In process. 🤞🏻 (Back to editing!)

No butterscotch or peanut butter or even white chocolate chips, and no walnuts or plain peanuts either. But with the ingredients one *does* find in a Colombian supermarket, blondies are in the works!

#CoSoBakes

No cakes, but I'm making blondies tonight. I'm struggling with the finishing touches on two pieces at the same time (not wise! don't try to double-fist your writing!), and sometimes the smart thing to do is step away, take a breath, and add a lil' 'nilla to your life. #CoSoBakes

I don't make a habit of dwelling on the death of individuals who did harm, but today for #OnlySky I have a meditation on how we process the death of prominent figures who did harm in their lives.

In this case, the "Joe" in question didn't actually represent the "average" US citizen well, but his fame came from a system that rewards people building a legacy on sowing division.

How do we move with greater dignity through the mess they leave behind?

#Humanism #Politics
https://onlysky.media/mclark/on-the-death-of-an-average-joe/

I was going to write about something else for my first newsletter of the week, but I think this report is going to change a few things in my brain today.

"Onine Scam Operations and Trafficking into Forced Criminality in Southeast Asia"
#HumanRights #GlobalHumanism

https://bangkok.ohchr.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/ONLINE-SCAM-OPERATIONS-2582023.pdf

This phone doesn't have a great camera (not like the one I had before the robbery in February, alack), but the sunrise doesn't mind. This was a good start / return to routine. 🌄

Now home to get a million things done. 😅

*Finally* getting up before my alarm again.

This was the way I lived for years, rain or shine, in sickness and in health, but July and August my body just wouldn't rev up the same way. Deep despondencies were gumming up the works.

Well! No matter. Time to keep the cycle going by getting back to nice early runs. :)

(Morning CoSo! 💫)

There is unfortunately a meeting in the other room that's affecting sound quality, so I'm working on an essay while waiting for them to finish.

But... I'm happy to be recording the audiobook again. I'd forgotten how proud I was of the work I'd done in Children of Doro. It is the best work I've done, even if it didn't find its audience with the presses because it was too Dostoevskian in voice for the acquisition editors.

I did something I'd be happy to have as my legacy.

That's enough for now.

Does anyone have a kid entering law school? Or any other intense professionalization program? This episode of 5-4 is a wonderful, generous dispelling of myths / toxic cultures that people are inundated by at the outset of their careers. Law school is not worth losing your conscience over - & justice is not intrinsically what you'll find in its halls of higher learning. Here are some thoughts to bear in mind while moving through the experience. #Law #Education #Podcasts

https://pca.st/episode/34f43c58-f7f2-4021-bb2d-f9d68c5d1f3a

Today it's just me and a mic, and book to finish recording. (Long way to go, but a good learning curve, at least!)

I hope your days are unfurling gently. 🕊

(And if not, may there be patience and grace enough in your life not to get caught while burying the bodies. 🙃)

I also posted a paid newsletter piece yesterday, part of which is free to read.

It's a more personal follow-up to last week's piece on Niger, Nigeria, & national myth - and discusses multidimensional poverty in a way that hits closer to all our homes.

If the topic interests, I can send the rest privately. (This semi-paywall strategy for second posts each week isn't my favourite, but trying to build a paid subscriber base requires nonsense like this. Oh industry.)

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/what-multidimensional-poverty-takes

And... also for folks interested in #SFF:

My review of China's adaptation of Three-Body Problem is now up at Strange Horizons. I talk about the benefit of watching this production to deepen our understanding, if nothing else, of the ongoing ideological challenges that confront our world as it strives to be united against common crises.

There are many ways to tell a story - and the way we choose tells a story, too.

#SFF #Reviews #CoSoTV

http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/three-body/

Today for #OnlySky, the next instalment of Humanist Book Club. Our discussion of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future explores the possibility of drilling polar ice to slow the rate of global warming.

I also use the opportunity to explore some confusing media reports around an IPCC report that predicted an "ice-free" Arctic much later than we'll probably get it.

(Science literacy & speculative fiction can go hand in hand. What fun!)

#ClimateCrisis https://onlysky.media/mclark/do-we-have-the-technology-to-ease-our-melting-ice-sheets/

I have a few pieces to share. Still dealing with a kind of brain freeze (more on that in the Patreon), but the workflow is finally picking up.

Class in a few minutes, and then I can get back to your lovely replies, but for now -

Ooo, and we are definitely getting more trembles up in here, too. Strange planet.

Hope you're taking good care of yourselves, whatever natural crises you're facing where you are. 🫂

Otherwise, I'm okay. I couldn't "brain" effectively for a while - really big trigger hit home this week - but I think I'm past the stress-related freeze now, and ready to start the week on better footing, with new goals and a structure to keep energy high.

🍵 How's everyone else been? What's cooking? Who's on fire? Who still needs to make bail? Did you do or create something that makes you feel all good and fuzzy inside? 👀

The universe is laughing, but after a difficult week, I finally had my ducks in a row with three drafted posts - one for Patreon, one for Substack, one for Wordpress-backed OnlySky, when... the internet went out.

🙃🦆🦆🦆(🐋!)

So, for a laugh, here's what a family member sent me yesterday, when I sent them a heartfelt message of thankfulness for our being in contact. (Most of my family doesn't talk due to past trauma.)

Life, man.

What a challenge it can be to connect in ways that help us grow.