My ears have *almost* stopped ringing in time for The Cookie-ening, which is taking place via videochat so I can walk someone else through the recipe (and catch up). Now let's just hope those trucks were "one and done" and don't have a return route planned. 🤞🏻

Oh goodie, a late afternoon tootening.

Not like I was trying to concentrate or anything. 😅

#Colombia
#ILoveYouButSometimes...

Once, while helping my then-four-year-old nephew clean his room, we came upon a framed photo under the clutter.

"That's my dad," he said (his parents having separated). "I look at that sometimes when I want to cry." He took a moment with it, then placed it on a bedside shelf and went back to cleaning.

I think about that day sometimes when I read the news.

"That's my world," I think. "I check in on it sometimes when I want to cry."

Then I put it back on its shelf and carry on. #BackToWork

This week, we're tackling a lot of socioeconomic themes for Better Worlds Theory - some of which dovetail nicely into sci-fi chats.

Today, for instance, two Alien films spanning 45 years offer a haunting reminder that the greatest threat in our lives has never really been alien to us: it lies in the relentless overreach of corporations much closer to home.

#LabourDay #SFF #Economics #Film

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/oh-how-blue-collar-work-has-changed

😅 Oh, you know it's a bad financial practice when even Bloomberg's podcast team is calling it out with titles like this.

(Should be a great episode for today's run, though. I always have better run-times when I'm cranky about economics!)

Tomorrow, it's back to my newsletters. A whole week of SF and class issues!

Monday Media Review:

Representations of working class labour in Alien (1979) and Romulus (2024).

Tough Times Tuesday:

Price-gouging and other recent perils of monopoly.

Rewind Wednesday:

Internal displacement, incarceration, and the Bell Riots.

Thorough Thursday:

A deeper factual inaccuracy in SF disaster films.

The "break" (for other work) was fun, but I'm itching to get back in the news-y saddle.

Night, CoSo!

All right. Enough dawdling. I have another book to read before end-of-day.

Can... can I post a recently uploaded shot of Curiosity's 42 Drill Holes without people here getting weird about it?

I just thought the variations were neat. #Mars #Space

TTFN, nutters!

#Space

Right now, all the attention on Starliner and the astronauts on an extended mission means that the slightest technical quirk is being blasted as breaking news online. And I guess we'll all see what happens Friday, eh?

But for now, let's just enjoy the chuckle here, shall we? Take a listen to the embedded recording in the article. The speaker on Boeing's Starliner is laying down a beat track. 😅

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/starliners-speaker-began-emitting-strange-sonar-noises-on-saturday/

#Israel #Gaza

As I've been noting since early 2023, Israelis have been in one hell of a fight with their gov't for a while. The Times of Israel has been reporting on the protest tonight & the planned labour action tomorrow; the live-blog commentary notes that Israeli press knows it's US Republicans pushing for more war, along with Israel's own far-right, even against warnings from within.

Fighting for global democracy means not giving into the lie that war breeds peace.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-september-1-2024/

Okay! Today we're talking about Alien: Romulus in the context of writing craft.

To do this, we also explore Alien, as the template, & Prometheus, as a wild deviation for the franchise.

We look at setting, character, & species design; the difference between "coherent mistakes" & MacGuffins (plus one "Mac-Goo-fin") across these films; & the fact that familiar tropes *are not a bad thing*. What matters is how they serve.

#SFF #Film #WritersOfCoSo #WritingCommunity

https://youtu.be/VKZmJvDfDvs

Where are my fellow CoSo #economics, #fintech, & #finance watchers at? @daniel? @misterfive? I'm forgetting some.

This Buttonwood piece from The Economist nicely (succinctly!) reviews some of the dangers of recent ETF (exchange-traded funds), which are now taking on forms that don't pay out well, have terrible disclosure practices, rely on asset matches that don't do well at scale, and might shelter some real shady shaving cream.

Just one grift after another, eh, folks?
https://archive.ph/BEWs1

Another note of relief: I think I *look* healthier in this one. I've been run so ragged this year with day-and-night work schedules. It's nice to see the return to simple eating and early morning exercise pay off (even if the added energy makes it tough to sleep at night).

Sometimes I definitely felt like death warmed over this year. How's everyone else's meatsack doing? Crawling along? Giving you a lot of guff? Peeling at the edges to reveal your next true form? 👀

Whew! Got my commentary under an hour, and only forgot one title along the way. 😅 Now just to upload it. (Which will take another hour, give or take.)

In the Éxito first thing on a Sunday to nab ingredients for a ridiculous part of living away from dear ones.

Tomorrow I'll be collab-baking cookies on videochat with someone in Canada, who can then send some of theirs through the mail to another for their birthday. I'd do it myself, but mail is nuts between Colombia and Canada, so sharing a moment teaching someone how to make the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies is a worthy substitute. 🤞🏻

(Then I'll have cookies for my neighbours, too!)

Glorious thunderstorm this morning.

No running in it, obviously, but what a great way to enter the new month.

Happy September, all!

It is entirely possible that I have four very full pages of notes for tomorrow's YouTube commentary on SFF craft lessons from Alien: Romulus. 😅

And only some of them are me venting about Prometheus! (We'll see how well I control myself once I get started tomorrow. 😬) But there will be spoiler & non-spoiler sections, because this isn't a review so much as a deep-dive into key lessons for fellow creators of SF/horror worlds.

For now, I'm popping on another horror flick before bed. 👍🏻 Night, CoSo!

I am full-up on poetic prose after today's book-review readings, and pretty sure that one good squeeze around my midsection would make me hurl verse. 🙃