Posted in Funny, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, food, free reads, short stories, Thoughts on January 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I’ll be working on a cake recipe this weekend, and I’m thinking about it now. As I mentally work my way through possible iterations and prepare to release this recipe into the world (or at least the personal archive that is this blog), I’m thinking of this funny piece:
Look, I get it. You thought what you posted was innocuous. Still, did you stop to think about everyone who has ever lived and how it could make them feel?
I mean, it’s cake and not chili, but no, no I did not.
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, citizen scientists, history, Library of Congress, Thoughts on January 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »
It turns out I’m super, and you might be too!
The National Archives needs Citizen Archivists who can read cursive
“Reading cursive is a superpower,” said Suzanne Isaacs, a community manager with the National Archives Catalog in Washington, D.C.
If you’d like to help the Library of Congress decipher History (yes, with a capital H), consider becoming a volunteer Citizen Archivist.
Because History is cool, and so are you.
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #YouChangeOneThing, technical issues on January 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I’m having some technical issues today, please hold while I work a little magic…
Sh*t happens. We must remember that how we react to it will determine how we will feel about ourselves.
— Arnold Schwarzenegger
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, chill, Thoughts on January 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Need a moment of calm in your day? Try building a rock tower.
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, Thoughts, transformation on January 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.”
― Clive Barker, Abarat
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, community, disasters, donations, helping, Thoughts on January 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »
If you are watching the LA fires as I am, you may be moved to help. There are a lot of options, but it’s hard to go wrong with cash for food and shelter.
World Central Kitchen is my go-to charity for disaster relief, plus there’s the Red Cross and other organizations helping on the ground right now. Here’s a New York Times article with links to charities, other information, how not to get scammed, etc.
How to Help Victims of the Fires in Los Angeles
Raging fires have left five people dead, destroyed or damaged thousands of homes and other buildings and consumed thousands of acres. Here’s how you can help…
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #noresolutions, just life, Thoughts on January 10, 2025| 1 Comment »
I recently heard that the second Friday of January is the day for broken resolutions (colloquially known by the uninspiring name of Quitter’s Day). This year, that day is January 10th.
Oh wait, you may be thinking, that’s today.
Indeed.
If you signed up for a gym membership, started a diet, or otherwise laid out an optimistic Plan for a Future New You™, you might be losing steam about now.
No worries, it happens. I’m here to say that even if you slept through your “definitely getting up an hour early and going to the gym” alarm, that’s okay.
What matters is not whether you are holding fast to the letter of whatever law you set for yourself, but how you think about the type of person you want to be this year.
I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions but I do appreciate the chance to take stock of where I am and what I’m doing (or not).
A personal example: Am I writing as much as I’d like? No, but I’m working on it, and starting a new year gives me a chance to step back, reassess my current approach and think of ways to improve.
So whether you went to the gym today or not, wrote or not, checked off your resolutions or not, imagine what you want your life to be like. At the end of the day, the month, the year, what do I want to have done?
Today, take one step in that direction. Then take another. If those steps take you to the gym, great. If they keep going to some new and better vista, even better. Just keep moving, one step, then the next.
Your life is waiting for you.
“A good beginning makes a good end.”
— Louis L’Amour
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Posted in Entertainment, Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #ChooseYourFuture, #wotf39, LA fires, risk management, Thoughts on January 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I write science fiction, but I don’t always like living in the future.
Consider the fact that a century ago, many of the innovations we find commonplace were the stuff of dreams.
I do love advances in things like clean air and water, energy, infant mortality, waterproof shoes, effective moisturizers, trash collection, the postal service, public libraries and so much more.
The sci-fi-level post-apocalyptic wildfire situation currently playing out in Southern California? That, I could do without.
I’m not a Californian but I am an American, a North American, and a human being. Extreme weather events also aren’t uncommon anymore. That, plus the fact that one of the fires surrounding Los Angeles is less than two kilometers from the hotel we stayed in for the Writers of the Future workshop helps make these events even more concrete.
I feel for the people in the fire’s path today, and for the risks we all face tomorrow.
It’s also easy to imagine bad outcomes when we see them in the news. It can be harder to remember the good already incorporated into our lives, and what could be waiting for us up ahead.
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The other night, Mr Man and I realized that we’d never seen Bullitt, Steve McQueen’s 1968 classic movie. It was a well-told story but also a trip down memory lane. I spent a good part of the show saying things like “Oh right, you could smoke most everywhere back then” and “Hang on, that’s how they used to track your pulse?” or “Looks like seatbelts were optional” and “So much of this plot revolves around the fact that you had to stop to find a phone” and “Lord, that is a lot of smoke coming out the back of those giant gas guzzlers.”
The movie’s world was certainly recognizable, but in the way your grade school classroom might be, years later.
Things change, much as it doesn’t always feel like it.
Let’s try to make it change for the better.
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #ShovelSafely, Thoughts, winter on January 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I’m sad to say that my part of Canada is a little short on snow at the moment, but that isn’t true for many parts of North America.
If you happen to live in one of the regions recently hit with unusual amounts of snow, and you find yourself wondering how to tackle it without needing physical therapy after, you may find these tips useful!
Stuck shoveling snow? Tips to safely shovel snow and walk on ice
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, home, science on January 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »
We’re having some electrical work done today, which means I’ll be in and out of the modern world. It also means that I will be spending a non-zero amount of time asking questions about power, and wishing my childhood had included a little more time with (Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee!) Bill Nye and his catchy explanations of science science science.
Good news, it’s not too late!
Bill Nye The Science Guy – S01E18 – Electricity
And for those of you who just want the basics, i.e. how not to become a path to ground for the “opportunistic freeloader” that is electricity, check out this quick explainer:
Stay safe, friends, and for those days when electrons fail you, keep your pencils sharp!
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