“Your ambition should be to get as much life out of living as you possibly can, as much enjoyment, as much interest, as much experience, as much understanding. Not simply to be what is generally called “a success.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, creativity, do more, inspiration, Thoughts on March 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“Your ambition should be to get as much life out of living as you possibly can, as much enjoyment, as much interest, as much experience, as much understanding. Not simply to be what is generally called “a success.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
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Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, citizen scientists, helping, inspiration, nature on March 3, 2026| 3 Comments »
Yes, the world is a dangerous mess right now but not everything is terrible. Exhibit A: The Fish Doorbell is back!
The Fish Doorbell — The Fish Doorbell
Every spring, thousands of fish swim through the Oudegracht in Utrecht, searching for a place upstream to lay their eggs. But the Weerdsluis is often closed. You can help the fish continue their journey! If you see a fish, press the doorbell. This alerts the lock operator to open the lock.
Love this!
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, English, history, inspiration, language, Thoughts, time travel, what to pack when going back, Writers, writing on February 28, 2026| 4 Comments »
This is fascinating, educational and fun. One of the things they may not tell you when they give you the keys to the time travel machine is that language is a living thing, and English is now very old.
Linguist and teacher Colin Gorrie decided to illustrate how the English language has changed over the last 1000 years by writing a post that slowly transitions from the modern day, in hundred year increments. How far back can you understand?
How far back in time can you understand English?
He arrives, he checks in. He walks to the cute B&B he’d picked out online. And he writes it all up like any good travel blogger would: in that breezy LiveJournal style from 25 years ago, perhaps, in his case, trying a little too hard.
But as his post goes on, his language gets older. A hundred years older with each jump. The spelling changes. The grammar changes. Words you know are replaced by unfamiliar words, and his attitude gets older too, as the blogger’s voice is replaced by that of a Georgian diarist, an Elizabethan pamphleteer, a medieval chronicler.
By the middle of his post, he’s writing in what might as well be a foreign language.
The last 300 years aren’t so bad, but then things start to get squiffy enough that I hope you’re planning to pack a fairly comprehensive dictionary. The success of your time travel adventures may depend on it!
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, art, creativity, inspiration, productivity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 25, 2026| 3 Comments »
Creativity is infinite. Creativity is infinite. — Reese Witherspoon
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Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, birds, broken isn't always forever, inspiration, nature, people power, volunteering on February 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »
This story is so encouraging:
The Ordinary People Who Saved the Bluebird
There was a time when seeing a bluebird felt less like spotting a bird and more like witnessing a small miracle. But then, the Eastern bluebird population made a comeback. The hero?
A lot of volunteers — and an ordinary box.

Sure, we broke it. But now we’re fixing it, and that’s a story I think we all could use.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, inspiration, Writers, writing on February 20, 2026| 2 Comments »
This was a fun article to stumble upon:
We challenged teenagers to write a story about a meaningful moment in their lives in just 100 words. These are the subjects of some of the 14,232 “tiny memoir” submissions we received.
Teens do (nonfiction) drabbles. The New York Times called them miniature memoirs, but regardless, they are wonderful!
This reminds me of a book that my father gave to us all one Christmas, a lovely collection of poetry by children: Ten-Second Rainshowers: Poems by Young People.
The perspectives were touching and timeless, full of meaning, depth, joy and humor, much like these stories.
The Times chose 17 winners, but the detail I particularly like is that there were over 14,000 entries.
So much vision, so much thought. So much life!
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Posted in Holidays, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, democracy, inspiration, President's Day, Thoughts on February 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means. And that posterity will triumph in that day’s transaction…” ― John Adams
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, anthologies, creativity, inspiration, Kickstarter, Writers, writing on February 15, 2026| 4 Comments »
Here’s a quick notification for anyone interested in writing and publication venues and supporting a fun Kickstarter:
Missed-Fits: A Calendar of Fools Anthology by Storm Humbert
The idea for Missed-Fits is born of two central motivations at Calendar of Fools: the desire to create truly unique books and reading experiences for our readers, and the desire to provide a service or fill a gap we see in the professional short fiction space. In this case, the gap we saw was a relative dearth of stories of a certain length (1,200 to 2,100 words)…
I backed an earlier Calendar of Fools campaign and am happy to see that these anthologies are still going strong.
Given that I like books, often write stories that don’t fit traditional venue length requirements, and enjoy supporting artists, this is right up my alley.
Perhaps these are things you like too?
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Posted in Entertainment, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, Artemis, full moon, inspiration, movies, NASA, science on February 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Sadly, NASA’s Artemis mission launch has run into some issues (hydrogen leaks bad!) and will be delayed until at least March.
NASA Conducts Artemis II Fuel Test, Eyes March for Launch Opportunity
That said, safer is better, so you do what you need to do, NASA. (Maybe rehiring some of the folks who were let go last year might help? Just saying.)
What do we hope to see when the mission does launch? This site has a nice explainer.
The flight path of Artemis 2, step by step
And for more on the long-term goals, see this in-depth article: How Artemis will land humans on the Moon.
As we wait to hear more from the launchpad, here’s something fun I ran across the other day that may help keep you entertained:
We asked former astronauts about their favorite space movies, and this is what they said
I mean, I’m more The Martian and Galaxy Quest than 2001, but that’s me. So many good movies!
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