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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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, adulting, confession time, poetry, that was hard, Thoughts on May 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I have a confession to make. I recently found myself in a position I never expected: burning books.
The experience was disturbing at a gut level, at least to me. But it made sense. And we didn’t burn everything.
Allow me to explain.
We were in the process of cleaning out a house and needed to sort through decades worth of material. There were a lot of interesting memories involved, woven across continents and generations.
There was a lot of random stuff too.
In this case, the “random stuff” included a lot of dictionaries.
Out of date dictionaries, falling apart dictionaries, duplicate dictionaries, dictionaries that would be picture perfect examples of what organizations mean when they put up notes that say, “Thank you for your donation. No dictionaries, please.”
So we were stuck. If we tried to donate to a library or second-hand store, the books would be sent straight into a landfill. (I get the appeal of pretending that they would be shipped to a nice farm upstate, but there was no happy ending, and foisting a problem off on someone else doesn’t mean it’s not still a problem. It was still hard, though!)
We were warned. Fair enough.
So instead, we decided to be warmed (heh).
The house had a wood stove. It felt wrong but there we were, burning what was once of value but was now at best trash.
Sad, yes. But as we learned in the Day After Tomorrow, there are books, and then there are whole shelves on tax law (for example).
And we didn’t burn everything.
There were many other books, interesting journals, photos and letters and keepsakes that still spoke to both the past and the future.
Like a poem from French Surrealist Paul Éluard, which was published during World War Two and became a hymn to freedom.
“Liberté… J’écris ton nom”: Eluard’s poem and the Cambridge UL Liberation collection
Translated, it begins:
On my school notebooks,
on my desk and the trees,
on the sand on the snow,
I write your name
On every page I’ve read,
on every blank page
Stone blood paper or ash
I write your name.
The poem was published outside of Vichy-controlled France to evade censorship. British pilots dropped copies into occupied territory to encourage the Resistance. And we found a copy that had been transported from (we’re guessing) a charming museum shop in France to a quiet corner of Canada decades after the war, its pages still bright with color and intensity.
Reminding us what was lost, and what was won.
A lot falls by the wayside of life. Receipts, old bills, dictionaries. I have a history degree and I haven’t met a bit of ephemera that doesn’t interest me, but I also believe that we shouldn’t keep everything.
Life is short. I don’t want the past to bury me before my time.
Still, the dictionary dilemma was an unusual case. Not everything should be returned to the fire.
My typical solution? When dealing with items I no longer want that still hold memories I’d rather not lose, I take photographs. Then I can pass those items on without losing the stories that made them precious.
Choosing what to keep and what to remember is an art in itself, a way of curating what we value in order to make our lives, and our futures, better.
When it’s your turn to decide, what would you sacrifice? And what will you save?
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, creativity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on May 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »
There’s always a dream within a dream within a dream. — Dolly Parton
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, art, creativity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on May 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“Your fans, the ones that exist and the ones you have yet to make, will appreciate that what they get from you is from you. That’s what people mostly want from art: Entertainment and connection. You will always be able to do that better than ‘Al.’” — John Scalzi
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, creativity, Thoughts on May 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. — Pablo Picasso (attr.)
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, art, creativity, rules, Thoughts, Writers, writing on May 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »
It’s understandable that a lot of beginners at any art want rules for how to do it. But there comes a time when one has to make one’s own choices about how one’s art is structured, how it’s executed, what you want it to do. There is no rulebook that will help you with that, you just have to step up and decide. That’s scary! But there’s no getting around it. — Ann Leckie
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, Thoughts, to do and not to do on May 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »
“The fundamental misunderstanding of humanity is believing that we can achieve all our desires without limitation.” — Momofuku Ando
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, creativity, lists, Thoughts on May 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I have decided that it is time for me to go to finishing school. Not the kind that includes (I assume) lessons in how to curtsy, choose wine for a meal, or keep feuding families from disrupting a wedding.
The kind that helps me tackle the unfinished projects that have been piling up around me.
Perhaps you have this issue too? Fortunately, there is very real joy in crossing things off a list and I intend to dive right in.
I’ll be tackling some writing, some baking, and a bit of art, as well as some house and life maintenance.
And who knows, I might even learn how to curtsy.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, #GettingThingsDone, action, creativity, Thoughts on May 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Don’t overthink it, do something, and repeat. — Arnold Schwarzenegger
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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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