😂 It took an hour and a half to process, and now it's taking almost two hours to upload to YouTube. Yeah, I am never going to try to edit my videos again. Straight from OBS, mistakes and all, from here on out.

Tomorrow morning, I guess! 🙃 We live and learn with all this silly tech.

I recorded no problem, but with two parts that required editing - and a fun little detour through ClipChamp's glitching. The video is now uploading to YouTube at a much lower rate than a video directly sourced from OBS, so that'll teach me to goof twice in a 48 min video! 😅 (Should be up for Patrons soon all the same. 🤞)

No marching band across the street tonight, so I was all excited to record early, but... a rumba class is just *blasting* from the activity room in my building. So... in an hour, maybe? 🤞

Walking time.

I made a friend on my way out of the office. :) Life is better. #DogsOfCoSo

The shape never held, but these cherry-chocolate-chip cookies still smell sweet enough. Hope they bring a smile to someone at the office today.

Super tired and feeling low, but today I'll record two episodes at the office and one BookTube at home (patrons first!), with more writing in-between! Silly moods are not going to knock me off track today. 🤞

When experimenting with a new recipe, the key is to always run a test batch, and modify from observed results to account for oven variance and user needs. I was a little suspicious of this base recipe, which had no fridge time for a dough using softened butter - and sure enough, this is what happens. The cookies will be delicious! But the next batch will be properly chilled, and stand a better chance of keeping its form. 👍🏻 #CoSoBakes

For the record, I don't enjoy Valentine's Day (although discount dark chocolate on Feb 15 was always fun when I was in Canada!), but any excuse to start baking again, am I right? 🙃

These are cherry chocolate chip cookies, round one. I'm testing a batch to see how well they hold their shape with a loosely sugar-cookie-based dough. Refrigerating the rest for round two. 🤞

#CoSoBakes #Food

Happy Superb Owl Day, CoSo! 💫

Take good care of yourselves if moving through crowds of rambunctious watchers today. No need to get your (or anyone else's) feathers unduly ruffled if the winds go in someone else's direction tonight!

#ZeroFlyingFlocksGiven 👌 🦉 🙃

Another lovely ciclovía, even if the weather is a touch drizzly. ❤️ #Colombia

On a lighter note, last night I dreamed that I was trying to find a place at a gym, but everything station was taken or broken, and then a very old and still 100% supportive Arnie set me up to work out in his private gym in back, then offered me a job so I'd have access to it whenever I wanted.

So... I think my brain is telling me it's looking forward to (eventually) getting to work out again. 😅 #PasoAPaso

Morning lovely people--& 👋 to the gargoyles among us, too.

I'm just heading out for a walk to catch up on messages.

Here's this week's #newsletter, which uses the framing device of my early atheist exposure to the Bible (I read voraciously while young) to reflect on the complexity of moral calls to care for one another, even at extreme personal cost.

This will be my final major update on César's family. Thank you to everyone for helping.

Back to literary work next. 🤞

https://mlclark.substack.com/p/on-empathy-burnout-and-perspective

I don't usually share joke content, but this came along just as I was wanting a good cry, and it gave me a good laugh instead, so now I think I'm obligated to inflict this terrible punnery on others.

Happy Saturday, in tears or otherwise! 🙃

Okay, we can have *one* piece of good news, as a treat. 👌

"Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon falls in first month under Lula"

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/deforestation-brazils-amazon-falls-first-month-under-lula-2023-02-10/

Tomorrow's newsletter will touch on the last two weeks helping César which... I'm hoping will finally be finished today, after one more admin nuisance.

The key is remembering what I talked about a few weeks ago: Life isn't a fairy tale. It doesn't have fairy tale endings. People are messy & don't come cleanly out of crisis trauma.

I was looking forward to another stab at exercise today, but kindness with myself as I scramble with my tasks before leaving is the best I can do.

So we beat on. 🤞

I haven't baked in a while. Getting itchy for the oven!

Feb 14 isn't a thing here, but I'll be at the office recording podcasts next week on the day, so I figure it'll be a good excuse to share something festive.

Maybe... cherry chocolate chip cookies? Or "love letter" jam cookies? Or raspberry-swirl cheesecake?

Anyone else thinking about a holiday (excuse to) bake? What's your go-to for the season?

#CoSoBakes

Evening, CoSo! 🕊️

I bet some were wondering if I'd write about Turkey & Syria. I've been following the news the same as everyone else this week, grieving as those wretched death tolls rise.

But today for #OnlySky, I look past the still-rising casualty counts, to highlight the importance of the human stories for our #Humanist work.

This matters because we're still dealing with immense political strife while delivering crucial aid. How can we deepen in our global care? ⬇️ https://onlysky.media/mclark/after-the-miracles-turkey-syria-and-long-term-recovery/

Morning CoSo! 💫 Hope your Friday's faring well. Or at least doing better than whatever hot mess is behind this story I saw when skimming the news!

😬 We live in quite a world, eh?

Monday's podcast recording for Beyond Atheism had to be postponed until tonight, but what a joy of a chat was had. Lots of fun. And yet, I still felt like *such* an imposter by the end, especially when the hosts told me they wanted to keep asking me questions for hours and remarked on my range, while I was busy cataloguing everything I'd missed. 😅 Well! At least I'm not at high risk of Dunning-Kruger, right?

(Unless overconfidence in not being at high risk is itself Dunning-Kruger in action? 😳)