Lydia Schoch

There were ten questions in this year’s survey. Once again thank you to everyone who participated.

Let’s take a look at the results.

Participants were…

Evenly divided by gender. I didn’t ask this question last year and wasn’t sure what to expect.

American. Once again the U.S. dominated the survey with over 80% of you coming from there. Everyone else was Canadian.

Younger. Last year the average participant was 40+. This year there was an even split between the 18-29 and 50-59 age groups. Interesting!

Longterm readers. 75% said they had been reading this blog for at least 18 months. I did hear from some new readers this year, though, which was really nice.

You wanted…

Pictures. Every once in a while I’ll post unique pictures I’ve found online. Many of the comments I received asked for more of these.

Forgotten heroes. I didn’t realize this series was so popular as it usually doesn’t stir up much discussion. I’ve run low on forgotten heroes at the moment but will continue on with the series as soon as I find new historical figures to profile. Suggestions are always welcomed!

Stories.  There were quite a few comments about specific short story series I’ve done in the past. I am working on new stories and will be sharing them in the future. Some will be free, others I’m planning to sell as e-books later on this year. My biggest hurdle to getting these stories out right now is coming up with cover art and design- does anyone have a good recommendation for this?

Happy Blogiversary to On the Other Hand! It turns two tomorrow. Wow, how did that happen so fast? 🙂

Survey results will be posted on Thursday. If you missed it feel free to leave a comment or use the contact form to share any suggestions you have for improving this site.

Thank you all so much for reading this blog. Due to other projects on my plate I don’t always have the time to respond to everything but I deeply appreciate every comment, email and back-link you’ve sent in.

Top 10 Posts

The top ten most visited posts over the last year have been:

10. What Would You Do if Money Wasn’t an Issue?

9. The Ethics of Being On Time.

8. The Ethics of Eating Animal Products.

7. A Cure for Nostalgia.

6. Why is Violence More Acceptable Than Sex? 

5. How to Forgive Without an Apology.

4. 5 Reasons Why You Should Stop Reading the News.

3. Has the Internet Destroyed Our Social Skills?

2. What the Quiet People Are Thinking. 

1.  6 Reasons Why I Don’t Wear Makeup.

My personal favourite this year: the You Were Born in the Sea series. I’m still not sure where that story came from (or even what it all means!) but there’s something special about it to me.

I was surprised to see so many of the links from last year’s top 10 list show up on this year as well. I wonder if this trend will continue?

Respond

What have been your favourite posts here over the last year? If you have a blog have you noticed certain posts continuing to get a lot of traffic months or years after they were first published?

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

Meet the Modern Descendants of Your Favourite Authors. To the best of my knowledge none of my ancestors were famous.  It must arouse all kinds of emotions to be the great-grandchild of someone who wrote or did something incredible.

Storm Warnings in Portland, Oregon.  Gorgeous pictures and a poem about thunderstorms. Apparently I’m not the only one who loves them!

‘Dark Knight Rises’ shooting: Three Heroes Died in Aurora Taking Bullets for Their Girlfriends. I’m sure you’ve all heard by now about that shooting that took place in a Colorado movie theatre recently. Three men died that night shielding their girlfriends: Jon Blunk, Matt McQuinn and Alex Teves. Now this is the definition of love.

Aurora Shooting Hero Saved Young Mom. Jarell Brooks was also watching the new batman movie that night. When he noticed a woman struggling to protect her four year old daughter and infant son he guided them to safety. When terrible things happen the media tends to focus on the motivations of the (alleged) shooter and the number of fatalities and injuries. This is understandable but I wish they’d spend more time talking about how people helped one another as well.

Limit Fast Food Advertising Toward Kids, Lower Childhood Obesity Rates. I’m not susceptible to advertisements for clothing or household goods but for some reason food advertisements have a huge influence on my cravings.  If Drew and I had cable my diet would be much less balanced (unless white sugar counts as a food group. :P) It’s reason #5938 why I’m so glad we don’t own a TV.

Wow, I haven’t recommended a lighthearted book in a long time.  Clouds that Look Like Things is exactly what it sounds like – a collection of pictures of unusual clouds. I couldn’t make out some of the faces and animals the authors claim to see but the majority of these photographs are spectacular. The numbers were my favourite.

What have you been reading?

Here are two great quotes from Jeanette Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

My advice is this. When you are young and you read something that you very much dislike, put it aside and read it again three years later. And if you still dislike it, read it again in a further three years. And when you are no longer young – when you are fifty, as I am – read the thing again that you disliked most of all.

and

“Whenever I am troubled,” said the librarian, “I think about the Dewey decimal system.”

“Then what happens?” asked the junior, rather overawed.

“Then I understand that trouble is just something that has been filed in the wrong place. That is what Jung was explaining of course – as the chaos of our unconscious contents strive to find their rightful place in the index of unconsciousness.”

Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey earlier this month. Wow, I ended up with almost twice as many participants as I did last year. That’s amazing.

Stay tuned – the second blogiverary post goes live on Monday, July 30 and survey results will be shared on Thursday, August 2.

In the meantime here is this week’s list of blog posts, quotes, photos, threads and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

“The cure for boredom is curiosity.  There is no cure for curiosity.”

— ellen parr

From Why I Am Always Unlucky But You Are Always Careless:

When my wife can’t find her keys, I assume it is because she is careless. When I can’t find my keys I naturally put it down to bad luck. The curious thing is that she always assumes the opposite – that she’s the one with the bad luck, and I’m the careless one.

The Regret Index. A searchable collection of regrets. Browse through it or add your own regret(s).

There’s a great thread over at Reddit about random acts of kindness.

10 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About America via Undercover Nun. . In no way do I want to bash the U.S. I care about my citizenship, family and heritage very much but as an expatriate (and a dual American/Canadian citizen) I cannot agree with this list more.  If only there was an easy way to show Americans what’s it’s really like to live in other countries. I cannot count the number of times I’ve been told that universal health care/gay marriage/*insert controversial difference between the U.S. and Canada here* doesn’t work by people who a) have never lived in Canada, b) have no idea how our system actually works, and c) blatantly ignore all of the good things I have to say as someone who has actually lived here.

Yawn. Lion vs. butterfly. Spoiler alert: I think the butterfly is winning!

28: Stories of AIDS in Africa highlighted how little I know about modern life for people living with HIV and AIDS in any of the countries in Africa. It’s one thing to rattle off statistics about infection or death rates or what happens to those left behind. It’s quite another to listen to the stories of individuals living with this disease. Regine is 74 years old and is raising over a dozen grandchildren after several of her children died of AIDS. Tigist has been taking care of her younger brother since their parents died from AIDS-related infections when she was ten and he was six. Noe’s wife and daughter died of AIDS and he’s been writing a  book for his older daughter so she will know how much she is loved if he isn’t around to see her grow up.

What have you been reading?

Jenna Boring at Plaid Sheep blew me away with a thought-provoking post recently about things she wishes she could tell her teenage self.

I’m stealing this idea.

If any of you decide to blog about this as well leave a link to your post in the comment section. I’ll add it to this post.

Edited to add hpiglet’s letter.

Dear Teenage Me

1. Just like younger Jenna there are people in your life who aren’t going to be alive in a few years. Don’t worry about figuring out exactly who I’m talking about. Just do both of us a favour and enjoy the time you have with everyone in your life right now.

2. You know that still, small voice in your head that argues with the wacky things you hear at church youth rallies? Some of those pastors may very well have invented the term eccentric. Absorb what makes sense to you and ignore the rest.

3. Don’t worry about where you’ll be in five or ten years. It won’t be what at all you were expecting but it will be pretty wonderful.

4. Modesty isn’t everything. It’s ok to buy that really cute top or pair of shorts to lounge around in over the summer. This is what teenage girls are supposed to do.  Just don’t wear them to church or grandpa’s house. 😉

5. Remember that book you read last week or month that you really liked? Write down the author and title somewhere. I can’t tell you how much time this will save when you want to reread it in five or ten years. It turns out that there are 453,523,089 other books out there with the same basic premise and/or colour scheme on the cover. Don’t rely on vague things like these to find it again.

6. Gym class isn’t reality. There are so many ways to stay active that don’t involve competition, being injured or undressing in a room full of other people. Do the minimum to get a decent grade in the class but don’t for a minute think this is a good introduction to exercising.

7. The bad news: your allergies are going to get much worse over the next several years. You’re going to have a few scary moments as you figure out which foods are triggering your reactions.

8. The good news: Once you figure that out you’ll be fine.

9. The even better news: there are so many other products out there. You’ll eventually find a good-to-amazing substitute for everything you really miss. Even mint chocolate chip ice cream!

Respond

What would you tell your younger self?

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

Before we get started I wanted to remind everyone that the survey closes on Monday. If you haven’t filled it out yet you still have a few days left!

An Invisible Option in the Aftermath of Slaughter’s “Why Women Can’t Have It All.” This link was written in response to an article published lately about the tension between having kids and a career for some women. While I agree that it should be more socially acceptable to not have children for those of us who don’t want them I don’t think anyone should have to choose between being a parent and having a meaningful career. This doesn’t mean you have to do both simultaneously, though. My mom had three kids, went back to school when we were a little older and began working full-time when I was a teenager. If anything I think we should be encouraging people to explore all of their options: kids, no kids, kids and career at the same time, kids then career, career then kids. There’s no one right answer here.

I Would Ride That. This is one of the most creative uses of fruit I’ve ever seen.

If They Only Knew. Love it.

HIV and Black America. I’ve been watching this documentary bit by bit this week. I don’t have specific thoughts on it at the moment other than to say it’s well worth your time.

Life is Too Short… This link gives me mixed feelings. Of course it’s acceptable to set boundaries with others and allow them to feel the consequences of their actions. Life is messy, though. Everyone has rough patches. I wonder how the author of this piece differentiates between people who need support and those from whom it’s ok to distance yourself?

Suburban Gnome Invasion is one of the best short stories I’ve read in 2012. Imagine how you would react if a family of gnomes invaded your backyard. Now imagine that your little visitors are destructive and relelentless rather than being cute fairy tale characters.

What have you been reading?