August 21, 2022 · 22:40

Was that all? No, there is more!

It started with watching another Eaton Centre Mall video (Toronto). This one was 6 days old (a Saturday event) and as I was watching I came up with one more piece of IP and the other piece matured. More importantly, it opens a much larger setting for shops. If Amazon pushes in, it will be the first time that Google has a realistic chance of losing market share, if Google steps in it could do a bit more than set its market share in stone, it could fan out beyond Malls and shopping centres. There is a much larger option to push the envelope in several ways. This is fuelled by what might be a realistic new option for Neom and the Line in Saudi Arabia. I have been keeping these two in the back of my mind, but that is as far as I got, I reckon that there are more marketing ways of supporting that place and a few (non-connected) ideas came to mind. With non-connected I usually mean that a lot more pondering is needed to see how far an idea goes and how easy it could be surpassed by others. That always remains an option. My ideas are good, but I am surrounded by equally gifted people (especially at Google), and as such the 

IP needs to be trimmed, expanded on or redrawn. To make it faster, to make it better and to make it innovative. It was when the filmer passed Kernels that my mind made a UNIX joke and at that point I also realised a few other things. Not on what was there, but on what wasn’t there. It went beyond the 5G IP I have, it was the setting that the Eaton mall (according to the map) did not have a concierge desk (information desk). There is nothing wrong with that, but consider that what my 5G IP does could also be implemented in other ways (with less capability), but it is capability that we have now, so why is it not there? The map is actually rather good and very interactive, But what happens when we see (below)

And the location, app or solution allows the visitor to download the brochure of any of the shops there. More important, why was this not a basic solution for years? They’ve had 8 years and they are not alone in this failing, there is  whole range of malls who do not have that, Google could have stepped in years ago (in case of Eaton Mall 8 years ago). So why were they asleep at the wheel in this? They have Lightbox ads, but never saw this? Lightbox ads are interesting as I found a new use for those. But the setting is there and as I was considering a new piece of IP and a new  setting to use it, I also saw an old stage that could be implemented now and the mall seemingly never saw it, thought it was too hard or whatever reason they have. And it is not merely them, Apple, Gap, Sephora, Victoria’s Secret, Rexxall and that list goes on for a while. All options missed out on or rejected for unknown reasons. And malls do not get to have that luxury, not anymore. The stage of rent, the stage of people who seek engagement and interactions, they are missing out and as such will consider other places and a place like Eaton Centre is not in the luxury place that it can allow for that. As I see it, Harrods is the only place that has that luxury, the other 116,500 malls are under the hammer. They trimmed what they could over the last two years and they have nothing left to trim, so they need engagement with their audience, not tomorrow, today!

It sounds a little dramatic and perhaps that is the case, but if you check on the resources and funds available the malls are in dire need of more people and more sales. You see, the larger players have a global budget and they too need more revenue, but the smaller ones, they are at their last breath, as such they need something now and I listed the setting of what they could do NOW to make a difference and I put it here because it does not hinder my IP, it is based on what exists and merely needs an adjustment, so I am handing it over to Google, so they can wake the bloody hell up and start doing stuff for their users and customers. Yes they do a lot, but when I see a Google Nest advertisement 5 times a day, I wonder if they are doing the proper things in the right directions, with the lack of what I see I have a lot of doubts in that regard, but that might merely be me and if I am right and Google does not act, Amazon could potentially act and create a new market share and expand on that. Time will tell.

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August 21, 2022 · 01:03

Only mortals get to sleep

It was deep dark when I got back to the California house. It was a place, but it was not home, home was London, it was ,my place, this was merely a place. I stopped the car near the entrance and got out. I walked to the door and opened it, it was not locked. I walked in and in place of Patrick there was a nice looking woman, I reckon she was 25-30, 30 at the most. I walked over to her. “I am the new owner of this place, who are you?” She looked at me and smiled, there was something about her eyes and my Olympian sight switched on. It was Lachesis and she looked really good in the human form. Lachesis giggled. You should be ashamed of these thoughts. You know I am well over 3500 years? She giggled and I was a little uncertain. I could see now that she was not mortal. I saw a few other things that I could not place. But her human form looked good, really good, from top, breasts, pubes and toes. Shear perfection. “You will need help, I will help you and Atropos will come later to help you too. I need no help, I think. I seemed a little uncertain now. Do you not? Look at what you did to the door. I looked around and saw the door, I had not opened it, I had crushed it through the lock and I never noticed I had done so. 

Your first lesson is to do everything with two fingers, thumb and middle finger tends to be the best. The energy of Perses is rejuvenating your Olympian side and you will get stronger and more. Your body is now drowning in Perses, so we need to adjust you and see how long it stays and what stays, if we do not you will expose yourself and become a lab specimen. That is what we will decide the next few days. I need to get some sleep, my mind is racing. Oh that is the next part, I doubt you will get any sleep. We tend to ignore sleep for the most, your body will get used to it. Patrick has been in my employ for a long time, he will know what to do, the new staff is aware of you to some extent. Your secretary will arrive at 07:00, the cleaning staff a little later, cook and two servants will come too. Security consists of two dozen men, all spartan trained and they have been at it for centuries, so they will keep this place safe from prying eyes. You cannot fight them, you will be too strong, they will not survive an encounter with you. They are the only ones that know that you are the grandson of Hades, they know little more but it will be enough. Have a shower, have a bath and see if you can sleep. I will be upstairs reading, I miss reading at times. I took one of the guest rooms that fancied me. Rest and if you need sex, I will be there, it has been too long for me and I know you like this shape of mine. She walked off to the staircase and I was embarrassingly aware that my eyes were following her. 

I sat down on the sofa and I started to brood on the last trip, the hoplites seemed well staged for containing Perses, so what had happened? They had been shattered and his powers restored them to their former shapes. The bident directed the energy and power through the ruby, but what did that mean, how was Perses the cog it seemed it was? And whilst I was brooding I saw something more, I was now uniting the Olympian and normal view at a moments notice. It seemed that I did not will the Olympian to come, I now will it away, it was still a bit unnerving. Suddenly Patrick was there. Here is some fruit juice, sir. The door will be repaired in the morning. I nodded at him. Sir, I never meant any deception, I apologise. I nodded again and smiled now. It’s OK I stated. You serve Lachesis, I get it. No, sir. I serve Atropos. He left the rather large glass of icy cold fruit juice on the table to my right and walked away. 

I took a sip, It was nectarines, I loved that drink and it was icy cold, just the way I like my water and fruit juices, milk too. Icy cold, like some beers. I took a large sip of the juice and took the glass upstairs to the master bedroom. I undressed and took a hot shower. The water felt powerful and empowering. There was all kinds of stuff there. I used the shampoo and the shower gel. A few minutes later I walked into the bedroom and drank a little more. I placed the glass on the nightstand and went to bed, or better stated, I laid down on top of the bed, ad realising that I was not sleepy, I was not even tired. This was new, I always enjoyed a good sleep, so this would require getting used to and on top of that I was getting an erection. Well, lets switch off the Olympian sight and see a 25 year old about the offer of sex, perhaps an hour of penetrating exercises would instil a level of shut eye afterwards. It was worth a try and I took one more sip of the nectarines and walked into the corridor wondering in which room she was in. I hear a book close at the end of the corridor, so that is where we would have some fun. Well let the good times begin. Tomorrow was but a few hours away.

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August 20, 2022 · 04:17

Is it intentional ignorance?

I saw an article yesterday. It was ‘Doubts cast over Elon Musk’s Twitter bot claims’. The article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62571733) was seemingly eager to attack Elon Musk’s side, but the same media has not now or ever asked serious and critical questions on the Twitter side. But lets start here, those who read my articles know I have had a larger issue with Twitter for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I like Twitter. I like it a lot more than Facebook. As such I have issues. If it isn’t with their new bully tactics of suggestion topics, without switching that nuisance off in the profile setting, then it would be with the attitude they take on fake accounts, as well as the delusional stage that it does not go beyond 5%. People I have been in contact with and THEY have data shows it to be well over 40%. I personally found 40% high, but they have data and they have data on Russian trolls and fake accounts pushing Russian ‘needs’ regarding the Ukrainian war to be in the thousands of trolls each of them using a massive amounts of click farm numbers. And it does not matter whether Twitter deactivates these accounts. The trolls have more and new methods of creating thousands more each minute. It shows in the first that the 5% Twitter claimed is bogus, more important it shows my initial thoughts that if it can be proven that it is well over double, we have a situation that Twitter has been overvaluing itself for a very long time. The data that places like Trollrensics has, shows this to have been the case for over 5 years, long before the Elon Musk events started. 

But back to the article. There we see “Botometer – an online tool that tracks spam and fake accounts – was used by Mr Musk in a countersuit against Twitter. Using the tool, Mr Musk’s team estimated that 33% of “visible accounts” on the social media platform were “false or spam accounts”.” OK, that is one side to go. I would personally advice Elon to take a step out of his circle and talk to Trollrensics. You see, they have been monitoring and recording events on the Ukrainian war (as well as Russian trolls) for a long time. Now consider that there should be some overlap. But take two circles (like below) we see the two solutions, the overlap is speculative on how much they overlap. 

They are different solutions for different options. As such the overlap cannot be 100%, in theory the second image could exist, but we can prove that, or better stated Elon Musk could prove this. You see, when the two lists of accounts are set together, Twitter has a problem, if image one is true, Twitter’s problem increases by well over 100%, it also blasts the 5% claim out of the water. 

If image 2 is true, Twitter has optionally a smaller issue, but Trollrensics has numbers stating over 40% of all accounts are fake, if so it will be a list supporting the case of Elon Musk, and well over 5%, Twitter will have a hard time opposing that much data.

And now we see in the article a strange event. With “However, Botometer creator and maintainer, Kaicheng Yang, said the figure “doesn’t mean anything”. Mr Yang questioned the methodology used by Mr Musk’s team, and told the BBC they had not approached him before using the tool. 

Mr Musk is currently in dispute with Twitter, after trying to pull out of a deal to purchase the company for $44bn (£36.6bn).” The readers will wonder what is going on, but no fear the BBC did its homework and we see that a little further below with “Botometer is a tool that uses several indicators, like when and how often an account tweets and the content of the posts, to create a bot “score” out of five. A score of zero indicates a Twitter account is unlikely to be a bot, and a five suggests that it is unlikely to be a human. However, researchers say the tool does not give a definitive answer as to whether or not an account is a bot. “In order to estimate the prevalence [of bots] you need to choose a threshold to cut the score,” says Mr Yang.” Now to me this makes sense, but there is a hidden trap. The numbers tend to be less reliable when a hybrid model exists. Let me try to make an image as below.

The hybrid system has three parts. The core (the foundation of that troll system) but it connects to real accounts. The accounts are real, tools like Qanon or whatever tool out there exists to gain coin and perhaps hoping that they are the false prophets that they once hope to become. Trolls and hackers give them a nice little tag and now the troll core has one real account that links to a whole range of people and click farms to like by the thousands and as this hybrid model can go more than one level deep and  consists of an unnamed amount of groups, Botometer and Twitter tools are (speculatively) in a mess, they now can no longer really decide on how real these groups are, and if the troll is intelligent and makes a slightly different message for each group, it can continue almost unabated. Still the Botometer is methodically sound to get the stupid accounts found and there are a whole range of them. Hundreds of thousands of limited click farm accounts, they should be found decently easily. And there I think is Elon Musk, he found the simple ones and he comes to 30%. The stage is real and the fact that is open to debate and moreover starts question the Twitter side of thinks is important. The article has more “Clayton Davis, a data scientist who worked on the project, says the system uses machine learning, and factors like tweet regularity and linguistic variability, as well as other telltale signs of robotic behaviour.” I agree with Clayton and there is also a larger issue. ‘Tweet regularity’ is real but debatable. You see it depends on interaction and time stations. A person has a shifting set. The person who looks at a tweet at 03:00 and retweets it because it is a friend, is different from the same person who is in the office at 11:00 and sees the same or a different tweet. There are more sides to that person, dynamic qualities and I wonder if a learning machine can learn (read: be taught) this. Not telling it cannot, I merely wonder and that makes it harder, than the time zones shift for the travelling person. All elements that can play a role. So when we get “In 2017, the group of academics behind the tool published a paper that estimated that between 9% and 15% of active Twitter accounts were bots.” Which is interesting for me as I considered the number to be around 20%, still that makes it 400% larger than Twitter’s claim, so Twitter does have a problem. And then the gem of the BBC article comes into play. With “Some bot experts claim Twitter has a vested interest in undercounting fake accounts. “Twitter has slightly conflicting priorities,” says Mr Davis. “On the one hand, they care about credibility. They want people to think that the engagements are real on Twitter. But they also care about having high user numbers.”

The vast majority of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising, and the more daily active users it has, the more it can charge advertisers.” Or as I would state it, there is your Dorsey factor and that part shows both that Twitter is in deep trouble and also that Elon Musk was right all along. There is still a larger debate on how large that stage is, but if proof can be shown that the fake accounts exceed 9%-11% Elon Musk wins and Twitter gets to have a large problem. What I said all along, Twitter is bound to lose this and the media supporting Twitter for their own needs are likely to lose credibility by the day at that point.

A stage that was out in the open and has been for a few years. It was my view and the view of several I knew and now that we are proven correctly, I wonder under which rock the media will hide. The law sees intentional ignorance as a right, a legal station where we are allowed to keep ourselves ignorant, but should the media be allowed that very same thing? I will let you ponder that side of the equation, because it will come out in the open. In the mean time I will consider a few idea’s on Neom and the line bubble to the surface. Perhaps I should have a conversation with Saudi Arabia’s consul general in Sydney, Mashare Ben Naheet. If I am correct it might be worth a few million to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and I could use the money (I need to pay my bar bill sooner then I would like). 

The problems of old age, they come into play at the least comfortable times.

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August 19, 2022 · 20:51

Heat is faster, you could catch cold

It was several hours later when I stopped walking around the lava pool. I had no idea what to do next. I had stared normally, I had stared with my Olympic vision and I had no clue what would be required next. It was like there was a door, but I had no idea what the key would be. I summoned my bident. I stared at the new collar, the words were in a language I did not know. Even as the symbols were clearly greek, the words made no sense. Perhaps Olympian was ancient Greek? I saw the writings around the gemstone sockets and they made even less sense to me. I was wondering what I was missing. I looked at the Lava pool and no idea came forward. As I walked another circle around the pool, I saw the small puddle next to the pool. It was next to the pool, but it was a mere 40 cm across. It was smooth as glass and the red hot lava was there. Should I try a finger, or a toe? The idea of scorching off a limb was not appealing, yet the puzzle had to be solved. I saw a darker stone in the small pool. Perhaps that was a hint? I moved towards the side and aimed the bident so that I could scoop up the stone. I was decently certain the bident could stand the heat, at least for a few seconds. And I pressed the bident to scoop the stone and something weird happened. As the bident hit the lava, the lava lost its hear remarkably fast, it turned dark and even as I was aiming for the stone, the entire puddle had turned to stone. I pulled the bident out and tried to touch the tine as fast as possible to test the heat. It was remarkably cold, I slowly did it again, but a little slower this time around. The bident was hardly warm. This was unforeseen and now the lava pool became a different challenge. I went to the side of the pool and pushes the Tynes in for merely a second. Not much happened, there was some darkening, and the Tynes were cold. I walked around the pond and did this again and again. When I was about a dozen stabs further, the lava did change. It turned to black stone and formed a small path towards the centre. I cautiously took a step, the heat from the lava was not felt on the black path, and as I walked on it, I stabbed the lava at the end of the path again and the path continued. I followed the path and now there was something different. The path went into the lava like a corkscrew, the rest of the lava was unchanged and did not move, but the path now went down into the lava. I followed the path and soon I was surrounded by lava following a path down slightly steeper now and still in a corkscrew motion. I walked faster not knowing what would happen when the path would resort to its natural state, I would not like that impact as such I hastened and  as I walked down I ended up in a new pool and that path took me to the side, I walked onto the new path, and looked around and then the path turned back to lava, the path up vanished too, now I was looking towards something that represented and hourglass made from lava. The centre lava pillar was not moving, but was now solid lava. It seemed that this puzzle was solved, so what would be next? 

The room had merely one exit and that was nothing less than mind-boggling. As I walked through that corridor I ended on some marble balcony. And looking down I saw what I assumed would be Perses. Like a person made of stone, veins of lava and his arms were shackled, his arms were in some sort of vambraces of a metal I could not recognise. The shackles were clasped around them and made of the same stuff. These shackles were tied around pillars of thick marble, like unfinished slabs 5 metres high and a circumference of about 3 meters, the shackles were wound well over a dozen times around each pillar. The legs were set in marble, or better stated someone has created a slab between the two legs and massive slabs around the outside of every leg. The were held together by an even larger slab with a deepening that went around all slabs. It seems to me that it made movement impossible. I had no idea how long this had been going on or even if this was Perses, but if it was, he would be extremely dangerous. I looked over the balcony and saw there was nothing but a 20 meter drop, I looked around to see if there was any hidden traps. I saw none and I used the bident to float down. Suddenly I got the feeling that Perses was aware of me. He was sniffing the air “Hades?” One word was all I heard. He was not doing anything, but he seemed massively defiant. Even ow, after millennia, he was still a power that would not ease up ever. He did not look up, the voice of him was everywhere, “Hades!” And waves of colours came from him, but these waves were not harmless, they were scorching hot. I held the bident in front of me and it stopped a lot of that heat, but not all heat. I suddenly had an idea. I rushed over and I was suddenly aware that Perses was rather large and these marble blocks were not there for decoration. I moved so that I kept almost behind him, but not completely. I pushed the bident on him, I tried to stab him with it, but his skin was not budging and my bident was not the bident of Hades, so it would be weaker, but something did happen. Whatever allowed him to push the waves out were now rushing into my bident and I suddenly noticed that the ruby was shining more brightly, more importantly it had grown, it was slightly larger than the other stones now, in addition to that some of the writing was a lot more distinct and some of the words were now purple, the were shining and it also had an effect on me. It was weird, I wanted to scream, but it was not pain, merely massive waves of discomfort. And as the discomfort passed I felt stronger, I felt that I was able to see more, or better stated I saw what I could not before. At the edge of the room were large statues, all broken, like soldiers no longer able to perform their function. The waves went through me and I suddenly felt aware of more. I walked towards one of the statues. I touched it with my bident, the statue formed back to its original setting. It was a greek hoplite, the statue moved and it bowed to me, it pushed its spear against Perses. Something similar happened, but not as strong as I had done. I did the same exercise and I reformed the second statue, it bowed too and did the same as the first, but from a different angle. I was able to restore the other two hoplites too. Now the image was complete. 4 hoplites were draining Perses, they must have done this for millennia. And as the 4 were draining Perses, I drained him a little more. I saw the lava veins turn darker. I stopped, because I had no idea what would happen if Perses died, for one Hecate would most likely become my sworn enemy and that is something I really did not need. I had no idea how she felt about Perses, but it was her daddy, so there would be a consequence. I waited for a few more hours, there were no further waves, more importantly Perses seemed a lot less defiant, a lot less powerful and the 4 hoplites had a stern look of duty, like they knew that something had happened and it could never happen again. I was looking at the balcony high above and I wondered how I could climb up, I was about to walk towards the sides, but now I started to float up, that was new! I floated up faster than I floated down before and in seconds I was where I never could go before. So that was my reward? I walked back and as I went back to the place I arrived, I touched the lava with my bident, and the path was more complete and shaped a lot faster. I moved up and I did so a lot faster, it seemed that my body had received a rather large input of energy. I was back in less than half the time and from there I moved back to the entrance. The rocks moved apart and I emerged from where I was. There was no one around. I started to walk back to the car when I saw a large pebble. I picked it up and as I did, the pebble crumbled between my fingers. I was a lot stronger than ever before. I looked around and I saw no one. I hit a piece of rock in the ground and it shattered. So there was a consequence, and this one was bothering me, this might happen unintentionally, so I had to take extra care not to get over enthusiastic. I walked back to the car and drove off, back to the house in California. 

To be Continued

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August 18, 2022 · 21:01

Places that are not ever there

I followed the direction given to me and this time I was a lot more cautious, I did not want to get spotted by another crew. And that did not happen. It was almost an hour later when I got close to Glennville. It was like any other town under threat of fire, nothing looked out of the ordinary, the flames were not close to this place but there was some kind of pressure, most people might not notice it, only attuned people and those in tune to their surroundings would and I could see the dogs were cautious and scared, they were frightened, but they seemingly did not know why, merely that there was something to fear, and they did fear, growling to anyone near them, even their own owners, although they did not growl too much at them, but the people knew the animals were afraid and they all blamed the fire, but that did not seem to be the real reason. As he was looking with his Olympian abilities he saw nothing stand out and then it all changed, like waves of water, but they were invisible and it merely seemed like water, but it was not, it wasn’t even air, it was not felt, merely seen. Waves of green, purple, red and yellow. Mixed, separate and cascading,  it was highly surreal and even if anyone else could see it, like him they had no clue what they were seeing. I noticed that the waves were emanating from the other side of town, more importantly a little beyond the town and they were spreading out, and then I also noticed the grass on the other part of town catching flames. I could not be certain that sparks did this, but I felt certain that the people would blame sparks. I parked the car out of view, not hidden, but this is the kind of place that under the situation might be weary of any strangers, so why advertise? I walked around the outside of the town, I was noticed but people took no notice of me, I was away from any issue and any of their belongings. It made sense and I got to the other side 20 minutes later. I was closer to where I expected I had to be and it took close to an hour before the next wave came. I was indeed closer to the centre but it was a little more to the North West. I was close to where I needed to be, but there was nothing but solid rock and ground here. I looked around to see anything at all and nothing was visible. But then I felt something in my bones. It reminded me of the first time the Bident came to life and I looked around and saw nothing, not in any view and I summoned it. I now noticed that the ruby was a lot more shiny and bright than it ever was before. Then the next wave came and the Ruby pretty much screamed the red and flared up. As did the points of my bident. I saw where the wave emanated from and I hit the rock with the points. The rock split apart like it was divided, and only my Olympian view noticed the difference, my normal sight saw the rock as a whole. The opening was large enough to enter and I did. It was a steep decent, but it could be walked and I did that. It was a decent of 200-250 meters. And as I went down, the opening behind me faded and the rock closed again. I continued down and relied on my Olympian vision, which was a lot more useful than night vision. I also noticed that the rocks were warm to the touch, not hot, but definitely warm. 

The decent ended in a small hall, the hall had two shafts going down, diagonally but very step, not something one could walk, but with the bident I had no need for ropes. I looked at the shafts, and then the waves came again. One was only red, the others were all the other colours. It seemed that I had to take the red road, but I waited for a moment, I studied the ruby. I pointed in either direction, but the ruby did not react. I wondered if there was a trap involved, there usually was with things like this and I pondered what direction to go. It. Took a few seconds and I took the red path. 

The decent was simple, it was non revealing and non issues came my way. But there was a clarity here. Everything had a red glare, yet was not really hot, merely warm. I looked around and I saw nothing of notice. Had I taken the wrong path? I looked closely at the stones, the rocks and then I noticed a small shimmer, a small irregularity in the stones, I almost missed it, even my Olympian sight was clearly limiting in this place. But then I focussed not on the colour or the stones, I focussed on the shadows, the shadows gave the light a different stage and the one place that should not show any shadow has the smallest of lines, a line of shadows and I pushed the bident in. The path that it created was different, the floor was pitch black, the sides were red and I kept to the sides as much as possible, I did not fear the darkness but this is not a place where you trust the place that has no light, that much was clear and as I got to the end if that path I was in a new small hall, with one shaft going down. It was less step but a much longer way down and I glided down until the end of the shaft only to see a red glow and now it was a different stage, some kind of lava pool with a path around the pool. I floated to the edge of the pool and landed on the path around it. I walked around the pool and saw nothing that stood out, the lava was beckoning, but this was not a time to test whether I was lava proof, I might not like the answer to that specific riddle. 

To be continued

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August 18, 2022 · 02:15

There was that idea

Part 2
I had only left that barn 2 minutes earlier when an idea hit me. I slammed on the breaks and turned around. It was less than a minute when I returned to the barn. I walked into the shop and grabbed a kart to the left. The man saw me come in and looked at me wondering what I was up to. I rolled straight to the water stack. I grabbed 20 packs with 24 bottles and shelled over the $200 it amounted to. He looked at me. I stated that I heard that provisions aren’t reaching them. They have been working all day. He stopped me. “Wait!” I wondered what he had in mind. He came back with logs, or so they looked. I can only keep them for 2-3 more days. These are black pepper cake logs. Not the worst and they will have a filled stomach. Take them, he grabbed a box and threw in a few knives. These are old, don’t care what happens to them. I started to load up the car with water and cake. Well, we will let them eat cake too I thought. I closed the hatch. Brought the kart back. “Go bring it to them, you are a good man!”

I got into the car and drove off as fast as I could. I had returned the turnaround point in 30 seconds. I turned to the right and got towards the point I needed to go. It was less than an hour later when I saw a patrol car wave me down. He looked at me. I pointed at the back. Food and water for the firemen. He looked at the stack of water and waved me to go on. “Have you seen them? I asked” “Nah, I have only been here for about an hour. They are about 10 miles north of here” I nodded and drove off. It was more like 7 miles on when I saw firemen on a hill, some kind of small tent. I drove up the hill on a rough path towards the tent. I had a great view, it was a good idea. The firemen looked at me, wondering what I was about. “No press, no press” they shouted. I got out and walked to the back. I opened the door and got two trays of water. Food and drinks from the Red barn. You can use it I reckon. They looked like parched toddlers. I reckoned that water was gone and they were decently starving. I got the box of cakes and knives. Here is some food, it is not great, but it should keep in the heat. They lunged for the food. They were indeed starving. They were not complaining. How much? One asked. It’s on the house I stated, I even sounded magnanimous. I glanced at the flames all over the place. It was then that I saw something different, something was off, but it was not here or by the lake, more to the left. The flames were not the same, but only I could see that, my Olympian gaze gave me more, The flames had a green and purple shine and those two shines were outstretching past the flames. “What is that to the left?” He looked and looked into the distance. Another fire, I reckon it is around Glennville a community in Kern County, why? Just curious I said. Anymore troops in the wild down there. I casually pointed in the lowlands towards Glennville. He pointed a little more to the left. There is a team of 5 working, I grabbed a log a knife and put it on the stack of water I still had. From the second pile I grabbed two more packs. And handed them over. I will bring them food and drinks too. Why is provisions so bad? I asked. Something about the truck breaking down. “I think I head that on the radio, but I wasn’t sure. So we decided to not take chances and here is the water and a log or two. Will more people come back here? The firemen nodded. I handed over two more trays and closed the door. The man nodded, the others were still eating like famished vultures nodding and putting their thumbs up. I had to admit, this kind of dedication was well appreciated, and if I could make a difference for them, I would. I drive down the track and turned right, in the general direction. I saw a path branching to the left and I took it. It was 5 minutes later when I saw the group of men, clearly exhausted and they looked weirdly at my car, clearly a car that is not often seen in these places. I opened the backdoor and took out a tray, with the log and knife on top. The man clearly saw the water. They walked towards me. “Can we help you?” I just came from the tent, they told me where you 5 were. Here is a tray of water and a log of black pepper cake. Not the greatest, but if you are hungry, you will not care. They all nodded, but it was clear that the water was what they needed. 24 bottles would go well over these 5 people. I handed over the stuff. Can I get to Glennville this way? The man looked at each other. Yes, it should get you there, just hold left with every branch you see and you should be good. Do not stray off the paths and roads, getting stuck in these places is a death sentence. I nodded and drove off, time to see why the flames around Glennville were different. 

To be Continued

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August 17, 2022 · 19:11

I’m not crazy, I’m an airplane.

It is an old joke from the 70’s, and when the NOS (at https://nos.nl/artikel/2440333-russische-bevolking-kampt-met-collectieve-depressie-sinds-inval-oekraine) is treating its readers to ‘Russian population suffers from collective depression since the invasion of Ukraine’ we get another part of Russia problems thrown into the face of daily events. We are also given ““Society is collectively in shock. I received a lot of people who were completely panicked. Since March there have been four times as many requests for a consultation at our clinic. Almost everyone is consumed with horror, incomprehension and fear. And they don’t know how to deal with that.” According to Khokhlova, this is a fairly natural reaction to such a drastic event. “Many people are reacting in this way to the terrifying news about Russia’s actions in Ukraine.”” It shows us a Russia that Russia does not want anyone to see. Apart from the events where we see more and more stages where Russian soldiers are now being charged with war crimes. A setting where President Putin was making short claims and this is now turning into a long term war, something that is embarrassing and humiliating to the Russian Kremlin. Not something it was looking forward to, it even nullified that chance, but that is merely the beginning of the problems, the problems go far beyond Russian borders. In the Netherlands, Dutch politician Thierry Baudet — leader of the Forum for Democracy (PvD) and the head of its parliamentary group is so pro Russian that it conflicts with the status of the Dutch, even when the Russians have to back down, this person will ‘hide’ behind the misrepresented ‘nuance’ of the statement. It is not the only nation with rather large issues, but it is the most visible one. There are two streams in all this. I am with the second one. It is a persons right to choose sides, no matter how wrong that choice is. However, there needs to be accountability, as such There will be larger issues for the Dutch Forum for Democracy (PvD) and the longer the war between Russia and the Ukraine takes, the larger there issues will be. And I reckon that its members are starting to see this, which means that the 5 seats that the PvD currently has, little with be left of it in the next election. 

In all this the mental state of the Russian people matters, because that gives a handhold to the actions of its current government. And even as we get sporadic information, often unverified. The larger setting for Russia is not merely the war, there is every stage that Russia needs its fuel to warm the houses of Russia and that is not looking too good, as I personally see it, the Russian fronts will have to do with 20%-35% less fuel, if that does not happen, many Russians will not survive the winter that comes and with large explosions on the Russian airfields, the Kremlin might have to choose in the very near future to either fuel the tanks they still have, or fuel Russian houses. It seems that the 10,000 bonus for women who have more than 10 kids was not a short sighted idea. (As one source gives us) ‘Putin brings back award created by Stalin that rewards mothers with 10 kids’ it could possibly be the only way they can stay warm this winter, and as such, has anyone figured on what life will be created? In a nation that is short of nearly everything? That is the short sighted knee jerk reaction from the Kremlin and it seems to me that Russia has much larger problems, mental health is at present possibly the smallest one of all. But that would be merely my speculated view on the matter.

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August 16, 2022 · 18:59

The old debate

The BBC is hitting us with another version of a debate that has been going on for a while. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-61594815) gives us ‘Report blasts “manipulative” video game loot boxes’, first off, they are not lying to you, this is not misrepresentation. In this, I do not completely agree with the point of view of some. The article gives us “The contents of the virtual boxes are only revealed through either game play or by making a payment. While some contain useful tools or desirable extras which improve the experience, others are worthless.” These facts are true. There are two sides here. In the first, why allow for payment? It is the right of a person to buy something, we set ourselves up for that one. Yet in all this, the people who paid 12,000 euro for boxes. No one is debating the utter stupidity of these people. No one is debating that as an adult YOU are responsible for your actions. But the press was all about those poor poor junkies, weren’t they? The other issue is “others are worthless”, what makes the card worthless? It is a direct question. What makes a card worthless? In the NHL game, there are functional cards (stadiums and players), there are cosmetic cards (outfits) and there are support cards, so what makes a card worthless? Then we get “The report authors, the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC), say gamers are being “manipulated” into spending large sums of money on the chests.” I have an issue with that. Which games were they? How was there manipulation? The NHL game gave card packs on milestones, and there were a lot of milestones. In addition, you got three free packs a day, and if you connected to the game (logged in) often enough, you got enough markers (there is one in EVERY pack) to exchange those markers for an expanded pack, giving you 12 or even 20 cards. The packs also had a betting coin card. One per pack and these funds allowed you to bid for other cards. Within 3 months I had all the stadiums, all the NHL jerseys and hockey masks, as well as over 100 players. I NEVER spend a cent, this was all free. So please tell me “How was I manipulated into spending large sums of money?” There are always the stupid people who want it all on day one, is that the fault of the game maker? Is it THEIR responsibility for the stupidity of others? The next part of my disagreement is seen in “Critics say the boxes are a form of gambling because players cannot see what they have actually bought until after they have paid to open the contents”. In this it is important to see WHY I disagree. You see in CCG games like Magic, Star Trek, Star Wars, The lord of the rings and more we see that a pack has one rare (optionally one super rare), 2-3 uncommon cards and the rest are common. This is a set formula. So if a game set has 50 rare cards, you would be buying at the very least 50 packs. The optional rest is gotten through swapping with other players at events and at tournaments. It is NOT gambling because one element is missing. The element of gambling is that you lose everything, so until there is a pack where you get all blank cards stating “Thank You!”, it is NOT gambling. You always get a set equation, you always get something. It makes it not gambling. 

In this I oppose the setting of “Finn Myrstad, director of digital policy at the NCC, said: “The sale and presentation of loot boxes often involve exploiting consumers through predatory mechanisms, fostering addiction, targeting vulnerable consumer groups and more.”” Yet there is a sparkly of truth here too and I do not deny it. Players like Electronic Arts played the exploitative element too much in FIFA, it backfired. There is exploitation, especially when the complete pack contains 10,000 players. However I disagree with the ‘predatory mechanism’ part. There is a whole range of predators on YouTube with there ‘card reveal’ channel, there “Do this to get something for free” and that is never a good thing, but these groups did not separate the exploiters from the makers, did they? Lets be clear the makers are not freshly white innocent. Only the people from Mass Effect 3 who introduced these loot-boxes in their multi player element, they were phenomenal and massively innocent. Others used that stage to make big money. 

The article ends with “But the same year Fortnite-maker, Epic Games, decided to let players in its hit video game see what was inside its llama loot boxes before deciding whether to buy them.” And their case agains Apple gained traction. I believe that the Epic Games people are the lest innocent, and their setting will have long term repercussions, it is only a matter of time. The one element not seen was given to us by Android: Netrunner. They gave us a different setting making it fair all around, the expansions were all the same price and always had the same cards, so there was only one pack to buy (once a month). It allowed for a smoother and fair game stage. In addition, the CCG world has something called factory sets. They were slightly different (like a silver border) but that was the only difference. A factory set contained ALL the cards of a game. The game was instantly fully playable, but they do tend to come later. So EA had the option to release a factory set half way through the season, but they did not, did they? Is it on EA? That would be a fair question, and I do not know the answer, merely my feeling in this. Is there a larger exploitation? Yes, but not all of it is on the makers. YouTubers were all over their FIFA cards and the more bang the better their bucks and the numbers of their followers, but we do not see that here either.

The BBC (as well as Tom Gerken) never lie to you, yet I have issues with the article as I have issues with the setting of it. The players HAVE a responsibility and some are pushing it on EA (and others) and the media aided them, which is not fair either. All this is merely my point of view, so feel free to disagree.

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August 15, 2022 · 23:17

From the flames into the fire?

Part 2
The day and evening had gone slowly, the evening had a strange smell, that he could not place, it was a mix of burn, sweetness and weirdly enough peppers. The sky had a red glow in the distance and where he was, he had quite the view. Down the hill cars were riding like nothing was happening, only I knew that there was more. “Patrick, I need a car” He nodded and gestured to the exit. I followed and he took me to the garage. A Bugatti Chiron and two Cadillacs. An Escala and an XT6. I took the XT6, I also looked around for jerrycans. Patrick seemingly guessed what I was looking for and opened a chest. In there was, in sand 6 cans, 4 filled. I took them all and placed them in the back of the XT6. I started the car and drove off. The tank was full, so that meant close to 450 miles. That meant, north around Keene when I needed to look to refill the tank and fill up the 2 empty cans. I drove off. There was traffic in both directions, but it was clear that those going towards LA were avoiding the flames, some of them, as well as their cars did not look too good. It was close to 5 hours later when I reached Keene. Traffic was not nice and stressed people were showing to be the worst.

It was at the Murray Family Farms well past Keene when I spotted the Chevron station. I stopped and loaded up the tank as well as the two cans. There was a big red barn which actually looked kinda lovely. After the car was satisfied, it was my turn. In the red barn was a nice selection of fruit, pies and other needs. I kept to the fruits, there were granny smiths, there were tangerines and a few other goods. I took several pieces of each, and as I was not sure how it was done, I took a few extra pieces so that I ended up with about 4 bags of fruit. There were fruit juices and I took three of them too, as well as two bottles of water. I went to the cash register and paid for it all, the fuel was by far the most expensive and overall a really nice deal. I loaded it up in the car and I heard the man call me. “Would you like some coffee?” It was a nice surprise and I nodded and walked back. The man offered a clean mug with coffee. “Cream, sugar?” I shook my head “No, thank you”. He looked at me And asked me “Are you one of these ‘fire tourists’?” I shook my head again. No, that is not my setting. I need to find something, but I do not know what it is. “We all have that, the man said and laughed”. I took a sip, of the coffee and looked around. The red in the sky was more intense, but not in a threatening way. The man continued. There were firemen here, they loaded up on everything they could. They were exhausted. They talked about a fire that would not go out, they threw everything at it, It was like it was fuelled. It was about 20 miles NNE from here, by Twin oaks, where the cave is, south of Lake Isabella. That was a hint he could use, and 20 miles is not that far, but there was every chance that it was a dead end. There was only one way to find out, and that was to set the curse towards Twin Oaks. I thanked the man for the coffee and drove off, in the beginning not in the direction, but only in a general direction. This was not a god time, or a good place to vacate the roads. The next part of the trip was about to begin.

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August 15, 2022 · 03:17

To the other side we go

The next day was one of highs and lows. The high was breakfast which was pretty much the best one I have had in several days and I was considering having a second one. I decided on another coffee and merely pondered the events of yesterday. The trip was not a concern, the new job awaiting me was not a concern either, but a nice change of steps. What was a concern was whatever was in California. I was aware of Perses, but only in a limiting way. He was with Asteria the parents of Hecate, but that was about all I knew. Hesiod had written something, but I had forgotten it, I needed to reread those works, or ask someone I knew. But that did not seem like a good idea at present. I went back to Iraklion airport and flew to Paris, it was the earliest flight I could get. De Gaulle to LAX was simple enough and I only had to wait 4 hours. The nice part was that I had a first class ticket, which meant that the lounges were open to me. 

As expected, these French were proud of their culinary achievements, and Air France was willing to share that experience. If breakfast in Crete was great, the snacks and drinks in De Gaulle were nothing short of amazing. The 4 hours and being armed with a few magazines went rather fast. There was an announcement and I walked to the gate to get on the plane. Getting there and on board was easy enough. The smiling flight attendant was a nice bonus and as I went into first class, the idea of sinking into my seat and getting some more sleep was a rather nice idea. I was certain that I wouldn’t be getting any in California.

Part 1
The arrival t LAX was interesting. It was my first time and as I was about to seek a taxi when I noticed a man with an EIB plate. I walked up to the man, he was holding an iPhone and looking like he was comparing it. He showed the image, a picture 3-4 years old. I nodded. His hand gestured to follow him. He walked in a stern stride, not too fast, not too slow. We walked out and towards a large dark Lincoln. He opened the back door for me, I got in. He pointed to the left side “Ouzo and raki”, he pointed to the right of the door “Ice water and orange juice”. He slowly and cautiously closed the door. I grabbed a glass of ice water. The car drove off into the late morning, towards wherever I was going to go. 

It was almost 2 hours later when we stopped at a gate, the gate opened and we entered the driveway. The house was amazing, like nothing I had ever seen before. There was a man waiting at the door. “Good morning Sir, I am the Major Domo. I hope you will keep me on?” I nodded. “Very well sir.” He went on explaining the house and showing the spaces. The office took me by surprise, very spartan, just the way I like it. There was some art on the walls, not really my kind of stuff, but still decent. The nude n the master bedroom however was exquisite. It was an oil painting of a girl standing in front of a window. Her transparent gown down to her hip and her back was turned to the observer. It made me stare at the sea she was staring at through a white window. It was lovely. I could not decipher the autograph. I wonder if the previous owner ever knew the woman. 

I walked back into the living room and into the kitchen. I checked the fridge. “More fruit-juices and ice water please” Patrick the major domo nodded. I looked at the rest, it as all predictable and it was all I had seen before. “I am resting in the office” “Very well Sir” I walked away. There were things to consider. The fires were on the news, but they were all over the place. More than 30,000 fires over millions of acres. It would take time to figure out where to go next, but there was time for that, the TV in the office was big and very sharp. I watched CBS2 and KCAL9 most of the time, they gave me more of the fire information. I had to look into the fire brigade. To find one place in over 30,000 was going to take some time and a lot of effort. But that was for later. I had to learn a lot more on Perses and more important, how he was fuelling the fires in the first place.

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