Oh, So Many Updates--Please Read!
FYI: If you're not already tuned into my YouTube, Discord, and/or Twitch, you're missing out!
Hi everybody!
First of all, I want to say if you’re not following my Discord feed, you’re missing the most real-time updates available. I’ll put a full Discord invite behind the Subscriber wall along with my usual unlisted YouTube video updates. The feed is viewable and the general channel is the only open channel, while the rest of my channels are locked for supporters only. If you are a supporter of my Open Collective but are not receiving paid Subscriber benefits on Substack, please email me urgently! I compared membership lists and couldn’t find any paid ($9+) supporters who were not already given access. If you’ve been a supporter in other ways, or a long-time supporter for less than $9, I’m happy to add you as well if you reach out to me. I generally know who you all are. Bouncing around between the right platforms for me to do my work has made keeping track so that everyone has supporter benefits fairly challenging.
Secondly, the majority of my latest batches of Twitch streams had a CRITICAL microphone issue which caused 5 of the videos to have no audio that I didn’t catch onto because I was too busy to playback the videos until I was uploading them, and I’m really irritated about it. I have figured out a workaround for now, using the computer microphone (it’s noisy and echoey, but better than nothing any other alternative since my lapel mic seems to have crapped out). These are the kinds of things that wouldn’t happen if I had the bandwidth to focus on this work instead of squeezing it around multiple jobs that I work in order to make ends meet. I hope that I can be more aware moving forward in 2024 and not have things like this happen. Several tests and hours worth of informative and educational analysis pretty much went to waste. I don’t think there’s any way to recover even a transcript.
Thirdly, and honestly the most important announcement—I have made the decision to pivot very hard in my work to focus more on this project and others that have been neglected all this time, including vlogging and streaming, which I’ve only been able to do at a fraction of the capacity currently. I am ending almost all ongoing contracts that I’ve had with other harm reduction organizations. It was not an easy decision to make—I cherish my work and coworkers, and honestly it gave me purpose what I was able to bring to the table, but the reality is one that keeps slapping me in the face—and that’s that I am classified as an independent contractor, working in a capacity that is nearly identical to an employee (meaning no benefits and no real commitment to being extended advancement opportunities internally).
It’s almost as exploitative as the several years of impactful volunteer service that I provided, except with a crumb of money—still minimal legal rights or growth opportunities afforded to me under any law (probably in any state). Those who know anything about me and my tech industry background know that I have 0 tolerance for this, but my desperation for survival allowed me to accept and engage in long-term predatory employment contracts that I was delusional enough to believe would afford me advancement opportunities that would be necessary for my stability after putting in maximal and above and beyond effort.
This is not to accuse any organization of doing this intentionally—it’s systemic at this point. People are so used to this style of work contract being the norm, no one’s actually ever examined that it’s absolute garbage, and definitely illegal (at least in NY)—It is a form of wage theft. I’ve had many realizations over the course of this year that I’ve been tokenized, exploited, and “counted out”. I have not let that stop me from making a way—and now it’s paying off, so it’s time to let anything go that is causing distress and/or distractions.
There’s a serious lack of sustainable opportunities (that wasn’t discriminating heavily on lack of highly specific academic credentials or favoritism/nepotism that I never was remotely considered for) and after looking at an RFP for Drug Checking & Emerging Drug Trends Consultant with the CDC, once again I realize that not only will I unlikely ever be eligible for grants, settlements, and other available funding resources (or even have the capacity to apply to them), but I will unlikely ever be eligible to be paid by an organization or agency to do what I already do. Tbh, these agencies are more likely to stand in my way of doing what I believe can be highly effective, so my best bet for continued success is public support/crowdfunding, collaboration, and gigs that pay well without taking up all my time and energy away from this.
Anyway, If you’re benefiting from free subscriptions to access any of my work and all the various outreach I do at no cost to the end user, please consider supporting my Open Collective. There’s a $1 tier, a yearly cost lower than 1 moderately alcoholic beverage in an NYC establishment.