Happy Valentine’s Day to you, fair reader. I made a batch of candy hearts for you. Enjoy!
“Love is many things, none of them logical.”
― William Goldman, The Princess Bride
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Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Happy You
Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, Thoughts on February 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Which is Witch
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, AI, Thoughts, Writers, WritingResearch on February 13, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I’m working on a project and recently found myself at the CIA’s website (as one does). After finding the information I needed I was about to leave when a link caught my eye. Spy Kids. What, I wondered, would the CIA use to appeal to children?
Answer: stories and games.
Well, I had to check that out.
Next thing I knew, I’d lost a considerable amount of time playing with codes.
It turns out that ChatGPT is magic at some codes, and spectacularly bad at others. The key seems to be in knowing which is which.
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Life, Man
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, appliances, home, Thoughts, writing on February 11, 2023| 2 Comments »
Yesterday, I gave my mother an appliance-related pep talk. Their fridge was making an ugly sound, but they managed to fix it, yay.)
Today, our dryer threw in the towel. Literally, as in, no matter how many times we ran the thing, the towels (and sheets, and shorts, and socks) refused to dry. Ruh-ro.
Enter Mr. Man. Trusty voltmeter in hand, he forged into the depths of the laundry room and after a valiant battle, emerged victorious. (For definitions of “victorious” that involve 3–5 day shipping of replacement parts.) The heating coil had snapped, so it was perhaps unsurprising that it could no longer perform its function.
So it was a no-writing day. Still, while the day was a bit of a wash (heh), it’s looking up!
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Nonfictional Fiction
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, public policy, science fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I started multiple posts today (mackerel? Winnie the Pooh? cracking CIA kiddie codes?) but none seemed quite right. I think I’ll go shovel some snow and see if that gets my mind going.
In the meantime, here’s a piece about the usefulness of science fiction in the nonfictional world.
Connecting Science Fiction to Science Policy by Avital Percher
Science fiction can help the science policy community envision both where we end up as well as how we get there. As our social-technological problems grow ever more complex, we need a range of stories that spans the human experience and even beyond. How will we leverage new tools to improve equity and democracy in society? Science fiction can help us imagine future possibilities, opening not just our minds but our hearts as well.
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Hope, Revived
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, free fiction, genre fiction, reprints, Writers, writing, yay on February 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I am pleased to announce that the new edition of Polar Borealis is out, and it includes “A Needle Pulling Thread.”
I wrote the story in 2018 but the themes of humanity and hope still strike a chord. My thanks to editor R. Graeme Cameron, who remains dedicated to furthering the cause of Canadian speculative fiction, and congratulations to all those in the issue.
Find the free PDF online:
POLAR BOREALIS #24 – February 2023
Poems by Roxanne Barbour, Rodolfo Boskovic, Carlyn Clink, Robert Dawson, Catherine Girczyc, Jim Smith, Richard Stevenson, and Dean Wirth.
Stories by Warren Brown, Victoria K. Martin, J.R. Johnson (hey, that’s me), Cathy Smith, Rhea E. Rose, Jacqueline Thorpe, Gerald L. Truscott, and David Wiseman.
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Purrfect Happiness
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, #ChatGPT, AI, my cat, Thoughts on February 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
It’s like this: I have a whole folder titled 365, full of interesting and informative ideas for this blog. I even had an idea for the post I wanted to do today, but lo (for various reasons involving day job bureaucracy for both myself and Mr Man), ’tis not to be. Instead, I give you ChatGPT’s idea of “a quote about joy in the voice of my cat.”
“Joy is found in the simple things, like a warm sunbeam, a cozy napping spot, and a good belly rub. Purr-fect happiness is just a whisker’s length away.”
— Your Cat.
Because this is the sort of information that everyone needs.
For more on cats and whiskers:
* You may also know that “chat” is French for cat. So now we know what’s really behind A.I…. that’s right, animal intelligence.
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Cold. White. Quiet.
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, Thoughts, winter, Writers on February 4, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“covered in snow
the trees rest in
winter silence”
― Meeta Ahluwalia
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That’s All
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, just life, Thoughts on February 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“You have to pay your own electric bill. You have to be kind. You have to give it all you got. You have to find people who love you truly and love them back with the same truth. But that’s all.”
― Cheryl Strayed
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And Over Again
Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, Thoughts, Writers on February 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I’m trying to deal with an online renewal and it is taking forever.
Click, load, spinning wheel, error.
Click, load, spinning wheel, error.
Click, load, spinning wheel, error.
Over and over again. It’s like it’s Groundhog Day.
I check the calendar. Wait, it actually is Groundhog Day!
Here’s some holiday history (and a little movie-related fun).
Groundhog Day (Pennsylvania German: Grund’sau dåk, Grundsaudaag, Grundsow Dawg, Murmeltiertag; Nova Scotia: Daks Day)[1] is a popular North American tradition observed in the United States and Canada on February 2. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrows on this day and sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will retreat to its den and winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow because of cloudiness, spring will arrive early.
While the tradition remains popular in the 21st century, studies have found no consistent association between a groundhog seeing its shadow and the subsequent arrival time of spring-like weather.[2]
Groundhog Day- the perfect comedy, for ever | Groundhog Day | The Guardian
“What’s so remarkable about it,” Jones observes over a pint in a north London pub, “is that normally when you’re writing a screenplay you try to avoid repetition. And that’s the whole thing here, it’s built on repetition. That’s so bold.”
Whatever is happening in your day, I hope it’s a good one!
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It’s Tuesday But
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, Tuesdays, Writers, writing on January 31, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”
— Charles M. Schulz
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