February 4, 2021

Allelujah - I've started to feel like myself again.

Was able to maintain concentration today for longer than five minutes a pop, so managed to get some studying done and also sat happily through a three hour lecture.

Even tidied my desk, that Brigadoon of paperwork, which had disappeared beneath piles of junk again since its last appearance five weeks ago.

The Graun had some good stuff today, including an advice column on the pain of procrastination, a story about a man who lives in a van (my dream - I wish we had something like Howa in the UK), and a fascinating article about Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp.

The Toyah article led me to her YouTube channel which is full of things like this:

 I love her.

Graun also had a brilliant long read about Jeff Bezos:

"a man who, despite living on a planet where one third of human beings don’t have access to safe drinking water, told Business Insider magazine that “the only way I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel”."

Ouch.

More ouch:

"“We could have a trillion humans in the solar system,” says Bezos, “which means we’d have a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins. This would be an incredible civilisation.” 

It’s worth wondering whether there might not already be thousands of Einsteins and Mozarts on this planet right now, and how many of them, due to accidents of birth and economic circumstance, are forced to expend their time and potential working as Amazon stockpickers or delivery drivers, further enriching Jeff Bezos – who would, if he were really as interested in cultivating human potential as he claims to be, probably pay people more, and let them take toilet breaks whenever they needed to."

But it's not ALL ouch:

"What are we to make of these celestial aspirations, this vision of the good life as one of endless consumption, limitless growth? And what, more to the point, are we to make of Bezos himself? In one sense, it’s hard to make anything of him at all. Despite his vertiginous wealth, and despite the extent to which his business interests have been skilfully woven into the fabric of our everyday lives, it’s weirdly hard to form any strong opinions about the man. He repels curiosity. The mind skitters off the beige gleam of his surfaces; the imagination scrabbles in vain for some purchase on the frictionless dome of his head."

Oh, sorry, yes it is - it's entirely ouch.  

Meanwhile over at The Atlantic I found an article that explains the concept of deep time in a way that actually allows my tiny brain to grasp it. 

It's head-spinning, and terrifying, but also strangely calming: none of this everyday shit matters, literally none of it.

Not a great day for photos today. Bus stop workout guy came back, with a skipping rope rather than dance moves this time, and two magpies spent the day carrying twigs back to the tree outside my window to build a nest.

If I had a better camera, and cleaner windows, I might've got good photos of these things. 

As it is, we'll have to make to with this. 

Abstract Bokeh From Sparkly Christmas Cracker Remnant (Visual Stim):