markjgsmith

2024/06/24 #

• No sooner has one bullying cycle finished, or at least appears to have finished, the binary / halves cascades, than another one has started. This one is in a minus infiniti - plus infiniti form, and my experience is they start off relatively innocently but rapidly turn into a huge tsunami.

  A cute girl for example might gift you a (whole) sandwich and bottle of water, that happened a few hours ago, but in parrallel to this at around the same time an old woman, who constantly eats ice lollys, is exposing herself to you. At around the same time in other places, there are more examples of it, you are compared to young children, then almost immediately afterwards, in the same cafe / shop, a strange incident at the toilet where a strange old cranky woman arrives, loudly pushing her weight around, uses the bathroom, then afterwards, just before leaving, the person with her stands behind you and very loudly, for no apparent reason, starts making sex pleasure noises. Very strange indeed.

  You wonder when you'll get another cold drink, since that got deprecated when you tried to save money by eating instant noodles but the money getting to you decreased by the same amount you saved, so now you are stuck eating noodles just to stay hydrated.

  These types of things start happening everywhere, and they escallate and escallate, and eventually something bad happens, usually involving you getting mutilated.

  That's basically the current situation. Oh and the drugs / steeling meme is always just waiting to make a resurgeance. #

• You say No! a single time, and immediately afterwards, the hive mind tries to correct you simply for making an awkward movement as a bloke who regularly intimidates you walks past, by having him shout No! at you. He's No!-ing your No!

  Literally just for moving your body in a way that for whatever reason he found disagreeable. Nevermind that the entire world has been tsunami No!-ing you repeatedly for the past 2 days and you have been quietly saying nothing.

  It's one set of rules for you and a totally different set of rules for everyone else. Even thinking that there is a minus-infiniti plus-infiniti pattern occuring is grounds for anothoer tsunami. And of course any suggestion that this is not a normal situation is met with genuine righteous indignation of the highest order.

  No's for we but not for thee

  Mind boggled for the 1 millionth time. #

• cat << EOF > The magic of Glastonbury music festival

  In a classic Glastonbury move, the festival has all the old timers up in arms about how the festival is moving too far away from it's roots. This year South Korean K-pop boy band Seventeen is playing the Pyramid stage, the Friday afteroon spot.

  I say this as a former cranky old timer that was complaining about how the festival was moving away from it's roots, only to discover that, actually, I hadn't truely understood what Glastonbury was all about. Yes sure it's about big rock bands, and you can enjoy it at that level, but the really cool thing about Glastonbury, the thing it's mind bendingly good at, is taking these bands that seem completely different, that would appear to be almost completely at odds with each other, and juxtaposing them in such an unnexpected way, that somehow it magically just works.

  It's really difficult to explain in words. The festival is so enormous, with so many stages, so many genres and ambiences, that it quite literally feels magical, like walking across a simulacrum of the multiverse composed of the most incredible colidascope of colours, energies and people. You are constantly finding yourself in places you would never normally have gone to in your non-glasto RL, often with a glass of authentic west country pear cider in your hand, and absolutely friggin loving it.

  Even the so called uncool bands seem to popup just at the right time, when you're recovering from some other concert, and you see and feel the energy of the festival flow through them, and you think to yourself, holy crap Glastonbury is amazing.

  The magic of the ancient druids, mystical rituals from across the ages permeates everything like the cosmic background radiation, you see it eminating through the musicians, and you recognise it, because it's eminating through you too. You feel at one with yourself, the bands, your friends, all the people around you, as well as with the earth and entire universe.

  And then it's 4am and you are deep in the magic forest, at some totally underground unannounced jungle rave thing, and the band you thought were uncool are there raving their tits off, with an assortment of people so crazily diverse you start to literally believe you are in a dream. But it's just Glasto.

  Not even rain and mud can dampen the spirit, the rave continues with wellies and rain jackets, or in your tent.

  EOF

• I don't know much about Reform, aside from everyone constantly shouting about how horrible they are, so I was fully prepared for some really hard hitting stuff in this candidates in their own words article. But apart from the bloke saying Diane Abbott should be deported, the rest aren't really all that bad.

  There's a real allergy to the mere mention of conspiracy theories, with massive flare ups, which are about as unhelpful as spending all your time talking about conspiracy theories. Imo, we need a better balance that is in sync with today's reality. Conspiracy theories are often bonkers but they reflect real world worries that people have. Making them taboo and off limits just makes them more disruptive than they need be. #

• My read on the political situation in France, based on what I've read, and there's a big chance I have this wrong cause I know even less about French politics than English politics. The left coalition is a sort of a motley crue of folks from across the left spectrum, whereas the right party really is mostly quite far right, and the center party is sort of innefective and a bit wimpy. Oddly the left might have the most diversity in opinion and thus pro-democracy, but that might not be what you think is needed depending on where you live.

  I wonder whether many would like to vote for pro-democracy lets-hold-hands-around-the-camp-fire left coalition, but given their situation, where so many tensions and so many things need sorting out, feel they have to vote right to even get to a world where such a thing like a left coalition even makes sense.

  Potentially quite a dangerous slippery slope situation. #

• cat << EOF > The great british seaside holiday

  The trick to enjoying a british style beach holiday is first to realise they are an altogether different affair than such a thing in warmer climates. I really enjoyed that Guardian article, very readable and great photos. Definitely worth the time to read. I wonder if these places will start to get more popular in the future. There's something uniquely authentic about them.

  The water is cold, many of the beaches are pebbles instead of sand and the weather has a mind of it’s own. But for every downside, there is an upside, evolved over hundreds of years, you just have to see it through a different mindset. For instance, the unpredictability of said weather creates a sort of unspoken comeraderie between people, and there's often a special coziness to many of the places you'll find to eat hearty food as the winds and rain swirl outside.

  There's a sort of minimun bravery that you have to have to start enjoying it, a sense of humour about when things go wrong. But once you do, you might just realise why some of these places are the best kept secret of many poets and writers from around the world. And when it's finally sunny and warm, the tougher parts of the holiday cause it to truely feel that much more glorious.

  Oh to be beside the great british seaside, you feel connected to the land, the history and the people in a way you never could have imagined before. And the moderarely good fish and chips you eat while sitting on the peer looking out to sea, will be the best you've ever tasted.

  Update: When I re-read the first draft of this post, it had this poorly written travel brochure sort of vibe, and that wasn't at all my intention, so I re-wrote it twice, but each time it ended up being even more travel brochurey. It's very odd, there’s something in the universe that’s causing this to happen, like some sort of giant magnet, I don't appear to have any control over it. Rather than fight it, I'm just adding this note. Somehow it feels like the british seaside thing to do.

  EOF

• Great Rest is Money podcast episode out today - Does debt really matter?. There's a segment on national debt, very clear explanation on how that works and why governments can't just keep safely printing money. There's also another excellent segment on the UK - EU relationship, how after much pain inflicted by the EU as punishment for leaving, perhaps the UK is finally in a position of bargening power with the EU, with interesting things to offer related to security and defence. They also promise a special AI episode, looking forward to that. #

• What if mandated software backdoors had to themselves be backdoored? So for example users could always see when they were being observed via the backdoor. #

Today’s links:

• Starmer’s growth plan ‘doomed’ without access to EU markets, warn economists - Free movement and access to the single market are such big downsides of not being in the EU. We are going to need meaningful and clear alternatives. www.theguardian.com #

• You've probably never heard of the biggest band at Glastonbury - It's a K-pop boy band from South Korea called Seventeen! They have the Friday afteroon spot on the Pyramid stage. www.bbc.com #

• ‘Get real, wakey wakey, red pill time’: Reform candidates in their own words - Good idea for a news piece. To be honest I was expecting some really dreadful stuff, but most if it isn't that bad. www.theguardian.com #

• Mother of all battles’: French left join forces to beat far-right electoral threat - Pretty good summary of the situation, it's the left coalition vs the center vs the hard right. Heck of a showdown. www.theguardian.com #

• Punch and Judy, penny slots and Pontins: why the great British seaside continues to hold our imagination - Oh we do love to be besides the seaside...it's really worth trying a beach holiday in nothern europe. It's very very different to beach holidays in hot climate places. Both are great in their own way. www.theguardian.com #

• The magic of Glastonbury music festival markjgsmith.com #

• New Post: The great british seaside holiday markjgsmith.com #

• The EU Is Reaping What It Sows With the DMA: Uncertainty - Mostly common sense piece by John Gruber outlining quite effectively why Apple is having to tread very carefully in the EU. daringfireball.net #