Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

African proverb

A to this blog fitting African proverb, with unknown origin. It has a variety of versions, such as:

Until the Lion tells the story, the hunter will always be the hero. Until lions have their own story tellers, hunters will always be the hero in their story. Until the lion learns to speak, the tales of hunt will always favour the hunter.

Truth is shaped by the victorious, glorifying their perspective. The image has been used by many prominent writers.

One of Aesop's fables is titled “the Man and the Lion”. It is one such example warning us the origin of evidence needs to be examined before it is accepted.

We are conditioned from birth to believe the influential, the hunters, the powerful without questioning. The phenomenon is aptly described in English as “willing suspension of disbelief”. We let the “hunters” tell and modify their stories at will, most often creating illusions held onto along the way. Sometimes it becomes a threat to life to dare even imagine otherwise.

That's where for example Swiss authorities reject everything that does not come from Switzerland, and blindly accept as true anything Swiss helping to keep the right to truth from being heard.

More broadly speaking, western society women impose men rule the world and are the exclusive beholders of violence, while attributing themselves, the qualities of non violence, peace and love. It is bashed into children from birth, particularly by mothers. It renders impossible for uncomfortable truths to come out. Men often go to war at women's demand; domestic violence is said to be committed in up to 47% of cases by women; and so many other examples ... How ironic ...

p.s.: Things always take more time then expected. Hoping to get back at publishing sometime this week

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The wind whipped his dark hair around, sometimes slapping him in the face with little flicks. The hill offered no shelter from the air. Even at a distance, he stood out on the plain slope in the armoured body suit that supported him in this God-forsaken place. He scanned the valley below, not believing that it was once home to thousands of his ancestors. The clean air was a small compensation for the miserable darkness that cloaked the land.

Deciding he had taken enough risks, he squatted down inside a dip in the hillside. He heard strange calls in the waning light, eerie whispers that reached through the shadows of his memory. Drevar dared a look over the rim of the dip. He noticed that all the lights below were flames of the atrocities he had committed in his zealous youth. The males, the females and the offspring were the plumes of acrid smoke rise and drifting towards him on the wind.

He averted his eyes and saw the ripped apart remains of Gayle Fine. At least she died instantly. The towns below had kept some of their defences, even though humans were supposed to be long gone from this planet. A needler, set on auto, had emptied its ammo into her, each needle expanding as it tore through her flesh at hyper-velocity.

He could not claim that for those who burned below. Incendiary missiles rained fury and napalm on their precious towns. A carpet bombing from the arse of Satan himself. Drevar took a few minutes to notice the tears dripping down his face at what he had become.

Sure, they told him this was not just a symbolic act, but one of strategic value. At the back of his mind, the voice of reason argued otherwise. Humanity could not have it, so no one else was going to. The United Federation was not all that far removed from its embarrassing ancient history of Sol-bound wars that wiped planets clean of life. Including this one.

It seemed humanity had not learned from its history, fulfilling its doom to repeat it. This time, there were new victims. As if that made it acceptable. Drevar looked at the pistol in his hand. It was a vicious, Marine issue Dread Assault Weapon, nicknamed the Door for its ability to blow holes the size of doors in most organic things.

His dad always said, “If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.”

Drevar's face imploded with the twenty mil round's passage through bone and cartilage. He remembered falling and then the shadows of the ground swallowed him. A red mist slowly drifted down behind the falling bits of bone and brain.

#SciFi #ShortStory #Gore

Hello All!

It’s been awhile! I never meant for this blog to accidentally go on hiatus after my last post in relation to my views on Proportional Representation but life sure finds away to make me busy. I rather not get into the why as a lot of its personal and work stuff, but I did want to give an update on the current progress of the “Year of Balance” theme that I gave to myself, and some of the goals that I gave myself.

I’ve had some successes and some failures, so lets unpack that a little bit…

What's going Well

Videos

Let’s start with the main objective, the 6 videos by the end of the year is on track more than I thought. Not only do I already have 3 videos (including the channel Trailer) But I have several scripts done for smaller videos, and I’ll likely reach the goal by the end of summer. This is mostly because I’ve decided to make 3 rumbleverse videos on the account that the game shutdown, so that’s been my priority. The videos are as follows:

• Rumbeverse Highlights
• Rumbleverse The Things You Never Noticed Type video (icebergesque?)
• Rumbleverse Overview type video

This is all so I can show some appreciation for a game that I would play with my friend all the time. Fair Warning, I plan to exploit as much footage in shorts as I can while I’m working on these. I’m also thinking of uploading some of the “raw” gameplay as kind of archival effort. Not sure if I want that on the main channel or my old “Brologic Production” Channel. trying to decide on that but I have time to think on that.

For those interested, YouTube user: Computerwhiz has some gameplay footage that is submitted by fans, and I plan to submit some of my solo gameplay as not to clog My Nemes Content channel.

But aside from the rumbleverse appreciation videos I have the following scripts written up

• Animal crossing wild world
• RSS
• Linux Laptop Dual Booting
• Putting linux on my Brothers old laptop
• A Video Lossless Cut As I’ve used it for the Pokemon nuzlocke and rumbleverse videos

Once the rumbleverse overview and things you didn’t know is scripted and recorded, Those videos will be my next focused for recording and editing. With any luck I’ll get those before the end of the year as well totally the videos to 10 (Not including shorts)! If I can pull that off that I would be amazing!

While originally I planned to get those smaller videos out and a multi part Pokemon nuzlocke (learning from my time making the capture card saga) first, but I feel like there’s kind of urgency with rumbleverse’s closure. Even though I’ve been very slow with make those videos. You can blame how busy I’ve been for the last two month. Still I feel these videos will be some of my most involved. Stay tuned for those

Other wins and unexpected happy accidents

There’s also been handful of other happy accidents and minor wins that happened so far this year:

Graphics update

I updated the graphic for my youtube’s profile picture and will sever as the logo going forward. Might still make a tweak or two to this but I’m mostly satisfied.

I also made my social media profile picture this iconic thumbnail I like it a lot and thing it’s funny. Might do more with this later down the line.

Shorts

Shorts every 2 weeks have been working out well for the most part. Still trying to do more original edited shorts in addition to the main video promotion that have been doing since last year. The blessing and curse has been from me using the shorts on mobile to make shorts on the fly via my phone. The latter are be spitting hot takes rather than the skit like shorts I prefer to make but it’s sometimes nice to get some thoughts out of my head.

Though with that being said I am going to make a shorts series based on the mobile editor because I have some GRIPS. Mostly with how the cutting works post recording the segments, but that’s for another post/short.

Generally speaking, The shorts have been doing better than last year so that’s been a good sign so far.

That being said I have one skit like short read to be edited so hopefully I can get it and others out soon. (It’s actually going to be on June 3rd lol)

Future Kenshi Series

You might have seen this coming if you’ve seen the two kenshi short’s I’ve made recently. You see because I recently I got into Rise of TMNT because of a certain Cloud Pup I decided to spin up a game of Kenshi with Hivers being the stand in for turtles. I ended up being so engaged with this save that I decided that I will be making a Kenshi Series in the same vein as the “Grog Saga” By YouTuber Bryien.

It will follow The Hivers incarnations of Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie as well as Master Denters (skeleton joke lol) as they survive in Storm Gap Coast. Limbs will be lost, Weapons will be stole, and I will be salty, but damn if it wasn’t good kenshi content.

This is a something that I will likely start working on the script and stuff first thing after I get rumbleverse videos done. Don’t expect to see anything about it until like fall or something as I still want to get the other videos that I’ve had on the back burner first before taking on this project.

Just know it’s something that I want to do.

Some failings so far and unexpected road bumps

Nothing everything has gone according to plan. There’s some thing I’ve been failing on a little bit.

Not too much balance in the Year of Balance

Yeah I’ve sort of been failing at the balance. I’ve been trying to be better at resting on the days I’ve been off, the weeks I get an extra a day or two have been helpful. The problem has been (at least so far) has been working overtime at work something I did not for see when taking the 10 hour days.

The other thing I’ve been kind of failing at is better use of my time. I’ve fallen victim to the scroll again. This is partially because… holy shit twitter is such a trash fire lately! like such a trash fire have you seen it?

But also, to not completely take the blame off my self, partially because habit are bad to break. Recognizing this I’ve ramped up my RSS feed curation for my friends, creators, and meme account I follow. However I realize I need to fine a way to combat my need for scrolling when I’be bored. I’ll have to look up strategy on how best to tackle that.

Finally mental health has been fine. Hasn’t really improved but not tanked later. That being said I’m acknoleging that I need to take of my self phsyically so I can be mentally healthy as well (I’ll explain more down the page). In addition to that, with the hope of getting a home office set up in July, the compartmentalizing of my home might help in improving my feeling of being stuck in the same place all the time. if only slightly. I might also just need to get out more lol.

RoadBlocks in the game of LIFE!

The Cough that Never went away

So I’ve had this cough for a while. Like.. awhile awhile. Like I’ve had this cough since 2016ish awhile. And then it got worse in 2023 just a little bit before Christmas. It gotten to the point where it’s affecting both my physical and mental health. Like I’m still fiiiiiiine but it would be nice to not wake up coughing, having acid reflex and having to wait to eat food in morning. So I’m going to get that checkout just to see what the hell is going on with this thing.

Time Management has never been my strong suit

Time Management has been one of my weaker points. I can show up and do my job or task of course. It’s getting around to the personal tasks is the problem. Or even just finishing things that I have started. Finishing up this blog I took multiple breaks to write this up.

At some ways I’ve think I’ve gotten slightly better at this, I’ve gotten more videos and shorts done this year than my previous years so far so I think I’m doing something right. I’ve even have had time set aside for relaxation and time playing games with friends! that’s been nice. Still Improvements need to be made. I find I get the distracted easily either with my curiosity or my undisciplined butt.

Above I mentioned my scrolling addiction on twitter. I feel like that might need that might need a post describing my feelings on still being on twitter, but the point stands is I need to be doing more important things than scrolling the for you page (could be said for all social medias that have a but shush for now). I’m still in the process of trying move as much as I can to rss and try using that to follow friends just so I can filter out the noise and so there is an END. In between using Thunderbird, and the “Feed Bro” web extension as the Rss Reader. Feed bro has some nice conveniences for following social media accounts without workarounds, but there’s some stuff I like about thunderbird with as a more traditional rss reader (plus I should switch to that for email). Both are good choices and I will be bringing both up in my video.

I’ve also been using Tumblr, which has been a nice habit replacer since I follow y2k aesthetic and Pokemon stuff on there mostly. Still waiting on fediverse support for that site.

Think my main focus for the latter should be trying to further replace the hellsite (Rss, Tumble, Mastodon) and try to keep its use to the minimum. I enjoy my online friends on there, and I will support them, but I have so many issues with the site and current owner, and fundamentally know twitter is bad for my mental health. So I got to do something, ANYTHING to reduce my scrolling habits.

I should mention that I’ve also been accepting over time at my work. I’m paid for that extra time, so I don’t mind it too much, but it has slightly impacted my personal efforts. This was partly why I was busy for the most part throughout April and may and didn’t really update much (that and fun personal life stuff). Hopefully, not too much of that will happen over the summer, here’s hoping

Things I haven’t gotten around too

The NeoCities Site

The NeoCities site I want to make has taken a backseat as I’ve focused on other things. A fun fusion of needing the time and being intimidated by HTML. I plan to try and poke at it over the summer

I maybe doing some practice over on Tumblr because a Sea slug told me to try Tumblr to get way further from the twitter. Tumblr has a neat theme (HTML) editor that might give me some insight and idea’s. This way I’m still working towards my goal without going head first into without any background. Sort of what I did here with CSS style.

Exercising

Remember how I said in my last post on this topic I planned to exercise more? … Yeah I have yet to do that consistently yet. I kept putting it off and putting it off (partially because of what I mentioned above about that damn cough) However, It’s something I’ve recently tried picking back up. I’ve gone on the bike, and I’ve tried out the rower and we’ll see where that goes. I have not real goal for Exercising besides maintenance at this point, though getting stronger never hurts of course.

Linux has taken a backseat

With me trying focus on a verity of videos, Linux exploration has taken a bit of a backseat. I wrote the script to the Dualboot video but I haven’t done too much since. Mostly due to my free time being taken up by other fun activities such as gaming, and rumble verse’s shut down took priority. Plus, I’ve been taking on those hours at work as well.

I still want to explore linux and it and open source is an interest of mine, but my motivation has been low lately, and the gameplay videos hav been fun so far.

My main hope is to get the dual boot video done before the end of the year, due to end of window 8.1 support, and I don't want to keep pushing it off. In addition to this, I want to make a “Laptop restoration with linux” and a “Nobara Project/linux’ video as well if I’m lucky. though might be next year at this point depends on how I’m feeling / where I am near the end of the year.

Closing thoughts because this update is way to damn long

So things could be going better, but they could also be going worse. I think I recognize where I need to go from here to improve these aspects. Main take away, I need too scroll less, do ANYTHING ELSE, and actually take care of myself for once! With any luck my other videos should be worked on through out the summer! Rumbleverse and some other tech videos included.

I think that’s fair I’ll write up another one of these near the end of the year to see if I make any improvement. I like to think writing it down first will help in making a commitment.

Next update is going to be the, now canned, RUP Script. I swear! Because I’m on my Proportional Representation kick again.

Until then!

#Yearlytheme #update #YouTube

Friday 02/JUN/2023

Prayers, etc.: • 06:00 – Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel • 08:20 – Daily Bible Readings for Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, followed by today's Rosary, the Sorrowful Mysteries. • 19:30 – Fr. Chad Rippberger's Prayer of Command to protect my family, my sons, my daughter and her family, my granddaughters and their families, my great grandchildren, and everyone for whom I have responsibility from any demonic activity. – Followed by the Friday Prayers of the Association of the Auxilium Christianorum – And the Hour of Compline for tonight from the Divine Office.

Health Metrics: • bw= 218.10 lbs. • bs= ? (Pogo device didn't work) • bp= 146/74 (65)

Diet: • 07:00 – 1 peanut butter sandwich, applesauce, cottage cheese • 09:00 – scrambled eggs, pancakes • 10:30 – MacDonald's Quarter Pounder with cheese • 12:00 – egg drop soup, Mongolian beef plate, rangoon • 16:00 – left-over fried food sampler with gravy, rib eye steak, toast and jam • 20:00 – ice cream

Chores, etc.: • 06:30 – health metrics recorded, listening to KTSA • 09:30 – Revolutions Always Eat Their Own* – Bill Whittle's Right Angle • 09:30 – move furniture • 10:30 – Judge SUPPRESSES Evidence in Jan. 6th Trial, Oath Keeper Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison | Ep. 351 – The Liz Wheeler Show • 11:30 to 13:30 – take Sylvia out to lunch at a favorite restaurant, then shopping • 14:00 – finish decorating small KofC table, then reviewed upcoming KofC assignments • 16:00 – local news and weather • 16:30 – following news reports from various sources • 18:30 – Wheel of Fortune • 19:00 – tuned into tonight's Rangers vs Mariners MLB Game

Chess: • 08:55 – moved in all pending CC games, signed up for another GK tourney, new games to start Monday

posted Friday 02/Jun/2023 ~20:10 #DLJUN2023

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Do not expose your dirty laundry outside your home; keep your dirty laundry to yourself or confine it within the walls of your own home. Our problems, worries, fears, hopes, and dreams are intimate and unique to each of us, and they should remain as such. However, from a young age, we are conditioned to attach importance to the opinions and judgments of others. The moment we start caring, our lives become a display of signs of failure or collapse, like a building slowly decaying. Since our ambitions, dreams, and lives are linked to being “ourselves,” every decision we make has consequences. However, I am not very concerned about the outcome, as the outcome is not important in the end. What matters is that we live a life with a kind of freedom – a life with a kind of happiness instead of carrying the burden of guilt and worries wherever we go.

And people's opinions are our biggest concern... our greatest worries. My life began when I started learning that no one is as important to the extent that we are – why? Because when you look into them, you discover an important thing: everyone around you is only concerned about themselves to the extent that matches the amount of accumulated shit in their lives. Let me tell you what I mean. I mean that the amount of someone's happiness or sadness around you is measured by the amount of accumulated filth they can perceive or cannot perceive. I don't really know why there isn't a school that taught us this, or a family. I don't think it's a coincidence. It's because the world wants us to bear the greatest amount of filth possible without any reaction from us. Our reaction to the amount of accumulated filth is as follows:

You're selfish, nervous, sensitive, a butcher, or you don't care about your family, your parents, your work, or you don't have loyalty to your country, religion, group, tribe, or anything else:

The missing component in this equation is you. It's as if you're living a postponed life because postponing everything is the only thing we've learned, and it's as if we're guaranteed to be the same person tomorrow. Everyone around you wants to occupy the largest possible space without caring about the amount of space they're occupying, as if everyone is suffocating. And the biggest mistake is when you put on your oxygen mask!

By the way, you should not always remain a satisfied person 24/7 because your dissatisfaction with the normal situation is your grudge against everything or your idea of being alone for some time, which is a crime committed against humanity. It's normal to occupy the largest possible space wherever you are to a proportion that matches the world's satisfaction with you. But the world's satisfaction with you will not equal the amount of long-term happiness you will have. Being someone who looks at things from a short-term perspective will.

And your short-term freedom is short because your measure of yourself does not match society's satisfaction with you. The places & people that understood this are the only ones that were able to evolve or allowed their people to express the amount of space they need to occupy, away from anyone around them.

Okay, so what's the solution? The solution is not to care about what people are saying about us, not to care about what people think of us. Our creativity will not be born unless we break free from the womb of suffering, and that suffering will continue to haunt us as long as we think that people's perception of us is important. The freedom to be ourselves is the greatest gift we can give ourselves and the new generation. There are many mistakes happening, by God. Let us express ourselves freely or dream that we can become the person we wished to be five or ten years from today. The echoes of the past will forever reverberate as chaotic noise, and the pursuit of pleasing everyone is an unattainable goal that will never be realized.

I have no idea what I want to say. I feel so many things and then a wave of nothing at all. Often times, I feel broken. But then the people around me will say I'm brilliant, that I'm one of the smartest people they know, that they've never met anyone like me. How can all of those things be true if I don't feel it?

It is very hard to have so much knowledge in your brain and all it's beautiful interconnectedness but then also be overly humble and anti-narcissistic such that you feel uncomfortable leaning into it. There was a time within the last year where I was certain I could achieve anything I wanted. I no longer feel that way.

Even though I have a partner, I still spend most of my time feeling alone. I don't want to sound dramatic, I don't want to sound like there is nobody who will understand me or that I am above or beyond other people and that's why I'm all by myself in the clouds. I spend countless hours perfecting the words I say and the feelings I express to best represent me so I can connect with others in an authentic way. Even still, I find myself bending to the energy of the environment and sometimes I get mad at myself for doing so.

When you are partnered, when you spend your time loving someone else, it is also important to love yourself in the same way. I know how to love myself, I think. I do things like this – I write. I try and believe in myself and root for myself in all that I do. I want to believe in the things I say and feel firm on the foundation I stand on. I feel like having a partner can make that harder if they don't love you in the same way you love yourself.

I am incredibly emotional and sensitive. Not sensitive in the way of being easily offended, but sensitive in the way of empathy. If you are upset, I will feel it viscerally. If you are happy, I may cry for you. It just comes naturally to me. It can get confusing when the people around you will say that's impossible and the only feelings you can have are your own. But... of course. I have feelings that are activated by way of you. The only way I am able to feel you is because I feel me. If we don't feel ourselves, we can't possibly feel others.

Sometimes I wonder if my partner feels me. Like truly feels me. Because sometimes I think she doesn't feel herself. How is the way I feel going to penetrate her soul if they have to go through her own feelings? How can she possibly understand what I truly feel if she isn't calibrated on her own plane? I hate asking these questions because I feel like it makes me sound like I don't think she's emotionally aware or intelligent. It's simply my own fear of not being understood. I will usually find opportunities to notice her lack of understanding of my being rather than her affirmative understanding. We've been together for awhile now and sometimes it makes me sad how I don't think she deeply understands the things that really matter to me. But she loves me in the way she knows how, and for that I am grateful.

Here are some feeling words to express what's in my body right now: fear, stress, overwhelm, nervousness, sadness, loneliness, anticipation. I tried to think if there are any happy words I can put in there but I honestly can't. Right now is really hard. It's really really hard. I feel like I am in the deep trenches of some deep ass shit and it's hard to see the sky. But I have to trust, ya know? This is the lesson of the century. How do I know that I know that I know? Because I am aware that everything waxes and wanes and these feelings in my body will transmute into something new by the nature of my actions and the world around me. I am excited for that. Oh hey, look – I'm excited. Pretty cool.

I want to make a difference. But I believe that statement is lame. I don't want to make a difference because I think the world needs differing. I want to make a difference in people's lives in a way that just makes their souls feel at home. We live in an uneasy, increasingly fast, chaotic, stressful world. And to feel relaxed and at home even for just a few minutes can really change somebody. I want to be that for others because that's what I need for myself. And I don't have it. I've been endlessly searching and putting myself out there in a radically vulnerable, authentic way but I have yet to feel safe, heard, and seen in the way I truly think I need to expand and grow in the way I want. I have had to be that person for myself. But there's only so many things one human being can do. It can get a little cramped in here.

To care deeply for all that surrounds me takes a toll. To care less is inauthentic and painful because it isn't me. To walk around as not-me, although perhaps energetically easier in the moment, ends up putting me in much more energetic debt to realign to my true nature. Sometimes I wish I were naive and ignorant. I know that is selfish, but a girl can dream.

I can't really write much more today. My head might fall off my shoulders and roll down the street. Thanks for being here and I'll talk to you soon.

Delaney Collins

Version française

The computing platform Noteable recently created a plugin that allows interaction with ChatGPT. I opened a notebook, then dropped a dataset. I asked ChatGPT to generate the code in #Rstats to create an AI model on this data set. 30 seconds later, I had an optimized code. It's sick. It completely (and positively) upsets the way of teaching numerical computations. Rather than focusing on writing code, teaching should now focus more on the importance

1. to ask the right questions and
2. to understand the meaning of the answers

In a survey of 791 articles in 5 scientific journals, about half of the articles misinterpreted the notion of p-value, yet a gold standard in science (for the wrong reasons). We will be able to really focus on training critical thinking and put aside the ability to type code!

#en #datascience

English version

La plate-forme de calcul Noteable a récemment créé un plugin qui permet d'interagir avec ChatGPT. J'ai ouvert une feuille de calcul, puis j'y ai déposé un jeu de données. J'ai demandé à ChatGPT de générer le code en langage de programmation R pour créer un modèle d'IA sur ces données. Trente secondes plus tard, j'avais un code optimisé. C'est malade. Ça chamboule complètement (et positivement) la manière d'enseigner le calcul numérique. Plutôt que de se concentrer à écrire du code, l'enseignement devra dorénavant porter davantage sur l'importance

1. de poser les bonnes questions et
2. de comprendre le sens de la réponse

Dans une enquête effectuée sur 791 articles dans 5 journaux scientifiques, environ la moitié des articles mésinterprètaient la notion de p-value, pourtant un gold standard en science (pour de mauvaises raisons). On va pouvoir vraiment se concentrer à former de l’esprit critique et mettre un peu de côté la capacité à taper du code!

#fr #datascience #rstats

A MAG is a Modern African Girl, so no subject is taboo. My purpose is to share things which may interest a MAG.

This week's contributors: Nadia, Doré Fasolati, this week's subjects: Espadrilles fashion, Joëlle Ciocco, Healthcheck, Slimming.

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Espadrilles fashion

Espadrilles are and will be the only shoes you will need in summer or our dry season; considering our hot burning climate

Espadrilles should be quite tight when you first try them on. One of the characteristics of this footwear is that the cotton upper will eventually stretch and comfortably mold to your feet. If they are loose when you purchase them they will most probably slip off your feet shortly afterwards.

Wondering when, where, and how to wear espadrilles? Espadrilles are the perfect shoe for women and can be a fabulous look for date night or even a day at the office when worn right. If you're looking for something slightly more casual than a pantsuit, try pairing espadrilles with tailored trousers. This is a great option for days when you want to be comfortable but still look put together

Unlike plastic flip-flops or slides, which are far too casual, espadrilles won't undermine your workplace style. With their pretty rope heels, espadrilles give you stature and style, while elongating your figure. Wear espadrille heels to work and feel comfortable all day long with a chic, understated look.

Whether espadrille flats or wedge espadrilles, they will both look great with a jumpsuit. A flat, classic espadrille shoe, because of its rugged details, is one of the most casual shoes to wear with jumpsuits.

Although espadrilles are often associated with daytime ensembles, they're also ideal for evenings out. Wedge styles with feminine ankle ties will elevate your look without compromising on comfort.

Joëlle Ciocco, the cult facialist in Paris makes cosmetics for the rich. Described as the woman with the golden fingers, the magician of the skin, the cosmetics gourou, the beauty gourou, the gourou for the stars she managed to bring her company from zero in 2017 to already millions in 2019, I could not find the latest figures, but these figures were definitely up. She is the silent and kept secret of the richest stars. She is especially good in anti aging creams and if you have the money she will make personalized creams for you. A 2 hours skin regeneration treatment which re establishes the motoric and logistics functions of your skin membranes costs 695 € (GHS 8400 as we go to press), if you are lucky enough to get an appointment with Madam Joëlle herself you pay 1350€ (GHS 16300). She invented the term epidermologue. But in her rush to stardom she forgot a few things. She did not register her products with the french FDA. She does not mention her main ingredients, which is compulsory. She has no test results. She has no procedure to follow up on reported allergies and similar. And her main ingredients, bétamethasone and cortoide have been banned from use in cosmetics since last year because they can cause thinning and fragilizing of the skin (maybe call that dissolving of the skin?) and acne and skin depigmentation and immunodepression. The French authorities have thus closed her factory, a rather severe action, the big ones normally get away with warnings, penalties and promises. It is also sold under the name of Celestone solution. Read your labels please and don’t buy products without an ingredients label.

Healthcheck. Many are the devices like your phone or an Apple watch that claim to be able to monitor blood pressure. But these devices either using algorithms combined with real-time pulse data to estimate blood pressure, or are calibrated against equipment that’s known to be accurate, such as a cuff wrapped around a limb, and then track values rather than measure them. So for BP monitoring these devices are inaccurate, and you may be taking decisions based on false data. A breakthrough in constant wrist-based blood pressure monitoring would be a welcome advance. Beware, hypertension among young people is common, affecting 1 in 8 adults aged between 20 and 40 years. Not for women? For every 100 men with high pressure there are 88 women with high pressure as well. Symptoms? Headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, chest discomfort. I'll talk about this overlooked issue again.

Slimming. Most of us want to slim at one time, but few succeed. Why? Well, I can tell you it is hard work, lots of work-outs and limited and selected food intake for months in a row. And if you are not careful it is all back in a few weeks. But now there is a wonder drug, Ozempic, a special diabetics drug. Tiktok too has seen it, with millions of views. It works by taking your appetite away. And triples your chance of thyroid cancer and renal failure. There have been semi similar cases with opioids which caused thousands of premature deaths in the USA. Ghana doesn't really publish figures on these things but from time to time we read that a certain drug becomes interdicted because of gross overuse. Drugs always have side effects. If you want to slim just eat less for a longer period. Cutting corners does not work.

Full moon on Saturday, connect with the cosmos. A nice night beach walk in the rain with lots of lightening? C u there.

Nadia...

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#atmosphere #architecture #psychogeography #capitalism #theology #SergeiBulgakov #atmospherictheology

Introduction

Ghost hunting has once again crawled out of the ether and is haunting much of pop culture. Television shows like Ghost Adventures, podcasts on the paranormal, countless internet hubs, as well as real-life expeditions seem to have gained a second life. Some interpret this phenomenon as symptomatic of how quickly America is given to fantasy thinking and delusions from reality. Others interpret this as a renewed longing for a spiritual dimension. And of course, there's the Bob Larsons of the world who claim that it's all just demons attempting to trick America away from following Christ. However, what interests me about the phenomenon is not so much whether ghosts exist. Instead, it seems to me that ghost hunting and ghost tours present an interesting form of psychogeography and cognitive mapping of urban and suburban environments. Within this new cognitive mapping of material environments, I believe it's possible to see cracks starting to form within our truncated, secularist milieu. And even though ghost hunting itself does not necessarily purport explicit theological or religious commitments, I think there is an interesting theology of space and material environments that could perhaps emerge from or exist in dialogue with cryptid psychogeography.

My Experience on a Ghost Tour

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It purports to be one of the most haunted hotels in America, and so, naturally, I took a ghost tour.

For background, I am not a materialist or a secularist. I am a Christian, and thus supernatural, preternatural, or spiritual phenomena are a possibility within my worldview. For example, I believe in angels and miracles. However, I'm quite skeptical about paranormal encounters. Perhaps that's a result of living in secular age or seeing firsthand how often claims of numinous encounters can be abused by church leaders. Additionally, despite having numerous religious experiences throughout my life, I have never had a ghost, demonic, or paranormal encounter of the explicit kind one would label as supernatural (at least, that I'm aware of). Nonetheless, I try to keep a critically-open mind because I do believe that the universe is filled with spiritual qualities and high strangeness.

The Crescent Hotel tour was a lot of fun. The genre of ghost tour storytelling was fascinating as well: a combination of historical narrative and the horror genre. Furthermore, the introduction of “scientific” language — such as ghost hunting technologies — is an interesting combination of more ancient spiritual phenomenology (ghosts and spirits) with modernity (technology and science), even if the “science” might make professional scientists pull their hair out.

Unfortunately, I did not have a ghost encounter. Neither did I even have an experience of the heebie-jeebies. But it was certainly fun, and the hotel is quite beautiful and features a dark academic aesthetic, which is certainly worth checking out. Additionally, the experience of navigating a material environment from the perspective of a ghost tour really got me thinking about the psychogeography involved in ghost hunting.

Psychogeography

Psychogeography is a concept that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s within the realm of avant-garde movements and cultural theory. It explores the relationship between the geographical environment and the emotions, behaviors, and experiences of individuals within that environment. Psychogeography seeks to uncover the psychological and emotional impact of urban spaces on individuals and how these spaces shape our perceptions and interactions.

The term “psychogeography” was coined by the Situationist International, a group of artists, intellectuals, and activists who sought to challenge the dominant capitalist culture and transform everyday life. They viewed psychogeography as a means to disrupt the prescribed patterns of urban life and create new forms of engagement with the cityscape.

Psychogeographers engage in a variety of practices to explore the effects of urban environments. For example, they often undertake “dérives,” which involve purposeful drifting or wandering through urban areas to uncover hidden aspects and unexpected encounters. Through dérives, psychogeographers aim to break free from predetermined routes and discover new perspectives on the city.

Psychogeography also involves the concept of the “psychogeographic map.” These maps deviate from traditional cartography and instead represent the emotional, cultural, and subjective experiences of individuals in a particular place. They may incorporate elements such as personal anecdotes, historical narratives, and symbolic representations.

The goal of psychogeography is to challenge the mundane and passive experiences often associated with urban spaces. By encouraging exploration, critical observation, and subjective engagement, psychogeographers aim to transform our relationship with the built environment and inspire new ways of perceiving and interacting with our surroundings.

Paranormal Psychogeography

It seems to me that ghost hunting and ghost tours represent a peculiar type of psychogeographical experience. Modern urban spaces are often not designed around spiritual matters, but rather upon the flows and accumulation of capital. One is meant to navigate an urban environment as primarily a cog in the machine of capitalism: either a consumer or a laborer. Of course, this is not entirely the case for every square inch of a city because one could contend that spaces like parks are centered around human interests more than capitalism. But these respites of human interest are still relegated to confined areas rather than permeating the urban space as a whole. The point of psychogeography is then to find ways of navigating a city in a way that brings a sense of the truly human, rather than a machine or zombie-like consumerism.

It seems possible to me that ghost hunting could be one such example of this alternative navigation — especially because ghost tours provide an alternative cognitive mapping of one's urban environment. A cognitive map is a mental representation or internalized image of a person's spatial surroundings, including landmarks, routes, and relationships between locations. It is essentially the way in which landscapes and urban geography — perhaps even one's own culture — exist within one's mind.

Thus, instead of one's cognitive map only being filled with points of consumerism, such as shopping malls, retail stores, and even necessary locations like grocery stores, ghost hunting creates new data points on one's cognitive map. Regardless of whether these places are actually haunted by paranormal forces, ghost hunting adds a sense of spiritual mythology to one's material environment. There is, at the very least, a potential for spiritual places, “thin places,” or locations of high strangeness to break through the cracks of the secular materialist mind into which we are all conditioned.

Ghost hunting trains one's brain to look for the spiritual dimension of a material environment. Even if there is no such thing as a location haunted by a ghost, the very act of delving into the mythological histories of haunted locations and contemplating the relationship between possible spiritual forces and one's material environment can be a means by which we leave open the door for religious materialism.

The Spiritual Dimension of Material

“Religious materialism” is a term I learned about recently while reading the essay “Relics” by the 20th-century Russian Orthodox theologian, Sergei Bulgakov. Bulgakov wrote the essay in response to vandalizes who had desecrated sacred relics of saints. Bulgakov uses the topic of relics to articulate the vitality of the material world from a religious perspective and how, from his perspective, there is no such thing as dead matter.

Sergei Bulgakov's theory of religious materialism proposes that the material world is intrinsically connected to and infused with divine energies and attributes. According to Bulgakov, creation is not separate from God but rather a manifestation of God's presence and creative activity. Bulgakov emphasized the sacredness and spiritual potential inherent in the physical world, rejecting the dualistic notion that matter is inherently sinful or separate from the divine. Instead, he argued, based on the Orthodox doctrines of the Incarnation of Christ and deification of humanity, that matter is a vehicle for divine revelation and the realization of God's purposes, of which the Incarnation of Christ and sacraments like the Holy Eucharist are prime examples. As he wrote, “The spiritual bread, the heavenly, food, is also bodily bread and food; by no means does the spiritual sacrament become incorporeal — rather, it is corporeal to the highest degree, corporeal par excellence. [...] [Christ] came not to destroy the world but to save it. Therefore, in the gracious life of the church, all that is spiritual is corporeal [...].” (Bulgakov, “Relics,” page 9, Boris Jakim translation).

For Bulgakov, the materiality of the world is not dead, but rather something sacred, given that it is thoroughly infused with divine life. However, this picture contrasts sharply with our Cartesian-capitalist paradigm in which matter is a dead resource waiting for exploitation. Material environments, human spaces, and urban buildings become little more than cogs in a wider machine. However, from a Bulgakovian perspective, a psychogeographer can resist such a truncated imagination and cultivate a way of seeing the city as a spiritual entity as well. And perhaps ghost hunting — the investigation of haunted places — might be one means toward that goal.

Ghost Hunting and Numinous Experiences

Related to this notion, I think ghost hunting shows how many individuals within our society are still searching for religious experiences or “numinous experiences” as the theologian Rudolf Otto called them.

If you want to read a full engagement with the topic of ghost hunting as chasing the numinous, you can read this great article by Daniel Wise from the Journal of Gods and Monsters linked here: https://godsandmonsters-ojs-txstate.tdl.org/godsandmonsters/article/view/28

To give a shorter summary, Rudolf Otto invoked the term “numinous” to refer to a transcendent and mysterious quality encountered in religious experiences. It represents a unique and awe-inspiring encounter with the divine that elicits a sense of fascination, awe, and even fear in individuals. The numinous is characterized by its 'wholly other' nature, going beyond the ordinary and mundane. Otto described the numinous as a sense of creaturely finitude when confronted with the divine. He emphasized that the numinous experience includes both a tremendous sense of mystery and an irresistible attraction. It involves a paradoxical combination of both fascination and trembling before the divine presence — a type of theological sublime.

Ghost hunting is, for many individuals, both scary and exciting — terrifying and supernatural. To encounter a spiritual entity in the world is to encounter the numinous.

Paranormal Psychogeography as Cruciform Cognitive Mapping

Most likely, however, one will not encounter a paranormal entity whilst ghost hunting or walking a ghost tour — if such an encounter is even possible. Nonetheless, adding “haunted” locations to the cognitive map of one's environment can still be a worthwhile endeavor because the stories behind such hauntings often contain historical-mythological narratives of one's city beyond the conventional narrative of capitalist expansion. Instead, the stories often testify to the underlying trauma of our cities, focusing on the exploited and marginalized individuals who were failed by society.

For example, the Crescent Hotel's foundation for being (allegedly) haunted rests primarily with the original history of a wealthy con artist named Norman Baker selling a “miracle cure” for cancer. Of course, it was a total sham, and many people died horrible deaths under his watch while he shamelessly exploited their illnesses for personal profit. It's a horrific story of exploiting the most vulnerable for greed and profit. The hotel is thus haunted, if not by ghosts, by the history of America's failed medical system and our society's continued apathy toward the mistreatment of those who have illnesses. The full story is way crazier than I could describe, so I'll link the Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_G._Baker

The Cresent Hotel is not the only building in America haunted by tragedy. Cities are often built on trauma: environmental devastation, pollution, exploited labor, racism (such as red-lining), and even genocide (such as the treatment of First Nation and Indigenous Americans). Furthermore, there is tragedy and violence all around us, such as violence and poverty. Often in paranormal lore, places of tragedy and trauma are most likely to be haunted. Thus, by engaging with these stories — even if they are mostly mythological — one can develop a perception of one's material environment that pays special attention to those who need it most.

In this sense, ghost hunting or paranormal tours can possibly witness toward a cruciform hermeneutics of the city. Within the tradition of Christian liberation theology, there is a strong emphasis on God's special concern and favor toward the poor, marginalized, oppressed, and suffering. The crucifixion is often pointed to as a testimony to how God, in Christ, willingly enters into the suffering of humanity in order to co-suffer with them and bring about their liberation from the condition contributing to that suffering.

In a tangentially related vein, ghost hunting and ghost tours often focus on stories of suffering, tragedy, and trauma that happen within the modern city. Death in the workplace. Domestic violence. Murder. Depression. Suicide. Natural disasters. The prison industrial complex. These are all common phenomena associated with hauntings. Indeed, even if ghosts do not exist, our towns and cities are haunted by these tragedies. Ghost hunting and ghost tours ask us to confront these hauntings existing all around us. Now, I'm not claiming that ghost hunting is a form of liberation theology, but there might be a resonance here when both are applied to an analysis of the tragedies produced by human systems.

However, it's not the case that ghost hunting and ghost tours are the anti-capitalist praxis par excellence. Like everything, capitalism is perfectly capable of appropriating the supernatural into its system. A guided ghost tour costs money, and businesses often exploit the “haunted” label in order to attract more customers. But these seem like minor problems compared to other major issues within capitalism, such as climate change, supply chains, and privatized healthcare. Furthermore, visiting haunted locations, embarking on ghost hunting expeditions, or following ghost tours does not necessitate spending money. These activities can be co-opted quite easily through self-organized tours and independent research on the Internet. Doing so even opens up the possibility of meeting more people in one's community.

Against the backdrop of an ever-suffocating and truncating secularist materialism, I think it's great to imagine new ways of engaging with high strangeness so that the spiritual might break through the rusting machinery of modernity. Ghost hunting and ghost tours might be one small tool within our arsenal as we seek to move out of the secularist ennui. And the cherry on top is that developing a new cognitive map of one's urban environment is something that one can begin today. So start researching, start wandering, and let yourself feel a little spooky.

Appendix: As a final thought, I think it's important to mention how sacred spaces should not be neglected when it comes to developing a post-secularist cognitive mapping of material environments. Sacred spaces such as cathedrals, church yards, and prayer gardens (which are often neglected but more common than one might think) can likewise be spaces of high strangeness. Sometimes, they even overlap with ghostly hauntings. At least speaking for myself, I have stepped into several cathedrals and sacred spaces that were so beautiful that it was as if I stepped into another world.

East 23: Judy will be exhibiting three of her excellent prints at the East 23 exhibition. It's at the Bank Arts Centre in Eye, Suffolk. It runs 31 May to 22 July. If you're in the area, do go. It's a lovely venue. Coffee, cake, chairs – that sort of thing.

Running: 5K training is going well. I'm training for distance, not time, which is a great way to get back into it. 5K isn't far if you're a runner. It is if you're not. And though I ran a 10K race last year, it feels plenty far enough for the time being. I haven't got to the point where I'm enjoying it as much as I was last year, but getting there.

Book blurb: Wrote the blurb for the back of a book today. It was a surprisingly fun thing to write. I thought I was just going to pinch from the introduction and foreword. But actually, when I came to actually do that, nothing quite seemed to fit. Makes sense when you think about it, though. The reader need glancing at the back of a book is quite different from the introduction and foreword. To borrow arcade-game parlance, at the back of the book you're in attract mode. If you're reading a foreword or introduction, you've probably bought the book and want to know what to expect, if you read them at all.

Work blogging: I did an unusual thing. I wrote a post for the work blog. I'm ultimately responsible for the blog, but I don't run it, and we try to get as many people to write for it as possible. But not only did I write it, I drafted it in Wordpress and didn't bother to get anyone to review it because it was just links to stuff from the work #accessibility Slack channel. No preamble, just the kind of scrappy blogging I want to do much more of. If we show by doing, hopefully more people will do the same.

Garden progress: We've been doing a lot of summer prep in the garden this year. Projects include a big shade sail over the patio. We've had to dig holes to cement in a couple of posts to tie the garden-side to. We've dug away the raised earth which used to be a rockery and used it to level other areas, and fill in some holes dug by Stanley, our late whippet. It's taken us over a year to have the heart to do it. The resulting bed has flowers and shrubs planted. We've planted some rose bushes along the borders too. And scattered some seeds in the wild area of the garden, digging up patches in grassy areas.

Drone fun: Me and LT (daughter, 9) finally got round to playing with her drone she got for Christmas. It's one of those inexpensive toy ones, and perfectly safe to fly indoors. The batteries only last for 7 minutes of flight time, but it's enough for a bit of fun. We played a game where you have to take off, hover over a designated area, then land safely on an elevated bench. Surprisingly difficult, as it's light enough that the merest air current will drift it off-course. Even in a room with the doors and windows closed.

Gaming: I've been back into Destiny 2 lately. I glanced at the first part of an article by Keith Stuart in The Guardian. It's about Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, so I didn't read far in case of spoilers. (Judy's playing it first.) But he says: “For several years, I’ve been writing about how experiences such as Fortnite and Minecraft are no longer games to play but places to be.” And I think that's what keeps me coming back to Destiny 2. It may be very grind-y and the story is hopeless, but the world-building is fantastic, and it's fundamentally fun to play – especially in match-made coop modes. Think I'll stick with it – maybe even till I can get at Tears of the Kingdom, which I suspect will be months from now.

#notes #recently

#001367 – 02 de Maio de 2023

Hoje considera-se um telefonema muito mais intrusivo que uma mensagem. Há quem considere um telefonema sem pedido de permissão prévio algo a roçar a má educação. Isto faz-me ter muito cuidado para não ferir sensibilidades. Mas na verdade, a minha sensibilidade é de sinal contrário. Um telefonema recebo-o como um bater à minha porta. Eu só abro se quiser. Mas uma mensagem é uma pedra que partiu a janela e aterrou à minha frente com um papel amarrado com algo escrito.

As a non-technical tech founder, I’ve always had to rely on a different skill set for starting a software company. I don’t have a huge following, so unlike content creators on YouTube, I lack any extensive reach when it comes to my entrepreneurial projects.

Whether you know how to code or not, perhaps you are in a similar situation, and so I want to share my methodology for starting a business (specifically software products, but it could be applied to any industry).

The premise is simple: start marketing prior to, or at the same time as, building the product.

This is the process I used when launching LearnDash, a company that I grew to over 42,000 paying users before selling. I am starting GapScout using the exact same process as I did a decade ago.

For years, I’ve been telling people to start marketing at the same time as building their product. I don’t understand why this advice doesn’t stick. Maybe because too many people have shared this tip, so it feels dated? Let me assure you that it works.

In 2012, I did this and built my email list to 1,000+ people before launch, a process that took about 10 months. It’s a modest email list size, but it helped me to be profitable and gain traction from day one.

It has been 10 months since I started a blog for GapScout (you guessed it: doing marketing at the same time as build, which is just a few weeks away from being done). And guess what? After 10 months of blogging, over 1,000 subscribers.

Here’s the thing: I’m not doing anything other than blogging, and the posts themselves are simply helpful content. Just do some really basic research on themes you want to rank for in your industry and start writing blog posts around these themes. Don't try to game the system or worry too much about how Google will rank your content. Just write blog posts:

• 1400 words minimum
• 3x per week
• Configure SEO (I use Yoast)

On each page of your website, have a sign-up form/call to action for when you launch. This is obviously how people sign-up to your list. That’s all.

This methodology works for many reasons, but mainly:

1. You get early traction. You can run special deals to start recouping costs and making money. Treat these early adopters well and they'll help spread the word.

2. New customers will come automatically. This is the most important part. My site now gets thousands of visitors per month from my blog posts. It feeds itself now, in addition to any other marketing endeavors I add (for example, YouTube).

After launch, make sure you communicate often to keep the buzz alive about your product. Announce ever update that you do, share your excitement, and always explain how your product improves their life. Constantly emphasize this. Never stop. People need to be reminded all the time. Oh, and issue refunds promptly if that ever comes up. The easiest way to piss people off is to hijack their money.

Most of all, have fun. Don't overthink the process, enjoy the flow of everything, and be flexible as you learn along the way. Listen to customers, and they'll give you their loyalty. Don't hide behind email – use chat. Be accessible. People like to do business with people, not brands.

#entrepreneurship

Poranek wypełniła mi wizyta u psychiatry, z którym powoli docieramy do miejsca, w którym znajdziemy odpowiednie leki i dawki na sztormy w mojej głowie. Przed nami jeszcze jedno spotkanie, ale to już drugie światełko w tunelu w tym tygodniu, które gdzieś tam mi świeci w mroku moich myśli.

Chciałbym wierzyć we wschodnią medycynę, naturalną, alternatywną czy jakkolwiek inaczej nazwaną, ale zwyczajnie nie potrafię. Tak samo jak mój mózg nie jest w stanie uwierzyć w istnienie Boga czy jakichkolwiek innych istot wyższych. Starałem się wielokrotnie, ale po prostu jest we mnie tama, która koniec końców odpiera te myśli i stwierdza, że nie, to nieprawda, nic takiego nie ma.

Myślę, że wierzenie w ceremonię kakao poza drenażem portfela na jakieś niesprawdzony szamanizm może serio przynosić jakiegoś rodzaju ulgę czy nadzieję. Czasami naprawdę chciałbym w tym nieironicznie uczestniczyć, by ukoić moje egzystencjalne bóle.

Ostatecznie jednak jedyne, w co wierzę, to zachodnia medycyna i tak, leki – te badane klinicznie, sprawdzane, konsultowane z lekarzami. Czuję się w tym jakiś taki konserwatywny, bo widzę, że dookoła mnie rośnie na nowo ruch new age, zodiakary i inne tego typu zjawiska. A ja jak stary dziad powtarzam mantrę, że jak choroba, to do doktora, a nie boga.