Perfect (5 matches, 5 wins; also in the other two tournaments)

am back home to catch up with news and, today being a mostly sunny day, I’m glad we took advantage. Warm days can end any week/day and not come back until spring next year. No more short sleeves.

As noted in the previous post, we kept track of the match remotely and came back with a happy outcome, both in terms of points and goal difference (GD).

Now, for about 3 weeks, City can rest on its laurels, well positioned for a first league win in 3 years.

Like City, we fight ’til the end.

We’ve long supported what we believed in, even with the little money we had

Listening to football (radio/park nearby) costs nothing

t’s easy to take. It’s easy to tell someone, “what makes you happy? What are you taking? (Drugs, medication etc.)

What about giving? How about sharing with others?

That too gives joy, contentment, the memorable blissful moments, fulfillment, happiness.

Last year we gave our money to defend Free software.

This year we give our life and labour to feed the animal kingdom.

It’s about giving, not taking.

The birds’ looks today were gratitude enough.

I think that a society driven by extreme forms of capitalism relies on consumption (“consumerism” makes it sound like a religion), which means people are trained psychologically to take, to hoard, to collect; the notion of giving away or sharing (e.g. better salaries for one’s employees) is portrayed as foolish.

In the Free software movement, we strive to commend people who share while condemning those who work for greedy monopolists. We don’t show much respect to people based on affluence. It indicates a desire to hoard rather than true, objective achievements or professional accomplishments.

In academia, likewise, what counts most is publications, not job titles or salary.

Recent: Now… a Word From Our Sponsor

HE match is about to begin and seeing the above photo shows how football became all about sponsors – to the point where they tell people what to drink and eat based on which company pays.

It is ridiculous. Rianne will have a laugh though.

Notice how they even had the drinks “face the camera” to show the letters and logo in full.

Hard matches ahead (LFC, then PSG)

am so pleased today, almost ecstatic and in very good mood, having found another large sack of premium seeds for the birds. I got it for a special price again .

We now have enough of those seeds to last until Christmastime and the birds will be delighted. They’re crazy about this stuff, unlike the bread so many people give them (it’s not healthy and actively discouraged).

There’s a match here today (last match until mid-October when Paris Saint-Germain, now a serial European Champion, comes to play here), so we plan to cross the stadium and visit the park where the birds wait. After that we’ll relax and prepare for another week of GNU/Linux links – it is the third day of our 15^th year as a married couple and feeding/watching birds is already a joyful hobby of ours, sort of like pensioners (who cares about stereotypes of age).

Next year, if our application is successful, we wish to go to the Court of Appeal and set the record straight. We’re just a couple that shares news, the only people we upset are slaves of monopolies, working for those monopolies like a Kapo. One day they’ll come to accept they just got used by those monopolies, then inevitably discarded, as always.

A Kapo (or catspaw) is still just a Kapo.

A Kapo does not wish to think of himself as just another Nazi.

Arsenal absolutely smashed to pieces today

know the match is not over, but Arsenal is finally not winning (losing big even).

After Brighton’s good cup performance it is beating the champions.

ManCity can now go top with a comfortable 3-point lead and cushy goal difference.

Monetising misery

spoke to someone today, in fairly considerable length in fact, about fulfilling lives and people making offspring to compensate for a lack of satisfaction with oneself or failing to reach goals/dreams. The person I spoke to reads my writings every day and said that 1) he hopes I am safe and 2) he recognises the importance of the writings – or “the work” – and the philosophy converted in it, which in no way relates to money or any monetary goals, it’s more humanitarian, not self-centered.

If more people pursued a simpler lives, they would generally be happier, but happy people who wish or actively strive for a simple lifestyle don’t make obedient, overworked labour. It would not serve the super-capitalists who exploit misery and fear of people “below” them. It’s a very lopsided status quo.

Social insecurity/anxiety compels people – through marketing (indoctrination since a young ago) – to overspend or compete with others based on spendings (loans or wealth). That doesn’t take them higher in the social ladder, it just makes them more vulnerable to the people at the peak of the social “food chain”.

10cc – Art For Art’s Sake

never truly pursued money (I still don’t). I didn’t see the point. Tennis, for instance, was more fun. Computer games were fun too.

In my entire lifetime, or in my adult life as a student, I didn’t think I’d pursue a “career path” (ludicrous term, conflating life path with “career”) that nets me the most money I can possibly amass. It would be foolish to do so and it would not bring happiness, it might even accompany evil eyes, stress, and too high an expectation.

Yesterday in Geminispace I saw “Work for the sake of work” and today a friend sent me the HTML/HTTP version of the same. It makes some good points. When people do art they typically do it out of passion. As for money? Think about it. As 10cc put it, “for God’s sake…”^*

Money can sometimes come if you do what you like. Sometimes it won’t come. And that’s OK. At least you do what you like and what might serve society best, with or without reward/compensation for it.

Sometimes the best paying jobs are jobs that actively harm society. True story!

The reason everyone is forced/pressured/shamed into work (as in salaried activity) is the assumption is that without this “social norm” people would be lazy and society would not improve. It would become “unproductive”.

Work that you go to (e.g. office, workplace) out of fear or pressure is a thing that leads to misery. But capitalism does not think in terms like Maslow’s.

_____

^* Lyrics:

Gimme your body
Gimme your mind
Open your heart
Pull down your blind
Gimme your love, gimme it all
Gimme in the kitchen, gimme in the hall
Art for art's sake
Money for God's sake
Art for art's sake
Money for God's sake
Gimme the ready's
Gimme the cash
Gimme a bullet
Gimme a smash
Gimme a silver, gimme a gold
Make it a million for when I get old
Art for art's sake
Money for God's sake
Art for art's sake
Money for God's sake
Money talks so listen to it
Money talks to me
Anyone can understand it
Money can't be beat, oh no
When you get down, down to the root
Don't give a damn don't give a hoot
Still gotta keep makin the loot
Chauffeur driven
Gotta make her quick as you can
Give her lovin' make you a man
Get her in the palm of your hand
Bread from Heaven
Gimme a country
Where I can be free
Don't need the unions
Burying me
Keep me in exile the rest of my days
Burn me in hell but as long as it pays
Art for art's sake
Money for God's sake
Art for art's sake
Money for God's sake
Art for art's sake
Money for God's sake
Art for art's sake
Money for God's sake

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