ArtistBlog.ME

Look at this as a long rant, a few pages from a book which you have been reading. That book is called reality and it gets to you around you in full three-dimensional projection. It gives you senses to smell, look and hear; but there is more inside of you and that’s happiness and sadness, to be freightened and attracted to which lives around us. It’s because reality is so hard to change, because it happens day after day with cause and effect, where we have so little to say in. It’s time in it’s purest form.

To explain what reality really is, we don’t have to go Kansas to see Dorothy, Reality is like a bubble, which is around you, which spreads as your bubble gets bigger. The better your ideas are, the more people that will want to be part of that bubble. The worse those ideas are, the further you want to be away from that person so you don’t get affected by the wantings and doings of that particular person.

Some people want to control our bubble, or .. well, to be atleast part of it. We call it society as it is. What we saw as impossible about 12 years ago on American reality series, is all happening at our doorsteps. Both police and criminality is adapting to the standards of today, but also how people get approached. Criminality shouldn’t be taken lightly, although there are more frequent cases than ever of errors and recklessness around Europe taking down innocent lives.

Look at the news, the ever ongoing war, traffic problems all over, the drugs wars started in the US and ongoing with atleast seven busts a day in Britain, never ending taxes, smog; people being afraid of insults, getting shot, raids and assaults by police, also happening in Belgium! Our policemen are there to help society. The civilian for the civilian with the power to work in function; not to use or abuse that particular function, like some might think with their position. Lady justice holds her balance in the middle with the blindfold on; leave her deciding which is right and wrong, not those who operate in function to aid a good working society in peace; without too much military power to oppress it’s citizens.

It is not true, that which I wish for, that reality is not true at all! Every day recklessness is demanding lives of innocents every day. Zero tolerance is which gets top priority and the principles of a true gentlemen are no more. This brings a rather bitter and bad taste in your mouth, isn’t it? Reading the true reality around you, which is happening around you while you are sitting in your warm bubble. Probably not everything will not be in that collection of oddities around your taste and likes; but the true feeling of what most around us really crave for will not be in our living quarters for a long time…

So, where did we fast-forward to a society where everyone thinks about themself, where bankers have taken over the world and countries are getting technologically locked down more secure than Fort Knox with their citizens put captive in the net of “intelligence” where others have more rights above your privacy? Oh, or didn’t I mention already, that privacy is no more for a long time? It’s like the terrorists have won and our own people who got the power to change, have taken over to keep all the others in terror…

And the world keeps going on, we keep swallowing which we are given to eat and breath and keep accepting what goes on around us. We all call it the “normal way of living”, where we deal what gets on the menu by daily base. But, for how long exactly till things get really out of hand, where everyones comfort is at risk? Or atleast; which we used to call comfort in the old days as gentlemen, where one of the primary rules was to stay friendly to everyone at all times and discuss and relativate problems, instead of sponsoring the nearest hospital.

That reality … should not be true for any country around the world.

If you don’t like it, you can always try to bend reality to your own way by reading quantum space…

I’m going to dedicate an entire section on my site about my encounters with technology. The good and the bad sides. I’ll discuss these throughout with my wits and perspective.

In some parts I’d already be dreaming of gadgets which are still not available on this planet. The current age has created us toys which can be as small as a phone, to the size of a cricket.

Still, I am amazed what this world spawns. From armored card machines to automatic vacuum cleaners. Still, with an expense. The software is often out-to-date, slow, not userfriendly or even insecure to use while sitting in that nice armored behemot.

Topics to be opened soon (with short introduction):

• Personal Computer Widescreen is the only way to go?You can’t walk over the street without seeing these fancy laptops with glossy screens. I can’t stand glossy but I must say this is rather a preference. Still, where are those normal LCD screens which are NOT widescreen? I have to buy a 22″ widescreen before I can use the normal resolution of a normal 20 inch screen!
• Computer systems a menace for the tactical audiophile?Lot’s of DJ’s prefer MP3’s and computer systems to mix. I don’t give a damn, these things don’t give any tactical feedback at all. Same for the production of music. Fruityloops, Cubase, Reason or good sequencer can be used for dance tracks. One small detail, you’re working on a screen without any buttons, unless you got your controller placed in front of you. Still, where’s the fun of having seperate devices and using them modular? Different outputs, controls, feedback and learning curve. Everything can be done in software but you’ll still be limited by that software. I’ve been working with software for over 10 years, abandoned it for real hardware and have been producing ever well since that change!
• Noisy slow computer-systems everywhere!Last time I was sitting at a desk I was terribly annoyed by the vacuum cleaner next to my ear. Not only this vacuum cleaner had an alternating noise, just like my PC has at home, but it was slow as freak too. Remarkable, like the PC at home too! I am missing that age of silent computing. The P3 and P4 were pretty stable in sound, why do these newer CPU’s have to immitate that 5$ vacuum cleaner you found at the pawn shop?
• Data storage, a window to a black age for the greedy?
  
  Data storage opened a portal to many ways. For audio and video it was the solution for high-definition productions. It opened an entire new door to distributed computing, bloated software and operating systems with the size you could yank “MOMMA?” at! It also opened a bad doorway to those who are greedy and out of empowering their wealth. Data collection happens at governmental level but in end 2000 also at corporation level. This data can be used and abused at any given time; for as long as it exists. Do you still feel safe with that innocent mail which became illegal 50 years later?
• Immortality at a price of knowledge.Want to be immortal? Too bad! You got to die! Still, you can be immortal in many ways. The information high-way has evolved to an entire incorporated society which can pass your soul for many ages! Immortality at the price of bandwidth. If you create content which is worthy surviving for eternity you should sure think about the Internet to do so!
• Updates & Windows still not the safest way to go!Those updates, together with one of the top-best virus-scanners are still not best. This month a hacker tried to access one of my XP systems while I was working on it. Stupid. This system was fully patched, fully firewalled with F-secure Internet Security. It didn’t help. After cleaning the system completely of any backdoors (and there were 3 installed!) I noticed another box popping up. A nice Courtesy Shell. This was time to reinstall this machine, put it on another IP, firewall it externally and honeynet this attacker. Bottom line of the story: Updates and firewalls installed on machine level are not always as safe as you think!
• Defective public transportation automation.In Belgium we got these armored machines, running under a very cheap system which provides tickets to use the public transportation. It’s a nice system when it’s broken for sure! If only these tram-drivers would have the guts to price for the normal price when it’s broken!
• Cards everywhere! Do I need a new wallet?A card for these 2 shops I go to and one for the bakery where I buy croissants at, two to get a pizza at the corner, one for these office supplies, credit card, SIS card and I’m for sure not ending here. These cards often are not fully understood in policy…
• Windows Vista, is bloat really necessary?Windows Vista, the new flagship of Microsoft is not really more than an upgraded XP, with new screen/presentation enhancements, much slower and uses lots more memory. Together with the vacuum cleaner mentioned before.. Great! I knew there was a reason to live!
• Lots more …

Sorry, this entry is only available in Nederlands.

This short piece is dedicated to my wondering and pondering about a trend called voting. A lot of profile databases on the net have voting, if you see to television you see people voted out of a game (eg Bigbrother)…

Did the society change that much everybody needs to have a number put on the head? Where is all that self-confidence by nature?

The television has changed also a lot … Whereof we heard complaining from the USA about violence and sensation we are seeing it here in Europe on the tube. Everything is more-commercial than ever and sensation is in baby! Today we have sensation like Cops-and-Robbers, Judge Judy, psychological games with people (somewhat like a ratrace in a maze) like Big Brother and all derivates, ….

It’s already a few years the world is changing … I can be optimistic or pessimistic as I want but it seems to be a few years now that crime is getting high-rates, war, nukes, alcohol, sex(lines and their stupid commercials), drug, sensation and psychological f*cking is the topic-du-jour.

Think what you want .. and if you want to write your toughts down you can do it down here!

I went to Sixflags in Holland this friday with my bf and I must tell it was FUN! I am thinking though of going to Disneyland as soon as possible.

We also have a house-cat who comes in more at our place than her usual home, probably because the owner is not really often at home; so we have a sweet kitty purring all over the place. Photos will be available later. This already for over a month now!

New security precautions against terrorists is heaver than we might think … A journalist describes his experiences of being arrested for snapping photo’s and making notes and somebody who has been denied to fly because of some reading material. This might be the end of the US constitution regarding “freedom” …