There are two things I need to address first. At times people read my weekly update and are sad about the state of the world, or they think that I am fearful of thing. That is not correct. There are two aspect to look at.
First is one’s own inner state. As in are you in danger right now. Is anything wrong right now. Personally, life is great, work from home and see the family more which is not something I would be able to do unless I went full time freelance or found a remote only role. I can exercise at the beach, built a computer, getting back to playing some computer games, working on a few projects, discovered drive through groceries. Of course life is not perfect, can’t go rock climbing, only the gym at the beach is “open”, no school for the kids – however my position has always been education is mainly the responsibility of the parents.
Second is the awareness of what is happening in the world beyond one’s self. I am not worried about the world as the world generally has gotten better over the longer time frame. And if you don’t understand this then you need to read the book the Rational Optimist. Having kids is the ultimate sign that you are hopeful for the future. But there are things that are not right and for me it is about having awareness and taking the necessary counter measure where appropriate.
- Central Bank inflating the currency? Then educate yourself and see if it’s appropriate to allocate a portion of money to a fixed supply asset like bitcoin.
- Possibility of bank going under? Then spread the risk across a few banks.
- Gov spying on your internet metadata? Use a VPN. Deploy your own DNS server. Deploy privacy router, tighten your networking.
- Can’t leave the country? Get a second passport and have options. Check out Plan B passports. It requires money.
- Worried about COVID? Look at data and weigh your individual risk of getting vaccinated. Looks at other measures you can take.
- Big tech spying on you? Accept it or move to another platform.
- Worried about China dominating the world? Learn Chinese.
- Have limited time to exercise, then make sure you do the exercises that are going to have the biggest impact.
- Feeling depressed about the news? Stop reading the news and focus on your individual goals and projects.
We must remain vigilant and aware of the things happening around us. To have options and to make choices with a clear mind. I point out things to bring awareness, but mainly because it’s of interest to me. To shine a light onto the shadows. It’s not all bad news in the world. Take for instance these twins when they see each other again. It brings joy but often these things are not reported.
If you are struggling during these times. I offer you my tips
- Go out and get some fresh air and sunlight first thing in the morning. Go for a jog, or just stand outside and breath. Get the blood moving.
- Find some nature and be we nature on the weekend. Some trees, a lake, the sea.
- Start a journal. Jess and I have been doing the Morning pages and the task as assigned in the Artist Way book.
- If you have no time for a full 3 page journal, then do a 5 min journal (or the similar ones you can find on Amazon)
- Sit quietly first thing in the morning with the aim of not doing anything for 55 mins. (25 mins sitting, 5 min walking around, 25 mins sitting)
- Meditate with an app like Headspace or Waking Up.
- Start a project that you have been thinking of in the back of your mind but never had the time. Having a project just keeps you busy. (I’m looking at 3D design and printing at the moment).
- If you have trouble concentrating do my tip of just have a single song on repeat in the background. (I have Chinese new year music on while I’m writing this. Weird I know!)
- Go deeper into an understanding of a topic that you have been putting off or that your looking to learn more about.
To put things into perspective during my parents / grandparents generation, they had to make a choice to put the kids on a rickety boat with a bunch strangers to flee your country. These guys were 11 years old. Think about that for a moment, it’s better for the kids to be put on a boat than to stay with their parents. (The guys switch between Vietnamese and English in the video, not sure if other people will find it hard to follow).
COVID
Everything is still in lockdown.
Here are the numbers and the trend from the COVID-19-AU site.
Most importantly, remember when people were stocking up from the supermarket for a pandemic. Well It might be a good time to do that again if the truckies block the roads and cause a supply chain issue for all the supermarket. Fill up the petrol, make sure you have medical stock and food stock just in case. Do this today, if you haven’t done any planning. #IStandWithTruckies has been trending on twitter.
Also on the same topic start looking at Xmas presents earlier this year, cause if you need to have stuff delivered it might not arrive in time. I tend to keep Jess’s present right under her nose where she never finds it. Like the time I had ballet tickets taped to the bottom of her laptop for months.
Queensland premier is caught having the vaccine but the lid of the needle is not even off! Below is the Queensland CHO. Conflict of interest anyone?
If you leave your home in NSW, it’s straight to jail. NSW intensive care specialist is worried about an increasing number of young people being admitted to the ICU.
It’s a moment of truth as NSW moves towards a 2 class society, those who are vaccinated and those who can’t or won’t. It’s moment of truth because with eased restriction for those vaccinated it means that we will now know on Australian soil if vaccination stops the spread or not.
Hairdressers have been recruited in NSW to play police, and if are not vaccinated or have underling issues that stop you from being vaccinated then you get no haircut.
Fortunately forging the vaccine certificate is so easy to do.
Have you noticed how the narrative has changed at the CDC, check out the comparison. Ivermecin is getting a mention in Australia now. We would hope it gets a review by the TGA at some point. However all we seem to talk about is booster shots. Doesn’t look like a double dose will set us free.
Dr Lee Merritt use to be a navy surgeon, and she has a warning against the vaccine. Here’s the full talk for those who are interested. BBC Presenter died from the vaccine.
Russell Brand on why COVID is a power grab for the governments. In Israel, they are saying the people who are putting the population at risk are the ones who have had 2 doses but not 3. You will actually be soon considered not fully vaccinated if you haven’t had 3 doses. Here’s how Israel are doing against Sweden that had no lockdown or forced vaccination.
The world is at 18,596,697 with 2% death rate still (4,514,002). Panic buying has hit Vietnam as strict lockdown is now enforced by the military. Reminder that military is not suppose to be deployed against one’s own people.
Vaccine passport is coming to Canada.
Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has told the government to bugger off and he doesn’t want to promote their vaccination propaganda. Remember the time where Chris was happy to help out with the live weather forecast??
It’s worth reading how we will manage to live with corona virus forever. Essentially the situation will evolve to a point where people have enough immunity that we would treat it like a common cold, and it will be the 5th corona virus that is in circulation.
Some Australians are idiots if they go to outback Australia and expect it to be like Bali. There is going to be wide open spaces with nothing, no phone reception for ages, you will find petrol stations that have no petrol (As I found out the hard way). You will find supermarkets that are low on food. It’s actually part of the adventure and why I love outback Australia.
Finance and Economics
I found it interesting that Ikea pays no tax in Australia. Does it stop me buying at Ikea, probably not.
The lesson Sweden has learned is that that if you seize bitcoin as a proceed of crime, don’t price it in fiat, otherwise you will be forced to pay the convinced drug dealer a lot more money when you’ve realised that bitcoin has gone up in price.
State of the world.
Here’s this images from the 28th August of the 7th consecutive week of protest all around France against vaccine passport. The French have been boycotting vaccine passports by having a picnic in front of empty vaxx-only bars and restaurants.
The American left so much military equipment in for the Taliban it’s not funny. Talk about funding terrorist. Don’t worry China and Russia have come in to inspect it and provide repairs and maintenance.
Tech
I found this episode a good reminder, flash your router with open source firmware, don’t use a router provided by your ISP if you care about privacy. Please look for and disable uPnP in your router. There is no reason for you to have that enabled.
I haven’t used google for search for years now. It has been DuckDuckGo as the default. The only time I would go to google is if I need to search for something privacy breaking like a person’s name, or to google a phone number of a missed call I just got. But it’s also interesting to see some other search engines alternatives like Qwant.
I have been tightening up my Linux server’s security lately.
I’ve also been playing with Tinkercad for 3D modelling. Their tutorial remind me of playing a video game which is a great way to learn. If I manage to design a few interesting things then I will allow myself to justify buying a 3D printer.
Other Stuff
Get to know your coffee from a European perspective. It’s even more important if you are lactose intolerant since there’s no soy in Europe. I tend to get a noisette when I’m in France
This guy was creating a documentary about the Montegue st bridge and a truck got stuck!
Have a good week all! Oh the poor bears..
