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Archive for the ‘Other’ Category

For whatever reason, today I’m walking around seeing everything as component parts. 

For example: instead of seeing the comfy red chair in my office, I’m seeing that chair (so comfy!) with all of the materials that went into it lined up in a row. The tree that provided the wooden legs, the cotton growing in a field before being harvested, carded, spun, dyed and woven, the metal ore that needed to be mined, processed and extruded to make the wire frame, the stuffing made of… you know, I don’t know what it’s made of so let’s insert “amorphous, fluffy cloud of probably polyester fill” here.

It’s weird but also fun, like looking at a room upside down. Suddenly, everything is interesting and new.

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How to Think

“It’s the questions we can’t answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he’ll look for his own answers.”

― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear

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I have a thing about fog.

Waking to a day where the view is swathed in white, neighbors fading into the background while rooftops peek above a hidden world. Sight is no longer quite as reliable. Sound is dampened, too. A car appears suddenly, and is then gone, the engine’s rumble muted and distant.

Depending on the mood, the lack of visibility can be threatening, but I tend to see it as an embrace. Wisps of moisture flow past tree limbs and flagpoles, porch steps and windshields. On days like today, those wisps extend, discover, then freeze in place. When the fog lifts, trees are covered in a shimmer of white. Magic made real.

As one writer put it, fog is water in its most mystical incarnation.

I call it a delight.

“And the fog. The purple fog, blue fog and white fog. Film noir fog. How I love the sheer romance of it; disorientating, dominating, concealing and revealing.”

― Caroline Eden, Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Travels

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SkyKnit

As a sometime knitter and pattern designer, I thought this story about a neural network learning to knit (or not!) both funny and telling.

SkyKnit: How an AI Took Over an Adult Knitting Community

Prodded by a knitter on the knitting forum Ravelry, Shane trained a type of neural network on a series of over 500 sets of knitting instructions. Then, she generated new instructions, which members of the Ravelry community have actually attempted to knit.

Shane nicknamed the whole effort “Project Hilarious Disaster.” The community called it SkyKnit.

It’s been a few years since this project started (the article is from 2018) and I’m sure AI has progressed since then. Still funny!

Full disclosure: I have been known to visit Ravelry. It’s an excellent resource, most of the time!

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“There are enough negative forces in this world—don’t let the pessimistic voice that lives inside you get away with that stuff, too. That voice is NOT a good roommate.” 

― Felicia Day

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Working On It!

“There is nothing like a dream to create the future.” 

― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

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Wouldn’t it be nice if on your worst days, someone could remind you of who you are on your best days? How the people who love you see you, always.

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Happy Kindness Day! Not that you should limit kindness to just one day, but a little reminder can be useful. And knowing that people around you are more predisposed to be kind today? 

That’s a good thing, and it’s catching! 

If you’re going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!

Some hardhearted souls may even question whether small acts of kindness really matter. Spoiler alert: They do! 

“And here’s the beautiful part: When someone receives kindness, they don’t just feel better, they become better.”

The bonus is that a little kindness is good for both the recipient and the giver. Win win!

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

— William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice

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We held two memorials this weekend, both opportunities to come together around happy memories and shared stories. It also got me thinking (in a positive way!) about what comes after—not in terms of heaven (or that other place) but how to live and the world you leave behind. 

Today is also Veterans Day in the US and Remembrance Day in Canada, an ideal time to think about those who came before and what they did for their world, and ours.

Given that, this quote seemed like a good fit for today.

Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it.  

— Warren Buffett

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“To become the shadow to defeat the shadow only extends the shadow’s reach and its reign. In one of the great ironies of our international moment, it appears that many of the people who’ve read “The Lord of the Rings” the most understand it the least. They perceive an emergency – a world in crisis – and grasp for the ring.

But Tolkien’s message is profoundly different. You must demonstrate courage to defend against evil, but to defeat it, you cannot rely on your own strength. It is to the “light and high beauty” that we must turn, even when we cannot see a way through.”

— David French

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