You know you're a writer when you wake up thinking about how to turn this violent episode into a constructive creative moment. 🙃 I just haven't decided for which forum to turn this into an essay. No response on my latest pitch, so I definitely need to send out more content ASAP.

(I had to go to a different office, so I'm now waiting in line for doors at 9, and my brain-gears are grinding away. ⚙️)

I tell you what, though.

This MIGHT be a morning where I have cake for breakfast, after taking care of everything at 8am when the stores open. 🤔

#CakeForLiving

HAH. I just realized - not three years ago: FIVE. I'm thinking with pandemic brain.

In 2018 I was robbed on my morning run (on a route with other people not far ahead) by two Venezuelans who were disappointed that I didn't have a better quality phone, so they held me for 10 minutes so I couldn't warn their next (more lucrative!) victims on the track. I literally started a chat about their families in Caracas with a gun to my side. :) I am *very* good under high pressure situations like that.

Ah rats. This has not been my year.

An hour ago I was robbed at gunpoint. I'm so amusingly used to life in Colombia that I'm not rattled by having a gun to my head, but I *am* kicking myself for thinking I was okay because there were two people a meter ahead, and two people a meter behind. The last time I got robbed at gunpoint, 3 years ago, I had also relaxed into having folks nearby.

*Never* let your guard down.
Phone blocked! Now just waiting for 8am to reclaim my number & reset key apps.

The marching band across the highway is currently practising a song that sounds like Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence", but I know full well it's not actually that piece; it's a religious song I've heard in Catholic churches here, which uses the same melody as this famous Western number about existential estrangement... but with lyrics very much about Christianity. We're a funny species, aren't we?

(Still beautiful, and a nice change from the Indiana Jones theme song!) #CoSoMusic

If anyone needs a bit of a reprieve from all this talk of machine learning in art... #StarTrek break! Have some AI poetry at its f(el)inest. https://youtu.be/DQCjqS3k2To

Woo! Guess what's live? 🥳 The latest episode of Beyond Atheism, which for some reason has me on it!

I kid--sort of: I was surprised and honoured to be asked on to talk about global humanism, and I had a joy of a conversation with these two fine fellows. I highly recommend listening to their back catalogue too; it contains a wealth of experiences generously explored within the secular world. (And of course, amid the full spectrum of cosmologies for our species!) #Humanism
https://www.spreaker.com/user/atheistsunitedstudios/ep-60-how-global-is-your-humanism-m-l-cl

I reached the absolute limit of what Duolingo can teach me in Arabic, so I switched to testing my French in Spanish mode--acing the prelim test, obviously, to start after Section 25. But... I really need to deepen my Arabic studies with real reading & chats next. The journey continues!

(Plus, why not revist my Latin, right? It's been years, but Duolingo knows exactly what phrases I'll need to get by in a dead tongue! 😅)

#Languages #Arabic #French #Latin

Afternoon #poetry on my commute.

(This one is for literary crew, but should be pleasing even if you don't get the references. I'm itchy to write ekphrastic poetry, so this resonated.)

Have you ever seen such well-behaved indoor horses? #DogsOfCoSo

Honestly the easiest slices of decadence to make. You just need to make sure you've got the oven up high, 375-400 degrees. 5 minutes to mix, 1 to toss in cinnamon sugar, 12 to bake. Perfection. 😋 #CoSoBakes #Food

Time for a quick and lazy batch of snickerdoodles? 👀 Don't mind if I do!

#CoSoBakes

You might've heard about Clarkesworld (an SFF magazine) having to shut its queues for a while because of a mass influx of chatbot-generated story content.

I think it's no surprise that I chose to write about the issue for #OnlySky - and not just because I've been published often there. Also, because it's so easy for the sensational tech component of this issue to overwhelm the far more pressing human concerns.

Never forget: we're living in an unequal world. #Humanism

https://onlysky.media/mclark/tech-crises-reveal-human-crises-on-the-chatbots-at-clarkesworld/

(Family is something you make for yourself, by hook or by crook or by international flight out.)

I will never not be fascinated by how incurious family has been about learning anything about Colombia in the 5 years I've been here. Two siblings still can't spell the country's name. Another thinks I live in the jungle. And all have such cosy presumptions about poverty that they dump on the whole of it.

(Father was amusingly worse. When I first told him I was leaving, he was terrified I'd join a cartel & asked how I expected to raise 3 kids here. [He figured my 3 nephews needed 3 cousins. 🙃])

Okay. So. Still not great. 37:40 for 6k.

But! 6k, not 5, while getting back into the swing of proper exercise. Legs good. Knees cranky. Tummy... curiously unhappy. 🤔 Silly bodies, always trying to teach us something new.

One more run on Thursday, then I'll reintroduce alternate day strength training on Friday, and... hopefully get back to my normal six-day regimen thereafter. 🤞🏻 What joy to be healthy enough to pursue further health again!)

5k o'clock? 👀 🏃‍♂️ #NoRainNoExcuses