🤨 I jotted down a silly 1,000 word flash piece in that writing stint.

I was *trying* to finish a serious novelette.

Writer brains!

Can't live with 'em...

Okay, the next sprint starts at the half-hour mark. Thanks for the laughs thus far! 🤗

Getting restless, so I'm going into timed writing sprints for the rest of the evening.

CAPTION CONTEST, for between sprints.

What *should* these two be saying here?

#StarTrek #Memes #Humour

Getting my newspaper today was a bit of a trip, but what a bounty of items!

1) For the word nerds, a column on correct usage of the comma around porque and pero (syntax differs between tongues!);

2) #OnlyInColombia: Colombia sits down with one of the dominant guerrilla groups here, ELN, to talk economics and peace (because the two are always related);

3) Mpox in Colombia: only two active cases! Stayin' sharp!

And...

4) Book fair a-coming! September 6-15! 🥳 Who's comin' with? 👀

#Colombia

@Minholkin!

The rain cleared, so I could "pick" these flowers for you.

Birthdays are such a lovely excuse to tell people how much we care for them and see how much they do for so many others - but you show that same generosity of presence and grace all the year round, with people in all states of need.

💛 Thank you for being you.

I hope that on this day of days you feel as seen by community as you make everyone else feel all the year through. (And may there be rest and good memories, too!)

😅 It was a very wet run, under intensifying rain, and now my phone is soggy and going into rice (it was incredibly difficult to send out the two voice messages I was able to), but I am a happy camper.

Now to hermit-up for the rest of the day. 👌🏻

Today I have nothing scheduled except for reading (books for paid reviews) and writing (stories to submit), after a predawn run.

Today is going to be so rad.

Off for that run! 💪🏻 Happy Friday, CoSo.

Out to subscribers just under the wire, this week we wrap up that giant digital tech essay I've been wrestling with for a month.

Today's component starts with some free-to-read philosophy, care of Heidegger, before paid subscribers and I look at three case studies from the history of modern computer tech: times when state systems and/or personal drives for monopoly crushed attempts to build a more inclusive and self-liberating world.

#Technology #History #Democracy
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-digital-tech-utopia-we-didnt-d73

#Health #Disease #MPox

PSA: Please don't sleep with people who have the pox.

There is a vaccine for these deadly variants, and it only spreads through close contact, but wider distribution yields evolution.

“The emergence of a case on the European continent could spur rapid international spread of mpox,” said Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert and professor at Georgetown Law in Washington. “A case in Sweden most likely means dozens of undetected cases in Europe.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/15/mpox-variant-clade-i-case-sweden

*Almost* ready to post today's piece, the second half of a long essay on digital tech and why it hasn't yet brought about grander social changes.

It took a few weeks of chewing over this essay to be satisfied with it, and today's part should make abundantly clear why I was in the weeds for so long, but first: I wasn't on CoSo when posting last week's.

There's a free-to-read on so-called AI futures, which non-subscribers might enjoy.

(Part 2 soon! Walk and revise next.)
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-digital-tech-utopia-we-didnt

Me: *doing absolutely nothing*

Me: *except writing*

Me: *just writing away, making great strides with word count, story juices flowing!*

Also me, out of the blue: *hey now, how about a fierce case of the hiccoughs!*

🤨 Did I really give myself a fit from *writing* too excitedly?

What am I going to get next? A case of the vapours from existing?!

Morning, folks. Just had a great run before the day. Hope you're all doing brilliantly. 💛 Don't have anything until 10, so I'm squeezing in a little more fiction first.

https://youtu.be/LXvaKnUunEs

Oh my silly industry.

I've been tempted to pull out a comically large bag of popcorn amid the latest dumpster fire involving part of publishing that affects me and my team.

But too many people (myself included) need things a little less dumpster-fire-y, so I can't just sit back and marvel at the sheer mess of it all. I'm on "close the barn doors after the horses have fled" detail in that part of my life for the next while instead.

Silly silly problems adding to an already overstressed world.

I just had a perfect CoSo interaction.

10/10, no notes.

Well okay, these notes--

Someone expressed a concern with something I said, and the manner in which I said it.

We had a chat about it, human to human.

And we came out all the better for it. 😊

Dissent is not always our enemy.

Constructive dissent is how we grow.

And I *super* appreciate everyone who makes it safe for others to risk constructive dissent as well. You're all doing mighty important work in our broken world. 💛

#CoSoRocks

The boring dystopia of living in a timeline where you can't read an article warning against the use of deepfake technology in investment scams... because the site hosting the article wants you to give your information to an undisclosed third party before you're allowed to read on. 🙃

#WeAreSoScrewed

Okay, two happy little hours for fiction. 🤞🏻

#AmWriting

@daniel

😅 "a healthy young people".

Oh typos. Always keeping me humble.