Happy Friday!

This week has felt weighty. I suspect the reason why has to do with events in Florida. (It was hugely uplifting to see the Democrats and their filibuster. I just wish the Republicans had been able to pull their heads out of their own asses long enough to do something positive. Alas, they're too focused on self destructing.)

That said, this week I rewrote a story and am finally, for real happy with how it worked out. I've developed this nasty tendency to throw something together upon request, panic when the story chokes due to not doing what it's meant to do, and then forcing an ending on it in frustration. I can't do that. Lesson learned. Anyway, it's going out to Dre, my friend the fireman, to check the fire stuff, and then it's off for submission. I'm very pleased with it as a whole, not merely happy with some of the bits. There's a difference.

Argh. There's so much to learn about story. This makes me happy, though. Speaking of, writer Daniel José Older has a free (for now) lecture on Skillshare about storytelling basics. Having run through it myself, it's great. I highly recommend it. 

In celebration of Friday, have some optimistic links. The first is: ​Roddenberry's Star Trek was "above all, a critique of Robert Heinlein." For the record, I'm a Trekkie, and I have been since I was about four years old. As I see it, Star Trek is the Peace Corps in space. It's not about war and is not, therefore, Star Wars. Trek has, fundamentally, a Utopian worldview. CO2 turned into stone in Iceland in climate change breakthrough. That seems to be heading in a more positive direction, at least. It doesn't remove the urgency from our need to move away from fossil fuels, but at least we may be able to do something with all the CO2. I'll be happier when they can build something out of it instead of merely burying it, though. Recycling seems the best plan, long term. And we do need to think long term. How Canada Became A Greenhouse Superpower. Interesting. I wonder if they have to use all the pesticides that open field farms require? I doubt it. ​Rowan-led team's Alzheimer's test '100%' accurate. That's huge. If they can test for it, they can treat it in its early stages and eventually cure it. And in other medical news... ​This isn’t hype: Canadian doctors just reversed severe MS using stem cells.