🧐 We should gear up to our next #Zine call, yeah?

I have a few more Big Ticket Items this work week, but I'll start badgering people for subs this weekend - with an #Ekphrasis challenge to go into our next issue, for anyone who isn't sure how to focus their creativity and take part!

(@Boyceaz, there is already a crossword-sized hole in my heart/layout, just for you!)

Well, it's #CoSoAfterDark somewhere, so...

#RandomQuestions

Folks, what's your favourite euphemism for any of the contents of our scanties?*

Yes, yes, I'm talking about our 🍆s, 🍑s, and 🍒s. Positive euphemisms preferred, rather than terms you'd hurl at someone in a fight, but I'm more curious about range and regional quirks.

(And if your favourite euphemism isn't "cash and prizes", why not? 😉)

On the plus side: #HorseFriends are back. (With bonus hazily captured giant moon.) The world is filled with so much pain, and I'm still making cookies for a friend in recovery when I get home. Morning, CoSo!

Anyway, that's how I woke up at least. 🙃

We will try to keep sanity and peace-building alive.

We will keep advocating for democracy in a world haunted by nationalist extremism.

We will not let the constant strain of war exacerbate racist, xenophobic, and otherwise dehumanizing local politics.

And we will be gentle with one another where we can, when we can, whenever we disagree about how best to get to a world of greater care & readiness for all the other, major social battles of our time.

(& the super clever part is how much no one is allowed to be concerned about escalation, because doing so is easily spun as sympathy for terrorists! Most Westerners have no idea what the Blue Line even is, so they think there's a simple border being fought over: not the case.)

This is "How To Leverage A Superpower To Do Your Bidding 101".

Again, my heart goes out to all the civilians. This is a nightmare of ego with no clear end, when we have other global crises to attend to. #Israel #Politics

#Politics #Israel

It's really something else, watching the US continue to act as though it has the power to stop Netanyahu. It's been trying to temper N's northern objectives for *months*.

Folks on the left think it's just a matter of halting arms shipments, but yesterday made quite clear that Netanyahu will escalate with whatever he has, & the moment there's fuller retaliation, bigger regional obligations will keep the US locked in. It's absurd how much now depends on the restraint of others.

Okay. Editing project finished and sent out, *just* in the nick of time. Time for a wee walk before evening class.

And... maybe a Patreon essay after?

I still have that piece to write based on thoughts from last week's book fair. Wandering those stacks definitely left me with Big Existential Feels that have been haunting me since.

Probably best to get them down on "paper" (screen) sometime soon, to unclog the noggin.

(It's like blowing one's nose, but with words instead of boogers!)

#Soon

Passing this on for folks in #Ohio, or anyone who knows voters in that region.

"In November, Ohio residents will have an opportunity to vote on a constitutional amendment that would finally abolish the state’s extreme partisan gerrymandering. Instead, the Ohio Supreme Court’s Republican majority ruled that the amendment will be described in egregiously misleading terms on the ballot itself, with ultra-biased language designed to turn citizens against it."

#Democracy
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/09/ohio-supreme-court-voter-fraud-gop.html

Terrific read on the parasitic nature of corporations: buoyed lately by #AI, but grifting long before it, too.

"It’s no coincidence that these parasite platforms are the same companies investing heavily in AI. They must do this because even they understand that they are killing their hosts. ...

That tick sucking my blood at LaGuardia was a small annoyance. The parasites in the culture are now too big to fit inside the largest airplane hangar."

#Technology #Corporations
https://open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia/p/are-we-now-living-in-a-parasite-culture

#WritersOfCoSo will understand.

I just went back to a project and found the spot where I'd stopped last time. It was a point where I needed to do a quick search to confirm a detail. Clearly I went looking for that detail last time on the wilds of the 'net AND NEVER RETURNED.

(And now I'm repeating history by stopping here to chuckle about it, but so it goes. 😉)

I swear, if writer brains weren't solidly contained, they'd burst forth and skitter off like a freshly hatched facehugger. #AmEditing

And now, #PenguinFacts:

The winner of New Zealand bird of the year for 2024 is the "hoiho".

It won in 2019, only to have the prize muddied by accusations of Russian interference (yes, we ruin everything).

Its name means "noise shouter" in Māori, which is not the nicest way of describing its pretty trill.

It's endangered, and a bitchin' diver.

It's called "smelly" in some reports, but maybe humans stink enough that we shouldn't go calling other critters such names? 🤷‍♀️
https://youtu.be/Y8Gk9zGkSvo

Today, for Tough Times Tuesday, we look at the latest valiant bit of reporting on Big Business emissions from The Guardian, and put it in conversation with the last two decades of reporting trying to sound the alarm in a way that might actually yield meaningful change. We keep saying that change has to happen "now"... but when it doesn't (and it won't), we need to be pragmatic. Our fight will be lifelong.

#ClimateCrisis #Technology #MediaLiteracy #Humanism
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-guardians-run-of-climate-journalism

#Israel #Gaza

Those following local media know Netanyahu's Philadelphi gambit was hot air, so to keep his war alive he's been sabre-rattling tossing Gallant in favour of a more loyal minister (i.e., one pro an aggressive launch into northern war, when Gallant has been focusing on readiness & the US has been cautioning against N's objectives).

This is all happening amid a bottomed-out Israeli economy. He's killing his country to stay in power. No civilian in the region deserves this nightmare.

🤔 I think I'm going to need to see their peer review first. An outside assessment would probably help! #Space

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-distant-spacecraft-has-confirmed-that-earth-is-habitable

14 emails down, two to go.

One project pitch.
One finished project with project summary attached.

Then newsletter. Then maybe a little fiction before evening classes?

I slept through most of yesterday afternoon and evening, which is probably for the best. Downcycles used to be a lot harder, but I still have habituated thought patterns that are double-plus-ungood.

It's like at the end of A Beautiful Mind: the mental constructs are still with you; you just learn how to keep them at a distance.

I know I'm not the only one, but I'm having a tough time mentally, especially with executive function.

Today's huge surge of relief over not needing a bigger repair was followed by a real struggle with everything else, even though I'm behind on tasks.

Am I frustrated with myself? Yes.
Does being frustrated fix this? No.

So if your brain isn't braining the way you want/need it to brain, try not to brain yourself further over your brain drain.

Off for a walk, to try to sneak up on mine again.

While I'm still in my relief-high, please enjoy this massive list of late-medieval dog names, compiled between 1406 and 1413 by Edward, Duke of York.

Which would you use?

#DogsOfCoSo

https://tudortreasures.net/medieval-dog-names/