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

Source

Writing one isn’t the hard part (some use LLM slop)

think literature (per se) is very, very, very important. It sets up some barrier/obstruction to publication, such that typically (but not always) not every crank du jour can put out “stuff” out there, like on the Web or digital pamphlets…

Books are an old form of publication, which have always had a barrier to access (cost, or investment in them and their distribution, based on their prospective appeal and quality).

When I was much younger (around 2005) Mathworks encouraged me to write a book and later people said the same about Boycott Novell. But who would buy such a book? How many people? More importantly, how much efforts would need to be invested in it? It’s mostly: 1) writing one. 2) improving it. 3) promoting it.

Books are not worth the effort anymore, with some exceptions, unless you’re some famous celebrity or politician writing an autobiography or “big name” like Stephen King.

In tech, apparently Cory Doctorow made enough of a name for himself to sell enough copies to be worth the effort.

Application already in progress

t’s only 7:20AM and all the birds have already come and have been fed. Same for the fish. We’re leaving the house for today and we want to relax as best we can.

I’ve had a hyper-productive week, both online and offline. I think my health has improved since I began sleeping extra hours (January 2025), I certainly can focus a lot better that way.

Next month will definitely be uneventful, so further and improved focus on articles will be assured (as it seems at the moment anyway).

I now publish close to 1,000 articles/pages per month, or 1,300 if meta pages (like Daily Links) are counted and over 1,500 if news clippings get counted. Together with Rianne, it’s a total of over 2,000 per month. About 24,000 per year.

I’m just glad we managed to lower our budget requirements while keeping happy, productive, and still in love (in the fifteenth year of our marriage).

We are still hoping the Court of Appeal will agree to hear our pleadings next year. There are technical – not only legal – matters at stake.

What will we as individuals do about it?

t’s another weekend and next weekend will be the month’s last. It is autumn now. Europe is having torrential rain, Spain has floods, and the rain here barely stops (for more than an hour or two). That’s the sort of rain we needed in July and August but seldom saw.

Climate change is annoying. What annoys me more is the lack of press coverage about it or how scarcely this term is mentioned when covering floods/avalanches, for instance.

I do my best to write and relay news about it. Keeping it in the public mind/awareness is very important.

We’ve lessened our power bills to the point where they’re below 70 pounds a month. We garden.

IRC was created 38+ years ago

t would be absolutely impossible for me to know when I began using IRC unless I somehow, miraculously, manage to have found the receipt for my modem purchase. My mom bought it for me. She probably won’t remember it anymore (I spoke to her in length yesterday, I still love her even if she has scarce understanding of what I do, she says I am “activist who focuses on battling corruption”).

I am pretty certain that it was a 14,400 bps (14.4K) Dynamode modem and I think my mother discarded the PC that I personally (manually) installed this on. I think I was 13 or 14 at the time (after I had begun programming). I will never forget how awful I felt when I tried to install a hard drive (I think it was a year later) and caused it to blow up/burn (rancid smoke) due to stupidity/sloppiness. It wasn’t new, it was just about 50 megabytes in size (compared to my 170 megabytes main drive), and I paid not much for it (a friend sold it to me at school). I didn’t ask for a refund, I think I paid only about 10 pounds, maybe 20+ pounds in today’s money.

I think this was the first time I installed hard drive using my bare fists and a screwdriver. We didn’t “google it” (this predates Google and you’d need a modem to read the Web) and there was no YouTube. Cable television had no show in the programme that said, “watch how to install a hard drive or modem.”

The modem installation was a lot easier (fewer bits to plug in) and they say you only ever learn from errors. At age 19 I fixed my own laptop; it cost me 1-2 pounds (components from RS Components) instead of over 200 pounds at the repair shop.

IRC was one of the first things I used once connected at home and about 32 years later I administer IRC at a fairly large network.

I still love IRC. It’s not perfect. As a grownup, last year and this year I got to explain to High Court judges what IRC is and how it works.

Thanks, mom, for buying me that modem. I’ve been on the Net since then! And that no longer hijacks the phone line at home.

Long break between the last September 2026 match, then comes a really hard match in Anfield (October 2026)

do not look forward to the LFC match as it might be the first match for Enzo not to win. Thankfully, we’re more than 3 weeks away from that, owing to a long break. The players could use a recess.

The next match (Sunday) is here and we plan – weather permitting – to visit the park again. It’s our day to relax and the weather is expected to be cooperative.

Today we received our energy bill and I think it is our lowest in years, it’s under 70 pounds! I keep hearing from couples that pay over 200 per month, especially during winters. I attribute this to energy efficiency and a lack of nonsensical, energy-wasting gadgets. The laptops are configured to snooze when unattended and it probably helps a lot. High-voltage ‘gadgets’ (home appliances) are a luxury except a few.

In terms of expenses, we still enjoy football and need not pay for it. We can see summaries and live updates online, I can see the stadium from my desk (while seated) and hear the audience chanting when there’s a goal, booing, a near miss/hit, or penalty awarded. Sometimes it can even wake me up (if the window is open).

I think we’ve learned and got accustomed to living a simple life.

Life’s simplicity if the secret to happiness.

Starting today

e have returned home from 3 rounds of bird-feeding to catch up with news and post critical links. It is a very successfully planned and a fun anniversary so far today. Tomorrow it’s already our 15^th year of happy marriage and we’ve exchanged cards; it sounds silly/corny, sure, but we’re romantic and simple like that. We know how to make a lot out of little, or how to pursue real happiness and personal freedom even on a very small budget.

Next year (2027) we hope or look forward to having our case heard by the Court of Appeal (if appeal is granted, or permission for it gets granted, which can take time and persistence).