Now this is exactly what I need on a Monday. How John Green Fights Despair Every Day | The Interview - YouTube I mean the problem with hope is that it feels like a very easy word. You know, it feels like very convenient and sort of kumbaya. But I'm interested in the kind of hope that holds up to scrutiny.

"Young people will have the seeds you bury in their minds, and when they grow up they will change the world.” — Jack Ma * * * Photo by Joseph Gonzalez on Unsplash

Today, a free fiction short from Colby Devitt and the Grist Climate collection: The Case of the Missing Lake On the morning of April 8, 2200, Lake Ballona went missing. A pair of hikers ventured down from the Hollywood Hills on a day excursion into the Tongva Wetlands. Where the area’s largest body of freshwater met seawater to create a brackish habitat, they discovered an empty crater.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate today! Even if this isn’t your holiday, I hope you have a moment to remember the good things in your life. The Right Attitude to Gratitude - The Atlantic Gratitude is so effective that if you could bottle it, you’d be a billionaire. But as with so many beautiful parts of life, gratitude is not something you can market like a drug or nutritional supplement: It happens to be completely free—but not so easy to attain.

Today is officially a crazy day. By that I mean a mad scramble to get day job work done, including the projects I expected and the three others I did not expect. Lots to juggle, and while I may have bobbled one tiny little thing, it all worked out fine in the end. I also managed to get up early and write a very (very) short story before all the craziness began, so I'm calling it a win! * * * Photo by Duygu Güngör on Unsplash

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, and more complex. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” ― E.F. Schumacher * * * Photo by weston m on Unsplash

“A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.” — George R.R. Martin * * * Photo by Frontiersman on Unsplash

Today, an addition to my recipe collection so I know where to find this next time I need a light, perfectly sweet, flavorful chocolate frosting. This is my new go-to frosting recipe.  Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting - Sally's Baking 339g (12 oz.) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened 170g (12 Tbsp; 3/4 C.) butter, softened 420g (3 1/2 C.) confectioners’ sugar…

For whatever reason, today I’m walking around seeing everything as component parts. For example: instead of seeing the comfy red chair in my office, I’m seeing that chair (so comfy!) with all of the materials that went into it lined up in a row. The tree that provided the wooden legs, the cotton growing in a field before being harvested, carded, spun, dyed and woven, the metal ore that needed to be mined, processed and extruded to make the wire frame, the stuffing made of...

“It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he'll look for his own answers.” ― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear * * * Photo by Nick Owuor (astro.nic.portraits) on Unsplash

I have a thing about fog. Waking to a day where the view is swathed in white, neighbors fading into the background while rooftops peek above a hidden world. Sight is no longer quite as reliable. Sound is dampened, too. A car appears suddenly, and is then gone, the engine’s rumble muted and distant. Depending on the mood, the lack of visibility can be threatening, but I tend to see it as an embrace.

As a sometime knitter and pattern designer, I thought this story about a neural network learning to knit (or not!) both funny and telling. SkyKnit: How an AI Took Over an Adult Knitting Community Prodded by a knitter on the knitting forum Ravelry, Shane trained a type of neural network on a series of over 500 sets of knitting instructions. Then, she generated new instructions, which members of the Ravelry community have actually attempted to knit.

I wrote a drabble yesterday but decided not to share it. Why not? Because it’s dark and it’s sad. I like to keep things largely upbeat here, for my readers and for myself. That doesn’t mean I’m all unicorns and rainbows, obviously, but I want you to come away from this site feeling at least a little hopeful. I try to focus on the future, and I hope that it’s a good one.

“There are enough negative forces in this world—don’t let the pessimistic voice that lives inside you get away with that stuff, too. That voice is NOT a good roommate.”  ― Felicia Day * * * Photo by Joël Edouard on Unsplash

We Earthlings are in the middle of the Leonid meteor shower. It takes place this year from November 6th through the 30th, but will peak overnight tonight. Even better, the moon is only 9% full, so the only competition will be from human light sources.  Leonid meteor shower: All you need to know in 2025 The Leonid meteor shower is back!

“There is nothing like a dream to create the future.”  ― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables * * * Photo by Evgeni Tcherkasski on Unsplash

Wouldn’t it be nice if on your worst days, someone could remind you of who you are on your best days? How the people who love you see you, always. * * * Photo by Caroline Veronez on Unsplash

Happy Kindness Day! Not that you should limit kindness to just one day, but a little reminder can be useful. And knowing that people around you are more predisposed to be kind today? That’s a good thing, and it’s catching! If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it! Some hardhearted souls may even question whether small acts of kindness really matter.

"It was never the right time or it was always the right time, depending on how you looked at it.” — Ann Patchett, Bel Canto * * * Photo by Caleb Holden on Unsplash

We held two memorials this weekend, both opportunities to come together around happy memories and shared stories. It also got me thinking (in a positive way!) about what comes after—not in terms of heaven (or that other place) but how to live and the world you leave behind. Today is also Veterans Day in the US and Remembrance Day in Canada…

"To become the shadow to defeat the shadow only extends the shadow's reach and its reign. In one of the great ironies of our international moment, it appears that many of the people who've read "The Lord of the Rings" the most understand it the least. They perceive an emergency - a world in crisis - and grasp for the ring.

One thing I like about posting every day is that, in my mind at least, this process becomes less about perfection and more like a conversation. If I forget something, I can come back the next day and add it in. If I want to digress, it’s no big deal. And if I don't feel like writing anything very involved, I can give you a quote and a pretty picture but I still post something.

“The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have.” — Henry James * * * Photo by Hannah Olinger on Unsplash

When I hear a story like “crown jewels stolen in brazen theft,” my first thought tends to be “Now what?” (Ok, my first thought was, wait, France still has crown jewels? And then the other thing.) I have zero interest in actual theft, but you never know when this sort of information might come in handy for fiction. That’s where experts come in.

"The closest thing we can get to a crystal ball is history.” — Jennifer Lawrence * * * Photo by Nicole Avagliano on Unsplash