I know I said that the next newsletter would be a nice easy piece, but... well, I still had some world-grief to get out of my system.

This one talks about falling out of love with the world: what that looks like, how one moves through the world when all the stories we tell to keep going don't interest us anymore, and what begins to reawaken the meaning-creator in us all.

I know a lot of folks here have also been struggling with the weight of it all.

This one's for us.

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/falling-out-of-and-back-in-love-with

Morning with my fellow donkeys. Online, offline... all asses welcome. 👌

After classes tonight I'll be watching this cheerful gem. No, not the MST3K episode (one of the series' more contentious outings, because most consider Marooned / Space Travelers to be undeserving of mockery). Just the movie on its own merits, as a reminder that being stuck in the *right* company is everything.

Also: apparently Cuarón watched this dozens of times while making Gravity, so if it's as good as I've heard I'll have more reason to side-eye its high-budget inheritor. 😉 #CoSoFilms #SFF

#Crime #Trafficking #Exploitation

Just got a notice today confirming a rule in place for the last two weeks in Medellín: curfew on children and teens in certain tourist-laden areas where child sex trafficking has surged.

It's one of a few efforts to crack down on this scourge, so if you see news items about Medellín seeming scary to foreigners, just remember: folks here are Not Happy with foreigners dropping by to rape children. I hope they can catch the major network operators soon. 👍

Walkies. :) I usually don't at this hour, because I'm a vampire whose skin burns in minutes, but the UV's low because it's cloudy and looks like rain. ⛈️💙

Let's gooo! 😊

Because so many important news stories are teetering on the brink, I decided to write a different kind of "brief" today.

Here, we review a few difficult situations - in war, in climate change, in electoral politics - to come to the deeper danger in news cycles like these:

Giving over to the politics of fatalism. Allowing oneself to believe that everything getting worse is inevitable.

We can't change world events - but we can better fortify ourselves for local action.

https://onlysky.media/mclark/resisting-the-politics-of-fatalism/

#Valentines #NudiPics

And for the fifth, a little fun thrown in to round out three fierce, phenomenal women:

@phase2
@LiseL
@thewebrecluse
@Alfred

Alfred's nudi is as artificial as the algorithm, of course. Also, Phase, I couldn't help myself with yours - the nudi looked like it was doing its best impression of a coffee mug!

Ladies, you carry your strength and deep feeling through worlds of BS. May you always feel honoured for it where it counts. Have a day even half as brilliant as you.

#Valentines #NudiPics

Fourth set!
@cjtownsend
@Mauve_matelot
@Merlin
@OldDude71

Another diverse range of nudis for a wonderfully wide-ranging group of human beings. Thank you for keeping this place as grounded as reality allows.

Be good to yourselves today!

#Valentines #NudiPics

Third round!
@Valkyrie_D
@stueytheround
@Kinnison
@stephen_a_allen

Here's to some warm and generous people indeed - including a birthday boy in the mix! Two of you didn't sign up for cards, but I just wanted to extend well-wishing on the day all the same. 🤗

#Valentines #NudiPics

Next up:
@WordsmithFL
@daniel
@cmskiera
@bmacmixer

Gents, you bring a wide range of joys to this place. Thank you for your presence! Thank you for being ever so true to your respective senses of humour, too. Have a lovely one!

#Valentines #NudiPics

First up:
@Kaysymmetry
@Graci
@NiveusLepus
@MelissaHDavis

Four fabulous ladies who carry brightness with them wherever they go. 🤗 Happy day, lovelies!

🙃 Remember, kids:

"Mejor estar solo que mal acompañado."

(Better to be alone than in bad company.)

I take back everything I said in today's newsletter.* Maybe some good could come out of sensational reporting after all!

*Just kidding, of course, but if this sensationalism keeps some of the creeps away, good! Last night I read a report on the uptick of child sex trafficking in Medellín for foreigners that had my blood boiling.

Fire update:

The nasty burn smoke is gone (I think it was tar at the build site), but the fire has spread up from its original source, and sparked another fire downwind. This lighter fire type will burn out overnight, but it definitely sucks for those living in the smokeline for now.

Okay, today's mountain fire is more dangerous. Started on a built-up property, accounting for the range of cloud smoke. Firefighters zipped out, but we'll see what else is set alight soon enough.

Walkies (not in that direction), then sending off two paid pieces.

Some newsletters just aren't fun to post.

This is one of two pieces I've been dragging on--not because they're not important, but because they're depressing.

Today, I talk about why we have a responsibility not to be shocked when legacy media chooses gamified coverage over any real duty to provide civilians with the tools to make informed assessments of the world.

We talk propaganda here, in war and peacetime alike - and how hard it is for civilians to rise above it.

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-problem-with-expecting-truth

The news is ridiculous everywhere.

In #Colombia, a recent round of ceasefires ended, but the headline is misleading. ELN isn't launching a new strike at the government, but at other armed groups. It's accusing Clan del Golfo, a narcotrafficking outfit with delusions of political ends, of being in cahoots with state military. Meanwhile, dissident-FARC group Segunda Marquetalia is still interested in negotiating peace. It's just hard with so many actors.

Never a dull day here, I tell you what! 👌🏻

Morning, Coso.

Hope all you owl nuts have a lovely day. 👌🏻

The other side of Medellín's hardships...

A Canadian tourist fled the country as his landlady discovered the body of his Colombian girlfriend in a suitcase in his apartment. Took a flight to Guatemala, so who knows what'll happen next.

But that's how a lot of locals view solo male Westerners: here to exploit women and children. Anger over events like this fuels indifference to word of lone male tourists dying.

Dura la vuelta, mi gente.
Kindness is a radical act in a world as cruel as ours.

🙃 Fun week in Medellín. Five tourists dead, one a woman taking psychotropic drugs recreationally, four... most likely connected to a recent trend of robberies on men via seemingly interested local women and drugged drinks.

(The latest is too new to tell for sure, but fits the pattern.)

I'm sure I don't need to tell any of you to use common sense. But I will warn everyone against overconfidence. Listen to the first doubt you have, and question everything, if ever you're travelling solo abroad.