The poetry slam, last Thursday, attended, in a pub - and - no longer the cozy venue it once was, now perhaps 70, 100 people. 

And tonight I'm committed to reading...

Only, it's not quite done and so, taking the microphone, discover I'm not as comfortable speaking in front of crowds as I'd imagined, skip the poem I'd written, too long, too many trigger warnings, and default to another:

The lyrics I'd written to accompany John Cage's "4'33"" of silence.

Unfortunately nobody knew the tune, and so nobody appreciated the lyrics... 

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Category: Blog

So a long time since I've seen a few episodes of this, there's some new and so I watch them. 

And - depending on where you live, have already come to pass.

Consider China, a very little bit in the news lately, still rioting over the Covid lockdowns, videos of massive internment ("quarantine") camps being constructed outside cities, videos of apartment buildings under quarantine having their doors welded shut, and "Code Yellow" - that app by default required on Chinese phones - that tracks where you've been and if you've come in contact with anyone suspected of having Covid turns yellow - the yellow advising you to report to quarantine for testing.

And - that app, it's needed to let you onto public transport, into shops, into your own apartment building. So - if it turns yellow or red, you're done. Just done. 

So, watching what was only a couple of years ago some sort of dystopic science fiction right now playing out under our noses, only it's not here, not here yet...

Otherwise, some interesting predictions on a future that's already arrived...

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Category: Film

I've gone on about this before, about the camera, and the proof is in the absolutely amazing photos it takes. (See earlier posts). 

And it's great as a phone and doing wifi and the internet and the Reddit app is certainly a five star time waster, but these things are common to most phones. 

The feature I find most useful is the pen-stylus, that embeds in the bottom of the phone and when you pop it out it automatically prompts you with a note. It accepts handwriting or text, small drawings, etc. You can embed images in it. It's really useful. I use it a lot. 

This is probably the best technology investment I ever made. 

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Category: Other

Like a lot of people I'm sure I on occasion beat myself up over not buying into Crypto, by which I mean specifically Bitcoin and Ethereum.

I mean, I remember first reading about it on BoingBoing or some other online 'zine when it was around a dollar, and I thought it was a curious thing. 

"Has potential" I thought, and knowing that money itself is a fiction was curious to see how this new fiction would take off. But I didn't buy in. 

And when Bitcoin hit $2000 I was a bit annoyed, as was everyone else on the planet who didn't buy in. "Coulda Shoulda Didn't".

So I took the time to investigate the other crypto currencies, there was Titcoin and Potcoin and a whole bunch of other novelty crypto's used to buy your illegal drugs and porn on the internet, but the one that struck me was Ethereum. Still reasonably cheap, I should buy into this...

I didn't. I'm at heart a big skeptic.

And to be truthful, had I bought in, how would I have known when to sell? I mean, who did?? Sell too early and you'll be cursing yourself on the fortunes you lost. The same if you sold too late. No matter when you're a loser. So even were I a crypto-millionaire I would somehow find a way to beat myself up over it. Although, let's be real, a few million dollars can dry an awful lot of tears...

Bringing us to the newest TikTok trend of people being given Dabloons, which are tokens given to people as a reward for watching certain TikTok videos. They have no value whatsoever, monetary or otherwise, so I'm laughing again in disbelief at people collecting them and I think of the Owner's (restaurant) son, who made a tidy profit selling his house a couple of years ago and "invested" it in Bitcoin and NFT's. He's already lost it all, and I've had a few laughs with him over it, a pocket full of bored apes and a wallet full of dust....

Before that there was his Blackberry stocks, it was only this year he realized...well, it was time to get a proper phone. I think he's still holding on to the stocks.

That kid has had more bailouts than the Titanic...

I send him the link - "Buy in now....get your Dabloons....sell when I tell you and buy stocks in Twitter"....

He's an Elon fanboy, but - even this strikes him as preposterous. Twitter is privately a privately held company. And besides, what remains of his money is "going to the moon" with Gamestop and Dogecoin... 

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Category: People
  1. "Don't use google, that's how they get you...."
  2. NetFlix - 1899
  3. Commercial Space
  4. "Do you know how much this is worth?"