Good morning, good morning, good morning. Week five of the Utopian and week 20 overall. What’s the story?

I think we’re getting better at this.

We are and we are not. We have too much work to do.

Yes, but we are better than we were.

Okay, this is not the time to pat each other on the back. What have we got this week?

For sure, we’ve got some more pages of Paradise, we are preparing The Cannibals of the Forest for Utopian literature. We’ve also got a little bit more about this rather tragic love triangle between Marla, Ralph and Big Billy.

What size text are we using for Big Billy?

Very funny. What else?

Green2021.org is back up. Not really, but it’s online and we are ready to start adding our content.

What’s up right now?

Nothing. It’s a complicated site to change over. The essays don’t get copied and pasted easily because they all have integrated news items. It’s a step-by-step process but we’ll get there.

How much time?

Once we get into a rhythm, probably not very long. But there are snags. It’s another learning curve. But we are there and we got away with it without spending the 50 bucks.

Not bad. Where is Joy?

This question draws silence and everyone sits around staring at each other.

Oh come on, not again. Arthur, what’s going on with Joy?

She is still riding the trains and she’s with some guy named Niko from another community, if he comes from a community.

There is quiet laughter from the group.

Knock it off. We are all adults. Do we have any material coming?

Yeah, quite a bit. There is Niko and Joy’s blog…

Everything stops again and Arthur is quietly rubbing his eyes.

I said, knock it off. What else?

There seems to be a checkout party this week planned on the train and I think Joy is going to cover that for us as well.

No Joy this week, Arthur?

Just shut the fuck up!

All right, I’m not going to say it again. Everybody let’s pay attention to business. What else?

The Mayor has another song, Lu San’s story about the warlord continues, Dr Ira has a post, Kahana has a post, Herman…

Just a minute. Stop there. Herman…

What?

What was that last week?

What was what?

You wrote a post that consisted of the words quality of life written… How many times?

Do you really need me to go back and count? It fit the space.

Herman, we come to you for philosophical help. It’s your job. Perhaps you can be more creative than repeating three words over and over again.

It’s the truth.

It may be the truth but this is a literary journal which means repeating three words over and over again does not necessarily constitute literature.

It did last week.

Can we have some advice about depression?

Okay. I’ll do it.

Cheers. What else?

We have Torah study, baseball, classifieds, some farm reporting and I think some more “what our normal day looks like.” And I think Meanwhile Back at the Front wants to suggest taking Shabbos off from the killing.

That sounds about right. Are we doing nudity this week?

We can put a sexy picture on the cannibal story if you want?

Let’s go with artwork instead of a photo.

Got it.

So that’s it? The issue gets put together on something similar to last week’s schedule. Faster if we can. We are devoting a few hours to loading green 2021. Anything else?

We have a question about where our archives belong? Should they be here, a part of practical English or stuck on practical-english.org?

That’s a good question. I hate to keep pushing it back and back but we seem to be making progress generally so let’s leave that decision till a little later.

I’m going to vote for having it be a part of this. We can open up new pages and link to it from the other sites.

That’s probably the way we are going to go. In the meantime, issue 5 of 15 is due by the end of the week. When are we getting started?

We are already getting started in the background. But probably the old issue gets archived first thing Monday morning and the new one starts getting built.

I have a question. When the blog was our main theme, we left the room open on Google docs and we let people watch the work take place. It’s our current practice to leave the doors open here as well. Is it necessary anymore? Do the people that stop in to have a look around need to see us in our underwear?

It’s a good question. We should put it to a vote. But, let’s leave everything the way it is for now. Maybe the time for global decisions can be made when we actually have everything we have up and functioning.

I have a question.

What’s up, Carl?

Are we planning on continuing the utopian beyond 15 issues? Is this going to be an ongoing affair or just something we are doing during the middle of the summer?

Another good question that needs to come up for a vote. Do you have any thoughts, Carl?

If green 2021 functions as it should, it is what it is and it works as it does. It’s basically a blog that you just keep adding to. I like the format and I like how it works. But this journal of ours is getting built by hand and it’s definitely a standalone work. Especially if it’s intended to be printed on paper. I don’t see a future for it. I think this blog can continue, the literature can continue, everything we do here can continue but unless there is some serious change in how we produce the Utopian or if for some lunatic reason, it becomes necessary to make more because of outside stimulus, I say we finish what we said we were going to do and let it rest at 15 issues.

Thank you, Carl. Let’s let that vote come a bit later, perhaps when we are closer to the end. I’m sure the truth will reveal itself. I guess that’s about it. Questions or commentary?

Are we asking for money?

Yes. Anything else? No? Lu San, can you give us some words?

Peaceful resistance does not exist. The act of resistance in any form is an act of aggression in itself. The correct action is nonviolent resistance. If our goal is peace and harmony with nature, this is the goal of resistance as well.

Outstanding. Let’s get to work.