It was interesting because everyone thought she wasn’t hungry and kept giving solutions for that, but it wasn’t that she wasn’t hungry- she kept pawing at me and walking over to the kitchen/ her food bowl, but just wouldn’t eat what I gave her. She was very hungry, but I guess she was pickier than she was hungry.

Thanks so much for your kind words.

I’ve taught at a private school as a long term music sub, which while being the job that put me in the red (I kept asking when the normal teacher would come back, they never gave me a straight answer until I walked into my office one day to find her stuff there. After that they kept stringing me along in hopes that they’d start a full band program- I spent weeks putting together a proposal for it to be rejected for “various reasons”).

I’ve been thinking about the regular job, but I have no idea what I can do to get me out of the red. Anything that would pay $80k+ just seems out of reach since those tend to be senior positions or for people who can code. I’ve tried coding many times but just can’t seem to get it. Sales has burned me time after time and marketing just doesn’t stick. I can do it for myself alright, but it’s just not something that wants me around in the corporate setting.

Sadly so much of the music industry is for creating commercial music to be used for businesses. When music is a commodity to be bought and sold, humans aren’t really necessary. Why would I pay a human to create a catchy tune for my advertisement when Ai can pump out something that does just fine? AI is also breaking the music tech side. It’s not 100% yet, but Ai mixing and mastering is taking off. If I’m an artist, especially one on a tight budget, an Ai mixer could do just fine for my album when normally I might pay someone with the experience to do so. This might seem great for the artist, but once they have their album, they can get paid $20 a year from Spotify.

The tech spokespeople keep trying to convince us that Ai won’t steal our work and livelyhoods. The thing is everyone in my industry, me included, don’t buy it. These are the same people who said tech would bring Seattle jobs and prosperity, but all it did was raise rents and push out the artists. Tech bros will disagree and say Seattle is just fine, but they weren’t the ones negatively impacted by the industry that allowed them to move there. There’s a group of us in Chicago who call ourselves Seattle’s artistic refugees.

We aren’t the only ones- San Francisco, Boston, Austin, Denver- so many cities are losing their artistic communities that made them worth living in. There’s still music in these places, but you’ll notice those performances are taken by big names for people who can afford those $60+ tickets.

Hell, even Death Cab for Cutie wrote an absolutely heartbreaking bop.

Digging for gold in my neighborhood

For what they say is the greater good

But all I see is a long goodbye

A requiem for a skyline

💔💔💔

I’m not trying to be doom and gloom, but I can’t keep living like this.

I love you. Thank you for commenting and being.

I’ll be real I expected an absolutely mangled hand

“I think my human is broken”

Yes, but all Minecraft villagers are also war criminals.

All Texans are war criminals

Do cats defy the laws of entropy while simultaneously being the cause of it?

Yep, it’s a thing!

“You can philosophize over how many fairies fit on a toadstool all day, but if it won’t help anything, what’s the point?”

If you’re talking politics, you need to take a step back and ask how useful your questions are. It may be tempting to try solving a conflict that has a long history by finding out “who started it”, but if the answer would yield no progress in the peace process, it would be a better use of time and energy to focus on other discussions.

I’ve used it as an economic philosophy as well. Instead of looking at capitalism and socialism as ideologies to guide thought, look at them as tools to an end. Identify your goals for society (more educated populace, lower infant mortality, greater freedom of the press, etc.) and then look at what different perspectives bring for solutions. Sometimes you may find letting a free market take it’s course is an answer. Sometimes you may find deep regulation or nationalization is the answer.

When this philosophy is applied to something more personal like religion, it would ask “is the religion that you are in helping you or hindering you?” If someone’s religion gives them immense guilt and depression, it would be worth it to consider something else. If an alcoholic finds peace in a Mormon Temple, then it might just be what they need. It’s a pretty chill philosophy when it comes to religion.

Depends on what you’re wanting to focus on, but a great start would be Rules for Rulers by Arnold Meltsner, Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner, CIA: legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner, confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins are some that I started early.

CGP Grey did a great job synthesizing Rules for Rulers on YouTube as well.

Also a big think video Why Sociopaths Rise to Power

Also Veritasium has a great video on game theory

Hope that helps!

So this supports my point completely. No fuckin clue what you’re saying.

Haha, the appeal of political science to me is less about arguing with strangers about the news and more talking about broader philosophies and theories and then applying them to what we are seeing in the world. I feel like I can have a more nuanced conversation about the prisoner’s dilemma with regards to x topic, or applying philosophies like American Pragmatism to solving problems.

Talking about the news without using some of the tools political scientists use has so many emotional trip wires that it can feel like I’m just keeping up with the Kardashians. That said sometimes I just can’t help but keep up with the Kardashians.

Hell yea I love a good wiki deep dive

I am actually writing an analysis of the music industry and counter culture responses with regards to AI and the future of music! I’m calling it musical humanism. 🎷 🎺 🎸