h. Play

I saw a sign on an overpass above the freeway that says “the Russians” and lol I don’t really get it.

I’m reading a book on secret 60s US stealth planes and they use Russian tech without batting an eye, despite the fact that it is during the Cold War.

Today we talk about Trade War with China but most if not everything that isn’t food in this country is made oversea.

Growing up before globalization, I thought it made sense people were afraid of each other. After two world wars, dozens (hundreds?) of millions of death, now that our economies are so tightly inter-dependent and that we travel all over the world for $88 round-trip tickets, what does it even mean to “take over” or “influence” one’s country? To feel threatened? To develop new weapons?

There’s land. There’s us. We should be like, chilling.

I hate to think about it, but I bike about 120 miles a week since my eviction. Almost 200 kms. What. The.

I had to do the math because of how I use my car, which is not often.

Numbers are not necessarily interesting. All I think of is that I’m on my bicycle a hour per day to commute, which is not awful. But once I do the math it ends up with a lot of kilometers. Just the idea makes me tired and yet I do that every week without too much pain.

It’s only annoying the first five minutes, when the lungs are opening and my legs are cold I guess. And when I’m on the last hill of the day, when I’m like “fuck sweating”. But overall if I don’t bike I feel antsy and uncomfortable.

The amount of gas I save though. No, I didn’t do the math.

House Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on Slavery Reparations (3+ hours)

Very eye opening. JULIANNE MALVEAUX IS IN THE HOUSE, LOVE YOU GIRL. She’s an economist and I just appreciate how she steers the conversation away from emotional pitfalls and shenanigans. Facts. Period.

Keep in mind that those hearings are to decide to create a commission to see how reparations could be done. Checks are not being cut yet. Chill, you whiny taxpayer.

Reparations are due. The detail of what happened to freed slaves and black Americans bootstrapping over and over is there, in history books. The compounding effects are still shaping this country.

Many black Americans know and traced their ancestry down to slavery. It’s not that hard, it’s been going on until quite recently, sadly. There are receipts everywhere.

But what is interesting to me is that the discussion brings the wealth gap problem. Which brings the jobs and wages problem.

The gap is huge and widening while jobs and wages that could help to stop it, disappear and don’t grow.

That means Universal Income and there’s no other possibility. None.

In a few years, white people will have on *average* almost a hundred times more money than black people.

“but what can I do, I never had slaves leave me alone!” First of all, stop being coy about this, it’s not cute. Second, you and your friends could stop gentrifying black and brown neighborhoods, displacing people who, with one or two orders of magnitude less money, are in deep trouble. You are actively fucking them over. Don’t do that.

Third, create that Universal Income right now because the poorest white folks –maybe some are your friends- will need it sooner than later. Like, today actually.

There’s so much money in the hands of not enough people.

I was watching a documentary on the Dream Team and it sent. Me. Back.

The most poignant thing is remembering a 1992 world without internet and social media.

The rumors were coming once a month. People used common sense. “well, those NBA players are probably going to play for the USA in Barcelona”. And what players. 11 Hall of Fame players.

So I was on my way to my cousin’s cousin’s grandmother house in Brittany. My cousin was blasting Nirvana in the car. I was intensely obsessed with arcade games, especially Capcom’s.

And then we would watch that team destroy everyone and we knew then that it was a one time thing, something special. I remember tearing up at the amount of awesomeness. Don’t forget that no one was black around me. No one.

Watching the ball movement and one of those stars soar to the rim was magnificent. Sad for other teams getting humiliated at the Olympics. Happy for blackness being the coolest shit, again, as usual.

It was a trip. It was a dream.

So on weekends, I go shoot the ball at my local park. On Sundays next to the basketball courts, Mexicans play football (soccer). They’re pretty serious about it with referees, shirts, tamale stands and so forth.

Often, their ball goes way out and lands on the court. When close, I pick it up with my hands and throw it back, like a goal tender. It’s good exercise.

But yesterday morning I felt it and when the ball arrived I just kicked the ball back with my left foot, like I was Thierry Henry on a corner kick, propelling the ball between two trees, way high, landing on the field, ready to be played.

The ENTIRE bench crowd, all Mexicans, all dudes smoking drinking and laughing, that I see every Sunday, turned around looking at me shouting “YOOOO” and I was like, “yeah, I can do that too” and then I swished a fade away long 2.

Legendary? Legendary.

Reading an article on content moderation on Facebook, made me realize one thing: there are so many photos and videos that we reached the point of not caring about them at all. We just scroll.

Pictures, photos and videos are untrustworthy too. We can fake everything, even in pretty high definition.

The internet was all text. It became all photos, animated pictures and videos.

We’ve reached a point where everyone has mastered the art of taking selfies. Everyone looks good. Every plant basking in the sun looks nice. All cameras are great. Therefore, none of that has value anymore. It’s basic.

If photos and videos are basic now, and no one’s reading anymore, is sound the next hot thing? Let’s go.

“How did the human species ever happen to think of building their homes so that the whole roof space was wasted.”

From a Neutra’s client’s letter to the famous architect.

Girl, I don’t know. I miss my old place because I could enjoy its flat roof at ease, chilling, and it was magnificent. I’ll never forget those views and the peace coming from receiving a nice breeze in the face with 360° of sky enveloping me.

Attics are quite stupid. Storing things for storage. Memorabilia is real but we ought to do better and keep what’s really important.

No attic means you have to make choices and align your past, present and future instead of deflecting.

That’s a positive. That’s work though. I don’t mind.

You can also build a small storage unit in the backyard somewhere, if you can’t help yourself.

Audiobooks outsell print. AI can turn text into speech. People scan, they don’t read.

Writing is organized thinking on behalf of persuasion.

Writing is your opportunity to stand out, to pitch in and to make a difference.

And you don’t need a permit or equipment. You don’t need an insider’s edge, or money either.

Writing may be the skill with the highest return on investment of all. Because writing is a symptom of thinking.

Seth Godin.

Writing for 15+ years now, I realize how much it helped me being organized. To keep calm with heavy, burning thoughts. Once you break them down and start writing them on a screen, it’s just easier to understand and deal with them.

Talking doesn’t do the same at all. We indulge in drama and get lost in what point we’re looking for. Writing gets you there and allows you to move on.

It’s dope.