The war on humanity has begun

Oh Google, you impertinent minx. All your once aspirational vestiges of 'Don't be evil' have now been tossed aside to make place for 'Let's milk humanity.' For those of you not in the know, Google has slowly been putting steps in place to stop all possibilities of the internet being free from adverts because, you know, Google's main/only notable revenue stream is from serving ads to the general public.

The first step was introducing a feature set into all chrome/chromium (AKA open source chrome) versions under the mantle of Manifest V3. This would limit the abilities of adblocking extensions to work effectively while browsing the internet. Perhaps this is not the most egregious of examples but I know this is just the beginning.

It seems that google wants me to buy some shoes

They have also turned their attention to services like youtube, where the war on adblockers is nearing its end game. From merely slowing the load time of pages, to outright failing to load if you have adblocker enabled, it's clear that I will need to find a source other than youtube to entertain me in the very near future.

Welcome to the void

In reality, I kind of foretold of this war when it came to free apps and services like facebook, instagram, google, youtube, chrome. It was not enough for them to merely ransack our internet habits for uncanny conclusions on our personal interests, sexual preferences, or buying habits; they wanted more. More than merely affixing a price upon our heads for our data - they wanted our money as well - or for us to dang well just watch ALL TEH ADS.

Even though I can quite comfortably cover the cost of $13.99, I feel like this cost is merely a stepping stone to $15.99, $18.99, $30.99 etc. We, as a society, are quickly moving towards a subscription-based system for everything. Now, I know that a single subscription is not going to break the bank but when you factor in the cost of multiple streaming subscriptions, electricity, food, petrol, internet, faster acceleration in your mercedes, heated seats in your BMW and so on, very few people can comfortably juggle that burgeoning expense. Heck, if you squint hard enough, even things like a 24-month contract on your smart phone or a car lease could technically be boiled down as a subscription. In comparison, I keep my outgoings to perhaps $100 a month when it comes to most consumables - but that's only with consciously avoiding a lot of the pitfalls of modern society.

I bought my phone, I bought my car, I will (very soon) buy my house, and I will buy infrastructure to generate my own energy, food stuffs and clean water. I will be 90+% off most grids when it comes to my basic needs and that is only because I know what our future has in store for us. These are not the ramblings of a once-sane mind but merely forecasting the downfall for most of our society. Whether it's our spiraling destruction caused by global warming, the collapse of the underwater conveyor belt, or the hyperinflation being felt around the world, I'm through putting my future in the hands of people who clearly don't have my best interests at heart and I think it would be best if you did the same.

Satie is my homie

 The first time I heard this track was, unexpectedly, in Short Circuit 2. Upon hearing his composition, even the first time, I knew Erik Satie was my homie. It was a perfectly eloquent, delightful and tinged track which seems to capture both beauty, loss and the final realisation that, no matter how careful you are, you cannot control your fate.

Somehow Johnny Five was able to convey the sense of loss ... but somehow miss the point in the process. This is not a sonata which can merely be short-hand for sad. This is a track which starts out predictably with a basic chord progression; simple and predictable - and then the choral lead leads in with a childlike innocence. This is the common thread of the track while the backing plays a predictable and plodding chord progression.

At no point does this lead vary in its aim to be harmonious. And yet, the lead breaks harmony. It's surpising, and yet, it continues. Satie leans in and begins to completely break any sense of harmony. The choral line blindly continues forward against the backing's dissonance. This composition, to me, speaks of a desire to move towards normality while the starkness of reality says otherwise.

To me, Erik was never able to reconcile this desire for normality amongst the throes of a crumbling society. This composition is his acceptance that he will always be the outsider and that he has come to peace with, what I would humbly deem, his magnum opus.