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Tag: COVID19

A Tour of Texas Bookshops

Posted in Austin, Journalism, and The Texas Observer

Big-city traffic and a resolution on New Year’s Eve of 2020 led Pflugerville resident Kelsey Black to become a bookseller.

An avid reader, she disliked the hour round trip required to get from  her suburb of 65,000 to downtown Austin to browse a bookstore. “OK,”  she told herself, “I think it’s just going to be easier for me to …  start my own bookstore.”

Turned out, it wasn’t easy at all, “but it’s OK because I have now found my calling,” Black said. The Book Burrow began as a pop-up and online business and finally, on August 6, opened  as a brick-and-mortar store. She said the 200-square-foot space has  become a haven for those who don’t feel like they fit in elsewhere,  drawn by the store’s motto: “Embrace your weird.” For her, the phrase  means cultivating love for whatever makes you unique: “Embrace your  gender identity; embrace your sexual identity; embrace your racial  background; embrace your spiritual path.”

Elizabeth Holmes & The Meat-Grinder Of Capitalism

Posted in Creative Commons, and Journalism

Elizabeth Holmes’ guilty verdict chilled me in a way I didn’t expect until it happened.

The popular media suggested a guilty verdict might put the brakes on some of the worst behavior of the tech giants. And the jury found Holmes guilty earlier this month … of some of the accusations against her.

Out of the 11 counts against Holmes, the jury could only agree to a guilty verdict on 4 — all of them involving defrauding investors. On the rest, the jury either deadlocked or acquitted. That includes all the charges involving misleading doctors and patients with false testing results.

Hemp Facemasks Offer Sustainable Protection From COVID-19 Virus

Posted in Journalism, and Ministry of Hemp

On Ministry of Hemp, I interviewed Daniel Ong from iLoveBad Organics about their new hemp facemasks.

Isolation Stress-Relief Guide From Ministry of Hemp

Posted in Journalism, and Ministry of Hemp

Over at Ministry of Hemp, I teamed up with some of my coworkers to create a Hemp-Powered Isolation Self Care Guide.

Virtual Gonzo Zine Library, Spring 2020: Resistance Under A Pandemic

Posted in Creative Commons, and Zines

Welcome to the Virtual Gonzo Zine Library. The VGZL is a quarterly zine reading list and miniature zine distro. A few times per year, I curate some of my favorite zines — zines that I think everyone should be reading, including myself.

This is the very first edition. I tried to pick zines which felt topical to this moment of pandemic, and could help inspire, comfort, and give us new perspectives. I selected a mixture of the very practical and the theoretical, but I tried to focus on zines written in an accessible way that wasn’t overly academic.

I’m dividing this edition of the Zine Library into a main selection and bonus content. The main selection is my reading list for the quarter, while the rest are other zines I think you might find interesting.

Life in Isolation (& Gonzo Zine Library Update)

Posted in Journalism, Life, and Zines

It’s time again for me to say THANK YOU to everyone that supports my work on Patreon. Thanks to your help, I’ve been able to continue work on the Virtual Gonzo Zine Library. Read on for a little bit more about that below.

I want to be transparent about my mental health, because I think it’s helpful for others to know they’re not alone in this.

I’ve struggled my whole life with depression. After watching “The Babadook,” I think of depression like the monster in my personal basement. Always there, in my life, but hopefully part of the background most of the time as long as I take care of myself… but occasionally, escaping it’s home in the basement to spend a few days in the foreground of my consciousness. For the most part, I try to love myself and let it pass.