Things Left Unsaid

... and maybe it was better that way.

(none of this was created with
the assistance of A.I.)

Music has always been a big part of my life, and not something that was just playing in the background. It has been quite a ride over the years with how I acquire music to listen to. Radio, records, and 8-tracks. Cassettes, CD's, and then mp3's. Now streaming. A little while ago I decided to spend way too much money on audio equipment. The main goal of my purchases being good quality sound through headphones.

I'm not going to name my purchases just in case an audiophile ever reads my blog. I don't want to hear about what a mistake I made buying this, or that, and fifty other things that are ten times better. I will say that I have a small DAC, and two pairs of headphones. One pair never leaves the apartment, and the other is for commute walks. It is quite an upgrade from $25 Walmart headphones plugged directly into the jack on my phone or computer.

The last couple of weeks I have changed what I listen to on my way to, and home from work. Last week I posted a playlist, and I will include another at the bottom of this post. Both of them are the length of my commute walk, and I listened to nothing but those songs all week. Once on my way to work, and again on the way home.

It was an idea I had a couple weeks ago when I was doing the usual thing of selecting a playlist, hit play and random shuffle. Found myself often taking the phone out of my pocket and selecting enough songs to get me through to my destination. Then I also noticed I was choosing the same songs for days at a time. It reminded me of mixed tapes or CD's.

I started thinking back, and back some more, to before streaming, before mp3's. I would sometimes listen to the same CD for a week straight or more while driving in my car to and home from work. Now, with streaming, I could easily listen to music all week and never hear the same song twice if I wanted to do that. But I found myself wanting to hear certain songs.

That all brought me to this idea of listening to the same songs on my walks. I named the playlists Mixed Tape. It has been interesting getting to know these songs better like I used to do with songs when I would go out and buy a new tape or CD, or if I would make a mixed tape or CD. I don't know if I will keep doing this indefinitely, but for now I'm finding it quite enjoyable. I have heard these songs many times over the years... but doing this; I feel like I'm really listening to them. If that makes sense.

Thank U – Alanis Morissette

We Belong – Pat Benatar

BLACKEST – The Raveonettes

Strangers When We Meet – David Bowie

Jealousy Is Lethal – Pixel Grip

And All That Could Have Been – Nine Inch Nails


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I haven't used Instagram in a long time. Kind of funny to note. When I typed that first sentence it said, I haven't looked at Instagram in a long time. I went back and changed it to used. It seemed more fitting, in the same sense as when a person says they haven't used heroin or cocaine in awhile. I kicked Instagram. Cold turkey.

It was part of my daily routine for a long time before I stopped. I would get home from work, and make something to eat. Then I would sit on the couch eating, and scrolling. One day I just randomly decided that I had enough of it. Wasn't even something I had planned to do that day. No build up or anything. I was just sitting there staring at my phone, and I thought, wtf am I doing?

No idea at all how long ago it was when I stopped. I guess there is likely a way to look that up in usage history data or something. I don't really care about it enough to bother. I don't miss it. It is interesting to think about how I could instantly live without it.

There were some okay things about it. A lot of good people post a lot of good content there. The biggest issue for me was the lack of control over what came up next. On top of the lack of control; it was very obviously being infiltrated by useless A.I. slop. That is likely worse now than it was when I stopped.

I was thinking about the words Artificial Intelligence. I found myself thinking of them on their own. Artificial. Intelligence. I had a weird thought that the thing we are calling Artificial Intelligence is not artificial or intelligent.

It is a bunch of massive computers, that are real. They have been fed things that their creators stole from us. Things that were created with our intelligence. It has all been converted into data. The things process that data with processors the size of warehouses, and their creators sell that as intelligence. And I guess we buy it.

They are like vampires draining things from humanity that we require for our existence. Where are they getting all the materials to build these things? Can those materials be used to make life better for humans in some way, and not for building massive computers? I don't know. Probably.

Draining water. Draining electricity. They say that they generate enough heat to warm the air around them. For miles around. Like we need that right now.

Do we need A.I.? Why?

It seems mostly so a tiny handful of rich a$$holes can be even richer than they already were, and so they can have more power, and more control.


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I posted some time ago about how I was going to start prepping for a 5k running event. Now here I am, weeks later, at the other end of that prep. It went quite well. To be honest, surprisingly well.

Yesterday was the last day of intermittent fasting. This morning was my last run while wearing the weighted vest. I've never done anything like this in my entire life. I don't know if what I've been doing will result in a personal best on race day, but I have to say that I feel quite healthy and fit.

I've been at this point prior to other running events. Just days to go. It is an odd place to be every time. It is the point where no more gains can be made. I will be at the peak. Whatever the outcome of my efforts is meant to be; it will be that.

These prep routines for running events are kind of funny to me. I go into it all knowing that I could train harder, and be faster, if only running was the main focus of my life. I could be on a very strict 5k training plan that has been used, tried and tested, by professional athletes.

As it is though, running prep is not my main focus. I have to find ways to fit it into my life that revolves around doing a very physical, and at times stressful job for 40 hours a week. It consumes more of my waking hours than anything (getting ready, getting there, doing it). It is not easy... but what is, really?

I started to get into fitness just prior to the beginning of COVID restrictions. I told those stories elsewhere in this blog. I never would have started running if the gyms had not closed when they did. I have learned a lot about running over the years. Each year has been different. I kind of view it as a strange skill that I have developed over the last few years. Also a strange knowledge I now have about what my body is physically capable of.

This year I was doing interval runs, and stairmaster, while wearing a 12 pound weighted vest. I had never done this before. I expected it to be hard, and it was. Very hard. I expected weight loss, my legs to become stronger, and my resting heart rate to become lower. Those things happened. Some things happened that were a surprise: Number one would be how my balance has become noticeably better. My upper body strength has increased. It forced me into engaging core muscles, and also forced me into better running form. I can feel that I have increased lung capacity. These things were a surprise, but after thinking about it, they make sense.

Overall I would say that I feel quite good. Race ready. I would also say though, as good as it feels, it is very unnecessary for living daily life. Not only unnecessary but is also, to me anyway, mentally unsustainable. I can be fit and healthy without being race ready.

https://write.as/thingsleftunsaid/event-prep

https://write.as/thingsleftunsaid/running

https://write.as/thingsleftunsaid/fitness


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Gone – Sierra Veins All Comes Crashing – Metric Dangerous – Big Data,  Joywave F K W R K – Clip'd Beaks (Take These) Chains – Judas Priest Rough Boy  – ZZ Top In Dreams – Roy Orbison

p.s. please don't listen to this on a phone speaker p.p.s. you should never be doing that anyway


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One night a friend of mine and I were driving down a somewhat secluded tree lined highway. There were not too many cars on the road. We rounded a bend and emerged from the trees. Up ahead we could see the red flashing lights of a train crossing. No other cars between us and the crossing. We could not see the train from the distance we were at, but when we got close enough the headlights lit it up.

We sat there somewhat mesmerized by it hurtling, rattling, and screeching by. When the end of it passed by, the lights stopped flashing, and the barrier started to go up. The sudden darkness and silence was oddly unsettling. I started to drive forward. Just as we were about to cross the tracks, I said, “wouldn't that be fucked if the very last car had become detached from the train, and it was hurtling towards us in the dark?” We both looked into the darkness where it would have been, as though my saying so was a premonition. Then kind of laughed about it. Life went on.


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I remember when I was a child seeing a show on television with someone using a pottery wheel. It was so cool to see a lump of reddish brown clay spinning around, and being manipulated into a vase, or a bowl, or whatever. It was like magic to me. I always thought I might like to try it.

It was pretty exciting when the person shaping the clay would add too much water or make a part of the outer edge too thin. The entire project would suddenly go into speed wobble. There was really no saving or fixing it when that happened. It would fold up, and flop around wildly. Inertia would destroy it. The only thing they could do was pick up the pieces, mash them all together, and start over.

That is what my posts are like. I start off with an idea, and then I lose control of it. It goes into a speed wobble, folds up weirdly, and pieces of it fly. Instead of starting over, I scoop the entire mess up, mash all the pieces together, and then post it. Maybe I should have started over. Put more work into it. Instead, I put the mess into the kiln. It comes out looking like a lump of clay that has some remnants of when someone had tried to turn it into a vase, and failed. Part of it smooth, part of a hand print, and what might have been the upper rim mostly squeezed together like a sneering mouth. What the fuck is that? Oh, that's when I tried to make a vase. I have to get ready for work.


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He can rename any of The Great Lakes to whatever he wants to really. I will never stop using their real names. I guess that has always been his thing though, right? Nicknames. He's like a teenager, and not even a mature teenager.

I can be juvenile and rename things too. I was thinking about renaming the main American Parliament building. Ha! The Museum of Absurdity. After he's gone they should consider building a new place, in a new location, for the incoming post-absurd/fascist leadership to govern from. Then keep the current one exactly the way he leaves it. Fence it off. Throw a gigantic tarp over it like a car crash. Later on, after they fumigate, deal with all the pest infestations, rodent droppings, bacterial growth, and piles of fast food garbage; they can open it to the public and do guided tours through it. Have a gift shop and things. They can set up an entire gallery of before and after pictures. Some people will cry, and others will be mad, and some will gasp in startled disbelief. It should all be preserved so people can see what he really did to the place. Maybe never forget.

At this point in his cognitive decline I think the ones allowing him to continue are as much to blame for the shit show as him swindling his way into the position in the first place. Correction: In the first place, twice. I'm assuming it is mostly that no one wants the VP to become P. Including the VP himself. He's about as charismatic, and as capable of leading, as an old toilet sitting at the curb waiting for garbage day. They don't want to be held accountable for making a decision like that. A drastic change brought about by a decision might wake people up from the slumber fascism has lulled them into. Instead they are hanging on until it naturally becomes necessary. I feel like that time was a long time ago, but what the fuck do I know?

We can blame those allowing the shit show to continue when they could make it stop, but the blame should also be on anyone who still supports it. Like anyone who was at that rally chanting, “cheat like hell”. They are all stupid. There is no other word that can be used. Well, I suppose there are actually countless words, but stupid feels quite appropriate for that particular moment.


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25 years ago I worked in a factory that was on the edge of a small town. I remember going out the back door that morning, 25 years ago. I was looking at the cloudless blue sky like I was expecting to see something. The events were still unfolding. Had just begun. All I saw out that back door was clear blue sky, and a field.

Back inside there was not much work being done. People were standing around near radios. When I first heard about what was happening I thought I was being told a joke. Sort of waiting for the punchline. After a few seconds I realized it was no joke.

Terrorism was not where my mind went. I thought it was a disgruntled airline pilot, maybe pissed off about something, and just fed up with life. A dramatic suicide. Until the second plane.

The world changed, and really not for the better. I type that with 25 years of hindsight between that morning, and this one. What can be said about the days, the months, the years between then and now? A lot I suppose.

I'm sure there are a lot of intelligent people out there in the world saying intelligent things about it today. And I'm typing this.

I remember right after, like within a few days, when we were being told, stop being so nice to each other. Get back to normal, and start buying things again. Get the economy back on track... or the terrorists won. The economy, man. The economy. Don't worry, we'll blow shit up soon. Just please, please get back to normal. That is all.

I didn't feel like that was the right reaction to have. It felt to me like saying, pretend that didn't happen. What then? What do I think the right reaction should have, or could have been? I don't know. Maybe figure out why it happened. Find the root cause, and prioritize fixing that instead of meeting the violence with more violence.

Don't most people (99%) on earth just want peace, and to have a good life for themselves and their families? A handful (1%) of shitty psychopaths have all the power and make life a terrible ordeal to suffer through for too many people. Stoking the fire of fear. Gimme, gimme gimme. Do this. Do that. Don't do that. Fear them. Fear us. Division. Distraction. Manipulation. Control. Endless conflict.

For fucking what? Is there an end goal those awful people have that is worth all this blatant neglect of our habitat, and all this death, destruction, division, hate, and ?

That's just fucking stupid. I'm out of coffee and out time. I know that I'm a dreamer. I got lost in the technocratic fantasy land in my mind where everything can be solved with diplomacy. Learning to work together, changing, growing up instead of blowing shit up, slaughtering each other, and destroying the planet.


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If a company keeps a person working as a temp for more than three months it should be mandatory for the company to hire them full time. Anything beyond that is exploitative of the agency who is paying them, and also the company where they are doing the work. Three months is enough time to determine if a person is capable of doing the work required. If they have been working steadily for that length of time then obviously there was a position that needed to be filled.

Three months is also reminiscent of earlier times in the blue collar world when a company would take on a new hire, but they would be in a three month probationary period. If they seemed a fit for the job after doing it for three months; the perks of being a full time employee would kick in. Like a pay raise, vacation time, medical and dental benefits, and the opportunity to participate in a group retirement plan. If they were not so great they would be let go. The way it is now companies can keep people on as temps for years. They never get those perks.

I worked as a temp six times in the last fifteen years. Four of those jobs hired me full time. I've been at the last one that hired me full time for nine years now. The two that did not hire me full time likely would have if I had stayed. I just saw what they were like after working there as a temp, and didn't like what I saw. So I left. The ones where I was hired, and then later on quit, seemed okay at the time of my hiring, but they turned to shit later on. All at about two years.

The job where I am now was a much better place to work when I started as a temp. I've watched it steadily decline to what it is now.

Someone wise once said that if the bad days at work start to outnumber the good days then you know it is time to move on and find something else. Honestly, I'm not there yet. I bitch about it a lot, but sometimes it is tolerable.

Hmmm... I guess I've veered off the path. I do that a lot. I started this post about how temps are being exploited, and now that I've typed things about it I find myself wishing I was a temp so I could just walk away from my job without really losing anything. As it is though I get 4 weeks paid vacation, and benefits, plus I've been putting money into the group retirement plan. If I were to leave, those things would go away. So really I'm just forcing myself to stay in a toxic unfulfilling job for benefits, vacation time, and money... lol Happy Labour Day!


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What if the current state of politics has inadvertently created multiple completely original mental disorders that will need to be analyzed in the coming decades? Assuming of course that we have decades coming.

Perhaps the #1 symptom of the disorder I've been afflicted by is that my brain keeps generating fiction. So they like to say, right? I'm brainwashed. That's woke. Fake news. You believe in science, bro? It’s all a myth. A natural cycle. Maybe I’m brainwashed from absorbing bits and bytes of the algorithm that the corporations decided I need to see, mixed with believing the slop that the left used A.I. to generate. Or from those piggies in charge of fake news. Those are all things I’ve heard the far right say when confronted with facts about their idols.

I will succumb to the urge, and I turn all these misfiring synapses into a blog post.

I should be criticizing the activities of my own (Canadian) government when I type about political things. Of course there would be no shortage of things to type. We have our flaws here that I could go on and on about. Doesn't every country? But my government people didn't stand in front of cameras threatening my life, and spewing infantile ridiculing garbage out of the gaping meat holes above their chins. Funny, in a cowardly kind of way, how they only ever end up talking to the news people that will ask the questions that they want to answer.

Changing the name from Department of National Defense back to Department of War was significant. Look at how tough we are. That is what the name change was really about, wasn't it? They did have the brawn to back up arrogance like that for many years, but not anymore. Without the brains, the brawn has diminished. They should now change the name again to something based upon their overall performance thus far in the second term. The Department of Stupidity, Lies and Discrimination.

What have they accomplished? Aside from increasing the price of everything, they have also depleted their ammo. Dropped bombs on a mountain. They have murdered innocent people, and have blown up civilian infrastructure (for fun). They have forced some very important upper management into choosing between integrity, or resigning. They fired the ones who wanted to do their jobs right instead of supporting the warped agenda of a senile dictator and his gang of bootlicker morons. A lot of the other personnel in the military must be completely alienated (like the ones held hostage in dire conditions on a boat). But whatever right? Things happen.

The epitome of inexperience, stupidity, ego, and incompetence, the drunkard, who is leading The Department of Whatever, has turned what was once a military machine into a boisterous paper tiger burning itself up from the inside. It has more than likely left the country vulnerable to a number of enemies out there, who are now probably just (laughing at the ludicrous antics) waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. I guess the scary part of that (aside from the inevitable brutal terror and tragedy of where it occurs) will be the story they fabricate about who was responsible. Very similar to when a former administration was like, hey, we need Osama bin Laden's head on a platter asap. We know he's in Afghanistan. Let's blow up Iraq. And that was back when they still had a somewhat functional government. Those days are long gone.

My money is on Canada. It will give them an excuse to just roll in with tanks and explosions. Like the objects of their envy always do. Then they can attempt to steal the things they need instead of making deals. Deal making involves giving and thinking. They are incapable of both thinking and giving, and are capable only of lying, taking, and stealing.

That's a little far fetched, isn't it? I don't know. Is it? We're both NATO though! Sure. NATO that they have been whining about since day one. NATO is an alliance. They don't do alliances. Nothing they do is rational, or normal, or legal, etc.. They start shit from a brain riddled with senility, and another likely pickled with vast amounts of expensive bourbon. Never with any plan or goal.

The rest of the incompetent idiots, from other failing departments, get in front of cameras to talk shit about Canada. The stunning hypocrisy is that they criticize the activities of our government, while they have wasted the last two years steadily bringing their own country right to the brink of societal collapse. I haven't looked at news yet today. Maybe it has already happened? I feel like their stupidity has been more detrimental than the aftermath of 9-11 and COVID-19 combined.

This second term is like they threw jet fuel on the glowing embers left from the dumpster fire that was started during its first term. Difference is that the first time around there was still some smart people in office keeping the thing somewhat restrained. This time is total control. Full on idiocracy. How the fuck can they still go on blaming the previous admin when they have had total control for nearly two years now?

What has their leader been up to? Attending to the important matters I guess. Focus on a ballroom, and plans for an eyesore arch. Renaming things. Bragging. Blow some more shit up. Posting gibberish and lies all night on social media that makes the next day markets and the price of gas fluctuate erratically.

There is talk about his presidential library being built in Florida. We can hope that it falls over on his golf course when the ground beneath it gets washed away from his total lack of attention to the climate crisis.

The executive orders he has signed over the last two years likely require their own storage room (?) Can't be too much of a problem though. There is likely plenty of spare rooms available from all the smart people who have been fired, or who have quit. Executive orders appear to skip processes, and go straight to the outcome. Such a weak and pathetic way to lead. That's not governance, politics, or leadership. It's dictatorship.

They squish him into the chair behind the desk. Those lined up behind him resist the urge to gag, or to pinch their noses shut. Roll cameras. He signs the things with a marker instead of a pen. Does no one else find that weird? His soft tiny little weak hand can likely no longer grip a pen. They should switch it up again and replace the marker with a crayon.

He gets to choose the colour before signing the thing. Mommy mommy look! Blue! Like the sky and the ocean used to be! I actually haven't seen him sign one of those things in a long time. Does he still hold them up for the cameras, proud, like a baby that stuck its hand into the ass crack of its shitty diaper when mom turned her back for two seconds. Weeeee! Let me display to world, haha!, smeared fresh baby shit on the wall.

They say the pen is mightier than the sword. I think the marker is less mighty than the pen. It is something to be used to label a box with, not for signing government documents.

He says, bluntly and stupidly, that all the allies have been ripping them off for years. It is not true. The regime has just decided they are done with being generous, and with maintaining balance and order in the economy of globalized society. They are done with making deals of any kind that don't result in fattening the pockets of all the disgustingly ultra wealthy brats and psychopaths like himself.

Deals of the past were likely somewhat fair, with them ending up always with slightly more. Now they want it ALL, or no deal.


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