Thoughts | J.R. Johnson

If you are watching the LA fires as I am, you may be moved to help. There are a lot of options, but it’s hard to go wrong with cash for food and shelter.

World Central Kitchen is my go-to charity for disaster relief, plus there’s the Red Cross and other organizations helping on the ground right now. Here’s a New York Times article with links to charities, other information, how not to get scammed, etc.

How to Help Victims of the Fires in Los Angeles

Raging fires have left five people dead, destroyed or damaged thousands of homes and other buildings and consumed thousands of acres. Here’s how you can help…

* * *

Read Full Post »

One Step

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #noresolutions, just life, Thoughts on January 10, 2025| 1 Comment »

I recently heard that the second Friday of January is the day for broken resolutions (colloquially known by the uninspiring name of Quitter’s Day). This year, that day is January 10th.

Oh wait, you may be thinking, that’s today.

Indeed.

If you signed up for a gym membership, started a diet, or otherwise laid out an optimistic Plan for a Future New You™, you might be losing steam about now.

No worries, it happens. I’m here to say that even if you slept through your “definitely getting up an hour early and going to the gym” alarm, that’s okay.

What matters is not whether you are holding fast to the letter of whatever law you set for yourself, but how you think about the type of person you want to be this year.

I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions but I do appreciate the chance to take stock of where I am and what I’m doing (or not).

A personal example: Am I writing as much as I’d like? No, but I’m working on it, and starting a new year gives me a chance to step back, reassess my current approach and think of ways to improve.

So whether you went to the gym today or not, wrote or not, checked off your resolutions or not, imagine what you want your life to be like. At the end of the day, the month, the year, what do I want to have done?

Today, take one step in that direction. Then take another. If those steps take you to the gym, great. If they keep going to some new and better vista, even better. Just keep moving, one step, then the next.

Your life is waiting for you.

“A good beginning makes a good end.”

— Louis L’Amour

* * *

*Photo by Javier Santos Guzmán on Unsplash*

Read Full Post »

The Power of Imagination

Posted in Entertainment, Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #ChooseYourFuture, #wotf39, LA fires, risk management, Thoughts on January 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I write science fiction, but I don’t always like living in the future.

Consider the fact that a century ago, many of the innovations we find commonplace were the stuff of dreams.

I do love advances in things like clean air and water, energy, infant mortality, waterproof shoes, effective moisturizers, trash collection, the postal service, public libraries and so much more.

The sci-fi-level post-apocalyptic wildfire situation currently playing out in Southern California? That, I could do without.

I’m not a Californian but I am an American, a North American, and a human being. Extreme weather events also aren’t uncommon anymore. That, plus the fact that one of the fires surrounding Los Angeles is less than two kilometers from the hotel we stayed in for the Writers of the Future workshop helps make these events even more concrete.

I feel for the people in the fire’s path today, and for the risks we all face tomorrow.

It’s also easy to imagine bad outcomes when we see them in the news. It can be harder to remember the good already incorporated into our lives, and what could be waiting for us up ahead.

* * *

The other night, Mr Man and I realized that we’d never seen Bullitt, Steve McQueen’s 1968 classic movie. It was a well-told story but also a trip down memory lane. I spent a good part of the show saying things like “Oh right, you could smoke most everywhere back then” and “Hang on, that’s how they used to track your pulse?” or “Looks like seatbelts were optional” and “So much of this plot revolves around the fact that you had to stop to find a phone” and “Lord, that is a lot of smoke coming out the back of those giant gas guzzlers.”

The movie’s world was certainly recognizable, but in the way your grade school classroom might be, years later.

Things change, much as it doesn’t always feel like it.

Let’s try to make it change for the better.

* * *

Read Full Post »

Tips from The North

Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, #ShovelSafely, Thoughts, winter on January 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I’m sad to say that my part of Canada is a little short on snow at the moment, but that isn’t true for many parts of North America.

If you happen to live in one of the regions recently hit with unusual amounts of snow, and you find yourself wondering how to tackle it without needing physical therapy after, you may find these tips useful!

Stuck shoveling snow? Tips to safely shovel snow and walk on ice

* * *

Read Full Post »

Mostly Books

Posted in Holidays, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #365Ways2025, books, chilling, reading, Thoughts on January 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Today is the last day before the day job resumes. I shall spend it wisely, with food, chill, and books. Mostly books.

“Sections in the bookstore

Books You Haven’t Read

Books You Needn’t Read

Books Made for Purposes Other Than Reading

Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong to the Category of Books Read Before Being Written

Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered

Books You Mean to Read But There Are Others You Must Read First

Books Too Expensive Now and You’ll Wait ‘Til They’re Remaindered

Books ditto When They Come Out in Paperback

Books You Can Borrow from Somebody

Books That Everybody’s Read So It’s As If You Had Read Them, Too

Books You’ve Been Planning to Read for Ages

Books You’ve Been Hunting for Years Without Success

Books Dealing with Something You’re Working on at the Moment

Books You Want to Own So They’ll Be Handy Just in Case

Books You Could Put Aside Maybe to Read This Summer

Books You Need to Go with Other Books on Your Shelves

Books That Fill You with Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified

Books Read Long Ago Which It’s Now Time to Re-read

Books You’ve Always Pretended to Have Read and Now It’s Time to Sit Down and Really Read Them”
― Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

* * *

Read Full Post »

Follow Your Own Tune

Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, creativity, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“Oh God, the terrible tyranny of the majority. We all have our harps to play. And it’s up to you to know with which ear you’ll listen.”

― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

* * *