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Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

What We Can Become

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Released today, Grist’s Imagine 2200 contest brings new, more hopeful, visions of the future.

Imagine 2200: The 2024 climate fiction contest collection | Grist

Grist’s Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors short story contest celebrates stories that offer vivid, hope-filled, diverse visions of climate progress. From 1,000 submissions, our reviewers and judges selected the three winners and nine finalists you will discover in this collection. These stories are not afraid to explore the challenges ahead, but offer hope that we can work together to build a more sustainable and just world. Through rich characters, lovingly sketched settings, and gripping plots, they welcome you into futures that celebrate who we are and what we can become — and, we hope, inspire you to work toward them.

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Photo by Jonas Verstuyft on Unsplash

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Cherish the Oddities

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , on January 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. To “Why am I here?” To uselessness. It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus.

— Enid Bagnold (1889–1981), British novelist, playwright

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Photo by Dulcey Lima on Unsplash

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You Don’t Give Up

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don‘t give up.”

— Anne Lamott

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Photo by peace world 🌎 on Unsplash

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Witness What’s Hidden

Posted in Other, Science!, tagged , , , , , , on January 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I tried to skip past this link and couldn’t. 

An augmented-reality filter reveals the hidden movements all around us

This simple technique produces dazzling results, causing tree branches to shimmer as they sway in the wind, dust particles to become bold beams of light, and camouflaged insects and animals to be instantly unveiled. De Boer’s montage serves not only as a free and easy tutorial on the possibilities of this creative tool, but also as eye candy for anyone keen to witness the hidden patterns of movement that surround us.

The effect is fascinating. In some ways it’s the opposite of a time-lapse, which captures what remains still and merges motion. Here, movements that typically remain hidden are visible. Like a camouflaged deer, or blowing leaves, or even footprints.

While some examples are just pretty, it’s hard not to jump to the scientific and creative possibilities of this technique. I haven’t explored video effects, but this makes me want to start.

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Photo by Tradd Harter on Unsplash

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This Writer’s Life

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on January 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

One day in this writer’s life: reading, modifying a recipe for white chocolate and lemon truffles (thanks, Aunt C!), making notes on the inklings of an idea for a space saga, and a walk in the snow surrounded by tiny snowflakes drifting quietly down.

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Photo by Karl Hedin on Unsplash

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Your Very Best

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , on January 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“Always do your very best. Even when no one else is looking, you always are. Don’t disappoint yourself.”

— Colin Powell

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Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

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What Comes Next?

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on January 6, 2024| 1 Comment »

As I’ve mentioned here before, I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions. That said, I am not immune to the “fresh start effect,” which can make it easier to begin new projects, habits, or other goals around a new week, month, or year. 

So today I’m considering what new projects, habits and goals I want to bring with me into 2024.

And whether you’re the sort of person who makes resolutions or not, this article may help with next steps.

How to keep your New Year’s resolutions according to a behavioral economist (Planet Money podcast, with transcript)

It’s the first full week of 2022, and many of us are already feeling the “fresh start effect,” according to behavioral economist Katy Milkman. We’re excited to pursue new goals and we feel a renewed sense of purpose that new beginnings can bring. Still, keeping New Year’s resolutions is often easier said than done.

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Photo by Brian Mann on Unsplash

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Just Living

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on January 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”

— Joan Didion

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Photo by Almos Bechtold on Unsplash

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And It’s a New Year

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , on January 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

 “Action is the foundational key to all success.”

— Pablo Picasso

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Photo by Mason Kimbarovsky on Unsplash

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The Strange Phenomenon That Is Saint Nick

Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Christmas Eve, when Santa is racing around the world distributing presents, seems like an excellent time to think back to the experience of the holiday as a young child. If Christmas was part of your family tradition, do you remember what it was like to believe in Santa Claus? 

I do, and despite the ever-present pressures of reality, that sense of wonder is part of why I write.

Making Sense of Santa, as a Science Reporter and a Parent ‹ Literary Hub

“When I was a kid, did you try to get me to believe in Santa?” I recently asked my parents. My father, a mathematician, scoffed. “Of course not,” he said. “We told you he was a mythological being that represented generosity and good cheer.”

Still, every December, my mother hung stockings above the chimney with care. And every Christmas Eve, she made sure cookies were left on a festively decorated plate, as though she truly believed St. Nick would soon be there.

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Photo by LuAnn Hunt on Unsplash

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