Diving into evening work, hopefully with something to show for it for you folks soon.

Question before I go:

We all have grammatical gripes... but what's a grammatical "error" that you find pretty darned cute or satisfying, even if you wouldn't use it yourself?

I heard someone say "on accident" today, and to me it just sounded adorable. Maybe because it's nonstandard usage unwittingly used *by* accident around that same phrase?

What linguistic bastard child is *your* cutie-patootie of choice?

Gee, ladies! Would you look at the time? it's traffic hour! Heat, sun, and high concentrations of exhaust fumes! What say we all slip out and nom on some possibly tainted highway grass, ambling our way from green island divider to divider with a sense of impunity to every stinky gas-and-metal beast that dares to stand in our way?

😅 I love these girls. They always know what they're about. They came to graze or chew bubble gum, and they're always out of bubble gum.

#MooCows #Friends #Nature

Here's a great article to sit with the complexity of being human and the dangers of treating any demographic as uniform in its views and attitudes.

I recommend reading this piece without leaping to judgment on any "side". Just... sit with all the subject positions presented here. Remember our shared humanity. Remember the *mess* of being human, and the multitudes we contain.

#Humanism #News #Ukraine

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/15/ultra-orthodox-jews-celebrate-rosh-hashanah-uman-ukraine-pilgrimage

#InternationalRedPandaDay!

Freaking love these critters.
Right up there with tardigrades, leopard slugs, and pretty much anything Coleoptera and arachnid for me. ❤️

(But don't tell the rest of the animals I'm playing favourites. I Iove pretty much all of them.)

Mmmmmorning CoSo! May yours be less eventful. 🤗☕️ Unless the event is coffee, tea, or beautiful beautiful water.

😂 Honestly, I can't help myself sometimes.

There was a kid in the park who's having a rough time. 14, sleeping rough because he's got two violent parents at home.

He first followed me a bit because he was curious about my skin, but the chat turned quickly enough to an adult walking him through his options and affirming that what's happening at home is not okay. The whole "it gets better" spiel plus some numbers and suggestions of people he can turn to for help.

But I still got a run in too! 💪🏻

Good morning, CoSo! Hope your noggins are nogging well today. 🌄☕️

Time to get more physical activity into my days again. 💪🏻 This brain doesn't brain quite as well when misaligned from "brawn"... or whatever equivalent remains. 🙃 (I have strength training to return to, too!)

A classic for a reason.

(by Laura Gilpin)

We may not be here "for a reason", but no matter - we get to bear witness to the strange wonder of existence while we're around, and that ain't nothin'.

I'm glad you're all around.

#Poetry

In slightly less existential news, here is a big beautiful suck of a lion doing lion things.

Going for a quick walk, then back to writing. This novel MS fills me with complex feelings, but when it's out with my trusted reader, then off to my agent, I'll probably feel a lot better about this absolute mess of a year. It's just been very hard to juggle everything and get it done so I can move on.

Anyway, again - lion! 💛

#IfItFitsISits
#WaitWheresEveryoneGoing?!

https://youtu.be/Mxib_9yQRZo

Can't sleep, so I'm working on the novel.

From my balcony, I see three men walking the highway begging change: one selling drinks, another candies (his toddler playing by the nearby guard rail), a third haggard fellow with nothing. A near-naked fourth asleep on the divider.

The sheer strength it takes to keep going sometimes.

Our family of 8 billion is moving through *so* many sites of trauma at the same time.

Be kind to yourselves, your neighbours, your everyone.

Be kind, be kind, be kind.

Switching over to night mode hasn't been as easy as I'd hoped. My body's been acting like it's infected, which it isn't. It's just stressed out by the switch - but that affected my voice, which meant last night I couldn't get as much done as I wanted to. Still hurts now.

Today, my one evening class cancelled, so I'm going to stay awake until 3pm, sleep until 10, and give it another shot.

These things take time! 🙃 But I am also definitely not the whippersnapper I once was.

Also, if anyone needs to feel better about themselves today, this is a screenshot of a few blatant typos in one of the articles I cited in today's piece.

Remember: Errors are human, but we're allowed to laugh at them when they come from major industry - especially when the rest of us hold ourselves to *such* rigid standards. 🙃 Knock that off already. You're fine. You're wonderful. Go drink some water and carry on.

Morning, Coso. 💫

Just another grumpy piece about the state of the world today at #OnlySky.

This one reflects on the wisdom of ancient pantheists, who imagined the powers that be as a bunch of fickle, greedy jerks making decisions that screw over the rest of us.

Oh, and it's about the oil industry, in the wake of yet another report about countries upping their oil and gas production at cost to us all.

Smart pantheists! They knew humanity's number well.

#ClimateCrisis
https://onlysky.media/mclark/the-oil-god-delusion-what-ancient-pantheists-got-right/

This is an excellent, frank, quotidian look at mutual aid work along the US border, and the everyday dehumanization of migrants waiting for processing in extreme conditions. Wherever you can donate or otherwise contribute to local action groups, thank you for doing what you can do. (Skip the ads.)

#MutualAid #BorderCrisis #Politics #Podcasts
https://pca.st/episode/5e18658f-d808-48fc-a43c-088af08729b4

Very little fazes me about humans, but it's the most unassuming details that hold you fast.

I fell down a rabbit hole around the world's most prolific modern serial killer, but it was the account of one of the rare survivors that struck me.

It's just *so* Colombian. The perp took his victim to a mass grave, but the stench of it distracted him long enough for the kid to escape.

To be spared because of prior atrocity!

Our species, mi gente.
We are something else.

I still feel very strange sleeping through the afternoon (mostly--I keep waking up) after morning classes and early team meetings, but no matter. Time to get on with evening and overnight work.

Goodbye day star! "Morning", moon crew.