*crackles knuckles*

Okay, time to 'sletter.

#VerbingTheNoun
#AmWriting

🙃 I am a good educator.

One of my students was excited to show me the English book his cousin gave him.

It turns out his cousin--a gay upper-class Colombian--is a diehard fan of a certain would-be autocrat running for US office.

My *student* isn't, though, so after I set his mind at ease by telling him the production history of this book, we went through sections and came up with reading exercises that would work best with its contents.

Like I said - I am a good educator. 🙃

No matter what.

Just heading into class now, but look what I saw on my way over! 😲 Crunchy peanut butter has arrived in everyday barrios! I haven't seen this "ethnic" cuisine of ours out on Colombian shelves in six years!

#TheLuxury 😅
#TheLittleThings

(No shade to these study authors! It's clear that they love what they do, and want you to love it, too!)

Just printing off materials for my students tonight, and this one's going to be fun. They're both scientists, so I've been putting them through a unit on terms and syntax of relevance to research (GREAT for passive voice and diversifying verb vocab), but tonight's reading is going to involve more flowery language than one usually sees in science papers.

We'll see how they do, but for now I'm chuckling at the efforts of these paper authors to create moving prose about remote crop monitoring. 😅👌🏻

I've fallen down a research rabbit hole for today's newsletter.

This one comes from having stumbled into a whole new area of modern problem, filled with details new to me but SO FASCINATING once you start wading through them.

Just finished listening to a related talk, and am now going back to another paid task before class, so I can sit with this technical data before I draft and post.

But, whew--the sheer *variety* of things falling apart! You can't say we don't live in interesting times. 🙃

Just finishing a good stretch and pace between work tasks, but man, when you check in with the news, do you ever get this ache in your chest like your heart wants to grow large enough to reach out and touch the whole world?

That's...

That's not fungal spores talking, is it? 🤨

Does anyone know the signs?!

First thought when I saw the firehose - so thank you, O Doomed Spammer, for the callback! 👍🏻

#CoSoMusic
https://youtu.be/VScSEXRwUqQ

Long working day already in progress!

Tough Times Tuesday will probably be up much later - but honestly, who needs more tough times right now?

Trying to remember to put the "human" first in everything we do isn't easy. The news keeps pushing for us to see ourselves and each other as mere pawns on a very crowded chessboard.

But even pawns get to live with some flair, right?

Have a good one, folks.

NO.MÁS.TE--

The existential dread in me honours the existential dread in you. 🙏🕊️

Brain is broken.

Possibly due to the pressure system promising rain later today?

Time to put tokens in the ol' piehole and hope the headache falls out. 🤞

(Or that a good rainstorm breaks soon. Either/or/maybe-both?)

Today we talk about Gaza and international law, framed around an episode of Alie Ward's Ologies.

But the core of my argument is about "word games", and the danger of letting a litigious approach to human rights keep us from responding with greater integrity to human suffering in all its forms.

Don't get lost in definitional weeds; fight the social paradigms that make too many of us afraid to engage with wrongdoing in our world.

#War #Gaza #Law #International #Humanism
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-word-games-we-play-with-atrocity

All right. Out for the night!

After the day we've had, last one out, please don't forget to... 💦

Just popping on to say that, if you're also following the news today, my heart is with you. There are awful videos coming out, and I'll be writing about a slice of it tomorrow.

After two years of active war - with the number of Russian dead alone hitting the half-million mark recently - I know a lot of folks can only see violence in nationalist terms right now.

So, again: my heart is with everyone following the news more openly.

We're doing the best we can to stay humane in an inhumane world.

Okay, and now somehow this brief work break has ended with me humming Ennio Morricone tunes, so obviously it was a good one. Thanks, you nutters!

Back to it with me. #AmEditing

#CoSoMusic
https://youtu.be/J9EZGHcu3E8

Okay, I'm changing the rules of today's game, in defence of a much maligned and sometimes VERY USEFUL word. #moist

(With thanks to @duglop for catching me up on the Sunday sillies here.)

And now, having posted this, I'm off to wrap up Stage 1 in an editing project today.

It's been a treat. 👌

Have a good one, CoSo!

A lighter piece today for #BookTube. I discuss editorial labour, and one big issue that holds writers back from telling their stories with the confidence necessary to find their audience.

Simply put: we're often so worried about being misunderstood that we try to spell out every aspect of our world/argument. In the process, we demonstrate no trust in our readers--or in ourselves.

A good editor can help with that, but they're not always easy to find! #WritingCommunity
https://youtu.be/-px1zI9lbbY