THE PSYCHIC WEIGHT OF BELONGINGS

Phil Gyford writes about renting a “skip” (a dumpster, for us American folks):

I’m increasingly aware of the psychic weight of belongings and disposing of stuff that is not and will not serve any physical or emotional purpose lifts the spirits.

I did something similar earlier this year when I had to discard of a massive TV that I was gifted, and it felt so good. Our lease ends in less than a year and I’m already in clean-out mode.

TURNING OUR BACKS ON BILLIONAIRES

Sony took away digital movies that people paid for.
Streaming services keep raising rates.
Amazon bricked old Kindles.

Sounds like the LA Clippers broke salary cap rules.
Sports teams use tax payer money to build stadiums.
Billionaires and VC just bought the Lakers, I guess.
See also, The American Sports Plutocracy Is Bullshit.

People will start turning their backs on all this.

Back to buying books, borrowing movies from the library, going to local sporting events. I can see movie rental places coming back. Hobby shops.

A collective act of turning our backs on the whole corporatized entertainment industry. Playing board games instead of video games. Hosting dinners for friends and neighbors. More pick up games.

“What do all men with power want,” asks the Oralce. “More power.”

Modern top tier entertainment can’t stop. It must seek growth and profit while draining the very soul and joy from everything we fell in love with in the first place.

Good riddance.

YOUTUBE NEEDS MORE OUTPUT

YouTube will always need more. More viewers, more time spent on the site, more more more.

Some folks want to “monetize their channels,” meaning, get a cut of the ad revenue from views. Before you had to 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the last year.

Well, YouTube says you need 8,000 hours.

From TechCrunch:

YouTube announced on Monday that new creators will have to meet higher thresholds to begin earning money from ads and subscriptions.

Creators who want to start earning on the platform will need at least 8,000 qualified watch hours over the past year or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. Currently, creators need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the past year or 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views over the past 90 days.

More content, more chances for people to keep watching, and an even bigger investment for people looking to get monetized.

As Seth Godin says, the problem with the race to the bottom is you just might win.

SLEEPING ON THE PORCH

I slept on my porch last night. Lived here for like six years now, but finally did it. A piece of tyvek, an inflatable sleeping pad, my camping quilt, and a for-real pillow. Laid under the stars, but I could only see three of them because of all the light pollution. I absolutely had to wear an eye mask.

Nearby a refrigerator compressor would kick on every 10 minutes or so. It got cold enough to put on a hoodie in the middle of the night (it’s August). I woke up about quarter to six in the morning. It was cloudy, but I could see the sky brighten.

Part of me wanted to do this just to try the “cowboy camping” thing in a safe place. I can’t believe people really do that in the woods, or on mountains. But that was fun, and I’m camping again later this week, so maybe I won’t set up the tent and instead I’ll lay in the middle of the woods and see what happens.

ON NOT POSTING FOR EVERYONE

I used to take a ton of photos during my “Bike Nerd” years (from 2010-2012ish or so). I’d post them to Twitter and Instagram, journaliing my adventures in real time more or less.

Without social media (aside from Substack Notes, eh), I rarely post photos from my adventures. Sure, some end up as the lead image on my blog posts on Social Media Escape Club, or I post them here on occasion. Otherwise, I send them to friends mostly.

The urge to post to “everyone” was replaced by the joy of sending to just a few people. A photo of a grand view, or a reminder of something we talked about recently.

One dear friend and I swap photos of the beatiful scenery from our adventures, with an ill fitting caption like, “so ugly.” “Horrible.”

I feel like if posting to 1000 people on social media will only be seen by 100 people, and really only 4 or 5 of them reallly “engage” with it, why not just those things to those 4 or 5 people, you know?

WALKING INTO THE NIGHT

Late start for my walks today, and also oppressively hot. This meant two trips to the gym, four miles walking each time, which took about an hour and 10 minutes for each. Still didn’t wrap up all my walking till 9:30pm.

Today is 73 days in a row, and I’ve covered 823 miles so far since May 26th.

ADS ARE EVERYWHERE

So BMW dropped an ad for Spider Man into the big dumb video dashboard. I mean, did we really think advertisers weren’t going to find a way to weasel their way onto those dashboard displays? It’s prime real estate, esp when you can target BMW drivers who have money, right?

Apparently this is a one time thing, but if there’s money to be made I’m sure you’ll see this in many more cars in the coming years.

And this is exactly why I want a older car with a manual transmission with windows I can roll down myself.