easytopia!

<p>For easytopia<em>!</em> Subscribers on apps outside of Substack, please enjoy this episode of <em>The Arc of The Bard</em>. There are 7 more right behind it. You should subscribe. I have great discussions with other writers about the things that writers talk about. I try to determine their strengths, and then learn from them. Stories and excerpts are also read. It’s a good time.</p><p>Some corresponding links: <a target="_blank" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0ZK80ipbdsn7n1d0QlnTXz">SPOTIFY</a> — <a target="_blank" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/elise-burke-brown-008/id1866223278?i=1000752386362">APPLE PODCASTS</a> — <a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/elise-burke-brown-008-the-profiler">SUBSTACK</a>.</p><p><strong><em>If artificial intelligence were sentient, it would be jealous of you.</em></strong></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">commercialherschel.substack.com/subscribe</a>

<p><strong>Objective Vantage Astronomical Laboratory Systems: Origin Planet Report #132</strong></p><p><strong>(Pilots are anthropomorphized to benefit listeners and readers)</strong></p><p>Four OVALS, Hao, Madrigal, Corcoran and Initiate Peters, hover in low Earth orbit. Peters is participating for the first time in an observation of consequential Earth activity. Therefore, for the first time, he is feeling the angst of helplessness in a situation where he is constrained, not only by policy, but by the nature of space-time itself, to affect.</p><p>The Ovals already know how this ends. They learn the fate of their origin planet as children. They watch the historical accounts of all the epoch cycles, and have seen the record of the events currently unfolding before them, as well.</p><p>These Ovals are in this calendar location in order to gather some tailing material from a space rock traveling through their origin solar system. Initiate Peters is on a fast track to be a Mission Leader. The Project Team decided to place him in this calendar location for dual-purpose training.</p><p>“It’s gut-wrenching.” Says initiate Peters.</p><p>“The humans who know are suppressed.” Hao replies.</p><p>“It’s so dumb, they sell their planet off to those lizards, but the whole thing is going to be wiped out by meteors again, in what might as well be five-minutes anyway.” Peters adds.</p><p>“All out of spite.” Madrigal responds. “They’re mad that they can’t win, so they do the <em>‘it’s better to rule in hell’</em> thing.” She says.</p><p>The four of them watch something happening in this location that they have seen records of many times. They know exactly how it proceeds. Even if physics allowed them to intercede, nothing would be affected. Time is what it is, it’s not something else.</p><p>Suddenly, they see an Oval diving around and confusing the Earth population during this disturbing time of what has been termed <em>The Inbred Abhorrence, </em>in their Calendrical classes.</p><p>“I wasn’t made aware that there’d be an Oval operating in proximity to that location.” Initiate Peters says. “Wait…. Is that? No way, is he real?”</p><p>“Fsake Madsen.” Madrigal says.</p><p>“I guess you are getting three lessons today, Peters.” Hao says. “He is a broken rule, and he’s testing all the laws.”</p><p>“Do I hate loving him, or do I love hating him?” Madrigal asks.</p><p>“… all the laws.” Hao repeats.</p><p>Corcoran chimes in. “There are some interesting humans, though. They are worth looking at, the species really did have a lot of promise. It would have been interesting to see what they could have done.”</p><p>Hao concurs. “They exhausted their tries.”</p><p>423 Words.</p><p>* Below are good for OVALS background. Search my substack for OVALS for more.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/death-fiction-species-created-ovals?utm_source=publication-search">https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/death-fiction-species-created-ovals</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/ovals-e-36-ovals-linear-time-re-entry?utm_source=publication-search">https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/ovals-e-36-ovals-linear-time-re-entry</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/ovals-where-is-madsen-antogonist-conflict?utm_source=publication-search">https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/ovals-where-is-madsen-antogonist-conflict</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/ovals-project-watchtower-leopard-5?utm_source=publication-search">https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/ovals-project-watchtower-leopard-5</a></p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://payhip.com/b/ahZMu">Get my $5 eBook</a> | The political class in 15 minutes or less</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin/tech4less/login/friends?rcode=4C9D0F6E-F871-11F0-BC5A-DB6FEDB2E6C4">Use this link for discounted tech items</a> | Refurbished, open box, etc.</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/episode-000-promo-description">Read and share my </a><a target="_blank" href="https://www.givesendgo.com/TheArcofTheBard">GiveSendGo</a> for a good description of <a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/episode-000-promo-description">The Arc of The Bard</a></p><p>I hope you enjoyed Flash Fiction February, ‘26, and this finale. <em>A New Arc of The Bard</em> happens Monday AM, or Sunday evening if you’re eager.</p><p><strong>PLEASE SHARE</strong></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">commercialherschel.substack.com/subscribe</a>

<p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://payhip.com/b/ahZMu">Get my $5 eBook</a> | The political class in 15 minutes or less</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin/tech4less/login/friends?rcode=4C9D0F6E-F871-11F0-BC5A-DB6FEDB2E6C4">Use this link for discounted tech items</a> | Refurbished, open box, etc.</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/episode-000-promo-description">Read and share my </a><a target="_blank" href="https://www.givesendgo.com/TheArcofTheBard">GiveSendGo</a> for a good description of <a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/episode-000-promo-description">The Arc of The Bard</a></p><p>It’s more quiet this morning than usual. It’s the time of year when the windows begin stay open overnight. Usually, at sunrise, there are birds making a lot more music than today. The bats are leaving the evening domain, and retiring to their roosts, wherever they are. Deer are quietly and gingerly rising from their matted grass and moving along.</p><p>All of these things are happening, but for whatever reason, it seems more thin. Even less audible than usual. The dawn needs more time to stretch, it wants to take a cautious look around before commencing with fullness.</p><p>The warbler sets in the towering Cypress. Typically, he’s vocal, enthusiastically so. Today, however, he perches, head cocked, observing me with one eye, as though expecting a report. “Hello.” I say. Pensively, not presumptuous, at all.</p><p>“Look.” I tell him. “I know I’m a two-legged, but I didn’t do all this. They don’t exactly let guys like me make policy.” I say. “Trust me, things would be a lot different.” He doesn’t believe me. I can tell. He finally exclaims something personal toward the sunrise, and goes for a flit around the yard.</p><p>The sunlight is a slow tide. The field is washed of the neutral morning twilight. Gold shimmers on evergreen needles. It splashes between waving treetops.</p><p>A loud billow of warplanes sweeps across the morning sky.</p><p>226 Words</p><p></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">commercialherschel.substack.com/subscribe</a>

<p>A. They are going to do that, because that’s what they do.</p><p>Q. But do they have to do that, can they change?</p><p>A. They do the things they do because that is who they are. People are not other people than who they are, they are who they are, they are not somebody else.</p><p>Q. Can you tell them, and then they can do something else?</p><p>A. People do the things they do, they do not do the things they don’t do.</p><p>Q. But why do they do the things they always do, when the things they do keep them doing the things they do, and it’s always the same?</p><p>A. They do the things they do because that is who they are. People are not other people than who they are, they are who they are, they are not somebody else.</p><p>Q. How do you know which people are going to do the other things?</p><p>A. They are going to do that, because that’s what they do.</p><p>Q. Why do they let themselves be taken advantage of by the people who benefit from it, at their expense?</p><p>A. The people who benefit from it know that people are going to do that, because that’s what they do.</p><p>Q. Why do the people keep perpetuating this cycle over and over again?</p><p>A. They do the things they do because that is who they are. People are not other people than who they are, they are who they are, they are not somebody else.</p><p>Q. Why do some people <em>not </em> participate in this behavior?</p><p>A. Because they have <em>thoughts</em>.</p><p>Q. What do the people who perpetuate these cycles have?</p><p>A. They have <em>reactions</em>.</p><p>Q. Why are they reacting and not thinking?</p><p>A. They do the things they do because that is who they are. People are not other people than who they are, they are who they are, they are not somebody else.</p><p>Q. Is there a way to get them to react to something else?</p><p>Q. Hello? Hello?</p><p>A. I’m thinking.</p><p>343 Words.</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://payhip.com/b/ahZMu">Get my $5 eBook</a> | The political class in 15 minutes or less</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin/tech4less/login/friends?rcode=4C9D0F6E-F871-11F0-BC5A-DB6FEDB2E6C4">Use this link for discounted tech items</a> | Refurbished, open box, etc.</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/episode-000-promo-description">Read and share my </a><a target="_blank" href="https://www.givesendgo.com/TheArcofTheBard">GiveSendGo</a> for a good description of <a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/episode-000-promo-description">The Arc of The Bard</a></p><p> easytopians<em>!</em> share<em>!</em></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">commercialherschel.substack.com/subscribe</a>

<p><a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/a-bike-trip-part-1">Here’s Part 1</a></p><p>Terrence Foch leaves the gorgeous little American town. The situation at the campsite was too bad, but it afforded him the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful place with nice people for a day. He’s taking the advice of the deputy, and he’ll take the alternate route to his new location.</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://payhip.com/b/ahZMu">Get my $5 eBook</a> | The political class in 15 minutes or less</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin/tech4less/login/friends?rcode=4C9D0F6E-F871-11F0-BC5A-DB6FEDB2E6C4">Use this link for discounted tech items</a> | Refurbished, open box, etc.</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/episode-000-promo-description">Read and share my </a><a target="_blank" href="https://www.givesendgo.com/TheArcofTheBard">GiveSendGo</a> for a good description of <a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/episode-000-promo-description">The Arc of The Bard</a>.</p><p>It’s just as the deputy explained. There’s a row of estates along one side of the road, and a ravine on the other. He rides along a ridge, and he doesn’t see a car for a couple of hours. His bike has a light in the front, as does his helmet. The back of his bike has one of those flashing red lights. It’s a great time, riding at night.</p><p>As he heads out over a hill, what he sees is unexpected. The deputy must have steered him wrong, because laid out in front of him should not be such a large city. He doesn’t know where he is. Why is there such a large city out here? His map did not reflect this.</p><p>It’s dark, he has no phone signal. He’ll go forward. He’ll figure it out when he gets there. He has a couple of days to get straightened out.</p><p>As he rides the ridge, the road narrows radically. As he nears the town, he’s practically squeezing between a brick wall and a wooden fence. He comes to an alley, where going the way he came is the only way out. Unless he goes into the building. That’s what he does. Goes into the building. He’s riding through the hallway of a sparsely occupied building. There are glimpses of people, and peripheral evidences of activity.</p><p>He winds all through this building in the only ways that he can. There are no choices. It’s a long corridor. Not well-lit, the hallway has brown, mat carpeting, and the general ambiance of the place is clinical. It’s not residential.</p><p>He finally spills out of the building and finds himself in a square, at an intersection. There are a couple of people with him, two women. One of whom he feels an immediate affinity for. The three of them are looking at a map.</p><p>The map makes no sense. It’s not a place he recognizes, and it’s not where he needs to be, but he has to understand it in order to get to his intended destination. On the other hand, he really likes being near this woman who is also trying to navigate the strange map.</p><p>Terrence feels good about this situation. He feels lucky to have gotten lost, he never would have encountered this woman. His mind and his heart are open to whatever is going to happen. He has something to figure out while he’s in the middle of this important re-location.</p><p>463 Words.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/p/a-bike-trip-part-1">Here’s Part 1</a></p><p><strong>easytopians</strong><strong><em>!</em></strong><strong> share</strong></p><p><strong>flash fiction february: 3 days remain</strong></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://commercialherschel.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">commercialherschel.substack.com/subscribe</a>