If I get enough backlogged work done today and tomorrow, so help me, I am watching Alien: Romulus in a theatre across town in the evening. 🤞🏻

(It's a trip, but only in a few theatres can I "hear" people scream in space in English. Most showings are dubbed.)

With thanks to @Tacitus_Kilgore for the nudge, I'm taking the week away from the newsletter... not for a rest, exactly, but to hit an end-of-month deadline and clear the rest of my slate of outstanding tasks.

Will return to that work next Monday all shiny and chrome - and ideally with key projects out, workflow stabilized, and more writing in submission queues. 🤞🏻

For me:

Naturalistic fallacy is a favourite. When people confuse what "is" with what "ought" to be, we get into all kinds of messy and hilarious forms of ahistorical and nature-ignorant error.

(But I also like "inflation of conflict", when people treat the existence of debate within a field as a sign that no truth can be found within it. Nah, bruv.)

And I can be super susceptible to black-and-white thinking when it comes to my own options and life path. Working on it!

I love the idea of us talking more about #MediaLiteracy in general, and critical thinking touchstones.

I used to buy into the lie of "rational" debate, but it's much more effective to remember that this isn't how humans develop most of their views - or change them. (That said, some people are more *aware* of their emotional & cultural inputs than others, which makes discussion easier.)

Easy queries today, then:

What's your favourite fallacy?
And what's the fallacy you struggle with the most?

🧐 Haven't touched base with a few of you lovelies for a while.

@NiveusLepus, have you been able to rest and reacclimate?

@JoyfullyDazed, any rainy-day art breaks as of late?

@Mauve_matelot, is your leg feeling any better?

@stueytheround, any buns in the oven?! 👀

@Kaysymmetry, are you getting lots of kitty snuggles in for sanity?

@Graci, are you ready for the girls of the pod to move on from P2025?

@elmaxx, how're the jams treating you?

@Kinnison: 👋🏻 Hi neighbour!

Hugs to the rest! 🤗

Catching the moon on the replacement phone is still going to be tough, but if you zoom in, at least I have more stars! 😍

Good morning, starshines!
The world says hello!

Seriously awesome day here, CoSo.

I'm so grateful when we can share in the laughs and the learning, the lows and the lewds, all in equal measure.

Other parts of my day got derailed by Unexpected and Tedious Work Tasks, but rather than get stressed out over it, I'm calling it quits, giving up on fully catching up, and starting fresh tomorrow.

Be good, but not *too* good, eh?

It's always better to leave a little room for improvement. 👍🏻

Free-to-read Patreon story!

Today, I just wanted to extend a wee chuckle to my fellow creators, so please enjoy a tiny SF tale that takes a few teasing digs at the whole submission and rejection process - as seen from alien worlds.

This is "Sympathy for the Rejects, Elsewhere in the Milky Way" - and I hope it finds my fellow writers in good cheer.

Keep on keepin' on!

#WritingCommunity #SFF #WritersOfCoSo #ScienceFiction
https://www.patreon.com/posts/wee-sf-story-for-110851819

Also, this is for everyone prepping for or already returning to Fall Term routines.

You know who you are, and what you did.
#CoSoBooks #Reading #Comics

#Politics 😂 I promised updates from the deranged #GOP mailout I got added to through my alt-ego in Georgia (the state).

And if you look at the last line, well, apparently their dream scenario can only happen if I'm on board. 😉 So... you're welcome, estadounidenses!

#IAmAUsefulCanuck

How's everyone else doing this morning?

I'm feeling a little prickly with world-grief, but I ticked off a lot of admin tasks after an okay-run, so I'm sure I'll feel better as the day progresses.

#Israel #Gaza

Most of my older posts are behind paywall, but I've switched this one, from April, back to free-to-read.

There's so much ahistorical nonsense floating around even here, so if you're interested in the history of Jewish debate around this set of political positions, this piece contains excerpts from source texts of relevance to wide-ranging Jewish and Zionist political thought a century ago.

(And yes, Jabotinsky's writings are wild. He was an extremist.)

https://mlclark.substack.com/p/we-have-always-lived-with-extremism

#Isral #Gaza

The Kennedys weren't the only ones to disavow family this weekend.

My only chuckle is the cousin claiming Netanyahu deviated from Jabotinsky, ideological precursor to today's Likud. I wrote about him a few months ago: he fell out with other Zionists in the 1920s because he allied with Ukrainians who'd committed pogroms, against Soviets whose communism he felt was a bigger threat to Jewish nationalism.

I think he and Netanyahu would've gotten along well!
https://m.jpost.com/opinion/article-816140

Thanks for sitting with me in a melancholy moment this weekend. Crashing now, with a full week ahead.

Just wanted to thank you folks for a lot of clarity I've found on this forum. It hasn't always been easy for us to keep the human foregrounded in everything we do, but enough of us strive to do so that we can weather every storm.

(Another forum right now is still arguing over industry tempests on teapots, but here folks are wrestling with real-world problems. That makes all the difference!)

I feel like many ladies here would easily be found in a scene like this, if given half a chance. (@Graci might replace the spaghetti with chocolate, but still.) I see you, you free-loving menaces, you! 🧐