I never want to hear another creator (myself included) or other person struggling to get by blame themself for not being able to "make it" in this world.

The game's made up.

All the points matter, but there's no justice in this world.

We must help one another to live as best we can, and transform power from whatever this is to something better.

#Economics
#Bullpucky
#UtterBullpucky
#AHotSteamingPileOfShavingCream

So this is a wee warm-up exercise I do:

Give yourself a prompt, *one page*, and a pen. No correcting as you go. You are stuck with the words you set down, and have to try to craft a full story by the page's end.

This is the "flash page" I wrote for the above image prompt. Not stylistically perfect, but still - it has an arc and conveys a world. That's enough to get cracking on the "real" writing today.

#AmWriting #WritingCommunity #WritersOfCoSo #Ekphrasis

Going for a wee walk to refocus before the afternoon's reading and writing tasks. I am afflicted by spasms of silly today. 🤨

This is the song I use to ground myself when I'm too caught up in my petty grievances, my stressors, my "me-ness".

Do you have a tune to ease the pressure-cooker of ego in you, too?

#CoSoMusic
https://youtu.be/8T0cHQb39GY

I feel like some of you resemble these remarks. 🙃

#Technology #ItsATrap
#Humour #Meme

#AFSR #SFF #ScienceFiction #audiobook #Reading

Chapters 13 & 14 are now up in audio and text format for Patrons following A FERTILE SOURCE OF RUIN, my wartime space opera inspired by Thucydides.

Each post includes some historical reflection, along with a summary of the story to date. Today's selection answers the Easter egg question in our last chapters, and discusses pre-war and mid-war Athenian politics and political actors.

Enjoy, if you do!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/fertile-source-111656857

Coffee last night had me up until 1am, so we have a few days of reset ahead. 🙃

This morning I didn't even get out of my building before a drunken sod of a neighbour got dramatic with me, so this has been an annoying week.

I *feel* healthier, and am trying to keep building on recent gains, but the attention for existing can easily trigger a stress response. I've been assaulted a few times, but that's not the issue. It's just a common immigrant experience to be exoticized, and it always sucks.

Happy #StarTrek Day!

On ciclovía Sunday, when half the highway closes weekly until 1p.m. to encourage physical activity, the fruit and juice vendors are always the first people I greet coming into my park for a run. 💛 Gotta love a community of work like this. Every role that helps everyday human beings is a good one. #Colombia

*To be clear, even another civil war couldn't pry the Second Amendment from the US, but if you folks could ever "disarm" the NRA's outsized lobby influence by burying it in lawsuits related to local massacres, then maybe an organization with less control over Congress could rise from the ashes.

Responsible US gun owners deserve a representative body that isn't bathed in the blood of their fellow citizens, & the rest of the country deserves greater public safety, full stop.

#MyTwoCanadianCents

Today there was a half-page write-up in El Colombiano of the Georgia shooting and the arrest of Colin Gray.

#Colombia is no stranger to violence, but locals are always shocked and mystified by the number of school shootings that happen in the US. The laws here are lax around gun ownership, but there also isn't a constitutional right to arms weaponized by racist lobbies to shape local views of entitlement.

As another shooting is underway, this Canuck can only thank everyone fighting for change.

(And yes, I think it's time for a coffee. First one in a while! But the work's gotta get done, and I need a quick [legal] upper, so allons-y!)

I thought I was feeling super depressed this afternoon, but nah, my muscles are just screaming from a few days of improved workout routines.

Existential crisis? ❌
Exercise crisis? ✔️

Silly brain. Always trying to put a more elaborate spin on basic physical highs and lows.

☕ #CoffeeClub might enjoy this Ologies #podcast. It doesn't just discuss some of the science of coffee, but also some wonderful stories about its origins and spread, including a chuckle of a factoid about an early word for coffee that essentially meant "wine"/wine of Arabia, simply because wine was the standard drink of the time. (In other words, we're much more fixated on labels now.)

So here's to everyone enjoying their afternoon cuppa... ya drunks. 😉🍷

#History
https://pca.st/episode/f6089a5f-48c9-4784-9c30-857f17588ae7

*so ACSN can

Typing on the phone always adds fun errors to the experience.

Following government negotiations with a wide range of paramilitaries is always a trip. Two parts of EMC (a post-FARC group) recently split over disagreements at the table. ELN also makes negotiations a headache for other local outfits, who have demanded that the gov't exclude ELN from such talks.

But the gov't keeps working on it, & today's paper reports a key step in other talks: dropping leader arrest orders so can ACSN come to the table. #Colombia is a fascinating lesson in peace as a verb.