So... when's the last time you went dancing in the middle of a grocery store? 😅

#Navidad #Colombia #AnyExcuse

(The band is supported by a local rum company, which hosts lots of these events to boost sales - lest anyone think this is perfectly seasonal altruism at play.)

Two classes this fine morning, then two paid pieces and two volunteer tasks to finish before evening classes.

And maybe time for a post between them?

Only if I hustle!

Happy Tuesday, all. 💫

Not exactly why I can't sleep, but an oldie and a goodie. #CoSoNightShift

If you need a wholesome little corner of the internet, may I recommend reddit's r/whatismycookiecutter? It's where people try to figure out what your cookie cutter is supposed to design - and sometimes fill in very silly guesses when the shape is just bonkers.

Otherwise, what are you using as an eyewash station online these days?

And... we're at the part of the "working in public" day where some jag-off switching between softcore porn and reggaeton music videos (sometimes a thin line!) on his cell without headphones is disrupting my ability to concentrate.

Enough peopling for today, methinks. Time to make like this #Spider and disappear completely, leaving absolutely no trace behind for anyone trying to find me. 🙃

(Mejor dicho: to go home and try to finish this last task before evening class. 🤞🏻)

All right, folks!

Here's today's review of COP28's opening days.

There's some contextualizing of the Sultan's recent remarks within a long history of such conferences walking on eggshells because they've been overrun by Big Oil.

Also? You get a taste of how Colombia's president both advances great reforms and also can't help but put his foot in it when speaking about them.

How can we ever tackle the #ClimateCrisis when we can't even say the words we need to at COP28?

https://onlysky.media/mclark/cop28-has-an-f-word-problem/

🧐 Now the important part: getting them out of my apartment before I eat them.

(Piece submitted! A very cranky COP28 news brief for you soon. 🙃 Trust me, I'd send you cookies instead if I could.)

Cooooookies! 😋

#TheReasonForTheSeason
#AnySeasonReally
#CoSoBakes

Hot dog! 🎉

New paid subscriber today. I can never believe my eyes when it's someone I don't know.

A random person?
Reading my work just because?
And supporting it?

What is this witchcraft?

Then again, I'm also surprised when people I know read & support my work - WHY? But in those cases, I just assume I'm the human form of Toxoplasma gondii: I've gotten into your heads from proximity, like a parasite from cats, so it's really not your fault you've been suckered in.

#ImposterSyndromeForLife!

😅 Some days, when you review your writing, you find yourself quoting the classics to yourself.

Oh well. Patreon will be postponed a day (until I'm satisfied with the attached chapter, to be revisited after news work for tomorrow morning). For now I'm off for a walk to clear my hypercritical brain before sending off the first half of the novel to my beta reader.

I really have to get more efficient at all of this. Full MS should be out at year's end, to clear my slate for 2024. 🤞🏻

#DoBetterBrain

Woo!

Back on my old laptop. 💪

The only snails from here on out are the ones I choose to add to my daily workflow.

Like so--

1) Malaysian Fire Snail (best left in the wild; far too often pet-farmed)
2) Giant African Snail (the CHONK)
3) Orange Sulawesi Rabbit Snails (not to be mistaken for sea hares! 🌊🐰)
4) Red-Lined Bubble Snail (NOT a candy!)

1-4) All cutie patooties on one long fo-tooties.

And WAY cooler than all the "snails" I was dealing with these past two weeks. 🎉

#AmWriting #Nature

Okay, a "lighter" newsletter today--framed around Slow Horses, and discussing the challenge of living in a world where we can't always cut ourselves off from the people who do harm: in our neighbourhoods, online, and in our ethno-national demographics.

Commercial activism is important, but we also need the maturity to recognize that sometimes we *can't* as easily boycott and walk away.

How do we pursue societal healing in the spaces we're stuck with, as well?

#Humanism
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/on-slow-horses-and-long-recovery

Coffee? ☕️🙃

I don't usually wake up and immediately leap to swearing at my screen, but when I do, it's probably because the first headline of the day is a reminder that our world is in the hands of self-serving buffoons.

But good morning to everyone *not* trying to make this planet a hellscape for the next generation! 🤗 I'm sorry your efforts won't mean eff all if the big players don't change direction soon.

🙂 I am *very* much Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia. When everyone's trying to deny a situation going south, I'm in depressive agony. When the cat's out of the bag and everyone knows how awful this sh[aving cream] is? That's my time to shine.

(Though don't expect shots of me bathing in the light of a ruinous planet! 😅 The only "nudes" I share are nudibranchs, TYVM. They're way more interesting anyway.)

2024 is going to be a challenge.
But I am not giving up.

Thanks for staying in the fight too. 🫂

Live footage of me sneaking out for 1.5 hours of novel time before evening class prep and newsletter drafting. #AmWriting

#Well
#ImAlwaysWriting #ButThisTimeItsPersonal!

🤦 I was today years old when I realized that "ponqué" is a Spanish bastardization of "pound cake", the same way that "rompoy" is "roundpoint"/roundabout.

Sometimes you can see a word a million times before its origins just hit you, you know? Like when I was a kid, and first realized that breakfast literally means the meal that breaks your (nightly) fast.

Mind blown. 😅

#LanguageIsFun

Woo! I woke up thinking I hadn't met a project quota for November, panicking and wondering if I could haggle to have it extended for a day... but no, I'd made my project quota with room to spare. 🙃 Of course I did.

So that's a nice relief. Now I can tackle other writing between classes, while waiting on word about the laptop across town.

Coffee & teaching time. Happy Friday!

You know you're getting fed up with the laziness of legacy media (with science, with medicine, with war events where the rush to press can and does cause harm...) when you look at a simple, cute article about penguins...

And immediately argue with it, because - hey! It's also possible they're living a tortured existence! You don't know, Phoebe! You didn't run tests to exclude the possibility!

(Cue Herzog's classic quote about how all of nature is crying out in pain...)

Okay, off for a walk. 🙃

Okay, pals.

As mentioned, today I have a deep dive--and oh the rabbit holes I ran down for research! (It's dangerous to let a lit scholar loose on the canon.)

Human rights and notions of crimes against humanity, especially in fields of combat, were only recently codified well. Most of our history has been spent hashing out raw entitlements to sovereign power. We've barely scratched the surface on what we owe each other.

Can we ever build a truly humanitarian world now?
https://onlysky.media/mclark/no-monsters-no-monarchs-only-humans/