Random musings

Moved to Aldershot.

A lot of people spend a lot of time in front of their screens. Most, poor things, have to put up with what others have designed for them that changes with every major release.

There. Fixed that for you. My #1 gripe with UIs (Android, iOS, Windows…) is that it is like somebody treats it as a user interface playground. While RISC OS might look pretty retro, at least I know what the icons are for and where they are. It isn’t as if the window close button randomly moved over to the right. Or the iconbar is now at the top of the screen, for no reason better than “because”.

RISC OS users should consider themselves privileged that they can choose for themselves the ambience that will be impinging upon their subconscious.

It’s not quite at the Linux level of customisation, though. That being said, there are a dozen different window managers with their own attributes.

Plato believed that what you customarily view has an effect.

To quote Jewel (in a song called “I’m Sensitive”):

I have this theory, that if we’re told we’re bad
Then that’s the only idea we’ll ever have
But maybe if we are surrounded in beauty
Someday we will become what we see

Most of us live in places where the greed of former generations is thrust upon us.

Although, as has been happening with the current reckoning and statue toppling, a lot of people don’t realise what actually happened.
Also, a lot of us came from people who were basically serfs and slaves. We are the rich ones in comparison, we can go to college, choose a job we think we might like, retire… for a lot of history it wasn’t like that for ordinary people.

Why else would the rich choose to live in extensive parks, surrounded by greenery, where every prospect pleases ?

Same reason they live in bloody great mansions. Land and property denote wealth. They’re basically showing off what they have.

A pleasant desktop should have the same effect.

I’d prefer a functional desktop.

I cannot understand why some people choose to surround themselves with images (and sounds) of violence and horror, is there not enough of that already?

Some people apparently enjoy that sort of thing.

I used to watch a lot of horror movies, on a channel called (ta dah) The Horror Channel. Most were the dumb “hormonal teenagers in a cabin in some remote spot” that get bumped off in various not terribly creative ways in an order that roughly correlates to how horny they are (so the pervs die first and the sweet virgin is Final Girl).
Then I saw “Saw”. Which is pretty much a functional definition of the phrase “torture porn”, which is exactly what it sounds like. I watched all the way through, looking for some sort of redeeming feature of the movie. There wasn’t one. It was bleak and gory and actually pretty nasty.
I think they’ve made four or five sequels (don’t know for sure, I’ve watched none of them), plus the expected copycat clones.

I don’t mind zombies. I don’t mind aliens. I can even cope with mind-flaying jellyfish blobs in the back alleys of Cardiff.
But what kind of weirdo thinks it’s great to spend an hour and a half watching somebody get tortured to death? Enough, indeed, for the creators to make a bunch of sequels? What messed up primal instinct is this tapping into?

Just to survive we have to be insensitive to many things. To survive we definitely have to have curiosity. Psychopaths with a morbid preoccupation with violence and torture are best avoided. The teen years are generally a period of discovery – of who you are. When I was small I refused to accept that I was a human being – it was my way of dealing with my grandma. All classifications objectify; it is natural to resent them. On the other hand, sentimentality always debases. Love me, but don’t you dare show it. How I loath Disney.