Still going good! Yupp. The OPM keeps saving the day and then gets an existential crisis because it's just too easy and runs into Garou again but doesn't even realize it edition. Starting to look like we won't really be getting anywhere this season...
Apparently sites that don't end with .edu don't count as reliable research sources.
It's a shame.
When you're as convinced of something as much as I am now you don't want the sources to matter so much. You just want to get the message out there. But people have a different mind about different things, and sometimes that's great, but sometimes it's just... somewhat annoying.
I learned that early with religion, but that never seemed half as important as this. Gotta keep spreading that link!
Looking back my earlier post seemed almost a bit desperate.
Maybe I could've worded that one a bit differently.
I'm starting to understand how conspiracy theorists must feel when they're trying to spread their own, to them so very real, strain of truth. But is calm a good way to convey change? Is rationale convincing enough when it's geared towards people with a totally different conviction?
To people that believe in their leaders. The naive. The happy and unaware.
Maybe I'm slowly being turned by the ignorant masses. Caving in by the combined forces of peer pressure and blissful ignorance. I hope not. Hopefully I've just tired of brewing a steady supply of fear and brooding, and decided to do what I can do instead.
To find a balance in life you have to keep moving forward
. Einstein. He said that.
So I've been emailing the giants; querying them for reassuring proof of the supposed public safety of these systems they're spreading... and getting no answers. Not from one; nor after repeated attempts at reaching them.
I assume this is either because:
If it's any one of all but the first one I'd say there's still reason to be worried. If so many people are worried that it impacts their response time, then surely there is a reason to be. If they have no proper response then they haven't done the research they should have, and if they just don't care - as I in my corporation-belittling mind state am included to settle on, then they will probably fuck up the world pretty thoroughly with this fifth G.
Maybe people are finally waking up though. Slowly.
After the supposed Russian attacks on American embassies around the world, using these specific frequency ranges and types that we'll soon be using for our phones, hopefully people are realizing it might not all be that good a development after all.
I mean: what happens if the wrong person manages to hack their way into this global array of masts, placed at a hundred meter intervals around all major cities in the world; complemented with satellite coverage outside them? That can't be good. That can actually be... apocalyptic. Someone might be able to cause so much harm to both us and the environment within such a short span of time there'll be no way for us to recover.
Certain brain damage and loss of hearing (as was the case with the directed embassy attacks mentioned above) is getting off easy. Imagine if they, for example, target personnel at a few thousand nuclear reactors.
Or the environment as a whole: killing off all weaker species within moments. It's not a more unreasonable desire than any other, when humans are so easily convinced of what they believe in. That the world would be better if it was just a little less crowded. That we could eradicate ticks with a little widespread radiation - but humans could handle it. Maybe that a certain group of people would be better gone.
When we're convinced of the most dangerous things, with the best intentions, that's when they really become dangerous. And to me it's dangerous enough believing this technology be beneficial to us. Hidden motives or no.
And I really don't like the idea of this type of technology having so wide-reaching coverage, because it opens up to a way more wide-reaching potential for abuse, even more so if people would be using it all the time. Even if it's theoretically at much lower and less dangerous levels.
If you haven't signed or checked out the appeal yet: here's the link again.
There's research there too. I've been reading a tonne of other articles, but not on what all would consider reliable sources (isn't it great we actually have sources that question the official sources?), so that's still the best place to get an overview. For the common Bob. I'm uncommon. Odd.
I'm also waiting on a shipment of Shungite: luxurious EMF shielding miracle stones from the Russian Karelians. I don't assume they're miraculous to the point it'd be enough to keep a few rocks around to stay healthy and shielded from this new technological grievance, if it should really come to be, but maybe they'll help. If naught else they look pretty cool.
Excited to give them a try.
Now this is just the saddest thing. :'( Source.
I'm almost a professional reviewer at this point, right? I feel that way sometimes.
I feel that in how sometimes I'm just so overly critical even of movies that I enjoy, like I have to give them a worse score just because they don't have the groundwork that movies with higher scores should require. The effects are bad. The acting sucks. I still love them but I'm a professional reviewer now so how can I not take those notable flaws into consideration, too?
Then again I'm probably rating movies with way more bias than the average critic is, and that's the one point I pride myself in with regard to all this reviewing stuff. That I'm not stooping to stereotypes and norms. That I don't care if a movie's on a budget or no, as long as it's enjoyable, and yet lately it seems more often than not I come across a movie with a HUGE budget, and I love it, and critics are cracking down on it HARD.
Has everyone become me? Is everyone opting for Indie movies, propagating what's artsy and abstract, rather than what's explosive and awesome - something that used to be a B-movie trait but now seems to be a blockbuster one?
How can you not appreciate that too?
My impressions compared to other people seem to keep clashing whether I want them to or not, but I used to feel good that they clashed when I was up-rating the underdogs. Now I'm defending the blockbusters instead. Not all but: Aquaman. Need I say more? How can people not like Aquaman?!
It's strange how social norms and movie expectations go in waves like this, where a decade ago people would've looked at Aquaman in awe, if for naught else but the technical prowess with which it was made. The whole thing acted out in harnesses, right? Pretty cool, right?
And no matter how things change I'll probably look back at my reviews a decade from now and not understand why I rated some things like I did. But maybe then I can read this and understand. That I was just being me. And that's what I felt at the time. And maybe the critics will love the movies I love in the future too. Maybe I'll hate the ones they hate. Maybe we'll have a human hive-mind in regard to movie favorisms... or maybe we'll hate everything because it all sucks, but we just don't know it yet. The movies of the future are finna blow our minds... or blow. Simply put.
Guess all I'm saying here is that times change, and we change with them, though considering I haven't mentioned more than one specific title in this post maybe at least this one might be timeless.
It's that season again. That season when little yellow caterpillars repel from the trees on thin strings, aiming for my head, and the sun rises higher and higher for each day that goes, fueling me with enough energy to ponder becoming a shungite reseller, and post 42 movie reviews in one week.
Elite shungite. 98% carbon. The miracle stone from the Karelia region of Russia, billions of years old, and one of few materials with fullerenes, which a group of researchers were given the Nobel prize for back in the nineties.
It's pretty cool. I'm wearing an illuminati pendant of it (that's the name the shop gave it) as I write this, right at the end of that 42 review writing spree.
Did I mention I posted 42 reviews this week? Feeling pretty proud of myself right now. Just gotta revise them a bit. Didn't do so right away since: time.
And speaking of time, I guess I made the mistake of writing a way too long post back at the time when I wrote this.
It's been a while now. It took me over a month and a half to finally backtrack through recent posts and revise the ones that needed revising, concluding with the one mentioned above - in non-chronological order.
So if you wonder why I haven't been around the blog so much lately it's because I have, I've just been going through old posts instead of writing new ones.
I really should make it a habit to review everything before I publish.
I'm having a hard time focusing these days though. It's probably a lot of different things that factor in. Warm weather. Bad priorities. Bad shape. Procrastination habits that have been getting worse and worse. Constant high-frequency radiation from neighborhood WiFi and cellphone towers that I'm all the more conscious of right now. Enhanced by nocebo? Placebo? All of that. New rant on the latter bit here btw.
Whether it's the shungite stone I now wield that bestows upon me the power to finish projects I previously left abandoned, or the recent surplus of sunshine (the weather's been so warm I actually ordered a couple of fans - I'll probably be picking them up tomorrow but now it's cold again), or my currently very high-carotene diet since I ordered a batch of 60 x 120g jars of carrot puree with an expired best-by date and have been eating them at an increasing pace since, with a more and more easily tanning skin but also growing constipation as a result: I feel like I'm back on track now.
Hopefully it's not the peak of the wave with the fall right behind it, but you never know. Better ride the wave while it's here!
I also helped fund this thing, so that feels pretty good.
A month back now I was having some tech related troubles, but since then the technical bits have been going alright too.
I'm not doing so much strange tech-related stuff right now. I'm backing up files and making my way through the third RAID stage in RE: Revelations by night. That's pretty much it. I'm still tuned into One Punch Man (almost wrote One Piece Man there) too, and enjoying the ride, but for some reason they didn't put out an episode last week.
I was ready. I was just waiting to watch it.
The one week where I was actually waiting on the episode: no episode.
Otherwise life's been going good. I haven't met that Mormon again (not that it wouldn't be good if I had - wonder if he's moved onto greener pastures), have felt no after-effects of the by-now-ancient iodine poisoning case (I'm hoping my daily 240g compact carrot minimum won't bring me anything similar), really enjoyed the Endgame (finally posted that review too), am still hyped for the ChutneyGlaze collab, renewed my driver's license (first 10 year anniversary woo!), have been to the first few concerts of the season, am staying up-to-date with all new ice cream, voted in the EU Parliament election (wish I could vote against the EU, but better some vote than no vote), celebrated Pico Day with just a simple post (even though I had a verse written for it - no time this year), and at the end of May I took my first trip up North.
It was hella great. I had a rental car this time, a brand new VW Golf all to myself, and drove around on forest roads while the rain pelted down outside. Rabbits everywhere.
Had to keep both the fire burning and the heater on in the combined kitchen/living room (open door to the bedroom) the first couple nights, but towards the end of my visit it started warming up.
Needless to say it was nowhere near as warm as it was last year, when I had to carry out the extra windows and keep the doors open to let a cool breeze sweep through every afternoon, but it's always great to be there. In the wild and free.
Took a detour to visit a good friend on the way, had a great time overall, and flew back straight to work after six days, tired but happy. If it was warmer I might've been rested...
Had some adventurous moments up there too. Lemme share those:
1.) On the first day - as I was bringing up water to the sauna - I dropped my cellphone in the lake. Snatched it up quick and dried it as well as I could, and it still worked (its definitely not waterproof)! Lucky.
This is the same cellphone I accidentally dropped, from two meters up, onto a hard stone floor back in Budapest (I thought I had a post about that hmm... can't find it - feel free to search). Needless to say though this is one lucky/tough/possibly very smooth/slippery and accident prone phone.
2.) We had hail one day. In other words: it was pretty cold.
3.) Finally, just as I was about to leave for the airport: the key wouldn't turn in the ignition. I couldn't start the car! Middle of nowhere. Cold morning. Alone in the woods.
I tried again and again and again, started Googling (imagine if that phone had been dead at this point), learned that other people had similar issues but no solutions, kept trying, and again, and finally: it worked.
The rest of the ride went fine, and for some reason I didn't take a single break along the way. Talk about a stressful morning.
I also took my first swim of the year on the 28th of May, fixed up the garden, and that was that. Did what needed doing. Weeding/grooving. Good trip. Defective weather, but I did what I was there to do and better!
Played some more RE: Revelations too. I usually never game up there. Not particularly proud of that, but some nights were cold, and long, and some days rainy. Sometimes all of those things together.
There's so much I could've read instead though! I could've sharpened some blades, or done some other types of maintenance. It's in part a bit inefficient a start to the season, but I'll get back on track again. Next time it'll be back to basics: outside. As much as possible. No matter what. Summer's short.
That was actually what I was plotting to write most about in this post. The first trip. The plotting trip. The shortest but earliest. A little preview of the great things (hopefully warmer things) to come this summer.
The next weekend my parents drove up to finish what I'd started, I joined in on the maybe-first-ever Swedish cellphone strike (no cellphones on for a whole day - they're trying to make it a thing on the first of every month), I started eating that carrot puree like crazy and on the 6th we celebrated Sweden. And I got a new bike!
Actually it's a bit old, and used, and rusty, has a couple dents and a scar on the seat, but it rolls well, it was cheap, and hopefully nobody will feel a need to steal it this time.
I'm not even using a security lock now since the lock would be worth about half as much as the bike. Would be a shame to get one more of those destroyed too.
Needless to say I won't be getting any insurance money on this particular vehicle if someone does something with it, but I'd be losing a lot less either way. The only caveat is that I just don't feel as proud when I'm on it. That 55'' perfect black, elegant, light, swift and comfy, classy Monark Karin was something else...
No time to get depressed though. Gotta workout, eat some more carrot puree and revise these posts before they start sapping my motivation; keep me from keeping up with more relevant tasks.
Summer's coming up quick! So much to do. I'll see y'all soon.
All progress depends on the unreasonable, but if those who are against new technologies; against an indiscriminately dangerous realm of high-frequency radiation, are seen as the unreasonable party... then maybe 'progress' would actually be a technological regression at this point?
Have we gone too far? How far can we go? How much can we consume? People. Always pushing it. For better and for worse.
Some national economists might argue that though resources aren't finite, and as such neither is the economy, the extent to which we can refine our resources is the extent of our earning. And that this is only limited by the human creativity and inventiveness - which has been shown time and time again to have no limits. Thus there is no limit to our potential growth.
But what they miss to bring into their equation is that for each new product we create there is also a side product. For each technological advance there is an environmental sacrifice. For all progress, since the dawn of this industrial age, we have sacrificed a wealth of natural luxury that, to me, just isn't worth the advance that it's brought us.
Are we really happier today than we were a hundred years ago? And if we are: isn't this more because of the social gamificiation system we've surrounded us by, that gives us a dopamine kick each time we accomplish the most trivial task, than because we have 'progressed'?
Just like the advocates for Augmented Reality might be exhilarated at the fact that one day the AR world might integrate seamlessly with our own, and the benefits of this fictional realm be made an integral, and all the more rewarding a part of every day life, I'd like to argue that each step we take to superficialize the reward is also a step backwards in our strife to find 'true' happiness. It's a delusion of happiness. It's not real.
It's a devaluation of our collective, potential; real-world bliss.
Maybe that doesn't matter to those without a spiritual connection, who'd see the potential to make this one life as rewarding as possible to be our right and our great advantage in this new time and age, because you only live once, right? Or at least you don't know if there is something after this life or not. Better make the most of what you have.
So why does this matter to me? As the agnostic I am.
I'd like to think my gut feeling that it's WRONG would stand for something, but there's no science in gut feeling. Unless you're on laxatives or probiotics (which I am, but that's a different story).
So how about commercial interest? If the world around us is preconditioned for us by the companies that control it, you can see how that could be abused, right? We're already bombarded by constant advertising campaigns, abrim with behavioral psychology tricks.
A whole new realm of directed marketing could open up with AR. A whole new business model for such companies. Sure...
Where all this seems to be leading me is that I am severely anti-business.
You've probably heard the saying that money's the root of all evil, and I hold that true on so many levels.
It could be a means to accomplish something not evil, too, but why create a system that relies on monetary incentive in the first place, if the intention wasn't inherently evil? If it wasn't based on greed then we would have no need for such a system, and what's greed if not evil? It's definitely not good.
Share and share alike is a much better mantra to me.
Sharing is caring.
Take and give.
Trade, create, and build a society based on a creative, and caring foundation, rather than an enslaving one, where gamification becomes the indemnification against a world that is slowly falling out from our lifeless, heavily radiated, hand.
I'll keep putting in that radiation bit all over because that's what this post is really all about. Bear with me.
The biggest technological advancement right now, the one I'm so heavily against - by unreasonable but hopefully a reachable popular opinion - is 5G.
The scary thing about radiation isn't that it harms us. It's that we can't see how much.
The effects are gradual, and the radiation invisible. In dangerously high doses you might perceive it as heat. In lower doses as tiredness, nausea, a ringing in your ears, headaches; a myriad of common symptoms that could also be due to stress, sleeplessness or simpler and less harmful, temporary states of being.
The scary thing is also that we unintentionally harm ourselves, voluntarily, for the sake of progress, as those who wish for such progress would like to make you think that is (but it's not - as per my point above).
We're already subjected to way higher doses of EMF radiation than would've been considered prudent back in the day when there was time to 'test' new technology as to be sure it was safe... if there ever was such a day. Uranium. Radiobiology. Nuclear gardening. Amalgam. Asbestos. Teflon. PFOA and PFOS. Micro plastics...
Maybe there never was.
Our history's riddled with our technological mistakes, and they just keep coming, no matter how much we'd like to think we've learned from our cancerous past.
We haven't learned anything. The ideas of today are as dangerous as ever, but with an ever-increased potential for their spread, and even though we know of the dangers there are people who keep lobbying for them, and denying the dangers, and even more disturbingly: those who just don't care.
Or don't want to care. Those who live their lives in blissful ignorance.
It seems that decades of bad ideas and decisions have led to a social apathy, where we just ignore the dangers and keep on going.
Maybe the notion that everything now involves the entire world makes us feel small and helpless - incapable of any important change.
So we do nothing. We become so fatalist in the face of relentless change that we lack the means or the motivation to control not our own destiny; nor that of the world as a whole.
And when we walk around like zombies, getting by on our routine dopamine kicks, siphoning our life blood via the digits in our rote-in-spleen chips, either slaves to the machines - or machines to those who take our bidding and don't want us quick, our immune system so slow we feel choked by it's grip, we just cope and that's it... then we won't even have the energy to realize, that real life: wasn't supposed to be this.
I urge you: Be unreasonable. Listen to your gut. Do what's right. Look at Greta Thunberg and realize that we do have the power to make a difference. It's never too late to make a change for the better, and right now that change is more important than ever.
On the topic of change: we gotta keep our coins too. Our currency. Material money. The only ones that benefit off of an entirely digitalized national currency are corporations and governments; all those who control.
There's no way to live with personal integrity intact, to at least the level it is today, if your money is tied to you with every transaction you ever make, yet that's what most people seem to be opting for.
Don't get tricked by credit card perks and initial payment simplicity.
It won't be to your benefit when that's the only option you have, and there won't be a need for perks when there's no alternative.
If something's on offer, then someone benefits off of it, and that someone's probably not you. So keep paying in cash when you can - no matter how people look at you - or how many don't want you to.
It's time for change. And it always was.
The unreasonable way.