h. Play

I don’t want to look at it though.

It was terrible! The first gateway/router didn’t start. The second was fine but the dude forgot to get the right SIM card in so it didn’t work back home.

Two hours total in the store, 30mn on the phone with at least five different folks to simply subscribe to the internet using a 5G hotspot. We can definitely do better, y’all.

It’s working OK now, but nothing spectacular in terms of bandwidth. It feels like good old 4G. It is also basically all locked, you can’t even change your WiFi’s SSID without the help of Powershell. SMFH

I’ve been trying to get Sonic for 10 years now, and these mfs are never available where I live but a couple streets away, yes, always. Quite infuriating.

Finally watched John Carpenter’s 1988 They Live. I would always see references to that movie here and there but never had the chance to watching it fully.

Increased commercialization. That was 36 years ago. Today we have ads in operating systems, emails and bank portals. Agents on the internet tracking every single pixel we move over. Data mining is the bread and butter of companies making billions in profit from us. Netflix is the last one showing that they make more money per user from ads than from subscriptions. And everyone born after the late 90s doesn’t know what the world without constant commercialization is.

So despite art showing a worrying trend decades ago, it got way worse. There’s so much complacency around phones. I don’t think John Carpenter saw those OBEY devices coming and taking over.

When folks say art changes minds and the world I’m leaning into the “Sure, Jane” meme these days.

I watched Andor and a few other movies this week and I feel exhausted by that much television. And that’s like, a Tuesday for most Americans.

I had been waiting on watching this in the best environment possible and that’s now.

Superbly balanced and done through and through. The best of that fantasy world in 12 episodes. Just enough to indulge and not too much to get lobotomized.

I’ll never get tired of how sound design is so central to making science-fiction believable. Those sliding (cardboard!) doors making all those fuzzy sounds of movement and digital validation, love that.

Dialog was riveting, especially on the Empire side.

It could be just one season and that would be just fine (they’re making a season 2).

It’s called Variable Rate Operant Conditioning.

You know that feeling when you seem to not be able to stop scrolling in any app these days? That’s by design. That’s Variable Rate Operant Conditioning.

In operant conditioning, a variable-ratio schedule is a partial schedule of reinforcement in which a response is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses. This schedule creates a steady, high rate of response.

This is what powers slot machines, pachinkos, Pokemon, Etsy’s search, TikTok, app stores, everything with an algorithm.

Your feed, regardless of the app and what you’re interested in, uses this with a level of sophistication (thanks to a decade+ of data) that makes it devastatingly potent. At this point, it might be so optimized and efficient that most people simply can’t escape or fight it. The 24/7 phone paradigm doesn’t give people enough time to separate and think. People get on the scrolling treadmill as soon as they can, right after dropping off the kids or right before bed.

It’s been warping our minds and it is impacting our societies in the worst way. You haven’t found something interesting. They found (know, remember, don’t share) what triggers you 1000% of the time.

We like to say and believe that Boomers are the reason everything is bad today, but the psychopaths using constant skinner boxes on us and optimizing them to get us on that rent-seeking shit, are cute and ruthless Gen-X and Millies.

A dollar bill that ended in my pocket. Kept it for the art. They’re a tattoo shop in Bakersfield.

‘been going down the rabbit hole of Shigeru Ban’s architecture this year.

Furniture House I

The wall are those wood shelves (plywood) and they structurally support the house. Brilliant.

Curtain Wall House

Terrace with giant curtains. Deceptively simple, bold, again brilliant.

Shutter House

Ideally, architecture should serve us like this house custom-made for a photograph. The glass shutters rolling up and down like industrial doors, the subtle play with interior, exterior, reflective, matte, textured (green walls) or smooth, it’s impressively molded around photographic and image concepts.

I applaud his dedication to finding new use for 100% sustainable architecture, simultaneously indulging wealthy clients and helping to make the world a better place. Not many do that.

He also made this thing in Paris (I also used to pass by this dead island leaving work), I’ll have to go check it out next time I’m there.

“Is it the show where…”

“Oh, I think it’s that one with…”

“Hold on I’m confusing this one with that one…”

“It came out last year, forgot to watch it…”

“Wait, isn’t it on this platform…”

Conversations with friends yesterday. We have so much fucking entertainment we don’t even register it. I don’t know man.

I’m thinking about it, and it’s making more and more sense.

Love for da game

Well she’s a professional basketball player, I work out my fade away turnaround Js every morning at sunrise since 2015. ‘nough said.

International flavor

WNBA players often play overseas in Europe, or have. As black folks who lived in a wide variety of environments, we would have a lot to talk about.

Between the sheets

Athletic bodies want to sweat. I feel like competitive sex would be super fun. We’d try to kill each other by Snu-Snu more often than not, and that would be dope.

Choices

Cat, no cat. Dog, no dog. Kid, no kid. All of them at once. I’m down with everything, boo. I’ll hold the fort while you go GET IT on the road.

Form factor

She could be a 5’7 point guard or a 6’12 center, she’d be my girl. Her holding the shelf while I’m on the stool screwing it in sounds like perfect teamwork and I’m all for it.

I need to get some Sparks season tickets ASAP.