The Must Haves, Gotta Roll.

Ok folks. Dani and I did this thing with the Must Haves ages ago. There were all sorts of problems like other commitments and the original soundtrack was never put in till now, and blah blah blah. But here it is. The attack of the Izzys. OMFG!!!

Group Sex and the Life of Plants.

Ah fucket. I know I should blog more, but there's been so much work, and I keep on getting distrcted by shiny things on the internet :-/

Not much has happened. Dani had a rock grandma come over for a photoshoot for a music festival. She came Grace Jones style real fit and in leather, but they put her in a granny frock and fluffy boots -_-" There was also another grandma, but she was too frail and couldn't lift her arm up to do the 'horn' sign, so she couldn't be used. I tried to make everyone drink this cocoa leaf liquor that makes you jump off the walls, but I ended up guzzling most of it myself. I thought the effects of the substance might be beneficial to those of age, you know. Just trying to help out a little. Bah.

Over the weekend, we met a couple for some group sex. Yeah, weird shit. Gotta try it. I've done it before, but usually it's a little bit more spontaneous. The girl was some Costa Rican lingerie model and the guy was your typical run of the mill Dutch computer nerd. It was alright. She couldn't speak English and we couldn't speak Dutch or Spanish, so the communication part was a bit wanting.

She was petite and sexy and sweet and all of that, so she was a treat, really. I liked her. But the guy was a bit pushy, and I didn't find him sexy at all, so well. That was somewhat unfortunate I guess. Plus  he wanted to stay for-fucking-ever. I was really twatted by 3 a.m. because I've been on this new programme at the gym where Rogier (the guy with the previous job at the inquisition, remember?) breaks my back, but he was still suggesting 'another round'. I was on the verge of asking Dani to put on "The Life of Plants" (BBC, with Sir Attenborough) because I just wanted to chill out, and didn't want anymore herbal substances to help me along. :P I think hence forth, that will the the way forward to get rid of people when they've overstyed their group sex invitation. The Life of Plants.

In the past I used to put on "Planet Earth" at 6 in the morning. You gotta love "Planet Earth" when you're off your tits. I also love it stone cold sober while riding a horse upside down too.

Meh. Back to work now -_-"

5 Books for the Subway.

From the Paris Review:

Can you recommend any books that will make interesting people approach me if I read them on the subway? During A Moveable Feast, people came up and quoted entire passages verbatim, and it really enhanced the reading experience. —Alexandra Petri

The trick is to choose books that have cult followings, and so create a sense of secret fellowship—but that large numbers of your fellow-riders have actually read. That's why it depends somewhat on your subway line. As Philip Roth is to the Seventh Avenue trains, so Jonathan Lethem is to the F. For the Q I might carry either story collection of Edward P. Jones (impress your new friend by pointing out that the two collections are linked, story by story) or anything by Lipsyte or Shteyngart. (Each of whom is also beloved on the L.) On the Lexington Avenue line, The Transit of Venus. For the G train: War and Peace, A Dance to the Music of Time, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 2666, Gravity's Rainbow, the complete works of Charles Michener, etc.

Of course, certain writers are good bets anywhere. Thanks to my bike, I have no particular subway, but I will instantly take a friendly interest in anyone I see reading Ta-Nehisi Coates's memoir The Beautiful Struggle, Norman Rush's Mortals, IJ, anything by Adam Phillips, or the essays of Charles Lamb. Possession of these books is sufficient cause for me to ask which part you're at. Maybe for others too. All of which is to say: be careful what you wish for.

I can't imagine reading War and Peace on the subway. The book I've read on the subway, which I've had the highest instance of seeing other people read on the subway is The God Delusion. Mostly because it's hard to miss even in a crowded carriage and I have a feeling that people that read it on the subway are trying to project something about their beliefs to everyone else. The last person I saw on the train reading it had an entire summer's worth of rave bands on his wrists and a Pangea T-Shirt on his back. It's not a very well written or memorable book, but it's definitely one that will start you conversations, for sure.

5 books I have read on the subway I see most often by other people reading on the subway: The God Delusion, The Black Swan (I read fooled by randomness, but the two are really the same book), The Tipping Point, Freakonomics and uh. Stieg Larsson.

5 books I have read on the subway previously that I wish other people I met on the subway were reading too, so I can chat them up on a long and boring train ride:

1. The Bottom Billion (on poverty)
2. The Closing of the Western Mind.
3. The Singularity (it's tech-trash, but fun, and only a certain kind of weirdo would read it).
4. A Dandy in the Underworld (Sex, drugs, Savile Row, a botch up cruxifiction and a great white shark).
5. The Omnivore's Delimma.

Stolen

Quiet days here. Experimented with some coke liquor thing they manufacture in Holland, nice stuff :-P Feels like the real thing, only more expensive. The only reason why anything is legal is just so they can tax your ass. Nah, I don't really believe that. While randomly browsing the web, I found this post from Socks and Violins. 

"If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?"

Neither intelligence nor general ability has anything to do with wealth.

Simply look at the wealthiest people in the world. These are not the best of humanity, nor the brightest. They are merely the wealthiest.

If anything, ability tends to relegate one to the upper edge of the lower classes, because it only makes sense that ability should be used. If you have dancing ability, you should dance. If you have musical ability, you should make music. With remarkably few exceptions, using real abilities does not make much money. In the end, it is always limited by time, and time is always too short for riches.

I once calculated that I was worth $2000/hour to one company. They didn't pay me that, of course, or anywhere near it. But had they paid me that, and had I been able to sustain that work for a full year, I'd have earned four million dollars. A typical lawyer, working at $300/hour, would require nearly seven years to earn four million dollars. A mechanic, working at $50/hour, would work for 40 years to earn four million dollars.

You cannot earn a hundred million dollars in one lifetime with ability. You certainly cannot reach a billion dollars.

The only way to accumulate such a substantial fortune is through leverage, which means -- one way or another -- gaining a legal claim on the labor of others, and taking for yourself a disproportionate share of their earned reward. There simply is no other way to do it.

That doesn't require ability. It requires understanding the truth that underlies the game: that it isn't about your ability at all. It is about other people's abilities, and their willingness to work for a lot less than they are worth.

For the Hackerspace Guys.

Met YY in Amsterdam. She's got a boyfriend now (a funky Polish, Russian, French +++ mix) , an interesting fellow working with in the field of augmented reality who was giving a workshop in A'dam. That stuff sounds like a whole lot of fun - the concept is inspired by a sci-fi story, Rainbow's End, by Vernor Vinge; engineers and scientists seem to have a lot of fun these days. Or maybe western media has been glaming it up to wean subsequent generations off their dependency on nerdy Asian students. I've been thinking for years now I'm in the wrong boat, career wise. Should have listened to daddy... :P

It was a lovely meeting her in A'dam. Funny to see her sitting outside the Van Gogh museum lost in her thoughts, sketchbook in hand, wearing her funky art shoes. There was a great deal of boyfriend talk, of her adventures in the south of France, literary fairs etc. She's doing well. I like hanging out with her and Sara alot. They're both lost and enjoying the adventure.

Most of the girls I went to school with are no longer in Sing. They're all doing some weird shit elsewhere in the world. I like it. I'll probably try and visit them in the UK sometime this autumn. Oh, and I hope there's been some girls to replace the 3 of us at HS for the time being :P