Patric Rhone wrote:
Life is as complex and beautiful as a snowflake. And, in the grand scheme, as brief and temporary
Patrick always has a beautiful way with words but this short post is expertly put.
I aim to create many beautiful things but also appreciate all the moments around me in my brief time here.
For some reason I managed to miss all of the build up to this book despite Ready Player One being one of my favourite books. So catching this the day it was released was a rear period of excitement and hunger to get reading.
I held off until I have finished the book I was on, so reviews and criticism was already flying all over the internet by the time I turned the first page.
In a broad sense of the word I understand the need for answers, but this need in modern times seems to be one of the most dangerous things around. In a world that contains a virus killing thousands of people every day, conspiracy theories are ravaging the planet and causing irreparable harm.
People have always created stories to try and explain away things that they do not understand. In older times attributing things to god or gods, but in more modern times these attributions have been replaced by arguably something more crazy.
Whilst writing some daily thoughts out I have recently been trying to formulate where my Social Media presence is going in 2021. Setting goals in what to achieve regarding blog posts, videos and all sorts of things is all well and good, but the web, and Twitter specifically, is where I spend frankly ridiculous amounts of time. I’ve been there for 11 years and tweeted more than 38,000 times (not any more they are all gone).
Twitter is great for me. It’s open, varied and has provided me with a platform to meet some good friends what I would have no other way of interacting with. Sometimes it’s a bit of a dumpster fire when Apple releases something or a major event happens but is bearable again after a few hours. Yet, the platform has been almost insufferable for more than 5 years now and the depressing state of American Politics is starting to swallow the internet.
Silas House on the The 1996 Law That Ruined the Internet
But the internet is not Facebook or Twitter, and it shouldn’t be. Fifteen years ago, the major social-media platforms barely existed. Was the internet better or worse? The online public square, now dominated by Twitter, was then constituted of independent blogs aggregated by user-curated feeds. Bloggers are publishers, legally responsible for their posts, but the blogosphere was not noted for its blandness.
Whenever I introduce someone new to mediation, they always look at me a bit quizzically. Not sure if I am being serious or wondering how I have hidden my woo-woo tendencies so well. Expecting me to suggest they go and sit in a cave for a week or buy some new orange robes.
You see, the vast majority of people seem to think that meditation involves sitting crossed legged on the floor, humming to yourself, or other such tropes seem to be very widespread.
I have been transfixed with one of the best podcasts I have ever listened to. Yuval Noah Harari spoke to Tim Ferris for a little under two hours and left me with so much more to think about now regarding knowing suffering and also knowing yourself.
It is easy to find out what makes us happy, and what brightens our mood because it’s instant and identifiable. But what even is suffering and what it is doing to us is a much harder thing to pin down and solve.
Silas House wrote:
Fifteen years ago the major social-media platforms barely existed. Was the internet better or worse? The online public square, now dominated by Twitter, was then constituted of independent blogs aggregated by user-curated feeds. Bloggers are publishers, legally responsible for their posts, but the blogosphere was not noted for its blandness. White-hot critique was common, but defamation and abuse were not
I keep coming across the opinion that 230 should be saved and if it is overturned then this would be the end of the internet.
I don’t play many games. I tell myself that this is because I don’t have time, but really it’s because I have such an addictive personality that I’m scared I’ll lose myself in to it, and I’ve got things to do! I don’t have any console, but turns out I did have things I could use to play Google Stadia and I bet you do to.
What motivated all this was the fact there are some games that I want to play.