I'm getting a huge influx of newsletter readers just now (thank you, @nnlightsbookheaven!), so I'm switching out my posting order for next week to give them a nice intro.

This Tuesday?

"On Mill, McLuhan, and Social Media"

Then ideally a BookTube (gotta get back to those), and then -

"Is SFF in a 'Bad Place'?"

Two reviews to finish this weekend. Then novel work between articles and teaching next week. But above all else?

Less pushing myself to silly extremes.
It'll happen when it happens. 👌🏻

New Yorker Fiction Podcast just dropped & I involuntarily "EEEEE'd" in joy at the names. 😅 I'm a simple sod, once I get outside of my own darned head.

Going to listen to this & try to write a bit of poetry as a palate cleanser between tasks.

(Just had a LOVELY conversation about gratitude with street friends, & two little girls asked to take a picture with me because they'd never seen a white person before. 🙃 So it's been a full day so far.)

#Podcasts #Literature https://pca.st/episode/f9c0cc37-16d4-40b2-960f-6a9085fe1a43

Morning, CoSo! ⚖️

What's more Canadian than spending part of Canada Day on one of our four major sports - following and commenting on US news! 🙃

Today for #OnlySky, I offer an explainer of key elements from four #SCOTUS cases last week. There's been a lot of misinformation from rightfully panicked places these past few days. It's important to understand what actually transpired.

Stay vigilant, and stay informed. That's how we make room for change. #Law #Humanism https://onlysky.media/mclark/along-party-lines-scotus-decisions-and-us-schisms/

New month, who dis?

(Morning CoSo!)

Ooo, Ologies has a new episode on Birds of Prey and Raptor Facts.

This is going to be a good walk. :)

One project out. Two more writing tasks tonight.

Then we go back to the novel, which I put aside when I started tearing out sections and excessively nitpicking it two weeks back. (When you get *that* hard on a draft, sometimes it's best to let it rest awhile. Writer brains are weird.)

Fresh air first, though. A nice walk, maybe some hydration, and definitely a little conversation with the flowers.

What are folks doing for Canada Day tomorrow? 👀

Today I realized I'd been pushing myself very hard this month for nothing.

Sometimes I still fall for the idea that if I just work harder, try to get more done, try to build a space for myself in a world of few options, something will eventually give.

It's the wrong mentality. The Western aspirational-middle-class mentality.

We show up every day. Sometimes luck does too. That's it.

Burnout helps no one at all.

So take good care of yourselves eh? 💙 I'm going to try to do the same in July.

Terrific episode of Past Present Future - and not just because it's about one of my two "gateway" philosophers. (Kant and Mill blew my grade eight mind, but that's neither here nor there. Memories!)

What I loved about this discussion is that it doesn't stop at the limits of Mill's argument for free expression in an age of algorithm boosted speech; it goes full circle to include the need to bring more people *back* to sincere marketplaces for ideas.

#Philosophy #Podcasts
https://pca.st/episode/50bf60d0-f1c2-4ee9-b89a-ba3a3fe7e4bb

Canadians might recognize this name. Sue Johanson was a lovely part of my youth--and as much as my father made many mistakes while I was growing up, he made sure I knew that this programming was available, and actively steered clear of the living room if I wanted to watch it as a teen.

Good, frank, nonjudgmental discussions of sexual health on public airwaves. Imagine that! Today you'd have extremists sending bomb threats to the "groomer" broadcast stations. 🙃
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/sue-johanson-canada-s-sex-educator-dead-at-93-1.6461431

Today is "compulsively reread the book launching next week" day. I've been indie publishing long enough now to know that there was no way I wouldn't be going over this collection one last time before my eBook locks in. 🙃 So, I scheduled in a few hours for going mad with last-minute worries. Here's a sample of the context pages accompanying each story.

#SFF #WritingCommunity #WritersOfCoSo #Indie #IndiePublishing #WritingLife

Sometimes end-times on the bird site still offers delightful slices of life under late-stage capitalism. 👌

New day en la lucha. :)

"Conservative attacks on the elitism of antiracists ring true to many because liberal antiracists do indeed think it is the job of elites to educate working-class people out of their irrational beliefs. But that is less true of radical antiracists: they might despair at the historical reluctance of white workers to unite with other exploited classes but they are clear that wealthy elites are their main antagonists."

#Activism #Humanism
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/29/antiracism-diversity-training-liberal-antiracists-vocabulary-direct-action

I love that no one knows what they're going to get from my image posts. One day a bug! Or a tray of cookies! Or horses and a boob! Then a lizard!

What! Will! Tomorrow! Bring! 😁

I made a new friend on my walk - and then some more! A kid around ten was *terrified* at the sight of this fella, so I reassured him that our friend was more scared of us, and got into a chat with him and his two teenaged pals about Colombian culture in contrast with North America (they were friendly-curious about me). It was really sweet to hear the teen boys go on about how much they love being thankful for the little things, like family and health. Wholesome bonding made possible by #Nature.

Okay, lovely CoSo.

Today for #OnlySky, I have a news brief on a difficult but important topic:

The role of diffusion models (AI) in worsening prevention and recovery efforts around the distribution of child sex abuse images.

Are we finally ready to think maturely about the tech future we've built?

What would it take for us to address child abuse with the gravity it deserves?

#Humanism #AI #technology #technews
https://onlysky.media/mclark/ai-driven-internet-worsens-child-sex-abuse-image-market/

"Towards Full Presence"

This one is for folks of the humanist & Christian persuasions.

I haven't done a big-tent humanist piece for #OnlySky in a bit, but I'll be reflecting soon on this excellent document out of the Vatican last month, on building better cultures of fraternity online.

Our cosmologies differ, but secular & religious humanists share common ground in trying to use human agency to build a better world.

(News piece today, though.)

#Humanism #Christianity
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/dpc/documents/20230528_dpc-verso-piena-presenza_en.html