Rick's b.log - entry 2024/12/31

It's time to take a step back

The problem with doing this is that I can wake up at half six, feed kitty, make tea, and start my online session and...

Spot which one doesn't have a mobile-friendly mode.

I have not delved too far down the rabbit hole. I don't have Twitter/X, Instagram, or Facebook. I don't have a presence there, an obligation as a "content creator", nor do those sorts of things provide my income, or any income.
But I do find myself being far too easily distracted by those sites that are on my habitual list. Distracted to the point where even I notice that I'm not actually doing anything. And while some sites have utility (the ROOL forum for assistance, The Guardian for knowing how dismal and depressing reality is), the others don't really add any value to my life. Yes, cute kitten meme, but I have an actual furball of my own, I don't need to look at other people's cats. I think I may gain more if, instead of looking at websites, I actually did stuff. Read a book, perhaps? Finally get around to making that extra shelf for the cupboard? Whatever, tangible things rather than clogging up my limited storage with random trivia. Yes, I was fairly well informed about world event. I even know what "rizz" means. But none of it actually directly improves my life. I don't have rizz and I'm not going to be the one to help Israel and Palestine settle their differences.

So, time to take a large step back.

This isn't goodbye. I'll still be around. I'll keep on writing stuff on my blog as and when, because a lot of it is helping me to get things sorted in my own head, which is why the recent articles on raycasting. I wasn't happy with pulling apart Lode's code to work out how it worked. I wanted to do it myself from the ground up and work out why. This, I have done. Or understanding the washing machine controller. And, yes, there's a lot of random clutter here but then that's what my mind is like.
I'll also still be around the forum, but if I can stick to it, it'll be like several times a week rather than several times a day.
As I write this, I have just posted a reply to Julie wishing everybody a Happy New Year. My personal challenge, now, is to not go back to the forum until Saturday. I don't know if I'll be able to keep to that, habit and all - especially when I'm on break at work, but we'll see.

Either way, it's time to loosen the umbilical. So that's my New Year's Resolution. And the first one I've made since... <thinks> <thinks more> <shrugs>

2024

The Post Office should have fallen apart, a scandal of that size, but after The Johnson Years, it takes a lot to shock a Brit. I mean, people might have joked about Priti Patel standing on the White Cliffs of Dover with a gatling gun to shoot at the small boats...and then Suella Braverman came along, the Tory who's so far to the right she makes Thatcher look like a LibDem.

The Church Of England is marginally falling apart - I think they're using Welby as a scapegoat to avoid having to confront the fact that they're every bit as bad as the other lot.

Russia is still the bad guy (Vladimir Putin was "reelected" for a fifth term, note the scare quotes). Ukraine is still fighting.
Oh, and we're all supposed to believe that China is on the naughty step despite them only (allegedly) doing what the Americans already do.
Israel, not content with blowing the hell out of Gaza, took aim for Lebanon and prodded Iran as well. Meanwhile the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, which was predictably decried as being antisemitic rather than, you know, a consequence of such ridiculously disproportionate retribution that people are using the word "genocide" in all seriousness.

South Korea was under martial law for a whole six hours, leading to president Yoon being impeached, so their government is in chaos too, rather like their airline industry because of the double whammy of having a solid concrete structure at the end of the runway where an out of control plane might be expected to skid, and... the plane... what? Birds hit planes. It happens. It's not good, and sometimes it does indeed damage engines, but remind me how often this necessitates a plane belly-flopping onto the runway at pretty high speed with roughly zero form of braking? That manoeuvre was nuts and it was only going to end one way. Did they shut down the wrong engine and then panic when, you know, the up stopped upping? Either way, we bookend the year with a Boeing aircraft incident. The 737 Max 9 that lost a chunk of fuselage, and, well, this.

Loads more countries in upheaval, but they aren't getting listed here as in these places upheaval, coups, fleeing leaders, and the military attacking citizens just means it's Tuesday.

Riots, online bullshit getting dumb people riled up. Constant endless media and political attacks on a rather small number of unlawful migrants to distract from the staggering number of lawful ones.
Extremism abounds. The "Manosphere" is a thing, and it's only going to get worse as social media allows angry little dipshits to dump corrupted ideas into impressionable people's heads.

AI has become the big whoo-hoo. Good luck avoiding it. The web is already chock full of AI bollocks designed to waste your time and money, and it's only going to get worse. Thanks to AI, those scams with the tell-tale grammatical errors may soon start looking a lot more legit. Oh, joy. And what with deepfakes, you can't trust anything you see any more. Apparently some dude shot Trump in the ear, and if that's not crazy enough, plenty of his adoring sycophants turned up wearing ear bandages as some bizarre display of solidarity. That's got to be deepfake AI nonsense, people aren't that dumb, are they?

Wild weather. 2023 is currently the warmest year on record but 2024 is going to surpass that, but January 3^rd recorded the lowest temperature (-43.6°C) recorded in Sweden for a quarter century. Storms, floods, pestilence, raining fire...well, not quite yet but we did have aurora where they don't normally happen on multiple occasions (including, potentially, tonight). Oh, and "Summer" happened in mid-Spring.
If you're leftpondian, I have only one word: Hurricanes (plural).

A white-haired Australian bloke finally found freedom, after twelve years of mostly self-inflicted exile. In a blow to his oversized ego, a plea deal was reached and he was sent back to Australia with, well, not a lot of people caring. No black helicopters and no martyr to the cause of truth.

A massive bridge was brought down by an out-of-control ship. That wasn't an act of terror. We had enough of those, too, culminating with the ever popular "let's drive a car really fast at a bunch of random civilians", more than once. Oh, and stabbing little girls, because that's a really manly thing to do.

FIFA, to throw in some sport news, announced that Saudi Arabia has been selected as the host for the 2034 World Cup, because sweet sweet coin means so much more than people's lives, human rights, and basic dignity for both genders. They aren't even trying to hide the blatant corruption any more. Is that what football stands for these days? Screw FIFA, right between the eyeballs with the pointy end of a pickaxe.

Deaths? Loads of people, particularly Palestinians. On the "famous person" front, Dame Maggie Smith, James Earl Jones, Donald Sutherland, Alex Salmond, Sven Goran Eriksson, some bloke from One Direction, and Jimmy Carter.
Soon to be dead? Well, there's this weight loss drug with a weird name that seems to be 'trendy', if your idea of trendy is to end up looking like the sort of ghoul that would frighten a goth.

Trump. That is all.

So, in short, a pretty awful year with little to recommend it. I've no doubt forgotten plenty of misery and chaos.

On the plus side, well, France managed to pull off a near flawless Olympics in and around the city rather than some vastly over-budget special venue. And they did so in a way that was very...French.
SpaceX caught a rocket.
And if you're reading this, you're not dead. There's that, I suppose.

I'm not even going to bother talking about highs and lows for me. Just writing this is depressing. 2024 was not a pleasant year really and the way things are I can't imagine it's suddenly going to get better.
I think I'm going to go make myself a massive bowl of comfort linguine and go to bed and watch a movie. To hell with 2024.

All that remains to be said now is...

Later...

I went for fresh tagliatelle, quicker cooking.

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Zerosquare, 31st December 2024, 22:17

Happy new year, Rick!

jgh in Japan, 1st January 2025, 04:49

Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu from nine hours in the future. I'll give you advance notice of the world ending, though right now we're just about to go out for lunch.

A tree-dwelling mammal, 1st January 2025, 12:01

Happy 2025 all. May it suck less than 2024 did.    Two more celebrity deaths from last year:    Sir Kenneth Grange: Industrial designer, did the Kenwood food mixer, and amongst other things, the HST (Intercity) power car front end. Remember, the pointy yellow screamy things? Met him a few times - lovely eccentric chap. In fairness he was 96, but still.    David Mallett: Country / folk singer, big in the 1990s.    Johnnie Walker: Radio 2 presenter best known now for Sounds Of The 70s. I believe he started out on Radio Caroline, and the BBC wouldn't touch him with a barge pole for a couple of years.    There's probably more.

Rob, 1st January 2025, 23:32

Sod celebrities, my mum died a few weeks ago. That's the only death that matters. It wasn't unexpected, she'd had cancer, wasn't expected to make last Christmas, never mind this one, but it's still been hard to deal with.

Zerosquare, 2nd January 2025, 00:02

Rob > Sincerest condolences :(

Rick, 2nd January 2025, 14:40

😨 -> 😭 -> [where's the hug emoji]    Oh, yes. That's the one that *really* hits.  Condolences, Rob, and in the words of mom: Fuck Cancer.

Rob, 3rd January 2025, 01:29

Thanks both of you :)

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