Hi, everyone! I wanted to write a bit about some of the projects I’ve been working on, and what else I’ve been getting up to.

Because I study online, I’ve spent a lot of time finishing out some college courses for my Health Science degree. Both of them have been really interesting: they’re philosophy and biology. I actually found through the philosophy course that I have a deep interest in ethics, which is making me think about my future path. Maybe down the road, I could get into more philosophy stuff!

I also liked biology because it helped me understand more about how life functions on our planet. It gave me a respect for the way everything in the natural world works together in a fine-tuned ecosystem. I was surprised by how species I could think of as harmful or annoying (such as fungi or even viruses) actually serve a positive purpose, too. For example, scientists have found some viruses can actually be used in targeted forms of therapy to attack cancer cells!

The Calls for Art and Other Adventures

Lately, I’ve been involved in calls for art, and I’ve been writing at my own sites and for others. I volunteer with Pen to Print and sharing writings with them, so I’m looking forward to releasing some more pieces there! One of them is about my experiences as a tennis player and what they’ve taught me in my creative life, and another is about my early writing memories.

I also completed a thoughtful piece with Design It For Us, an organization I volunteer with that focuses on ethical design. The piece is about my own challenges with technology addiction, and what I’ve learned about how to overcome it.

Through writing and research, I’ve found many of the problems we face with technology stem from systemic issues. In other words, it’s not something one person can just easily fix on their own. I hope my writing helps people realize how widespread these challenges are, and how we can collectively build a better path.

I also submitted to a few other exhibits and magazines, including the science fiction outlet QUEST. Although I didn’t get an acceptance, I’m still happy to be involved with the QUEST community, because I’m a big fan of sci-fi.

Rejections aren’t always easy, but I try to learn from them and not take them too personally. Of course, it’s natural to be disappointed. A lot of times, though, it’s not because your art or work wasn’t good enough: it’s just so many people submit! The editors or jurors have to narrow down many high-quality entries for the show or magazine. Some of the opportunities I’ve submitted to had record-breaking amounts of submissions, which I thought was really cool. But I also knew that meant my chance to get accepted would be lower. I’m still glad I gave it a try, though!

In the end, I got to learn about other resources from these rejections. For example, I got in touch with the New Jersey State Council of the Arts’ newsletter, so now I can find more art opportunities in my state. And with QUEST, I ended up joining a great community of similar sci-fi lovers and writers.

Speaking of science fiction, I read an article recently on the sci-fi world that AI is bringing to us. It was called “What if AI Is Not A Threat - But A Teacher?" It was from the folks at Reality Sandwich, a site that explores psychedelic experiences, consciousness, and other ways of seeing reality. I’m glad I came across this article, because it opened my mind wide!

Before I read it, I had a lot of fears around AI, because I didn’t want it to replace human art and creativity. But after reading this article, I started seeing another viewpoint: with the right development, AI could actually help us explore life and art from different angles, similar to how psychedelics can open our minds to seeing reality in different ways.

This led me to experiment with brainstorming and asking AI tools questions on many different subjects, such as art and AI ethics. I found that when I use AI thoughtfully, it can actually help me see my work in different ways and come up with new connections.

If you want to read about what I’ve learned through this, and how my views on AI and art have evolved, you can see my essay on it. I first published this essay a few weeks ago at Booksie (a site for writers to share their work), but for a cleaner reading experience, you can find it here without ads: How My Views on AI and Art Are Changing

Of course, I won’t have AI replace my own creative work, because I value what I can come up with on my own, with my human creativity. The human spirit will always matter. But I’m starting to see that AI doesn’t always have to be a threat or competition. Instead of fearing it, I can learn from it, and bounce around different ideas to see things with new angles. (In fact, that’s one of the themes that came up in the science fiction novel I’ve been working on - more on that in the future!)

Thanks for reading this rundown of what I’ve been up to! I hope you enjoyed it and got some interesting takeaways from it.