Lydia Schoch

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

How My Anger Helped Me Find Peace. This is great.

It’s Amazing What the Living Expect of the Dying. Be prepared for a long read with this link. I really appreciated how honest the author was about death, grief, and emotionally unhealthy families.

Why I Won’t Work for Publicity. I agree with this 100%.

Alice and Morley via ElaineStirling1. A tale of two famous Canadian writers. This really should become a series!

The Ugly Duckling via snowglobeman. The fairy tale this title come from was one of my favourite stories growing up. I can’t tell you much else about it without giving away spoilers, but I really enjoyed seeing what the author did with it.

From All of Us, Together via jharrington:

Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now hokey and outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared an impossible hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in.

This week’s book recommendation is something you can read for free!

My friend Colleen will be giving copies away of Birth of a Vixen on Kindle on Monday, December 8. 

All of the details are on her blog, so be sure to mark your calendars and check it out if you like urban fantasy.

What have you been reading?

This is well worth the 15 minute investment of time.

It’s not just about exercise – it’s about how to meet any kind of goal using information from recent scientific studies. Fascinating stuff.

My longterm readers are probably scratching their heads right now, as I’m not exactly known for being a fan of Christmas.

Here’s the thing: reading about this holiday is nothing at all like actually celebrating it. Stories don’t require you to go shopping, or navigate agitated crowds, or cook all day, or decorate anything.

They’re just words on a page, and even I can handle that much festivity.

1. The Selfish Giant. Two words: Oscar Wilde. He usually wasn’t this sentimental, but I still like his work.

2. Christmas Every Day. I disagree with the author’s point now just as much as I did when I first encountered it. This is still a good story though.

3. The Burglar’s Christmas. The twist is a little predictable but still fun.

4. The Little Match Girl.  Some people dislike this tale because of how it ends, but I think it’s the only logical conclusion. Although it did make me cry as a kid!

5. Little Bun Rabbit. 90% of the reason why I’m recommending this one is because it’s about rabbits. Y’all know how much I love bunnies.

I will now return to my regular bah-humbugging. 😉

What Christmas or other holiday stories do you like?

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

When My Mom Was an Astronaut. This should be fleshed out into an entire book. I was haunted by the author’s wish to know something, anything about her biological mother.

House of Strays. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what this is about. It’s still beautiful.

This Is What the Skeletons of Famous Cartoon Characters Would Look Like via ShykiaBell. When I was a kid I used to wonder about Sheldon, a cartoon chick that decided he never wanted to hatch. One time he put a big crack in his shell while hanging up a picture on the inside of it. That scene irritated me because it broke so many rules about how baby birds actually develop.  It looks like I’m not the only one who takes cartoon animal physiology seriously. Ha!

Honoring Those You Love: Blessings of the Thanksgiving Season via cjnapoet.  I almost didn’t click on this link because I’m usually not into holiday-themed poems. This was a good one though.

From Zygodactylous via This_Is_Talon:

Mythology claims

one can rise from the ashes

of a fiery re-birth

From Better Girls From Broken Parts:

Jasmine stood with her arms clasped behind her back, leaning forward a little, weight on the balls of her feet. She wanted to look like a cat ready to spring. Don’t think I forgot what happened in the pine grove, she thought, loud and clear inside her own head. Don’t think I forgot even a bit.

A friend recently recommended The Bad Beginning to me. I’d heard of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events books before, but had never bothered to pick them up.

Now I wish I had given them a try much sooner. The gist of the first book in the series is this: three young siblings are orphaned and then sent to live with a dastardly relative. The narration is what makes this story so much fun. It’s told from a third-person perspective that already has a lot of knowledge about how young adult novels are supposed to go. If you can think of a trope from this genre, it’s almost certainly mentioned here.

Of course, a lot of those rules about what is (and isn’t) supposed to happen to plucky orphans are broken by the characters for reasons that I’ll leave up to my audience to uncover.

It was a delight, though, and I’m eagerly waiting for the library to deliver the sequel to me.

What have you been reading?

I have no idea how accurate this calculator is, but I found it pretty interesting.

My results:

Life Expectancy: 93.50 years
Lower Quartile: 87.00 years (75% chance you will live longer than this)
Median Lifetime: 95.41 years (50% chance you will live longer than this)
Upper Quartile: 102.70 years (25% chance you will live longer than this)

Two of my biological grandparents are still alive (and fairly healthy), and I’ve had several relatives live well into their 90s. I’ve always thought it would be cool to live to see my 100th birthday if I could make it to that milestone with my mind and body  intact.

What were your results?

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

Top 10 Topics My Sons Are Bickering About via GinaValley. I once had an argument with one of my brothers about the pronunciation of the word salmon. (I’ll leave it up to the sibling in question to reveal his identity if he chooses to do so).

The Case for Being a Terrible Person via UncredibleHallq. I’m not familiar with the groups discussed in this post, but I really like the author’s approach to personal development.

Blood Pepper and Brave Meat. This is one of the most interesting short stories I’ve read recently.

It Belongs in a Museum: Artist Adds Sci-Fi Characters to Thrift Store Paintings. These paintings were incredibly well done. Normally I’m not at all fan of rustic, rural scenery in art, but I’d buy a few of these remixes in a heartbeat if I had the funds for it. They really ignite my imagination!

The Case Against Positive Thinking via JeffreyGuterman. Good stuff.

From On Kindness:

When I think of my mother’s life up to this point, what I find most revealing is how much of the abuse hurled at her throughout the years came about solely because she showed care and love to the wrong kinds of people.

Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters was a hoot.

Whether you’re a fan of King Lear, Nancy Drew, or Harry Potter, imagine what it would be like to text them. The concept is so simple I’m not entirely sure what else I should say about it. This was a very fun read, though, and I’d highly recommend it to all of my readers.

What have you been reading?

Photo by Mdf.

Yes, I know that winter technically doesn’t begin for another month. Toronto has had a cold snap and a few light snowstorms this past week, though, so it’s difficult for me to look out the window and think autumn.

Pumpkin season has come and gone. It’s winter for the next 119 days as far as my mind and body are concerned.

Many years I grumble a little about all of the things I don’t like about the cold.

This year I decided to make a new list. This might not be my favourite season, but there are still good things to discover in it.

1. Watching snow fall is hypnotic. My youngest brother used to sit quietly on the couch and watch the snow fall down through our living room window. Kindergarten only took up half the day, so he had to wait a few hours before the rest of our elementary school was dismissed.

2. Being sick is a good excuse for a nap. It’s a nice escape from all of the sniffling.

3. Winter drinks taste better than summer ones. Hot chocolate. Apple cider.  Egg nog.  All delicious.

4. There’s no humidity. Anyone with naturally curly or wavy hair knows just how nice it is to have a break from the poof.

5. The New Year is a fresh start. It feels good to say goodbye to last year and embrace the new one. To me it’s kind of like turning to a fresh page in a blank book or rebooting your computer.

6. Baked goods are everywhere. Mmmm….Christmas cookies.

7. All the ragweed is dead. I’m sure there are some people who have horrendous winter allergies. (My sympathies are with you!) November-April is wonderful for my allergies because they rarely if ever cause an issue for me. It’s lovely.

8. A hot bath feels great. Nobody wants to soak in the tub in August, but it can be very cozy in January.

9. There are no mosquitos, wasps, or bumblebees. It’s refreshing to go to a park and not risk getting bitten or stung.

10. The sun (probably) won’t wake you up. A 5:30 am sunrise can wake me up during the summer. I’m naturally an early bird, but sometimes there’s a little too much of a good thing in June when the sun doesn’t set until 9 or 10 pm.