My work windows are so tight this week. I haven't been outside for more than 40 minutes total since last Tuesday, and I'm sure my vendor-friend thinks I'm dead 🙃, because my usual routine of spending at least a *few* minutes peopling with my neighbours over a tinto has been shot to bits.

I keep hoping that I'll be able to step out for an early morning walk in the park, reply to week-old VMs, and even talk with someone dear to me I usually get to check in with once a week... but man. Some weeks!

Just a snappy little Tough Times post today, reflecting on the fact that we keep trying to raise the alarm on the energy cost of AI systems--but we're stuck in an economic hype cycle that wants us to believe we *need* to risk the damage this infrastructure is already causing, if we're to prepare for worse crises ahead.

It'll be a mutual death race between industry and humanity, until we can give up on this lie.

...Happy Tuesday?

#ClimateCrisis #AI #Technology #Energy

https://mlclark.substack.com/p/the-real-danger-of-so-called-ai-has

(Nah, I'm actually going to try to pull another long-nighter for catch-up. But very true for other nights! #AmEditing)

Can't sleep. Polycrisis will eat me.

#SixWordStory

Bark bark
Bark bark bark
Bark bark bark.

🙃

#GoingBarkingMad

Humanity: a good idea, rarely tried.

#SixWordStory

I have fixed the typos.

Ugh.

Two yappy dogs moved in a few weeks ago, and they recently started beefing with a yappy dog down the hall, and this morning it has been nothing but bark bark bark, bark bark bark, bark bark bark. Very difficult to focus.

There are some dogs I do not entirely understand.

Just enough time to heat water, and then it's on to the afternoon's long editing stint.

TTFN, loves.

Try not to go nuttier.

I'd genuinely intended for Monday Media Review to be an easy, light reflection on Godzilla Minus One, but I guess my world-grief over the relentless cusp of ever-expanding war got to me this weekend.

Today, we reflect on the importance of not ceding the story of war to those most champing at the bit for its expansion. We must retain an attitude that values life even when engaging with the worst of our monstrous world.

#War #Film #International #GlobalHumanism
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-stories-we-tell-to-live

I really couldn't afford to be sick those three days. I lost so much editing time, and my client has needed *so much* nervous handholding this weekend about whether we're going to meet a hard deadline they face, or not.

And lemme tell ya, when you still get winded and conk out quickly from small bursts of work, that ain't helpin' with catch-up. 🙃

Going to be a packed run until week's end.

And a long, long night of work today.

I hope July comes in a bit sweeter than June seems to be ending. 🤞🏻

It's not just that our cultures' moral compasses are already shot; it's also that this isn't going to get any better so long as the temp keeps rising, escalating resource wars, migration pressures, & bodily stress leading to more small-c conservative behaviours: risk aversion, tribalism, distrust of new & competing intel.

Today's level of warfare could very easily be the *lowest* we see for the rest of our lives.

But hey, fear is the mindkiller right?
Can't give our awful world a head start. 🕯️

Don't know who else can't sleep because their mind is heavy with world news, but if you're hittin' the despair hard because of increased risks of war spillover, you're not alone. Our species never learns.

Some months ago, writing about WWI sedition laws, I noted the hard truth that the world is full of gung-ho nationalists, which makes any humanist barely tolerated scum, because we *know* history belies the notion of a war to end all wars, & are so effing sick of the gamification of it all. /×

This morning alone, I have 50 min of VMs waiting for me and a priority editing task, on top of the dev edit that I'm *so* behind on now, thanks to the loss of three work windows from Wed to Fri. 🙃

But better alive and grumbling than the alternative, right?

My fever's low-grade enough that I can check in with some people who are probably worried about me, pick up my weekend papers, and get cracking on catching up.

See you BEE-EAUTIFUL PEOPLE 🐝 on Monday. Thanks for sitting with me in my flu. ❤️

And... of course I screwed up and forgot to upload the image here.

It's interesting to see which sites accept other site previews in posts. Substack doesn't get a preview on X, due to a longstanding beef, but Patreon does. However, on Mastodon, Substack's fine, but Patreon doesn't work.

Here, Substack works, Patreon doesn't. Then there's the fact that Patreon is fairly limited, so for an audio post it's hard to blend a visual file with the preview it offers. Such a scattered web we've weaved.

As promised, Chapters 3 & 4 of A FERTILE SOURCE OF RUIN are now up for Patrons.

There's a sneak peek of around 5 minutes of audio for non-subscribers, but from here on out full content is accessible at the baseline rate of $1 a month.

These paywall rules are part of the silly marketplace we inhabit. If I don't find an agent for this series, I'll indie-publish the book and audio later on. For now, enjoy if you're reading along!

#SFF #AFSR #Reading #Novel #ScienceFiction
https://www.patreon.com/posts/fertile-source-3-106676364

Speaking of, time to hit the shower so this sweaty mess of a feverish meatsack can pull off a Zoom-based English class at 7.

Thanks for solidarity, friends.

I'm supremely glad you all know your worth, and fight for it. 👌

(@Graci, @Kaysymmetry: three-day-sick ML is apparently like an *angry* drunk. Maybe Day 4 is when I get silly again, and become an equestrian!)

I had to laugh when someone reached out today with a writing gig that could only pay in exposure.

Buddy, I've been barely holding my life together on gigs that went from paying to nonpaying, unreliable classes, and seasons of high editing demand followed by crickets.

I'm freaking done with adding more uncertainty to life in a field that pays peanuts. At this point, I'm waiting out the next coronal mass ejection like any sane person, and looking forward to a better economy on the other side. 🙃