Some Fava Beans & Chianti?

Hahaha not for me, thanks!  There's not a whole lot to do at the moment.  But I question what the purpose is.  If it's lacking, then the rest of life is just listless.  Yeah, I know it's weird, there was a post on Sunday.  It was leftover from Friday, because I haven't had a chance to use the computer.  On top of that, I haven't played guitar in over 4 days or something.  Everything feels very weird and unfamiliar right now.  That's never a good sign, especially when you haven't done anything different in your life.  Does it all end up back where we started?  That would be interesting.  What really grinds my gears is that it was all right there.  Like ships passing in the night, you'd never know.  But those ships would never pass given the standard passage of time if nothing changed.  In fact, I'd want to know how that would have panned out!  Are these real memories?  Or are they just figments of my imagination?  There needs to be resolution.  But right now, that's not possible.  It's all working to go against what I had imagined.  Just going through life fumbling in the dark. 

Would I have chosen this life in the past?  No, you need to decide where the major decision trees of your life are, and ascertain where they might take you.  Some decisions would definitely be different.  But how much?  None of this has been for me.  None of it at all.  And I guess in that, I never really knew myself.  Nobody did. 

Isn't this all just a sick joke?  We're only here for a short time, and yet we spend most of our lives doing jobs we don't particularly enjoy, that have no relevance to society, or the bigger picture, so we can't really do the things we enjoy.  That's just not right.  And it will never change.  I suppose it's all about doing what you can. 

Looks like my day has come to a premature end. 

Why does the world work in such a way?  It all harks back to the same place.  The harbingers of culture, when they in fact have none.  I always love making an ass of myself, especially to other people.  Not!  Ahhh.  I'd like to be asleep.  How fast does a year go?!

There's always 3 steps ahead.  What can I do?  Nothing.  Nothing at all. 

Will I ever tell anyone about this blog?  Maybe not.  But for now I can tell you that I'll be using it for a very long time.  How all so very interesting. 

2 hours of this to go?!  No way!  Gotta get myself in order tomorrow.  There is no plan.  Just pointlessly ambling about.  It's too cold for this!  I'm done.

Joaquin out.

Motivation & Stimulation

What is it about motivation?  Sometimes you have it, and other days you just don't?  If only it was something you could synthesise.  I recall the novel of Red Dwarf, where the crew stumbled across the luck virus in liquid form.  Hilarity and fun ensued.  Can these sort of human conditions actually be re-created artificially?  There's so many good ideas out there, but will they ever be acted upon?  The Onion recently came out with a good (as always satirical) header that questions why society keeps letting bossy people who think they are always right run the show.  That's a legitimately good question.  Why does that keep happening?  That's not real democracy, is it?  The problem is apathy, nobody really cares, so they will keep letting it happen.  Nothing changes.

There's an issue at the moment in regards to the Commonwealth Bank and how their wealth management arm messed up, and conducted lies and forgery to get the regulator off their back.  In Australia, that regulator is ASIC, and they appeared to be utterly ineffectual, and believed the lies, and refused to investigate thoroughly.  As a result, a lot of people have lost money, and have not been paid adequate compensation.  It appears that a lot of the traders attempted to cover their losses by engaging in high risk trades without authorisation, and lost a lot more money.  Some compensation is being paid, but it's not being tracked by either the bank or the regulator adequately.  There are now calls for a Royal Commission after a Senate Inquiry.  There's a lot of things that are wrong with society, and one of the key matters is the role of financial institutions in everyday life.  Banks own everything.  Wealth management firms and hedge funds are some of the biggest non-resources based companies in the world.  They own all the major assets in your life, your car, your house, they manage your superannuation.  Isn't there something wrong with that?  It would be okay if the regulator was stepping in and doing their job, but it simply isn't happening, they bow to the private sector and take everything they say as gospel.  The fact is that they're only looking after themselves and the bottom line.  But when is the story any different for any company?  One of the greatest follies of western law is the fact of corporate independence as a separate legal entity.  Companies can screw over people, but the people in charge are never the ones blamed for it.  It's not right, it's morally inept. 

There's just too many problems, aren't there?  But what about the solutions?  You have to dig down and get yourself out.  There's no other way.  There's a lot of buildings in the world that contain asbestos.  Do you know how dangerous it is?  One spore is enough to give you a death sentence, and it could be hidden in the walls of your work, in your room.  One crack, and that's it.  More needs to be done in society to identify it and remove it.  Companies have known about its toxicity and carcinogenic effect for a long time, but they've deliberately lied to the public to protect their profits.  They need to de-list these companies and throw all their executives in jail.  You remove the company tag from the title and it's essentially criminal negligence.  Any other situation, and people would be in prison.  The corporate veil is there to help rich white people get away with atrocities. 

Ok, just 45 minutes to go until I can get out of here, and it couldn't come soon enough.  I am utterly exhausted.  It's been good work wise, got a lot of things done.

I'm done.

Joaquin out

And Then There Was One

And just like that, the passage of time always proves right.  It always wins.  Until there's such a period that time loses, then it is the ultimate force in the universe.  It overcomes gravity.  There's places of incredibly dense gravity, but none so dense that it's impenetrable by time.  There's some leakage of information (which would include time) in there.  The next one is the one that hits closest to home, and it's inevitable.  There's nothing you can do about it.  Time is lost to me, but time wins overall.  And it is what it is.  You can't fight it, or can you?  We need to think outside the box to get what we want.  Can I count?  Maybe, and I'm too fast to know what's going on.  I'm in the most weirdest of moods right now.  Can I get myself in gear?  No, not really. 

This day is a lost cause.  Maybe I'll feel better after lunch.  Yesterday could have been so productive.  But I give up.  I don't know why anybody presses on, because in the grand scheme of things, existence is futile.  I've done some work, but not enough to satisfy me.  Why did I even get up this morning?  1 hour to go.  1 day to go.  I just want to sleep.  There's always some shock, some sort of surprise to the system.  It gets rarer these days, as I get older and more jaded and cynical.  I'll calcify and I'll become something else.  It's happened to others.

Joaquin out.

Turnt Up The Front Side

All left by the wayside.  It's a cold and wet day, and I wish I was back home.  What is it about playing something really good on guitar that just gets me going?  I was so inspired playing something I haven't played in a while.  The rhythm and chords and cadences all work so well.  It's a brilliant piece (if I do say so myself), but what gets the message across is the simplicity. 

What I want to know is why bad weather impacts my mobile reception?  I'd understand with calls, but data?!  That makes no sense at all!  Lost in snow, everything is the opposite of what it should be.  I can't escape the feeling that I'm meant to be doing something, but I have forgotten what it was.  How could any of this happen?  Today I am without thought, yet I am still with worries.

I think those who have average salaries can save up to buy good things.  So long as you're prepared to save, sacrifice and spend only on the bare essentials.  For the middle class, this shouldn't be too difficult most of the time.  I'm not feeling well again, I feel like I've got a cold coming on or something.  Am I taking everything for granted?  Time goes by very quickly.  But maybe not fast enough.  About 90 minutes to go until I can get home.  Can't come soon enough.

Joaquin out.

Hearing The Music, Or Facing It?

At this point, I'm not sure where I fit.  I am the square, and the world is the circle.  There are too many lost opportunities.  I'm left chasing shadows and faint whispers that don't really exist.  How can this be happening?  None of it appears to make any sense whatsoever.  How can you lose the plot when you weren't even following it properly in the first place?  I can catch up, even with all the unknowns, I can come out ahead. 

One thing I strongly believe in is the revocation of driver's licences for the elderly.  In return, I believe they should have all public transport made free, and other forms of transport should be subsidised for them (within a country).  The problem is they are a danger to society.  It's just a given that peripheral vision and reactions slow.  They make mistakes, sometimes they will hit the accelerator when they meant to hit the brake, sometimes they won't slow at a pedestrian crossing, sometimes they will run the red light, sometimes they drive straight into other cars, houses and schools.  Yes, I know driving means freedom, but governments need to do better to protect citizens from dangers to their health and their lives.  The problem is that the elderly make a very strong voting block, so if you announced these initiatives prior to an election, that party would automatically lose the election, regardless of what their other policies may be.  But here's the problem, politicians, real good ones, need to stand up and actually do what's right society.  They shouldn't kowtow to getting votes or pressure groups and lobbies and what not.  There's the ridiculous problem with democracy and politics.  Running for government is expensive.  Most honest people simply can't afford it.  Those who are preselected by parties get funding as long as they vote the way the party wants them to.  If lobby groups fund you, they expect favours down the track.  Don't tell me that's not an inherent problem with the current system we have.  Because that's not democracy, that's capitalism at work.  Voter apathy is the real enemy of the middle class.

What I don't like about the news these days is that it's incredibly difficult to catch up on developments to old stories that are no longer breaking.  So if you want to follow up on an important story somewhere down the track, it's impossible to find out what happened after the initial level of reporting.  That's pretty crappy, considering most stories are out of the new cycle within 24-48 hours.  So after that, you have no idea what's happened.  That's where news needs to get better, via having keyword searches, or meta tags (or hashtags) to better classify the type of news they report on, so that you can easily catch up on stories and see further developments. 

I read a report today that the ultra rich are concerned that having money takes away their children's drive and ambition.  Well I bloody well hope so.  There's few things worse than inherited wealth in today's world.  It allows for ill gotten money to flow so easily and contribute to the never ending cycle of discrimination and victimisation of the less fortunate.  I don't expect to inherit anything, and I wouldn't expect anything either.  Those of us who are forced to work in jobs they don't engage with are really only working for financial freedom.  Nothing more.  So if that is taken away, why would I want to do anything else?  Why would anyone else?  That's the sort of society we have created, because nobody is really doing what they want to be doing.  Nobody is doing what they ought to be doing.  Government keeps complaining that we have to just grin and bear it for the sake of society, well I say 'fuck you' to that.  Government should be ensuring it's people's happiness.  I'm not afraid of class warfare, this is something only understood by the real middle class.  Sometimes you have money, sometimes you don't.  The upper class will never understand.  And the working class seems to be obsessed with joining the upper class. 

The worst is when you get trapped in the cycle of the mundane.  You look forward to the week ending, and it's only the start.  Where is that?  Oh nice, I've finished most of my work and it's only 11:30am.  I'm on fire today.  In fact, I could do with some fire, because it's absolutely freezing at work.  Maybe I had fortold it?  Wow, but it's all so subtle, how could I be expected to?  We live and we learn.  Though I'm not too keen on either.  I've grown weary of everything, but the fire still burns.  Everything just comes and goes.  How strange that is.

I hope my maths is up to scratch.  Cause that may be awesome!  2 hours to go until I'm done.  We all need to grow out of old habits.  Are you feeling it? 

Joaquin out.

Iced-Creamery, Not Quite Steamery

That's certainly a throwback to a random childhood memory that holds no relevance whatsoever.  I could do with a steam, that's for sure!

Well we're all frozen, so we may as well indulge while we're at it, right?  Indulge in what?  I have no idea.  I don't know what interests me or what excites me.  I need to get away from routine because that's what's killing me.  The monotony and the routine of it all.  A life wasted.  What I wonder is if everyone is truly equal?  If we were really pushed could all of us accomplish anything we ever wanted?  Or is that not the case?  Can only some of us deliver on that promise?  Or do we just need to be pressed in the right ways?  Missing the muse, I guess that's all there's left to lose.  Pressed in the right direction.  Or just blowing in the wind.

I'm starting to think that liking winter is white privilege.  Why?  People who aren't white aren't typically from areas with colder climates.  It's only white people who like winter, and not only that, winter is responsible for more exposure related deaths compared to summer.  This is where the elderly, the poor and the homeless tend to die.  Winter related activities are all snow related, the playground of the rich, because it's such an expensive hobby.  Therefore whenever someone talks about how much they love winter, I automatically think they're an idiot, and class warfare mindset kicks in, and I know I don't like them and I can just discount anything they say.  If you have a brain, you'd do the same thing.

The brain is really a strange thing.  That's really the only key difference between us and our near relatives (from a primate perspective).  This random blob of matter and nerve endings is what set us apart.  It's capable of so much, and yet we barely understand how it works.  It can be fooled so easily, yet it's so powerful.  It's really exciting when you think about it.  And to believe that evolution created it, mostly due to a change in diet.  Wow, I wonder how else it will be refined in the future?

What I don't get is how property is always expected to rise.  I can't speak about other markets, but at least in this city, property prices have absolutely exploded in the past 15-20 years.  Housing used to be reasonably affordable before then, but now it's ridiculous.  You can't live anywhere established or close to any city centre, because you're essentially paying 7 figures for something basic.  That's not right to me.  That defeats the entire purpose of having a city centre, because it's meant to be a true mix of people.  Shoeboxes in dilapidated buildings are still going for stupidly expensive prices.  Old places that are in dire need of renovation are also in the same boat.  Why is this happening?  The market is so artificial, and it's all happening within a short space of time.  Wages won't catch up to this rate of growth and people will be lifetime renters.  The rich get richer through more property investments (because they are the only ones with real leverage), and the poor get poorer.  There's something so intrinsicly wrong with that.  We know who profits, we know who benefits.  When people talk about prices in the market dropping, it's not even realistic - they're price changes of 1-2%.  That is meaningless.  Why is the revolution not here yet? 

Ah finally, I'm heading somewhere!  It was a hell of a period of writer's block back there.  Excellent, it's taken a while but I've finished that task I had for work, so it's just a matter of getting psyched up and starting the long march to ruin.  After all, that's all it is.

Time just being wasted.  For what?  For death, not for anything better.  Just for nothingness and nothing. 

Almost the midpoint of the day, I just want it to be over.  Well it's been busy, and I've got just under 2 hours to go.  But with the brilliance of the morning over, what have I got to say now? 

I want to just relax.  In fact, that's all I need.  Some relaxation and some guitar.  Work is such a drag. 

But I think I'm done for now.

Joaquin out.

Brains Before Blame

Yikes, it's 11am and I can't recall doing any work whatsoever.  Better hop to it slowly.  I'm making progress, that's all that can ever be hoped for.  I got into some guitar last night, but not enough.  Nowhere near enough.  I just want a full day to play.  Nothing less.  I'm stringing some ideas together.  There's just one thing I have to do and then I'm home free.  It's just a matter of getting it done.

Do I have any thoughts?  Nothing big lately. 

Oh won't you please take me home?

Joaquin out.

Seeking Simplicity In Melody

Oh for the love of everything, it is only Wednesday!  I can't believe this.  This is brutal and it's destroying me.  There's no time, no time for anything.  Can't I just go back to sleep and leave this all behind?  I'm not feeling well anywhere.  I've got nothing to say and too much to do.  There's no use trying to question it, because I'm in the dark, or left out in the lurch.  Do I have anything to add to my own life?  Or to society in general?  We have to start small.  But why?  Why can't we have it all, and why can't we have it now?  And we're heading into a zone that nobody knows.  Not even me.  3 more hours of this crap?  Seriously?  I'm done!  I can't do this.  Nothing is going in.  All fried and burnt up.  Useless. 

Okay, just need to last just over an hour and a bit and I can walk out of here.  I'm struggling, I'll admit. 

Joaquin out.

Finding Complexity In Rhythm

Why do we just keep going on?  It makes no sense.  Do we not persevere?  Why bother experiencing anything?  Because you can't take memories with you when you're gone.  Experiences mean nothing.  They're just for the moment.  Then that gives credence to selfish behaviour, doesn't it?  The rules of society are too constricting.  If there's nothing on the other side, why bother with existence?  You're damned if you do, damned if you don't.  Existing and not existing are one and the same, because if everything is relative, consciousness is meaningless.  When did I become a card carrying nihilist? 

It seems to be one of those days where I don't have anything to do.  Maybe I can get back into the swing of things tomorrow.  But the focus needs to be on getting the hell out of here.  Out here on this verge, you overlook the void.  There's nothing there.  Absolutely nothing.  Is there fear?  Is there warmth?  All just very active imaginations.  Such fantastic tales.  After yesterday's brilliance, do I have anything to say?  It doesn't look like it, not at all.

And just as I feared, it is all slipping away.  It's all caught up and I was napping when it happened.  Never fear, I'll be up and over it.  Life is constantly changing, but not in the direction I need it to be.  With 2 hours to go until I can get out of here, do I have anything to show for it? 

Nope, nobody does.  And nobody will.  This is it.  You can't just be anywhere in the world at the drop of a hat.  If only you could. 

Joaquin out.

Re-Addiction, Cause For Affliction

It doesn't matter if you don't know what I'm on about.  It's only about what I can make sense of myself.  That's all that matters.  That's all I really care about.  Then again, what do I actually care about?  I'm not so sure.  Maybe it will never be known to me?  Well I'm back and I'm blogging and looking to make something of it.  It's just been ridiculously busy for me lately, hence no time for anything.  But as things ease up, I can get back into the swing of things.  I'll just slowly get some work done on an as needed basis.

Iraq is in the news again - though I don't know why it's been out of the news, the conflict has been ongoing since the invasion began, but people like to forget these things happened.  They catch up with their celebrity news, get caught up in the next viral sensation and look at pictures of cats on the internet.  But life for people in Afghanistan and Iraq has become incredibly worse since their countries were invaded on the pretext of bringing them democracy, or trying to find weapons of mass destruction, or I forget.  Because there were so many reasons, that there was no real justification.  But we know the real reason, the opportunity was there, and the US wanted to take some resources and improve the President's approval rating, while allowing their warmongering friends the chance to profit from death.  It's one of the greatest injustices of recent times, and they're still getting away with it.  In Iraq, the town of Mosul was recently overrun by a group of 'insurgents' during a period when the US is looking to transition out of the country.  Barack Obama has stated that Iraq has to figure out its own problems and look to defeat militants.  What a joke right?!  The US created these problems, and now they are looking to escape responsibility.  You can't get out of things so easily.  They have a moral obligation to oversee things now that they've been responsible (directly and indirectly) for so many deaths of innocent people.  Then this morning Tony Blair said that the new developments in Iraq have nothing to do with the invasion.  That man needs to wake up to reality (besides being tried for war crimes), and understand that they have created the problem.  They went in blind, without understanding all the tribal sensitivities (let alone religious ones) that happen in that region of the world.  They didn't have any region specialists for intelligence, or if they did, they have zero cultural understanding of the region, cause they really misjudged what would happen once the dictatorship regime was destablised.  More people need to understand they have been lied to, and that other people, just like them, are being killed everyday in scores. 

The thing that really irks me about social justice blogger is their current war on real equality.  Everyone should be treated equally, but things don't really make sense in a real world setting.  One of my favourite cartoons about equality is an image of 3 kids at a sporting match trying to look over a fence to view the action.  Equality is giving them all the same stools to stand on and look over the fence.  But only the first 2 can see over the fence because they are taller, whereas the third's vision is still blocked by the fence because they're short.  But actual equality means handing the kids stools of different sizes.  This allows them all to view the match at the same height.  That's a good vision.  But social justice these days seems to veer more towards enforcing double standards.  That's not right, and it doesn't make any sense.

What strikes me is this level of constant production and consumerism.  Let's look at the example of cars.  Manufacturers make cars endlessly.  But they don't reckon on the competition of other car makers, but themselves too.  Cars aren't one time only deals.  You're expected to use it for 5-10 years (if you buy new) and pay retail prices.  Then after that, you sell that car to someone else for a presumably long use period.  In that time period, how many cars would be manufactured?  And cars aren't usually just 1 per person, your entire family uses it.  But the rate of production for cars just goes on and on.  You go past car lots and there are just thousands upon thousands of cars.  No wonder they are all in financial trouble.  Say what you will about boutique car makers, their cars are overpriced, yes, but at least they have the good sense not to overmake vehicles.  They limit their own production.  Manufacturers need to learn how to adapt to a changing marketplace.  They need to set limits on their cars, and if cars do not sell, they should reclaim them and use the parts in future cars.  That's how all of society needs to survive in the future, because our resources are not unlimited.  We should have realised this from the start.

Just under 60 minutes to go and then I'm done.  It's been a long day, that's for sure.  Nothing is everything.  Everything is nothing.  And so it is.

Joaquin out.

Shifting Gears, Shifting The Blame

And it was all my fault.

How could I be so stupid?  How could I be so silly and forgetful?  It's all about the timing, but you can always think about being a statistical outlier.

What was I even thinking at that point?  I'm not so sure.

Would have been a wonderful interruption.

But anyway, I'm done.  Will try to blog some tomorrow.

Joaquin out.

Psycho Sexy Super Magic

From out of nowhere.  It looks like I can finally get back to blogging.  It's about bloody time.  I had so much to say yesterday and so little time, and today is the complete opposite of that.  So much time and absolutely nothing to say.  I wonder why this is happening.  Well I guess my brain is fried and I need time off to just do nothing for a while.  Maybe even the routine I have to get by is what's killing me.  And that's the irony of the game I suppose.

Good to see dropbox getting updated with some regular music ideas.  There's some absolutely whacky progressions that are coming through.  I recall when I was first learning, that I could never see the day where I could play anything but a G or a D chord, and now I'm using obscure chords and interesting fingering to get my ideas across.  It's all so gradual and exciting.  But the point is you don't even realise the change.  It's just there one day and you can't really enjoy the progression because there is no lightbulb moment.  But what's strange is that some days you just have it, and other days you definitely don't, no matter how many times you practice.  How good would it be to know music inside and out and just play the music that's in your head?  It makes it all the more amazing that the true masters of instruments out there make such horrendously bad music.

2 hours 40 minutes, just counting down the time to go.  Wiling the hours of my life away.  Then it's all gone!  And what to show for it?  Is there even anything to show for it?  Maybe we put too much stock or emphasis on our lives.  We just are, and we have to just accept it.  Or not.

Joaquin out.

Running With Animals

But there is no escape.  Yeah, things have just been absolutely nuts lately.  No time to write anything for a post.  It's just been flat out from start to finish.  When I feel like there's a spare moment to get something done, something else always comes up.  But we get on and we move forward.  Struggling against the strain of progress, for there is none really.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  There should be more good stuff to come tomorrow, but I need to warm up and get back into things.

Guitar is going slowly unfortunately.  Stalled for a while back there, but are some new progressions and what not.  But where is it heading?  Am I just talking wildly and nothing is ever going to happen?  What am I resigning myself to?  Does it strike us that we are the same?  Maybe not.  There is still much left unsaid.  But it will be.

I've been reading up on Nate Silver and his statistics work.  Absolute genius.  I don't know how it is possible to account for all the relevant data and statistics and filter out the 'noise' so that you can have accurate results.  For those not in the know, he developed a statistical system that accurately guessed the election winners of 49 out of 50 states in America.  That's almost impossible.  He's now come up with a model for the world cup, and it will be interesting to see if he's right.  I've mentioned before that until an action starts, there is still an element of the unknown, when the potential becomes real.  And until then, statistics mean nothing, because the action may not be taken.  But the matter is trends.  Following the behavioural trend, you can get accurate results.  You need to be against the type. 

There's several groups out there devoted to long term thinking for mankind.  They note that market driven economics is all so short sighted, it leads to problems for society in the long term.  That's what's leading to these issues regarding ultra poverty and the increasing gap between rich and poor.  How does Bill Gates want to give away so much money yet still tops the richest person in the world list??  It makes no sense to me.  We need real humanist focused solutions that will provide a stable outcome for everyone. Either that or a revolution.  Away with economics and that way of thinking.  It doesn't work.  It's all about the money and the price tags.

That's it for now.

Joaquin out.

The Prey & The Preyed

Things have just been so insane at work that I have had no time to get any blog posts out of the way.  I'm sorry, but mostly to myself because blogging is a great exercise for me.  With 90 minutes to go until I'm done, I figured I can get some good stuff out of the way.  None of this is lost, you're feeding the machine, and the machine is ever hungry.  Not the right place or the right time, but it's a gift to be inappropriate when you can.  We all get through, plugging along.  Getting back into the groove of life.  Travelling for work for the next two days and I don't have a new book!  Damn.  Might have to make use of my phone.  I'll try to blog if I get the chance.  I'll have my charger, so everything should be good. 

I've cut my nails and I am having a good time on guitar.  Made some new stuff, but just a matter of making more time and letting some ideas flow.  I can completely understand how people can only write new songs and conceive ideas after jamming.  Sometimes just playing random stuff leads to better things.  You just gotta keep playing.  It's the only way you can flesh out new ideas, and it's the only way you can improve your playing skills (and your ear training).

I've seen a disturbing rise in the luxury travel market.  Ridiculous travel packages (and related prices) are appearing out of nowhere on cruises and on private jet travels and hotel resorts and what not.  This stuff doesn't appear unless there's a market for it.  Who is paying 6 figures for a 3 month holiday?  And who can take that much time off work?  I guess some people have inherited wealth, which disgusts me.  There is no drive to succeed, only to flaunt wealth and not contribute to society.  But I've already written on those things before so I won't cover it again.  What bothers me is that in most western nations, we are living in tough times, with a lack of jobs, high tax rates, poor infrastructure and generally poor governance.  We are getting budget decisions which hit us hard, so that things like long term travel are just pipe dreams for most people.  This gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger, and we are letting it happen.  Something has to change.  But I suppose attitudes like mine help fuel the problem.  Idiots who just use a hashtag and expect that things will just magically change.

I love how content control has gradually gone away.  Previously we had media controlled by a few people.  I remember the days when we just watched free to air television - 5-7 channels.  Now things have gone digital, and there's cable tv, internet or satellite tv, podcasts and youtube.  We control what we watch now.  That's good news, and I'm shocked that anything can have good ratings now that people have such a free reign of choice.  Ditto for music and what not.  I guess this is why movie revenues fall, and so do music sales. 

So the NSA scared everyone!  Everyone thought it was the FBI and CIA who were up to no good (well they were), but all along it was the NSA who were conducting the worst acts of treason (when stacked up against the principles of the constitution), behind the scenes!  I was reading that it's employing large amounts of software to monitor data to help its photo and picture recognition technologies.  Essentially, if you have a picture on social media that identifies you, if you go to a public place, the NSA will be able to identify you.  That doesn't do wonders for much in terms of privacy.  But here's the thing.  They obviously don't have the resources to verify the information it's receiving via humans (a human can tell you if something matches a picture), but software struggles to do that, because abstract concepts confuse it.  You can mess with the system, because there's no element for data integrity.  Keep feeding it data, all data that's wrong!  It will mess the system up.  Take a photo of a tree stump and call it your name, or tag it as a friend.  This data is junk or will mess up the algorithm.  Give it a try, but it has to happen on a mass scale.

Until next time, it's been a good return.

Joaquin out.