h. Play

The silence of the powerful is deafening.

That’s the term coming to mind these days.

No one seems to have any. Everyone is using their phones the way you would scratch your shoulder: immediately, without warning, just not caring about anything at all.

It’s absolutely destroying society. I am witnessing it in real time, and it’s something. No one seems to realize it, as most everyone is doing it. I’m not because I was lucky to see the negative effects of phone addiction extremely early on, and I’m pretty good at resisting peer pressure.

The lack of digital hygiene is akin to farting and burping loudly whenever you feel like it. In line at the grocery store. In the elevator. Right in front of other folks on a sidewalk. While your supervisor or your mom is talking to you. At a wedding. After sex. While teaching. You get the idea.

Wearing wireless earbuds while scrolling is like farting and burping AND not hearing or smelling yourself. You become content and disrespectful to, disconnected from your direct environment in ways previously impossible to reach.

And we let that happened, somehow. All VCs and SV really, really wanted their 10x returns so they said fuck it, let’s trick them all. Let’s abuse people as efficiently as possible, using the latest research on human psychology.

I don’t know what to do. I’m just happy to not be like that. Having good digital hygiene is a bit lonely. But I worry about the rest of the world.

This scale, it’s no good.

What the fuck Russia wants? All the smoke? To do what?

Can the current president of the United States shut the entire fuck up?

Can someone make ‘lon bleed in the mouth and take a picture?

All of that is even more disturbing because personally, all is well. I was with my girl m. on Saturday night eating mango chicken while listening to Roy Ayers (I have almost all his music), tripping and enjoying ourselves. But we were also like “goddamn, this country”. Obsessed with winning and losing when there’s only living. It’s pathetic.

It’s not we can do better but more like there’s absolutely no other way.

I can’t comprehend how so much pain is being distributed to folks for a goddamn virtual line on the ground that says “Ukraine here” “Russia here”. 

Legions of dumb ass men living in fantasy worlds where territories mean everything as if we couldn’t live together at all, despite the fact that we do.

“Why are they all shaking hands with Putin? Isn’t he a full-on dictator? Whatever, I have things to do” Me in early 2000s.

No one really mentions that today, but the entire West was friendly with this dude 20+ years ago, even though it didn’t make sense. So now it’s even more confusing. We let Russia do whatever for decades, we’ve been warned countless of times and now we’re like “holy shit, they really are doing whatever they want!”

Fucking idiot ass men in power, I swear.

Take China, which is virtually providing 80% if not more of everything we consume here in the West (US/EU) since about 1995. Talking about China being an enemy is fucking crazy. We’re so entangled business-wise that talking about communism vs capitalism is absurd, irrelevant and pointless. We need each other equally, what are you all on?

Globalization has intricately connected us all and there’s no return from that.

I see the plan to rearm Europe. A €150 billion loan, which will be paid back when, when Europe just like the US and China, are living on credit cards? Mad fucking men.

Zelle lost US banks close to a trillion dollars. The banks just killed their lawsuits because who cares about this unfathomable sum of money? No one, apparently. Mad men.

It’s batshit crazy everywhere. I read the creator of WordPress saying that Joe Rogan makes sense and is knowledgeable (since when?????), one of the Basecamp founder sucking JD Vance’s dick in a blog post. Like, shit is insane. Everyone showing their ass.

Exhausting.

Hi Ukraine,

Yes, what my government is, is fucking embarrassing. I’m ashamed. I want to drop kick those people in power in the white house. I want to smack the fuck out of those two disrespectful bums.

I hope Europe shows up for you. Stay strong, as you always have been.

I’m into insulating aggregates. Reading about them. The idea is this: walls need to protect from the outside yet breathe. to do that we usually use a combination of material –including air- and sandwich them together. The issue is that it complicates construction massively and can become a source of future problems like a leak or corrosion and thermal bridges and what not.

Concrete has poor thermal performance, but this can be alleviated with insulating aggregates like perlite which is 100% natural and non-toxic.

Also read recently:

My weak calculations and guts were right, at 600mm/24” thick with insulation, I would achieve the 0.1 W/m²K needed to have the optimal thermal performance. Why the obsession? My brother, it’s only going to get hotter.

So, one material that is self-sufficient in every single way. I don’t even need to paint it or plaster it, as concrete needs to be raw to the outside and inside to work properly in this case.

Which means either 3D-printed or precast elements, a crane, and in two days, this thing is 90% done.

*drops mic*

A holy grail for architects is how to make people inside a house live together while providing privacy.

With HHH I’m trying to solve this by having a general space with multiple use, while having a certain distance from each usage.

If you’re sitting down where the yellow dot is, I think you’ll be far enough from the kitchen to not feel in the kitchen yet you’ll be in my sight while making food. Presence.

If I’m cooking around the red dot, and you’re in the green area working on your laptop in the sunken pit about 15 meters/50 feet from me, we’re not together yet we are!

The two bedrooms provide complete privacy if you don’t want to talk to anyone.

The way we do these days:  small, square open floor plans where the feeling of separation is not strong enough, or huge houses with big rooms and people moving between them while avoiding each other, is terrible.

There’s no other way but to try something else! We used to live more like this way back to the cave and tribe life days and we’re kind of back to the tribe life, so.

• I swear my coffee blend brand just swapped its mix for an inferior mix. I can taste it.

• Homelessness is back, after allocating $2B to fight it. Tents are popping up around.

• Virtually every block of LA has: new buildings sitting empty, old buildings sitting empty. How’s rent that high? The invisible hand does not exist. Fuck that fake real estate “market”.

• When it rains hard, new buildings also have tarps, highlighting their offensively bad builds.

• Prices fluctuate wildly. One week lettuce is 99cts, then $2.49 and back.

• My local bakery never recovered from 2020. Inconsistent quality, prices up. I think my blueberry muffin is gonegone now.

• People pay cash a lot these days. All the way to coins and pennies.

• I used to see Waymo cars a couple times a day. I see them on every single street I use now.

• Lots of selling going on and increasing. Cars. Items. Four houses are emptying around my crib.

• All restaurants, old ones and new ones go hard on happy hours signs and publicity. Food stands multiplying.

• Anything at a restaurant is $20+ now.

• Bought some shoes at a good price online, at my door in 2 days.

• Bought some boards at a good price online, at my door in 2 days.

• Skate shops absolutely can’t compete against that. And that’s before fuck ass tariffs.

• I’m still wincing looking West. The second I see some clouds over there, I feel anxious.

• People’s driving skills have become on average beyond appalling. It’s just insane these days. Cars’ designs are horrendous, too bulky at the wrong angles and generally tasteless.

• I see people crossing the street with noise-cancelling headphones, eyes down their phones, pushing a stroller and not even looking around once. You can’t do more indulgent and complacent.