28 Mar 2010
simcity3000
Sonny,
How have you been? I hope you are feeling alright. I know things have been tough for you, but try to hold on. I’ve been remembering things lately, like your mother for example.
I also remember back then the goverment would treat us like dogs. They would tread on us. I knew how it was, not because of my age, but because of the stories I had read. Knowledge was banned, except for the knowledge that came built into us.
I had my chip removed a while back and since then I had ceased to remember most of the pertaining things of history. It cost me great effort to evolve a mind of my own again, and then to start piecing the bits and bobs of my memory back together again.
So, Gregory told me the other day that he was falling apart. It seems we are all falling apart nowadays. I haven’t been able to find a new book to read in years, and Gregory is feeling more depressed every day with the news. He really hates when the chemical injections start to kick in when he’s feeling down. It’s really annoying, you start feeling bad and the chip injects you, you’re feeling too good and it injects you again, you’re feeling like a rebel and it injects you, you’re feeling unusual and it injects you. Gregory was on the verge of killing himself yesterday but the chip altered his mood yet again, stopping him from committing such action. Not that I would care that much anyway, I mean, he is my best friend but he no longer thinks by himself.
It is ridiculously dangerous to even attempt removing the chip as when it is removed it sends out a GPS alert immediately. I had to cut my arm off, throw the whole thing in a bin several kilometres away, and run like mad. Even so, I’ve been hiding for several years now, I’m surely being searched for, you know, my arm had my DNA and stuff. It’s obvious they are looking for me. Not that they need to really look anyway, they’ve just got these readers everywhere.
I once read up on these ‘license plate’ readers they installed back at the start of the previous millennium. That was only the beginning of many changes to come. Nowadays everything seems peaceful, there are no wars, there is no crime, and the world is at peace, at the cost of the freedom of millions of people.
I wish I could go back to the old world. I mean, it’s great not seeing murder, death, suicide and violence on the TV every day. It’s great not fearing getting knifed outside your apartment in London. It’s great not losing loved ones to wars like the great Iran war in 2015, or the 3rd or 4th world war. It’s great not having to worry about the news, about the weather, about car accidents. But then again, that randomness in life was what made it particularly interesting. Now they care for everything for us, I mean, for those who have the chips. The weather is always standard, the population numbers are always the same, the amount of energy input/output is always the same, the distribution of people across planets is equivalent, it’s all bloody perfect in the end.
I wish I could get a drink of whiskey, you know, one of those Glen… Glen… oh god, I forgot the name years ago, never-mind. Maybe a Chivas would do the trick, if there only was any.
So Gregory said he’ll be stopping by today to bring me a little “fresh” milk and cheese. I better be going now son, I hope you are having a great time, don’t try to find me (not that you’d be able to leave you’re place with that intention anyway), and think not of me as a prisoner, but a free man. I hope this letter gets to you and overpowers the will imposed on you by the machine. I hope one day you acquire the power to liberate yourself. Until then, take care.
Regards,
David Paterson
28 Mar 2010
A fearless, cold, impenetrably inhumane character, with a warm heart deep inside, and a tortured psyche.
He figured out a way to escaped his ravaged city. This Robert Johnson, a man I speak about.
People thought he was going crazy, you know, walking out from his house. He left 2 children behind, little ones, one of the 2 years old.
How was his wife going to cope with it?
He barely earned enough to pay for food, and his wife couldn’t work. Disease had distraught her back in 91’.
Nonetheless, Robert left for newfoundland, searching for newfoundglory. He must have walked for weeks or years. Poor Robert, dying of pneumonia on christmas eve, on a faraway doorstep, in the middle of nowhere, where time was timeless and space was spaceless.
21 Feb 2010
Are you consistent with what you do? Do you finish everything you start? No, I didn’t think so, but if you do… Congratulations! You may skip this post.
Otherwise, I have a story to tell you…
Once upon a time I was just like you. I had many ideas, some of them quite good, and I tried to carry them out only to realise I couldn’t finish all of them. Sometimes I would get bored halfway through and leave the project incomplete. When it was something socially-related and I did not achieve an immediate response, I would leave it incomplete and/or get frustrated with it. Sometimes I simply couldn’t be arsed to continue with it.
What made matters worse was the sense of guilt I would sometimes build up after a week, a month or a few years after starting a project and not having been able to finish it. A sense of being incompetent. And the more things I left that way, the worse I felt. A constant buzz in the back of my brain telling me that I didn’t finish it, and I could have.
One example was Zyborg, a computer game (Clone of ZZT) I started developing around 10 years ago with Saxxonpike in Qbasic 4.5. We abandoned the project a few months after we started, however, I always felt a tingling sensation of having left it just standing there. I still have the code.
I also used to start (and not finish) hundreds of songs, paintings, poems, lyrics, books, ideas, scripts, computer programs, drawings and many other things. I even started a company once, and we were really motivated. But after stumbling a few times into problems, we just silently gave up on it. But the tingling sensation must have lasted ages in all of us. The sense of not having been able to accomplish our goal. The feeling of failing.
When and how did things change for me?
When I started adding a little bit of organisation into my life.
I started off by writing task lists and project ideas down on paper. If I couldn’t get through them in one go I learned not to stress about it and leave it for a later date, whenever I felt more confident or motivated about the project. Then all these ideas and tasks stopped being burdens on my mind and were converted to sentences in a notebook (later replaced by Google Docs).
Then I started printing out calendars in Microsoft Publisher, and using them to keep track of future events. I have never liked daily based diaries as I hate the format, I hate carrying too many notebooks, and I hate wasting too many blank pages. But a monthly calendar format suited me, with 30-31 rectangles on a sheet with just the right amount of space to keep track of my main tasks per day.
Further on, seeing the success this brought me in organising my life, I looked for a computer solution for my needs. I needed to be able to view it from any PC where I were at, so Microsoft Outlook was out of the question. I found comfort in Google Calendar which I have been using for over 2 years now. It was great, I could view it in any style I liked! I started out using the monthly style, however, lately I have preferred using the weekly view as I plan and use it on a daily basis.
Google Calendar, however, wasn’t the solution to my problem in storing my project ideas. One day one of my best friends introduced me to Remember the Milk. A pot of gold! Accessible from my iPod touch, updateable from anywhere, it was pure glory!
Since then, I have never had a problem remembering what I have done, what I have to do, and what are my plans and ideas for the future.
So if you have ever had one of these problems I have had, give it a try! I mean, it’s free so you have nothing to lose. And if it’s just not your cup of tea, stick around and give the net a look, there must be something ideal for you! The important thing is not giving up on projects or ideas just because you have no time for them at the moment. And if you started one, but haven’t finished it, just keep track of it and leave it for a later date. Don’t scrap it… Remember it.
04 Feb 2010
A few months ago I put together a new computer. I hadn’t done this in ages so, naturally, I did some mistakes.
My main problem was not using the motherboard spacers. Yeah, I screwed the motherboard right onto the case. This (for those who don’t know much about computers) causes immediate short circuit. Fortunately my motherboard has a short-circuit detector and did not allow me to turn it on.
So I went to a computer repair shop with the PC, asked around for the fault, and immediately a guy pointed out my mistake.
I told him “I knew something was wrong, as I had to press really hard on the PCI/PCIe cards to get them in place, and even so they didn’t fit in well”. To which he replied “When something doesn’t fit in naturally you must be doing something wrong, everything should just fit in.”
So I went back home and put it together in the right way, and it turned on without a problem.
His words, however, stuck with me. They not only worked out for my computer problem, but they apply equally to all aspects of life. If something doesn’t feel right, then you must be doing it wrong.
- If you eat something that doesn’t taste good, you spit it out or stop eating it.
- If you put your hand too close to the fire you naturally take it away.
- If you buy something you didn’t like you don’t (generally) buy it again.
So, then, if we act so naturally about so many of these things, why not apply them to cases such as the following:
- If we are in a job we don’t like, why don’t we leave it?
- If we are in a position we can’t handle, why don’t we say it?
- If we are under a lot of stress, why don’t we deal with it?
It’s ALL about communication and action. It’s not about not being able to handle something, it’s about not communicating it to the right person. It’s not about not being comfortable in a job, it’s about doing something about it. Don’t be afraid to live right.
13 Jan 2010
Yes, in 2045 I’ll be thinking that it was such a short time ago when I made a 100 Euro bet that Strong-AI would exist by that year. I will also be thinking about what I did in all those years, from 2010 to 2045, where did time go? Did I spend it well? It will be a sense of confusion, as I will have done so many things, and at the time many of those things must have felt marvellous, but did I really enjoy the ride? What does it feel to enjoy the ride? Does it feel well in the present, does it still feel good in the future? How do you know if you are enjoying your time? Maybe you know it because you wake up every day feeling good, smiling. Maybe you know it because you wake up with a burning desire to do something new, to invent something revolutionary, to discover to a new place…
I don’t want to start travelling the world when I’m 58. I don’t want to start living at that age, discovering the world, discovering myself. I am alive now, and I’ve got to use the time I’ve got on my hands as if it were gold. That’s why everything I’ve chosen to do I’ve done it then and there, that’s why I’ve started my world travels at the start of my 20’s, that’s why I’ve decided to write, blog, do photography, video, painting and everything I can do right now. What’s the point of starting it all when you’re old? Why not take this moment in time to do everything you can, learn something new, start new travels. It is your time, decide what best to do with it, just don’t waste it.
Once upon a time someone told me that it’s good to develop hobby’s throughout life, because when you get old, hobby’s are the only thing you’ll have left to cheer you up. Life as an old person would be boring if throughout your life you could never give a damn about learning how to ride a bike, swim, do some yoga, play golf, paint, play guitar, learn software programming, graphic design, audio production, hiking, knitting, inventing, arts & crafts, growing plants and vegetables, script writing, reading books, etc.
The more, the merrier. So now you know that it’s never too late to plan ahead, it’s never too late to learn/do something new, it’s never too late to life. After all: Time flies by.
