Between the kid being sick *and* flooding the apartment via laundry machine, + internet cutting out, compelling me to find a coworking space for meetings... Yesterday wasn't great for any claims that I would "finally get caught up". *Eyes universe warily* I will... *try* to get caught up today? 🤞🏻🤞🏻

Yesterday the teen came home with her first report card in years. She'd been out of school first because her last home had her working instead, & then because the end of USAID killed an integration program helping Venezuelans like her. Suffice it to say, we took some time yesterday to celebrate. 💖

It's been too long since my last #ArtBreak. Hirō Isono, 1945-2013, is a master of forest scenes. You've probably seen his work used for puzzle art, but I think his pieces deserve more use in SFF covers, too. His "essence of the forest" transcends realism capture a very real "magic" in such realms.

#PoetryBreak If you're on Instagram, check out the @rosemerry.trommer, and the press @samarapressbooks. This one hit me just right today. The world is filled with over eight billion people carrying complex griefs. Be gentle with yours, mindful of theirs, and careful with the chasm between them.

One of my #Podcasts on walkabout was NPR's Fresh Air interview with Bryan Stevenson, on how "facing our racist past is a path, not punishment." His argument for truth being essential before reconciliation can happen is potent. This is a vital listen for reckoning with how deep the rot truly runs.

Taking a brief sit at my favourite park in the city. It's a little dangerous. Deep in Centro, there are drug-users and very desperate types about, along with idling families and elderly couples, etc. But that full mix of life is what I love about it. Everyone can enjoy this space. #Colombia

Whenever I move through the book district in Centro, I feel a deep humility and gratitude for the work I get to do in genre. We who get to write, to publish, even to make a career of the written word, do so in a world where creative praxis is a privilege. What are we doing to extend the platform?

Ya casi a la mitad. 👌🏻 Halfway there, and a GREAT steps day in process. #Walkabout #Ciclovia

Ciclovía vibes. :)

Health and wellness can be cultivated by our built environments. Do we create spaces where it is easy to be in nature, to be with each other, to celebrate safely in community? Or do our social networks inundate us with hateful rhetoric and amplify distrust of our neighbours? #Walkabout #Colombia

Ciclovía is the best. Once a week and also on most holidays, half the highway shuts down for runners, bikers, roller-skaters, and walkers like me. Medellín also has a brilliant green corridor that alleviates traffic heat immensely. I'm about 1/5th of the way home, listening to a pod on nudibranchs.

And... we are off. I have a meeting at six and tons to tweak on the tech side, but that still gives me 12 hours walkabout. Headed to the metro now. Be good, eh? Photos if I have good ones, but other than that... TTFN, Bluesky! It's just me, a notebook, sunscreen, water, & the length of Medellín.

One more afternoon of work and then I am going on a long walkabout tomorrow morning. Had a serious fright this week when my bank ceded an important process to a predatory third party. Big issue there. Really need to reconnect with the Great Offline for a while. Here's a wee #PoetryBreak first.

Who needs a #PoetryBreak? This hit me hard because I *can't* let it all fall right now... I have far too much to do. But I do need to let it all fall sometimes. And I'm really looking forward to a long, long walk solo across the city on Sunday. Just me and water and a notebook. For now, though--

This is going to be another one of those days where, no matter how much I do, it is never enough to catch up, and I am just always failing someone - myself most of all. Hoo boy. The body is tired.

I will never not go back to songs like this one on days like today. I am going to be working through the night for some much-needed catch-up in peace and quiet. Hope your hearts are well. Or as well as can be under the circumstances, in any case.

When you live in Colombia and your teen ward has a severe rash from recent beach time, this is how the local tienda del barrio helps you treat it. 👌🏻 Straight from the source! #EverydayRiches

What a stressful day. I hope everyone took really good care of themselves, & moved gently through this world of such recklessness around violence. Please remember that news cycles are not exactly interested in our cardiovascular health. Scroll wisely. Step away as needed. Hug a loved one, always.

I'm pretty emotional in general these days, but the cry I just cried over this image from Artemis II's Orion spacecraft Integrity is legitimate. I hate how much time our species has wasted on cruelty, fear, and prejudice. We are so small already. Why do we keep choosing to make ourselves smaller?

The annual Sunday Parade is rolling by. I do find it funny that one song is the melody for The Sound of Silence. That song is *strongly* about false prophets and estrangement. But in Spanish, someone used the same melody for a Christian song, so... something for everyone? 🤷🏻‍♀️ #Colombia #SemanaSanta

Anyone here going through a tough moment? Maybe just passed through one? Maybe feeling an abiding weariness and malaise? 👀 Got a #PoetryBreak for you. You can find Ellen Bass's work in many collections. This definitely makes me want to transcribe the poem I wrote a few weeks back. #Soon! #Poetry

🙂 We don't look half bad from this camera angle, do we? (Photo by Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman, taken from the Orion spacecraft Integrity) #Space #PaleBlueDot #ThatsUs!

#ArtBreak before work? The work of Esao Andrews stood out for me because details in his haunted surrealism and animist staging would today be considered "tells" of AI. But we *do* have artists who distort with intention. Here are four pieces with crisp focus, but he has quite the range on esao.net.

The sheer bliss of being out in the park at this hour, even though I am mostly answering voice messages on a long walk before diving into the day's work. 💛 I saw many folks heading home at this hour, actually: post Holy Thursday procession, many are at church or family events until late. #Colombia

My teen ward is Venezuelan and celebrates Semana Santa with a strong focus on fish (yes, I told her the story about beaver for early settlers). So tonight I took a beat to make red tilapia for her, with coconut rice, aguacate, & patacones (darker than usual because fried in the same oil). #Colombia

😅 How you know you're still part gringo: In a giant throng of Semana Santa shoppers, you stop to watch the Artemis II launch.

Relatedly, don't forget to block the new AI account here on Bluesky. "Attie" is its name, and blocking it is a good way to let management know they're barking up the wrong user experience tree with its launch.

Oof. 😬 Just did a quick search for a story of mine in an alt-browser, & pure #AISlop popped up (now shut off). If you remember, "Not in My Valley" is an homage to Spielberg's DUEL, a road-rage flick. My protagonist is "Dar" & not a danged plot/setting detail is correct. What a lousy timeline, eh?

Important words from the Sesame Street Workshop (which is still tackling very real problems for kids). This is another week of tense news, so maybe keep these wise words for toddlers in mind: "If you're using your device and it doesn't make you feel happy or feel connected just... put it away."

I genuinely thought I would get so much catch-up done yesterday. 😅 Then I fell dead asleep after a meeting wrapped at 2, and woke up... around now? So I guess "sleep" was yesterday's #1 catch-up. Now for a nice walk in the park before dawn & - hopefully - a quick run through everything overdue. 🤞🏻

Otro día, otro periódico sin noticias de la guerra en Irán, ni nada de EE.UU. El único es un artículo chistoso de la arrogancia de DJT para poner su firma en la moneda. Y también nuestra columna gastronómica de sábado, esta vez sobre un desayuno sencillo para reyes cotidianos. 👑😋 #Colombia

I haven't really been around much, except to share poems & art by brilliant humans. But I have so much love & admiration for how much so many of you are doing where you are, with what you have. I'm an overworking hypocrite here, but... please be gentle with yourselves. The world is hard enough.

Easily the best part of today's little walk: talking to some flowers and some bees. #Nature #NatureTherapy

Anyone need a #PoetryBreak? Just had a nice little walk and now I am itching to write. This feels right for the day, the weekend, all of it. Dave Lucas is on Instagram (fakedavelucas) if this strikes your fancy. I have a story about decay I'd love to get fully drafted tonight. 🤞🏻 #AmWriting

A refreshing reminder in today's El Colombiano. This issue has almost nothing about the world's wars and economic anguish. It's full of local tragedy, contract scandals, a hashing out of med system issues... Whole other worlds of problems. Somehow coexisting daily. #Colombia #International #News

So far I have royally failed at my day off, but it's 1:10pm and I'm finally away from the computer. We shall try to make this a good *half*-day of rest instead. (I am clearly out of practice. 😅)

It's been many many seven-day work weeks in a row, but after two more deliverables and a handful of overdue follow-up notes tonight, I can at least take tomorrow off to sleep, write, be in nature, etc. Saturday I'm back at it for tech tasks, mind you. But first! A day off! SLEEP IS COMING SOON! 🥳

I have committed the terrible writing sin of buying pretty notebooks. One does not do this, as a matter of course, if one actually wants to *use* them and not just look at them. But so help me, I have poems to write in these ones. 🙃 Pretty or not, they will soon be laid low by my wretched pen.

#ArtBreak, anyone? Faith Ringgold was a powerhouse of activism through art. What is a story? Where does it live? Is it something we create by playing within the lines, or by making the world take notice of how the textures of *our* existence move to a cadence of their own within the common weave?

All levity aside, this afternoon I got some proper writing in, after weeks of day & night work without a real pause. Even now, I'm gearing up for some more key tasks that are overdue. I know I need better work/life balance. But what an absolute gift and privilege to do *any* creative work at all.

👂🏻👀 What's that, Lassie? Timmy's opening a word processor?! Timmy's going to use it for a personal project?! Timmy's going to write FICTION for TWO WHOLE HOURS?! No, Lassie! No help needed! This is one well Timmy WANTS to stay down! 🥳 #ItMe #IAmTimmy & I #AmWriting (AT LONG LAST)

😂 I've been up since 2am programming a tool I need to make day-work more efficient. (Almost ready, but plugin design is fussy.) Today is a full day of comms catch-up, but out on a walk I saw a VERY TEMPTING opportunity to hop on a party chiva instead. Who wants to run away to the pueblos with me?

#ArtBreak, anyone? A.J. Casson was a core part of my Canadian art education growing up, & I remember visiting the gallery where many Group of Seven painters were buried. To be able to live fully in artistic practice is a privilege in our hurting world. What do we as creators today do with our own?

I dreamt that I visited my old neighbourhood & found a clone of me living there. Folks around me know I've been talking about my desperate need for a work clone for a while. But this clone was already worn out from problems all its own, so I pet its cat, listened to its woes, then left it alone. 🙃

A little Tuareg nomad rock for the morning. #MusicBreak Tinariwen is always wonderful, but the animated videos for some songs are an added treat. Here, I read the theme as "resistance is a gem; never give it up". What are you pushing back on today? What community will you build around your gem?

I need a #PoetryBreak. Maybe you need one, too? Thank you to Lena Oleanderson (@lena-oleanderson.bsky.social) for this one, which makes the rounds often online because... A lot of us probably need the reminder? The invitation? "the world is a laden thing rolling around on my chest lately" 🫂🕯️

#ArtBreak, anyone? Albrecht Dürer is best known as a German Renaissance painter with major works of religious import, but... It's his studies I love most. They speak to the timeless need for creators to cultivate their craft by choosing what matters to us & then refining it. What matters to you?

Whew. Very long Sunday. And... a lot left to do tomorrow morning, bright and early. So much that didn't get finished this weekend, but which has hard deadlines coming up soon! I am in deep, deep need of some rest first, though. Good night, folks. Be kind to yourselves in this messy world, eh?

This is as far out as I get to go today - tons of work to wrap up before a special evening announcement at my organization. But I *will* be attending our org's weekly writing date first, because it's been too long since I last felt like a writer myself. Hope your Sundays are starting beautifully.

New week, new #ArtBreak. Yes, Peter Harskamp has painted more than his Women and Cats series. But I am sharing this series with great love for all the physical tension Harskamp packs into his highly abstracted style. And please do not try these stunts at home. Whatever you do, "do not the cat". 😬