I’m walking on a beach reflecting. It reminds me of another beach, long ago at the start of my career. I was sent to the South coast to work with a client. I was lodged at a lovely hotel with pristine beaches. It’s the end of a productive day and I’m walking along the beach on a call discussing the future with a friend. The road ahead looks bright.
Cut to the present. I’m on another beach, memories of the first triggered. How did life pan out? Did my career go how I wanted it to go? Am I where I wanted to be at this age?
Reflections.
Death notification by text
I received a notification that a relative had died. I was told by text.
I hadn’t seen or heard from them in a long while. They’d moved away, lived their life, then apparently moved back into the area we all group in at some point without telling anyone. Not a million miles away, living their life. Then diagnosed with cancer a few months back. Terminal. Still no reaching out to anyone. Until it was too late. Now their son is going through their phone book notifying people, anyone, they once knew.
I wasn’t in the phone book, so I was notified second-hand, by text. By the way X has died. A follow-on text after an initial one asking a mundane question about something unrelated. With the death notification an afterthought, or received as one.
The departed was a part of my childhood up to my teens. A long time ago. The pain isn’t as raw as it would be with someone closer or who has spent a lot of time with you recently. Yet there is still pain, of loss, of sadness.
All those years, laughs, sadness, memories, brought to an end with a simple text message.
Men in trees
I was at a low point. Unemployed, or on a break, depending on how you want to spin it. Not much to do but binge watch TV and while away the days.
I discovered one show that resonated. A person trying to find themselves, in a remote location. Plus it was entertaining. Men in trees.
It starred Anne Heche as a self help guru type whose relationship had broken down and was at a loss in life. She was on a book tour and in a remote village in Alaska when her life fell apart. She decides to stay and figure things out. I was figuring things out. I enjoyed the show. Watched every episode.
It’s one of those things that triggers memories. When I hear or read it mentioned, or Anne Heche, it reminds me of that period of my life. Good memories. So I was sad to hear when she passed. Whatever her life was, she entertained me during a low point. She cheered me up and I thank her for that. It’s sad when anyone passes, whether you know them, or they affect your own life in some distant way. But I wanted to say thanks for Men in trees.
Keep looking forward
I keep looking forward. At the latest games, movies, books. Avoiding retro games, old movies, old books. Only the latest.
What I’ve played, watched, and read, serves as a reference, a reminder, a history of consumption. Keep looking forward to what is coming out next and when. Adding each of interest to my to get list.
Just consuming like a digital animal, always hungry for something new, the next juicy piece of entertainment. Never repeating, re-playing, re-watching, re-reading. Time is precious so only the new.
Keep looking forward.
Fast Tech
We are an impatient lot. We love our fast food and our fast tech. The latter, a term used to define cheap electronic gadgets and devices. You can go online and have one delivered to you tomorrow for less than the cost of a meal.
Portable battery chargers, adapters, fans, night lights, wireless doorbells, motion sensors, bag trackers, and just about anything else that you or someone can dream up and develop cheaply and have shipped by slow boat from Asia to your country for you purchase next day delivery.
These gadgets use a lot of rare earth minerals and other materials that are both costly to collect, manufacture, and recycle. The result is that all this fast tech is ending up in landfills and amateur processing plants around the world. Just look on YouTube at the videos of people collecting circuit boards to melt off the precious metals, or others burning the plastics to clear the mountains of e-waste. It is both damaging to the environment and human health. Yet we keep buying more and more of this fast tech because it’s cheap and serves a current need, just like fast food.
Expensive train travel
I love the idea of traveling or commuting by train but the reality in the UK is that it’s just too expensive.
The trains are overcrowded during rush hour so it’s generally standing room only. Assuming you can get a seat, and if you do, you rarely get a table or enough space to work, or peace to read or even think. And the price of a ticket? Scandalous. Absolute rip-off. Yet somehow despite these high prices trains are still cancelled, or are never on time are uncomfortable and not very clean.
Travel to other countries though and trains run smoothly, are on time, cost a lot less, and are very comfortable and clean.
I do enjoy travelling by train, but the only time I really get to do it is in another country.
Has AI killed SEO?
People use search engines to find answers to questions, and today’s search engines are using AI to answer most of those questions. Gone are the days when the web sites with the strongest keyword match were shown first. Those days are long gone. In the last few years the first four or five links were usually sponsored anyway, so no amount of SEO tricks would get you above them. Now, above the sponsored links is AI, attempting to answer the searcher’s question, pushing your heavily SEO’d content further down the forever scroll.
So has AI killed SEO? Yes and no. Yes if your aim is to get your content on the first page and your end goal is traffic. No if you sell or market the product that is the answer to the question. If someone wants to know what is the best in a certain product category then your aim is not to SEO that you are the best, but get the customer feedback that you are the best. That way AI is more likely to mention your product.
So yes I believe that AI has greatly affected the SEO industry. The game has changed from one where content is king, to positive mentions are king.
Navigating without Sat Nav
I was loaned a courtesy car recently. It had no sat nav. In fact you couldn’t even connect your phone to it. It was slow and well-used, and basic.
It was great.
No one could reach me and I had to navigate old school, by looking at signs and landmarks. It took me back to when I first learned to drive. My first car didn’t even have a working radio. The thrill and freedom of owning a car, being able to go wherever you wanted when you wanted was enough. You didn’t need tech to keep you entertained, to keep in touch with people when driving, or to navigate.
Just you and the car.
It was nice.
Treacle vodka
I saw someone drinking a treacle-coloured alcoholic drink recently and it immediately took me back to my University days and a drink some Scottish friends of mine would drink: Treacle vodka.
They would place a bottle of vodka in the freezer and leave it there. It would never freeze but it got very cold. Later they would place ice in a glass with Irn Bru and pour the cold vodka over it. Voila! Treacle vodka. A lethal drink but great for late night coding or gaming.
I wonder if anyone still drinks it?
That’s the price
I hate it when you know that people are price gouging, or that you can buy something cheaper elsewhere, or online. But I want it now. Convenience buying, and pricing.
I’ve come to realise something: That’s the price.
It comes down to supply and demand. People are free to set the price of something to whatever they want, no matter how you feel about it. You don’t have to buy it, but if you do you have to pay the price stated.
Either pay it or move on. What’s the option? There’s no point moaning about how someone is ripping people off. So what, it’s called commerce. If people are willing to pay it then there is sufficient demand for it at that price. Otherwise they’d lower the price.
That’s the price.