zkom

A random thought: I'm spending a few weeks in China and I'm starting to feel I need to buy some of the ridiculous t-shirts I see here. Some of them are so subtly funny. Like I just saw t-shirt that said "Frankie go to Hollywood"

Evolution programmed us to fear death, because, well, those who didn't fear death were less likely to live until they could reproduce. So I think it's pretty natural to fear death, even though it may be irrational since we're all eventually going to die. Fighting the survival instinct that's buried so deep in our brain and genes with logic is kind of hard.

US is pretty religious compared to other modern countries but it's less religious than the world average. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_irreligion (what's with that Sweden and Finland difference, wtf)

My only experience with Fila Brazillia is basically with the Black Market Gardening which I bought back in 2003. I like it and still listen to it occasionally but never really got so interested that I would have forayed to the other albums. It was an impulse purchase on a day trip to Andorra from Barcelona so it definitely brings back memories.

I'm not so keen on this new spin-off from the Brexit britcom but let's see how it develops.

There are bunch of businesses in Finland that have "mafia" in their names and that seems to always amaze my Italian friend. But I guess the Bloody Sundae is just based on the U2 song chorus and whoever came up with that name didn't really understand what the song was about.

We can just cancel the whole goa/psytrance scene for appropriating every single fucking culture on earth (and possibly some exta-terrestrial and extra-dimensional cultures also).

Continuing with the technology tangent some things that I think are decade defining for 2010s and when they appeared: iPhone 2007, Netflix starts streaming service 2007, Soundcloud 2007, Spotify 2008, Android 2008, Whatsapp 2009, Instagram 2010 Maybe up for next decade: electric cars become more popular than the gasoline variety, self-driving vehicles start to appear on the streets in the latter part of the decade, home automation merges with the internet (think remotely controlled locks, a/c, lighting, etc). Probably some unexpected uses of AI. But VR and AR still not going mainstream, lol.

Yeah, I guess I have to agree that the ubiquitousness of internet is one big difference between the '00s and 2010s. In '90s having internet made you a nerd, '00s it became useful to have it because it made communication easier but in 2010s you are basically required to have it to be able to function as a part of the society. In '00s it was still feasible to be cut out of the internet for a few weeks without major implications but now if you get cut out even for a few days the problems start to accumulate fast, like not being able to pay for things or get public transport tickets, etc and you get isolated from everybody. Everything revolves around the internet services provided by private companies, including your family life. Also streaming all media and storing your personal things in a cloud instead of locally on your computer is a key difference. And now every-fucking-thing has an app for it.

In my lifetime the biggest difference between two consecutive decades was between 80s and 90s. Everything seemed to change suddenly. Collapse of the communist governments in former soviet states and East Europe, the end of Cold War, music changed from hair metal and synth pop to grunge, hip hop and techno, fashion changed completely etc. Then 90s basically ended finally with the 9/11 attacks and the war on terror. So 90s was quite distinct time, imo. '00s and 2010s don't really have that feel. They just blur into one another without a clear border. And at the moment it does not feel there's going to be any sudden big changes coming, but almost nobody was expecting the Soviet Union to collapse in the late 80s. Then suddenly everything was going upside down. Basically fuck if I know, but.. more of internet everywhere I guess. The populist right movement might start losing steam in a few years giving way to some other political movements. The green movements seem to be on rise but don't know how long that will last. The generation after the millenials maybe get interested in acoustic music for a change and some kind of rise of folk music and singer/songwriter thing. But it doesn't feel that there's any kind of radically new underground thing that is waiting to rise to the mainstream like techno and hip hop was in the late 80s. Possible big events: Chinese communist government collapses, the end of Putn's regime, EU collapses, US goes the way autocratic dictatorship, Russia invades eastern Europe, nuclear war on a limited area like the Indian subcontinent, reunification of Koreas..

Brexit now delayed until 31 January. I can't believe I actually thought it was going to happen last March.

From the same year also Death Wish II, The Dark Crystal, Conan the Barbarian, First Blood, The Thing and Tron. All have a kind of early 80s grittiness. Even fantasy movies were kind of dark and brooding when you compare to later movies like LotR.

It's just.. how the fuck are they gonna top the reality? This is beyond parody already.