Didn't forget you, US CoSo!

A few weeks back, some of us were tossing around ideas for refreshments to survive the next big event in the US presidential election campaign.

For those enduring tomorrow's three-ring-circus of a debate, please enjoy this silly drinks and snacks menu (ideas c/o @BrentSullivan and @JoyfullyDazed) with a "solidarity game" thrown in.

Here's to all of you reaching the polls in November with the remainder of your sanity intact!

Love,

A Canuck

#Debate #Politics #US

🤨 Why is it that when my schedule is packed packed packed, my brain is suddenly screaming about all the original fiction it wants to write?

Dollars to doughnuts it loses this urgency the next moment I *can* focus on fiction, both to fill up more submission queues and to plot the next novel to write in the hope of better luck with an agent and press. (*Not* SFF, possibly! The mind is percolating something else.)

But for now, this fool noggin needs to jump in the lake. 🙃

#QuietBrain #BackToWork

🧐 Jellyspoons of CoSo, do we need to have a talk? #Meme #Humour

(And here, yes, with you folks, I feel safe to say what I was thinking when writing about "Liberty Cones" - a.k.a. Giant Dildos of Justice. 😅 Oh, ancient Mesopotamia had some good laughs, I'm sure.)

Today, for #BetterWorldsTheory, we start a week of reflecting on more expansive (and messy) notions of society with a look at Sid Meier's Civilization, and a common myth of history that's embedded in series game-play.

Can we shake off such linear thinking now, and look at our history of knowledge acquisition more creatively?

#MediaLiteracy #History #Historiography #Gaming

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/common-myths-about-human-history

Packed six-day work-week ahead, with no time for fiction - but one English class will take place at the book fair, as per student request, so that'll be a nice treat.

Going to slip into a different food plan for the rest of the month, too, in part for mood and energy-boosting purposes. This plan always deepens me in gratitude for what I have in life, too, so even though the rest of September looks hectic, it should be a good month - and street jerks aren't going to hold me back.

Night, CoSo. 🌒

#Poetry #WritersOfCoSo

Well I feel seen. 😂

Frank O'Hara's "As Planned"

(Read it slowly. The lines and their meaning intentionally jumble a bit by the end.)

In honour of how "philosophical" this Sunday is becoming, did anyone else ever read Piers Anthony's Xanth novels?

They imagined a fantasy realm where everyone had a magical power of some sort... but the range was extreme. Some people could talk to plants, or transform, or fly. Others could project dots on a far wall.

Let's say you got the short end of the stick in the world of Xanth. Knowing yourself as you do, what would your Not Really Useful, Maybe Even a Bit of a Nuisance magical skill be?

I never want to hear another creator (myself included) or other person struggling to get by blame themself for not being able to "make it" in this world.

The game's made up.

All the points matter, but there's no justice in this world.

We must help one another to live as best we can, and transform power from whatever this is to something better.

#Economics
#Bullpucky
#UtterBullpucky
#AHotSteamingPileOfShavingCream

So this is a wee warm-up exercise I do:

Give yourself a prompt, *one page*, and a pen. No correcting as you go. You are stuck with the words you set down, and have to try to craft a full story by the page's end.

This is the "flash page" I wrote for the above image prompt. Not stylistically perfect, but still - it has an arc and conveys a world. That's enough to get cracking on the "real" writing today.

#AmWriting #WritingCommunity #WritersOfCoSo #Ekphrasis

Going for a wee walk to refocus before the afternoon's reading and writing tasks. I am afflicted by spasms of silly today. 🤨

This is the song I use to ground myself when I'm too caught up in my petty grievances, my stressors, my "me-ness".

Do you have a tune to ease the pressure-cooker of ego in you, too?

#CoSoMusic
https://youtu.be/8T0cHQb39GY

I feel like some of you resemble these remarks. 🙃

#Technology #ItsATrap
#Humour #Meme

#AFSR #SFF #ScienceFiction #audiobook #Reading

Chapters 13 & 14 are now up in audio and text format for Patrons following A FERTILE SOURCE OF RUIN, my wartime space opera inspired by Thucydides.

Each post includes some historical reflection, along with a summary of the story to date. Today's selection answers the Easter egg question in our last chapters, and discusses pre-war and mid-war Athenian politics and political actors.

Enjoy, if you do!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/fertile-source-111656857

Coffee last night had me up until 1am, so we have a few days of reset ahead. 🙃

This morning I didn't even get out of my building before a drunken sod of a neighbour got dramatic with me, so this has been an annoying week.

I *feel* healthier, and am trying to keep building on recent gains, but the attention for existing can easily trigger a stress response. I've been assaulted a few times, but that's not the issue. It's just a common immigrant experience to be exoticized, and it always sucks.

Happy #StarTrek Day!

On ciclovía Sunday, when half the highway closes weekly until 1p.m. to encourage physical activity, the fruit and juice vendors are always the first people I greet coming into my park for a run. 💛 Gotta love a community of work like this. Every role that helps everyday human beings is a good one. #Colombia

*To be clear, even another civil war couldn't pry the Second Amendment from the US, but if you folks could ever "disarm" the NRA's outsized lobby influence by burying it in lawsuits related to local massacres, then maybe an organization with less control over Congress could rise from the ashes.

Responsible US gun owners deserve a representative body that isn't bathed in the blood of their fellow citizens, & the rest of the country deserves greater public safety, full stop.

#MyTwoCanadianCents