Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, hope, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers on December 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Now this is exactly what I need on a Monday.
How John Green Fights Despair Every Day | The Interview – YouTube
I mean the problem with hope is that it feels like a very easy word. You know, it feels like very convenient and sort of kumbaya. But I’m interested in the kind of hope that holds up to scrutiny. The kind of hope that does hold up to the worst things that happen to us, that holds up to our worst days. That’s the kind of hope that I’m interested in.
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, fresh perspectives, Thoughts on November 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »
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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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, Thoughts, Writers on November 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“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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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #ThingsILike, Thoughts, weather on November 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »
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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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, AI, creativity, knitting on November 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »
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.
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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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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, think positive, Thoughts on November 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“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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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, Thoughts on November 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“There is nothing like a dream to create the future.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, bad days can get better too, Thoughts on November 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »
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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Posted in Holidays, Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, inspiration, kindness, Thoughts on November 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »
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!
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“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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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, inspiration, live well, Thoughts on November 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »
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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J.R. Johnson 
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