Lydia Schoch

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

When Good Paranormal Fantasy Sex Scenes Go Really, Really Bad. This is why I’ve yet to include sex scenes in my stories.  It’s quite difficult to write one without falling into tired tropes or using metaphors that just don’t work.

Smile. I dare you to not to smile.

From A Letter to Adam , The Newtown Killer:

Dear Adam,

Let me start by saying that I wish for you to find peace. It would be easy just to call you a monster and condemn you for evermore, but I don’t think that would help either of us.

Codecademy. No, that isn’t a typo. Codecademy is a free, online tutorial for anyone who wants to learn programming languages like Javascript, HTML or CSS. I’m pretty computer literate but have yet to find a method for learning this sort of thing that doesn’t make me feel like a bad geek for not already knowing concept X. Until now.

Draw a Stickman via Mzzlee. An interactive drawing game.

Best Practices for Raising Kids? Look to the Hunter-Gatherers. One of the biggest cultural differences between downtown Toronto and northwest Ohio is how over-protected kids are in the former. In the 8 years I’ve lived here I’ve never seen anyone under the age of 12 walk down the street alone. Even in the suburbs kids don’t seem to have the freedom to wander around that I had growing up. A few years ago a teenage relative was forbidden from browsing on a different floor the library because there weren’t any adults from the family on that floor. This makes me feel sad because Toronto is an incredibly safe city. While I’d never tell others how to raise their children I wish the culture here was less neurotic. Part of becoming a well-rounded adult is learning to manage time, memorize how streets and landmarks interact (e.g. how to get un-lost if you wander too far) and solve interpersonal problems without assistance.

Winter is poetry season. The juxtaposition between the lively imagery in A Thousand Mornings and the grey world around us (at least in continental climates) is delicious. The grass and trees may be dormant for the next few months but our imaginations are fertile!

What have you been reading?

We’ll go back to discussing serious topics on Thursday. In the meantime this is a fun short film about a boy who desperately wants to lose his robot. Enjoy!

Here is the final list of blog posts, quotes, poems, paintings, charts and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web for 2012.

I know this quote is talking about individual human beings but it’s thought-provoking to apply it to our species as a whole (or even to the year that we will soon bid farewell!)

We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on my body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography – to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books.- Michael Ondaatje 

Mermaids of the Canary Islands. This painting is a great short story prompt if any of you are looking for such a thing.

How an ENFP Celebrates the Holidays: AKA Why You Should Invite an ENFP to Your Holiday Party. If I were planning to throw a New Year’s Eve party I’d invite this blogger in a heartbeat. She sounds like a delightful guest! Hopefully she wouldn’t mind this INFP writing a few poems about her the next morning.

The First Rule of Hug Club. I like this idea but I have complicated feelings about hugging. I’m cuddly with my spouse and love hugs from family members and friends but social situations in which one is expected to give physical affection make me quite uncomfortable. Hugs should always be given and accepted freely. They should never be an obligation.

The Basement. Go take a look at this photo essay. Everything I want to say about it will spoil the surprise but you’ll like it more if you have no idea what to expect. Don’t worry, it’s nothing frightening!

The Meaning of Life Illustrated. The 9 pleasures of stimulation chart is a tongue-in-cheek look at the meaning of life. My favourite combinations are AG, DH, EH and HI.

From Lights Out:

a child’s question

pulls my attention

from a book to his questing eyes

‘did you ever fall in love?’

Althea’s family only looks rich. Since the death of her stepfather they’ve rapidly been running out of money. Her home is rotting away and the only way a woman of her generation can come up with the money to restore it is for her to marry a rich husband – and fast! One of the bloggers I follow recommended Keeping the Castle. Initially I was skeptical as I’m usually uninterested in love stories. What can I say, I’m not very romantic. 😉

I’m not ashamed to admit how much I loved this book, though. It was funny in a deliciously snarky (although never cruel) way and the interactions between Althea and her beaus reminded me of the pitfalls of modern dating and relationships. Too often we think more about making a good impression than actually getting to know the person sitting across the table from us.

What have you been reading?

This list is (mostly) for folks who celebrate the upcoming holidays, and are fortunate enough to have people and resources to celebrate with; if you don’t fit that group, skip to the bottom. If you do fit, then even if your family are your favorite people and you look forward all year to the holidays, you still may find useful hints here.

– A Bit of Holiday Advice.

I love this list.

Drew and I don’t exactly celebrate Christmas but last year and this one we made a point of having a quiet day at home on the 25th.

I cook whatever we both feel like eating and we watch movies or give my parents a call. It’s incredibly relaxing and we’ve ended up following a lot of the ideas on the above list even before Laurie and Debbie posted the list. Most of the suggestions are common sense but it’s nice to see other people coming to the same conclusions about what one “ought” to do this time of year.

I hope your holidays – whatever you celebrate – are just as wonderful as ours.

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

The 45 Most Powerful Images of 2012. A worldwide 2012 digital photo album. Some pictures are inappropriate for younger or sensitive readers.

Average Life Satisfaction Score By Age. 50+ readers, how accurate is this chart in your experience?

Eyewire. So apparently this game helps to map neurons. Knowing more about where and how neurons are connected will give the neuroscientists who created it a better idea of how human neural systems work. Of course, if this was the opening scene in a horror movie we’d quickly discover that Eyewire turns its users into zombies or something so I can’t be held responsible if you wake up undead tomorrow. 😛

From 10 Things I Want My Daughter to Know Before She Turns 10:

 It is almost never about you. What I mean is that when people act in a way that hurts or makes you feel insecure, it is almost certainly about something happening inside of them, and not about you.

Atheist Census. Do any of these labels apply to you?

• Atheist
• Agnostic
• Freethinker
• Humanist
• Rationalist
• Secular
• Non-religious
• Other

If your answer is yes please fill out this census. At 5 questions it’s incredibly short and the results are tabulated almost instantly.  So far most of the respondents have been college or university-educated men under the age of 35 who live in the U.S., identify as Atheists and grew up in Christian homes.  It will be interesting to see the final results.

Is there a dark side to Mother Teresa’s work? In The Missionary Position Christopher Hitchens takes a closer look at the politics and ideology of a woman revered by millions. I don’t know enough about Hitchens or Mother Teresa to determine the validity of his claims but the book itself is well-written.

What have you been reading?