Grabbed it from the library. I’m not normally a self-help book reader, but this seems to fit the niche I need without being self-helpy. Is that a word or did I just make it up?

I’d like to second @Powderhorn@beehaw.org and declare, “Being in stasis is getting old.” It’s been a roller coaster as I struggle to navigate the end of my honeymoon phase of not pursuing academics. Holy crap, I find myself thinking constantly, what have I done for a decade and what to do now?! It’s a state of panic, keeping me from writing well or successfully job searching. I’d love to find a teaching track job and not worry about fighting for funding or tenure, but those are rare. I’d love to work at a democracy or environment nonprofit. I’m striking out. So I sit here and try not to feel sorry for myself.

It’s something I know many others are struggling with. As jobs disappear, funds dwindle, and you can’t seem to get a leg up anywhere. Closed doors, ignored emails, ghosting, and there’s only so much coffee you can safely drink in a day (I’m working on raising that limit).

So it’s been a weird time of stasis. I go downstairs, I try to write, I apply for jobs, I reach out to my network, and it repeats. Each day, each week. It’s rough.

So now I’m writing a return to my substack article on governance. Reviewing my old class notes from, wow, a past time, and trying to string words together. I got nothing else to do. But I did just run out of coffee and fear. So time to refill.

Sorry there bud, but in the simplest terms I can muster: You reap what you sow.

Alrgiht. Since its ride until this thing dies…is there an alternative OS for me humble Samsung S21 Ultra? I understand Graphene doesn’t work with it. I just need to call, 2FA support, Podcasts, Firefox, Maps, and use Signal. That’s it. And I can do without maps.

I’m hesitant to jump in here, seeing how far off the rails this went, but AI Data Centers have a plethora of problems. Potable water depletion (The Dalles, OR, USA), Exhaust (Boxtown near Memphis, TN, USA), Noise and lowering water tables (Sydney, Australia). The issues they present over “old school” data centers are amplified because of the speed they arise in communities, resources they use, and power (as in influence) disparities that are part of the package.

They are being built rapidly, with little oversight or research, and suck up enormous resources that “old school” data centers did not. Toss in the ethical concerns as wide ranging as stealing art styles to destroying books; to be normative, that tends to piss people off.

To get us back on rails, all of that contributes to me using theater of the mind rather than Gemini to draw me a portrait for goblin Yipyip in my campaigns.

I remain cautiously optimistic. The corporate PR stunt aside, the technology will continue to improve. Indeed, it must continue to improve to meaningfully dent the emissions of a dirty but necessary industry. We are years, perhaps decades, away from replacing regional and short haul flights with this though.

I have. Usually I am a voice of 1 and they ignore it. I have a new member meeting at the Writer’s Society next month and plan to bring it up there.

Yeah, that’s sad. I don’t let AI touch my RPG sessions. As a DM, the imperfections and winging it are part of the fun.

This is conjecture. Now I want to find out and see if one if these is right; but first let me guess. There are a few possibilities and I’ll, again, challenge myself to find the answer:

1. They competed for an award Google sponsored or held a competition for. Like an X Prize.
2. A board member was related to someone high up in Google (as in colleague, college room mate etc) or worked there previously.
3. Google wanted to fund something for PR reasons.

Here’s a resource for deeper diving. I apologize but I don’t have time to devout. But if its of interest to anyone:

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/300100369

Also, by law, a 501©3 must respond to and furnish copies of their 990s to anyone who requests. Those are, simply put, their financial statements for the fiscal year.

Welcome! Its a welcoming, kind, and insightful space on the internet. Whenever I dip into Lemmy I’m reminded of the darker and meaner side; which makes this space stand out as a bastion of digital welcoming even more.

Is there a way around this? Local events near me only post there. Drives me insane and I refuse to get a Facebook account just so I know where the writers group wants to grab coffee.

An archive work around, some crawler, anything I’m not aware of?

Slate would be perfect for my current needs. Less than 25km a day, trips to buy wood for my shitty woodworking, etc. Stuff too big or too far to use my bike for safely. Its slated (sorry…) for 2027. It’s not my time.

So here in the land of geese and syrup we’ve got giant American earth destroyers or the tiny Japanese utility trucks. In between would be awesome. The Chinese EV’s with some Pickups are coming and, although the monitoring and data capture bothers me, somehow it feels the lesser of two evils compared to legacy makers with this pay to play and forced ad combination. Is that an accurate assessment?

Taking a breather from writing on my normal dystopian topics this last week; simply exhausted from the news cycle. Feeling OK, though.

OnlyDams.

Silver lining.

I refer to the six essays (might have been 5) I received in a class on critical perspectives on disasters. I used a contract grading scheme, so no actual grades on essays:

“I first heard about critical theory in my sociology class.”

All of them opened with some version of that. Burned into my sad professor mind.

I know nothing about game design, but here “poor optimization” often regarding such large games. Is this an instance if that? What exactly is optimizing?

Battle bits was pixel COD/MW. Not sure if its atil going strong.

For an absolutely hilarious yet challenging experience (you need the right people honestly), Hold Fast. Nothing says fun like a second rate crewed by Americans doing bad British accents and Brits doing bad American accents trying to sink a French second rate crewed by Germans.

Weird week again. Wrote both for my substack and submitted an essay to a local contest. Got invited to join a grant application. Why not, its about wildfires and is community focused - not academic.

Roasted coffee. Enjoyed it.

All in all, not a shabby end the grind of the week days.