Lydia Schoch

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

What are you doing on Tuesday, May 15? I’m going to be participating in Aday.org. On the 15th millions of people across the world will be taking a photograph of something in their lives and sharing it with everyone else. Click on the link for more information.

Yes, I’ll share my photo here as well. I hope you’ll share yours, too!

The Body Odd. It took me longer than normal to learn the difference between right and left. I don’t remember how old I was when it finally happened but I do remember feeling relieved that I finally got it.

10 Easy Ways to Lower Your Lifespan. Just in case you were hoping to die a little sooner. 😉

From Why Your Kid Isn’t Creative:

There’s nothing new about the way pragmatic concerns and conformity displace playfulness and originality as kids mature. “Every child is an artist,” Pablo Picasso once said. “The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

What’s Your Life-Ruining Secret? These aren’t exactly secrets for people who know me well but here’s my list of Stuff That Freaks (Some) People Out: bisexual, humanist, (theoretically) polyamorous, agnostic, childless by choice. What’s your list?

Today and Tomorrow. A fantastic post from my friend ‘Seph about circular reasoning.

Love, InshAllah is a collection of essays about the love lives of Muslim women. There are arranged marriages, virgin brides, LGBT revelations, and women who found lasting love the third time around. Everything else I’ve read about Muslim women has tended to portray them as victims or as superhumanly pious. It’s fascinating to see a glimpse of the lives of ordinary people.

What have you been reading?

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

Dangerous Booby Traps Found on Popular Utah Trail. This is unbelievable. I’m so glad no one was injured by this foolishness.

The Baby Producer. It’s amazing to watch a small child (re)interpret his surroundings. I don’t know how they make sense of it all so quickly.

What’s Keeping You From Volunteering? Such an interesting post. I completely understand all of the reasons listed there. This is why I usually only volunteer online for organizations that are very flexible about time.

Everyone Sees What You Appear to Be. I don’t actually agree with this one. Or at least not over the long term. It’s easy to fool someone for an hour or day…but eventually the real you is going to seep through. Whether or not this is a good thing depends on what sort of person you are I suppose.

I recently finished One Big Happy Family, a collection of essays about families that don’t fit the traditional mold. It includes essays on open adoption, homeschooling, single parenthood, polyamory, same-sex couples, sperm donors, househusbands, and interracial/intercultural marriages.

If I ever own a house large enough to throw a decent party in I’ll invite every single one of these writers and their families over for dinner. I’ll invite you, too. After the table is cleared we’ll have a nice, long conversation over dessert and the drink of your choice. I suspect we’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how much we share in common. And if this doesn’t happen at least you’ll get a free meal out of it. 😛

What have you been reading?

Yes, I will be releasing another official survey for On the Other Hand’s two year anniversary this summer. It will be so interesting to compare the results from last year!

In the meantime what topics would you like me to cover here? Is there anything I’ve blogged about that you really enjoyed?

I’ve settled nicely into that review-writing gig I mentioned last month and may be able to commit more time to this site in the near future.

There is a short story encapsulated here.

Can you visualize the end?

(In my version he walks away from the collision with a few bruises and scratches. Hopefully that is what happened in real life as well!)

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

From Melting Glaciers Liberate Ancient Microbes:

With that ice melting at an alarming rate, those conditions could soon be at hand. Masses of bacteria and other microbes – some of which the world hasn’t seen since the Middle Pleistocene, a previous period of major climate change about 750,000 years ago – will make their way back into the environment.

@Loveszar retweeted a great Deepak Chopra quote last week: When the caterpillar thought it was the end of the world it turned into a butterfly.

People Riding Animals Other Than Horses. My favourite was the shark.

All It Takes is a Smile. I’m so oblivious to flirtation that I have no idea how I got married. (Well, ok. I might have some idea of how that happened. 😉 ) At least I’m not the only one, though.

24 Things You Might be Saying Wrong. I wonder how long it will take for these phrases to replace the old (correct) versions of them? Language does evolve after all.

Sex. Marriage. Attraction. Lust. Romance. Our understanding of these terms have shifted tremendously over the past few hundred years. There have always been people who are attracted to the opposite sex, of course, but it is only within the last 150 years that heterosexuality was created as a cultural identity.

Straight tells you exactly how that happened.

What have you been reading?

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

The Thing About [Prejudice]. This is a fantastic quote about internalized sexism. It could just as easily be about any other form of prejudice. None of us are immune.

From We Need Every Little Catastrophe:

It’s amazing how good we think we are at predicting the future when we’re predicting a gloomy one. From within a catastrophe, the easy times seem to be over, at least for now, maybe forever. The bigger ones seem to be so poised to kill you that you forget that not one of them ever has, and that at any given time all but a few of them are dead.

 Music Treatment for Dementia. My great-grandmother had alzheimer’s disease. It was difficult to watch her slowly unravel especially when she stopped communicating with the outside world. I wonder if something like this might have temporarily jogged her memory?

Good stuff from President Obama. Maybe the 2012 election won’t be as cringe-worthy as previous elections:

“I don’t have a lot of patience for commentary about the spouses of political candidates,” Obama said. “Those of us who are in the public life, we’re fair game. Our families are civilians.”

Africans Shocked by Uncivilized Antics of European Savages via Undercovernun. A satirical look at recent controversies in Europe.

Hazel is in the process of dying from an aggressive form of cancer that has plagued her for several years. And then one day she meets a boy named Augustus at a support group for teens who have cancer.

The Fault in Our Stars  is one of the funniest, most joyful books I’ve ever read. Don’t let the plot fool you – this is not your typical “kids with cancer” story. There’s no simpering, no stiff upper lips, no life lessons, no unnatural displays of courage in the face of death. Just two sarcastic, flirtatious sixteen year olds falling in love.

What have you been reading?