My rendition of the Placebo song, “Running Up That Hill”. It doesn't hurt me. Do you want to feel how it feels? Do you want to know, know that it doesn't hurt me? Do you want to hear about the deal I'm making? You... you and me. And if I only could, I'd make a deal with God, And I'd get him to swap our places, Be running up that road, Be running up that hill, Be running up that building. If I only could, ooh... You don't want to hurt me, But see how deep the bullet lies. Unaware that I'm tearing you asunder. There is a thunder in our hearts baby. So much hate for the ones we love? Tell me, we both matter, don't we? You... you and me. You and me won't be unhappy. And if I only could, I'd make a deal with God, And I'd get him to swap our places, Be running up that road, Be running up that hill, Be running up that building. If I only could, ooh... Come on baby, come on, come on darling, Let me steal this moment from you now. Come on angel, come on, come on darling, Let's exchange the experience, ooh... And if I only could, I'd make a deal with God, And I'd get him to swap our places, Be running up that road, Be running up that hill, With no problems. And if I only could, I'd make a deal with God, And I'd get him to swap our places, Be running up that road, Be running up that hill, With no problems. If I only could, I'd be running up that hill. If I only could, I'd be running up that hill... YOUTUBE CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf_mriVzQ-Dbex-gGxDA58g

“Charles Bukowski, do you hate people?” “I don't hate them… I just feel better when they’re not around.” Bill Hicks: “I’m tired of this back-slapping ‘Isn’t humanity neat!’ bullshit. We’re a virus with shoes.” Molière: “Betrayed and wronged in everything, I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king, And seek some spot unpeopled and apart, Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart.” André Malraux: “What is Man? A miserable little pile of secrets.” Novala Takemoto: “Most people are full of themselves and speak only the obnoxiously superficial. In other words, they’re annoying as hell.” Emil Cioran: “The multiplication of our kind borders on the obscene; the duty to love them, on the preposterous.” Charles Bukowski again: “People diminish me. The longer I sit and listen to them, the more empty I feel. But I don’t get the idea that they feel empty. I feel that they enjoy the sound from their mouths.” Bill Hicks again: “I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck!” #shorts #misanthrope #misanthropy ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJFbJ9UEt14

On the morning of 27 March 2023 at around 10.11am, 28-year-old graphic designer and illustrator Audrey Hale forced entry to Covenant Christian School in Nashville, Tennessee, carrying three firearms, and used those weapons to kill three school children and three adults, and was shot dead by police about 15 minutes later at 10.27am. A few hours later, President Joe Biden was attending the Small Business Administration Women’s Business Summit hosted at the White House. He was cordially introduced and began his speech at 2:43pm, or 1:43pm Nashville time, I believe. To be fair to Biden, he wasn’t there to talk about the shooting, however, this was his first public statement about it and it took him more than two minutes to even mention it. And during that two or so minutes, he basically did a stand-up comedy routine about ice cream and other such things. Even after mentioning the shooting, he still continued to joke around about ice cream, which I will show you in this video. I have linked the official transcript of his speech below. Remarks by President Biden at the SBA Women’s Business Summit https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/03/27/remarks-by-president-biden-at-the-sba-womens-business-summit/ Here are the highlights, if you can call them that, of President Biden’s Women’s Business Summit speech: “Thank you. My name is Joe Biden. (Laughter.) I’m Dr. Jill Biden’s husband. (Laughter.) And I eat Jeni’s Ice Cream, chocolate chip. (Laughter.) I came down because I heard there was chocolate chip ice cream. (Laughter.) By the way, I have a whole refrigerator full upstairs. (Laughter.) You think I’m kidding, I’m not. Folks, welcome to the White House. Thank you. And it’s a delight to have you all here. And who are those good-looking kids back here? (Laughter.) Those are my kids. They’re your kids? All four of them? Yes. Well, stand up, guys. (Laughter and applause.) Well, I want you to know, like you, I had two brothers — there were three in our family, three brothers, and one sister. And my sister is smarter than all of us. (Laughter.) Not a joke. She used to be three years younger than me; now she’s 23 years younger than me. (Laughter.) You know, she managed every one of my campaigns for office, even back when I was in high school. We went to the same university two years apart. She graduated with honors; I graduated. (Laughter.) And we had a simple rule in the family: Listen to Val. (Laughter.) My sister, Valerie, is incredible. So, guys, be nice to your sister. You’re going to need her. (Laughter.) You’re going to need her. I promise. You got to take care of your mom. Dads are much harder to raise. But, you know, we’re — (laughter) — Before I begin to speak, and the reason I spent a little time on the kids, I — I just want to speak very briefly about the school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee. And it’s just — it’s sick. You know, we’re still gathering the facts of what happened and why. And we do know that, as of now, there are a number of people who are not going to — did not make it, including children. And it’s heartbreaking. A family’s worst nightmare. And we have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation — ripping at the very soul of the nation. And we — we have to do more to protect our schools so they aren’t turned into prisons. You know, the shooter in this situation reportedly had two assault weapons and a pistol — two AK-47. So I call on Congress, again, to pass my assault weapons ban. It’s about time that we begin to make some more progress. Anyway, sorry to start off that way, but I couldn’t begin without acknowledging what happened. Today it’s all about lifting up women entrepreneurs and making sure they have the support they need to succeed. The businesses represented in this room stretch across industries, from restaurants to architectural firms to hardware stores, plus Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. And by the way — by the way, it is splendid. You think I’m joking. If I were allowed to take you upstairs, we got a whole freezer full of Jeni’s chocolate chip ice cream. You know, it’s pretty dull when you’ve been in public life as long as I have and you’re known for two things: chocolate chip ice cream and Ray-Ban sunglasses. But what the hell, you know? $300 billion — to restore America’s technological edge by — including by manufacturing semiconductor chips. By the way, we invented those chips. No, we did. We, the United States of America. And then we got fat and happy. I’ve never been more optimistic — I mean this from the bottom — and I’ve been doing this — I know I don’t look it, but I’ve been doing this a long time. Folks, I can’t stay. I’ve got to go, but I hope you have a good conference here, and I hope you have a good roundtable. And there’s a little thing going on in — around the world. But anyway, I better — thank you so very, very much for everything.” MUSIC Allégro by Emmit Fenn ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuzGAbVfEkQ

Has modern video gaming killed off socialisation? I think so. The arcade used to be a place to hang out with your friends, but now gamers lock themselves away in their darkened bedrooms interacting with their “friends” online. Video Games for sale: https://ebay.us/UPMin1 (affiliate link) “Everything not saved will be lost.” ~Nintendo ‘Quit Screen’ message When I was a kid in the late 80s and early 90s, I liked playing video games. I started out with an Atari 2600, then a Nintendo Entertainment System, then a Sega Master System, and then finally my last video game console, a Super Nintendo. Friends would come round and we’d jump on for half-an-hour, or an hour or so, and then we’d go outside and play. It wasn’t like we’d spend all day playing video games. Maybe on rainy days we’d spend a bit longer on them, but these machines certainly didn’t interrupt our social lives – They probably enhanced them. In the early 90s, when I was a teenager, we also liked hanging out at the local arcade. Even though we had access to video games at home, that certainly didn’t stop us from going and hanging out with our friends. The local arcade that we frequented was called the “FunHouse” and every Friday night, it would have a so-called “Lock-in” from 6 to 9pm. You could play as many games as you liked for like five dollars. It was a place to hang out with friends, have a good time, drink soft drink, eat chips, meet girls, and our parents were happy because we were “locked-in” and it was fully supervised. We wouldn’t go every week, but maybe like once or twice a month. It was a great night out. But then around 1995/1996, the very popular PlayStation was released in Australia. With a combination of impressive 3D graphics and a great selection of games, it pretty much sounded the death knell for the video game arcade. From the mid 90s to the early 2000s, pretty much every arcade in my area closed up shop. They just couldn’t compete with the home console market anymore. But that didn’t spell the end for video game socialisation. Even though all the big arcades had closed down, during my university days in the late-90s / early 2000s, we would still get together on a Friday night to play console games. We’d book out a lecture theatre, plug in a Nintendo 64, and play multiplayer games on the big screen. It was a great night out. After I graduated uni in 2001, I got a job in Osaka, Japan. Despite arcades losing popularity in Australia, they were still big business in Japan. But they instead focused more on multiplayer social and physical sorts of games. Things like dancing and rhythm games and so on. Retro games were also very popular. We would go out on a Friday night to these massive multi-floored arcades, which were certainly not just for teenagers. People of all ages would go. You’d take your girlfriend and have a great night out. But when I came back to Australia in 2006, all my friends had moved passed consoles and were now playing these massively multiplayer online games such as World of Warcraft. I found that the friends that I used to go to the arcade with, or play console games at the university, were now locked up in their darkened bedrooms in front of their computer playing games online. Fast forward to the current era, and gaming has pretty much remained the same, a fairly lonely pastime. I still know some guys who remain glued to their computer screens playing video games all day long. They’ve achieved very little in their lives, except that they’ve managed to buy themselves the latest gaming rig and have reached level 110 or whatever in their latest game. Arcades still exist, but they have certainly gone from a fun place to hang out with your friends, to more of a borderline gambling hall for children. The goal is to earn tickets or win prizes. I knew a guy who was in Gamblers Anonymous for horse racing. He lost tens of thousands of dollars playing the ponies. One day, we walked into one of these modern arcades and he started playing a claw machine. He kept losing, but kept putting in dollar after dollar, until I said, “Hey, what are you doing?”. He then realised that what he was doing was exactly like gambling. Just because its in a kid’s amusement centre doesn’t mean it’s not gambling. Anyway, I try not play games nowadays. Instead, I take my children outside a lot. Although I did buy one of those retro Super Nintendo Classics with built in games. My children use it exactly how I used to – They use it on occasion for half-an-hour, or an hour or so, and when their friends come round, they enjoy playing it together. They never need to be told to get off it or anything like that, they just find that they’ve had enough after an hour or so. Anyway, that’s my thoughts on the death of video game socialisation. It used to be good, but has pretty much become a world of isolation. MUSIC Melancholia by Godmode #videogames #consolegaming #arcadegaming #videogameaddiction #consolegames #arcadegame ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv-fcqIOgPk