November 22, 2023 · 00:27

Tradecraft 301

This is not speculation, it is not presumption, it is a story. The beginning or one side to a story and it just jumped at me. I cannot use it in any of the other stories, as such I put it here. Enjoy and feel free to use this. 

It was early morning. The man was walking on the street. He was merely walking and enjoying the sounds of the city. Yet behind the facade that we all see there was something more, but unless you have been part of it, you will not pick up on it. He was looking to the stores in a mall and he was considering issues that were left open to him. He stopped, he smelled something and it was overwhelming him. On his left was an Italian shop making fresh wood fired oven baked flat bread. The sense of oregano was almost making him faint. He was suddenly so hungry. He saw the small breads, there was a version with Sopressa and parmesan. It was a special 2 for $5 and he bought two. He asked where he could get some coffee so he could sit down and eat them. The cook pointed at an empty table. He nodded and asked for a macchiato. He started to slowly eat the first loaf. A loaf was an exaggeration as the break was hardly more than a mini baguette but the smell and the taste were amazing. Before he had munched down on his first bread the macchiato was delivered. 

He starting to consider how greed has left tradecraft at a massive disadvantage all over the world, especially in London, most metropolitan American cities and Sydney. These franchise settings, setting an unrealistic stage of zero hours and non-manageable forced choices had opened up these places to tradecraft. Places like the IRGC were sending people to acquire these franchises, set 2-4 people as staff, letting them get trained in local customs and solidifying their new identities. And for years each place would gain 100-350 identities and credit card information. A trickle down solution that was not fast, but it was certain. Every shop would gain personal details from whomever paid with a credit card and it was fuelling the data coffers of UANI. And every day that no action was taken more details would flow to Tehran. The setting was almost unmanageable. It was even worse that the holders of these franchise solutions were holding onto their shops with an iron fist and their legal teams were shielding their revenue streams and not shielding the locations where the were. 

He considered that as far as he could tell already 28 shops were in play, three in Sydney, eight in London and the other 18 were set over San Francisco, New York and Chicago. And every 6 months these places would upgrade 36-72 agents to a new level finding new jobs with their old ‘employer’ vouching for it all and no one could tell how long it had been going on for. He was aware of at least 2 years of issues, as such Iran had close to 150 agents all over the globe and the options for chaos were enormous. So how to deal with them?

Detection was the largest problem. Several of them would enter some international student program and could fall under the net swim ming freely in an academic pond of knowledge and that was beside all the local knowledge they were acquiring by merely being silent and misinforming on their enemies through third party sources whenever possible. 

The options for some slaughterfest were also not possible. Before there were enough solutions, the media jumps in label it racism and they would make matters worse. Moreover these players had made connections with local organised crime overpaying for services and these people would be keeping an eye out whilst selling every now and then something with a huge margin, these people were not stupid, they were driven and the people who needed to be aware were not, or they just didn’t care.

Whatever this was it was a mere story. Will it grace your writings? Good luck with it and whilst I am looking at the additional settings for Residuam Vitam and Engonos I see more options for both, the question becomes how can I smooth things over? You see adding cogs tend to create levels of chaos and at some point I need to revisit the entire story and see if the story is smooth enough. Fr what it is worth, I see no point adding levels of tradecraft to either story. Well, Residuam Vitam has some tradecraft, but it was for different reasons and with a different mindset in play. The distinction makes sense when that story is complete and the additional parts are about to evolve, but that is on me and that is my challenge. 

We all evolve and every storyteller knows that if he or she does not evolve. Whatever comes after is merely repetitive and a simple twist on the originalist of the first story. A setting I will desperately avoid, but that is me. 

Enjoy the day.

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November 21, 2023 · 06:31

Presentations by media jokes

It happens at times. Whilst we think that corporations are playing us, we are all being played by the media. The media and corporations hand in hand deceiving us all for a simple percentage. That is the feeling I have had for plenty of times, but this one (my speculated view) is just too opportune to ignore. So lets show you what I have and you can decide for yourself.

Part one
The first part is the story we have seen over the last 2-3 days. This version (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/11/20/sam-altman-will-not-return-as-ceo-of-openai/) is used as the other version I wanted to use (AFR) is behind a paywall. We see here ‘Sam Altman Will Not Return As CEO Of OpenAI’ with the added text “Supporters of Altman led by Microsoft and including investors and key employees had pressured OpenAI’s board of directors to take back Altman, or face the widespread resignation of OpenAI’s researchers and withdrawal of Microsoft’s support”. At this point three questions come to mind but I will hold off until a little later, it makes things a lot more clear. As such we see one corporation ‘cleaning’ its management setting, but ponder on those settings a little longer

Part two
The second part came hours later, but now we have a very strong defining place with ‘Microsoft hires former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/20/sam-altman-openai-ceo-wont-return-chatgpt-talks-fail-emmett-shear-twitch) with the added “Microsoft has hired Sam Altman as head of a new advanced artificial intelligence team after attempts to reinstate him as chief executive of OpenAI failed.” At this point a few questions should emerge, but we are about to go into that part. 

Part three
This comes when we consider “At the end of a dramatic weekend of boardroom drama, the non-profit board of the San Francisco-based OpenAI has installed Emmett Shear, the co-founder of video streaming site Twitch, as the company’s third CEO in three days”

Part four
The questions that should come to mind are

  1. OpenAI is ruffle feathers when it is on a high in several directions?
  2. Sam Altman doesn’t have a non-compete clause?
  3. So, who is Emmett Shear, what is his expertise in presumed AI?

These three questions should have been on the mind of ALL media. OpenAI is on a high note on a hyped route towards whatever they present. But none of them did, I checked a dozen articles, they ALL overlooked issues here, so when does the media ‘overlook’ issues? We see all the emotional articles about staff resigning, about ‘demands’ in a stage where they (for now) have the upper hand. Oh and on a sideline, when you have such hyped IP, which corporation was the last place that had non-compete clauses in play, especially for players this size? 

That is beside the point on WHO became the replacement.

Part five
This is the kicker, this is the coup-de-grace of the entire equation. It is seen with Microsoft hiring Sam Altman. Microsoft now has a larger stake in a solution they wanted all along and through this media drama, they now get it a lot cheaper. So when would any player, in this case OpenAI shoot itself in the foot to this degree? We see now that ‘Weekend of OpenAI drama ends in a Microsoft coup’, ‘Microsoft Emerges as the Winner in OpenAI Chaos’ and ‘OpenAI’s leadership moves to Microsoft, propelling its stock up’, yes presentations by the media. The media used as the bitch of Microsoft and it is shown through questions that were clearly out in the open. Microsoft stock up and OpenAI becomes part of Microsoft for billions less. One could say (and I would not disagree) that this was a lovely play to reduce billions in tax payments and the media let it happen. All solutions that were clearly on the papers where ever you looked when you decided to seek for the right answers. As I personally see it, the media is simply the bitch of corporations and they all let it happen, all pushing the tax offices down the river in a canoe without a paddle. Well played Microsoft.

So consider what played over a weekend, consider what any corporation would do to protect its multi billion dollar value. I think that OpenAI was part of this stage from the very beginning, but that is my speculated view.

Enjoy your Monday, it’s Tuesday here.

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November 20, 2023 · 13:43

Ratatouille

Yes, that was the thought entering my mind. It is not about the cartoon, it is about the dish. I first had it in 1981 in Lourdes. It was also the year I met members from the Legion Etrangere and their kepi blanc. A lot happened that year but it is not set the a singular event. You see, there is a larger stage that my mind is working out and it is one of a few. 

Douse the Mouse
The second stage towards all this is Ronald McDonald DeSantis where we (in no particular order) are given (at https://www.politico.com/newsletters/florida-playbook/2023/11/17/florida-starts-turning-on-desantis-00127753) with ‘DeSantis’ popularity drops in Florida’ where we are given “But DeSantis’ support from Independent voters in Florida has taken a nosedive, the poll shows, with almost 60 percent saying they disapprove of the job he is doing as governor — a nearly 14-point increase from July” so in 3 months his approval rate is down by 14% and I believe it is more than that. The person who wanted to ‘Douse the Mouse’ (source: @Brittlestar) is now trying to avoid whatever he can. So we get to the second link (at https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/disney-says-it-has-40-billion-economic-impact-in-florida-as-it-battles-desantis-in-court/) with ‘Disney says it has $40 billion economic impact in Florida as it battles DeSantis in court’ where we are given “Disney officials in the past year have said the company plans to invest an additional $17 billion over the next decade in central Florida, including potentially adding another 13,000 jobs. However, the company has shown a willingness to pull back investing in the Sunshine State. Earlier this year, Disney scrapped plans to relocate 2,000 employees from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development, an investment estimated at $1 billion”, so not only does Disney account for 40 billion, it was about to increase the economic footprint of Florida by 2.5% money that the state desperately needs. Now we see that DeSantis is trying to spin several settings and the people have had enough. The deep painted republicans are running away (alas in the direction of Donald Trump), the rest has had enough of the republicans. Now we get to the story (at https://www.npr.org/2023/11/16/1213355557/desantis-florida-president-candidate-voters-trump) where we see ‘Once Florida’s favourite son, Floridians turn on DeSantis in his bid for president’ a stage that gives us “Trump currently has more than a 30 point lead over DeSantis in his own state. That lead hasn’t changed significantly since the governor jumped into the race for president”, as well as “Republican state Rep. Randy Fine has been one of DeSantis’ most vocal supporters in the Florida Legislature. But recently he announced he’s backing Trump in the GOP primary”. This is a setting I expected to some degree, but not to this degree. You see when you screw with the economy of your own state for simple shallow egotistical reasons. This is the event you can see coming a mile away. 

This all matters to another stage with all kind of jagged edges. You see, All this was going through my mind when I was contemplating two issues. 

The first one Was Abu Dhabi. I saw the Warner Brothers hotel (and theme park) and I wondered why the UAE isn’t more outspoken in adding a decent amount. The first one is a sidestep from the  normal theme park, I am not sure how Islam regards Harry Potter and I don’t think it is a good idea to have a third one, but some kind of fairy tale forest, based on Scheherazade and the One Thousand and One Nights in the style of the Dutch Efteling, could work. Too stand out matters and this could be a setting. As the stage increases (see below).

The idea is not an expansion based on rides, but on walks and watching the stories of 1001 Arabian nights and other myths. You see, when I was confronted with the Jinn, the idea erupted to create the script for ‘How to Assassinate a politician’, the idea still works for a number of stages. And adding these stories to any theme park would be a win for the theme park. You see, as we get closer and closer to 2030, the tourism groups will alter. The UAE should expand and create a haven for tourists, non-Arabic tourists. Tourism from Bangladesh and Indonesia will grow to a decent degree, and in all this the Europeans who can afford to go there, they will go there. America is rapidly losing appeal and the European tourist as well as the asian one wants to see new borders. With Saudi Arabia growing Neom and the Line they will get more and more tourists. So offering these people an additional choice (like the train Riyadh-Dubai-Abu Dhabi) will get its own appeal on all this and there is time for the UAE to add to their arsenal and after the storms they need more in more places. You see, I will not give word here, but there is a chance that Dubai (if what I saw was real) will have more issues coming. 

So as the expansions 1,2 and 3 are added the larger addition is a magic carpet ride (like the Efteling ‘de droomvlucht’) but over the three expansions showing the people a new ride and the biggest one ever created showing them the expansions as well as additional layers (read: floors) showing them another collection of stories, Abu Dhabi will become an increasing source for tourists, both local and international. 

All this is also linked to a setting of Residuam Vitam (a story in development), I had some idea of how to set the spin towards the conclusion, but now I addd a few sides and that is where the jagged edge came into play. That is all linked to the stories and the past. You see there was one part that Socrates gave me and the other part I know the story, but not the writer and that combination resulted in something more. That part is still evolving but the interactions are defining me. Parts I did not consider before are now getting in motion. It was linked to ‘How to Assassinate a politician’ because it was an idea I had for Arab TV. Yet the setting is not about Arabs, Islam or the middle east, it was about seeing new frontiers and optionally making groundbreaking efforts. Whilst players like Amazon Prime, Disney and Netflix are focussing on Europe and America. The reality is that in 3-4 years that is the most likely to implode, all whilst the areas I am looking at are growth areas and they will have needs too, as such the evolving ideas others are avoiding. You can say it is its own kind of Ratatouille. And whilst players like Ron DeSantis are so egotistical that they will destroy their own state’s economy by Dousing the Mouse. Other players are more realistic in their approach and that is where both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can capture a decent slice of that tourism gap. You see, we are seeing (for months) the stage of “Travel to all areas of Florida should be done with extreme caution” there will be an impact for both Disney and Warner Brothers and the people going somewhere else, need someplace to go. That is simple abacus logic, but it holds up. You see, most will try to go to EuroDisney or Japan, but like any theme park there is a limit and these two places haven’t been expanding enough. In addition to that there are a decent amount of complaints to the catering of Warner Brothers Japan (all third party complaints, nothing I can vouch for) but these elements add up and now the middle east has one additional track for extended revenue, all because some people considered and placed ego before common sense. I wonder what happens when these players start the blame game, like ‘Republicans blame skewed advertising for Ohio abortion rights victory’, it is merely one small part in a larger stage of failures and that list keeps on growing. So much could have been avoided, but that is on them.

Enjoy the day, Monday is 56% through for me.

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November 19, 2023 · 16:56

Right in front of you

We all have this at times and sometimes it doesn’t even apply to us. We sometimes see the setting and we see the elements, but it takes something more to connect the parts. It can be timing, it can be the past, it can be budgets, there are a whole range of settings and they could all optionally apply. 

As such I was looking at the MacBook Pro. Not for any massive applicable reason, I am quite happy with my own laptop edition (and I am roughly 99.9% missing for the $6,799.00 acquisition). And this was not about the money (the article that is). You see, we all have budget constraints and   choices to make, but at this point as Thanksgiving is merely days away and soon we get Saint Nicholas (Netherlands and Belgium) and Christmas an opportunity opens up for both Apple and Adobe.

You see, most of you might have seen the offer below 

Yet the setting is that plenty cannot apply for that offer (the are no longer, or never were students) and a larger stage comes into play. What if Apple makes a deal that whomever buys a MacBook Pro before the end of the January 2024 (Just to offer a timeline) get in addition a Creative Cloud subscription for 2 years. Time to get adjusted to what Adobe can do, people who want to improve their needs for vlogging and all kind of self presentation will have the best tool at their disposal. Suddenly the need and the contemplation of a MacBook Pro becomes a much larger need. When you can avoid up to $2,500 in Adobe fees, that MacBook Pro becomes a whole lot more appealing. In addition to that after two years people will start to see the benefit of what Adobe brings to the table. One year is not enough, two years could do the trick for both Apple and Adobe. Lets face it, they are well established, but in the holiday season that stage is under duress and to give any customer the best of both worlds tends to be the self fulfilling prophecy any day of the week.

So was this something that was right in front of anyone? The same could be said for the MacBook Pro and a GoPro, but many will have a decent, optionally overkill option in the camera on their mobile phones, as such the connection Apple and Adobe seems more apt for many people. I have been looking at the settings and I was a little surprised that these two had not made such arrangements weeks ago, in that way they optionally had thanksgiving as well in both Canada and  America. So, was that right in front of you? It might not have been and plenty of people aren’t contemplating the MacBook Pro at present, but with all the noise on becoming the next Google partner, or TikTok diva that sets a stage. There are at present 1.1 million TikTok creators and that group is growing rapidly, as such the new players will either go big or go home. I do not always agree with that greed driven term, but in this case you either offer a lot more or you get overlooked. The stage is Youtube is not completely the same. They have 60.2 million creators, there the stage is becoming more and more that either they upgrade or lose people. There are still a fair share of newbies in that regiment, but not as much or as loud as the TikTok community. 

All elements that that I personally believe Apple could and should have considered many weeks ago, but that could be me. 

I will let you sort it out and if you go this path, see what you need and make a proper budget of what YOU can afford. It is wrong to steer anyone into a path they CANNOT afford, my intent is making an optional solution more affordable and the link Apple-Adobe does that. To be honest, unless you have aspirations into Photoshop or Premiere Pro there might not be a reason to go the way of the MacBook Pro, I get that. Still this solution is taring me in the face and it could be for a lot of people a match made in heaven, but that could merely be my view on the matter.

As such Apple (and Adobe) time to wake up, my weekend is still 7.1 hours active and I seem to more awake than they are (optionally a delusional statement).

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November 19, 2023 · 04:03

Speculating towards something?

That is the setting, I have been keeping my eyes on Bangladesh for more than one reason. You see, Bangladesh with its 170,000,000 people represent an upcoming population that has never been considered for several retail groups, but that nation could become a more important group. China sees this, Saudi Arabia sees this and that is where the next article comes into play. The article (at https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2023/11/18/japan-brings-bangladesh-into-the-folds-of-new-security-framework/) gives us ‘Japan brings Bangladesh into the folds of new security framework’ which also gives us “Japan maintains economic partnerships with most Asian countries, particularly Bangladesh. Dhaka has received around US$25 billion in development and economic assistance from Tokyo since 1972 and around US$9.2 billion of this has been overseas development assistance.” I believe it is one truth, but not the one that matters to Japan. When America implodes, so will Japan, unless they make new friends fast. And when Japan embraces 170 million Muslims, they stand a chance to get some relief from Saudi Arabia and optionally the UAE too. That is what I am speculating is behind this move. Yes, there is a stage that Japan can use for retail purposes, but there is a larger stage. As per March, Japan is dealing with a $9.2 trillion debt. When America collapses (not if, when) Japan will lose a lot more and whatever they have banked against the dollar will fall away, as such Japan needs another path. China is not one due to historical stages, Russia is equally unavailable. As such this path seems the most intelligent one and even as it is not the best path, it might be one of the few left available to the former friends of the United States. And in continuation of this speculation, when things implode, the BRICS players would like to keep as many as larger players on their side as possible and Japan is not great, it is a huge economic player. 

So as I see it (and I could be wrong), Japan and a few others will need to realign their priorities in allies and economic sides and Japan seemingly just made their first move. I wonder when either Saudi Arabia or the UAE will set another path towards Indonesia and its 273 million citizens. This makes the setting fro BRICS a larger one, with two additional nations they get almost half a billion consumer and this is the stage that is merely in its starting place. When these two nations get the chance to become workers in Neom, optionally additional domains we get a new setting for economy and that is where Japan is banking on. It is trying to get a slice of that pie and as America has been in denial of too much we see that their ‘friends’ are reevaluating their options and there is now an optional case that Japan made the first move. 

Am I right? Am I wrong?
That remains the question, my speculative view comes from the data available to me, it does not make me correct, but I see it that I am more likely than not correct. A stage we all faced. I am willing to become critical of my view, slice and dice it, merge the data streams and see what I can prove through that. I am still a decent amount away from proving it all, but I feel that It is clear that Bangladesh wasn’t merely for some security framework, the larger stage is still in play. It is still fluidic but the media at large is less and less reliable. Consider the media streams that gave ANY view on this stage and then ask yourself the question why did they not make mention of it? 

Just 20 hours until my weekend is over, enjoy yours.

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November 18, 2023 · 07:21

A song in my heart

We all have these moments, we all get that moment that our heart starts to sing and it is never for one reason. It can be a woman (Laura Vandervoort), it can be a video game (Horizons Forbidden West), a movie (John Wick 4). There are different reasons fuelled with anticipation, desire and longing. The heart picks up on this and sings. For me this started in 1982. A mini series on TV caught my attention. It was the exploration of John BlackThorne (Richard Chamberlain) of Japan. It was probably the first time I saw something on the historical side of Japan. We saw the titan Toshiro Mifune and I am decently certain it was the first event I saw with him. Over time I saw more, we saw the Portuguese version of Gimli, portrayed by John Rhys-Davies, Yoko Shimada, Alan Badel and many more. The work of James Clavell brilliantly set to TV. It was a few years later when I got the VHS edition and another decade until I got the DVD. It was a few years ago when I tired to get the Bluray edition, however unsuccessful. I still have the DVD’s. I must have seen the series several times since the 1982 introduction. It never stopped bringing joy to my heart. So when I saw a new trailer, the trailer to the 2024 remake, my heart basically went bug-nuts.

Now we will get to see the cycle from Blackthorne and Toranaga, now portrayed by Cosmo Jarvis and Hiroyuki Sanada. We have seen Sanada in several things (well, you could have). There was 47 Ronin, Helix and several others. I know it will be a few months, and several more until I will be able to get the 10 episodes on Bluray, but the idea in itself makes my heart sing. One of the more prestigious series I have ever seen will be remastered and with the evolution of special effects and camera options, guided by a new cast with decades of insight we are optionally treated to a series that will overwhelm the senses, at least that is what I am hoping for. The 1980 version was ‘only’ 5 episodes, but the pilot and finale were 3 hours each, as such the new version might be on par with that. Yet I am not trivialising this, the original version was a titan and it still is, it stands next to I Claudius as the best drama in history and they have had their positions for half a century, as such the remake will have quite the challenge to equal. I have no doubt that the cast is up to the task. Hiroyuki Sanada is very much on near equal footing as Toshiro Mifune is. His list of achievements is a decent indication of that. The rest? Well, I hope to learn this in about 15 weeks when the first episode airs and I do hope it is something I will be able to see, although it is much more likely I will get the Blu-ray on day one (preferably before December 2024). 

For now I feel great and it is Saturday (nice bonus). Shogun returns renewed and I can’t wait to see it. I am enjoying the weekend, I hope you will too.

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November 17, 2023 · 19:09

It’s that time again

Yes, America has Thanksgiving, they have Christmas and now they have stopgap (4 times a year). You see, yesterday the news was given (at https://arab.news/vysbu) with ‘US Senate passes stopgap funding bill to avert government shutdown’ I made mention of this on October 2nd with ‘An altering stage’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/10/02/an-altering-stage/)where I gave the readers “I expected it would, but I also expect that this might go wrong in the future and the next shutdown is a mere 45 days away and US businesses are setting this new marker as the disaster moment” and I actually got it exactly right. Yes,. There was a stopgap now, but that is not a budget, as such Americans face the same dance around December 29th, just as the year ends. So when the stopgap isn’t coming through things will turn bad really really fast. Consider the thought that the bulk of approximately 2.79 million civil servants will be set out in the cold just after Christmas. As such how deeply disturbing will this become? All this because for 25 years America decided not to overhaul the tax laws. Lets be clear, this was ALWAYS going to happen, but with overhauled tax laws they would have had an additional year to get their act together, now their end of game moment comes in stages of stopgaps. All to stop the government from falling over. We might see the populist setting from others with their ‘tax the rich’ but it is a farce, a joke that has no way to go. A complete overhaul was the only option and now with BRICS and China pushing in on the little revenue they had left, they have no options now and their competitors are moving in on whatever revenue they had left. Is it doomsday speech? To some degree, but it is laced with reality. The debt of $31,000,000,000,000 is real and that interest will exceed $310,000,000,000 annual, all whilst we see articles that America is a mere 18th on the list. Yes, it is flimflam presentations. We get that Japan is in deeper waters, but not by much. We see the flimflam approach towards % or GDP, but when you look at the outstanding interest and the simple setting that 100% annual taxation in America doesn’t even cover the interest bill, the larger stage is seen that this is a decliner with no escape. And all that is before we see the impact of infrastructure bills (like paying civil servants). The stage is not a nice one, but America did this to themselves and as the rich and the large corporations become ‘transient’ out of America could be the killing nail that shows the stupidity of several administrations that refused to overhaul tax laws. And when this goes south fast, debts will implode and those owning US treasury bonds will lose whatever they thought they had. That is the nightmare scenario that is showing to become an optional reality ever 45 days from now. Until when? Until it goes wrong. 

Enjoy the day, it is Friday here now. The weekend is starting for the Pacific, the west needs to wait the better part of a day.

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November 16, 2023 · 20:24

Just a tally

Yes, we like our tallies, it gives us a feel of accomplishment even if what is behind that tally is beyond our control. I have tallied my way through life and even as some was directly applicable to me, some was not.

Yet there is a realisation and it sets off at the very beginning. The realisation of comparison. I might have a tally that includes 2 21 year old women, 1 22 year old and 4 23 year old, without comparison and meaning it is a little hollow. If it is your ‘black book’ some will applaud, when it is your achievements in a retail shop a lot less so, especially when it involved a mall.So one with out the other is meaningless and the other way around it tends to be pointless.

So here we are looking at

And we are given the numbers. But what does it mean? You see the Dutch Army had at the height of the cold war age 1000 tanks, at the moment according to some sources it merely has 18 tanks (no idea how correct that is). And as you see, the Russians have lost 5,362 tanks during its Ukrainian offensive. This becomes a whole different crumbled cookie when you consider that (according to one source) has 12,556 tanks. Now the tally becomes a much larger consideration. This implies that on what I consider to be a meaningless war, a war of terror they lost 42% of all tanks, as such the Russian armoured assault power has almost diminished by 50%, that ain’t nothing that is half the battle gone against an armed force that was considered 21st on the world ranking list. As such the tally continues and when you consider that they lost 22 warships, all whilst the UK has a total of 70 warships. This might not seem much against the 290 that Russia is supposed to have, but if the spread of that navy is anything to go by Russia is indeed in trouble on several fronts. Now we might giggle and expect scenes from the battleship Potemkin to become a reality. The supply and support issues we have seen in recent days might not make that setting too unrealistic. Now that Ukraine has access to more modern airplanes, the 322 they lost will up by a lot soon enough. Yet they were supposed to have 900 of these bad boys and well over q third is now gone and that was before the F16’s were roaring over Ukrainian sky. A meaning less war, based on lies and Russia seemingly have lost 50% of its tanks and 33% of its fighter jets and that is all before we see the losses of helicopters and 313,000 troops. On the other hand that means that over 250,000 Russian women are cold at night. Can we reintroduce the concept of prima nocta in St Petersburg? 

I might not be a monarch, but at times I am just like any other horny little teenager. Is it fair? Nope, but they weren’t fair on Ukraine either so something needs to give. In addition, this might be the first time in history that Russian gender imbalance was so outspoken, as such beyond the military parts, the Russian social parts will also see changes and impacts all over the field. In addition, as the gender curve changes, the jobs that have been overwhelmingly male will also change. It will not immediately meltdown the economic vibe in the larger cities, but there will be a larger impact. There is no upside for Russia, the dead do not contribute and it cost the Russian government nothing. Conscription is up and when over 17 you can now be drafted into the Russian army. On the other side we see “aims to increase spending by around 25% in 2024, with record amounts going on defense” yet that is also a loaded stage. You see tanks ned time to get assembled, planes need assembly and the labour force required is currently down by a lot. All that I saw coming close to a year ago. We are also given (source: ABC News) “Record low unemployment, higher wages and targeted social spending should help the Kremlin ride out the domestic impact of pivoting the economy to a war footing, but could pose a problem in the long term” and no one considered the impact of no tenants, the pricing bubble of apartments, especially in St Petersburg and Moscow and several other linked factors. All that was optionally visible with a mere tally. 

When you diminish 300K people it might not seem a lot on the scale of Moscow (12 million) or St. Petersburg (250K) but overall that impacts start counting in several ways and there is one little thing the Russians overlooked. The dead do not pay taxation, so how will that increased budget come to pass? Something will have to give way and that doesn’t spell well for the current population of Russia. Suddenly my reference towards prima nocta doesn’t sound too weird, does it? You see we overlook that in WW2, the Nazi’s relied on 34,000 women over 500 Nazi-run brothels across occupied Europe to keep their troops in check. So how long until Russia takes a page from that charter? 250,000 women all manless and all serving mother to be Russia. The tally does not make sense, but to some it starts adding up to a new setting and behind all that is Bratva, a group overlooked by too many and now that their bosses have lost their capital in the west and their homes all over the west they will start getting creative fast. When you see the tally and what it connects to you get new iterations of what could be, not what should be and the nice thing about a tally it is a one dimensional application of simple numbers. 

I get it, some will frown, some will say I am wrong, but they will all be worried. I took the simplest application of numbers and took a gander on where it COULD lead to. In my defense, the path of the greed driven tends to be highly predictable, but that is merely my view on the matter.

Enjoy the day.

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November 16, 2023 · 01:48

Time of the signs

This is the stage we at times face. It is not a sign of times. Time was not the operator here, the signs were and some remained in denial. One of the better game reviewers (Eurogamer) gave us ‘More people are playing Skyrim on Steam than Starfield’ today (at https://www.eurogamer.net/more-people-are-playing-skyrim-on-steam-than-starfield). There are a few issues, but that is not on Eurogamer. We get the setting that on Steam Skyrim versus Starfield ends up being 15,386 – 11,563, as such on steam a 12 year old program has more traction than Starfield. Skyrim is great, it still is. Skyrim was a 90%+ game and that matters, good games always do, all whilst Starfield is barely getting above 80%, in one case it is a mere 70%. That is the impact of mediocrity and Microsoft has spend billions on that. 

In contrast, Sony’s Spiderman 2 has sold over 5 million copies. Compare that to the Starfield list of what some say is “the game sees over 504074 daily players on average”, a mere 10%.

A game that is shooting itself in the foot by being merely on 2 systems. It was the right of Microsoft to bar it from Sony systems, they did spend all that money, but now the stage changes. New (and at times free IP) will be pushing in on that field and with the small announcement that “It’s fair to say, it will probably be a while before we hear anything more about how The Elder Scrolls 6 is progressing” the new players get almost free reign with creating RPG IP and that setting gets worse for Microsoft when the Tencent Technology handheld is released. 

So we see that modders are trying to improve the program, we see more and more that Starfield was not worth the hype, although with the lack of games that Microsoft has on its contraption, it might be the only thing on that system. In the meantime we see Sony pushing ahead and they did not have to spend a total of around $80,000,000,000 for Bethesda, Mojang and Blizzard their goose is properly cooked. We see all kind of half baked release signals by no one is setting the stage of what ACTUALLY will be released and when. In the meantime Microsoft will ned up with more and more competitors. And we get it Bethesda will not rush ahead and that is fine and perhaps they will create a new titan in RPG, they basically have done that 4 times already, but this time around 108,000,000 gamers are not connectable as Microsoft is making Bethesda games exclusive to their system and that includes the 40 million PS5 players. The not so nice part for Microsoft is that if there is even one successful new RPG IP, Microsoft will miss out on a lot more and after all that money they spend, what a shame. And with some stating on Redfall “Very mediocre game at launch. Combat feels sluggish and unpolished. Characters and dialogue are uninteresting” is merely one side, you see that proper game testing is essential and as I see it that baton was passed in both Redfall and Starfield. You see when we are given “Bethesda released another Starfield beta update, its second such patch in November” my mind wanders in another direction. You see the game was OFFICIALLY released on September 6th 2023, so why do we see ‘beta’ patches months later? And when you start looking, you will find a lot more. You see, none of that is fair on Bethesda, yet as they are now part of Microsoft, they will endure a lot more and the Arkane failure (Redfall) didn’t help much. Now their last straw will be a news Elder Scrolls and that is seemingly not out until 2025, as such several developers will have the field to create something that holds up to scrutiny and when they do the damage will be on Bethesda (and as such on Microsoft too). They already have felt damage from the Horizons games (both of them) and number three is coming. When is utterly unknown but if they get it out before the end of 2024 Microsoft will be handed another painful defeat and now it is AFTER they spend all those billions. The stage I tried to push for is coming to terms and should Tencent Technologies (or Amazon) take my share towards 50 million users, Microsoft will diminish. None of this is fair on Bethesda, but that is what they signed up for and the steam numbers show that they had glorious days, but a lack of gamers is about to undo whatever they created between 2005 and 2019. It saddens me because Bethesda had great gaming moments. Even now I am hoping that Oblivion and Fallout 3 will make it to PS5, these games were that good. But the Microsoft stage is different and leaves no place for Sony. The one fear I have is that they will create some kind of portal to capture user data of all Sony players. There is absolutely no evidence for that, but Microsoft needs data, it lacks data. Google has one side, Amazon has another side and Sony and Nintendo have the final side. A triangle of data and Microsoft is the piggy in the middle and that game is already frustrating with merely two players against the piggy, in this setting (as I personally see it) Microsoft is wearing itself out a lot more than Don Quixote rushing after windmills and in all that the profit they seek is no Dulcinea. 

It is at best the old hag from some old movie we all forgot about.

It is the time of the signs and one of those signs are the old days, the old days where developers saw that fun was a determining factor, something too many developers have forgotten about. I wonder how many other developers Microsoft will drag down before they realise that they are merely making it harder on themselves to hold onto anything at all. When it was merely one console it was fine, but now it is billions in several directions and the hardship is merely increasing from what already is and with 2 more players adding into that field the setting becomes unsustainable for Microsoft and as such for a player like Bethesda as well. Perhaps they will create the next Elder Scrolls to be a 95%+ game and I hope that they do, because it will up the level of games all over the field, at present it is not likely to increase gaming quality, sad. Really really sad.

The latter part of the week is now in play for me. I wonder what I will find in 16 hours.

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November 15, 2023 · 13:23

Considerations

We all have them and in this I am no different. As I was mulling things over, my mind saw the end of season 3 of Kenos Diastima. Things were falling into place and even as I was going in that general direction, my mind set in place the specifics of that setting. As these cogs turn and turn I was seeing the setting that got the story to there, and I have forever in the stage to end that series at season 3, a story with an open ending. Like the famous director Terry Gilliam I love open endings. A stage where the viewer gets to mull over what comes next. It leaves me with a sense of accomplishment. In that same way I also considered additions to the last two episodes of Engonos. On that note, I thought I had put the story here already. However I did not find the image.

My mind saw an additional cog, an additional layer to add to the story to the conclusion of season You see, what if we add a pinch, a setting for more and it is all linked to the fountains of Tartarus. These fountains were the ingenuity of Heaphestus and they are surrounding the palace of 

Hades. As I recall there are 32 of them in three styles. The image you see merely represents (to some degree) one of the styles, but they are important and they aren’t nice and they are also a form of defence for the palace. The inner layer being eternally protected by the damned Myrmidon. They are not nice and they never will be. They are kept in place as they ignored the orders given to them and grandpa was always a stickler for rules. Those who weren’t oath breakers but slide the rules of the ‘game’ off the beat end up in eternal service of Hades and he does not waste. Myrmidons were trained better than any other soldier in that time and they were ‘rewarded’ with eternal protection of the palace. It is all they know and they do not play nice. As such his lair is plenty protected, not that anyone would want to attack it. One does not attack the lair of a god, not even in Tartarus.

So as my mind started to make sense of the developing story I saw that I had already opened the link with Heaphestus, so that part is good, I merely have to add a few tiny bits and that part is clear. As I was going over all that the story I handed out yesterday on a Final Draft project management starts making more sense, becomes more clear and more defined. Locations, people, objects optionally a graphical representation of all the elements. In that stream of data the story is disassembled into elements and as such anything missing or unconnected becomes clear, shows up clearly and that allows for a better story a more robust narration and it all improves the quality of the story. As FX had as a slogan ‘the story is everything’ especially to a story teller. But everyone, including me needs the right tools. With Pages a writer writes the story, but we all get it that for a script Final Draft is the better tool. I reckon that as you have more projects, managing any project becomes the top need. 

So as my mind is tinkering with Onganos and Kenos Diastima I also see that the season 2 midpoint will need work and it all makes sense. Not everything should be in a cliffhanger. I have nothing against them, but at times a mid season conundrum fuels the soul of the watcher, making it a more defined experience. All this and soon there is more on other matters too, but that will be for later today.

Enjoy the upcoming mid-week. 

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