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Posts Tagged ‘#365Ways’

How to Win in Twelve Parsecs or Less

Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 17, 2021| 1 Comment »

Does everything have to be perfect in order for a story to work? Nope. 

Here’s the script and breakdown for Star Wars:

Star Wars: A New Hope Script — Screenplay Analysis and PDF Download

par·sec| ˈpärsek | (abbreviation pc) noun

a unit of distance used in astronomy, equal to about 3.26 light years (3.086 × 1013 kilometers). One parsec corresponds to the distance at which the mean radius of the earth’s orbit subtends an angle of one second of arc.

A parsec is a measurement of distance, not time. Twelve of those do not a winning Kessel Run make, but, as millions of fans (and yes, dollars) attest, no one cares. The story works.

These are the things I think about when I’m stuck on a plot point, or deep in historical or technical weeds.

Just keep going.

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Photo by Sam Balye on Unsplash

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Monarch Joe

Posted in Likes, tagged , , , , , , , on August 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

The Joe Pye Weed is in full bloom and buzzing with big bees, small bees and not-bees, and look who stopped by!

I only wish we had the space and sun for a dozen more of these plants, plus scads of milkweed for this monarch and all of its friends. Until then, I’ll do what I can with what I have.

Cliché? Yes, but still a pretty good motto!

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What to Write About

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 15, 2021| 1 Comment »

Here’s a brief piece by Kate Wilhelm of Clarion Workshop fame, on writing and what to avoid. A little harsh? Possibly. But it still looks like good advice.

One year Damon and I arrived to teach the last two weeks of the six-week Clarion Writers Workshop with a list of stories we forbade the students to pursue. We explained each item on the list and said don’t do it again.

— OWW SF, F, & H Tips and Advice: Kate Wilhelm

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Photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplash

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She Who Seeds the Stars

Posted in Other, tagged , , , , , on August 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Today, more adventures with photo composites. A few simple experiments to learn where all the tools are and how to use them:

And then a more complicated example:

She who seeds the stars. Based on this tutorial. The detailed selections were the hardest part, so that’s what I’ll work on next.

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That Explains A Lot, Actually

Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged , , , , on August 13, 2021| 2 Comments »

I’m on vacation today and thought I’d do some cool stuff. Instead, my afternoon looked like this:

  • lunch? lunch
  • read terrible book, give up on same
  • feel v. blah. stupid book. I hate bad books
  • think about a new story idea, make less than desired progress
  • research random topics of interest (mystery songbird illness, treasure maps, letterlocking methods, software stuff, etc.)
  • realize I should have worked out this morning, tired or not
  • start three projects, or was it four? nope
  • read about temptation bundling
  • attempt to learn a thing or two. maybe?
  • work on a new project
  • have the program crash at the last minute and decide, you know what? I think I’m done for the day

Plus Mr Man just came home with tales of unfortunate events, mysterious machine mishaps, and more.

Aaaaaand, I just realized that it’s Friday the 13th.

That actually explains A Lot.

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Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash

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On Action

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »

“When we feel powerful, it leads us to act. When we feel powerless, we don’t act.”

— Amy Cuddy

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Photo by John Fowler on Unsplash

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Younger Every Day

Posted in Other, tagged , , , , , on August 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »

My ancestors continue to get younger, it seems. My mother found a portrait of herself as a baby and sent it my way. I like both general and family history, plus I was happy to have another chance to practice my photo restoration skills:

So cute!

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It’s Not Over Yet

Posted in Other, tagged , , , , , on August 10, 2021| 2 Comments »

I’ve been trying to work up a positive post for today, but the recent IPCC climate report keeps popping into my head, and that’s anything but positive. So let’s take a moment to review.

If you want a summary (or two), to read the report, or to test out the interactive atlas outlining what we can expect by region (here’s the info for North and Central America), you can. 

tl;dr: “Worst choose your own adventure book ever.”

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Or check out this cartoon:

It should not come as a surprise that climate change is worse than we thought and also getting worser

Because bad news goes down easier from cute penguins. 

That said, it isn’t all bad. We’re at the bottom of the final inning, yes, but the game isn’t over yet.

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Also. Humans are a lot of things, but we aren’t quitters.

We must not delude ourselves about the immense challenges the world faces, but we can’t let anxiety overwhelm and paralyse us. The world isn’t doomed quite yet – there is still a window of opportunity to change things.

— Yes, the climate crisis is terrifying. But I refuse to abandon hope

And if I learned anything from the Terminator franchise (aside from the many uses of a shotgun), it’s that there is no fate but what we make.

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Photo by Damir Babacic on Unsplash

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Adultitude

Posted in Other, tagged , , , , , on August 9, 2021| Leave a Comment »

My nephew is one of the thousands of young adults starting college this fall. I’ve seen a lot of “things I wish I’d known” and “advice for the college-bound” articles, some of which are on point for this thoughtful, capable, and confident kid, some not as much.

There’s the obvious, of course: be kind, don’t drink too much, call if you need bail money, that sort of thing.

All good advice.

But if I had to boil the foundations of a constructive mindset down to just one thing? I saw this quote the other day and thought it was pretty on point:

No matter who or what or where they are, 

“Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.” 
― Bill Nye

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Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

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Things Take Time, Sometimes

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , on August 8, 2021| 1 Comment »

I had a lot of ideas for how today was going to go. I was wrong about most of it. It wasn’t a bad day by any means, I just didn’t get much done. I got caught in that trap where the to do list is massive and you’re surprised when nothing is completed. Too many ideas, not enough specificity. 

My list included (but was not limited to) the following:

  • make and freeze chocolate chip cookie dough
  • learn more photo compositing, make awesome chimera, floating fantasy city & light speed travel poster; yes, all of those things
  • do garden work
  • vacuum
  • make fresh pasta
  • try letter locking

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So, yeah:)

I started just about everything on that list, and finished none of them. Time to take a step back, pick one project, then break it down into the smallest possible parts and start crossing them off. And by framing the problem with more clarity. When I’m stuck, that’s how I move forward. 

(Also by not being too hard on myself when I have a day like today. Sometimes, things take time.)

On the plus side? We’ve still got ice cream🙂

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