what are ur thoughts on cyber defense against big data collecting all of our personal info // defense against profound biases of AI that will eventually be used to enforce a police state The text came in late at night from my friend who had left my apartment only an hour previously. Sensing a larger conversation at hand, I responded with details on my latest project, which would be rooting a Pixel 3a and replacing its OS with CalyxOS. Read more...

And all I got was this lousy prize I remember my first “big kid job”. It wasn’t as a ski instructor. I did that for nine years, but it was like working on a big playground. Too fun to be real. No, it wasn’t working on farms, which I also did for a number of years when there wasn’t snow on the ground. The summer breezes, sudden storms sweeping you up, the sun burns - also too meditative and calm to be real. Read more...

Or is it just simpler than that? Let’s cut straight to the chase: I think this article’s attempt at understanding burnout is tone deaf. In fact, it’s almost laughably tone deaf: The truth is that if a company were to spend some resources teaching employees how to bolster their resilience, optimism, self-efficacy and internal locus of control, burnout would start to decline. Oh hai, Mark. Are you suggesting that we should learn to wake up in the morning with fucking sunshine coming out our mouths and rainbows coming out our asses? Read more...

It’s a Friday night, and I’m slightly tipsy after making a drink with a homemade shrub, cradling a frozen Tupperware of cookie dough on my lap. I’m alone. Almost 29. In an apartment that’s due for a rent increase next year. I’m thinking that I’ll have to regress and get a roommate. I thought I was supposed to grow out of that phase. Though I guess I should’ve popped out two kids by now, too, so ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Read more...

What follows is something more of a personal essay than a blog post. “You know, I think we really learned that we can’t trust the government for anything. And that’s why we started relying on each other, on our community.” We were nursing drinks on a Monday night in a bar that used to be a funeral home, recently opened by a couple from Austin, TX. It was a last-minute event planned by our grassroots Pride organization, but the tiny bar adorned with mismatched furniture and (in some windows) pot plants quickly filled up. Read more...

You should be talking to yourself about yourself. Actually.

This year didn’t turn out like anyone planned. However what hasn’t changed is my enjoyment of making lists out of inane subjects. Gratitudes My cat, Bast thoughtbot Amazing roommates / friends / fam Bike rides and walks in the woods Local foods - including locally roasted coffee beans 🤤 Hot showers My bed Time to work on art or to curl up with a book Books Non-fiction You Look Like a Thing and I Love You by Janelle Shane - Janelle Shane is one of my favorite scientists and her book is a passionate and delightfully quirky exploration of artificial intelligence. Read more...

And Why I Picked Up White Rage Instead Full disclosure, I have not read White Fragility yet. I had seen a couple of impassioned resources that did not recommend reading this book as one of the first introductions to antiracism. (Some resources downright suggest staying away from it entirely.) While there are many reasons behind this, here is one of the ways that I internalized it: Imagine, for a moment, that instead of the Black Lives Matter movement, we were facing an entirely different one. Read more...

If people want to see the parasitic nature of White Supremacy, they need not look further than the way the pandemic has been handled in the US. The economy is being opened up despite rising cases, putting the nation’s vulnerable at risk in the name of serving the few. Some are fighting wearing masks, because they believe it’s their constitutional right to go around without one — putting thick-headed individualism over the well-being of their community and themselves. Read more...

This post will be updated often. It will mark things I’ve been recommended, things I’m currently reading/listening to/etc. There might be some notes interspersed, and there will always be more to add. Podcasts Scene on the Radio - Seeing White (completed) NPR - Throughline Notes: Seeing White is mind-blowing. Ibram X. Kendi appears on some of the episodes - his books are on the top of my reading list. Read more...