Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, advice, art, creativity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on March 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“Don’t throw any of yourself away. Don’t worry about a grand scheme or unified vision for your work. Don’t worry about unity — what unifies your work is the fact that you made it. One day, you’ll look back and it will all make sense.”
— Austin Kleon
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, art, creativity, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on March 14, 2025| 2 Comments »
If you’re stuck on a problem, don’t sit there and think about it; just start working on it. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, the simple act of working on it will eventually cause the right ideas to show up in your head.
— Mark Manson
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Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, astronomy, blood moon, lunar eclipse, moon, science on March 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Tonight, a little astronomy-related drama!
North America will have a blood worm moon this week. Here’s how you can see it
Late Thursday night or Friday early morning, North Americans with clear skies can look up to see a full moon with a beautiful reddish hue.
What to know about March’s full “Blood Worm Moon,” a total lunar eclipse
March’s full moon, known as the Worm Moon, will pass into Earth’s shadow on the night of March 13, or early on March 14, depending on the time zone, according to NASA. This eclipse will be visible from Earth’s Western Hemisphere.
While the peak of the eclipse will happen in the middle of the night (my time, at least), we should be able to see the event begin as the red(dish) moon rises around 7pm.
Why red? The color can vary based on the Moon’s path and the Earth’s atmosphere. The shade is measured on the Danjon Scale, which is a thing I hadn’t heard of but absolutely needed to know!
Danjon Scale of Lunar Eclipse Brightness
Earth’s atmosphere contains varying amounts of water (clouds, mist, precipitation) and solid particles (dust, organic debris, volcanic ash). This material filters and attenuates the sunlight before it’s refracted into the umbra. For instance, large or frequent volcanic eruptions dumping huge quantities of ash into the atmosphere are often followed by very dark, red eclipses for several years. Extensive cloud cover along Earth’s limb also tends to darken the eclipse by blocking sunlight.
And for fun: Capri Sun Releases a Glow-in-the-Dark Moon Punch
Not fun but interesting: This week’s ‘blood moon’ eclipse mirrors one Christopher Columbus used to scare indigenous people in 1504
Enjoy. I’m hoping for an L3 on the Danjon scale!
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, inspiration, Thoughts on March 12, 2025| 2 Comments »
A great warhorse comes upon a tiny sparrow lying on its back with its feet in the air, eyes squinched tightly shut. The horse asks what it’s doing.
“I’m trying to help hold back the darkness,” replied the sparrow.
The horse roars with laughter. “That’s pathetic. What do you weigh, about an ounce?”
And the sparrow replies, “Well, one does what one can.”
— fable, recounted by Anne Lamott
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Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, history, infectious disease 101, memories, public health, Thoughts on March 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Measles Is One Of The Most Contagious Diseases On Earth
Measles infection can result in severe and sometimes permanent complications including pneumonia, lung damage, brain damage, and death.
But unlike some infectious diseases, measles has a safe, effective vaccine that can protect us from infection.
We, the general public, can control measles outbreaks.
… [this bit’s for the grandparental units out there; stay healthy, folks!]
The first live measles virus vaccines—which are more effective—were available in 1969.
So anyone born between 1957–1968 may not have sufficient antibodies to avoid infection. Consult your doctor about immunization.
Many of our parents, grandparents, and other waybacks lived through a lot of difficult things: two world wars, the Great Depression, Spanish Influenza, polio, smallpox, or life before basic standards of health and safety, for example. (Coincidentally, today is also the anniversary of the declaration of the Covid pandemic. Because history may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.)
If you’re fortunate enough to still have relatives who lived through those times, consider asking them what it was like, and who they lost.
You might hear some interesting stories.
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, AI, creativity, technology, Thoughts on March 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »
One thing that often happens when writers talk about writing is a discussion of the creative voice. Separate from the critical voice, the creative voice has been described as “a two-year old who just wants to play.”* It is key to writing.
Problems occur when that urge to play is shut down by the critical voice. That is the side of your mind that is trying to keep your child self from running out into the street without looking both ways, from getting baked** in public, from forgetting your homework, or otherwise making mistakes.
The critical voice is very little help when it comes to getting words on the page. It is pretty good, however, at keeping you from being run over and/or caught making up cases in legal filings. Just, you know, for example.
Bad ChatGPT, bad!
It occurs to me that in some ways, AI is that two-year old running around, trying to give you answers without thinking too hard about whether or not they are the right answers.
It needs a parental figure.
Am I thinking of a caretaker program that follows the AI around like a nanny, keeping it from sticking its finger in a light socket and cleaning up after it?
Yes, yes I am. (Fun story idea idea, too, my inner two-year old must be on the job.)
And hey, we’re already teaching AI mindfulness, why not this?
* I’m sure lots of people have said some version of this but I’m thinking specifically of Dean Wesley Smith.
** I meant to type “naked” but this works too.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, haiku, poem, Thoughts on March 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Embrace the world’s gems
but know, of all that you see,
your light shines brightest.
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Posted in Holidays, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, a better world, feminism, gender-equality, Thoughts, women on March 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Happy International Women’s Day, all!
March 8 is International Women’s Day (IWD). It’s a global day to recognize and celebrate women’s and girls’ social, economic, cultural, and political achievements. It’s also a time to highlight the progress made in advancing women’s rights and the ongoing efforts needed to ensure their full participation in all aspects of society.
Yes, there are still a lot of challenges for women around the world, but we haven’t been standing still. Mr Man flipped on the TV this morning and landed on a channel playing 80s movies. There’s nothing like seeing women being portrayed as grabbable arm candy in leg warmers (not to mention casual racial slurs and stereotypes) to remind you how far society has come.
Now, Mr Man also started a recent video game that seemed to have been written by an AI trained on misogynistic curse-laden troll chum, so there’s that. And yet!
40 Basic Rights Women Did Not Have Until The 1970s
Although you might be familiar with the fact that women had to fight for their rights, you probably don’t realize how many basic things females were denied.
Read it and weep… with joy, because at least we’re not dealing with these particular issues anymore.
Change also benefits men as well as women. Because no one likes to be pigeonholed, amirite?
Is there still more to do? Absolutely. Equal pay for equal work is still a work in progress, some rights are being reversed, and Barbie was a hit for a reason.
As we continue through Women’s History Month, I’ll leave you with this article on inspiring women:
Portraits of women who ‘shine a light’: from an ‘analog’ astronaut to a watermelon farmer
So write your own story, draw your own path, make your mark. Because bright lights make the whole world shine.
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, free fiction, speculative fiction, Writers on March 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Oh hey, I think I missed sharing this collection of free stories from Reactor Magazine. I haven’t read all of these but Reactor tends to have very high-quality fiction, and all for free free free! Check it out, browse, and enjoy.
Some of the Best from Reactor: 2024 Edition!
The 2024 edition of Some of the Best From Reactor is out today! This bundle features just some of our favorites from the thirty-five original stories published on Reactor in the past year.
Of course, you can always read the selected stories—and all other Reactor stories—for free whenever you’d like! To make it even easier to catch up, we’ve gathered all our stories from 2024 in one convenient post.
Because life’s too short to read bad stories.
“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
― Philip Pullman
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, animals, humor, ugh work on March 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »
This week has been a little nuts, work wise, and I’m missing the time and energy to write. I was working on a draft for today’s post but it’s not ready, so here’s a helping of fun animal news:
“I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful.”
— Bob Hope
Hope the week is treating you well!
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