Brain hitting afternoon wall despite coffee. I know I'm still adjusting to my return to super-early wake-ups and predawn runs, but man, I need more energy mid-to-late-day.

#Walkies #ThenEditing

Afternoon ☕ time! 💫

There's a reason people see the news as gamified. Headlines like this don't help.

If I never again see climate change disaster talked about the same way we discuss album sales and Olympic achievements, it'll be too freaking soon.

Colombian raccoons / trash pandas still look a little different. :)

It's so nice to be up before my alarm consistently again. I was treading water for many months there, but when I'm leaping out of bed, I know I'm feeling hopeful anew.

Morning, CoSo. 🤗

Happiest of Tuesdays, if you can tolerate it. Off to run!

:) Tomorrow's students aren't *quite* ready to return to classes, so I guess I'll have the rest of my revisions finished and my novel out to my beta reader then instead.

My biggest challenge this year will be *pacing myself* so I don't burn out. Instead of trying to do "all the things", if I've finished my day's work I will *stop*, not frantically try to get the jump on tomorrow's work, too.

It'll take... a little practice, if today was any indication--but we'll get there. 🙃 I hope.

TIL about another way our bodies hang together *so* precariously: the isolation of the eye from the broader immune system, which usually keeps our eyes from being damaged during immune response... but also puts *both* eyes at risk if the immune system mounts an attack against damage in one.

We're a mess of first working drafts. If a variation doesn't kill most of us... eh, good enough! 😅

So celebrate that silly body, eh?

Whatever issues you have with yours, it's a marvel it functions at all.

Just a quick news brief today, addressing Australia's latest bans on neo-Nazi symbols and salutes. This news story comes with an important reminder that even with these laws in place it is *very easy* to signalboost dangerous content - even when simply trying to warn each other about it.

Bans on symbols also don't go deep enough, to tackle the factors aiding extremist groups in their recruitment drives. For that, we need much more systemic responses to the rise of hate.

https://onlysky.media/mclark/australian-neo-nazi-bans-and-hate-speech-rising/

Started my day by listening to a financial podcast, a.k.a. checking in with the sociopaths. In case anyone was wondering, the sociopaths are doing fine! No matter how many regulations we try to set down to stop public funding from being siphoned off into personal holdings, tax shelters, and even whole special economic zones, to keep billionaires and corporations from deciding our planet's future for the rest of us, life / the wealth-hoarding class... finds a way. 🙃

Early bird gets to see the horsies. Lousy camera phone, but lovely moment with birdsong and a gentle predawn sky in the park. (And the fire is out, no worries!)

#Nature #AmRunning

Early morning run time.

(Ideally, before all the invasive fellows are out. 🤞🏻)

Happy new week, CoSo!

Camera phone doesn't pick up reds well, so this doesn't do justice to how *livid* the mountain fire looked as I was heading back, but you get the idea.

So much can change all at once.

I have zero idea what my future will hold.

But we put one foot in front of the other for as long as we can.

And we forgive ourselves when what we *can* manage never seems like enough.

Because of course it never is - but that's also not the point.

Take good care of your hearts in this world of ours on fire. 🕊️

Walking time before more revisions. Won't finish them tonight, but I'll be in good standing all the same.

The aim this week is going to be developing a workflow where I publish every weekday, and save the weekends for pitched nonfiction + stories for longterm submission.

In the next few days, I should have the novel to my beta reader, too, so I can submit to my agent before month's end. Better to get it right than to rush, so close to the finish!

(& I sold a piece on both series of GHOSTS! 🎉)

@Alfred what title would you give to your autobiography?