I gave this advice to a friend once and still find it to be useful: Whatever you do, make sure you do it on purpose.
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Archive for the ‘Other’ Category
A Thought on Indecision, and the Inexorability of Time
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, indecision, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The Essentials
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, advice, life, quotes, Thoughts, Writers on September 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Light, water, kindness, and not giving up. These are huge; all there is.
— Anne Lamott
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Sayonara, Shadows
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, quotes, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you.”
— Walt Whitman
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Tinged in Red
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, fall, inspiration, nature on September 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Nights are cooler, the afternoon sky is a crisp blue, and the outermost leaves of the giant maple tree across the street are tinged in red. It must be time for fall foliage predictions!
Fall foliage map: When and where to expect autumn colors
Click through for animated maps and links to more info, explainers, and a printable coloring book for the kiddos (or you, I don’t judge!).
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We Are Connected
Posted in Holidays, Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, inspiration, quotes, Thoughts on September 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other – above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.”
― Albert Einstein
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Calling All Medical Device Designers (Or Kids with Apps, Whatever Works!)
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, invention, Thoughts on August 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Surely, surely, there must be a better way to mammogram.
Imagine, if you will, a world in which we have all of the current tools and science we have now, but no system to create detailed imagery of mammary tissue. There is an obvious need for such a thing, but how would you do it?
Would you create the medical equivalent of a panini press? I bet you would not!
Seriously, though, it’s like the Dark Ages. We can do better.
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Reaching Out
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Thoughts on August 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“We need to remember that we’ve all got our blind spots and contradictions and prejudices; and that if we want to win over those who aren’t yet ready to support our candidate, we need to listen to their concerns – and maybe learn something in the process.”
— Barack Obama
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Thinking Odd Writer Thoughts, or What’s Wrong with the Classics?
Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, science, Thoughts on August 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Here’s an interesting puzzle: How Do You Send a Warning 1,000 Years into the Future? – Now I Know
Think back to what the Earth was like a thousand years ago — the year 1,015. Almost everything would be foreign to modern eyes and ears — even the language would be incomprehensible. For all intents and purposes, humanity from a millennium ago may as well be an alien species (culturally, at least) with similar DNA, which simply happens to have lived on the same planet we do now.
How do we communicate with people so far removed from our own language, culture, and assumptions? It’s a great question, whether you’re thinking about the safest approach to nuclear waste disposal or contacting aliens.
In order to keep the people of the future safe from the radioactive goop created today, we need a way to tell them to watch out. And more likely than not, very few aspects of today’s society will be around to do that. Even a sign warning travelers of potential dangers would be insufficient — who among us could translate runes from the Middle Ages?
(My mom, that’s who, but point taken.)
What particularly interests me about these proposed solutions (an Atomic Priesthood dedicated to perpetuating knowledge through myth? color-changing cats?!) is that they seem to have skipped over the most obvious approach. How to conjure the fear of death, to warn people away, and to alert the future not to what is there, but what will happen if it is disturbed?*
This is a plague panel from the early 17th century. If you saw this on a house, would you go in or turn and run the other way?
In the end, the U.S. Department of Energy plan opted to go with warning signs in multiple languages illustrated with images of people in pain. Still, I wondered, what’s wrong with the classics?
Another odd writer thought, brought to you by an odd writer.
* Also, the real problem seems to be the gap between exposure and untimely demise. If you break into a tomb and die immediately, that sends a pretty strong message. And no one has to tell people not to build on an active lava flow, but a peaceful-looking mountain with fertile soil close to the bustling port of Naples and the dynamic town of Pompeii (circa 78 AD)? What’s not to like?
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The Best Possible Use
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, inspiration, persistence, Thoughts on August 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.”
— Earl Nightingale
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Happy Saturday!
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, summer, Thoughts on August 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »
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