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

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.