#Zine

Are you looking for abZurd, CoSo's homegrown, 99 ⁴⁴⁄₁₀₀% pure, pro-nature, craft-positive, and community-lovin' Zine?

In my profile and this pinned post, I have a Linktree that will be populated by links to the digital editions of each issue.

When we have more ducks in a row for future issues, you'll see a handy link for printing and payment details here, too.

For future issues, mail submissions to:

abZurd_Zine @ proton.me

Thanks for your interest in the mag!
https://linktr.ee/abzurdmagazine

Pinning this for all the new faces!

#MeetTheNauts

✍️ of sci-fi, news analysis, essays, translations, reviews
👨‍🍳 of baked goods, hearty meals
🇨🇦 by birth
🇨🇴 by residence, since 2018
🗣️ English, Español, familial French (learning Arabic)
🏳️‍🌈 Queer & nb (but I don't stress pronouns because I move in 2 very different language contexts)
🌎 Secular humanist
🦋 (nature)-lover: no pets, but will share insects & birds!
📖&🎞️ nerd

And all-around advocate for being kind to yourselves. Life's tough enough as is. 💙

Hey #CoSo! 👋 For my upcoming article at #OnlySky about my first week here, I've put together a visual guide for the new free-account user, to help them make sense of the maybe-new-to-them layout.

I thought it might be a good shareable resource right away for the #CoSoTips crowd, too, though, so I hope this is useful for others just getting started.🤞 If you see someone confused, please feel free to send this image along!

M L Clark's 3 #Writing rules:

1) Write what you *want* to know.

2) When writing another context, always elevate its own storytellers. Be a megaphone to the lesser-heard, not a "voice to the voiceless".

3) Let any given story go. If the theme is true, it will come back to you. 💛

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.

🥳 Feria de los liiiibros! Quién quiere ir conmigo esta semana? 👀

(Book fair in Medellín! Who wants to go with me this week?!) #Colombia

Sending a random burst of love, well-wishing, and warmth @NiveusLepus's way.

I hope our dear Bun and buddy is taking good care of herself. The work of being present so much and so often with others is wonderful *and* can take a toll.

May you always feel supported in turn, and remember that your core value lies not in what you *do* for others, but in the sheer fact of being you. 🫂💜

Weekend #Ekphrasis challenge, for those who follow #CoSoArt. (Shall we make this a "thing", for those who want more creative expression shared on CoSo?)

This is "The Watcher" by Kellen Rodrigues. What writing, music, or visual art does it inspire from you?

#Poetry #WritersOfCoSo #WritingCommunity

@ACG2

Beating you to it today, bright star! 💫 💛

Good morning and good caffeination to you! 😊 ☕

Lucky #BugFriend, perfectly suited to blend into their environment. 💛

It's utterly bonkers that we ever think of our societies as just.

At best, we're a mess of people with loosely related notions of common destiny, burning with competing internal convictions of what justice entails, trying to scrape out small, reactive wins in systems broken by design.

The cruelty of humanity, and its strategic indifference to *some* suffering, is never surprising.

What's surprising is the hope we still carry into the fight for something better, age after wounded age. #History

Early morning recording finished, and now out for a run before the editing ensues. :)

Morning, CoSo!

Colombians are out en masse in their colours for tonight's game against Perú, so I guess the country has recovered from that agonizing defeat. 🙃 I have writing to do when I get home, but I think I've huffed enough everyday joy to get me through the night all the same.

As much as people make me grouchy sometimes, they also make me smile.

Today, walking through the mall, I saw a young kid about to burst into tears over pickles in his food court sandwich, but BIG BROTHER (not that one--the good kind) was right on hand, showing him that the pickles could come off, and swapping out a pickle-cleaned top-bun in no time at all. The eldest couldn't have been more than eight, but what a gift of care he's already mastered.

A silly start to the day, but a great end. 💛