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Posts Tagged ‘Thoughts’

Things I Know for Sure

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on March 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

For today, I give you this highly-personalized, certainly particular list of #ThingsIKnowForSure:

  • Creativity is what’s important, not how or why or when you do it.
  • I eat less when I can taste more.
  • My garden deserves better.
  • Summer is a montage of awkwardly-placed mosquito bites. Still worth it.
  • The world needs a better brand of catnip.
  • Sometimes figuring things out is a matter of a good book and a long afternoon. If that doesn’t work, try a walk. Or a stiff drink.
  • That thing you don’t want to do is probably exactly what you should do (sorry!)
  • Sometimes a day just needs a thunderstorm.
  • Tonic and lemonade are good together. Also gin.
  • Some days there are just too many choices.
  • Touch ID hates me.
  • Sometimes you actually do need that ancient laptop you stashed in the closet.
  • A good book makes any day better.
  • I’m pretty much done letting other people define what’s “good” 🙂
  • Star Wars is the best movie ever (#1, now renamed #4 like a child whose parents changed their mind when she was ten years old. Who does that?)
  • Lord of the Rings is the best book ever. Even though I don’t read it every year (anymore), the effect it had on my life means that it will remain The Best Book Ever for always and ever and ever.
  • Kittens are hard to catch.

* * *

Can’t go wrong with a kitten, right?
Photo by Henda Watani on Pexels.com

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This Is How We Win

Posted in Holidays, Likes, tagged , , , , on May 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

 

Always.

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For You, With Love

Posted in Likes, tagged on April 24, 2020| Leave a Comment »

This is not OK, but it will be OK

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Finding Our Way

Posted in Other, tagged , , , , on April 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I’d like to say something inspirational, something supportive, something that will help you navigate the challenges we’re all facing these days. At the moment, though, I’m coming up a little short.

Instead, here’s an image that reminds me that even in the darkest times, our persistence, our knowledge, and our shared humanity will help us find a way forward.

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A Path North Image Credit & Copyright: Mario Konang Explanation: What happens if you keep going north? The direction north on the Earth, the place on your horizon below the northern spin pole of the Earth — around which other stars appear to slowly swirl, will remain the same. This spin-pole-of-the-north will never move from its fixed location on the sky — night or day — and its height will always match your latitude. The further north you go, the higher the north spin pole will appear. Eventually, if you can reach the Earth's North Pole, the stars will circle a point directly over your head. Pictured, a four-hour long stack of images shows stars trailing in circles around this north celestial pole. The bright star near the north celestial pole is Polaris, known as the North Star. The bright path was created by the astrophotographer's headlamp as he zigzagged up a hill just over a week ago in Lower Saxony, Germany. The astrophotographer can be seen, at times, in shadow. Actually, the Earth has two spin poles — and much the same would happen if you started below the Earth's equator and went south.

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Oh, This World

Posted in Other, tagged , , , , on March 18, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
— Abraham Lincoln

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Anticrepuscular Rays over Florida Image Credit & Copyright: Bryan Goff Explanation: What's happening behind those clouds? Although the scene may appear somehow supernatural, nothing more unusual is occurring than a Sun setting on the other side of the sky. Pictured here are anticrepuscular rays. To understand them, start by picturing common crepuscular rays that are seen any time that sunlight pours though scattered clouds. Now although sunlight indeed travels along straight lines, the projections of these lines onto the spherical sky are great circles. Therefore, the crepuscular rays from a setting (or rising) sun will appear to re-converge on the other side of the sky. At the anti-solar point 180 degrees around from the Sun, they are referred to as anticrepuscular rays. Featured here is a particularly striking display of anticrepuscular rays photographed in 2016 over Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida, USA.

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Stay Spotless, My Friends!

Posted in Likes, tagged , , , , , , on March 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »

tl;dr (even though it’s short short short!): Covid-19 a.k.a. The Coronavirus. Ugh. But we’ll get through this.

 

In service to the greater good, I am amplifying this genius little tool: Wash Your Lyrics.

Type in a song title and artist, come away with a custom hand-washing poster to make it easier to get through the whole… freaking… twenty!… seconds… worth of hand-washing the CDC and every other knowledgeable organization / official / healthcare professional / your mom says we all need right now. More details here, but it’s pretty straightforward.

Obviously, it’s been done before, but to get you started here’s a set of hand-washing instructions set to the world’s most obvious song choice (waiting to see stats on song selections, but I’m pretty sure I’m right):

 

Let me also take a moment to thank all the public servants, health care professionals and first responders working on the front lines. Stay safe, my friends!

 

 

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We, Not Me

Posted in Other, tagged , , , on October 17, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Canada has an election next week. Politics aside, the Conservative party slogan has been bugging me and now I know why.

Conservative party slogan
“It’s time for you to get ahead.”

Not “us.”

When I first came to Canada from the U.S. one of the things that stood out for me was a subtle but telling difference in language. Driving north, I saw a billboard that read “Let’s remember…” Let us, together, for the good of all. Once I noticed it, I saw that same framing in many other places as well.

I don’t see that as much in the States. I still love my first country but I’m not blind to its faults, either. There’s a lot more “Do this” followed by ”here’s how you’ll benefit,” sometimes accompanied by “or else.” Not “let’s come together to build a better world” but “look out for yourself.” The unstated follow-up is that no one else will. Not so here. No country is perfect, of course, but there’s a reason folks here can see a doctor or fill a prescription and not break the budget.

This tendency to work for the communal good is one of the many things I love about Canada, and one of the things that, regardless of political party, I hope we all remember.

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Asclepias tuberosa to the Rescue!

Posted in Likes, tagged , , , , , , , on August 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

It’s summer and I’m enjoying a bit of vacation time (yay!) and what do I spot on my new Asclepias tuberosa? A monarch butterfly caterpillar!

 

I’ve seen a monarch or two in the neighborhood this year but not many. (Not like during my childhood down south, when my mother used to pull the car over just about anywhere to find caterpillar-rich milkweed by the side of the road.) There’s a reason why these butterflies are listed as at endangered in Ontario:(

That said, awareness of the issues around butterflies and their disappearing habitat is rising, and it’s not all bad news. I’m happy to see milkweed left to grow by the roadside, to find native milkweed varietals at the garden center, and to watch butterflies flitting in the park. If we had more sun and space I’d plant a butterfly meadow, but for now, we went with butterfly weed. Glad we did:)

As an added bonus, I also saw fireflies in the yard a couple of weeks ago for the first time north of the border:) Here’s wishing you a happy and constructive summer!

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Happy Solstice!

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on June 21, 2019| Leave a Comment »

That’s right, today is the summer solstice. At 15:54 Universal Time (that’s 11:54 a.m. in my neck of the woods), summer officially starts in the northern hemisphere! For more on the analemma, or figure-eight described by the sun as it arcs across the sky (think the calendar Tom Hanks etched on a rock in Castaway, or check out this composite photo from NASA). And NatGeo has a nice, detailed piece on the solstice here: What is the summer solstice? The answer might surprise you.

What is summer? So many things, not least light, glorious light to do as you will. Or, you know, mess up bedtime;)

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

— Bed in Summer, Robert Louis Stevenson

Have a wonderful summer day!

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High Spirits

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Hooray, my space pirate draft is complete! At almost 18,000 words, it’s the longest “short” story I’ve written to date. Ok, fine, it’s a novella and I’m ok with that.

I’ll need to go back over it, check a few things, get a degree in orbital mechanics (not really) and answer that age-old question, “Do donuts stay fresh longer in space?” Inquiring minds want to know! In the meantime, the draft is on its way to beta readers.

I like it, hope they do too!

 

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

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