Have I posted this before? Don’t think so, but even if I have, it’s worth posting again.
“Yell. Jump. Play. Out-run those sons-of-bitches. They’ll never live the way you live. Go do it.”
― Ray Bradbury
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Posts Tagged ‘#365Ways’
Go Do It
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Nothing Simple About It
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, please just work, technical issues on September 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »
/an aside on technology and the inevitability of unexpected challenges
Have you ever noticed that any time tech instructions say some variant of “And to complete the process, simply do…”
It’s the “simply” that is key here. Anytime I see that word I know for sure that accomplishing my goal will involve more hoops than predicted, take at least three times longer than expected, and be infinitely more frustrating than necessary.
And so it was.
I managed the thing in the end, but there was nothing simple about it.
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Delicious Happiness
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, changing seasons, Thoughts on September 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »
It’s Labor Day in North America, and the unofficial end of summer. In the Northern Hemisphere it’s a day for getting outside, grilling, and generally appreciating the beauty of the season. That’s what Mr Man and I have been doing this weekend.
There is a certain mood that reminds me of summer’s essence that can best be summarized as: the feeling of happiness and goodwill toward humanity that one gets after a strawberry milkshake on a hot day.
Sure, a lot of that is the sugar rush, but I’ll take it.
We also had the good fortune of waking yesterday to an odd sound, as if someone were dragging a heavy cardboard box down the street in short, intermittent bursts. I didn’t think much of it until I was brushing my teeth and was astonished to find my reflection wreathed in hot air balloons. We’d woken to a balloon festival, and the sounds were pilots burning gas to keep their craft above the trees. Many were high, crossing the river from Quebec with room to spare, but just as many flew by at what felt like close enough to touch.
Mr Man and I ran to the driveway to wave as they passed, and were waved at in return.
Both the milkshake and balloon experiences produced the sort of delighted state that I love, contentment, surprise and joy all wrapped into one.
Delicious happiness.
Here’s to feeling more of that, no matter what the season.
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Flying in the Face of Science
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, science, sorry!, Thoughts, writing on August 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »
/with apologies to the Lepidoptera experts among us…
Ok, so here’s the thing:
— I like moths and butterflies but there’s a lot about the evolution of the family Lepidoptera that I don’t know;
— the idea that moths evolved from butterflies is, as far as I can tell, bunk;
— also, moths come out during the day, too;
— but sometimes a thought / idea / feeling flutters my way and sticks around long enough to inspire, even when I regretfully inform said idea that it is probably flying in the face of science.
And so, that’s how this most certainly unscientific poem about moths dreaming about sunshine came to be.
Some days you just go with it.
Do moths love the moon
because they remember
being butterflies?
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A Wish to Work For
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, goals, hope, quoteandaprettypicture, Thoughts on August 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Here’s to worry being needless and hope being rewarded.
— John Green
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Welcome to the School Year
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, Fiction, free fiction, humor on August 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »
As the run-up to back-to-school time is starting up again, I’m thinking about students and teachers and technology.
With that in mind, I share this short in the tongue-in-cheek spirit in which it was written:
How I Learned to Stop Teaching and Love AI by Brian Michael Murphy
All students, for all assignments, should use ChatGPT to complete each task. Why would you waste your time writing a paper? We now have a tool that can do that for you. And all professors will save massive amounts of time and energy by using ChatGPT to grade all those papers. Isn’t that great? I mean, what an educational revolution.
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A More Joyful Life
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 28, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“I get it. We all want easy. But that’s the devil talking, because the reality is that the ‘easy’ life is a mirage. People who choose easy end up living a much harder, less joyful life.”
— Arnold Schwarzenegger
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Today’s Lesson
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, computer triumphs, computer woes, persistence, Thoughts on August 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »
For whatever reason, today has been filled with technical and other issues. I’ve spent the last few hours troubleshooting a number of different problems, but happily have found my way through most of them.
The lesson? Even if you’ve tried everything, step back, reassess, and try again. You never know when conditions may have changed and that thing you tried half a dozen times will suddenly work.
Hooray!
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The River of Time
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, history, maps, Thoughts on August 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Have you ever wanted to see history ebb and flow like a river of time? Me too!
This 5-Foot-Long Chart Lays Out Over 4,000 Years of World History
In 1931, John B. Sparks created the Histomap, condensing more than 4,000 years of world history into a vibrant infographic…
“Clear, vivid, and shorn of elaboration, [the] Histomap holds you enthralled as you follow the curves of power down time’s endless course,” the map’s front cover reads. “Here is the actual picture of the march of civilization, from the mud huts of the ancients through the monarchistic glamor of the middle ages to the living panorama of life in present day America.”
(Conflating “monarchist glamor” and the Middle Ages is a bit much, but such information provides yet another view of history, and how it changes.)
Time waits for no one but this map stops at the beginning of the 20th century. Even so, it’s a fascinating visualization of the rise and fall of civilizations, both common and lesser known.
The link above will take you to the article and smaller image of the map. For a more detailed, digital version of the Histomap, head over to Yale University Library and enjoy!
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Looking Forward, Looking Back
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #wotf39, Analog, inspiration, Writers, writing on August 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I love it when what I’m reading crystallizes my thoughts into something beautiful.
Here’s one such case, where friend and fellow Writer of the Future Arthur H. Manners captured (in Analog, no less!) the essence of a question I have all the time: Even as we look ahead to the future, how will the future see us?
by Arthur H. Manners
When they look back at us,
stumbling on petrified arXiv
in the tombs of the
internet like a
Cretaceous mosquito
trapped in amber,
will they distinguish our
grandest theories of
quantum gravity
from red ochre bison
painted on the walls of
Lascaux caves?
…
Visit Analog to read the rest of the poem, and for more of Arthur’s excellent work, including online shorts and the detailed hard-science Sci-Fi Writer’s Guide to Reality, check out his site!
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