skepticlysm

Now We’re Playing with Portugals

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Skeptifist

in

  • “Retire 17.5 years early by moving to Portugal!”
  • That ad popped up in Instagram first thing this morning.
  • Ah, yes please?
  • No, I don’t speak Portuguese, but …  I can learn enough to buy groceries, order from a menu, and get bus and train tickets.
  • Plus, five years and you can become an EU citizen!
  • Having lived in Europe … Yes, I would move there and never come back.
  • The terms of my current indenturedship do not allow for such hopes, but …
  • Yes, yes I would.
  • Steph and I trade house listings from Norway and Denmark.
  • You can get a place for less than $200k.
  • Sure, you’re living in the artic north, and close to those desperate Russians, but … it’s affordable and the scenery is a helluva lot better than Oklahoma.
  • The thing I keep stressing to my daughter … do your best to not go into debt, because debt keeps you from freedom.
  • Debt and fear of financial insecurity has kept me from acting on many things I’d like to have done.
  • Anyway, what’s up.
  • Happy Tuesday.
  • Yesterday, saw some random article telling me NOT to post anything personal on Facebook or social media.
  • Duh.
  • Those darn hackers!
  • Again, I have f-all for them to take, but … what’s the point of social media if you can’t be, you know, social on it.
  • You do not connect with people if you’re not sharing.
  • They’re going to have to call social media something else.
  • Or at least all this shit that’s been monetized.
  • We’re going to have to boot up old versions of social and get back to its roots.
  • “They” have made it hard.
  • I saw this Instagram video, a guy (bupc_boopsy) I’ve seen before who posts GenX stuff.
  • He talked about posting on social like I do, how we do it, and more importantly, why.
  • “Social media is the equivalent of that yard with all the bikes parked on it.”
  • “We were the background noise of society.”
  • “There are so many GenXers on social media because it’s the first time in our lives anyone has asked us what we think.”
  • “We’re not here to be recognized, to be influencers, we’re just here to be seen, to shout into the void and to finally hear somebody yell back, ‘Dude. Same.’”
  • The reel resonated.
  • (I’ll put the link in the comments.)
  • Dude is doing what I’m trying to do, only I don’t like to be on camera.
  • The type-written word or nothing.
  • But I can build community, by god.
  • Which is odd coming from an introvert.
  • I’m kind of an extroverted introvert.
  • Depends on who’s around.
  • At some point, I’ll flip the audience switch from Friends Only to … everyone.
  • Maybe.
  • I’m not sure I want to add the non-filtered dumbfucks to the comment section.
  • (Same on the Discord.)
  • So yeah.
  • Not the Monday rant.
  • I think you should expect ranting on Mondays.
  • Sorta my schtick.
  • That’s my crazy.
  • After I finished yesterday’s list, got all that out of my system, I started a new Word doc with notes.
  • I’m writing from that.
  • Next up, books.
  • After watching the show, I threw a couple of those Dept. Q books on my Kindle.
  • 2025: the year of book sampling.
  • Because I’m having trouble sticking.
  • Again, it’s me, probably, not the books.
  • I’ve started three books in three days.
  • “Navola,” Paolo Bacigalupi
  • “Nettle & Bone,” T. Kingfisher (mentioned yesterday)
  • “Modern Divination,” Isa Agajanian
  • Other than the first one, those other two were on the TBR list.
  • “Navola” started pretty good.
  • Might stick with it.
  • My reading reflects my mood: restless.
  • The “Project Hail Mary” trailer looked good.
  • Book accurate.
  • And it was a fun book.
  • Much closer to “The Martian” than “Artemis” was.
  • Dude has a simple writing style, but it’s jam-packed with well researched knowledge.
  • Simple is good, and I enjoy his stuff.
  • Off the cuff, I feel like I read more sci-fi than fantasy.
  • I’m not sure it’s true.
  • Probably closer to even.
  • Goes in cycles.
  • Like last year, I read all that Gibson and Doctorow stuff.
  • Which reminds me …
  • Now is a super good time to read “Little Brother” if you haven’t.
  • That trilogy is good stuff, and current events relevant.
  • But yeah, sci-fi is good.
  • I wish I wrote it.
  • During the pandemic, I started a short about AIs (not A1s) going for joy rides in implanted humans.
  • Need to finish that.
  • It’s more of a novella than a short, but definitely not a book.
  • Gotta get the book out of the way so I can work on some other stuff.
  • Stay on target.
  • Tons of good sci-fi to read.
  • Gibson.
  • Doctorow.
  • Scalzi (“Old Man’s War”).
  • Simmons (“Hyperion”).
  • The annual reread of “Dune.”
  • The semi-annual reread of “Ender’s Game.”
  • Those “Murderbot” novels are a good time, though overpriced.
  • (There’s a good story about those books saving the life of the author …)
  • And on and on.
  • Youtube fed me an electronic artist, Caught In Joy, yesterday after I watched that trailer.
  • Digging it so far.
  • Retro-atmospheric electronica.
  • I started to go look him up because of the AI thing, but seems to be legit because I was not fed it by spotify …
  • Ugh.
  • We’re living in a Gibsonian dystopia.
  • Yay?
  • Okay, I’m out.
  • Gotta head to the hospital … to get the PICC removed!
  • Wooooooooo

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