Lydia Schoch

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

Pedro Lujan and His Dog via Cathryn Wellner. I’m blown away by how realistic Pedro, his dog and the giant turtle are in this outdoor art piece. Gorgeous.

The Scarlet Plague. What would life be like if an epidemic killed all but a few hundred people on earth?

16 Ways I Blew My Marriage. My theory about long term relationships: we learn how to perform them by observing adults interacting with their spouses/partners decades before we have any personal interest in the topic. This is not to say that people who grew up in dysfunctional households are doomed to live out their parents’ lives but creating and maintaining a healthy relationship is a hell of a lot easier if you have good role models.

Recovered Suitcases from an Insane Asylum. An article and photo essay about suitcases full of personal belongings that accompanied patients to the Willard Asylum. The photographs were particularly noteworthy as a few generations ago they were much more expensive keepsakes than they are today.

No One is Watching. Just Go Ahead and Do It. What a playful idea! I’m tempted to give it a shot one of these days. This link is safe for work but the rest of the site is not.

From Handicapped Son via OliviaMagdelene:

isn’t that what we came for:

to feel for spots of warmth in icy caves?

How would you react if you returned home one day to find a strange child sitting in your living room?  Maddy is an elderly woman left alone with her memories after eight decades of adventures.  The Ghost’s Child is a modern day parable about grief, love, loneliness, joy and what happens when life surprises you.

I have so many more thoughts about this book but I don’t want to spoil it for my readers. Please let me know if you decide to give it a try!

What have you been reading?

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

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.- Winston Churchill

When I am a Dog I am Barking. Readers, this is one of those rare links that I share without fully understanding what it is I’m sending you to check out. I can’t decide if this poem/essay is meant to be intellectually deep or intentionally silly. Is it telling us to cherish our true selves rather than try to hammer our interests and personalities into labels or is it a private joke for people who live with golden retrievers? I’m not ashamed to admit I don’t know the answer to this. Click on the link anyways!

True Friends Ask How the Sex Is. NSFW. As a rather private person I have mixed feelings about this. I’m shy about discussing sex in groups especially if the conversation shifts to include graphic details of what everyone is (or isn’t) doing in bed. Call me old fashioned but I think there’s something to be said for keeping the rest of the world out of your most intimate moments. I definitely see the value of honest discussions with a small circle of close friends, though. Hollywood’s ideas on this topic do not always correspond to what it’s actually like to lose your virginity or be in a longterm relationship. 😉

From Armless Maidens of the American West:

There’s no telling what the armless maiden did.

It doesn’t matter now. To her father, it was offense enough to warrant what happened. To anyone else, what happened was a crime beyond measure; what happened to her was a horror.

(Where they were when her father picked up the axe, there’s no telling.)

She’s been living in the woods as long as you can remember, though no one talks about it much where you are. Live and let live. If she stays off the golf course, no one minds her.

What Do Grown Children Owe Their Abusive Parents? This author’s estimate that 20% of children are abused or neglected while growing up is depressing and (un)believable.

Two Body Interactions: A Longitudinal Study. A paper written by a physicist in order to propose to his girlfriend. Drew and I became engaged after discussing how much we loved one another.  He asked me to marry him and then I asked him to marry me!

Dancing Through Life: Six Years Later. A powerful essay about loss, forgiveness and finding peace written by someone I know in real life.

Imagine living in a world without trees. Banyan is literally and figuratively Rootless, having been separated from his father and surviving on the only “food” mankind has left, genetically modified corn. To make ends meet he builds metal trees for wealthy benefactors.

Whether you’re interested in stories about universal malnutrition, how a teenager survives on his own in a dangerously libertarian society, the long term effects of global warming, or what happens when the government can no longer protect the poor from severe exploitation this book has something for every reader.

What have you been reading?

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

From Heart of Glass (This post is work safe but previous entries on the site are not!):

Sometimes even just a little bit of progress takes a lot of time—way more time than we maybe think we have to spare.

Sometimes just the fact that you’re trying, reaching out, again, to say “I’m here when you’re ready, I’ve been here the whole time” is what finally makes a difference, even if the message has been rejected over and over again in the past.

25 Surprising Facts You Might Not Know via KenKaminsky. I can’t vouch for the truthfulness of any items on this list but I found #1 to be quite interesting.

Shunned. What happened to one woman after she accidentally became pregnant at 16 in 1966.

Deep Inside: A Study of 10,000 Porn Stars. Before you click on this link take a few seconds to imagine the “typical” porn star. Immediately I thought of a blonde woman with large breasts. Boy, was I wrong! It’s invigorating to learn the truth even if that means admitting you have blind spots.

What Blogs Do You Read? I picked up a few new favourites from this post. The comment section is full of even greater suggestions on a wide range of topics: LGBT, skepticism, the emerging church, humour, science, sex, and (U.S.) politics.

From Afterlife:

Mary pushed her black, dime store bifocals to the back of her nose. “Afterlife is existence after death. And you are all dead.”

The kids faded inside their seats. Their seven bodies turned translucent. Mary pointed again at her lesson. This was a disturbed group. Recalcitrants, every one of them.

A few years ago Westlake Soul suffered severe brain damage in a surfing accident. He can no longer speak or move but his mind can visit any or time place on earth, including his favourite memories. While his family debates whether to remove the feeding tube of a son they believe is in a persistant vegetative state Wes gears up for the battle of his life with the evil Dr. Quietus.

This was the best fantasy novel I’ve read so far in 2013. Wes’ thoughts are at turn funny, depressing, erotic (he’s quite, um, vividly heterosexual in his assessment of certain home health care aides), snarky and irreverent. Love him or hate him he’s the kind of guy every novel wishes it could attract.

What have you been reading?

Photo by Alchemist-hp.

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

From Life is a Theatre – Who Is in Your Front Row?

Observe the people who are close to you and with whom you spend a lot of time.  Which ones uplift and inspire you?  Which ones bring you down? Which ones encourage you?  Which ones discourage you?  Which ones are growing, positive, enthusiastic and supportive?

When you leave certain people, do you feel better or feel worse?

How Old is “Too Young to Die”? A Straight Dope thread that attempts to answer this question. In general I’d say anyone under the age of 65-70 fits this description but it really depends on how well you take care of yourself and whether you adapt to or are emotionally paralyzed by change. I’ve known ancient 40-year-olds and youthful 75-year-olds.

What They Say, What They Mean. The truth about feminism. This link is work-safe but the rest of the tumblr may or may not be appropriate.

Wild Things. A short story about a woman and her unusual lover.

The Bitch is Back. What happens after menopause. Is it weird that I’m looking forward to that stage in life? I started puberty earlier than most of my peers and it’s difficult to remember what life was like before menstruation. It will be an adventure when that part of my life cycle ends in a few decades!

 I never grew out of reading young adult fiction. Bog Child is a good example of a book written for teenagers that may actually appeal more to adult readers. It is the story a girl who dies violently as well the tale of the troubled Irish boy who finds her body almost 2,000 years later while digging in the peat bog where her body was dumped.

What have you been reading?