Not the greatest staging ground for a photo, but hello beautiful dawn!

Today's park listening was an excellent episode of 99% Invisible, which is in the middle of a series on how climate change is changing spaces and infrastructure.

What makes this one exceptional is that it tells the *full* story of disaster: from the fear and devastation of a wildfire, to the displacement crisis that comes after - and what happens when neighbourly good will dries up during the long, long struggle to rebuild hope. A nuanced listen essential for our times.

https://pca.st/episode/694ff23f-7e58-4612-90ad-35510efac089

Just me and dem birbs, the latter getting all their grievances out before dawn. Do I squawk like that some mornings? 🤔 Yes, yes I do.

#Israel #Gaza

Relatedly, a so-called suicide note, dramatically detailing someone killing himself after not being able to save a female friend from rape and murder on Oct 7, has now been reported on Israeli media as a fake.

It's as frustrating as it is sickening to see people lie around real trauma.

Whoever crafted this lie probably thought they were serving the war effort, but the desecration of victims' experiences, to craft wilder tales for war, is unconscionable.
https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/nova-survivors-horrified-by-fake-viral-suicide-letter-ol8hpj8s

Do you ever watch a show and burst out laughing at how incorrectly they represented a field? In a procedural I put on as background noise today, the investigator asked a prof if any of her students might harbour anti-tech views.

Her reply?

"I'm a post-modernist. In my area of study technological inventions are often viewed as art objects."

🤣 5 bucks says the writer of this script didn't even bother to look up post-modern lit and its dominant themes.

What's the best groaner you've seen?

(I think I might write my surveillance state story for that Strange Horizons call based on financial tracking systems, the way even crypto can be traceable and seized, and the complex tightrope of ethics walked between formal and informal financial economies to bridge issues like central bank bottlenecks for global workers!)

So here's some fun Colombiana for you:

Colombia monitors bank accounts proactively at tax time. Aug to Oct are for '23 taxes, but since the gov't has had low levels of tax participation in recent years, it sent emails today to everyone who had over a certain threshold move through their banks last year, offering a quick path to filing because of the possibility of more taxable income (based on guesses from bank traffic).

Every surveillance state is different, but sometimes in interesting ways!

*And if any tech savvy folk want to write something for the above, but are a bit nervous about their fiction game / formatting / the industry, shoot me a DM, and I'd be happy to offer any feedback that might help.

We have a lot of cyber-smart people here who might have a great tale to tell!

Also, holy heck, what a story contest:

"To affirm human rights with more just and accurate depictions of centralized surveillance technologies, we are running an open call for short stories to be used as the foundation for a new toolkit.

Five stories will be published in Strange Horizons and in the toolkit. One author will be invited to participate in an expenses-paid trip to RightsCon ... in Taipei."

The con's not for me, but the theme looks fun! #WritingCommunity

http://www.stopcopaganda.org/

I now have three pieces "pending" in submission queues, and I'm hoping to send out another by month's end.

Getting back into the swing of short fiction is very nice, and it always helps to have tons of work out at the same time. (Having work under consideration lets a writer pretend they're "working" even when they're not. 😉)

How are my fellow #WritersOfCoSo faring? Any specific goals for the next month - beyond trying to avoid being asked if you have any goals at all?

#WritingCommunity

All right. Time enough spent today with the latest round of escalating war fronts, polio vectors, countries gripped by economic strife, brutal ethnic cleansings, financial grifts, & the idle, surface cruelties that distract us from the rest on infotainment-based front pages.

Time to lean into gratitude for the little things, and get crackin' with work I'm privileged to do in a world as broken as ours.

(But if you see a Korben Dallas, you send 'im this Leeloo's way, eh?)
https://youtu.be/Z9cw4pyKMSU

#Israel #Gaza

From Oct 7 on, many of us witnessed with pain as victims & families were used as narrative props by warmongers. Lies were told for war purposes about the actual traumas that day. Families were harassed for protesting, & criticized for how they grieved, for months. Families of peace-seeking victims have been in agony to see loved ones' values leveraged for slaughter.

As I wrote last week, kibbutzim & victims are refusing to be part of this.

Good for them.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hostage-families-tell-regev-not-to-use-loved-ones-names-or-photos-in-oct-7-ceremony/

One thing I noted from chats around a post yesterday:

Many are used to talking about war solely in terms of military operations.

Vital details!

But our perspective can easily be skewed by military analysis, which often overlooks motivations, & the role of economics, representation, & negotiation in conflict resolution.

A key "tell" is when we talk about one side as caricatured enemies.

The news often makes more sense when we remember that the world is full of coherent, if dissenting actors.

Home again, and *so* gettin' in a lil' SF story time until I conk out. #AmWriting

😅 Honestly, it takes so little to make me happy. A message from a loved one, a work of art that inspires, a moment in nature, seeing people be excellent to one another, laughter or good food shared...

Y'know, folks, when it comes to sipping on the sweet sweet love of life, I think I might be a pretty cheap drunk. 😬

😃

You guys, I have SO MANY THOUGHTS on this film. Probably going to do a YouTube on the craft dimensions, but hot dog.

Hot! Dog!