Primaries for the Midterms (and other state races) are September 9th.

Early voting for those primaries starts August 20th.

These are all of the statewide races that aren't uncontested, at least per Activote (an app I use) and Ballotpedia.

Senate

• Jack Reed (Incumbent)
• Connor Burbridge
• Luis Daniel Muñoz

Governor

• Democratic (Debate VOD)
  • Dan McKee (Incumbent)
  • Helena Foulkes
• Republican
  • Aaron Guckian
  • Elaine Pelino

Lieutenant Govenor

• Sabina Matos (Incumbent)
• Susan R. Anderbois
• Cynthia Armour Coyne
• Xaykham Khamsyvoravong
• Ross McCurdy

Attorney General (Debate)

• Kim Ahern
• Keith Hoffmann
• Jason Knight
• Joseph Solomon Jr.

Up to you all if you vote or not (If you're eligible, remember to check your registration), but just leaving this here so you can make an informed decision if you do.

Not just as in frustrating. I mean the good old "definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

This is more a shower thought than anything especially profound, but if people just apply for job after job and nothing changes, no matter how much they network, build their portfolio, change up their resume, what have you, then the continuing to apply for things at all despite *nothing* working is what's insane.

But, of course, no one would call it that. Because the state of the world and the reality of living in a capitalist society makes the insanity a requirement for not dying because we all need money to buy shit.

Many of us have probably run ourselves into the ground, (metaphorically) abusing ourselves. But can you tell yourself to stop because subjecting yourself to this isn't good for you? Not really. All you can do is give yourself a temporary break from the humiliation ritual of job hunting in a broken market because the only alternative is "guess I'll die."

And when the option is "Continue doing the thing that makes you miserable and isn't working" or "Take a break," and society basically tells you number 2 isn't viable, what the fuck are we doing?

P.S. I *want* work. Because I want money to not die, but I also struggle greatly with giving a shit about looking at any job board because the process has beaten the message of "everything is broken and there's no point" into me, but I have to get my brain to ignore the lesson it's been taught because that is the only option.

A follow up to an interest post I made about a week ago. The gist is in the title.

I saw a post in reddit about the value of book clubs, and between wanting to try and be more social and wanting to read more, I wanted to see who would be interested in a book club.

I am primarily thinking of people in their 20s and 30s. Community is one of my big hopes, and while loneliness is hitting everyone, I am going to focus on people on the younger side who might have a harder time trying to make friends in adulthood.

Fantasy as a genre is the main focus.

There is no set date for a first meeting at the moment. I mainly want to see who would even be interested in this, both to get an idea of which of the two local libraries would have space to accommodate everyone, and so that whoever is interested can try to iron out a time together, instead of me just picking something and hoping people are able to make it.

I am imagining that early September would be when an inaugural meeting is able to take place, after giving time for people to express interest, figuring out a time, and then me actually trying to book said time.

As for whether or not picking a first book would happen before or during this meeting, only time will tell.

This specifically stems from this post I just saw. And it got me thinking.

Would there be some sort of interest in a local Rhode Island book club of sorts? The post I saw specifically focused on men's book clubs and male loneliness. However, since loneliness is hitting every hard these days, as far as a way to get people together to read about books they'll (hopefully) enjoy, I also don't see much value in trying to segregate it. Since I myself am Gen Z, that's why the parentheses are there.

If there is interest, I do have an idea of a place affiliated with my local library here in East Providence (or just my local library) I could ask about hosting. Or it could simply be done virtually. And fantasy as a genre to focus on is what I currently had in mind. A few potential contenders of inaugural books are on my mind, though that would be decided as a group. Meetings, right now, I am thinking twice monthly for likely 2 hours or so?

Any of these details are flexible. First I just want to get an idea on who would want to get together and read with people to hopefully make new friends or turn what can be a solitary hobby into something more social.

Put simply: is being set on Earth (primary world) a requirement for something to be considered contemporary or urban fantasy?

I ask this because a project I'm getting ready to query (and anything else set in this world) falls into what I describe as this weird gray area.

To people who've read it, think Green Bone Saga. To people who've played it (I have seen enough of it to be confident in this, at least), think Final Fantasy XV.

Neither of those is set on Earth, but they are about as close to contemporary/modern as you can get without being set in the real world.

So could they claim the subgenre? Or are they still just "fantasy"? Or something else altogether?

Since I am getting ready to query, trying to not give agents a false impression if they expect to read about Seattle when they read "contemporary fantasy" and then get a fantasy world might hurt me, which I want to avoid. A bit of the inverse is part of my question too, because just "fantasy" immediately makes me (and I'd guess most people) think of pre-modern (mostly medieval European) settings.

It could also just be a nonissue, for all I know.

This post was inspired by two things I saw here on Reddit.

I just saw a clip of two white male police officers assaulting a black woman. As they were handcuffing her, my thought was "of course they're white guys."

I saw a post yesterday (that I think has since been deleted) about some medical school allegedly considering race in applications, and some of the comments were about doctors with similar lived experiences being better. One anecdote I remember was a larger woman being dismissed by a male doctor, suffering for a year, then actually getting the care she needed when a larger female doctor heard about what she was dealing with.

Then it got me thinking (mainly about the police). If police are supposed to serve a community that is made up of all different sorts of people, why are they (or at least some departments) so homogeneous? Why throw cops at communities they have no idea how to interact with because they didn't grow up with them? Why not recruit from those communities?

Same with education. Look at the lack of male teachers (in elementary school), and general academic apathy from boys who didn't grow up with men modeling that education was cool and valuable? The inverse is also true. Women's sports are constantly dismissed, and if there was any class basically guaranteed to have predominantly male teachers throughout your school years? Phys Ed.

Even entertainment. Unless you're very specifically targeting a certain demographic, why not have a diverse group of people creating the media we consume? Because Lord knows about the history of objectification, vilification, and negative stereotypes pushed out of the media made over the decades.

Honorable mention to politics, if only because of how obvious an addition it is to this. So obvious, I think, that I don't really feel the need to elaborate like I did with the other examples.

Occupations where you can shut yourself away and not talk to people are a separate issue. I just mean the ones where you would inevitably be interacting with or trying to market to someone who doesn't look like you, and if you don't know how to interact with them, you will not do the job good.

Basically the title. I was taught chronological, assumed that was the only way, have suffered for years after graduating as the (American) job market has gotten worse and worse, and only just found out that functional resumes were a thing.

Since my work "history" is anything but standard, traditional, or even relevant to what I want to school for and want to do for work, I am thinking that a functional resume might be better.

Because I have not been hired by a company to be paid for the projects I've worked on most related to what I have to do, putting them under Experience (which is what I've done, since I figure just calling them Projects would make them be weighed less) isn't exactly accurate.

But I figure that focusing on the skills I apply on those projects to show I can still do the work instead of "I have not been hired by a company in this field yet" could work.

Basically, if you don't have an up-to-ten-year work history to flaunt on a chronological resume, would functional be an acceptable solution to still show that you're actually a good candidate for a job?

The job search has been fruitless and soul crushing, so the fact that this is any sort of lead for something I can actually do beyond "build your portfolio more" makes me want to know if it's worth pursuing.

No harm in trying, so I might anyway, but do want the opinions of people who are more knowledgeable on this subject.

I've been struggling to keep up with my seasonal anime these days, but I enjoy anime and do want to expand my horizons. In part by watching some renowned classics.

So whatever a person's top 5 - 10 anime of each decade are (starting from the 1980s and ending with the 2010s, probably), feel free to recommend them. Ideally with a little bit about the cream of the crop so I can get a better idea of what they are and why people specifically liked them.

Other than horror or anything too gory, I would probably be open to most everything.

Paralysis as in both trying to find something, and getting out of my own head about any sort of pivot being pointless.

I gave the search an honest try immediately after college. But it didn't work for so long that I stopped bothering (I think there might be some sort of burnout or depression contributing to that). I had found something part-time and was content holding onto that in the meantime as I got back into the swing of things, which I am now trying to do more in earnest.

I've told myself that pivoting would just make me even more inexperienced competing with people who are, when I'm already competing with people more experienced than myself in the field I did go to school for.

I've also resisted the idea of going back to school because my bachelor's hasn't paid off in any way, and I don't want to put myself in even more debt to get another degree that might not mean anything.

Then there's the risk of me getting slapped with "overqualified" and it having been a waste of time and money. Not like I even know what field I'd go into because I have no idea what field *isn't* at risk of imploding soon.

That I might also enjoy/not hate.

I just want stability so I can start living, but have no idea where it even exists, and therefore no idea of what direction to start heading in to try and find it.

Then there's the AI and "what's an entry level job?" of it all, which only makes the uncertainty of where to go even worse.

At risk of this post just being me pitying myself, I'll ask if anyone else feels this way.

I don't quite know what sort of life I thought I'd have at my age when I was younger, but it probably followed the blueprint I thought everyone was neatly supposed to fit into after 18.

College, degree, job, independence, life.

Instead I'm floundering and trying to figure out what the hell to do with myself when from the moment I finished my last class in college, the job market decided to go "Early career? What's that?" and has still decided to not change that in years.

Maybe this entire post is just a terrible idea. But if any group of people might understand how I feel, it's people here who are living through the same things, and got dumped into it around the same time as me.

I don't know. I'm just feeling pretty alone right now.

More or less the title. The logical part of my brain knows that's not the case (At the very least, the millennials recovered after going through something similar if they were hunting for a job in and immediately after 2008), but at least right now? It feels like an insurmountable wall that's going to just ruin my life when it's still trying to get up to speed.

It's all broken. There are so many different options, but not only do I now know quite what to do, it feels so broken that none of those options seem especially safe or stable (whether it be general economic chaos screwing them over, or so many people saying "This is safe, do this," that it becomes oversaturated and hyper competitive, and the cycle continues).

This is, indeed, just a vent. I'm dealing with some manner of burnout, and having only recently realized that, I'm probably in denial about some sort of minor depression at this point. I don't know. Just wanted a void to scream into about how hopeless it all feels lately.

Might be a bit lengthy, to try and provide sufficient context. But the gist of the post is that work looks like it's drying up soon, I do not know what to do, and I'd like to ask people if they have any ideas or suggestions of how to try and find something. I know the job market and economy are not good right now, and a lot of people are struggling to find work, but that's not a reason for me to just roll over.

As for the full post:

I recently turned 26, and graduated from school at the end of 2022. I couldn't find work in my specific industry, but did land something part-time doing food sampling in 2023. It was nice to make some money, both while looking for work, and in general when the hunt wore me down so much I'd all but given up (even then, "all but" is probably me coping).

Now I've found out that scheduling for that part time job has changed such that my so far consistent 3-4 day weeks are going to basically dry up to 1 or 2 unless I'm lucky and a weekday event pops up. It's not like I've lost the job, but to lose that much of the work, and the consistency I've had so far, I may as well have.

I've been trying to get myself out of the weird depressive rut that is "The market is broken and nothing matters" because I want some sort of stable, sustainable, full-time work (that I hopefully won't hate).

And with the sudden change I found out about today more or less happening later this month when my current slate of events is over, I am running out of time.

I've been trying to think of other things I could try applying to based on my current skills/interests, and want to focus more on jobs in Rhode Island or Massachusetts, even if they're not in the industry relevant to my major. Also going to submit a resume to temp agencies in the area after making some adjustments to it, as I've seen those mentioned a few times.

I'd also like to hear about other things people might think are possible. My brain has been locked on finding some sort of work where I clock in, do the tasks, get paid, but just got independent contracting brought up by a friend. I don't believe myself to have an entrepreneurial spirit at all, and any sort of "be your own boss" or self-promotion has not been even remotely appealing to me.

But despite knowing that I have those options, there is a sense of hopelessness that makes me very worried. I am fortunate enough to be living at home, so that's not a concern, but that's about the only thing that isn't. Car, food, even attempting to put aside money for savings, anything else I might want to do I've been able to manage with my current work, but losing that puts it all into jeopardy. It's not like I have very much at all saved up, either, so dipping into that is the last thing I want to do.

Might be a bit lengthy, to try and provide sufficient context. But the gist of the post is that work looks like it's drying up soon, I do not know what to do, and I'd like to ask people if they have any ideas or suggestions of how to try and find something. I know the job market and economy are not good right now, and a lot of people are struggling to find work, but that's not a reason for me to just roll over.

As for the full post:

I recently turned 26, and graduated from school at the end of 2022. I couldn't find work in my specific industry, but did land something part-time doing food sampling in 2023. It was nice to make some money, both while looking for work, and in general when the hunt wore me down so much I'd all but given up (even then, "all but" is probably me coping).

Now I've found out that scheduling for that part time job has changed such that my so far consistent 3-4 day weeks are going to basically dry up to 1 or 2 unless I'm lucky and a weekday event pops up. It's not like I've lost the job, but to lose that much of the work, and the consistency I've had so far, I may as well have.

I've been trying to get myself out of the weird depressive rut that is "The market is broken and nothing matters" because I want some sort of stable, sustainable, full-time work (that I hopefully won't hate).

And with the sudden change I found out about today more or less happening later this month when my current slate of events is over, I am running out of time.

I've been trying to think of other things I could try applying to based on my current skills/interests, and want to focus more on jobs in Rhode Island or Massachusetts, even if they're not in the industry relevant to my major. Also going to submit a resume to temp agencies in the area after making some adjustments to it, as I've seen those mentioned a few times.

I'd also like to hear about other things people might think are possible. My brain has been locked on finding some sort of work where I clock in, do the tasks, get paid, but just got independent contracting brought up by a friend. I don't believe myself to have an entrepreneurial spirit at all, and any sort of "be your own boss" or self-promotion has not been even remotely appealing to me.

But despite knowing that I have those options, there is a sense of hopelessness that makes me very worried. I am fortunate enough to be living at home, so that's not a concern, but that's about the only thing that isn't. Car, food, even attempting to put aside money for savings, anything else I might want to do I've been able to manage with my current work, but losing that puts it all into jeopardy. It's not like I have very much at all saved up, either, so dipping into that is the last thing I want to do.

Context will be in comments.

At what point does free speech go too far, that it might let legitimately harmful things go unpunished?

And at what point does trying to prevent those harmful things go so far that it's effectively censorship of any sort of wrongthink?

And then I guess there's the slippery slope of it all. Because can people really trust their government to not only define what racism is, but to more generally start saying "You can go to prison if you say X, Y, or Z?"

Also, may as well ask what people have to say about the general sentiment of "I may not like what you have to say, but I will defend your right to say it."

It's happened to me a few times, including just now. I saw a post, wanted to leave a (hopefully) insightful comment, spend a while typing it up, read it over just to make sure, hit post, and... "This thread is locked."

At the very least let me leave the comment and lock the post when I refresh the page or something. I opened it, it's still unlocked and open for discussion, then next thing I know, I can't and my time is wasted?

The post title is a quote from Clarence Thomas in a video I'm watching right now. And it's not the first time I've heard those words verbatim this week from a right winger on YouTube.

Needless to say, it pissed me off, and I ended up renting in a comment. I wanted to share it here.

Progressivism *is* the basic premise of the Declaration of Independence.

Progressivism is what takes Americans and turns it from a joke built upon a gross contradiction that continues to be a lie and makes it a true statement.

Progressivism is the *fulfillment* of the Declaration.

It was written by a man who owned people but had the audacity to write "All men are created equal."

When Progressivism is about fighting for the rights of people who are marginalized so they are equal, what is that other than the fulfillment of a promise?

Jefferson said the rights came from God. Then man got in the way of God by depriving their peers of their rights because of their sex, race, creed, what have you. The government is stepping in to protect those rights, not because it seeks to undermine God, but because it seems to protect the rights He gave His children that people like Clarence Thomas want to infringe upon.

Happy Fourth, everyone.

I've been trying to find work for a depressingly long time. I've heard my fair share of (sometimes conflicting) tips on what to do. But even after all this time, there's another thing I just saw that, if true, baffles me, and is exactly why I made this post.

I saw a comment on a post from this subreddit a few months ago that mentioned that some types of ATS just can't properly parse PDFs. So even if you do everything else right, if you didn't throw them a docx, you're fucked.

Then I try to see what other peoples' opinions are, and I see a reddit thread that says the complete opposite, and that PDFs are preferred.

So with that conflicting information, do you do PDFs and just pray that the ATS can read them? Do you err on the side of caution and do docx unless otherwise specified and hope that a human isn't annoyed by the decision even if ATS loves it?

We all hear that we have to tailor our resumes and try to match keywords, but how deep does that go? Do you just want to copy-paste the job description and tweak it a bit so it actually matches the things you've done for maximum tailoring? Are ATS smart enough to understand when you slightly reword something it's looking for? Or would it hold that against you for not being the exact same?

No one formally taught me much of anything about ATS. It's just been people telling me "Oh, by the way, don't do this, because ATS can't read that," and it's maddening.

I guess I'm just asking for a list of more or less everything I'd need to know about how to minimize the chances of ATS not letting a human see my resumes ever.

Mainly the fact that I think it's sort of contradictory. I am by no means an expert on this topic, admittedly, so people are free to take anything I say with a grain of salt.

My initial thought is of my personal favorite Bible verse, Galatians 3:28.

>There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

The reason I like it so much is because, while it only lists three specific examples, I feel like it's very reasonable to apply it to every label or distinctions humans have ever given themselves ever. Basically "Those things you use to divide yourself and justify bigotry are useless, because God sees you all as His children and loves you equally."

Yet, at least to my understanding, the notion of being a Christian Zionist requires ignoring that altogether and fixating on the idea of "Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed."

To avoid accidentally talking too much about current events, if you have a part of the Bible say "Our differences mean nothing because God loves us all equally," to hold a certain nation in higher regard for any reason basically stomps all over it.

Then there's the Israel of it all. And I don't mean the country. I mean Jacob.

Could "Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed" mean Jews broadly, rather than the nation-state of Israel specifically? Technically speaking, wouldn't all Jews everywhere on the planet be "Israel" through Jacob? Then there's the fact that, as far as I can tell, the only time that's ever said in the Bible is to Abraham, and could easily refer to his descendants, wherever they are on the planet, rather than this specific country whose modern incarnation didn't exist until 1948.

And related to that, why does "blessing Israel" equate to rubber stamping everything its government wants? Could "blessing" someone not mean doing something they'll resent in the moment but come to appreciate in the long run? You know, like any parent that does anything that makes their kid upset, only for them to grow up and say "Yeah, you were right."

Even if God Himself did want to put the nation on some sort of pedestal, why is it impossible for people to think that denying them today might in some way bless them 50 years from now?

Another pair of thoughts just popped into my head, so I'll slap them on here at the end:

• Assuming someone is a denomination that believes accepting Jesus as their savior is a prerequisite for heaven, do they think the entirety of Israel is going to convert, or something? Or have they somehow convinced themselves that blindly supporting a country of people who they believe are hellbound for not proclaiming Jesus as their Lord is what Jesus wants?
• Matthew 25:40. A nuclear state that has one of the (for now) foremost superpowers in the world on a short leash is far from "the least of these brothers and sisters," so these people should be pouring their energy and support into people who have it far worse. Even if that somehow was at odds with the interests of the nation of Israel, not supporting those vulnerable people means not supporting Jesus Himself, no?

I've been trying to find work for a depressingly long time. I've heard my fair share of (sometimes conflicting) tips on what to do. But even after all this time, there's another thing I just saw that, if true, baffles me, and is exactly why I made this post.

I saw a comment on a post from this subreddit a few months ago that mentioned that some types of ATS just can't properly parse PDFs. So even if you do everything else right, if you didn't throw them a docx, you're fucked.

Then I try to see what other peoples' opinions are, and I see a reddit thread that says the complete opposite, and that PDFs are preferred.

So with that conflicting information, do you do PDFs and just pray that the ATS can read them? Do you err on the side of caution and do docx unless otherwise specified and hope that a human isn't annoyed by the decision even if ATS loves it?

We all hear that we have to tailor our resumes and try to match keywords, but how deep does that go? Do you just want to copy-paste the job description and tweak it a bit so it actually matches the things you've done for maximum tailoring? Are ATS smart enough to understand when you slightly reword something it's looking for? Or would it hold that against you for not being the exact same?

No one formally taught me much of anything about ATS. It's just been people telling me "Oh, by the way, don't do this, because ATS can't read that," and it's maddening.

I guess I'm just asking for a list of more or less everything I'd need to know about how to minimize the chances of ATS not letting a human see my resumes ever.

It just occurred to me that you could sit down a Black person, an Asian, and a Latino and say "Raise your hand if the following applies to your race":

- You were brought into the United States to be exploited for cheap labor

- Your presence in the country has been treated as some sort of existential threat

- How American you are has been questioned, even if you're a natural born citizen and/or your family has been here for generations

- Similarly, you've been told to "go back to your country."

- Discrimination against you has been enshrined in law

- You've been assumed criminal or subversive based on the color of your skin

-You have been victim of white-led race riots

Those are the examples I could think of of the top of my head where two or all three would have their hands up. Specifically, I was thinking (won't have perfect examples for all three for every one):

- Slavery/Chinese Migrant workers in the 1800s/Latin American migrant workers today

- Trump basically ran on "non-white people bad," but this country is no stranger to using the dangerous "other" as political ammunition

- The 13th Amendment, to my understanding, exists to address this/the case of Wong Kim Ark and the internment of Japanese-Americans/Once again, present day with Latino citizens feeling unsafe because some racist "law enforcer" assumes they're here illegally for speaking Spanish

- Jim Crow/Chinese Exclusion Act

- Internment/The aforementioned "illegal because Spanish speaker"

I bring all this up, and make this post, because I've been watching videos about discourse on Black people choosing to boycott Asian businesses in the wake of Rick Chow's not guilty.

For all our differences, in the United States specifically, as far as being fucked over by white supremacy goes, basically every demographic that is not white has a *lot* in common. Hell, I'm no expert in the history, but even certain ethnicities we call white would have their hands up for a number of those (Shoutout to the Irish and Italians).

So how far *should* the solidarity go? Obviously, it isn't there, but what other commonalities of having been dealt a shitty hand am I missing?

Less about trying to spark a flame war, I am legitimately curious about what historical vignettes of what have happened to people in this country that weren't covered in our compulsory education.

So, ideally, less a conversation about contentious current events, and more a history class that we were all denied when we were younger. I may be wrong, but hope that framing it as a discussion of "then" rather than "now" will help keep any discussion *mostly* respectful.