“Being kind isn’t always easy. Or convenient. But it has the potential to change everything.”
— Cap Watkins
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Posts Tagged ‘#365Ways2024’
You Have So Much Potential
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #alittlepickmeup, Thoughts, writing on September 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Astronomical Fall
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, astronomy, autumn, equinox, fall, fall equinox, seasons, Thoughts on September 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Yesterday, we headed out into one of the many beautiful trail systems dotted around Ottawa. The day was bright and the paths were carpeted in a lovely array of gold, orange and red leaves. It felt like a perfect way to usher in fall, but it turns out we were a day early.
Today, however, we can celebrate the Autumn Equinox, when night and day are (more or less) equal, and the sun shines directly down streets set east to west, as they do in places like Chicago.
Autumnal equinox 2024 brings fall to the Northern Hemisphere today
When is the first day of fall in 2024?
A carefully worded answer is that on Sunday, Sept. 22, at 8:44 a.m. Eastern daylight time (5:44 a.m. Pacific daylight time) autumn begins astronomically in the Northern Hemisphere, and spring in the Southern. At that moment, the sun would be shining directly overhead as seen from a point in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, 461 miles (743 km) south-southwest of Monrovia, Liberia.
10 Things About the September Equinox
Here are 10 facts about the first day of astronomical fall (autumn) in the Northern Hemisphere.
Welcome to fall!
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How It Feels
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Success isn’t about how your life looks to others. It’s about how it feels to you.
— Michelle Obama
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A Low-Key but Actually Kinda Fun Rant (Warning: Involves Language!)
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, language, Thoughts on September 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Ever had one of those low-stakes issues that are like a tiny splinter, not a serious problem but still annoying? Of course you have. We all have triggers that bug us, some shared (fingernails on a chalkboard, anyone?) and some a little more niche.
For example, I hate the corporate buzzword “learnings.”
It’s not a real word! It is a solution to a non-existent problem, designed only to signal in-group status for aspiring wielders of upper-level business speak.
Note: The word was published in the 15th century by one Geoffrey de La Tour-Landry, but later fell out of fashion. It is now considered “an erroneous plural form of the colloquial term ‘learning’”.
That 15th century author said “the thre enseygnementes or lernynges whiche Cathon gaf to his sone.” Dear business buzzword types, will you also revert to other spellings from half a millennia ago? Giveth me a break.
Seriously, what is wrong with the word “lessons”?
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Ooh, this gives me an opportunity to use the internet for its highest and best purpose, looking up random weirdness and reveling in possibly correct but certainly entertaining results. Let’s translate a modern-day sentence into Shakespearean English.
English to Shakespearean Translator
If thee necessity to inventeth a new tongue to feeleth bett’r about thy occupation, art thee certes t’is the c’rrect occupation f’r thee?
While we’re having fun, here’s a version for Mr Man. He has a soft spot in his childhood heart for the cultural icon that is The Swedish Chef:
Iff yuou hefe-a tu infent a nuo luonguoege-a tu feel better ibuout yuour jub, ire-a yuou suore-a it is zee-a right jub fur yuou? Bork Bork Bork!
And finally, an article assuring me that I’m not the only one who finds bizspeak annoying, and also helps me find a bit of chill.
Why business speak is so irritating — and what we can do about it
It’s normal and useful for people within a company or field to have their own names for specific kinds of tasks or projects. But when overused, Sokolowski notes, buzzwords can become a code for a kind of professional language that is “substituting for authenticity.”
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“We should be generous with others and recognize that maybe the words we hate aren’t the same words that other people hate, and that we should allow words to have their own power and to carry meaning,” he added.
Fine, fine. Like I said, it’s a pretty low-key issue for me.
It’s true that language is ever-evolving and that we all have fun shaping it to our current needs. (Please see my aforementioned use of the portmanteau word “bizspeak” above.) I’ll try to be reasonable about it.
And that concludes my language-related learning lesson* for the day!
* Nope, sorry, can’t do it!
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More, Please!
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, genre fiction, speculative fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Today, a super-sized interview on the future of speculative fiction from Reactor Magazine.
What do some of the biggest names in SFF have to say about current bookish trends, or what the future might hold?
The authors:
- Amal El-Mohtar
- Arkady Martine
- Catriona Ward
- Constance Fay
- Em X. Liu
- Holly Black
- K. M. Szpara
- Kathleen Jennings
- Kerstin Hall
- Joe Abercrombie
- John Scalzi
- Naomi Kritzer
- Neon Yang
- Nghi Vo
- Samantha Shannon
- Sarah Beth Durst
- Sung-Il Kim
- T.L. Huchu
They had me at cozy fantasy. And also “very interesting, complicated, messy, ruthless female protagonist.” And dragons. And Scandinavian werewolves!
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Hello World!
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Landsat, satellite imagery, science, space on September 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Type in your name to see it spelled out in Landsat imagery of Earth!
Does what it says on the tin. Excellent!
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Mist and Moonlight
Posted in Food and..., Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #onceinaharvestsupermooneclipse, eclipse, full-moon, ice cream, lunar eclipse, moon, science, supermoon on September 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The moon shines bright tonight, my friends.
- We have a full moon.
- We have a harvest supermoon.
- And if you (like me) are in North America, South America, Africa or Europe, we have a partial lunar eclipse.
- We even have a bonus sort of moon related item at the end!
First, the what, when, where of tonight’s eclipse.
What to know about Tuesday’s lunar eclipse and harvest supermoon – NPR
The best times to view the event will depend on your location, but the lunar eclipse will peak at 10:44 p.m. ET, according to NASA. All of North and South America will have a chance to see the partial lunar eclipse and harvest supermoon depending on the weather. Europe and Africa will also have an opportunity to see the eclipse.
As the full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox, this is the Harvest Moon. The first known written use of this name in the English language (per the Oxford English Dictionary) was in 1706. During the fall harvest season farmers sometimes need to work late into the night by moonlight. On average moonrise is about 50 minutes later each night. Around the Harvest Moon this time is shorter, about 25 minutes for the latitude of Washington, DC, and only 10 to 20 minutes farther north in Canada and Europe.
(Note from the future: NASA has a great Astronomy Photograph of the Day showing a time lapse of the eclipse.)
Here is some general info on eclipses and a fun video from NASA.
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And as for that more-or-less moon related bonus item? It’s a tasty one.
Mr Man and I went for a lovely if hot hike down by the river, and decided that the best way to cap it off would be with ice cream. We found ourselves at Chris’s Ice Cream Ottawa.
This fun little shop had a number of interesting and creative flavors, including blood orange, chili chocolate, strawberry crunch, and… hang on, what’s this?
Moon mist.
Interesting. Never heard of it. (That’s because we’re not Out East and I have apparently not been shopping in the right ice cream stores.)
Wait, it’s a combination of bubble gum, grape, and banana?!
Here’s a quick intro to this regional delight: Written in the stars: The legendary tale of Atlantic Canada ice cream favourite Moon Mist.
I did not think I would like it. I did not think the flavors would work. In fact, they did more than work, as all three flavors combined into a new, better flavor.
I don’t quite know how to describe this “improbable” combination except as a structural shift. Imagine three individual flavors, normally experienced as if they were sequential, or side by side. When eaten together, however, the flavors stack together to create a singular new experience.
Readers, I loved it.
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Obviously!
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, climate change, creativity, environment, genre fiction, innovation, inspiration, Kim Stanley Robinson, science fiction, technology, Thoughts, writing on September 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Today’s question of the day:
BBC World Service – The Climate Question, Can Science Fiction help us fight climate change?
The acclaimed US sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson is also a star in the world of climate activism because his work often features climate change – on Earth and beyond. Robinson has been a guest speaker at the COP climate summit, and novels such as The Ministry For The Future and The Mars Trilogy are admired by everyone from Barack Obama to former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres.
Now, the answer to this question seems fairly self-evident to me. I see innovation as a conversation, in a way, between what is and what we can imagine will be. And fiction is excellent at helping us imagine new and better worlds.
Other examples of sci-fi ideas made real:
Ten Inventions Inspired by Science Fiction | Smithsonian
6 scientific innovations inspired by science fiction
10 ‘Star Trek’ Technologies That Actually Came True | HowStuffWorks
Look around you. What are our technological and social capabilities? What are our needs? And what do you think we’ll invent next?
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Ever Curious
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers on September 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.”
— Stephen Hawking
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Very Much Lemon
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, baking, Bundt topography, cake, dessert, recipes on September 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I like lemon. And lime and yuzu and orange, but very much lemon. Which is why I want to give a shout-out to King Arthur’s 2017 Recipe of the Year and my new favorite lemon cake. The hardest thing about it is prepping the pan. (After years of fighting with the challenges of Bundt pan topography, I opted to try this spray. Success!)
Click through to the recipe for details and step-by-step instructions. I record my version here for next week when I make this again culinary posterity.
Lemon Bliss Cake Recipe | King Arthur Baking
Ingredients
Cake
- 227g salted butter, room temperature
- 397g sugar
- 5.25g table salt
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 9.5g baking powder
- 360g all-purpose flour
- 227g milk, room temperature
- 3g lemon oil
Glaze
- 80g lemon juice
- 149g sugar
- 1/8t lemon oil (forgot to weigh this)
- a couple drops of Fiori di Sicilia
Icing (optional, the cake is good with or without it)
- 170g confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- pinch of table salt
- 42g lemon juice
Bake at 350F for 60 minutes.
* I bought the specialized ingredients at King Arthur so I’ve included those links, but you can find these items elsewhere. I do appreciate the fact that King Arthur is an employee-owned company with an extensive free recipe collection and a hotline for baking emergencies!
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