counting down the days until Waiting for Earl to Die and other stories is released. There are only two more to go.

What are you waiting for today?

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

Why I am Raising My Child to be a Feminist and Why I think You Should Too via danarel. Readers who have raised or who are raising kids, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this article. Did or are you consciously raising your kids to identify as [fill-in-the-blank]?

Bare Necessities via XplodingUnicorn. Ha!

If Only Once, If Only for a Little While. This is a tearjerker. I’ll leave it up to my readers to discover why.

In Transition to Independent Living, the “Dignity of Risk” for the Mentally Ill. I don’t actually think this is a good idea, but it was intriguing to see how a man living with a severe mental illness coped with his newfound independence.

Why I Blog About Mental Illness via ChristyBarongan.  A nice addendum to the link above.

From Ashes in My Pine Tree:

This morning my doorbell rang and I found an old woman on my porch who announced herself with the phrase “Good morning, I’m about to ask you the strangest question you’ll be asked all day.”

Just for the record, if you’re trying to spark my interest that intro is a pretty damn good way to do it.

She then proceeding to hold up a big ziploc baggie full of ashes and asked if I would mind if she laid her mother to rest in my front yard. Yes, you heard me right, she wanted to spread her dead mother’s ashes on my seldom mowed lawn.

I am a Bacha Posh: My Life as a Woman Living as a Man in Afghanistan was a heartbreaking read.

Sometimes girls living in Afghanistan assume a temporary male identity so they can work to support their families. Their hair is cut, their names and clothes are changed, and for a few years they are thought of as boys because girls in their culture have so little freedom.

The problem is that eventually they are forced into living with the same heavy restrictions that apply to all of the other women and girls. It’s incredibly difficult to transition from all of the freedom they experienced as children to having so many limitations placed upon them at puberty.

Some women fight back against it. This is the story of one woman who did just that. I think all of my readers will really enjoy it.

What have you been reading?

Source: Deutsche Fotothek.

I’m on a short Internet hiatus.

They say that if you tilt your screen at exactly the right angle, you might be able to see what these girls have spotted.

Let me know in the comment section what it is you think might be out there. I can sleep easily now that I know all of you have something to occupy your minds. 😛

As promised, here is the sneak peak of the cover for Waiting for Earl to Die and other stories.

The book will be out on January 28. I’ll share the purchase information next week!

When I first started this blog, I occasionally shared links to sites that I found entertaining. I stopped doing it because I eventually ran out of websites to recommend.

I’m busy with non Internet-related stuff this week, so I thought today would be the perfect time to revive this old series.

Incidental Comics. This is a hodgepodge of comic strips about all kinds of topics. Most of them are related to writing and books, but sometimes Grant Snider throws serious wild cards out there.

Ethics and Society. There aren’t many blogs out there about ethics that aren’t written from a religious point of view, but this is a great example of how to write such a thing.

The Beautiful Kind. A fascinating blog written by a sex worker. This isn’t for kids or for anyone who is easily offended.

Before Vaccines. People used to die from diseases we don’t think about anymore. Many more people suffered terribly – whether temporarily or permanently – from these diseases. I look forward to the day when there are no more updates needed for this particular site.

Smarter Every Day. This is for kids, adults, and everyone in-between. The content varies from day to day, but expect a lot of science experiments and short, humorous videos from this tumblr.

My Aunt the WAC. Some of you might remember how much I adored A Hundred Years Ago. The author of that blog is back with a new project that is describing the incredible life of her aunt who decided to join the Women’s Army Corp during World War II. Before joining the WAC, Marian Solomon was a middle-aged woman who had spent her entire life on a small, rural farm. What an amazing change that must have been in her life! The story is just getting started, so head on over and check it out.

1111 Comics. This comic strip is surprisingly hard to explain. Expect the unexpected with it. It doesn’t always make me laugh, but when it does I laugh very hard.

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

Spring… This is about the time of year that I begin daydreaming about how green Toronto will be in a few months. I really miss the sight of  flowers, grass, and trees every winter. If you feel the same way, maybe this gorgeous picture will help.

Things to Say to Yourself Instead of the Negative Stuff. I love this.

Sex-Positive? Or Sex-Sensitive?  Do I agree with this? Yes and no. So much depends on the context of not only what is said but of the relationships we have with the people who say them. It was a fascinating read, though, and this is one of my favourite sex blogs. This link is NSFW.

Ask a Skeptic: What About Ghost TV Shows? I’ve actually really enjoyed all of the updates in this column so far, but I thought this particular letter is a good place to start for anyone who isn’t already familiar with this thought-provoking site.

From When Told You Are Not Pretty:

Don’t forget how trees shake their last leaves in winter like they’re shedding skin from the old year. Shed pretty. Shed it now. Teach yourself to replace it with heart-wrenching, brilliant, clever, artistic, unique, understanding, fighting. Always living.

From The Life Lessons I Learned from Yoga:

Sometimes the things I don’t know overwhelm me. The books I haven’t read, the questions I don’t know the answers to, and the concepts I can’t wrap my brain around crash like waves and threaten to drag me out to sea. It’s so easy to stack them up and measure myself against the pile. But if knowledge is power, so is the knowledge that there’s always more to learn.

I’ll be back next week with another book recommendation. What have you been reading?