WAIT! STOP!

For maximum safety, be as uninteresting as possible. Shun risks that might shake up your beliefs and avoid adventures that could expose you to people who aren’t similar to you. If you really want to be certain about preserving your security and stability, as I’m recommending, the surest method is to retreat to your power spot and do nothing at all. WAIT! STOP! Dear Pisces, everything I just said was pure misdirection! I was joking! In fact, the opposite is true. The true way to nurture genuine safety and security is to pursue what sparks your curiosity and lights up your zeal. And the coming days are likely to provide you with plenty of chances to do exactly that.

Sunday Asides #100

• I've reached a point of relative stability with work right now. Both part-time jobs are steady, my full-time job search is still fruitless, but I'm doing okay. Not great, but not terrible. Just...okay. Surviving, not thriving. Living, but not giving. I'm here, I'm queer, and well...I'm used to it.

• According to Bloomberg, tech workers who don’t embrace AI could face 3x the risk of being laid off. Back when I worked at my last full-time job, I had to evaluate my team based on how much they used the AI tools we had, including making them getting certifications. For the folks who didn't want to use any AI tools, they were eventually put on PIPs and then phased out of the company. It fucking sucks.

• While we're talking about work — and this is from Fast Company — working remotely could make you more vulnerable to a layoff than AI! And get this — hybrid and on-site remote-capable workers are laid off at a similar rate. I'm assuming companies are still doing return-to-office mandates, but maybe they've given them up and just started laying people off (which would be in line with the tens of thousands of layoffs we've already seen this year). EEEYUCK!

• Here's an admission for Pride month: I haven't been in a ton of IRL gay and queer spaces — clubs, bars, the occasional house party or dinner party — but I've never felt a combination of safe, seen, and heard when I'm there. Seen? Yeah. Heard? Sometimes. Safe? Never. Which is why I don't go to those spaces anymore.

• I saw this in The New Yorker the other day: "admin nights." Apparently, you and a bunch of the homies just get together and do regular adult shit like clear your inbox, book appointments, etc. Look — if it gets you and your friends together on a regular basis to see each other and hang out, I'm all for it. But it does sound kinda grim in a modern capitalistic sort of way. At least there's snacks.

• I don’t believe in paying any amount of money for an email newsletter.

• I don't understand this push by the tech industry for people to adopt smart glasses.

• I have absolutely no desire to learn how to vibe code or vibe design or vibe-what-the-fuck-ever using an AI tool. However, I have no problem using an AI tool for writing in certain scenarios with strict parameters.

• There's a young democratic politician here in Georgia named Quentin Postell who uses his social media profiles to give updates about his campaign, share his stances on policies, and document event appearances. On those same profiles, he also posts bodybuilding workout progress videos and is often shirtless. Look, he's not in my congressional district but he definitely has my vote. (Yes, I'm being a bird. But he does have some good talking points.)

• We really went from AI clips of anthropomorphic fruit mimicking Love Island to AI clips of cats in the style of old kung fu movies.

• 🎵 you never take me to Bangladesh / you never cook me sausage on an open flame 🎵

• Speaking of music...NPR Tiny Desk has been so fucking good this month! GENA, Joe, Eve, The Paradox, Ayra Starr, Floetry, and 8Ball & MJG. I am so full right now. And the month's not over yet!

• 23 years ago this month, I started Black Gay Blogger. I began these Asides posts there — not weekly, but they were pretty regular — and when the blog ended in 2011, I continued them here on Karsh Writes (which I started in 2012). And now I've done 100 of these in this current iteration of the site. Can you believe it? I sure can.

Childhood dream

From today's Pisces horoscope from Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology:

Is there a dream from childhood that you’re ready to revive on a higher octave? Think of something you longed for before the world told you to be boringly realistic: an art you wanted to practice, a way you wanted to live, or the kind of person you hoped to become. The question isn’t “Can I go back and do it exactly the same?” but “What is the mature, wiser, present-day version of that dream?” You might write in your journal: “The childhood dream I’m ready to lift to a higher octave is ______,” and then add, “If I took one concrete step toward it, what would it be?”

mu

Happy Pride Month, y'all! June is already flying by and the summer is well underway. It even snuck up on me that the next puzzle in this Greek alphabet series — mu — was about to publish! (And now that we're nearing the halfway point of this series, I supposed I should get cracking on designing the rest of those puzzles.) Take a few minutes out of your day and give this one a solve. Enjoy!

Sunday Asides #99

• This week is the one year anniversary of getting laid off from my last full-time job. There have been a lot of ups and downs over the year, but it's helped to look back and see that what I'm doing right now -- freelance and contract work -- is exactly what I said I wanted to be doing a year ago. Granted, I am still looking for a full-time job, but as a recent study from Stanford University has shown, the odds are stacked against a lot of job seekers thanks to AI, especially if you're Black. Can't win for losing!

• Now that I've rearranged my desk, I need a smaller keyboard, and this 75% TKL I picked up off Amazon is pretty damn good for the price. Nice build quality, and typing on this is a dream. It's nerdy, but I gotta get my enjoyment where I can these days.

• Speaking of enjoyment...how gauche would it be to maybe download one or two of the apps just to see what kind of men have made it into town for the World Cup? Granted, I did divest from the apps at the top of the year, and it's been a good decision. But a man's got needs, if you know what I'm saying. And if some hot foreigner can help me out, who I am to say no? Especially at this time when this country's image has gone to shit. It's a sign of diplomatic goodwill!

• I've reached the "obsessed with cute animals" stage of my Internet viewing these days. Lately, it's been rabbits eating fruits and veggies, playful seals, and tiny baby otters. They're all so cute!

• Somebody please buy me this chicken wing key chain. I've been a really good boy this year.

• Quote for the week: "Start slow and taper off."