deus62.com

| 2025 | one thought at a time |

"Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die!”
(Jethro Tull)

01 | January

20 | Well, today I decided to simply let go of my three Instagram accounts and started deleting all my posts. When they also decided to change the feed from squares to whatever new size, all my old posts - which were designed for that old format - suddenly looked like shit, which is and was appropriate for the shit show Instagram (and everything else that curly-haired numbskull touches) has become.I'm going to keep the dead accounts because people have been trying to get to two of my account names for ages now, but for all intents and purposes, I'm gone from anything that has the Meta name attached to it.P.S.: So far, I have only been able to delete the contents (my own posts) of two accounts (not the "likes", because Instagram blocks me from doing so) because Instagram's totally f*cked-up AI bots noticed and locked me out of my third account altogether. Those are apparently the new ways of the world, so I'll just wait a few weeks or months and watch all these billionaires run the entire US into the ground first before I'll give it another try.

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19 | Here's just one example, world-renowned jazz bassist John Clayton, to illustrate how families were absolutely devasted by the LA fires.He is lucky enough to have very good friends and trusted fans and, after Jeff Hamilton, one of my absolutely favorite drummers, started a fundraiser for John and his family, was able to quickly get together quite a hefty sum of donations, but what about the people who aren't as lucky and don't have that kind of support?And the winds are picking up again ...,

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18 | On Monday I had dental surgery that threw me a solid curveball, simply because one part of my jaw became infected. Nevertheless, I'm almost done (step four will roll around in a week or two from now and be completed three weeks later), but getting implants on a larger scale (in my case 8 separate ones) is something I certainly wouldn't recommend to anyone who doesn't need them.

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17 | One more time, because these things are important: "How Google and AI are Killing Travel Blogs Like Mine." In a long and detailed article,Amanda Williams outlines those things that really should alarm everyone, although, presently, not many people seem to care. AI is on the rise and it won't take long until it will be forced down everyone's throat on a global and grand scale, no matter if consent was given or not!AI will have negative consequences, also hefty environmental ones, and it's time to at least inform yourselves!

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16 | I had encountered Simon Oslender before in various constellations but didn't really take notice until this (Steely-Dan-tinged) video, "Along the Coast", featuring Steve Gadd, Will Lee and Bruno Müller, popped up on my YouTube feed. Then I did some googling around and came across the three solo albums that all appear to be just my cup of tea. I think I'm just going to start with the newest release the above song is featured on and work my way back, also to financially support the musicians involved.

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15 | In bed after dental surgery, I was trying to catch up on a stupid series I watched last year, "The Rig". It's not even good, but just the right thing if you sleep half the time because of pain and swelling.But, I had to give up after two episodes because of one single reason: Botox. Two of the female lead roles have these botoxed, fish-mouthed and completely expressionless faces that are just unbearable to watch. They take me out of the plot and action immediately when they pop up, which they frequently do. Especially Alice Krige is painful to look at (and really does look like the Borg Queen today she so effectfully played in Star Trek many years ago).It didn't take me longer than scrolling through three or four reviews before I found similar sentiments over on IMDB: "More botox-faced women: The old lady that owns the company [...] has so much Botox, she has that fish mouth and she has no expression. The main girl also has a Botox face [...] she's so wooden and expressionless. [...]"

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14 | I've had plenty of time to read around these past two days and noticed the increasing numbers of articles, tweets and social network posts taking tech/Internet companies to task for - consciously - trying to make things worse for users and focussing on monetary gain exclusively. This is what they focussed on:(01) "The World Travel Guy", like so many other small and/or independent publishers, fires a salvo into Google's face over on Twitter, saying (and proving): "Google's ranking algorithm is so bad now I have to constantly file copyright reports to keep spam sites from outranking me with stolen content. As soon as these are nuked, more will take their place. This is an algorithm that shadowbans creators and rewards spam."(02) Most of the people I have been following are severely criticising the UK's government for wanting to make it legal for AI companies to train their AI on people's copyrighted material without a licence.(03) Finally, and to my utmost satisfaction, the entire WordPress ecosphere (meaning everyone who isn't on his payroll) is laughing about Matt Mullenweg, who overstepped the line one too many times. Although he refuses to accept that he is the aggressor, the fight against, for example, WPEngine, is beginning to capsize the nest he so nicely built for himself. Although he maintains his innocence despite years of abusive behaviour, also in this case, he now has to acknowldege that "Lawsuits Could End WordPress". In a nutshell, this is where we are at: "Those looking for a sign that the conflict that Mullenweg initiated could come to an end sooner than later were disappointed. Mullenweg appears to be suggesting that only WP Engine can end the conflict by dropping their defensive lawsuit and allowing Mullenweg to resume his attacks designed to drive them out of business. A federal judge ruled against Matt Mullenweg by granting WP Engine’s request for a preliminary injunction to block his attacks against WP Engine."I'll repeat it again: people like Matt Mullenweg ("WordPress"), Elon Musk ("X"), Mark Zuckerberg ("Meta") and Sundar Pichai ("Google"), plus a whole bunch of others, should be tarred and feathered and hunted out of the global village ... rather sooner than later, because:(04) "There’s a reason why it feels like the internet has gone bad."

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13 | Had major dental surgery again today and spent the rest of the day in bed, catching up on a TV series or two.

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12 | Brian Keene linked to an excellent article on Wired, "[t]he inside story of the teenager whose 'swatting' calls sent armed police racing into hundreds of schools nationwide - and the private detective who tracked him down". Written by Dhruv Mehrotra and Andy Greenberg, it's one of those articles that reads like a thriller in many parts.

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11 | I don't know if "enjoy" is the right word for an extremely violent TV series like "American Primeval", but I thought it was a very good series with a solid script, very good acting, but also very bleak tone and some misfires.

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10 | As the fires continue to ravage parts of LA, I heard from an old acquaintance who lost everything in the Palisades Fire. Today, you can also read about lots of other people who barely had enough time to get out and save themselves and their families, losing everything in the process.I simply cannot and do not want to imagine what that's like. Even if you do have a good enough insurance, which many people in LA didn't have, you can never replace those many items and memories that a house or apartment can hold.

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09 | The photos of the fires in Los Angeles have an absolutely surreal quality to them, as do statements by many, which, in most cases, immediately politicized this tragedy and are lashing out at everyone and everything, just because it is those people's modus vivendi.I'm just glad there are still tons of people willing to help those affected instead of sitting in their musty basements, furiously attacking their keyboards, with spittle flying from their mouths amidst clouds of Dorito dust, and blasting their utterly inane bullshit across the globe.

08 | Here's a book I'm going to preorder (publication in August of 2025) : "The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand"."[...] Now for the first time, Stephen King has fully authorized a return to the harrowing world of The Stand through this original short story anthology as presented by award-winning authors and editors Christopher Golden and Brian Keene. [...] The End of the World As We Know It features unforgettable, all-new stories set during and after (and some perhaps long after) the events of The Stand [...] as an essential companion to the classic, bestselling novel [...]Contributors include Wayne Brady and Maurice Broaddus, Poppy Z. Brite, Somer Canon, C. Robert Cargill, Nat Cassidy, V. Castro, Richard Chizmar, S. A. Cosby, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, Meg Gardiner, Gabino Iglesias, Jonathan Janz, Alma Katsu, Caroline Kepnes, Michael Koryta, Sarah Langan, Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon, Josh Malerman, Ronald Malfi, Usman T. Malik, Premee Mohamed, Cynthia Pelayo, Hailey Piper, David J. Schow, Alex Segura, Bryan Smith, Paul Tremblay, Catherynne M. Valente, Bev Vincent, Catriona Ward, Chuck Wendig, Wrath James White, and Rio Youers.

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07 | I rewatched a favorite TV series of mine recently, "Southland". It ran for five seasons from 2009-2013. I think it stood the test of time and I remembered it as a series that started strong and became stronger as it progressed. Checking from today's vantage point, it rose from a solid 69% approval rating to one of 85% and above for its third, fourth and fifth seasons. It had a "bold, contemporary tone" and laid the groundwork for series like "The Shield", another one which I gobbled up way back when (*). If you can find "Southland" somewhere, it comes highly recommended by me after this second viewing.(*) Note: Oops. David K. (thanks!) alerted me to the fact that "The Shield" (2002-2008) ran before "Southland". Maybe I shouldn't rely on my memory too often anymore. Apparently, it ain't what it used to be. Nevertheless, both series had similarities in regard to shaky cam and other contemporary style elements.

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06 | I never really thought about what it is that I really do around here, but after I posted a link to my website over on Reddit as an example of what you can do with Carrd, user "chrcnsl" alerted me to a term I had never consciously heard before, "digital garden"."A digital garden is basically a combination of an online notebook and a personal wikipedia. It’s your personal collection of ideas. [...] You likely consume a ton of content: blogs, newsletters, masterclasses, video series, podcasts, tweets, TikTok, longform articles, books, audiobooks, etc — the list goes on forever. But passively consuming it means risking it being forgotten [...] A digital garden is your corner of the internet — a place for you to explore and write about what interests you, just because it interests you. Without worrying about if it’s in your niche. Without worrying whether or not your audience will like it. Without the pressure of having all the answers wrapped up in one neat post. [...] Digital gardens are, in a way, a return to the early days of the internet — before chronological blogs and social media streams took over."I especially like the quote referenced at the end of the article, taken from Maggie Appleton's "A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden":“Digital gardening is the Domestic Cozy version of the personal blog. It's less performative than a blog, but more intentional and thoughtful than our Twitter feed. It wants to build personal knowledge over time, rather than engage in banter and quippy conversations.”Yep, that's actually what I have been doing here since 2019 and, looking at the pages and parts finished and ready to be "planted" here in the next few months, the garden has been growing nicely.Let's hope for uninterrupted good weather.

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05 | Michael J. Fox, a truly worthy recipient.

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04 | Drumeo finally published its "Phil Collins: Drummer First" video that had been in the works for quite some time.Since my childhood and the time I listened to "Genesis" for the first time ("Trespass, 1970), Phil Collins has been one of my favorite artists, no matter how much flak he received for having been literally everywhere as a solo artist in the 1980s and 1990s. As Chad Smith (and many other drummers and musicians) state in the video: "He always played what was right for the music and that's the sign to me of a real musician that knows how to play for the song." Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) adds: "It's always super musical. There's always shape and dynamics and breath." Yep.He is also one of the few drummers whose sound and style remain instantly recognizable while his technical chops were frightening to those drummers who, like me, tried to copy some of the more intricate "Genesis" material. He was a natural at his instrument and, as he states himself in the video, "I’m not a singer that plays a bit of drums; I’m more of a drummer that sings a bit”."It is terribly depressing to see how fragile the man has become. He can't play anymore. He can't walk properly anymore. His hands are shaking. Decades of touring and hard work have taken their toll on his hands and legs, as most drummers (and other touring musicians that always gave 100+ percent) know they will/would.Still, the man is a legend and left a huge body of work that is exemplary. I have tons of respect for him and still today hardly a week goes by without me listening to something he poured his lifeblood into.

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03 | Just before Christmas, I watched in horror as Google's most recent updates to their algorithms ruined the visibility of many independent websites by practically de-ranking them. Livelihoods were lost and, yes, lives ruined.This move again shows how a few big players seem to be increasingly gravitating towards AI-sourced search results that simply do not offer anything of value to the customer while profiting hugely themselves. I hope these moves will bite them in the ass one day, but with the common Internet user being as passive as he or she is, I don't see that happening any time soon.So, I have added a Links page to my website (via the homepage) which lists and briefly introduces websites I read on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. It also includes some tips on how to find more good blogs, websites and forums, all of which are often all but invisible on Google, unfortunately still the search engine of choice for most people.The page will be updated with more worthwhile links as I come across them.

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02 | Well, 2025 wasn't off to a good start. My wife caught a case of the flu, I feel like that same one is knocking on my door and the weather is horrible (and about to get even worse).Still, we had a cosy evening last night eating leftovers and enjoying the warmth of our apartment (plus a viewing of "Juror #2", which we liked).Today, I added some entries to the memorial website for my much-missed best friend of three decades, Dominique Imbert. As it turns out, a stupid programming error I made hid a few entries for that site from my view and I only stumbled across them today.All of this reminded me that I'm still sitting on a 10-page text detailing my relationship with Dominique that I sat down and wrote the day he passed away. I wonder if that will ever see the light of day, but if it does, then it will be around these stomping grounds here.

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Recent Updates:

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01 | Happy New Year everyone & All the best for 2025!Last night we had the feeling that a lot more money than usual was launched into space and blown to smithereens. For some reason, Germany has seen a surge of imbeciles who think that fireworks are their route to some perceived "Freedom!" that only exists in those heads that were confused by the earth not being flat, the corona virus not having been designed by Bill Gates and baby blood not having been the ingredient in everything the hated "elite" eats or drinks.So, as we head into 2025, let's keep an eye on those braindead morons that are multiplying around the globe, although it's actually easy to ditch them all in one fell swoop: just delete - as I did in 2024 - your social media accounts and / or leave them by the roadside.Then, occasionally, check how much further the populace has regressed into the middle ages.Once a month should suffice.P.S.: We had a wonderful three-course dinner (shortened by one course to come down to two) last night and enjoyed a quiet evening, also, in-between, adding some pieces to this wonderful puzzle: "The World of Hercule Poirot: A 1000-piece Jigsaw Puzzle".

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