Posts Tagged ‘#365Ways’
Happy Saturday!
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, summer, Thoughts on August 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Old Man Willow Sends His Best
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers on August 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Where did my imagination take root? In a yellow-brick house on a quiet country road, filled with bright windows and built-in bookshelves containing a wide range of genres, including science fiction and fantasy.
I remember that house well, not least because a friend recently sent me a listing for it on a rental site. It was odd to see the rooms looking so empty, with none of the life that still populates my memories. Even so, it was good to visit the house again.
And to remember what it was like to look out at the old willow shading the little creek behind our house, and dream.
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Uptime, Downtime
Posted in Entertainment, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, NASA, science, space, Thoughts on August 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The folder where I keep post ideas is filling up with space stories. Many of them are about Mars, but let’s start with something a little closer to home and go more than 250 miles above Earth to the International Space Station.
NASA’s site has lots of info and fun facts like these.
Did you know that the ISS has been continuously occupied since November 2000? That you can track its position live? Or that the station’s live/work space is larger than a six-bedroom house?
Sounds like the place is downright homey. And that’s a good thing, as Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two astronauts who have been stuck at the ISS due to problems with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, will no doubt attest.
How Two Stranded Astronauts Are Camping Out in Space | TIME
Williams’ and Wilmore’s short stay may now not be over until February—stretching an eight-day mission to an eight-month one….
Initially, they were to spend most of their eight days aloft working in the Starliner—checking its communications, life support, power, and other systems. But they long since finished up that checklist and have instead been assisting the rest of the crew with science experiments and maintenance chores, including such unglamorous work as repairing a urine processing pump.
That sounds super fun (actually, it kind of does), but it’s not all work up there. Are they staring out the viewport at Earth, pointing out their house sixteen times a day? Competing in the Space Olympics? (Not a thing, as far as I know, but astronauts do have to exercise two hours a day to maintain muscle mass and general health.) Have they used their spare time to compose a space-themed version of the Gilligan’s Island theme song? (Did I ask AI to do this? Maaaaaybe. But if I did, it wasn’t very good.)
Speaking of television, perhaps they’re catching up on their favorite shows. Did you know that astronauts can binge-watch just like the rest of us?
Every TV Show Astronauts Can Watch on the ISS Right Now
There are, of course, space-themed shows like Hulu’s The First with Sean Penn from 2018, the critically acclaimed alt-history drama For All Mankind, and the Trump-era comedy Space Force. Other new series include Book of Bobba Fett, The Crown, and the cooking show Chopped. Other sci-fi series include Andor, Star Trek Discovery, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica.
Still no word on who gets to hold the remote.
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Writer, Curious
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, history, internet, spies, Writers on August 14, 2024| 2 Comments »
Writers are known for their weird web histories, and I am no exception. Today, I’ll highlight just one of the many oddities I have come across lately. In case you are a writer. Or are the curious sort.
The official CIA manual of trickery and deception
The manuals reprinted in this work represent the only known complete copy of Mulholland’s instructions for CIA officers on the magician’s art of deception and secret communications written to counter Soviet mind-control and interrogation techniques
I found the reference after reading this newsletter, featuring a little magic and some talking shoelaces.
These Shoes Are Made for Talking – Now I Know
So in 1953, according to the BBC, the CIA hired a man named John Mulholland to help, paying him $3,000 (the equivalent of $35,000 today) to write the first-ever “CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception.” Mulholland, though, wasn’t a spy — he was a magician. The manual outlined lots of different ways CIA agents could use the principles of illusionists to help them survive in the field and advance their goals.
I wondered, was the book still available? And lo, it was!*
* Free to read with login.
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An Elegant Symphony
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, learning@lunch, nonfiction, science, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I’m reading a nonfiction book that is fascinating, detailed and (so far, at least) very well written. My favorite sentence from the bit I read at lunch is this perfect illustration of how to set the tone as well as the stage:
The lighting is subtle, the decor an elegant symphony of beige.
— Gretchen Bakke, The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future
Can’t wait to read the rest!
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Changing for Good
Posted in Likes, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, growth, kindness, service, Thoughts on August 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring your own life.” —
The Terminator v.1Arnold Schwarzenegger* * *
Happy Brunch Day
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, brunch, Thoughts on August 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »
There’s a storm rolling in so I’ll make this brief. Also, we’re stuffed after a fun brunch with waffles, fauxmosas, BLTs and good friends. How good?
They brought chocolate croissants.
“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”
― Linda Grayson
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Sourdough Sandwich Bread, the Embiggening!
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, baking, bread, food, recipes, sourdough on August 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »
My favorite sandwich bread recipe makes two loaves. That’s just enough for Mr Man to eat most of a loaf the first day, and then polish off the second loaf over the next day or two. Making this bread isn’t hard but it does take up most of a morning, and it would be nice if the results lasted a bit longer.
Given that, I’ve adapted the recipe to make three loaves and include it here so I won’t misplace the random scrap of paper I used for my calculations. (Yes, that happens a lot!)
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Even More Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Ingredients
Levain
- 192g flour
- 192g water
- 66g sourdough starter
Dough
- 946g flour
- 75g sugar
- 22g salt
- 8.4g instant yeast
- 85g butter, softened
- 573g milk (70° to 80°F, I microwave for 63 seconds)
- the ripe levain
Instructions (abbreviated*)
- Mix the levain ingredients the night before and let rise
- The next morning, mix and then knead together all of the dough ingredients (~12 minutes)
- Let the dough rise for 1 to 2 hours, until ~doubled in size
- Divide the dough into three, shape into loaves, let rise in buttered 9″ loaf pans until ~1″ above rim
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes at 375F
* I’ve memorized this recipe by now, but for more details see the original post. And apologies for not converting these measurements back into cups etc. but my bread needs to be shaped!
Enjoy!
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In Training
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“It’s good to do uncomfortable things. It’s weight training for life.”
― Anne Lamott
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It Will Be Beautiful
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #wotf, #wotf40, #WritersOfTheFuture, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Kal M, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »
If you are a writer, an illustrator or creator of any kind, this Writers of the Future winner has a message for you.
You Don’t Need to Fit In | Kal M
Hey, you. Yes, you, the one fretting in front of the computer because you’re too nervous to start on that story you promised yourself you’d work on. Come here a second; I have something to tell you.
Ready? Okay, here it is: you’ll be fine.
Maybe today is the day you need to hear this. If not, put it in your pocket and save it until you do.
Then pick yourself up and make something. It will be beautiful.
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