“If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.”
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
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Posts Tagged ‘#365Ways2024’
Feeling Silly
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, artists, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts on June 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »
What’s Down There, Anyway?
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #DutchConspiracy, oceans, science, Thoughts on June 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I’m a simple person with simple questions. Fortunately, xkcd is here to answer at least some of them. Like this, for example:
* Fascinating, and also possibly sponsored by the Dutch.
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On the Topic of Rainbows
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Thoughts on June 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
― Maya Angelou
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Happy and Proud
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #pride, Thoughts on June 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I enjoy Pride Month because it’s great to support family and friends, because rainbows are pretty, and because if 2SLGBTQI+* peeps can’t be themselves, neither can anyone else, not really.
Here’s to embracing our true selves.
* True, the acronym is long and changes a lot and is easy to mess up, but that’s because inclusion is important. Don’t be afraid to be an ally.**)
* Taking my own advice here. Have I made a misstep somewhere? Maybe, but instead of worrying about it, I think I’ll just wave that rainbow flag high.
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A Peek Into This Writer’s Brain
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, inspiration, nature is awesome, Thoughts, weird brain, Writers on June 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The Solstice, Again?
Posted in Holidays, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, inspiration, nature, Thoughts on June 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Wait, today is the summer solstice already? Not quite sure how that happened but here we are, almost halfway through the year. That’s a little scary (time, it flies!) and a lot reassuring: the world keeps turning, no matter what.
So here we go again!
Summer solstice: Everything you need to know about the longest day of the year
The summer solstice is Thursday, June 20. It’s the longest day and shortest night in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s also the first official day of summer.
Happy summer!
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Freedom for Us All
Posted in Holidays, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, black-history, celebration, history, holidays, Juneteenth, Thoughts on June 19, 2024| 1 Comment »
Happy Juneteenth, fellow Americans!
I do love a holiday, and I’ve written about this one before: Our Newest Federal Holiday.
I grew up in a predominantly white region on the East Coast, and Juneteenth wasn’t part of my experience. I’m happy to celebrate it now.
Wondering how? Check out this introduction: The beginner’s guide to celebrating Juneteenth
And this is a rerun from the excellent Now I Know, but it’s just as good the second time around.
“We have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years and Mandy [his wife] twenty years. At $25 a month for me, and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to $11,680.” (In today’s dollars, that’s about $175,000.)
Would you like to know more?
Juneteenth | National Museum of African American History and Culture
“If you’re going to hold someone down you’re going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression.”
— Toni Morrison
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Para Sol
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, climate, heat, heatwave, hothothot!, summer, Thoughts, weather on June 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Millions are under extreme heat warnings today as we begin a multi-day heat event, myself included. Because climate!
Public health officers across the continent are speaking out, hoping to keep people safe. A lot of outlets have dramatic headlines about this heat wave, and rightfully so. Here’s one from my locale:
Ottawa Public Health prepares for ‘life-threatening’ heat event
If you are young, old, pregnant or on diuretics, be extra careful. If you have air conditioning, you’ll probably definitely need to use it. If you do not have air conditioning or a temperature-controlled cave / subterranean lair, it makes sense to find a place to cool down.
Options: Head to a library, mall, museum, pool, rec center or coffee shop. A lot of cities have their own cooling center maps (here’s Ottawa’s, and New York’s and Austin’s, for example). You can also search for “cooling centers near me” or find more info by US state here: Cooling Centers by State.
If you have to spend time outdoors? Hats, sunblock and shade are your friends. Stay hydrated, and maybe pack a parasol.
Fun facts:
- don’t use a fan to blow extremely hot air on yourself. This can cause heat exhaustion to happen faster (OPH)
- Pets need to stay cool, too! (citation: common sense). For tips, see Keep pets safe in the heat.
- Avoid or minimize drinking alcohol and caffeinated drinks (coffee, tea, and some carbonated drinks) (aww, you’re no fun OPH, but mocktails are a-ok)
- parasol: borrowed from French, “screen or canopy shielding from the sun,” going back to Middle French, borrowed from Italian parasole, from para “(it) shields, keeps out” (3rd singular present of parare “to prepare, adorn, avert, shield”) + sole “sun,” going back to Latin sōl (MW).
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No Flaming Moats Required
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, taxes, Thoughts on June 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »
/Hmm, I drafted this piece around tax time but don’t seem to have posted it. Now seems like as good a time as any.
There are a lot of ways to make a difference in the world. Recently, I was finishing up a ream of paperwork and thinking about taxes.
We saw a Stephen Colbert skit about billionaire doomsday bunkers and the bit that caught my attention (aside from the flaming moats and water cannons) was the idea that these billionaires must at some level feel that they have no control over the future.
Note that I said “feel.” It’s not that they don’t actually have power. Because they do. The rich have spent decades ensuring that economic power equals political power, and they are happy to exercise that power in ways that further enrich and otherwise benefit them.
Let’s be real. Not only are they doing just fine, they could do more to benefit others as well.
How? Support democracy, work to reduce inequality, or, if all that seems like too much work and time away from their flaming moats, they could pay taxes like the rest of us.
As Warren Buffet has famously noted, he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary.
If more of us were doing fine, then billionaires would be better off too. Because you only need a flaming moat if someone is mad at you.
And if you have the power to make a mess, you also have the power to clean it up.
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Happy Father’s Day, Father!
Posted in Holidays, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, family, Thoughts on June 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »
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