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lqb2weekly · Jun 26, 2026

lqb2weekly #216 (26 jun 2026)

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lawrence barriner ii · lqb2weekly

hey,

happy belated juneteenth, solstice, and father’s day! 2026 is 50% over in a few days. wild.

also, this is a little random but i had coffee 3 days this week and when i was drafting this i saw this ad on grindr (WARNING: moderately unsafe for work screenshot (no nudity)) and nearly lost my shit. a $250/month AI subscription?! you gotta be kidding me. so imma go on a lil semi-public AI rant. feel free to ignore and skip down to the horizontal bar and read on. :)

of the several issues i have with AI, one of the most increasingly glaring ones is around consent. my hot take: the way AI is moving into the world is basically one consent violation after another. and it comes in a few different layers. the first and biggest is the one where the AI corporations scrape basically the entire internet without asking. it’s obviously more complicated than straight up stealing/theft, but in 2026, i think this is what theft looks like. then they start putting it (opportunities to use AI) EVERYWHERE: search bars, menus, floating bubbles on webpages, your doctor’s office. and even if you don’t click it intentionally, it’s only a matter of time until you click it accidentally. it’s honestly giving “well, they didn’t say no…” i’ve watched a few people in my life (and heard stories of others) record others without their consent and then give/gift that recording to a corporation who now, essentially, has the thinking of everyone recorded. i hear about people putting their organization’s entire note archive into these AI agents. and, i think the terms & conditions documents (which everyone signs and no one reads because they make them unreadable) have vague boundary/protection clauses written into them. but it seems like multiple times a year i get an email saying that there’s been a data breach (i looked up a history of data breaches. wild shit) somewhere and my ID/credit card/mailing address has been compromised and i need to change all my stuff. so… idk. it seems like only a matter of time until these AI companies get hacked and everything everyone is feeding into them becomes much more widely accessible. this just seems like not a great setup.

and why? to make money for already absurdly rich people.

ok. end rant.

one other thought about tech right now: i remember i heard someone say on a podcast years ago that google (aka internet search) is killing wonder. now… i don’t actually agree with that. but i do notice, in myself and in others, how quickly someone having any question leads to someone looking up the information on a phone or computer. IMHO, seeking out information and learning is neutral at worst and amazing at best. but lately, i have been trying to notice how much space is there between the question arising and the action to answer the question via a search. my curiosity is about impulse and compulsion. is ubiquitous access to the internet is short-circuiting/truncating curiosity? because we can find information, the amount of time spent feeling and exploring the curiosity before resolving decreases. instead of looking at the trees around me, taking them in, studying them, touching them, i take a photo, look up what it is, and forget it pretty much immediately because i can just look it up again later. now, obviously, the issue here isn’t the technology. the issue is how i use it. but without encouragement (intrinsic or external) to be intentional about how i use it, the aspects of myself that come forward aren’t typically my highest and best ones.

what to do about either of these things? i have no clue. do i even think i’m that informed about them? i don’t. and are there a million other things happening in our society that have these same or worst dynamics? absolutely. so what to do? idk. but for now, i’m just gonna say these things and keep it moving. additional thoughts welcome and i’d love folks to use the substack comment feature so the convo can happen beyond my inbox. if you email me back, i might not respond to you for weeks or months but i will def to my best to respond. you have been warned. :)

ok one other random thought: last month i was HEATED because no one had told me about ASTROPICAL, a 2025 astrology-themed album by bomba estéreo. i couldn’t believe no one had told me about it. so many of my folks know i like bomba estéreo and many more know that i’m way into astrology. how could my people betray me like this?! (woe is me i am a victim lol).

what i have realized as i’ve been sharing the album these past couple weeks is… folks in my circles largely also don’t know about this album. my ire has turned to joy as i now get to be the one sharing it. so here, please enjoy ASTROPICAL.

fav songs so far: me pasa, happy, corazón adentro, fogata, otro nivel.

three last things:

  1. a beloved looking for housing

Seeking a roommate for a 4-person communal home in JP, across the street from the Arboretum, starting September 1, $850 - 950 sliding scale. Details here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zIPHAPyTq9GJnuL5_yRl1oQbsRApUlQzzwSplbcntLI/edit?usp=sharing

  1. this upcoming relational culture training from relational uprising

  • Thursday, August 27, 2026 4:00 PM —
    Sunday, August 30, 2026 1:00 PM

  • The Watershed Center
    33 Kaye Road
    Millerton, NY, 12546
    United States (map)

Join us for an in-person residential Relational Culture experience at the beautiful Watershed Center in Millerton, NY! This session is both for people who are new to Relational Uprising training, AND for those who have completed the Introduction to Relational Culture online training or another Relational Uprising training, for whom there will be an advanced track for this session. There is no pre-requisite to join the residential.

This training will bring Relational Culture practices to life within a live group in beautiful summertime surroundings in the Hudson Valley. It is designed for community builders, cultural workers, educators, and movement leaders to deepen their capacity and tools for shifting culture.

  1. my coach mentor, jamari, during my coaching training program has a summer series of offerings for black men: roots of belonging. you can read more about the offering here or just go to jamari’s website, Roots of Belonging 2026 Gatherings, to learn more

    • Harlem, NY — July 25, 2026 — Black men who identify as GBTQ or allies

    • Washington, DC — August 29, 2026 — Open to all Black men

    • Columbus, OH — October 17, 2026 — Black men who identify as trans

    • Denver, CO — November 14, 2026 — Open to all Black men

ok! on to the things!

some things i’ve written since the last newsletter:

  • n/a

there is nothing new under the sun. also, full transparency, many of these quotes come from james clear’s

Results tend to find the person who stays in the game.
The sidelines are safe, but sterile. Nothing grows there. — James Clear

In the modern world, it is easy to feel like a passenger: reacting to notifications, responding to demands, consuming whatever you happen to drive past on your screen.
But joy is found in being the driver. It’s the act of looking at the raw material of your circumstances — your time, your energy, your relationships, your skills — and seeing what you can make from it.
It is the act of creating the life you want (in big and small ways) that makes you feel alive and imbues life with extra meaning. The fact that you can hold a vision in your mind and then, however imperfectly, bend reality a few degrees in that direction. — James Clear

You have to know how to use your accidents. — Helen Frankenthaler

I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time. — Blaise Pascal

When you are creating something, you will usually find that once things appear 90 percent done, you are actually about halfway there. But you have to create the first 90 percent in order to see the half that needs to be revised. — James Clear

Only while sleeping one makes no mistakes. Making mistakes is the privilege of the active — of those who can correct their mistakes and put them right. — Ingvar Kamprad

What can be added to the happiness of a person who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience? — Adam Smith

some things i’ve read since the last newsletter:

have listened to this last one prolly 100x in the last 2 weeks. on repeat for days. :D

here’s the jobs list for this month.

(because i was overdue for new running shoes) that “rockers” are in. i hope this will help my plantar fasciitis and not make it worse. 😬

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