Tag Archives: movies

October 16, 2026 · 21:05

The preamble to psychosis

There has been a way of thinking induced. It started when I was focusing on two scripts. It wasn’t that I ‘needed’ to write both, more that the setting of a stage was required. This happens. I let my mind wander and waver until something clicks. Then at some point I was considering the reasons for psychosis. I am (apparently) unaware of its settings. Then my mind started to play with combinations psycho sociopath versus a sociopathic psycho. And I went from there. But then an idea came to me. Not for the two scrips, but it might be an idea for one of them, an episode out of these thoughts. Still, the ideas came calling.

In this idea the character was moving and the first thing he encounters is that his computer is stolen, but he sees the thief and from there he goes on a killing spree. His killing game show so to speak. So he goes on a murder bender, killing the thief in a rage and removing the evidence, although the rage seemed real, it was his way to show the world that he was out of control, but it only seemed that way. His methods are too calculating and too precise, which is why the police isn’t focussing on him. Then he sees what was connected and he goes deeper and deeper into that maze. And whilst we see that ‘maze’ we see the elements of jealousy and envy so whilst he is confronted with the want of something that belongs to him and their fear of losing something that already was the main character. In this he continues his killing spree, a spree that frightens the people behind the thief, their envy becomes apparent but their fear is checked by their greed and that drives the point along. And in my mind, the idea is that their fear of death will push them to betray the people that least deserved to be betrayed and that might give a link to (I won’t call them) organized crime (unless they wield a PDA or a Filofax) but this setting is one that drives several options to the surface and hills, I like where this is heading, it is merely one episode in that tale and in the other setting I am not of a clear mind, but the other one needs to go in a different direction, because the ‘American’ way of ‘adjusting’ the same idea in several paths is not the real deal of any storyteller. Perhaps those with the mere focus of making money, but that is where the ‘Hollywood’ strain comes in.

As there are other options Canada, Saudi Arabia, UAE (both Dubai and Abu Dhabi) are the settings for the next generation of storytellers and as storyteller we have to look where the markets are. And even if I struck out with my first script (me looking somewhat sad), I still have arrows in the quiver, or is that a script in my quill? Although my quill has a keyboard and a screen I can till call it whatever I like, it is mine to name it.

But as we name our tools, we tend to limit its potential. Don’t ask me why, it merely is that way. So from parchment with quill we went to ballpoint and paper then a typewriter and paper and from there we went to computers, laptops, tablets and so on, but at every step we lost something along the way as writing went faster, we forced our brains to go faster and I don’t think it always held up to what the writer wanted it to be. As we gained time to ‘write’ faster, we lost time to think and that is where it all happens in these gray cells, that is where our stories started, not on paper or on screen, in our minds. And whilst we consider what we gain in speed, we lost creativity against time and that is the conundrum and even I see this, no matter how fast the idea evolve in my brain. I realise that the time gained is lost into a second or even a third thinking over the idea I had.

And there we see the preamble, an introduction of events that comes before the formally formed writing or even the written action to explain its purpose and optional background. The is the setting and I let set this to a more direct setting. The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem containing 15,693 lines divided into 24 books. But how long did it take to write it? I cannot find anything stating that, merely that it was written around 762 BC. The is as good as it gets and compare this to the 28 verified deals across the year (with some industry tallies tracking roughly 19 to 23 core summer/seasonal milestones), but how many scripts were offered? Some say 20000-25000, I honestly have no idea. But in this stage where we see so many scripts making the rounds. How many are honestly originals? I can’t tell if mine is original. I personally think so, but the idea that someone had a similar idea is not out of the realm of possibilities. As such I put parts of my scripts online, it gives a timeline of originality (or so I believe it does). And as I am contemplating more settings (which beats the stories on politics of today) and in some aspects the warmongering I have, because that at least comes with the grounds of originality. And we all admire originality in ourselves and in others. It is the beginning of innovation. And whilst we see the need for innovation, some are merely in it for the money (those numbers with a preceding $) and whilst we can accept that, I have a lessened need for that, this is why I gave the ideas I had on dealing with Iran to both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, they can see if it works for them and as such I will have done my duty as a person.

Perhaps I will gain some out of it, but it is not my goal (still it is nice to get some) and whilst it is not the main setting, the idea is to make it part of my story is still an added part of it. Why matters is that more people are looking into their options to stop players like Iran in ways I never considered. I optionally took out the railway systems, the harbours and a few other settings (like refineries). They are merely optional settings but someone else who could have had chemical degrees (My chemistry knowledge is massively below par) could have found a way to poison the oil. My limited setting is merely set to add yellowcake (no idea how to put my hands on that, or if it would even work) to the oil, irradiating it all and making that mix useless for generations (as well as spending billions in separating the two). There are likely a lot more options (I reckon the members of the Pentagon never earned their stripes), and that is merely a thought coming to mind and optionally the start of another setting for an episode. And I do like to surprise my self, just this day I surprised myself wth a slice of Tiramisu, best surprise ever (they ran out of Black Forest cake).

So time to think of a few other settings and hopefully Final Draft works out their copy/paste problem, so I can set at least a few more options to ‘actual script’ Have a great day.

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October 12, 2026 · 16:33

Reasons to be weirder

Yup, my thoughts are that and the whole day the hit by Ian Dury, Reasons to be cheerful part 3 is blasting in my head. So whilst I have all that, other thoughts are occupying my brain. You see, we see all that (fake) AI slop on robots and a lot of it is fake. Table tennis people (now depicted as robots) and I knew that because I saw that actual match a few months earlier. So we see all this fake stuff and there is some real stuff too. But my mind on this day was going in a different direction. So whilst we see all these robots, my mind was going in a different directions. You know the idea that robots are coming is fine, but these ‘greed driven mindset’ sales people are setting a spectacle that comes like:

But between design and Marketing there are a whole lot of steps to consider. So there are a few steps that are skipped. As such I was thinking that we create a robot that mimics and elephant. It sounds ridiculous and it sounds useless, but hear me out. When we get the elephant to work, because it is not running like a cheetah (nor should it be) we can set the markers to all kinds of detectable and as it is not a speedy sucker we can focus on balance, and as Jumbo incorporated has space for batteries, we can get a while lot of use in that space. But Jumbo was the first step. What comes after is the Mammoth (aka Elephantid genus Mammuthus) and now we have a new boat show, the field of animatronics. So whilst we look at this setting, we can enlarge the animatronics setting with SaberTooth Tigers (to stay in the theme) and these non-animals could kick off a new venture in robotics. So whilst we are (for now) amazed by the animatronic of Jurassic Park, that will not last and we need to move on. These two come to mind and the elephant-mammoth path would open up the saurian setting, the Kitty collection could set off a few ides too and when they are all working up to specs, we could look at increasing speed, so you don’t look like a robot doing the jog whilst running (at https://www.tiktok.com/@houseofhighlights/video/7678387882570075423) and yes, there are reasons to become weirder, but the setting might be interesting to explore. Of course my mindset went a lot either than that but as Microsoft might be looking, I will keep this to myself for now. 

And the setting of prehistoric animatronics was enabled due to the works of S. Spielberg eminent director and of course writer extraordinary Michael Crichton, whose work I have admired since the Andromeda Strain (1969) but this is not about a theme park, but an addition to zoo’s. Consider looking at the elephants all whilst nearby a mammoth is walking in a circle, he walks on electrified ‘tracks’, so no rails, like those new Carrera hybrid settings. And the idea is to have these tracks with solar panels so that the sun will charge the mammoth. The people see the size differences with their own eyes. I reckon that this is the road zoo’s will wander soon enough. They will need all kinds of ‘attractions’ to survive and a simple Ape, Boa, Camel will no longer do, they need to add additional settings. And animatronics (looking really really real) might do the trick and it is a natural iterative setting that progresses for what was to where we will be going and these animals will sound in the iterations that will progress to getting that not so extinct species (aka Homo sapiens) to become more and more lifelike in actual motion, not ‘just’ looking good but that is a field I have no knowledge of as such I am on a somewhat weirder path that I am usually on. But that is where my mind was taking me (and there is a nice side to having a Sabertooth tiger eating burglars in the process (not a realistic setting), so as we look at the weirder setting, we might need to look at what people always wanted to see (not Jurassic Park), but the animals that are no longer here are definitely on the menu. And as some (unverified sources) tell us “More than 99% of all species, amounting to over 5 billion species, that have ever lived on Earth are now extinct” I reckon that there are a few that could be revitalized in this way. And no matter what you think off the idea, I reckon that several people see that this path has merit. 

Have a great day all

Ian Dury, Michael Crichton, Steven Spielberg, Zoo, Mammoth, Saber tooth tiger,

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September 28, 2026 · 19:21

Relief to see

That was my initial take on the message by TTG Asia and its ‘Harry Potter-themed lands coming to Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi’, is wasn’t anything new, but the Iranian BS of praising ‘Iran Praises Turkey’s Push for Regional Peace, Security’ and “Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi assured Saudi Arabia of Tehran’s commitment to strengthening trust and promoting regional security through cooperation among the countries of the region.” And I detest it as they are the main cause of the issues hitting Saudi Safety. If they were actually invested in this, they would sell out (or sell short) the Houthi Terrorists by denying them weapons, drones and other intelligence. As such I needed a change of scenery as I saw nothing but trouble coming from Iran. As such the TTG Asia article felt like a breath of fresh air at present. You see, there are several sources to consider, but TTG Asia gives a really nice shine to the article with “Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi will add three Harry Potter-themed lands as part of an expansion that will increase the indoor theme park’s overall size by more than 50 per cent.” Any theme park that already is seen as the greatest show on earth is likely to attract an additional hordes of people. And when we get to places like Arabian Business giving us ‘Abu Dhabi unveils new visitor experience guidelines for tourism sector’ and whilst we turn back to “Miral and Warner Bros Discovery Global Experiences are developing Diagon Alley, Hogwarts and the Forbidden Forest, which will cover about 63,000m², with construction targeted for completion in 2029.” We see that for the foreseeable future Abu Dhabi and its Warner Brothers theme park will be the place to be seen before 2029, add to that the almost perfect rated WaterWorld and SeaWorld and people are looking at a gemstone of tourist perfection for the foreseeable future. So, here I am doubting my own words by repeating ‘foreseeable’, but that is what Miral and the UAE strived for and it seems to be paying of. My prediction that tourism in the United States will become the “a measurable decrease in visitor numbers, length of stays, or total tourism-related revenue compared to a previous period or baseline expectation” and they did this to themselves. And whilst the ‘sources’ are giving us where places like Epic Universe got things wrong (there is just no pleasing some people) the setting we see it that they are massively outclassed and outgunned in several ways. But the setting that we do see is that there is a massive upside to visiting Abu Dhabi at some point in 2027, because there is no way that your senses will be satisfied waiting until 2029, not with all the entertainment there is out there now and the setting of Harry Potter will be out there from coming December onwards. I reckon (I saw hints) that this will be drenched in the setting of the new HBO series of Harry Potter and that seems to fit, it would end up being the setting for the next generation of Wizarding World fans. I was the previous group, just like the Original Star Trek group and there is no resentment, the only question mark I am raising is that there is a larger group that requires the Blue-Ray or 4K versions of this setting and there is some worry because Disney is hiding these series away from people. Try getting the Infinity war and Endgame on 4K in Australia. Shops will not have them and neither do they have the Mandalorian onboard these formats. It is shielded away for Disney subscribers. Now, I get that there would be a ‘time’ exclusion, this makes sense, but the Mandalorian was 2019 (through 2021) and I am ‘rejecting’ the movie because of that. So there is a setting where the UAE could become the place where you catch up on these series and personally I would feel offense if HBO would go the same way with Harry Potter and don’t come to me with they would never do that. Because Yanks (people from the United States) are all about setting their premise from the start and this is one sage where this could be pursued. And now you are wondering why I made the detour. You see, the UAE will become the place for Harry Potter merchandise and they could get the inside track on the Digital formats as well (as optionally opening a WB shop in the Yas Mall) consider that HP has millions of fans and by the time that Hogwarts Abu Dhabi opens they will have hit season 4. Now consider that these fans could get the series and optionally put themselves on the list for all following seasons and this implies an optional 7 seasons (times x million fans) and when these numbers hit, people will go the extra mile to sign up for whatever they are given at the park, optionally with additional parts (like a hologram steel cover)  when the merchandise is good, people will bend over backwards paying this and with theses numbers, you can offer the limited never in shops to be seen, because the United States and their greed driven settings opened up the market for that and now these people could be invested in their series. This was one of the side tracks I saw when I published a story on Star Trek (somewhere in 2025) but the premise goes on a lot further than that and traction is given to the people who do the work, not those who proclaim it is coming and I reckon that Miral would guard its database of all kinds of fane running into the millions to consider what is coming their way and as the series will go on until 2033/2034, that becomes a behemoth of people all vested into their Harry Potter settings and they will get what they desire (for a price) and now we see that Miral gets the inside track on what is seen as estimates place casual fans in the hundreds of millions and dedicated ‘Potterheads’ in the tens of millions worldwide. Now take that number and consider 7 seasons of that new HBO series, whilst also supporting the fans of the old series (in 4K), optionally selling the 8 empty movie boxes as a set as well, which might be desired by all who love Harry Potter. As for myself, I love the 4K version I have now, but I will jump at the option to get these 8 metallic hologram boxes to upgrade the discs I have and that is a market that no one would considering touching, until you realise that this sets up your coffers with millions of sold boxes at whatever the price was and there are reasons to believe that people might upgrade their collection (I did in early 2026) and the idea of upgrading the box? A simple run for the cash register. Now these settings are at the station of Miral and that is what we call free revenue. Revenue that is gotten whilst no serious investment in advertisement was required. On that station, consider that there is a hiatus in Abu Dhabi at present. We get the odd duck who is into the depth of things, but I noticed a lag of videos by what should be cherished in all things. The width of Abu Dhabi is not showing up in YouTube and I wonder why not. Now, I am all for people having a great time (it is a requirement of fun) but the people giving us their views on all places Abu Dhabi seems to be reclining and I wonder why. Because as I see it, this is the first stop in gaining traction with a global population and there still is time and now is the time to start setting up shop for creating traction and polarize desire. This is a dangerous statement, because not all polarization if positive. Yet when if comes to fan settings a lot remains positive, but where are the fans? Where are the wannabe influencers of the Wizarding Worlds? The park is still plenty of time away, but there seems to be less and less materials making the YouTube channels on Sea World, Water World, Ferrari World and the Yas Mall. I’ll admits that Google needs to upgrade its PS5 YouTube App (like filtering for newly created stuff) but beyond that, there is a lack of new materials showing. I don’t think that Aldar Properties PJSC might be happy about that. We were given that 2025 gave the Yas Mall 44 million visitors, as such I would have expected a lot more videos. And that traction will be needed to keep interest growing for 2029 and as such a large WB shop in Yas Mall might be a requirement (as well as stalls in the WB hotel and a few other places) They have an excellent Merch shop in the hotel, but where are the digital items? Movies, TV Shows and several other sides. This is merely my limited version of what could be, but consider that Awareness leads directly into acceptance, understanding, and intentional action. The idea of this could lead into new frontier of merchandising and as I see it, there is not enough preparation towards any of this. Take the one example I set, the old HP movies. To see how this fares, they could have added these metal boxes of the 8 movies and see where it headed. There is also the option of having these 8 movies in WB Yas mall, but that might be restricted by licensing. So whilst I was watching a Yas Mall video, I also saw that the premise of AR (Augmented Reality) displays in Yas Mall are optionally missing. I reckon that Miral (or Aldar Properties PJSC) should be overlooking this, because apart from the futuristic vibe, it is free awareness and almost free advertisement and as given this creates acceptance, understanding and when you have invested a billion into WB World and you are adding up to a billion dollars into this, you could used all the acceptance that the world would fork out.

So as TTG Asia ends the article with ““Introducing three new Harry Potter–themed lands allows us to deepen the connection between our iconic franchises and the guests who cherish them,” added Simon Robinson, president global experiences & studio operations, Warner Bros Discovery.” I wonder how ready WBD actually is, because these steps should have been completed yeas ago and the Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi was opened in July 2018. As such they had 8 years to create plenty of acceptance and understanding. 

Well, that is it for now (Grok will probably accuse me of ranting) but that is the choice of an older generation and it still leads to acceptance and understanding. So you all have a great day.

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September 2, 2026 · 18:41

Realisation

I just got back from a journey, the reason for this is that I stored a glitch (could be a bug) in my safety deposit box in the city of Nottelling. Perhaps I act on it, perhaps not, it is the second bug I find in an Apple. This is the first one I found in my MacBook Air and I only discovered it after a year of operating this baby in over a year. I never had it in my previous one, but I might not have had this situation before. The first one was a decent bug (very unflattering, but true) in my original G5, there you get the setting that if your FireWire Camera is connected, the firewire connection of your iPod classic will always fail (and that bugger gets hot, really hot) still, I got my optional second bug found. 

So what is up today? 
Well, I was watching a 4K movie of exploring the great Pyramids of Giza when an idea hit me. You see, these 4K movies tend to have a lot more to show than you think and I saw one of Herculaneum and Pompeii recently and when watching this now is when it hit me. What happens when these movies are used to prototype in almost near completion gaming levels? And as it is based on 4K, the details are uncanny. And there are plenty of 4K movies out there. Rome (that village in Italy, famous for its Caesars, Pretorians and Roman soldiers (aka the Italian army), greek places and more modern the settings of places that are out and abundant in the world. The idea is that you have a decent map (optionally a little crude) and the 4K movie is fit over the map and as such the gaming stages (also for education and VR) are mapped out. We then get to the nitty gritty of it all, but when you get some of these movies they are from 75%-90% complete. And that could go a long way into the prototyping of these places and I reckon at a fraction of the cost, because once this system works you can produce place after place and most of these 4K movies are all around us. A player could contact the maker to see if they have any other materials (not published ones) and that could get a map up to 95%-98% completely prototyped. 

And there is no limit to the educational setting of these places. You merely have to look at what these archaeologists have now and what they paid for it to see that these 4K movies of tourists could be the marker in several ways. The stage of Life in Herculaneum (it was a a mere 10km from that hill called Vesuvius) and over time we have had loads of places like Knossos (Crete), Machu Picchu (Peru) and also the not so ancient ones (Buenos Aires, London, Munich) and so on. Whether it is prototyping for education or gaming, the system remains the same and whilst you can verify how much time Ubisoft spend on prototyping Jerusalem for Assassins Creed, Florence for Assassins Creed 2 or Rome for AC Brotherhood and then take the eating of filling in the places from 4K movies and I reckon that you will get a massive saving for game creation (and education too) there is little doubt in my mind that should someone travel this new route, their projects will be completed a lot faster and optionally a lot cheaper than anything else. So consider the setting you get when these ancient times are used to fill levels of Call of Duty, Battlefield or whatever shooting game is now the hottest ticket out there, prototyping these places could be costly as such there is an idea that could send gaming not new direction at a decent reduction of costing.

And that is before you take a gander in some of the hottest places to kill your targets in someplace amazing like Harrods or the Mall of America Bloomington. Considering the optional costs that the game Blacklist required (the level with that enticing Christmas song), now consider what the cost of that level were, compared to walking through a mall with a 4K camera and getting that level prototyped in almost no time and I use prototyped here, because there will always be level based ‘adjustments’ needed. 

So whilst I bid you a jolly farewell and wishing you a lovely day, I will return to my trusty PS5, optionally grumpy over Sony statement ‘Sony argues it’s already obvious that digital games aren’t owned by consumers’, is that so Mr. Sony. Then why are digital games more expensive than physical ones? If someone looks at the cost of a digital game versus a physical one, even in a day one setting, the digital one tended to be a lot more expensive. As such there is nothing obvious about that, being that the game is owned after you downloaded that and as I see it, this setting is depending on a changing setting around digital laws and I reckon that they were fearful of losing against Microsoft on the past, but as they is now no longer a threat, they are no longer fearful of the future. As such we could wait on what the God of War series and Horizon series will do because the world is a massive fan of these two, but if these two makers (optionally Bethesda too) decide another path not aligned with Sony, Sony will have its hands full holding onto the fans they have. I am in a city, but I am fearful what the non-city dwellers face, because it will take up to 5 years (if ever) before they have a workable solution. And losing this much fellow gamers is not my cup of tea. But that is a story for another day. I have done my bit for gaming, gamers, education and educators today, so I feel decently happy.

Enjoy your day of gaming, if only for a little while.

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August 15, 2026 · 10:27

Retro framing

I had this thought this morning. Some might remember the Dragons Lair, a Don Bluth fantasy game on laser disc. I still remember it after 43 years. It was magnificent. It literally was a playable cartoon and it gave us Dirk the Daring dying over and over again until he meets the foe he was after. I spend a massive amount of quarters on that machine, the graphics were just that perfect. So I was considering the idea of a laserdisc added to a Nintendo Switch (2) with a game cartridge with 32GB available. This gave me the idea to include player software so you could replay your laser discs. I was blown away in 1990 when I saw the Abyss on laser disc. The idea surfaced as I am now in the setting of playing 4K games and watching 4K movies, the laser disc gave me that feeling in 1990, whilst VHS and later DVD came nowhere close. And it gave me the setting that this might be the option that could propel Nintendo to heights. But there was a snag, first there was the laserdisc player and the discs themselves often had Laser rot (a side effect of fingers on the disc and cheaper disc coating, so this idea was scuttled almost at the beginning. But then I got to think. A laserdisc has up to 5GB data space (a little less) and Nintendo Switch cartridges are up to 32GB (with smaller sizes available), so the game might be transferable to Switch in all its glory. But why stop there. On march 11th 2021 I wrote ‘In your face space’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/03/11/in-your-face-space/) where I was enthusiastic about getting series and movies on USB, there were two reasons. The first was space, these cartridges took almost no space and the second reasons (source: a Cylon) they come with zero degradation. 

This might be the step that Nintendo needs to become a long term number one in gaming and entertainment. Consider these series Battlestar Galactica, StarGate, Babylon 5, Harry Potter, the Disney movies and so many other series now other options, now one game card per season/movie, and the Switch 2 allows for a software upscaling to 4K. So consider that this would put Nintendo ahead of the pack by a lot. So whilst we see the impact that Nintendo might have, the idea that movies have zero degradation will be a plus sign to many parents. Then there is the option of getting empty packs out that support up to 8 slots and every TV series is printed on two sides, the side with the season and the other side with the series. Now you can move one cover to the 8 pack and put all the seasons (or franchise) in one pack. A setting that might give shivers to the collector as he/she saves a lot of space I am looking at my 8 4K discs of Harry Potter, whilst the game pack setting takes up a mere one disc space. A setting that would become a happy moment for any parent. 

This is a setting that gives Nintendo the growth that they need because the Switch 2 will enable 4K viewing, whilst this is software upscaling, it will give your entire collection a whole new stride. I wonder why no one else thought of this, because I have the ground work for this on my blog for over half a decade and whilst these parties all need revenue, are they so blunt and stupid to rely on their streaming solutions? The setting becomes that traveling parents and rural people outdo metro people by a lot and whilst everyone is saying there is no problem, the setting of revisiting net neutrality is getting stronger and more pronounced. I would think that players like Disney want to head that off whilst they can and as I see it, it is only a short time before lower returns, no traffic prioritization and the setting of it hurting new technology, all whilst people will get hit with higher base price and reduced service choices will hit people all around, that whilst rural people will be in this setting discriminated against. A player like Disney would want to avoid that setting, because the one player that takes rural people in consideration (apparently that will not be Sony) will take the cake, the cherries and the limelight. 

I for one think that Nintendo which has always been a hardware and family solution would be the premiere player in that field. And as I see it, it is not merely Disney, Universal faces a similar stage soon enough and I think that they want to head off whatever they can, because when the issues of net neutrality comes to blows it will be too late for these two players. I reckon that they will face millions of rural connections seeking other places to be entertained, should you doubt that, fine. But when did you actually consider that stage in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, Texas, North Carolina, California, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maine, and West Virginia? I reckon that Sony never properly did their homework and there is space for Nintendo to head that off. 

Have a great day today, so as it is Caturday, don’t be a wuss and hug a tiger.

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July 14, 2026 · 05:05

Remembrance

There was a need to do this. From the United States we only hear boasts and BS, from other places we see political settings and it tires me, but the shock I felt last night was just too real for me, the world lost a giant actor. Sam Neil has left us. I have seen his works going all the way back to the 80s. So lets take a look. I first noticed him in The Omen III (1981) followed by Reilly, Ace of spies (1983) it was a different spy story and it was only later that I learned that the man had actually existed. After that Dead Calm (which I watched because Nicole Kidman was in it), Kane and Abel (1985). I loved the story and Sam made it a better series, and together with Peter Strauss it brought a great setting where these two actors brought a book to life. After that I think I watched The Hunt for Red October (1990) which I saw because of Sean Connery, but Sam Neil was well noticed. In the 90s he was noticed by me, although he was not the reason I saw the movies he was in. I saw Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), The Piano, Sirens and then there was Jurassic Park (1993) after which Sam became the reason to see movies. First there was In the Mouth of Madness (1994) Event Horizon (1997) Merlin (1998) and Bicentennial Man (1999), which I actually preferred over Steven Spielbergs A.I. and Sam gave stellar performances every time. Looking back at these works I am amazed how much he influenced some of the choices of movies I made because of his involvement. As I see it, he made these movies great because of his collaboration with other actors. As I go through the list like The Dish and Jurassic Park III and Wimbledon I am noticing that I missed some of his works over time. Which makes me a little sad, but these were times that I could only squeeze 24 hours out of any day and choices needed to be made. I reckon we all noticed him on a Cameo in Thor: Ragnarok (together with Matt Damon) giving it all a fun moment. As far as I can tell, the last thing I saw him in was Thor: Love and Thunder. I have seen other movies with him after that, but as far as I can tell, it was the latest  setting I saw him in. Weirdly enough, I feel no deep mourning. When I think of him in these movies it merely brings a smile to my face. He really livened up the movies he worked on. And even now I still consider watching the Blu-ray of Event Horizon today. This movie has a nice little story behind it. In a scene where he sees his eyeless wife I yelped in the cinema and a friend told me that an entire wave of watchers reacted to my yelp. That moment really got to me. As such I end this story with: 

I raise my glass to you in salute to an amazing career in excellence for over 4 decades. Mr Neil it was an honour watching your work and perhaps we get to meet for real in the next stage of our lives. You will be missed on the big screen. And not to forget, my condolences to his family and friends. 

I wish you all a great day today.

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June 24, 2026 · 05:30

Just an idea

It was an idea I had last night. The setting of Paramount taking over WB (at least parts of it) opened an idea that could give the UAE, in particular Abu Dhabi a lot more tourism. You see, the Star Trek Universe has somewhere between 100 and 300 million fans and no one has seen a complete theme event on Star Trek? I am hesitant to call that place a ‘park’ but it comes close to it. A place where you can see and optionally walk on the bridges of the original Enterprise (TOS), the Galaxy class version (TNG), Voyager, and the Titan class (Picard) then there is the stage of the sets of the Defiant, parts of Deep Space 9 (Terok Nor) perhaps a section to show part of a Borg ship, millions if fans would love to see that and as I see it, the United States are done for, for at least a decade and likely there won’t be a United States after that, so Paramount needs to bet its hedges and look beyond that space. The UAE has a theme park riddled Abu Dhabi, so it makes sense to have it there. There is also the correlation (indicated but unproven) that those who love Star Trek also love Harry Potter, as such there is a pressure to consider them. I don’t think that they should be in the same location, because of the dangers of congestion at that point, also I am in doubt whether Yas Island would be the bet place, but Abu Dhabi is so much larger and has plenty of options. I think that this is a stage where Miral should have serious talks with Paramount on this setting. Perhaps a combination with a wax museum showing all the characters of Star Trek and its connected series. All things that are currently not existing. The Deep Space 9 setting with shops and a Quarcks (under new Ferengi management) could be considered. I wonder how many millions will sip at least a glass of of Canard and optionally take a bottle home as a keepsake. This setting might bring billions into the coffers of Miral. I wonder if anyone considered combining all the ships and show the bridges in one place. And display technology has evolved over the last few years alone, so seeing a part of the Borg ship with a large gap into space is now easily arranged with the display technology out there. A wax museum showing the casts of the two enterprises, Voyager, Deep Space 9 and optionally the Star Trek Movies too, could stir the hearts of millions of Star Trek Fans and as an addition to the already large theme park settings might be the one boost they get to do this (and soak up the sun and the UAE beaches) as I said, it is merely an idea, but as the UAE already has several settings and with Disney coming to Abu Dhabi as well, the UAE could become the preferred location for millions of additional tourists. That setting optionally enhanced with all the selfie moments, but perhaps even a place to have a film camp, a setting every Sci fi lover dreams of at some point. To make your own Sci-fi film, all ideas that feed the blender of creation. What remains can bear the scrutiny of many accountants at Miral (I a guessing that they have a fleet of them looking at all the venues and results). The setting that is out in the open, it always was, but the merger between WB and Paramount is driving this to the surface. The question becomes, does Miral think it is worth considering? 

As I said, it was just an idea and anything to take my eyes of the BS that is called USA-Iran negotiations. I like the headline from the Times the best at present ‘Trump, Iran and the Denial of Defeat’ it kinda sums up the entire fiasco, so whilst some are trying to spin this into some form of victory, the reality is that soon Iran will have to be dealt with, I have no idea who or how, but I do not believe that the United States will be the one doing it. They wasted (according to there own numbers) “The U.S.-Iran war cost the Pentagon an estimated $29 billion to $40 billion in direct operational expenses, but total economic and long-term costs could range between $600 billion and $1 trillion” I have not been sitting with an abacus, so I do not know, but consider the wasted money and the lack of results. It would have been something if all the refineries were hit as well as a few other tactical places, but that was not the case, so Iran can still buy hardware from whomever is willing to sell to them. As such I believe it to be important that the UAE gets whatever mens they can to increase their economic foothold on the Middle East, they have don’t quite well and they still have a few more options to that effect, but I merely gave the tourist idea, because it is something I would like to see and the idea that I get a two week vacation in Abu Dhabi where every day is filled with fun and adventure (yes, a visit to the Yas Mall could be both fun and adventure) would be an excellent idea. I believe that millions have that same feeling, because at present the United States is not that inviting, add to this the YouTube videos on their Epic Universe with several rides allegedly breaking down does not instill any thoughts that Orlando will be the place to go. With the economic foothold that is diminishing in Florida, we see one side saying it is good, but we also see “The U.S. travel sector is projected to lose between $12.5 billion and $29 billion in international visitor spending.”, with the added “Foreign arrivals have dropped by roughly 5%, with major month-over-month contractions from Asia (down 7.5%) and Europe (down 5.2%)” as well as “Canada, historically the largest source of inbound U.S. tourism, has driven a massive portion of this decline, with Canadian travel to the U.S. dropping by roughly 22%” the numbers do not add up, with this decline we still see “Florida boasts the fourth-largest economy in the United States, with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of roughly $1.76 trillion. If it were an independent nation, the state would rank as the 15th largest economy globally.” In addition to this, the negative YouTube videos keep on swarming around Epic Universe. I cannot say if they are real or if they are Epic Universe haters, that option remains a reality, but as I see it, the numbers do not add up and I reckon that the next president when they make their numbers openly known, we will see what an alleged curse President Trump has become to the United States. As such places like paramount needs to find new ventures to survive and it is my personal opinion that the UAE is such a space. And in light of what WB already has set up, the numbers might give satisfaction to the board members of Paramount. So, the question becomes is Miral ending that solution a good option to consider. 

Have a great day, it is 5:30  now and only 7 degrees, I am freezing. So there is another appeal to be smitten by the 39 degree non-freezing weather that Abu Dhabi could offer my poor old shivering bones.

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June 14, 2026 · 12:53

A mindset racing

That is the setting I had last night. I saw the ‘news’ from the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjwgled9jxwo) where we see that ‘Warner Bros $111bn sale to Paramount approved by US justice department’ and as we see “The pending sale has been filled with contention, from Paramount’s battle with Netflix over the company to scrutiny over industry consolidation and worries about politics. David Ellison, the leader of Paramount, is the son of Larry Ellison, a major donor to President Donald Trump. But it’s not a done deal yet, as states like California are reviewing the sale and could sue to block it. In a statement on its decision, the justice department said it had conducted a “rigorous” investigation of the proposed deal and found it was “not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers.”” You see, it doesn’t matter whether X donates to Y and is the child of Z, it does not matter that there is no ‘harm’ to the competition. As I see it, the wrong questions are asked here. As I see it, the issue is consolidation. When company A is taking over company B, the result is a larger A. This reflects on the products that they have been putting out. So, consider the new company, lets call it AA, now it has two products namely products 1 And 2, but that company can take the setting of these 2 titles and in some cases there is enough traction to let both go through, but what when that is not the case?

What happens if we have 4 cooking shows first in two companies, now all part of the same company, as such the lowest scoring two (optionally 3) can now be scrapped. That is what I expect to see, because Hollywood needs to consolidate and they need to stretch whatever ver they have and Paramount could ‘state’ that they now have 111,000,000,000 reasons to consolidate whatever they can. Scripts, writers, directors, figs crew, studio places and a whole lot more. All up for consolidation and I wonder if anyone had taken the settings of a place like Mountain (MNTN) who has been working numbers of all kind and optionally Warner Brothers and Paramount too. They live by the ‘rule’ “Performance TV, Perfected by MNTN”, so did anyone look into that batch of data? Because quality consolidation requires data, verifiable and validated data. Not the ‘sense’ of some blogger (me) or any critic that claims to know the data (media) but actually data, because when you play around with $111 billion, which is more than the GDP of Oman (and several other countries) you need the data to make sense of it all and consolidate what you can. 

Like an accountant squeezing a ten dollar bill, until it gives 11 single dollar coins, preferable you want to hire the accountant that can get 1-2 additional dollars out of that bill, but that is up to Paramount (if they had not already done that), but to get all that requires data and it needs to be clear metrics, because there is a lot riding on that. And the story off MNTN is “MNTN is the Hardest Working Software in Television™, bringing unrivaled performance and simplicity to Connected TV advertising. Our self-serve technology makes running TV ads as easy as search and social and helps brands drive measurable conversions, revenue, site visits, and more. MNTN was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies and Next Big Things in Tech and was recently featured on the cover of INC’s Best in Business Issue.” I only know of MNTN, so there are likely a few others in that field, but if you need unbiased, you get the player that is not connected to WB of Paramount for that matter and you do it behind walls. I can only imagine that this was done, but then, I am an incurable optimist. Still we are ‘given’ “Paramount acquired Warner Bros. Discovery to create a consolidated entertainment powerhouse capable of competing with tech-backed streaming giants like Apple, Amazon, and Netflix.” Which I personally believe is only part of the truth, not the whole truth. I could say that there are 110 billion reasons, but that is merely the directive. If Paramount want to survive it needs to distinguish from the other three and consolidation of what there is now is profoundly needed to rack up credit points to look after the waves that are now in the hands of Apple, Amazon and Netflix. They need to ‘attack’ the setting that Apple has with Severance, Pluribus, Slow Horses and Silo. The stage that Amazon has Fleabag, The mighty nein, The legend of Vox Machina and Bosch: Legacy and Netflix with their The chestnut man, Dark winds, Arcane: league of legends and Blood Of Zeus. That is not directly done, not until you free up cash and they just handed 111 billion to the outside of their treasure chest. So they can get creative, and they have to free up what is bound into lesser settings and that is the stage they are in now and it requires data to get that sorted. They still need massive creativity though, but they know what they need. I’ll hand them some ideas at the end of the story.

But that is where they are and when they are done ‘convincing’ the current audience and they have set their pawns in place the striking of the lesser series can begin and that will be a harsh setting because if they do not have the data in order, they will be brought to any altar to be slaughtered. I have sen this happen in the past and they better get their goats in order, knowing that David Ellison is involved, the chance of their data being top notch is a decently given one. He learned the basics fro his daddy (who optionally taught him how to sail too). 

So whilst we are also given, some will recognise that the larger setting is not covered but we are given “By taking over Warner Bros, Paramount will become one of the most powerful forces in Hollywood, adding news network CNN, TV networks HBO, TBS, TNT, TCM, as well as studios DC Studios and New Line Cinema to its current stable of assets. Those include Paramount Pictures, CBS, Showtime and Nickelodeon. Paramount’s control of CBS News and its 60 Minutes programme has come under intense scrutiny for programming decisions that critics say favour of the Trump administration, including new leadership firing long-time staff and well-known journalists. Warner Bros put itself up for sale last year and came to an initial deal with Netflix to buy some of its assets, in a deal worth roughly $82bn (£61bn) including debt.” It seems that the BBC is focussing on the political stage, whilst that is the one that has the least impact, but I leave that up to you to judge.

So whilst we see that certain settings there were two ideas that floated in my mind. You see, instead of focussing on what some call Reality TV, why not make it a certainty. Matt Damon (you know the illegal immigrant on Mars) has something called Artists Equity (together with Ben Affleck) based on a business model where instead of taking massive upfront paychecks, the studio incentivizes cast and crew by offering them participation in the film’s profits. And setting this now TV, the setting becomes a visible setting to televise it all and get paid from that too. It also gives these people a decent first introduction to the global audience and it gives scriptwriters an additional foothold in the industry, all being it through Paramount, there is a decent setting to give all this a stage to screen and the stories that are evolving would enable Paramount to select the group that makes the most visibility and leave the other to fend with other TV houses. A sort of Reese Witherspoon approach to quality scripts. 

The second Idea came to me in a weirder way (leaving that to the left for now). You see, I have been a fan of walkthrough videos (YouTube) and it started during the first COVID lockdown. But what happens when you get 2 hours a week (on the slower timeframes) to show these YouTubers and their videos visibility. Hand selected videos from these people on places like Monaco, Toronto, New York, Amsterdam, Stockholm. You name it, it will be there and it should be relatively easy to select a pick. For these YouTubers it is a way to gain traction via other means and it might create a wave of YouTubers. It still requires selecting so that you don’t get conspiracy theorists and wacko’s give their version of the truth. And I believe that walkthroughs are a great way to see places like Harrods, or Hollywood boulevard or even the Coolsingel in Rotterdam, Gamlastan in Stockholm or wherever you want to be and it might be the next stage of visibility for YouTubers to gain traction in different ways. All stages that could be evolving in the new Paramount. 

So get ready to show your places and let Paramount do the dialing to a new audience. Have a great day today.

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May 12, 2026 · 23:56

Who’s watching who

It was initially the BBC who alerted me to this (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c072dvv1rmro) where we see ‘Texas accuses Netflix of spying on users, including children’ and I got curious, because it is not a issue with the United States, it isn’t even global, it is just Texas. The story kicks off with “Netflix has been sued in Texas over claims it collects data belonging to children and adults in the US state without their consent, and uses “addictive” design to keep them hooked. accused the streaming giant of “spying” on citizens saying it “records and monetizes billions” of pieces of information about how users behave on the platform, despite suggesting otherwise.” It gave me a few questions (just a few) and it starts of here with the questions “How does one record and monetise billions?”, as well as “What exactly is “addictive” design?” You see, to the best off my knowledge you sign up and you get Netflix (that is how we do that in Australia) and perhaps there are better ways to do this, but that is what it is and it is still better then Disney+ (in regards to able the watchers). I have never seen the Mandalorian of BlueRay, or several other Disney+ hits. I get that they want to get a lead but Season 1 and 2 cannot be bought in Australia, why not? This is not about Disney+ but Netflix offers several seasons most TV shows on BlueRay, as such it is neither monetizing or creating an addictive design (as I personally see it), but perhaps Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton could clearly elaborate? The story goes into (or towards) “the company also began “leveraging the mountains of data it quietly extracted from the children and families it kept fixated on their screen” – sharing this with commercial data brokers to help raise billions of dollars in revenue.” This leads to another question, “How does one keep others fixated on their screen?”, You pay one amount for monthly subscription, regardless of the time. There is a cheaper option with advertisements. But it beckons the question, how do you keep people fixated? As such the prices are:

  • Standard with Ads: AU$9.99/month
  • Standard: AU$20.99/month


So, the customer has an option to pay $11 more, how is this monetizing? And don’t forget that advertising was added to make it cheaper for some. And then the fixation on the screen? How is that done exactly? 

So then we get to Politico who (at https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/11/netflix-sued-by-texas-ag-for-alleged-surveillance-addictive-features-00915029) gives us ‘Netflix sued by Texas AG for alleged surveillance, addictive features’ where we see “It adds that the company tracks and logs viewing habits, location and virtually every interaction on the platform — keyword searches, pausing or fast-forwarding and more — which it then uses to build consumer profiles that earn the company billions.” So, as I see it, a person (me) searches for a title or an actor or actress. Seems pretty common in Netflix settings. I search for Olivia Wilde and see what they have with her in it, same that I look for Dwayne Johnson and see what movies with him are on Netflix. How exactly is this odd, or non trackable? If 275,000 people seek either, there is a chance that Netflix sees what they can add to their stable. This is a movie channel. Perhaps Ken Paxton took offense to the 132 searches for Melania Trump and Netflix sees a reason why not to spend money on it? Although you can watch it on Amazon and it is rated 1.6/10 (over 68000 votes). These two articles are making me wonder what this suit is all about, because as far as I can tell this case has no merit. Perhaps Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton needs the limelight for something, is it election year in Texas? As far as I can see (optionally not a correct view) is that Paxton announced in April 2025 that he would run for the United States Senate in the 2026 election, challenging incumbent senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary and in the runoff. So is he gaining free ‘advertisement’ through Netflix? It is merely a speculation from my side, but the timeline seems to fit. As such we need to see what Ken Paxton does next and if he gives us any clarity on his claims. There is also the fact that it is the subscriber that gives the connection to a household and the subscribers to Netflix must be at least 18 years old. So how does one see what the age of the watcher is in that household? Perhaps he has a setting for profiling? Like only women and oldest daughters watch ‘Sex in the city’? Only children watch Ponyo? Your guess is as good as mine and I am here clueless. But perhaps there are journalists who will ask the hard questions. Have a great day.

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April 7, 2026 · 18:48

Skins

That was the thought that was invading my mind and for the biggest part it came from an app known as WinAmp. The current generation might not know what I am referring to, but their mommies and daddies know exactly what I mean.

You see, the world has forgotten the medium of long term marketing. And it saddens the brain. Creativity starts by shedding this to all the brains it can entice. And we seemingly have forgotten that. Consider that the TV goes on and the same settings are given to everyone. But there Is nothing stopping you from adding that to your TV or digital medium player. Have library that could be added to your TV or even PS5, a skin where we see the addition to your Netflix, Disney+ or Hulu app that gives it a little spice. A setting where the creative person turns the Netflix logo into a Cauldron and we see the books appear, where the books are movies and soundtracks. The Disney+ logo where the image of the Mandalorian comes alive and we see items that are movies, but refer to items seen in that series (never saw the Mandalorian) and the idea is not even merely  being scratched. You name it and it is likely to have a fanbase of millions. 

We can go into any venture from that and the brands themselves might shed ways into that setting. Whether it is Sony, Coca Cola, Steam Deck, Disney, Harry Potter or any other brand that speaks to the mind of others. 

Now consider that you are a brand bitch (like me) and you see your Sony environment, but when you also have your PS5, you might wonder why everything is so clearly cut and whilst the PS5 invites creativity, so does the Nintendo and I see a flaw here. They might have their own boundaries, but there is nothing stopping from a Switch (or PlayStation) to invade the borders of the TV and make over what people do there. As I see it, I would my Switch to take over the TV and set its boundaries there, so whilst we see Pikmins all over the screen of my TV, others might realise that some PikMins have familiar titles and as such, we might see games on that screen, games that we currently and almost forever have been playing. It might be the icon of a game box, the con of a hero (like Luigi) or the dreaded Bowser on his kart. All images we and others relate to the game we love to play. And on top we see the icons that relate to our needed setting like a D+ logo that gives us the Disney look and from there the iconic series that they have invade the screen. The better part is that the kids will relate to this instantly and it gives them an edge in creativity. The same could be said for the PS4/PS5, Netflix, or Hulu groups. Something got lost over the last 15 years and it saddens me, because for amount I thought it made sense and that I the sad part. We are so drawn to making achievements in games that we are forgetting the image to play. Someone once said that the more complex the end becomes the more enticing the image of play gets to be. And they were seemingly right. 

A setting is getting lost in the wiring and it should sadden us all. And the Australian Financial Review is giving us ‘Jamie Dimon is counting the straws that will break the market’s back’ which comes with “JPMorgan’s chief executive can see a long string of growing risks, from geopolitics to private credit. Will that be enough to burst the market’s optimism?” And he came to me last night in a dream handing me 4 billion for my IP (it was a lovely dream) but here he is right on his turf but it is also the setting of a larger play. He sees a “a long string of growing risks”, yet I see a string of losing strings of creativity that will hold us down, because those who turn away from creativity are lost forever to a sea of demands and the turmoil of loss and that deeply saddens me. Simply because if we become pawns of the populist voices, we are actually doomed to make mistake after mistake and we need to see now that there are more ways. This all adds up to President Trump saying (according to the Guardian) “Donald Trump said he was “not at all” concerned about committing possible war crimes as he again threatened to destroy Iran’s bridges and power plants”, but in this setting he defies his real fears, the first time is the use of ‘possible’ and the second setting was that he said it at all. He is really scared that he will be put in the Hague in the accusers box facing the consequence of his illegal war. I reckon he is counting on the world being to broke when America folds its finances and he would be wrong. There are dozens of people who are actually innocent and used the Black letter law to the extent they could and President Trump is the one who stopped the game from continuing. I reckon that the one place where President Trump might be save is as a new inmate of Lefortovo Prison or Lubyanka Prison. Anywhere else he is likely to be toast. So there is no easy escape to the Bahama’s or Monaco for him. Too many people there will blame him for their easy escape and they will hold him to account. And there isn’t enough ammunition to keep him safe in the United States. 

So that is where I am and the people who needs distractions are being withheld a simple setting where their creativity is fed, not their frustrations and rage. And my mind is grabbing back to the simple setting of Winamp controls or the theme settings that Microsoft opened in 1995. Who did not have a whole range of themes to brighten up their Windows experience? That is seemingly lost now in a sea of patches and Knowledge Base (KB) numbers. So who gave the world the outlets of creativity? Adobe?

So have a great day and consider where we might be when our need for creativity is fed in all sorts of ways. Time for dinner now.

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