Neo Sol Librarian

I got on a tangent of what a Memex is while reading a Medium article by Cory Doctorow .  If you need to get caught up on what a Memex is, here is a Wikipedia article that you probably could have looked up yourself, but I made that link pretty easy for you right? In short, a memex is a device concept that would record your recollections for later use. You could store volumes of encyclopedia and other reference along with your recollections and use both forms of data to make better data that can be used in the real world. For example, say you are a hairdresser that also does their own hair. From photos of your own hairstyles alongside the ones of your clients, your Memex, in theory, could summarize data that could possibly tell you which hairstyle takes the least amount of time but still meets your everyday standards.  Of course this concept eventually led to a lot of what we have today. There is a great article by Brewster Kahle breaking down how the concepts of the Memex are f...

I've wasn't going to post this because it's a bunch or rambling. But after reading this article  from Cory Doctorow, it changed my opinion on these ramblings.    What will it be like to be Black in space? Because y'all know we will be there.  It may be ugly, magnifying humanitarian injustices we face on Earth. Can you imagine it going unchecked in the infinite universe? Running rampant in hidden sectors, creating isolated bubbles of continual subjugation? We may be limited to a seperate part of an infinite galaxy. Or be contract slaves transported between planets and outpost.  It's easy to distopianize the Black experience in space. The past seems to reinvent and recreate itself within tight loops for Black folx. Why wouldn't the same racial and cultural injustices follow us into the great expanse?  Maybe the ever present threat of death by vacuum could squash racial injustices? Maybe the bombardment of microaggressions would cease to exist once we wer...

I'm a little late with this one. But I wanted to save this one for closer to Thanksgiving. Chosen family is everything to this Black transdude, no matter how long it's been since we've connected.  Since I've been writing these past reflections I find my personhood becoming more concrete. Sometimes as a transman, my existence is fleeting. Sometimes walking into a room means leaving too much at the door. Sure we all have to leave some parts of ourselves at the door when walking into a room of our peers or co-workers. But how can you bring about collaboration if pieces of ourselves are not considered, our existence isn't fully recognized? But since reflecting on these queer moments, I feel myself coming more into focus. Almost like the fine tuning that is done at the eye doctor. Not blinded per se. I could see my existence in the most basics of senses. A weird form in front of me. But now coming into more focus, and seeing the details, I have some gratitude for just li...

Nothing new to report that anyone would care about but things are going. This one is related to dress up so it's appropriate for the upcoming holiday in which we all dress up and pretend to be someone else for the night. Cheers!  Funny Queer Shit: That One Kris Kross Concert      One thing that we don't realize until later in life is that our parents, in their own unique ways, have a good time. Along with cookouts and road trips, one of my parents many ways of having a good time is going to concerts. My sister and I have been along for the ride on a number of these occasions: standing in auditorium seats to see MC Hammer, seeing Earth, Wind and Fire on fair grounds while hot air balloons floated in the background. We even saw Janet Jackson and the beloved Velvet Rope tour. Truely, magically shit.     I also didn't realize until later in life that going to a concert is expensive as fuck! First you have to find 1, 2, 3, 4 tickets for the family to go. Then yo...

3 months since leaving the library.  Trumpet Creeper Before Trumpet Creeper After For the first time I feel like I'm working for myself. Do I have goals? Yes! Do I have a plan? Yes! Have I made a dime from writing? Not yet. But I'm not deterred, which is new for me.  Do I feel like a bum? Sure. Am I anxious to start making money again? You bet your ass I am! Do I want to hop into the first thing that pops up? Not at all. I'm not ready. If some time in the future getting extra income becomes necessary then, hell yeah! But it's not necessary. I'm giving myself permission to at least try whatever it is I'm trying right now. I still don't know what I'm doing. But the not knowing is at least planned. It's my Dad's birthday this month and he's in this one. Another installment of Funny Queer Shit That One Basketball Game     As a baby queer, I was very quiet. Observant. Looking for cues on how to act in certain situations. I never would have dreamed...

Month two of nontraditional employment.  I gotta stop saying I'm unemployed. I'm not making money, but I'm self employed as a writer. If I don't believe it no one will.  It's always strange seeing family during a funeral. You're happy to see them, but hate that it has to be on this occasion. You are there for support, even if that support is downing a couple of bottles of brown liquor with your family. You learn so much. But it is hard. There are laughs shared but damn someone had to die for us to get to here? I get and totally understand family reunions now and may fortunes come down from the sky on any one that plans out family reunions (the only one I've been to, two of my uncles got to fighting. But that's another story). Either way, this got me thinking about another queer story. Hope you enjoy and I hope my ancestors get a good laugh at this recollection.    Uncle Mike was a cool uncle. Sure he had drug problems throughout his life, but he was a fa...

 Since I'm writing these reflective growing up pieces, I've been obviously hung up on the idea of nostalgia. It's a bit of a trigger word isn't it? Maybe remininesse is a better word. It invokes a sense of happy reflection instead of a desire to reverse time. But it's all looking to the past for...something, right?  And can't nostalgia be problematic? Especially the unchecked nostalgia that have some pining for the good ol' days of slavery and Jim Crow. The kind of nostalgia that fails to see the harm, often destructive nature of past cultural norms. Hell don't we currently have culture norms that harm today?  Maybe there are people that don't live constantly under the consequences of the past. As far as I know, good or bad, we are all a products of our past. But don't past experiences determine a lot of our future outcomes?  Sometimes I find myself wrestling with how to reconcile my past experiences with my more knowledgeable self of today. For ...