#CookiesForDays
Or more like--
#CookiesForNeighbours
#CoSoBakes

(Also: I used to hate oatmeal raisin cookies, and now I... kind of prefer them to the chocolate chip variety? Is this a sign of ageing? Should I be learning how to make fig newtons? 😬)

Afternoon cookies (using up the rest of the dough from Monday).

Swing by, bring a book, and let's down these suckers with tea or something stronger.

#AmReading (One more book before I can write that darned review.) #CoSoBakes

Another story rejection today, which is perfectly fine - it means I'm back in the fray!

The trick with rejections is to know where you're going to send the work next.

This story received glowing comments from three readers before it was first sent out, so when I read today's rejection, I had it out to its next possible home within the hour.

(Second trick with rejections: *do not agonize over the contents of the rejection letter; there are no hidden clues!*)

#WritersOfCoSo #WritingCommunity

Today, we use a recent Trek event to reflect on the pain of near-future storytelling that imagines worlds as ugly as our own and also somehow more optimistic.

There are plenty of real-world touchstones for the Bell Riots of DS9, which we just marked this past week. But are there real-world touchstones for the *change* that DS9 imagines will come after one bout of violence goes too far?

#StarTrek #SFF #Humanism #Economics #Housing #BellRiots #Politics
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-bell-riots-and-us

🙃 And there's a transport protest today on the highway (ongoing union issues with the state). I'll save you the noise this time, but some trucks are trying to toot out tunes, so - points for creativity.

(I can't fully concentrate until they pass, though, alack.)

#TheTootening #Colombia

Some days I really just want to live in a cabin, well away from all this nonsense. Porch chair. Suspenders. Battered old book of poetry I've read to death. Cat in the window. Lazy old beagle called Colonel McGruff snoozing beside me, except when needed to huff a low howl of a warning if anyone comes up a narrow dirt road.

Is it the whisky wagon, here to drop off my monthly jug alongside coffee and grains? No? Well, that's also what the bear-deterrent of a shotgun is for.

#Perfection #LifeGoals

Minor annoyance this morning, which I'm turning into a chuckle.

I run early to avoid people. I have told this to the tinto vendor Marisol in the park. Early = no dudes bothering me. Usually.

But yesterday Marisol was eager to tell me that a friend of hers has seen me leaving the park and thinks I'm nice and wants to take me out for coffee. I told her I'm not interested, but...

Guess who was waiting with her today, to try his luck anyway? 🙄

The dudes, I'm used to.
But las traidoras? Por qué?!

There's a principle in publishing that it's a mixed blessing to come across a terrible published author.

On the one hand, you think, "Wow, if that crap could get published, maybe there's hope for me yet!"

On the other hand: "Wait, if that crap has been published, maybe it's because the system is built to favour crap."

I feel that way when seeing EM teach everyone that knuckleheads can be billionaires.

It's funny for a beat.

Then it's all just a sad reminder of how mediocre our systems are.

Okay, okay, one more Key & Peele skit before bed.

You know for whom you should *never* try to throw a surprise party?

😂 Anyone in this line of work. #Humour

Night, CoSo!
https://youtu.be/h0vkN7udQoo

There's someone I read every time they share their thoughts online, and every time I do I see how much they're caught in a really painful loop.

It sucks so much to be trapped in a way of thinking one can't escape (I've been caught in loops myself), but it's especially hard to see others caught, knowing that they have to a) recognize that they *are* in a loop, b) want to leave it, and c) make the first leap themselves.

It's so hard to give up what is familiar, though--even if it's killing you.

Second-round rejection for Grist's Imagine 2200 Contest. That means I pleased at least one slush reader, but not the judges - which doesn't surprise me, since the story isn't *quite* as tech-optimist as I think they're looking for.

Now to figure out where on Earth to send a story like this next...

(Or just make it free-to-read, if no good fit comes to mind in the next while.)

Plenty of other work to finish and send into submission queues!

#WritingCommunity #WritersOfCoSo

Today for Tough Times Tuesday, we unpack a messy economic topic that has been such good fodder for clickbait.

Recent talk of price-fixing, price-gouging, and underlying anxieties about inflation and antitrust actions have made for a perfect storm of disempowered market participants and economic analysis that fixates on how "everyone else is wrong".

How do we build a media ecosystem that encourages knowledge-sharing in a useful way instead?

#Economics #MediaLiteracy
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-loaded-language-of-price-fixing

Also, I made oatmeal cookies last night, which means I am having the "best" meal this morning after coming out of the rain. 🙂 #AGoodDay

Sadly, my new #BugFriend isn't supposed to be here. It's an invasive species in the region, so sightings have to be reported. 😥 I ain't usually a snitch, but sometimes it's necessary.

DON'T EAT IT, @CanisPundit! Dogs and shells don't mix. 🙃

New #BugFriend just dropped! 😍

Look at this absolute unit, trucking along in the gentle rain with its shell all a-glistening. My favourite litle self-made homeowner-on-the-go. #Nature

First task of the new school year complete: messages sent to all my nephews, wishing them Great Success and gently reminding them that I'm on hand for homework help if they need it.

Two are going back to school for the first time in a while, which is *such* a relief (homeschooling standards are too lax in Ontario), but boy howdy, I would never in a million years want to be a teen or preteen again. The drama! 😬 So much performative stress!

Hope everyone else's Yutes start the school year well.

Rainy morning. Not sure if I can run (depends on ground conditions), but I can go for a walk in the rain, at least.

Morning tune for a dark and drizzly start of day - the kind where you take with you into the shadows everyone you've ever been. #CoSoMusic
https://youtu.be/nlBaDgmPXrQ

I think this is appropriate for a sign-off tonight. Thanks for the memories, James Darren (a.k.a. Vic Fontaine). #StarTrek

https://youtu.be/q0fI6SR6Qow