diary

diarist | punker | anarcho-minimalist

They're Not Your Friends/How It Got Like This

I just read a post about Elon Musk being what I have been calling him for over a year now which is a “fraud”. The title of the NY Post article is appropriately titled “Elon Musk Is A Fraud”. So, so, SOOO many people I know in the tech world and in the tech writing world and in the online circle of people I associate with (most are just people I correspond with (not “friends”)) are up Elon Musk's ass about what a great guy he is. His most recent flub was saying he would fix Flint, Michigan's water crisis (which he will not).

But not just Elon Musk, and not just Tim Cook (who plays the buddy-buddy game with everyone), or Larry Page, or Jack Dorsey, or (obvs) Mark Zuckerberg, these people; these capitalist destroyers of American society, are NOT your friends. They make bad (not “low-quality”), insidious products for the world that threaten not just our democratic system, but the welfare of the planet, itself. Nothing about making an iPhone (or millions of them!) is done in an ethical way; from sweatshops, to non-recycled plastic, to built-in software that threatens your life and privacy and dignity as a private citizen. The exact same can be said about any and all smartphones. Twitter and Facebook (combined) have taken the last 200 years of American progress and tossed it back into the gutter where only trolls, haters, racists, and sexists live, and, – between them and mainstream media – got a corrupt billionaire “elected” POTUS.

.............................................

All this has built-up over time. The condition of our civilization, the loneliness of Internet addiction, the epidemic of online teen bullying, the constant state of distraction, the “turn the other cheek” complacency of being spied on – all of these things have been put into place to do one thing and one thing only; take our attention away from what is really going wrong in the world. Think of the epidemics, the tragedies, the outcries of years past. Where are they now? School shootings, corruption in D.C., global warming, social media depression, families separated at the border, Puerto Rico without power, Flint, MI. without clean water, the list goes on. You see, if someone is CONSTANTLY distracted from what really matters, if even to just bounce from one tragedy to the next tragedy, that gurantees that nothing will be fixed.

The only “solution” (from where I'm sitting) is to allow the system to collapse upon itself. But, that is simply on the part of the system (namely the gov't.) to do on it's own. The government cannot control a People who do not partake in their #1 source of manipulation. That source being the media, itself. It is up to the individual, however, to not be taken for a ride in this crazy, spinning, backwards society we have been spawned (I mean that term literally, BORN) into. Maintain dignity. Maintain hope. Maintain privacy, safety, security. Stand by your principles. Look at your phone less (or stop using the Internet altogether). Don't watch television. Avoid magazines. Stop listening to the media. Live your life. Be peaceful. Be free.

No One Is Inspired By Someone Who Is Resting On Laurels

I just went on another Twitter diatribe and while doing so, some fairly good advice (from myself, to myself) came out of it. I was basically saying how it is so incredibly important for someone who is starting their life in their early-mid twenties to be incredibly ambitious and to want to “take on the world” and “prove” themselves (even though they will only be proving themselves to THEMself, no one else will care) no matter what. I then went on to say how I did this same thing by joining the service and while doing so accomplished nothing, gained nothing from it, and it was only when i went back to what i originally wanted to do that I had mediocre success (being a writer). And even though I still write to this day, I had fallen asleep at the wheel while i was resting on my laurels until I lost the “skill” or “function” of ....very good (see?) writing. Now I am starting over (which is very good) by attending STLCC and getting an AA/AAS (either or) in something I am truly interested in to improve the outcome of my future. Unless you're dead, we all have a future.

These are just some thoughts I wanted to share.

foodskee and the like

i went and got some energy drinks and coffee just a bit ago and i am getting proper wired. this is a very good thing. and as for tomorrow, i am going to do laundry at the 'rents, have some good food, and just chill. Nothing special happening over there.

this probably could have been summarized in a Tweet but here it is in a blog post

tomorrow is gonna be crazy

it's Saturday which means chill time here in S St Louis County (no cars on the road, everything moves slow) but then I am going grocery shopping which means every inch of the store will be slammed w/ people and i will have to wait in line for 20 minutes to check-out.

Anyway, today is a very nice (but very warm) day and I am going to try to get real writing done today. I just want this book published ASAP and only I can make that happen and it is happening but that doesn't speed up time and put money in my pocket to actually do it any quicker so I just need to be patient and wait a couple weeks & then one more week after that and I will have it (them) in my hands. I can't wait for folks to read it.

Anyway, be back in a bit!

Early AM Thoughts

July, 20 2018 – 6:24 AM

I am sitting here having a mocha/latte/whatever and listening to the birds chirp outside my window while the overly-humidified air comes through my sliding glass door and smoking a nonny (non-filtered cigarette), and thinking about what I can do today that would be constituted as somewhat “productive”. The book is ready to go, the app has been put on hold (for a little while), and I have no immediate writing projects that need be worked on.

I suppose I will send some more pitches out for freelancing gigs.

This is what I'll do.

writing

i seem to want to write a lot today (or tonight). The crickets are seranading me, and i am seranading them w/ the clickity clack of my keyboard.

I miss my typewriter.

Who stands to gain from my book?

It is four works. Including:

-Rewilding For Repentance -Newer Systems -Rejecting Notifications and -Metro (short fiction)

It is just for entertainment value, I suppose. And I am writing + collecting these works anyway, so I may as well put them in a book, buy an ISBN, print it up and distribute the thing.

Most importantly, I want the people close to me to read it and give me feedback. Even people not close to me.

How many copies will I print?

Four copies. For now. But I will print as many as demanded upon me should other take interest. I am doing all this myself so there is no profit to be made, but, if someone wanted to buy a copy, I would charge $20. Simply enough. These works have also been released in different spots on the Internet before, but there will not be a digital copy of this work. E-books are boring.

Would I ever do a signing?

That depends. I plan on signing each copy I print, anyway. So there is no need for a formal event (+ cost of printing as much would cost me a good deal of $$$). I would prefer to simply distribute this work to SLCL + SLPL instead of a sales thing. Money is not important.

that's all for now

79 F

i did not do any reading today. i was going to keep at it w/ two books a month and i guess i am “on-track”, but, i thought i would be reading a lot more. I need to return the three books i have from SLCL back to SLCL and then check out three more. Short ones. Ones that I will actually enjoy.

it is also a cool night out tonight. Very peaceful with the crickets and the fan creating a breeze through my bedroom. i am all caffeinated-up and ready to pull an all-nighter should i feel like it.

I got smokies. Edgefield nonnies, to be exact. I needed them until the lozenge refill tomorrow. I am ok with this.

Also, I discovered a minimalist “lifestyle” site called readingmytealeaves.com and though it looks really nice, and the site runs well-enough for the amount of ads on it, it still seems like a marketing-type of site. It is a nice little site (about a woman & her family who live in NYC), but let's face it: sites like these are a dime a dozen in 2018. Ever since so many people were minspired by Light By Coco, everyone has taken to Wordpress or whatever and created an ad-hok blog about buying only things colored white.

I don't give a fuck. I don''t even give a fuck if people know I'm a minimalist these days. In fact; I more or less have to warn them about the fact when they enter my apartment because I have so little stuff, but then they end up really liking it. I have talked about my minimalist living in the past but not because it is a “lifestyle”. It is like being vegetarian. Just a thing I do/way I choose to live my life. I go over the deep end when it comes to minimalism (see last nights blog post about dogmatic anarcho-minimalism), but, i think people are somewhat mistaken about what minimalism IS (or is supposed to be). It is simply supposed to be about clarity of thought. Yea, a lot of people need to declutter a bunch of shit they have in their lives and they should do that, but, choosing to be a minimalist should be, and is, about just not having a cluttered MIND. Freeing up time/money/resources for things that actually matter. Not counting your things or monetizing the minimalist life for some sort of cult following (like many have done in the past five years). Influencers, in general, are bad for society.

But on a different note. I entered into my diary a bit ago about how the app building is going to be put on pause for right now as I am working on publishing my book, and when everything is done with that and the (self) printing is done (via FedEx) and I have the bookskee distributed to the few people who would like to read it; then I can put money/resources/time towards app-building.I am dedicated to doing this app, but like I have said many times before, the book comes first! “Essays” is going to be a fabulous little accomplishment for me (already is!).

The crickets are calling my name. Gonna sit and listen for a while.

Building FOR mobile, but not ON mobile

Granted, mobile devices were never meant to be used as “trucks” as Steve Jobs put it. But I would like to see more functionality out of, say, iPads for example.

Anyway something just come up. brb

back to it

not the writing project in the aforementioned blog post, but the app project. The idea around it is very simply, it is just executing this plan is where it becomes complex. Totally doable and a lot of fun as well, just more complex.

I am going to start by getting a Mac that allows me to do all the things I want w/o bullshit workarounds like I have to deal with when I am using the RPi. Also, the RPi is very slow and things take a very long time to load w/ it. That is unacceptable when I am in a work flow. OS X will be able to handle my demands. I am going to get (basically) the same model MacBook Air I had last time and work from that. Then the Pi will go in the closet. I am not too worried about having the “latest and greatest” machine to get my work done. Something that meets the (humble) challenge is all i need.

So, the Mac is happening in a couple weeks, and then I can actually watch the tutorials for bubble.is w/o constant load times (which drive me crazy) and I can actually learn how to use their “no code” app building UI. It is a pretty cool service, I gotta say.

Then I will have to do all the research into the code I do need to implement into making this app work...exactly the way I want it to work. I am not going to divulge here (not because I am worried someone will steal the idea but simply because it could evolve).

I have been having a great time working w/ this, planning for this, etc. for quite some time. Yay!

Be back in a bit!

finding a writing project

What kind of writing project? I don't know. I just know I got time before I start working on that #app again and while I am just killing time before that, may as well get some meaningful #writing done.

I'll see what I am come up with....