Gathering thoughts…
A world of little thoughts.
Imagine a time when the institutional machinery (read: governments & other agents that mass-organise people and resources) successfully pulls off something beyond belief. I am not talking about the run-of-the-mill political propaganda. I am talking about upheaving lives and livelihoods in a single decision. (Think the…
The optimal number of imperfections in a city is not zero. I just spent 24 hours in Lima, and I think it comes pretty close to finding the right balance between organisation and chaos. Combine that with a friendly people, an incredible cliff-edged coastline and world class cuisine, and you've got yourself a city you…
...a place where you get to write just 300 words. Nice. Just capture what's on the mind. A snapshot. First impression: Nice, neat, uncluttered. Reminds me of blank paper on typewriter, minus any other prompts. No random feeds and hashtags, pulls or pressures. What way will this go?
A quick thought; Interesting results for AI portraits come when a prompt is structured with two genders. An example prompt; a photograph of a woman by Man Ray. Thinking about how this sentence can be confused and how the AI could be interpreted. The woman is taken as priority, it guides the overall features, then Man…
When AI model get faster and better, any implementation details are just a form of premature optimisation. They constrain AI to our understanding of a domain and limit its ability to operate independently. Tell the system what to look for and what doing that well means, and then get out of the way. When building AI…
It’s so difficult to persuade yourself to work on weekends. Long time ago it was easy, maybe I was younger and more involved in the tasks. I didn’t scare to be fired, I just work. It was interesting but there were a lot of work.
"What do you think about the Rolex Daytona?", asked my friend. "It's great but I am an Omega person", I replied. "The model in the new 007 movie is truly a piece of art". "It sure is. What do you think about the grey Tom Ford suit Daniel Craig wore in the movie?", I asked. "I think the blue one was better. You should…
Ahh! sometimes an image is enough to communicate, look at it. what do you read from my mind...
the swiss asked me "when's the last time you went swimming?" i said "i think mallorca. but i haven't gone swimming in sicily because our boat's been docked in the marina and well...i only like to swim from the boat. i don't like the beach -- you get all sandy" LADIES AND GENTS: I ONLY SWIM. FROM THE BOAT. also i think…
It is totally awesome to be free of the external judgement. To create without the fear to be misunderstood, to express any opinion being equal in probability to be discussed free of prejudice. Such an approach gives an adequate perception of the surrounding phenomena, allows to connect cause and consequence without…
When we prepared for our move from plush to mush, we planned to live mostly without electricity. Solar power was - and still is - part of our plan. Since that part requires more funds than currently in our tiny bank account, we rely on whatever electricity is available. I have mixed feelings about just how easy it has…
exercise & study (like a language) can improve energy levels. No more “I’m tired” mentality. Say “this is hard mode” and this can affect 精神状态 Remove toxicity around you
Photography is hard, but working on this project has honestly really made it fun. Although it's taken me this long to finally have an image come out (if we can even call it that) I know I am going to enjoy this the more I shoot. Here is to more tests, fails, and successes.
When smartphones are invented and we start using them a lot, people always say that the next generation growing up on smartphones will be less smart. Because they don't have time to ponder. But it's been 16 years since Steve invented the iPhone, are we seeing a dumber generation? That would be easy to identify.…
In a world full of information and distractions sometimes we take for granted to look out the window, listen to our environment, and think for ourselves. Having something to say or not, sometimes we need to be an observer, and feel in some way alive, by living instead of comparing or consuming other people's lives.…
Shephards pie with chicken mince, mini pomfrets on a bed of buttered spinach, pasta with a medley of ''english'' vegetables in a tomato sauce. Green salad with a generous topping of feta. Of course, some very garlicky bread. For dessert a christmas plum cake with fresh cherries in a custard. Topped off with a bottle…
Covid came and Covid went (well, not really). There was isolation for a long time. Then there was not, as long as you wore masks in private spaces. Shortly after I started going out, I began having these recurrent dreams. I would dream that I entered someplace (the bus, the shopping, whatever) and suddenly notice that…
last night i slept worse than i have in months. i mean i’ve been sleeping like shit since we landed on this rock but last night the pain just took over me. the night before, i snuck out on my own to see if I could figure out what the orb was composed of. i thought, if i could just get close enough to chip off a shard…
Life is just a game - don’t feel so uptight and harsh on yourself; especially if you f up too many things It’s just consequences; every action and thought process will lead to one and another I just hope at this age you’ll be mature enough to know the significance of - Not going to the gym Sleeping early Don’t think…
The wolf had a brief weird moment. He saw his own shadow waving at him. Was it a sign of some higher calling? Did the Gods of the forest will him to take a reckoning of his existence thus far? After all, he was walking the walk of a wisened and senile canid for a while now. Perhaps the moment was not far away when he…
Eu vi Erycah Badu. Cara, que intensa. Ela é o tipo de pessoa que se fizesse uma seita, eu seria a primeira a entrar. Bruxona, catártica, muito além da mente. Ganhei o show de graça numa promoção do Instagram e não tava botando fé, mas rolou de verdade. Cheguei e falaram que meu nome não estava na lista, mostrei…
the problem with creative writing is that it messes with your "serious" writing. when you're in creative mode, you can do whatever you want. there are no rules. you can get away with a hand-wavy explanation of something under the guise of being an artist or whatever. it's not that creative writing doesn't have well…
Ahhhh ⤴️ the ideas of a physical world are being mediated by images for a digital world. how about reflecting on the digital world through written conceptual ideas?
You might be sitting at a restaurant with a friend. The check comes, and your dining partner reaches for his wallet. "No, no," you kindly remind him, "it's my turn." This reciprocal gesture may be well-intentioned, but it immediately triggers a sense of disappointment bordering on offense. "Don't turn this into a…
In the debate over freedom of expression with regard to blasphemy, I find it absurd when the argument is made, usually in response to some Muslim fanatic going on a murder rampage, that "well Christians try to censor expression too." I just don't think there exists a reasonable argument to be made that there is any…
The self-help genre is the second most addicting substance that is fully legal in the world. In case you’re wondering, coffee is first by a long mile. The self-help industry is worth over 10 billion dollars, and I imagine will continue to grow as we search for more answers on how to improve. We read books and listen…
As people return to travelling and airports, it’s been interesting to see how behaviour has changed. Some observations. Masks are no longer required in French airports but the vast majority of people are wearing them. This I expect is in stark contrast to what’s happening in the US and even the UK. You get the…
It hit me today. The realization didn't hit me like a ton of bricks. (Like some people would say.) But it did arrive to my conscious awareness. What am I talking about? Well, the fact that people don't do that of taking time and space out of their mundane routine. Like what I can write in the following paragraphs can…
From the book "The Business Idea Factory" by Andrii Sedniev: "There is a direct correlation between quantity and quality of ideas. The majority of ideas that the best ideas creators generate are bad, some of them are average and very few are genius. These few genius ideas make the best creators enormously…
This blogging platform (the one you are looking at) was created by Louis Pereira, a student in Write of Passage which I was also taking. It is very simple and clean. I like that, so I decided to try it out. I am trying to see how having writing viewed by others changes it. How does having an audience (or even just the…
What is the relationship between marginal, radical, or heretical beliefs and one's status or standing in polite society? Status predisposes us to think and believe in certain ideas about the world that reinforce or confirm our location in the hierarchy by virtue of demonstrating to others of equal or higher status…
There’s a quick way to find your talent short cut. Do the actual hard work not the societal pressure (means thinking hard and giving high standards to yourself) Once you got there you’ll have so many things you can do - and you have that “do it now mentality” same as “enjoy it now not later” Do more and reap the…
Giving a gift or receiving one is so complex, right? One never quite knows what someone would like. We're grappling with how useful, grand, meaningful, or liked a gift will be. The anxiety around a good gift never ends because, for the one giving, it is a matter of 'how well did I do?'. For the one receiving it, there…
it's haunting the extent to which i have gone quiet. last night i opened my instagram after a long time. it's purely an exhibitionist platform, but that aside i've some threads in there. most of them begin to grow quiet around 2018, gradually deafening in 2019 and coming to complete silence in 2020 - when i quit. i've…
i'm serious. just let me know. remember myspace surveys? the best part about myspace surveys is that as you fill out your answers, you get to read answers from the person you copy&pasted from and it's so fun to learn about them... https://coffeeandcrows.com/2020/07/13/an-old-school-myspace-survey/ this person is so…
It only takes a second for your routine to be thrown off. Lightning hit our TV. It was our only TV. We don’t watch TV that much. It’s a nice way to wind down at the end of the day. We enjoy sports (it’s baseball season!). We love old movies. With no TV what will we do? Lucky for me, I have other pastimes. I am not…
The purpose of editing is to reduce things down to their essentials. We want to cut down and ruthlessly prune. We want every word and every sentence to pull the reader inexorably towards the next. One simple way to make that happen is to use unorthodox language. In today's information glut, words and phrases like…
Romance is having ideas. Love is executing them. We have a tendency to romanticise things too quickly. A new year resolution. An elusive job. Someone we went out on a date with. We build ourselves to a point of simultaneous anticipation and trepidation, that there is a very real possibility that we might burst at our…
I certainly don’t expect everyone to like /Lolita/ So what’s the matter with me not liking others that many like? I suppose I just want to know what there is to like! So what do I like about Nabokov? He has big dick energy, that’s the first thing. And he’s funny about it. And he creeps me out in the right ways. It’s a…
I have been sitting here on my couch for about 45 minutes attempting to write something. I obviously got started (as you are reading this now), but I'm curious about what took me so long. I'm very distracted. So many more things were interesting to me than writing 300 words on this blank page. Here's everything that…
Something remarkable had happened. I took that for granted, as so often happens inside a dream, having already accepted the events — whatever they’d been. The shape of society itself had changed, The Events having shaken a greater sense of our collective responsibilities into us. Well, most of us. One such…
I found 105 articles about growing small businesses that I don't remember writing. I know the writing was forgettable because I'm running a business now and suffering from all of the stuff I talked about. Memory has some peculiar characteristics that help explain why so much of my writing feels like I'm shouting in…
"Do you want to come build something?" It was an important question, something I had been thinking a lot about lately. You can't know the answer if you never ask the question. I had never asked it myself. -- I didn't think much about startups when I was younger. I had always focused on school, moving from one grade to…
It's the decisions that you made right? No matter consciously or subconsciouly - you put the water in the kettle for it to boil. You get back to your workstation and continue to work while waiting for the water to boil. Once the water is boiled: - You travel to the kettle and took the kettle and get back to your…
Twitter is terrible, as are all other algorithmic feed social networks. I want the fun of early twitter and livejournal back.
i have been yearning to see you. It's been a while, i search for you everywhere. airports, flights, streets, restaurants, monuments. i know tears will run down my cheeks when i see you. i want to give you a big hug. and that's the dream you took away from me you came to campus. you saw me. you didn't say hi. we spoke…
i don't have an answer to WHY but i know that they do (i say "they" even though i'm american because i do not suffer from this ailment) HOW I KNOW THEY HATE THEMSELVES: they are so obsessed with being the best at everything that they do not afford themselves the luxury of simply enjoying themselves, because they do…
every day you must take time a short time to eat a cookie there will be a time that a cookie will be the last cookie you'll ever eat so if you eat a cookie every day you're fighting the chances that the cookie you last ate was the ultimate last cookie of your life don't waste time on bad cookies
