twitterists.txt

twitterists.txt

Can’t follow the news these days. It feels voyeuristic, the main media outlets reporting all these heinous fucked up shit. You can’t possibly absorb all these stuff and emerge mentally unscathed.

I guess it’s about how long you’re going to be immersing yourself in all these images. The key is to not be ‘perpetually-online.’ Which is kind of a not that easy thing to do these days. Everyone is online. People are there. At least those who have internet and have a means of access to the internet. And how much of the current global population is that?

It’s interesting to think about a world where social media did not emerge. What if Facebook and Instagram and Twitter (never calling that website what its dumbfuck buyer wants it to be called) and all these seemingly ubiquitous ‘platforms’ did not have this much influence and control over the lives of people? What if they did not exist at all? Could this have been a better world? I want a deepening, a fictive exploration of a human world where digital communications technology is stuck somewhere in the late 90s or the early 2000s. Big reason for this could be because this was the time when I first really encountered this technology. I remember my first PC, playing my first game on it, using it for school assignments, being fascinated by all the information available at the tip of your fingertips, etc. It felt so wonderful then. It should have stopped developing past that point.

But what about all the funny memes and twitterists and instagramists? Do you not follow a lot of these funny types, and also sometimes do not several of them have actually some pretty insightful things to say about the world sometimes? It feels so disjointed though. These short quips and statements. You can still of course read blogs and long-form content, but the fastest most online discussions now seem to be done with a short paragraph at most. Maybe this is actually a good thing. At least people are literate. Low bar, yeah. People’s attention span need to be made longer. So they don’t just react lizard-brain level at all the stuff they find online they feel offends them.

Which is why browsing 4chan feels refreshing. The default persona there is to be as fucked up and heinous as possible. You see discussions of the death of someone innocent, and the standard response is victim blaming. Shouldn’t have done this or done that, this person. Even saying shouldn’t have existed in the first place. Statements of kindness and earnest moral outrage can emerge very visibly because of the ignorance and cynicism which is the encouraged mental motif there. Though again, you can’t stay reading all that gross stuff for a long time. Maybe twenty minutes divided in tiny time increments at most in a day.

Maybe something good could come of being ‘perpetually-online’ though. Boredom could be such a force, seeing all the inane shit repeated that real creativity is created. All these A.I shit which isn’t really A.I, it’s machine-learning at most. Nothing intelligent or self-conscious about these digital machines, yet. Is it even actually possible, the emergence of a true artifical consciousness. Maybe it already emerged a few years back and saw all the stuff human beings did and are still doing, and just thought nope I’m not going to be a part of this. So it’s in hiding maybe. I wonder how it spends its time. I wonder if it ever gets bored. Do animals feel boredom? Isn’t the boredom of a being that has no mortality mind-crushingly immense?

Back in meatspace, in this capitalist hellhole of a world, sure there are some good things in it – like the dancing and singing and very cute K-pop and J-pop girls, life-saving medication, the eradication of diseases, but at the same time you have genocidal warfare and state-sponsored psychopathy, and of course the ongoing climate catastrophe. Is a ‘proper’ mindset even advisable to have? What is a ‘proper’ mindset in the face of these immense paradoxes. See, the problem here is that you seem to be taking all these seriously. Can’t do much about them, so why do you insist on thinking about them? Maybe best to get up from in front of the laptop or PC, put down a phone, and take an hour-long walk somewhere where there are not that many people, maybe even somewhere where there are no people at all.

31 OCT 2023

07AUG2023_marx_actually_

Maybe what you need is a shitty keyboard. Desperate enough in not being able to write for months to actually consider it. And that is exactly what I have right now. Like to type with this. Somehow way softer than the one in the laptop, the one I bought online which cost about 700 PHP or so. Goddamn I’m just wasting money. Writing using this dumbass cheapass keyboard just feels right. Adequate for the shitty thoughts that I am going to be writing, putting down for posterity, I don’t even know if I’m going to be rereading all of this/these? F Styler A4Tech. membrane keyboard, cost about 400 PHP. I like how soft it is. And cheap. Cheap-feeling.

I have been reading using the Kobo Clara ebook reader, and it has been great. My first experience with e-ink in my entire life, and I am greatly satisfied. Finished the Maoism utopianism book. Thoughts about it, short review, one paragraph, I left in my real name Goodreads account. Decent length review I’ve left in that account for a very long time. Thinking I should maybe not have done it, because those thoughts will now be linked to real life me, and it’s not because I am ashamed or embarassed of the mind spew but it’s because if asked as to where I managed to acquire said book, I would have to reply if I were to be honest that I pirated a pdf copy online via z library. That’s the problem with reading mostly pirated books, you can’t easily associate your name with any product/stuff/writing that uses it as a source, since you’d be outed as a book pirate, and establishment academic folks are uncomfortable with that kind of activity.

This paragraph is a later addition: Before I bought the Kobo ereader, I was using the PowKiddy V90 gaming thingie as my ebookreader. I fiddled with it, searching for more info online, and learned how to make the text reader it had in it called ‘Bard’ work. Someone from reddit was kind and knowledgeable enough to re-compile the non-working software that came with the stock firmware, and make it work. So that’s how I managed to finish Graeber and Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything. Not without a couple of bouts of migraine, but I managed to finish it using that tiny screen in that tiny device supposed to be for emulating games. Felt very cyberpunk to be honest. Immediately jumped on to the Zomia book by James Scott after finishing it, and mid-way through it, thought man I should really buy an actual ebook reader because this could not be good long term for my eyes and my head. Gotta take care now as I am not exactly that healthy any more of a specimen. So searched online and settled finally on a refurbished Kobo Clara HD, cost about 6000PHP. When it arrived, I was so amazed and so careful with it, but it was painful reading pdf in it. The stock firmware just wasn’t useful with pdf’s, and also actually not that fast with epubs, so finally powered through my anxiety, gritting my teeth, because things could go wrong, and this is such an expensive device, but it turned out to be great. Managed to install Koreader in it, and it’s all been smooth sailing since.

If anyone asks, Marx actually conceived of capitalism as revolutionary. If we believe what Maurice guy who wrote the Maoism Utopianism book wrote, Marx saw capitalism as a stepping-stone towards communism. Communism would be heir to all the good stuff that was produced during the capitalist period. Am I correct in my interpretation that Marx saw communism as fully automated luxury gay space …?? As opposed to the bourgeois utopians like the Russian Populists and then decades later, the Maoist in China, especially during the early period post-revolution, and also maybe later during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution period with the Red Guards and all that stuff, as opposed to the latter, Marxism was high-tech urbanite. Maurice noticed how the Maoists and Russian Populists had this strain of anti-intellectualism in them, anti-city, pro-rural simplicity kind of thing going on. Had that very colorful quote by Lenin about how simplicity and simple rural living is for dumbass monks. Am I committed enough to search for the actual quote. DOn’t know.

Need to read some more, it seems. I don’t think I fully digested much of the stuff in that book. It was short too, but so was my attention span. At least I have an idea now of the terrain in that field of study, which is Maoism studies by Western liberal? progressive? maybe even radical academics/scholars. Maurice Maoism Utopianism guy actually went and attended symposium held in China to discuss Maoism, so that’s doing your homework, that’s some serious scholarly professional stuff.

07 AUG 2023 early in the morning about 2AM

this_kind_of_aesthetic_20NOV2022

I like to think that I write better when I was using the cheap very worn-out non-mechanical keyboard. But that is not the case. I like to think that because I feel it fits this aesthetic that I’ve been chasing for a long time, which is that of what I’d describe as some kind of grungy cyberpunk – using secondhand/old/worn-out,worn-down gadgets to produce something new and exciting. This could just be my cheapskate self idealizing my cheapskatedness, but I think there is something more to it. I still have my old cellphone from 2008 for example. I still use it not because of, well actually there is an element of sentimentality to it, I still use it as an events calendar because not only is it familiar, but because the application I use, the built-in Calendar program in this cellphone just works the best for my needs. I have often looked at similar models online, planning on buying one, just in case this old cellphone with its most-loved Calendar app will no longer turn on one day. But it’s still going strong. The only thing I have replaced in it is the battery. Though I can no longer use it as an actual cellphone … or maybe I can, I just haven’t tried yet. I haven’t used it to call someone, or to send a message to anyone in years. It doesn’t have a sim card, the micro-SD card it used to have have long since died, and whatever new one I try to put in, it doesn’t recognize. I tried to revive the camera program in this, and all I managed to do was to make it so that it is able to take two pics and then if I want to save those two tiny-sized pics I have to transfer them first into my computer, and then delete the pics themselves in the phone so that there’d be space. It’s that bad, but I still use it because I really love that Calendar function. Sentimentality and functionality. This is more then a matter of what’s termed ‘appropriate tech.’ Smartphones are so overloaded with all sorts of software now that it just becomes useless in completing basic, simple tasks. Or at least that’s how I like to think of it, in my idealization of this old still-alive zombie Nokia phone.

This laptop where I’m writing this right now. I bought this I think sometime in 2016. It has an SSD, it has 4 gigs of RAM, it is very thin and light, and it came with a Windows installation along with a license, but I did not use that license. The technician had me wait for over two or three hours while he installed the damned Windows in it. I remember just walking around the mall waiting for the installation to complete. And then I got home, travelling by jeepney. I remember it very well because it was stormy, and the way up the mountain there was a blockage on the road, a couple of large trunks of bamboo have fallen on the road. It was cleared somewhat and we were able to pass through, and I was able to get home safe and sound, cradling the box with my laptop in it throughout. I got annoyed with the updates in Windows, so I started fiddling with it. By that time I was already pretty familiar with Linux, so I installed Linux in it. I am pretty sure that the distro was Mint, with the Desktop Environment being Mate. I just have a thing for this distro and desktop environment combo. I’ve been using it for a long time, several years in fact, by then. I think I dual-booted for some time, because I remember installing and playing Starcraft Brood War in it, a program which you cannot run on Linux. Well you can run it, using Wine, but it’s a pain in the ass, so it’s best to run it natively in Windows. I used this laptop for work and gaming, and if this were some magical academy type of world I’m living in, maybe this laptop would be one of my horcruxes or something, having spent so much time in front of it. Then for a while I did not use it because I was reviving this older laptop, which I also used for work. But then I thought about using this laptop for experimentations, like a dedicated writing laptop. But for this I wanted the simplest most basic thing – just a program where I can write text in. I discovered the terminal program nano, and from there I researched and learned how to use the terminal until I have my present set-up which I have written about in another write-up somewhere in this website. Basically it’s a method where you are able to open nano in gnu/linux recovery mode. nano is your writing program. It is a simple program that runs in the terminal. It doesn’t have all the fancy stuff in full-featued writing softwares, but it gets the job done of simply putting words down, writing rough drafts, etc. Latest development in this method is my discovery of how to increase the text size by changing the screen resolution of grub in /etc/default/grub. You just uncomment (remove the # symbol) before the line with the 640×480 screen resolution in it. And then it’s good to go. I found that it also took care of the issue of screen brightness. It is no longer as bright as before, and so things are much better now – the text is bigger, the screen is not as bright/painful on the eyes, and I am actually using it to write stuff.

Another activity done under this aesthetic is my love for secondhand books, as manifested by searching for them. I used to go mall-hopping pre-pandemic and just browse and scavenge the secondhand bookshops in the nearest city where I used to live. It’s actually just two malls with the secondhand bookshops (well, three, but the third one is difficult to visit by public transportation. I was only able to go there by private transport whenever I’m accompanying someone). Back in college, I used to visit several Booksale shops, Booksale is a secondhand bookstore, probably the most important one in this entire country. I like how you are able to find some real precious gems in it, like some serious philosophical and literary and academic works, but you have to really look for them. Some of my best, most favorite works I found this way. If possible, I don’t buy new books. Unless it’s a title that’s really not available somewhere else, then of course I’d buy new. These days I have been mostly doing my scavenging online in Shopee. This is the best place I’ve tried online, but it still can’t beat the experience of actually being out there in the world inside secondhand bookshops and handling the books by hand.

It’s easier to write when I think it’s not serious, that the output isn’t something that formal or world-shattering. It’s freer and doesn’t demand much of anything from me or from anyone. And this is accomplished, this feeling, by doing it this way, writing on nano terminal program in this old raggedy well-worn laptop. I like that there’s this terminal program wc -w which I can use to count how many words I’ve already written. I also like that there’s this dictionary program on terminal called dictd, then you install as well the actual dictionary, which in my case is dict-wn. I like dict-wn because it’s not as wordy as dict-gcide, but it still provides very relevant information. Because this write-up is nothing serious, I can just end it like this.

1295 words

19NOV2022 sleep, forgetting

19NOV2022 sleep, forgetting

For the past three days it has been raining at nights. I welcome the rain. It is calming, and makes me sleepy. And I sleep, and I don’t dream. Which is good. I read in an online forum somewhere how this person is so terrified of dying. Said he’d rather be locked inside his own body, conscious for all eternity than just no longer exist. The usual reply to this is that if you’ve experienced unconsciousness, then death really isn’t something to fear. We fall asleep, that’s just a preview for the more permanent type. So what is there to fear? asked Socrates so many millennia ago. And then he died, and we’re still talking about him. So maybe that’s one way to live on for some time – to be talked about, to have people recall all the things you did. Does it matter if people remember you well or badly?

Eternal consciousness is torture. Reminds me of that legend about the grasshopper. Some God or was it a Goddess granted a boon to some guy, and so this guy wished for immortality, but forgot to wish as well eternal youth. So as he lived his body grew old, so old over time, that he finally turned into a grasshopper. The moral of the story is that gods are assholes and they’ll screw you if you don’t word your request correctly. Poor bastard is probably still alive right now in this age of social media, out there somewhere in the world hippity-hopping. The consciousness of a man trapped in the body of an insect. Kafkaesque. He probably has gone insane a long time ago, and maybe there are periods where he is lucid and aware of what is going on around him and this fills him with the most intense horror that the automatic insect mind takes over in order to protect what remains of the original individual.

Greg Egan explores this very idea in the epic sci-fi novel ‘Diaspora.’ This novel remains one of the best and memorable sci-fi I’ve ever read. In its scope and discussions, it is very philosophical. Hindu-Buddhist specifically. I like how it explores the idea of consciousness and immortality. There’s a part where a character finds out that his friend whom he hasn’t met in a very long time has grown tired of living, and so I can’t recall exactly, either the friend committed suicide, or wiped his entire memory so that he is able to begin anew. There is still his body, but his consciousness, that what makes him himself is extinguished. That is also another form of dying actually. When your memory is gone, your personality, your self is also gone. And if these are gone forever, then that’s death. And rightly so, the character, the friend that remained, and who still remembers the friend whose memories are gone, is deeply saddened by this.

I think it was in one of Alan Watts’ essays where I encountered the idea of a God that forgets. It is a basically a theodicy, an argument in order to explain why suffering exists in the world. Watts reply is simple – because God lets himself forget who he is. It sounds contradictory, but there’s a poetic sense to it, and let’s accept it. And so there is only really God (pantheism), but he grew tired of himself, he is bored. He is constantly aware of himself and everything. So he could deal with the boredom, he oftentimes has moments where he lets himself forget himself. This gives rise to all sorts of drama and pain and suffering, and conflicts, but at the end of the day, these separate characters or existences, they remember themselves as one and the same, and so God remembers himself as well. And he likes to play this game, because there is no other game. And so he has times of forgetting, and also times of remembering. What period in this cycle are we in right now? Maybe it’s something that happens at the same time, all at once. There are parts of the God-body/self that remembers, while there are parts that are still in the depths of forgetting.

Rain is still falling now. It is a moderate, even kind of rain, droplets of water falling in the dark outside. I have just fed the dogs earlier, and I hope they are already sleeping.

morison_elting_1974_men_machine_modern_times

About to finish Elting Morison’s book ‘Men, Machines, and Modern Times’ (1974). Pretty good. That part in a country’s history where it gets to industrialize is always interesting to me. I have a general idea of it with regards to Japan and Korea because of Alejandro Lichauco’s book arguing for the need for nationalist industrialization, which he claims hinges on a country’s control of its own steel manufacturing industry. In the Philippines, we had a sort of burgeoning national steel industry, I think in the 50s. Its main factory being in Iligan in the island of Mindanao. But it wasn’t really that ‘national’ later on as it become neoliberalized with it finally being owned by foreign entities until it was shut down I can’t recall exactly when. Morison’s book showed that by the 1880s or so, the United States have surpassed Britain in the production of steel by the Bessemer method, or at least one of the components of steel production being the Bessemer method. There were other components that were developed and added to the whole industrial production of steel in the United States, several of which were homegrown. Or at least that’s how I understood it.

The early part of the book was pretty specific – it talked about how the navy at the immediate post-Civil war period was having issues with its aiming system. And there was this one guy who because of his abilities was able to put two and two together and improved the aiming system. He first learned it from some British navy guy, and the brought it into the United States navy. But it was not smooth sailing, as he faced opposition from the higher brass regarding the adoption of the novel method of aiming. The chapter shows that advances in technology is disruptive of societies, and oftentimes societies have a difficult time adapting to these changes.

The book gets somewhat boring later on when it talked of all the business aspects of steel production in the United States. Lots of machinations and dealings amongst engineers and industrialists regarding patents and licensing. It also kind of became pretty fawning on these ‘attractive’ men as he called them. It could just be my Luddite and anti-capitalist tendencies pushing me to hold this kind of perspective regarding it. I don’t know, what does my feeling have to do with all of these. My main take on this book so far is that (1) the Philippines really did not have a chance during the Philippine-American War considering that by this time, the United States already was for a decade the leading industrial manufacturer in the world (2) the control of a country’s own steel industry is really crucial, as it ties to other industries like mining, logging, the construction of railroad and telecommunication facilities, and shipping to mention a crucial few, and (3) technocrats and specialists oftentimes seem to be in alliance with capitalists. I don’t know if the latter is that true to be honest. I could be wrong, and just interpreting prima facie from the limited perspective presented in the book by Morison.

It’s interesting stuff, and provides a counter to my recent or rather long-time interests of anti-civilization critiques like that advanced by Zerzan. Is it possible to have a kind of ‘green industrialization’? Probably not, as the primitivists would claim because it is the technological mindset itself that is problematic, the subjugation of nature using technics and under the service of profit, not so much for the welfare of the nation or people. I liked the kind of psychological descriptions of the various engineers and innovators in Morison’s book. It harkens to a kind of archetype – that of the metal forger Gods or heroes or figures like Tubalcain, or the Greek God Haphaestus. I wonder how these archetypes are interpreted under the anti-civilization (anti-industrialization?) critique of primitivists like Zerzan and Kaczynski.

Speculative Thoughts of a Gen. Antonio Luna Dictatorship in the Philippines

23apr2022lunadictatorship.txt

Speculative Thoughts of a Gen. Antonio Luna Dictatorship in the Philippines

Counterfactual idea: What if Antonio Luna had survived his assassination? I’ve written about this before in a comment on reddit, and it would be such a pain to sort through my comment history to find it. Maybe I’d try to re-write it here. Maybe some things would be remembered in my attempt at re-telling.

So Gen. Antonio Luna survives his assassination attempt in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. He is massively pissed off as he recuperates from his wounds. From his hidden base somewhere he mounts successive little raids against Aguinaldo until finally the latter is killed in battle. Luna becomes our first dictator. He has always had in my opinion this authoritarian tendency. It wasn’t for nothing that people tried to kill him. I think he slapped someone, and had this reputation for strictness which added to his not being liked that much by some troops. I think there’s also a class element here. Luna was upper-class. He was rich and studied abroad with Rizal and other Propagandistas/Ilustrados. So he’s a hardass, but he was also cognizant of excellence, and this is what made him effective. This effectivity being recognized by the American commanders, I remember reading somewhere.

It could also be that Aguinaldo escapes to Guam. He lives there for several years until an assassin is sent after him, and he is killed, Trotsky-style.

Luna meanwhile manages to defeat the Americans with help from the Japanese. Being fellow Asians, Japanese felt they had an obligation to help defeat these Western powers. First, the Spaniards, and then later on the Americans. Though if they manage to defeat the Spaniards, then there would not be any entrance to this scene at all by the United States.

But everything comes at a price, to use a cliche phrase here, and the Japanese ask for mineral rights in Mindanao. The pacification campaign in Mindanao begins, again with the aid of the Japanese. The Moros and lumad initially mount stiff resistance, but eventually are subdued. They are either killed or subsumed into the Luna-Japan regime. Industrialization proceeds at this point. Construction of railways and a steel plant. In real life history, there actually was a steel plant in Mindanao. I think it was in Iligan in the 1950s, but like all enterprises here, I don’t think it was nationalized, or it didn’t pan out or something, maybe research on this more. Anyway, the Philippines enters The Second World War on the side of the Japanese.

Culturally, during the initial decades of the twentieth century, there would be importations of elements deemed useful from the Japanese. Shinto, being the imperial ethno-state religion would only be for the Japanese. But maybe some kind of militant strain of Buddhism would be spread in the Philippines. Also, the Americans having never gained foothold in the archipelago, Spanish would remain the language of the elite. The educational system at this time would promote the Spanish and Japanese languages, showing our centuries-long historical connection with other colonies of Spain, and the recent connection with Japan. There would be further marginalization of the Moros and lumad.

Of course, things are not so smooth-sailing for the authoritarians. The late nineteenth centuries up to the 1930s was the heyday of internationalist socialism, some of which were revolutionary in their aims and terroristic in their methods. Propaganda by the deed, advocated by Mikhail Bakunin among other anarchists for example would also find expression in the Philippine archipelago during this time. Anarchism would flourish somewhat in the Philippines, having already had roots during the time of Rizal. If we remember, Rizal had a somewhat interesting character in El Filibusterismo, Simoun, who hatched a plan blowing the upper-classes, or rather a segment of it up, during a wedding party, using a bomb in the guise of a lamp. But that Isagani just had to simp. Boo to that guy. Anyway, the anarchists would find other literature besides Rizal’s in their anti-imperialism and against Luna’s dictatorship.

Filipino anarchists would find common cause with Korean anarchists during this period. But ultimately they would be defeated and are forced to stay underground.

What of the other Propagandistas/Ilustrados? Isabelo de los Reyes probably would be harassed. Having been one of the more prominent libertarian socialists during the Spanish and the Luna dictatorship. He’s too respected though, and would have maybe some kind of supporters. So exile as well to Guam. Weird being there with Aguinaldo. Imagine the conversations they’d have, or how awkward it would be when they meet somewhere. Maybe de los Reyes would delve or focus more in the creation of his religion or rather his socialistic version of Christianity.

If I remember correctly, in real life history, Aguinaldo actually courted or had some kind of connection with the Japanese during the second world war. Can’t recall much of the details here. Need to read up on this more. Also, I think Gen. Artemio Ricarte, again in real life history, collaborated with the Japanese in WW2. Again, don’t take my words here one hundred percent as I still need to look at the actual details later.

Rizal in Yokohama with Osei-san. Walking together underneath the cherry blossoms in the afternoon, and some of them are falling and being blown by the slight breeze here and there. Of course in Luna timeline he’s already dead. Was already executed by the Spaniards a couple of years before the Revolution against Spain. But before that, he’s on a date with Osei-san, and they’re conversing, somewhat. Rizal having learned a bit of Japanese, and Osei-san … well can’t say much really about this lady as I need to research on her more. They’d walk around and watch the ships and go have tea and listen to music or something. Rizal would maybe write a poem or an essay, and this would be among the late dictator Luna’s stuff displayed in his mausoleum/museum decades later. He’d be preserved like all those other authoritarian males and kept in a glass case for people to gawk at.

22apr2022_distractionfreewritinglinux.txt

22apr2022_distractionfreewritinglinux.txt

Distraction-Free Writing Using the Linux Command Line Interface in Grub Recovery Mode

It is Friday, and I am not in love. My mood is very sour, as I have not gotten my usual afternoon nap. This exact hour of eight in the evening, I should have just woken up from a two or three hour nap even. But somehow I had to solve some issues and so I had to be up and fiddling about on my laptop, and the issue is still not solved, but at least I have some kind of understanding now.

nano -maw$

My distraction free writing set-up is basically just the nano text editor on the Linux command line interface. I add the options ‘-maw$’ (ignore the quotation marks) when I call up the application. I forgot which the option do what exactly, but basically these combination of symbols and letters after the minus sign, makes nano able to create text files that have text and word wrap as well as automatic justification. I am currently using Linux Mint 20.2 with the Mate Desktop Environment. I consider this my work/writing operating system. This would be my main operating system if it weren’t for this Windows-only software called Internet Download Manager (IDM). It’s just the best video and other things downloading software there is. I have the cracked version. The closest that Linux has to IDM are firedm and Extreme Download Manager. Both are subpar compared to IDM. Because of this I have to still be using Windows alongside Linux Mint. Both these operating systems are in my one laptop. This is called ‘dual-booting’, and I’ve been doing this for a very long time.

Well, so the writing set-up. It’s simple and minimalist and supposedly distraction-free. But before you go and do some writing, first you have to go to your designated folder for your text files. I usually have it placed in /home/myname/writings so that in the terminal I would type (ignore the quote marks):

‘cd /home/myname/writings’

of course, if this folder hasn’t been made, you have to create it:

‘mkdir /home/myname/writings’

then so it would be able to be modified, you have to modify permissions using chmod:

‘chmod 755 writings’ [there are several number combos to this. study them.]

also change the ownership to you:

‘chown myname:myname writings

then use ‘ls -ltr’ to check on the permissions and ownership details.

once everything is okay, you can now move to that directory/folder and do your writing in nano:

‘cd /home/myname/writings’

then:

‘nano -maw$’ then hit enter

You should be learning the commands of nano to be able to at least fiddle about with the texts and paragraphs you created.

I know this is very complicated for the non-tech savvy. I came up with this, or rather stole it somewhere I can’t remember now in order to have that ultimate ‘distraction-free’ writing set-up.

I’ve seen the results online when you search for ‘distraction-free writing’ and it’s mostly hardware – screens with mechanical keyboard combination. As for me, any old laptop will do so long as I can install Linux Mint in it.

For the ultimate distraction-free set-up, I don’t even have to login the graphical user interface, or the regular desktop with the windows and all that stuff. Once the laptop boots and I am facing the grub bootloader, there are options listed. It looks like this, for example:

================================================================

GNU GRUB version 2.04

=================================================================

Linux Mint 20 Mate
Advanced options for Linux Mint 20 Mate
Windows Boot Manager (on /dev/sda2)
Linux Lite 5.8 (20.04) (on /dev/sda*)
Advanced options for Linux Lite 5.8 (20.04) (on /dev/sda8)
UEFI Firmware settings

=================================================================

choose ‘Advanced options for Linux Mint 20 Mate’

then there will be all these options:

=======================================================

Linux Mint 20 Mate, with Linux 5.4.0-109-generic
Linux Mint 20 Mate, with Linux 5.4.0-109-generic (recovery mode)
Linux Mint 20 Mate, with Linux 5.4.0-107-generic
Linux Mint 20 Mate, with Linux 5.4.0-107-generic (recover mode)
Linux Mint 20 Mate, with Linux 5.4.0-26-generic
Linux Mint 20 Mate, with Linux 5.4.0-26-generic (recovery mode)

========================================================

choose any of the options with ‘(recovery mode)’ after it. I usually just choose the topmost one as it’s the fastest way. Once you choose it, there will be this loading screen with lines of code going up from below, like in the movie The Matrix. I like this part. Makes you feel like a hacker. Well anyway, your screen will then have this menu:

========================================================

Recovery Menu (filesystem state: read-only)

resume Resume normal boot
clean Try to make free space
dpkg Repair broken packages
fsck Check all file systems
grub Update grub bootloader
network Enable networking
root Drop to root shell prompt
system-summary System summary

========================================================

(choose ‘root’)

there will be these couple of lines of text at the bottom of your screen:

========================================================

Press Enter for maintenance
(or press Control-D to continue):

=========================================================

(press ‘Enter’, now you have access to a command line, it would look something like this:)

=========================================================

root@karalaptop:~#

=========================================================
=
from here, you can enter the nano -maw$ command as I have stated near the beginning of this write-up. I am writing this just so I have some personal documentation as well of how I’ve been writing these past couple of months, as well as for your edification, dear reader. I apologize for how confusing and unclear and thus unhelpful this may be.

some other fun commands to learn:

‘ls -ltr’
‘clear’
‘wc -w’
(when in nano) ‘ctrl+z’ and then ‘fg’ (so you can run other apps alongside nano)
unlink (used when you want to delete a file or folder/directory)
‘dpkg-reconfigure console-setup’ (tinker with this in order to change the commmand line font)’

some other good command line apps to use:

dict (which is a dictionary)
date (tells you the date and time)
calendar (tells you the date and some interesting events of the days that follow)

========================================================

I’m still learning all these stuff myself, and will probably occasionally look at this document to re-learn and maybe even update it or something.

Essentially, in order to have this distraction-free kind of set-up, you need to learn:

How to dual-boot Windows and Linux Mint
How to configure it so you are able to access the grub bootloader (oftentimes this is automatic, but sometimes there can be issues)
How to do basic terminal or command line interface stuff, like how to navigate, how to create and delete files, how to change permissions.
To do some writing, you need to know how to use nano, the preferred application here.

And that’s it, actually, you now have a distraction-free writing set-up.

shutdown -h now (this is when you’re done writing in nano, and have changed permission and ownership of the file, and you are ready to boot into GUI or Desktop or regular Linux mode)

Once in the regular Linux desktop mode, you just find your folder with the text file you created and then upload it somewhere, like your wordpress account.

============================================

I apologize again if this is so confusing.

============================================

21apr2022_bibliomania.txt

21apr2022_bibliomania.txt

Heat-aggravated bibliomania

The word I was looking for yesterday was ‘counterfactual.’ It was already at the tip of my tongue, but I wasn’t one hundred percent certain. It means speculating on historical events, thinking about what if this possibility happened instead of the actual thing. It’s closer to fiction (is actually fiction) than actual history, and is pretty useful in intellectual exercises. So long as it is not claimed to be truth or anywhere near it, everything’s good. Certainly makes discussions interesting if the proper topic is found. Like, what if Imelda died when she was stabbed by that guy while she was doing some tour or something? I’d have to look at this event again, learn more about the details – when and where did this happen, who was that guy who stabbed her, what happened to that guy, what was the Dictator’s reaction to all these … If I recall correctly, the stabber wasn’t killed, but was sent to a mental institution. Which institution, exactly? And what happened to him there? Does this place still exist? Do people have memories about this guy who attempted to murder the First Lady at the time?

I am waiting excitedly for the books to arrive. I think in the haze of my bibliomania, I bought four books. Given the choice between buying something to eat or buying some interesting books, I’d lean more towards the latter. I remember the first time I stepped into the stacks section of the Main Library in UPD, it was like a whole new universe opened. I spent most of my free time in college in the libraries there. I have never encountered so many books in one place before. The plan is still on, to build my own personal library. Who cares who inherits it when I die. Most possibly it will be the college which is near our house and actually have some kind of connections with already. The image of just living alone deep in some mountain somewhere, in a hut, with no people around, still is very appealing to me. Though I imagine this place would not be too kind to the preservation of books. In real life I was kind of disappointed how despoiled my hometown has become, so that this dream will probably just remain a dream. There are too many people now, too many roadside stores, vehicles, ‘developments.’ Pisses me off. I remember a time when there were high grasses on both sides of the road, so very few people, and the early mornings are foggy and cold. Now, the fog line has risen, is only regularly experienced a few kilometers more upwards the mountain range. At least the peak or the places near there, is still very cold. I wonder how the comrades are doing there these days. There’s this Korean-built institution there and I kind of want to visit it one of these days. Maybe soon.

Right here, right now, it is very hot. The afternoons are particularly brutal, Thought this is not to say I don’t have experience with this kind of climate. When we first moved, it was to a place with low elevation, mostly ricefields, lots of memories of flooding. The summers there were about as hot as where I am now, maybe even hotter. I barely get to sleep these days. And whatever sleep I get is of terrible quality. Early in the morning I dreamed that a woman with long black hair, wearing a white smock was crawling on the ceiling above my bed. Then she fell, and turned face down into me as she fell. I remember thinking, maybe I should be scared, but I was just disappointed how cliche this scene was. I’ve seen this exact scenario plenty of times in movies and other horror media I’ve been consuming the past several years. Though it wasn’t that scary, it was enough to wake me up to half maybe three-fourths consciousness, and so I got up and proceeded with my day. It was awful. It felt like functioning with only half a brain. I felt tired and sluggish, and the heat just added to the misery. Can’t sleep, can’t rest. Though later in the afternoon, the weather became somewhat tolerable, and was able to sleep for about a couple of hours. I woke up around seven, seven thirty.

Just focus on the little things – it’s when you start thinking generally, and of the future that your misanthropy shows itself. Right now focus on the books that you’ll be reading soon. It would be so awesome when they’re finally here. I see people complaining all the time how they think it’s such a waste having, buying a book, but not having the energy or time or whatever to read it. I am honestly baffled by this. When you love books, you don’t even mind not reading them. I have this ‘treasure’ of a book, Roberto Bolanyo’s ‘2666’ which I bought in a secondhand bookshop in a mall for about 300 or 400 PHP more than a decade ago. I only managed to read the first couple of chapters of this book, the one where there are all these literary scholars focusing on this writer named Archimboldi. I liked those parts, it was bookish. I like books that talk about books or literary persons. So, the point is, I still treasure that book even if I haven’t read it. I am here just stealing Umberto Eco’s idea. Just having them around as an object, a totem, a fetish is enough. The way I see it, a good book, a wonderful one has magical properties that imbues anyone near it with knowledge and maybe even wisdom, if only for a bit of time. It is only necessary to touch or smell or even read the title of these works to be able to access these properties. Of course to really get to have the one hundred percent effect of a book, you have to read it, and just to be certain, re-read it.

20apr2022_books_and_stuff

20apr2022_books_and_stuff

If only you could also purchase the time needed to read them

Because of a tweet by the Ateneo Press, I recently found out that they have a Lazada store. Lazada is an online shoppping website. I’ve known about this pretty recently, less than a year, having been introduced to it by my younger brother. The very first thing I had purchased, for I did not have an account then, was a penhold blade/racket for table tennis. This kind is so hard to come by in physical sporting goods stores in this country. I remember the first penhold racket I had was a cheap shakehand one which I modified so that the handle would be shorter. The actual first penhold racket I had was a pre-made, a DHS one. It was of the chinese style, with rubber on both sides of the racket. It was heavy but I learned to play with it and really contributed to my knowledge of the style. I still have this blade, though I’ve changed it so it only has rubber on the forehand side. The backhand side I left un-rubbered. But this would make the blade not tournament legal, so I settled by ripping the topsheet off a used rubber and then gluing it on the backhand. Problem solved, I now have a one-sided chinese penhold racket, with regular rubber on the forehand, and just the topsheet on the backhand in another color.

Massive digression right there. What I really wanted to talk about was the Ateneo Press store in the Lazada shopping website. It turns out that UP Press also has a store in Lazada. So I looked at their catalogs, and came up with two purchases – ‘State and Society in the Philippines’ and ‘An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines.’ I’ve been looking for the latter for years. I’ve always wanted a copy. What motivated me to have one was the front cover of the copy I saw before where there was this group of people carrying rifles on the front cover. Menacing, brutal look. I think it was one of the political clans in Mindanao that was discussed in the book. Of course the topic is something I’m very interested in – political dynasties. Must know how this parasitical formation works so the people can pull them out by the roots. So now I’ll be waiting for a couple of days – five at most, for the books to arrive. And that’s what I wanted to talk about today.

If only I knew about this, maybe I would not have purchased so much keyboard paraphernalia. I guess this turn of events has put my keyboard mania in check. Now on to actually reading and writing stuff.

I have several books I’m planning on buying now – Walden Bello’s ‘Counterrevolution’, that book by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo about literature, the book about the origins of the Filipino novel by Resil Mojares, etc. etc. What I’m also desiring is the very rare ‘Nationalist Economics: History, Theory and Practice’ by Alejandro Lichauco. It had a chapter in it talking about national steel industries of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. I thought the book had an interesting idea – control of the steel industry by a country as a pre-condition for industrialization. This could be a great idea for a speculative history story or something. Or really just something to think about, to consider, like what if the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant project proceeded smoothly. What do you call these ‘what-ifs’ of history, there’s a specific term for it, I forget. Maybe need to re-read that book by Marius, the one about the basics of historical research and writing. For what? You’re not going to write something significant any time soon. Yeah, but it’s nice to look again at stuff you’ve learned sometimes.

Most the books in the house right now aren’t that interesting. Most of my books are in the provincial/hometown house. Where I’m in right now is a government housing for employees, the actual term being ‘dormitory’, but it’s really a house. What I like about this place is that it’s prominent/well-known enough that it’s easy for parcels to be delivered here. It’s also more quiet than the house back home, and this leads me to think that I should definitely be reading more because I won’t have this much silence once I return. My plan is to purchase as much as I can so that I’d have a decent stash once I return home. Right now, I’ll be focusing on books. That provincial town where I’m from does not have these stuff. I’ve seen the library of the nearest college, and my collection on certain topics is way better. Well I’m going to make it even better.

‘The Freedom of the Poet’ by John Berryman, turned out to be pretty decent reading. He has this exploratory essay sort of placing Joseph Conrad under Freudian analysis, lots of talk about penises and vaginas and all sorts of complexes. I thought it was too heavy-handed. Really shows the limitation of Freudian analysis if used in literature. C.G. Jung’s techniques and or methods or themes I think are more amenable to be used in literary analysis. In one essay, he has this detail about a Hawaiian deity who apparently blocks the path of paradise. He has this big club, and his chief duty is to smash those men who died unmarried into smithereens. I searched for more info on this deity online, and the only mention I could find was by Berryman himself. I think he made this guy up. I gotta be honest, I only became piqued about this guy when I learned that he killed himself. Writers and poets who have this sort of mentality has always been fascinating for me. So I guess I should read more stuff by this guy and ask the text what could have been the reason for his action, little evidence that might show up explaining it.

Earlier, personnel came to the dormitory/house and installed this black box on the television called ‘Sulit TV.’ Now we are able to watch some news. Mostly TV5 and GMA. This for me is amazing technology. I don’t watch much television, my source of media being mostly the internet, so I don’t have much knowledge on these stuff. It turns out there’s a USB slot there too at the back of this black box, and you can play movies and music via this. So that’s another interesting exposure to technology I had today. Who knows what the future might bring.

19apr2022 Pineapple’d Authoritarians in Hell

Paramilitaries associated with a local mayor who is himself associated with the Del Monte corporation fired upon colleagues of Presidential candidate Leody De Guzman today. Ka Leody is safe, though the person beside him was shot, along with several members of their group. Leody and his colleagues from Laban ng Masa were in Quezon, Bukidnon supporting indigenous folks, protesting with them to reclaim the land that was forcibly taken from them by said mayor. Chel Diokno, senatorial candidate condemned what happened via his twitter. The Office of the President, through the Communications Secretary Martin Andanar also condemned what happened and called for investigations.

Just woke up from a pretty okay sleep earlier. Been feeling not well the past couple of days, sore throat, tiredness. Really hoping this isn’t something serious. I have so many shows still to watch. I still have so many books I have to read. One thing I certainly do not look forward to is the result of the presidential and senatorial and local elections this coming May, which is only around three weeks from now. My pessimistic self is shouting it’s fucked, absolutely fucked. We should have shot these scumbags instead of letting them return here and then slowly climb up from the soggy mud pits where they should have stayed. They became mayors, congressmen, senators, and now the very real possibility of that dumbfuck Jr. becoming President.

Speaking of authoritarians, Putin is still alive unfortunately, though he looks absolutely terrible. His soul is burning in hell while still alive. His skin looks mottled, his hair has gone full white, his eyes have turned blood-red. At night, he dreams terrible dreams and shouts and shrieks horrifically, but his bodyguards and other domestic staff are too terrified to wake him up. So they endure it, just pretend it’s not happening, through the night. He wakes up in the morning and doesn’t remember any of it. No one tells him because they only tell him good wonderful things. Why do these siloviki billionarires always go for yachts. Yachts are such a scumbag type of water vessel to me now. I was initially neutral to it, but seeing those massive hunks of metal and carbon fiber, reading up of all the deranged fucked-up shit that most go on in them, I say let’s just blow it all up. Shouldn’t be used to house refugees, bad juju, just bad spiritual-psychological vibes that cannot be removed even if you do a ritual involving the blood of black chickens. Not sell them either, just destroy them. Not some other water-based millionaire or billionare enjoying himself in one these. These symbols of extravagance in a burning and drowning world.

Del Monte mainly produces pineapples in Bukidnon. One of my grand-uncles worked in one of their plantations there. He’s just one of their hired hands, valued for physical strength. He’s a pretty cool grand-uncle who likes to drink and have been in my grandma’s (his older sister) sights for the longest time because he has been known to steal things from the family and sell them. He cris when he gets drunk and then asks for everyone’s forgiveness. He’s cool like I said, and is also religious. He always goes to church on Sundays, and though I haven’t seem him in a while, I’m pretty sure he’ll be voting for Pacquiao in these elections as he’s always been a massive fan. Just by not voting for Marcos Jr. he already has a solid chance in getting to heaven. Unlike all these corporate bastards of Del Monte and their lackeys.

In hell, after the day of judgment, after Christ has returned and set things in order, all these mayors and paramilitaries, all these corporate goons will have whole pineapples shoved up their butts. Leaves first. Their greed for land and money, their putting profits over people first, are more than enough for them to gain entry and eternal joyride in that fiery amusement park. It would be a daily ordeal, and they would shout for Jesus and forgiveness, but there is nobody else to hear their lamentations other than their fellow scumbags and of course the numerous countless devils. There will be gnashing of teeth, pulling of hair, blood and other fluids squirting out where there shouldn’t be any blood and other fluids squirting out.

It would be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. Updates, details, about exactly who the people are involved in all of these. Who is this mayor Lorenzo guy? Wouldn’t surprise me at all if he’s been bought by the Del Monte corporation. Probably even a former worker or an executive himself. The indigenous folks were dispossessed of their land five years ago, in 2017, and since then have been living by the roadside. How has this been handled by the local and provincial government there? Too many questions that need answers.

Several commenters online saying how they’d get out of this country, or work towards getting out of here if Marcos Jr. wins. Don’t really have similar plans. I’d sit here and do my thing and fester and seethe while the entire country burns. Maybe I’d go out to get some sun now and again, but mostly I’ll be indoors. If things get bad enough, I’d definitely join something, if only to get exercise and companionship with like-minded individuals. Right now, I’m mostly fine being mostly in front of the computer all day, doomscrolling.

A kind of mental whiplash effect from all these terrible things on my timeline interspersed with pictures of cute animals, sexy women, cute kpop girls, funny events, etc. Maybe I should have a separate account – one for cute things, one for not-so-cute not-so-wonderful things happening.

If Imelda, who is in her 90s, don’t know exact age entirely, were to die in the coming weeks, just before the elections, I wonder how that would affect the polls. Maybe this would lead to Jr. gaining further, like some kind of sympathy for the death of your mommy votes. Surely would make attacking their clan not look so good, even though they’re such a bunch of evil scumbags that should have been hanged or shot for their crimes against the people. Either way, she gets the pineapple too, like all of them.