New plan – scrap the old blog format and topics. Also new plan – write this shit as a script for a podcast. What should this be about? I don’t know, everything – technology, movies, idiots – whatever bothers me at the moment.
Topics of the day: thrifting, new chair, echo chambers and some photography. Picture in the end!
After much procrastination due to actually having to do some actual work (imagine that!) and due to my new living arrangements lacking proper work desk I am finally getting to this.
Thrifting: being a native New Yorker I’ve heard about thrift stores, but never actually been to one. Until recently. Turns out – for those who are unfamiliar with the concept – these are awesome. There are two kinds – one is an actual thrift/donation store where you drop off your old crap and buy yourself some new crap someone else had dropped off earlier. And there’s consignment store – which is when someone drops off their old crap with the purpose of being paid something for it. Which means thrift stores carry laughable items at laughable prices (like a dollar or two) while consignment store may try to sell a brand new something for 60 – 70% off the item’s price.
Some of the thrift stores are running silent auctions, which artificially inflates the price on certain items. It’s good for their bottom line, but pretty bad for me as I am not looking to resell these items. When there’s no profit to be made – there is no reason to buy anything that’s above ten dollars.
Since I am temporarily living in Pennsylvania for now – and I have discovered this whole thrifting thing – I’ve been all but obsessed. So far my finds have been pretty limited – a vintage Minolta, a pair of binoculars and a few props for the shoots (some of which I have already put to a good use). Next level finds I am looking for – guitars. I want a couple of guitars – both as props and as actual musical instruments to play.
New chair: since I am now living in an apartment completely furnished by someone else in a most generic way possible I need a set up to be able to work. I twitch a lot and change a lot of poses and lean on every side possible while sitting, so I need a real chair. I went to my favorite place to shop (yeah, Amazon – what else) and found a gaming chair at a pretty decent price – under a hundred bucks. Never owned a gaming chair before, so I have no idea what to expect, but I am pretty fed up with cheap 50-dollar chairs that fall apart in a couple of months or so uncomfortable that you’d rather lay on the floor. Alternatively, I can’t afford the 250-something for a premium setup since I am still in need of a desk.
So I did my research on Amazon and it seems there aren’t that many variations of chairs. Looks like a pretty standardized offering – short chair, tall chair, adjustable chair, same options with mesh and then there are those huge rubber balls to sit on. Something feels missing, a dash of crazy – a fully adjustable chair that allows going from seated to semi-reclined to a completely horizontal position with laptop/tablet stands adjustable for each position. Extra points for being able to roll over from “on the back” to “on the belly” positions without leaving the chair. Amazon can totally invent this withing their AmazonBasics brand – they can even add a magnetic dashboard to stick their “buttons” and have even fewer reasons to leave the chair. We’re definitely missing some creative ideas in the chairs’ department.
Echo chambers: today, after a long while, I had an extended conversation regarding the current state of politics. It just so happened that people who participated in the conversation were out of their echo chamber and the conversation have been meaningful. It wasn’t aggressive and it wasn’t in the “we all agree to the same thing here” key – but it was constructive and interesting. I thought that inside their echo chambers people tend to label anyone who even slightly disagreeing with them as an enemy. Weather it happens because they are so narrow-minded or because trolls use any sign of agreement to push their own agenda – doesn’t really matter at this point. The key issue is that we all become polarized and get triggered at a drop of a pin. So echo chambers get smaller because the borders become tighter and more rigid. These days it’s not enough to just dislike Trump – you have to actively hate him. It’s not enough to hate him – you have to participate in hate squads. As soon as someone starts “I hate this guy” – anything that’s not upping the ante is considered a betrayal. It’s like 1984 all over again – I’ve seen this shit in Soviet Union, now I get to witness it again in US.
Ultimately, we want to make sure we’re checking the government’s powers and direction – that’s what democracy is supposed to do. We want to call out wrongs and mistakes and things we disagree on. But at the same time, we want to make sure we’re not doing this to the detriment to the whole country. And I just don’t see this happening. The propaganda – especially from the democratic side – is so vile that it literally reminds me of the Soviet Union shit that was poured over hearts and minds of Soviet people. Quite frankly – it’s disgusting. We all need to listen more to people we disagree with. They have a point.
Some photography: I finally broke through the wall – if only by a little – and had a couple photo shoots. They’re still in the works, but it’s progress!
In the meantime – here’s something that’s been sitting for a year on my hard drive to be edited.
