“Joy is what made our species survive in the first place. If we’re rewarded, reinforced by it, then we continue doing it. We spill over. We become contagious. We get others on board.” — Jiaying Zhao
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Posts Tagged ‘Thoughts’
Spill Over
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, community, creativity, Thoughts on April 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »
A Great Strange Monster
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, free fiction, Hugos, short stories, Thoughts, to be read, Uncanny Magazine, Writers on April 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Fair warning, I’m about to recommend a story I have not yet read. Why? Because it’s a finalist for the Hugo Awards. Because it’s by Scott Lynch, author of The Lies of Locke Lamora and many more excellent works. And because it has a great title.
[Time Reference Unavailable]—August, 1946
The watchseed is planted in a watery hemisphere of a watery world. The place spins around a yellow star, wearing its magnetic field like a proud little hat. It’s ridiculous with life.
Hence, a watchseed, with the best of intentions. Let’s give the seed-planters that much. They mean well. Crawling from star to star at not-quite-c, they make their surveys, consult their charts, launch a seed now and then. Old thinkers, they make an endless circuit of the galaxy on behalf of young thinkers. Young thinkers are rare and precious and must be protected, particularly from themselves, because young thinkers are stupid as hell and prone to misadventures with anything they can dig out of their planetary crusts. Hydrocarbons, radioactives, anything.
This planet is rich in ingredients for misadventure.
A terrific opener. Also, it’s free at Uncanny Magazine, one of the best venues for short fiction out there today.
So yes, I expect this story to be a fun read. Perhaps you’d like it too?
Note from the future: I was right, the story was a great read!
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That Felt Sense
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, AI, creativity, editing, Thoughts, Writers, writing on April 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“A good editor brings accumulated taste, emotional response, and a felt sense of what’s working — and that felt sense is genuinely different from the pattern recognition that I do.” — Claude AI, as quoted by Tony Schwartz, when asked why the AI’s editorial feedback was not as useful as a human editor’s (and why the AI spent so much time straight up sucking up to the author in ways that were not only unhelpful but actively counterproductive)
Just one more reason why having a body is a good thing. To me, a well-written story feels like standing in a stream where all the water is flowing in the right direction.
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All Hail Libraries!
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, children, community building, growth, public libraries, Thoughts, Writers, writing on April 24, 2026| 5 Comments »
It is National Library Week in the US, and what better opportunity to take a moment to appreciate the joy and wonder that is the modern library system?
However you use your library, there’s joy waiting for you there.
Bored? Library. Curious? Library. Broke? Library. Rich? (Donate to the) library. Interested in the past? Library. Worried about the future? Library. Need to do your taxes? Library. Want to learn a new language? Library. Want to build a better community? Library!
“Congratulations on the new library, because it isn’t just a library. It is a space ship that will take you to the farthest reaches of the Universe, a time machine that will take you to the far past and the far future, a teacher that knows more than any human being, a friend that will amuse you and console you — and most of all, a gateway, to a better and happier and more useful life.” ― Isaac Asimov
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Yes! The Violets Are A-Blooming
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, flowers, nature, poetry, Spring, Thoughts on April 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The violets, along the river, are opening their blue faces, like
small dark lanterns.
The green mosses, being so many, are as good as brawny.
How important it is to walk along, not in haste but slowly,
looking at everything and calling out
Yes! No!
— Mary Oliver, from the poem “Yes! No!”
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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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In A Drop
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, Thoughts on April 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” — Rumi
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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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Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, astronomy, look up!, NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day, science, Thoughts on April 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »
NASA reminded me that we have a new, if transitory, neighbor in the skies overhead. The comet PanSTARRS is making a quick visit and tonight is the closest it will come to the sun.
APOD- 2026 April 18 – PanSTARRS and Planets
This is a good weekend for northern hemisphere comet watchers to try to catch PanSTARRS an hour or so before sunrise, as the comet grows brighter approaching its perihelion on April 19. On April 26 the comet makes its closest approach to our fair planet but by then will be difficult to see in the solar glare. Good views of this comet PanSTARRS in late April and early May will be from the southern hemisphere.
If your skies are clear and dark, check it out!
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Just a Thought
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, creativity, Thoughts on April 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.” — Bertrand Russell
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