Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, note, summer fun, Thoughts, time for a little break on August 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »
A quick programming note: Mr Man and I are going to have a little end-of-summer time off and will be in and out and doing stuff, most of it fun. Long-time readers of this blog will know what that means: that’s right, more quotes and pretty pictures!
I’ll be back soon, but until then, here’s hoping you also have time to do interesting things with your favorite people.
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Posted in Other, tagged Thoughts, ideas, reading, future, Lightspeed, free fiction, #365Ways, prognostication, AI, sci-fi, #365Ways2026, robots on August 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I’m reading a collection of sci-fi stories about robots and AI with some really interesting and thoughtful takes on the topic, and just finished a particularly good one by Will McIntosh, “Nic and Viv’s Compulsory Courtship.”
The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories: Second Annual Collection by Allan Kaster
I can’t share that particular story (but the library is your friend! the book is also available on Kindle Unlimited if you partake), but here’s another piece by McIntosh that you might like.
Defenders – Lightspeed Magazine
There was nothing to see yet; they were still above the smoky cloud-cover. It was hard to believe Australia was down there. Over the past twenty-eight years it had taken on almost mythical dimensions in Lila’s mind, and knowing she would see it any moment, see what it had become, set her heart pounding.
Enjoy!
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, empathy, magic, reading, Thoughts on August 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“I believe that books-and all stories—are magic. They connect us, they shape us, and they make us more than who we are by causing us to care about the impossible—to care about people who are living lives that never were and never could be.
Real magic.” — Sarah Beth Durst
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Posted in Other, tagged inspiration, science, Fiction, scifi, reading, #365Ways, #365Ways2026, astrobiologist says, suggestions on August 20, 2026| 1 Comment »
Do you like your fiction with a whole lot of responsibly deployed science? Seven Rasmussen, astrobiologist and author, has some suggestions for you!
An Astrobiologist’s Guide to the Best Sci-Fi Reads
Flex your mantle cavities over here, because I’m going to tell you about my favorite books and the science in them, from the astrophysics of Gideon the Ninth to the evolutionary biology of Children of Time. Please bear in mind that my choices (in no particular order, mind you), while they are technically opinion, they are absolutely correct, written in stone, and enforceable by federal law.
In case your to-be-read list needs a bit of a boost:)
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, AI, projects, reasoning with bots, speedbumps, technology, Thoughts on August 19, 2026| 2 Comments »
Some days you just don’t feel it, whatever “it” may be. I’ve been there, certainly, we all have, but today I’m not talking about myself.
I’m talking about AI. (Or as John Scalzi puts it, “AI.”)
Here’s (my tongue-in-cheek analysis of) the issue: I have a nonfiction project that’s been sitting on the back burner for a while (fine, years) because I’ve been avoiding the tedious formatting work required to put it all together. Like a more complicated version of getting Excel to extract URLs from a long list of hot links; hardly rocket science but annoying to have to do by hand.
What if, I asked myself, I could get this new fangled tech-no-logy to do that boring work for me? I’m not interested in it as a creative tool, but is this the sort of task it might do well?
At first, the answer seemed to be a solid yes. Terrific, I thought, I just need to prep a list of inputs and I’ll be good to go.
But that was yesterday.
Today, I used the same prompt and got a much different, and not nearly as useful, answer. Many followup prompts along the lines of “Hang on, this isn’t at all what you gave me before” and “Please return the thing I asked for, for crying out loud!” later and I have come to the inescapable conclusion that the program just isn’t feeling it today.
It also got me wondering: Is this the way actual intelligence arises from the primordial soup of 1s and 0s, in a haze of distracted mediocrity and foot-dragging compliance? More Murderbot than Star Trek’s tirelessly competent Data? And if so, what does that mean for the future?
Here’s hoping for a better tomorrow!
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, do good things, inspiration, legacy, quotes, Thoughts on August 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“Statues are torn down, buildings with people’s names on them erode. The world is in constant change. The only legacy I recognize is doing good. I’m human, with my terrible faults, but I’m an admirer of good deeds.” — William Shatner
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged writing, maps, #365Ways, #365Ways2026, mapping fiiction on August 10, 2026| 5 Comments »
To continue yesterday’s theme of literary cartography, here’s a closer look at a map of the locales in classic American literature.
American literature, charted in one monumental map – Big Think
From Stephen King’s Maine to Steinbeck’s California, Big Think’s “A Literary Map of the United States” charts the stories that changed how we see a nation.
They’d love to sell you the map, but there’s also an image you can expand to see the detailed poster, and examples of the stories and the places that shaped them.
Ah, geography!
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, creativity, Fiction, fun on the internet, inspiration, mapping fiction, maps, travel, writing on August 9, 2026| 2 Comments »
I like books and I like maps, which is why I was excited to run across this website combining the two:
Reading Maps – Maps & Travel Routes from Books & Films
The site’s tagline is “Journeys from fiction drawn on the real world.” That won’t be much use when it comes to Middle Earth or Star Wars, but is very cool when considering more local stories. Like Homer’s The Odyssey. Or Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Or Little House on the Prairie, which was somehow not where I expected it to be!
They have lots of classic books and also movies (like Raiders:). Have fun!
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, creativity, curiosity, inspiration, Thoughts, universe, Writers on August 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“We ought to view ourselves with the same curiosity and openness with which we study a tree, the sky or a thought, because we too are linked to the entire universe.” — Henri Matisse
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Posted in Entertainment, Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, creativity, designers, games, inspiration, Jimothy, Writers, writing on August 7, 2026| 1 Comment »
Maybe you’ve heard of Jimothy, the Seattle native and short-spined raccoon who has captured the hearts and minds of the internets, but if you haven’t, this critter has inspired creatives far and wide.
Art, tattoos and now a video game for Jimothy | KNKX Public Radio
That includes Chris Pirillo, a designer who has created not one, not two, not three, but four ! arcade-style video games starring the adorable little raccoon. If you need a bit of a break today, you can check them out here:
Jimothy: Every Free Game and Toy Starring Seattle’s Raccoon
Have fun, and remember, inspiration is everywhere!
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