While wordifying our wounds
Thoughts congeal when bleeding
As the gathered crowd communes
The time for action is in deeding
Shared with dVerse – verbing
Halo To Hall – 30th October 2026
Transcripts glow like neon; skill hides in a shadowy hall.
Grade-point halos polish myths, yet within the basics stall.
GPAs float like helium, tied to nothing firm,
while rounding to the hundred is now a mystery term.
Shuffling a system to drift through a soft parade of A’s,
a cargo cult of “equity” that’s built from empty praise.
Dressed up best on paper has now become the story sold,
but beyond all that glitters here, cannot become the gold.
Inspired by this article at The Argument about how schools are fudging grades for students, for a number of different reasons, with the result of a decline in the standard of education.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Who Gets The Lion’s Share?
Study first, pleasure second
Make your mind up to prepare
For your future reckoned
Because there’s always a lesson there
2 a.m. Cosmology – 29th October 2026
2 a.m.
and that cat
is crying again
fed just thirty minutes ago
apparently
not enough
my brain is soggy
my feet are slurring
another spoonful
in the bowl
and back to bed
into lucid dreams
and erratic thinking
the universe is revealed
to me
of course
we’ve got it
all wrong
the universe
is inside out
and the earth
is all around
the edges
and the centre
of the universe
is in the middle
time and space
behave differently
as you go closer
towards the centre
under the earth
there is nothing
but hell
the more we move
towards the middle
the closer to god
we get
having this
almost fully formed
and ready to submit
to science
the cat cries again
at the end of the bed
for fuck’s sake!
A true story, as we nursed our old, sick cat back to health a couple of weeks ago, making sure that he ate whenever he wanted.
Shared with dVerse Poetics – irreverence
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Character Is Fate
For those you invite into your life
Character is the best measure
Success and failure are just chance
Share with those who deserve your treasure
Emo – 28th October 2026
give thanks
to friend and foe
they have all
helped you grow
you say
you don’t care
but you care
more than you know
Ah, teenagers!
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
We Were Made For Each Other
We are mutually interdependent
No matter how much we hide
We must be there for each other
To see philosophy applied
After Party – 27th October 2026
At the Emperor's extreme extravaganza
peasant participation is prohibited;
a primal pissing contest fantasy
of the fragile currencies exhibited;
Youth, beauty and cash flaunted;
ego boosters for mediocre men
parading really hot regular girls
and their pretty privilege again;
Free champagne will tomorrow remind
the terrible company kept;
all the cab fares, bought and sold
until under the carpet swept.
Inspired by steph’s ‘the hot girl economy’ article and comments
Today’s Daily Stoic poem
We Reap What We Sow
Crimes often return to their teacher
Karma can not be cheated
The going around comes around
As the hypocrisy gets repeated
Crema – 26th October 2026
Mediocrity has become the default
Sold as more is always better
Filtered is a useful bitter assault
But sometimes you need the crema
So give me the shot
Give me the cure
When everything is slop
I demand something more
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Three Parts, One Aim
The moral, the natural, the rational
Examine your soul and nature’s way
Make the meaning of words intentional
Right now – put them on display
Heart This – 25th October 2026
From a safe, soft couch with the television on,
they blessed the wreckage with the sign of the cross;
Typed “thoughts and prayers”, hit post, job done,
they smelled no smoke, yet claimed the loss.
No call, no knocking with casseroles in hand,
just pixelated pity floating through their feeds;
Drowning in a sea they’ll never understand,
while they toss empty hope out as glorious deeds.
Inspired by Joe Nichols Substack write ‘Thoughts and Prayers, You Pitiful Bastards‘ (maybe requires subscription)
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Two Tasks
Be a good person and do what you love
Everything else is just a waste
Time is short; find what to get rid of
Live well and live in grace
After You – 24th October 2026
I am alive
I survive you
Oh, I’ve withstood
Bad and good, who
You would demean
Now I’ve seen true
Your scheme undone
I’ve begun new
No one else, just
Me, I trust, who
I must love too
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
The Fountain Of Goodness
Dig down from the mountain
Within you there is a flow
Of goodness that the fountain
Wishes others to know
The Lunch Room – 23rd October 2026
Aliens are interesting,
microwaves are boring.
All the circles have been cropped.
The principles of parsimony
have few followers
while there are benefits in believing.
This time is different,
beyond sophistication
and there’s money to be made in the bubble.
Are you insulted when asked
if it’s plugged in?
Not everything is a conspiracy.
The answer you seek
is often closer than you think.
Start in the lunch room.
Inspired by a David Elikwu newsletter, which included this little story:
In 2015, we discovered aliens again.
A group of astronomers at Parkes Observatory in Australia noticed these brief, intense, and seemingly random bursts of radio information; mysterious signals that seemed to be coming from the further reaches of space. They called them “perytons”.
For months, the team worked to identify the source. It could be neutron stars colliding. Black holes merging. Or potentially, hopefully, signals from intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.
Emily Petroff was determined to solve it. But she’d noticed something odd. The perytons only appeared during working hours. Australian working hours. Never at night. Never on weekends. Always during the day when staff were in the building.
She eventually realised that every time they detected a signal, the telescope had been pointed in the rough direction of the staff break room.
After deep investigation, she discovered the truth. The alien signals weren’t coming from deep space. They were coming from staff heating lunch in the microwave.
The microwave happened to operate at 2.4 GHz, close enough to frequencies the telescope could pick up.
Even though microwaves famously work within Faraday chambers, anytime someone impatiently opened the door before the timer finished, the magnetron was still running, sending a burst of radiation that the telescope dutifully recorded as a cosmic event.
Despite months of investigation, with sophisticated equipment and some of the world’s best astronomical experts, they were all undone by a microwave twenty metres away in the kitchen.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Show The Qualities You Were Made For
It’s easy to blame your circumstances
There’s always someone better off than you
So what happens depends on your choices
Let your effort and skill shine through
Are You Sleeping? – 22nd October 2026
Give your hopelessness a name
– Hibernate your dreams away –
The darkened cave cannot tame
Pretensions that will remain
Sleep through the alarm again
– Here’s a quiet hollow to stay –
Nurture that you can’t explain
What could I say but my name?
Inspired and mostly re-arranged words from this post at Tiny Hearts
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
