The only guaranteed way to succeed is simple: don’t quit.
— Arnold Schwarzenegger
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Posted in Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #QuittingIsForQuitters, creativity, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing | 2 Comments »
I made butterscotch last night and realized I’d neglected to post the recipe. Given my habit of scrawling ingredient lists on random scraps of paper which may or may not make it over to my kitchen book shelf, it helps to know exactly where I put my recipes.
Here:)
| Butterscotch | x1 | x2 | x4 |
| Heavy whipping cream | 175g | 350g | 700g |
| Butter | 85g | 170g | 340g |
| Brown Sugar | 150g | 300g | 600g |
| Salt | pinch | pinch+ | 1/8 t or to taste |
| Grand Marnier | ~1T | 2T | 4T |
- Heat cream and butter over medium-low heat until melted.
- Add sugar and salt, if using. Cook, stirring frequently, until thickened and shiny (5–10 minutes).
- Stir in Grand Marnier (optional but recommended).
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Posted in Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025 | Leave a Comment »
Ok, this is amazing.
And if you wired other nearby plants and trees, would they all play in synchrony?
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Posted in Science! | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, inspiration, music, nature, science | Leave a Comment »
Mr Man and I were out for a hike a few weeks ago when a barred owl flew across the path. I hadn’t expected to see an owl in daylight, but there it was. We watched it for a moment as it nestled into the crook of a tree, and went about our way.
This is what it might have been like to stay.
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Posted in Other | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, autumn, fall, inspiration, nature, photography, Thoughts | Leave a Comment »
For those who have experienced the joy of being alone with nature there is really little need for me to say much more; for those who have not, no words of mine can ever describe the powerful, almost mystical knowledge of beauty and eternity that come, suddenly, and all unexpected.
— Jane Goodall
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Posted in Other | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, autumn, fall, inspiration, nature, quoteandaprettypicture, Thoughts | 1 Comment »
“The autumn stars had come out, incredible in number and brilliance… the whole sky seemed to tremble, a shaking of diamond chips, a scintillation of sunlight on a black sea.”
— Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed
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Posted in Other | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, autumn, fall, inspiration, quoteandaprettypicture, Thoughts | Leave a Comment »
After an extended flirtation with unusually warm weather, the seasons have well and truly turned. Fall has arrived, and with it, bright blue days and brilliant colors, crisp air and the urge to Get Outside before the snows come.
This is my way of saying that I’m going to be otherwise occupied for the next few days enjoying the weather. I hope you have a chance to get out and enjoy the season too.
In the meantime, I leave you with quotes and pretty pictures!
“If the leaves are changing, I feel poetry in the air.”
— Laura Jaworski
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Posted in Other | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, autumn, fall, inspiration, quoteandaprettypicture, Thoughts | Leave a Comment »
Today, a fun bit of free short fiction from Carrie Vaughn and Clarkesworld Magazine.
She hit send and hoped that this would be the last she had to think of it. Engineering would get the work order, run the diagnostics, the glitch would get fixed, all would be well. She was also very aware that this would probably not be the end of it. She couldn’t tell if the cramping in her stomach was lunchtime hunger or simmering rage.
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Posted in Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, free fiction, jobs in space, sci-fi, Writers, writing | Leave a Comment »
“Every minute of every hour of every day you are making the world, just as you are making yourself, and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style.”
— Rebecca Solnit
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Posted in Other, Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts | Leave a Comment »
I often run across funny stories in the news that catch my attention. Sometimes, it’s about a topic of interest, like libraries or space food or mushroom leather, for instance. And sometimes it’s about a dinosaur named Claire.
I was only two when my mother’s father died, so I never got a chance to know him. Now, I’m very much a green economy “let’s figure out how to live without needing several more planets” kind of person, but my grandfather’s work involved resource exploration for Sinclair Oil.
He was also by all accounts a wonderful person.
The fact that he was gone only made me more interested in what little I did know about him, including the fact that he worked for a company whose mascot was a friendly green dinosaur.* To a kid, that’s pretty cool, and I always kept my eye out for Sinclair stations when we traveled.
Sinclair’s advertising writers first had the idea to use dinosaurs in Sinclair marketing back in 1930. They were promoting lubricants refined from crude oil believed to have formed when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
This all came to mind because recently, someone in California stole the mascot from a Sinclair station in Brentwood. The stations often have a large (but not life sized, let’s not get crazy) representation of their dinosaur near the pumps. Very cool. So cool, in fact, that someone decided they wanted to take it home.
The dinosaur’s name, it turns out, is Claire.
Stolen California gas station dinosaur returned with apology note
The 4-foot-tall prehistoric mascot was stolen last week from a Sinclair gas station on San Vicente Boulevard in the Brentwood neighborhood. Video showed the person using power tools to remove Claire, loading her into the bed of a pickup truck that pulled up alongside the fuel pumps and driving away.
The good news is that a hue and cry was raised, and the thief, who must have at least one decent bone in their body, returned Claire to her rightful home.
More than once, I’ve wondered what my grandfather would think about the green energy transition and the push to move away from fossil fuels. While I don’t know what he would have said, it would have been a fascinating conversation.
He was a kind, thoughtful man who wanted only good things for his family and the future. I like to think that he would be happy to see humanity finding new ways to innovate, expand, and explore.
And I’m sure Claire and her family of Apatosauruses would approve.
* Although there’s a certain irony to making your company symbol a happy representation of the creature whose liquified remains power your product, but that’s a topic for another time!
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Posted in Other | Tagged family, Futures, #365Ways, #365Ways2025, funny story, Sinclair | Leave a Comment »
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