Pretense Puppeteers: "I Have Squandered My Resistance"
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Straight Outta 1914-17, What I'm Listening To:
I heard Braveheart in Jupiter and I already knew of John Williams' direct pulls and heard the Gladiator influence.
This is what ChatGPT adds:
Star Wars series - John Williams' score takes inspiration from various movements, with the Imperial March drawing from Mars, the Bringer of War, and other pieces echoing the grandeur found throughout the suite.
Flash Gordon (1980) - Composer Howard Blake's score is influenced by Mars, the Bringer of War from The Planets, particularly in capturing the intensity and action-packed sequences of the film.
Prometheus (2012) - Composer Marc Streitenfeld drew inspiration from Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age for certain scenes in the film, to evoke a sense of ancient and mysterious themes.
Superman (1978) - John Williams' score shares thematic elements akin to Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity from The Planets, capturing the heroic and soaring spirit of the film's protagonist.
Starship Troopers (1997) - Basil Poledouris' soundtrack is influenced by Mars, the Bringer of War from The Planets, reflecting the militaristic and intense nature of the film.
Interstellar (2014) - Hans Zimmer's score shares epic and space-themed elements, possibly drawing inspiration from various movements in The Planets, including the profound and expansive sounds found in Neptune, the Mystic.
The Incredibles (2004) - Michael Giacchino's score incorporates elements reminiscent of Mars, the Bringer of War, particularly in action-packed sequences that mirror the intensity of the movement.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy - While not directly from The Planets, Howard Shore's score has a similar grandiose quality, akin to Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, capturing the epic journey and heroic themes of the films.
Braveheart (1995) - James Horner's score for Braveheart shares emotional and stirring elements found in Venus, the Bringer of Peace, and Neptune, the Mystic, as it evokes a sense of triumph and struggle. The Love Theme for Braveheart is influenced by Venus, the Bringer of Peace.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - John Williams' score for E.T. shares thematic elements akin to Neptune, the Mystic from The Planets, capturing the sense of wonder, mystery, and otherworldly themes present in the film.
Nine Days
I can do a lot in nine days.
In nine days, I gained approximately 30+ lbs without carnivore. I am the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! I have been absolutely miserable. Life feels like it has been 9 MONTHS—not days—since I have been carnivore!
In nine days, I have been watching Pierogi and Kitboga. OK, so I have been watching a LOT of those two! For Pierogi alone, I have already watched his last two years of videos, some 80+ videos. I have yet to dive into Jim Browning's work.
It's fascinating stuff.
And sometimes, it is hilarious:
I have never thought Indian call center scammers to be much of a threat; I am surprised at how massively successful they are—it is not sophisticated. Of course, they pick off the weakest members of our societal herd. Especially for a shame-honor culture, it is SHAMEFUL!
The Indian scammers literally just claim to be someone, tell the user to install a remote console on their PC and fire up Chrome's developer's tools to change the HTML on the mark's bank account page. What I find silly is they pawn off Google Forms as something as a corporate webform. What I find ridiculous is that they convince users to fill in a terminal/CMD prompt. Then off they send the victim to purchase gift cards or pull out cash to ship.
I honestly don't know why the con works as well as it does. Maybe because we give more credence to tech? As if phones imbue station and expertise? Computer hardware infuse credibility? Honestly, I view everything on the Internet as just a text file that someone typed whatever in....because that's what I'm doing right now via Visual Studio Code.
But people do that all the time. They submit to people who claim authority.
Life Beyond The Expeditions
Why did I get off carnivore in the first place? Wasn't it successful? Of course it was! Some nine days ago, I was in the pool with my clipboard, planning out both my week and the months that lay ahead for 2023. Out of nowhere, I had this dagger thrust into my soul: what's the point of it all? The focus here is long-term. Why plan to listen to N number of audiobooks? Drop W amount of weight? Learn this or that. In terms of my existence, they are about as instrumental as my Fallout 4 build for EoY '23. By extension, does anything I do matter?
This was unsettling. So, I set aside my clipboard and just...punted. Instead of having a litany of things to do, I just binged on hackers, that crossroads between tech and humanity that I'm invariably drawn toward. And ate copious amount of ice cream. Shout out to Blue Bell's Pecan Pralines 'n' Cream.
As stated, I was and am miserable. That is a problem. Perhaps what I do does not matter long-term, but sometimes we do things to avoid problems as opposed to acquiring gains. Actually, that is the essence of the carnivore diet: its intent to remove all that manufactured gunk and natural poisons so that I am what I am supposed to be.
A carnivore diet is not a superhuman exlihir. But, when "normal" foodstuffs wreck us, it feels like I'm downing something that turns me into Popeye the Sailor Man! Interestingly enough, Popeye was utilized by the USDA to promote the consumption of spinach because of the excess production in the 1930s and as an alternative to meat in the war effort of the 1940s—oxalates aside, not quite as nefarious as Ancel Keys:
No, this return to dietary cool kids normalization just won't do. In the upcoming days, I'll be defining, applying and refining a lyric from an influential song that regularly reverberated in my high school truck's cab:
Life's a journey, not a destination
And I just can't tell just what tomorrow brings-Aerosmith, Amazing