Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, inspiration, Thoughts on March 12, 2025| 2 Comments »
A great warhorse comes upon a tiny sparrow lying on its back with its feet in the air, eyes squinched tightly shut. The horse asks what it’s doing.
“I’m trying to help hold back the darkness,” replied the sparrow.
The horse roars with laughter. “That’s pathetic. What do you weigh, about an ounce?”
And the sparrow replies, “Well, one does what one can.”
— fable, recounted by Anne Lamott
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Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, history, infectious disease 101, memories, public health, Thoughts on March 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Measles Is One Of The Most Contagious Diseases On Earth
Measles infection can result in severe and sometimes permanent complications including pneumonia, lung damage, brain damage, and death.
But unlike some infectious diseases, measles has a safe, effective vaccine that can protect us from infection.
We, the general public, can control measles outbreaks.
… [this bit’s for the grandparental units out there; stay healthy, folks!]
The first live measles virus vaccines—which are more effective—were available in 1969.
So anyone born between 1957–1968 may not have sufficient antibodies to avoid infection. Consult your doctor about immunization.
Many of our parents, grandparents, and other waybacks lived through a lot of difficult things: two world wars, the Great Depression, Spanish Influenza, polio, smallpox, or life before basic standards of health and safety, for example. (Coincidentally, today is also the anniversary of the declaration of the Covid pandemic. Because history may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.)
If you’re fortunate enough to still have relatives who lived through those times, consider asking them what it was like, and who they lost.
You might hear some interesting stories.
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, AI, creativity, technology, Thoughts on March 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »
One thing that often happens when writers talk about writing is a discussion of the creative voice. Separate from the critical voice, the creative voice has been described as “a two-year old who just wants to play.”* It is key to writing.
Problems occur when that urge to play is shut down by the critical voice. That is the side of your mind that is trying to keep your child self from running out into the street without looking both ways, from getting baked** in public, from forgetting your homework, or otherwise making mistakes.
The critical voice is very little help when it comes to getting words on the page. It is pretty good, however, at keeping you from being run over and/or caught making up cases in legal filings. Just, you know, for example.
Bad ChatGPT, bad!
It occurs to me that in some ways, AI is that two-year old running around, trying to give you answers without thinking too hard about whether or not they are the right answers.
It needs a parental figure.
Am I thinking of a caretaker program that follows the AI around like a nanny, keeping it from sticking its finger in a light socket and cleaning up after it?
Yes, yes I am. (Fun story idea idea, too, my inner two-year old must be on the job.)
And hey, we’re already teaching AI mindfulness, why not this?
* I’m sure lots of people have said some version of this but I’m thinking specifically of Dean Wesley Smith.
** I meant to type “naked” but this works too.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, haiku, poem, Thoughts on March 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Embrace the world’s gems
but know, of all that you see,
your light shines brightest.
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Posted in Holidays, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, a better world, feminism, gender-equality, Thoughts, women on March 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Happy International Women’s Day, all!
March 8 is International Women’s Day (IWD). It’s a global day to recognize and celebrate women’s and girls’ social, economic, cultural, and political achievements. It’s also a time to highlight the progress made in advancing women’s rights and the ongoing efforts needed to ensure their full participation in all aspects of society.
Yes, there are still a lot of challenges for women around the world, but we haven’t been standing still. Mr Man flipped on the TV this morning and landed on a channel playing 80s movies. There’s nothing like seeing women being portrayed as grabbable arm candy in leg warmers (not to mention casual racial slurs and stereotypes) to remind you how far society has come.
Now, Mr Man also started a recent video game that seemed to have been written by an AI trained on misogynistic curse-laden troll chum, so there’s that. And yet!
40 Basic Rights Women Did Not Have Until The 1970s
Although you might be familiar with the fact that women had to fight for their rights, you probably don’t realize how many basic things females were denied.
Read it and weep… with joy, because at least we’re not dealing with these particular issues anymore.
Change also benefits men as well as women. Because no one likes to be pigeonholed, amirite?
Is there still more to do? Absolutely. Equal pay for equal work is still a work in progress, some rights are being reversed, and Barbie was a hit for a reason.
As we continue through Women’s History Month, I’ll leave you with this article on inspiring women:
Portraits of women who ‘shine a light’: from an ‘analog’ astronaut to a watermelon farmer
So write your own story, draw your own path, make your mark. Because bright lights make the whole world shine.
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, goals, inspiration, Thoughts, values on March 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
— Michelangelo
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on March 4, 2025| 1 Comment »
The good news is that I’m writing. The less good news is that I am not writing as much as I might want, but hey, that’s pretty much a requirement for the position of “Writer.”
In 1974, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis published a paper titled “The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of a Case of ‘Writer’s Block.'” It contained a total of zero words.
— Mental Floss
I remain optimistic. Time to spend more time in the writing chair!
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, inspiration, living, Thoughts on March 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“The whole point is to live life and be—to use all the colors in the crayon box.”
— RuPaul
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, quotes, Thoughts on March 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
— Charles Dickens
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, ideas, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on March 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.
— Eleanor Roosevelt
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