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Posts Tagged ‘Thoughts’

Yay, F1 is back after its war-related hiatus. Weather depending, of course. Maybe you follow the races, maybe you don’t, but I hope that whatever you are doing today, you are able to have some fun.

See you tomorrow!

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I have half a dozen books checked out from the library and I’m pretty sure I single-handedly inspired a reduction in hold limits, but that’s okay. “To be read” is not just an aspiration, it’s a way of life. And while I’m very much a library person, this quote speaks to me:

“Think not of the books you’ve bought as a ‘to be read’ pile. Instead, think of your bookcase as a wine cellar. You collect books to be read at the right time, the right place, and the right mood.” ― Luc van Donkersgoed

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I’m reading the headlines, watching holes being punched in democracy, and I don’t like it.

At the same time, my father is sending nature notes from the beach.

/headline

Pigeons, house finches

/headline

Black-backed gulls

The headlines are important. 

/headline

Willets

The headlines mark a world changing in ways that will hurt the people and things I care about. That’s… not great.

/headline

Sanderlings

/headline

Osprey

But there is more to the world than just headlines.

Pelicans, herring gulls, terns, mockingbird, starlings, boat-tailed grackles, house sparrows, swallows, dolphins.

Laughing gulls!

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I think I need to start getting up earlier so I have time to do everything on my list. But I didn’t and I don’t, so today, another quote and a pretty picture!

Picasso created more than 50,000 works of art.

How many are considered masterpieces that we still admire today?

About a 100.

Less than 1% of his creations are still relevant.

Stop trying to be perfect.

It’s a numbers game.

Start creating.

Be courageous enough to share.

— Ryan Stephens

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If you’ve seen it before, don’t do it again. — Shonda Rhimes

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“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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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.

Kaiju Agonistes

[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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“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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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?

National Library Week | ALA

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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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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