Lydia Schoch

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

Waiting. Trey Smith and his wife waited all day for their marriage to crumble. Click on the link to find out what happened next!

VozMe. Cold and flu season is upon us. Every time I come down with a respiratory infection I lose my voice for several days. Hopefully this doesn’t happen to my readers as well but if it does this website can speak for you while your body recovers.

From A History of Violence:

Whatever its causes, the decline of violence has profound implications. It is not a license for complacency: We enjoy the peace we find today because people in past generations were appalled by the violence in their time and worked to end it, and so we should work to end the appalling violence in our time.

The Assembly. This is quite the story. 20 years ago my mom explained AIDS to my brothers and me in such a matter-of-fact way that I barely remember the conversation. Someone we’re related to through marriage was (and is) living with this virus and she didn’t want us to be afraid. We never were.

Flexuality Test. An online sexual orientation test that’s a little more holistic than the  Kinsey Scale. I found it to be fairly accurate.

From Friendly Social Coercion is Still Coercion:

It’s nice to be wanted! It’s nice to be invited! Even an “Aw man, I was really looking forward to seeing you. Next time?” would not go awry. But it’s not nice to be badgered and coerced and then told that your explanations, if you offer them, are not good enough explanations and have your attendance (or non-attendance) treated as a referendum on the entire relationship and a reason to blame you for not caring enough.

How would you react if a deadly disease broke out in your community? Would you flee to safety or stay behind to nurse the sick and dying? Fever Season tells the true story of a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee in 1878. Much of what we know about this period comes from the diaries of courageous men and women who chose to stay in the city. Some of these individuals died as a result of their decision to stay. Somehow that made this book even more poignant.

And just in case this is my last Suggestion Saturday post ever:

If the world comes to an end, I want to be in Cincinnati. Everything comes there ten years later. – Mark Twain

I, for one, think this is a great idea. If things start to get apocolypse-y next week let’s all meet in Cincinnati. 😛

What have you been reading?

I couldn’t resist the urge to blog at 12:12 on 12/12/12.

Can you guess what this is before the big reveal at the end of the video?

infime from Cut And Cook Studio on Vimeo.

The other night Drew and I were cuddling before bed. Somehow the conversation drifted to the types of soda we drank growing up and the silly things we did when the adults weren’t looking. In the wink of an eye I was little again.

Laramie, 1991. For the past year my family has lived in a trailer park. My favourite things about the neighbourhood are the indoor pool and recreation centre. To an eight-year-old there’s nothing better than spending an afternoon swimming or playing foosball in the rec room. When I have spare change I occasionally use it to buy soda or candy at the vending machines.

One day while I’m waiting for a friend alone by the pop machines I decide to play with the buttons on it. It’s fun to imagine that each button makes a different noise (although they don’t) and in my head I hear the ghost of a tune.

And then an orange soda tumbles out of the machine. I stop playing with the buttons and furtively look around. I don’t have any money with me and was not expecting this to happen. How am I supposed to pay for little metal can that wasn’t meant to be released?

There are no grown-ups around to tell me what to do and I have no idea how to find the adults who service the machines. Finally I decide to drink the soda as penance. I dislike the flavour but somehow it seems worse to let it go to waste. I never play with the pop machines again and for years feel a tinge of guilt for “stealing.”

Toronto, 2012. Drew laughs as I finish my tale. He grew up with kids who also figured out how to get free stuff from vending machines but he’s never known anyone who felt bad about it.

It’s funny to think about how early our personalities are fixed. 20+ years later I remain cautious about these things and still worry about taking more than my fair share…even accidentally.

Respond

Does anyone actually like orange soda? 😛

What childhood memory reminds you of a personality trait that you carried with you to adulthood?

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

i09 Needs Your Mail to Save the World. Now this is a clever idea. Rob Bricken wants to answer your questions about (post) apocalypse living. Whether you’re looking for a book recommendation, want to imagine a what if scenario or need advice on survival gear he’s your man. Go click on the link and send him a question!

From Positive Thinking is for Suckers:

For a civilization so fixated on achieving happiness, we seem remarkably incompetent at the task. One of the best-known general findings of the “science of happiness” has been the discovery that the countless advantages of modern life have done so little to lift our collective mood.

Why Today is Different via SeptemberMay. A heart-breaking essay on visiting a loved one living with Alzheimer’s disease in a nursing home. We watched my great-grandmother slowly slip away due to this disease. As a teenager I’d visit her at the nursing home with my mom, brothers and occasionally my grandfather (her son). By this point my great-grandmother no longer remembered any of her relatives so maybe those visits were more for us than for her. I hope I’m wrong about this, though, and that some part of her realized she was surrounded by love.

Mystery Picture. There’s something hidden in this picture. Do you see it?

From The Neurochemistry of Americans:

For the dopamine addict, life is a constant chase for that next hit. And America, composed of migrants attracted to that “reward,” is disproportionately endowed with such people, more than perhaps anywhere else on earth.

My friend Daphne Ashling Purpus recently published her first book, Dragon Riders. I’m so proud of her and would like encourage all of my readers who enjoy the fantasy genre to give this story a try.

If you buy it through the above link I’ll get a small percentage of the sale. Books at Amazon are the only affiliate links on this site, though. To any other readers out there who’ve been published lately, please let me know about it. I love promoting stuff written by people with whom I have personal connections.

What have you been reading?

Richard Haynes (Atheist Nexus) and Dr. Tom Arcaro (Elon University) are conducting a survey on how non-theists connect with likeminded people. The results won’t be strictly scientific but they will help Serving Atheists figure out how to better reach people with similar worldviews.

You don’t have to identify as an atheist to participate in this survey. From what I understand they’re casting a wide net and hope to hear from atheists, non-theists and people who check off the none box. If any of these sound like you then you qualify.

It took me about 10 minutes to complete.

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

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing—that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. – Richard Feynman

Love Your Enemies. On the surface the author of this post and I share little common. He’s a devout Mormon, I’m indifferent to the topic of religion. He has three wives and 24 children, I have one husband and no interest in motherhood. Yet I get the impression that our families would get along famously in person.

The Lying Disease. An article about how people who have Munchausen Syndrome deceive online friends.

From Why I Hate Neurons:

Circa 1998, I was a fat, sickly 14-year-old living in a cold, damp, foggy town on the outskirts of Manchester. I was fat because I ate too many potato crisps, and I was sickly, well, probably because I ate too many potato crisps (I kid).

Barred from Freedom: How Pretrial Detention Ruins Lives. It’s amazing to me that stuff like this still happens in 2012. I wonder what it will take to level the playing field?

A Word From Your Sponsor. A good reminder for the holiday season.

What would happen if a meteor hit the moon so hard it was knocked out of orbit? Can humanity survive all of the environmental chaos the moon’s new orbit brings? Life As We Knew It describes the new life of an ordinary teen and her family when the unthinkable happens. What I liked most about it was how loving and kind the mother is in this story. Too often young adult fiction assumes that adults are dumb or don’t have the best interests of their children at heart.

What have you been reading?