“Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency.” — Rebecca Solnit
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Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’
Tools Come in All Shapes and Sizes
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers on May 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »
What’s for Dinner?
Posted in Food and..., Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, food, inspiration, InterestingAndUnusualOrganizations, Thoughts, writing on May 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I like reading interesting nonfiction, not least because it’s a great source of ideas for stories. I ran across this oddly fascinating article a while back:
Italy’s undercover pizza detectives
…the AVPN intermittently dispatches secret pizza agents on espionage missions to clandestinely spy on the restaurants.
Excellent title!
In related news, I might be hungry.
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What to Write Next
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, art, creativity, inspiration, Writers, writing on May 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »
What If They’re Already Here?
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, aliens, inspiration, science, self-reflection, writing on May 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Recently, Neil deGrasse Tyson visited Stephen Colbert to talk about aliens and his new book Take Me To Your Leader: Perspectives On Your First Alien Encounter. He discussed aliens, why you probably shouldn’t shake hands, and how they might mirror what they see of humanity.
It made me think of the story I wrote on that topic, and how I hope that humanity does more good than not. I’ve re-posted before but I like the story, so here it is again. Click through for the full piece.
You and Yours
I came from the stars to meet you. I was happy. Excited, even. First contact with your verdant world. Think of all that we could share with you.
“You” could have meant a lot of things. I started with one of the most populous. An insect.
I remember little of what it was like, a flash of light, a warm wriggle in a puddle after rain. The feel of wind in my wings.
It’s embarrassing to say this now, but I was promptly eaten.
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You Know What Day It Is!
Posted in Likes, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, #Maythe4thBeWithYou, inspiration, Star Wars Day, Thoughts on May 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »
May the Force be with you, today and every day.
“That’s how we’re gonna win.
Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.
— Rose, The Last Jedi
And because I can’t help myself:
What do you call a pirate droid?
Arr-2 D2.
Heehee!
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Happy Earth Day, Earthlings!
Posted in Holidays, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, #EarthDay, collective action, good people doing good things, inspiration, nature, progress, Thoughts on April 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Today is Earth Day. If you were born before 1965 or so, you probably remember a time when there was no such thing. It was a time of smoky bars, trash littering the roadsides, choking smog, and Superfund sites masquerading as playgrounds, among other things. Rivers regularly caught on fire.
The Cuyahoga River Caught Fire at Least a Dozen Times, but No One Cared Until 1969
“The river was a scary little thing,” Donovan says. “There was a general rule that if you fell in, God forbid, you would go immediately to the hospital.”
And then publicity turned what was just the latest in a long line of “oops, the water’s on fire” stories into the seed of a new movement. The first Earth Day took place in 1970. The Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970. The idea that maybe we didn’t have to live in a toxic stew of pollution and dangerous chemicals slowly began to take hold. Crazy, I know!
Are there still plenty of places we could improve? Of course. But we’ve come a long way, and our successes are proof that we can take the next step, and the next.
Today, and every day.
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Countervailing Beauty
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, beauty, inspiration, nature, Thoughts on April 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Mondays* are not great. (Gross exaggeration, but it feels true. Especially on a Monday.) So here’s a dose of beauty to help balance out the blah.
Recent images of people enjoying themselves on warm spring days, among groves of flowering cherry-blossom trees in cities and parks across the Northern Hemisphere
Even Darth Vader made an appearance!
* Or whichever day marks the start of your work week.
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Be Tenacious
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, creativity, doing stuff, inspiration, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on April 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity.” — Amelia Earhart
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Welcome Home, Explorers!
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, Artemis, inspiration, NASA, space exploration on April 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Road Trip!
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, inspiration, moon stuff, NASA, science, space on April 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »
A quick update from the solar system’s coolest road trip: the Artemis II mission just set a new distance record, going farther into space than the Apollo 13 astronauts did in 1970.
Artemis II astronauts share their first images from the historic mission | CNN
“There was a moment about an hour ago where Mission Control Houston reoriented our spacecraft as the sun was setting behind the Earth. And I don’t know what we all expected to see at that moment, but you could see the entire globe, from pole to pole. You could see Africa, Europe, and if you looked really close, you could see the northern lights. It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks.” — mission commander Reid Wiseman
Check out NASA’s Artemis II image repository on Flickr for more shots from space.
What else are our friendly neighborhood explorers up to? Oh, you know, today they’re just doing a quick flyby of the Moon!
How cool is that?
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