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Posts Tagged ‘Thoughts’
You Can Do Anything! *
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, art, creativity, inspiration, itch reflex, NASA, persistence, the world-changing powers of caffeine, Thoughts, Writers, writing on September 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Delightfully Humbling
Posted in Holidays, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, inspiration, museums, ottawa, Thoughts on August 31, 2024| 1 Comment »
The Canadian Museum of Nature is situated in Ottawa’s Victoria Memorial Museum Building, a giant stone edifice built over a hundred years ago. Its mosaic tile floors, carved wooden bannisters and stained glass windows provide a lovely backdrop for exhibits old and new.
Can’t go in person? Here’s a brief video tour:
We started at the top, in a temporary exhibit on insects. Some icky, yes, but the longevity, creativity and adaptability of that class of creatures is fascinating.
Next stop wolves, then the Arctic, then Earth, Mammals, Water, Birds and finally, Dinosaurs.
The fossils throughout were impressive. Giant whale? Check. A complete Daspletosaurus torosus (a cousin of T. rex) skeleton? Check!
A bit of fun from a Museum palaeobiologist:
I also picked up a box of Canadian rocks to remember the beauty and complexity of the geology beneath our feet.
And in the floor of the Fossil Gallery, an embedded spiral* shows the extent of geological history as we know it, complete with a tiny section at the end for the Cenozoic era, age of mammals, with an even smaller epoch at the end featuring the rise of humanity.
* I should have taken a picture of this but did not, and can’t find a picture of it online. Here’s a different version to give you an idea.
This is why I love history in general, and museums in particular. On the one hand, a long-term perspective is very good at making one feel small, but on the other hand, there is real joy in knowing that you are a part of something so very big.
The experience was both humbling and delightful.
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Why Not Enjoy It?
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, first drafts, genre fiction, inspiration, quotes, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“This afternoon, burn down the house. Tomorrow, pour critical water upon the simmering coals. Time enough to think and cut and rewrite tomorrow. But today-explode-fly-apart-disintegrate! The other six or seven drafts are going to be pure torture. So why not enjoy the first draft, in the hope that your joy will seek and find others in the world who, by reading your story, will catch fire, too?”
— Ray Bradbury
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Crazy or Cool?
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 29, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I’m toying with an idea and I can’t decide if it’s crazy or cool. Here’s a peek inside my head:
“Hey self, maybe we should try something a little bonkers.”
“Why not? Sounds fun. What do you have in mind?”
“What about writing a bunch of drabbles?”
“One-hundred word stories? We do that all the time, so sure.”
“What about writing a hundred drabbles?”
“A hundred? As in, One hundred? 100? Ten times ten? Roman numeral C?”
“Yep. Because numerical symmetry. One hundred hundred word stories.”
“I know you like challenging goals but that’s completely bonkers.”
“Yeah?”
“Absolutely. Also… pretty cool, actually. Hmm.”
So there you have it, my current writing target dilemma. A project like this would be a fun challenge but the real question is whether it would help my writing or distract me from larger projects.
What do you think, is this idea too much or not enough? Crazy? Cool? Bit of both?
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Calling All Medical Device Designers (Or Kids with Apps, Whatever Works!)
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, invention, Thoughts on August 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Surely, surely, there must be a better way to mammogram.
Imagine, if you will, a world in which we have all of the current tools and science we have now, but no system to create detailed imagery of mammary tissue. There is an obvious need for such a thing, but how would you do it?
Would you create the medical equivalent of a panini press? I bet you would not!
Seriously, though, it’s like the Dark Ages. We can do better.
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Reaching Out
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Thoughts on August 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“We need to remember that we’ve all got our blind spots and contradictions and prejudices; and that if we want to win over those who aren’t yet ready to support our candidate, we need to listen to their concerns – and maybe learn something in the process.”
— Barack Obama
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Onward, My Friends!
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely essential.”
― Jessamyn West
You’ve got this.
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Cuddle Time
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“There is no way around hard work. Embrace it.”
— Roger Federer
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The Last Days of Summer
Posted in Holidays, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on August 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »
A quick programming note: Mr Man and I have a little time off and we’re hoping to have some fun and be a bit spontaneous with our scheduling. In service of that goal, it’s time for a short series of posts featuring quotes! And pretty pictures!
“What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?”
― Ralph Ellison
No matter where you are or what you do, I hope you can take a moment to enjoy these last days of summer.
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Thinking Odd Writer Thoughts, or What’s Wrong with the Classics?
Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, science, Thoughts on August 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Here’s an interesting puzzle: How Do You Send a Warning 1,000 Years into the Future? – Now I Know
Think back to what the Earth was like a thousand years ago — the year 1,015. Almost everything would be foreign to modern eyes and ears — even the language would be incomprehensible. For all intents and purposes, humanity from a millennium ago may as well be an alien species (culturally, at least) with similar DNA, which simply happens to have lived on the same planet we do now.
How do we communicate with people so far removed from our own language, culture, and assumptions? It’s a great question, whether you’re thinking about the safest approach to nuclear waste disposal or contacting aliens.
In order to keep the people of the future safe from the radioactive goop created today, we need a way to tell them to watch out. And more likely than not, very few aspects of today’s society will be around to do that. Even a sign warning travelers of potential dangers would be insufficient — who among us could translate runes from the Middle Ages?
(My mom, that’s who, but point taken.)
What particularly interests me about these proposed solutions (an Atomic Priesthood dedicated to perpetuating knowledge through myth? color-changing cats?!) is that they seem to have skipped over the most obvious approach. How to conjure the fear of death, to warn people away, and to alert the future not to what is there, but what will happen if it is disturbed?*
This is a plague panel from the early 17th century. If you saw this on a house, would you go in or turn and run the other way?
In the end, the U.S. Department of Energy plan opted to go with warning signs in multiple languages illustrated with images of people in pain. Still, I wondered, what’s wrong with the classics?
Another odd writer thought, brought to you by an odd writer.
* Also, the real problem seems to be the gap between exposure and untimely demise. If you break into a tomb and die immediately, that sends a pretty strong message. And no one has to tell people not to build on an active lava flow, but a peaceful-looking mountain with fertile soil close to the bustling port of Naples and the dynamic town of Pompeii (circa 78 AD)? What’s not to like?
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