Dying Light

It’s all darkness in the end,

said that old man by the dying light,

of the day the campfire flickered,

I felt the death of night;

why does the flame burn,

if the result is ash?

Why does the mind turn,

to the thoughts of black?

Cold, Cold we say and light a fire, but the heat becomes smoke,

Old, Old we think as we grow,

We bloom, we wither, we sleep, we choke;

Our only cover is the black,

Past the dying light of the flames,

That flicker once bright, can’t cackle a name;

Cold, Old, is the dark in the end,

But without ember lit we see the darkness within;

If we’re at piece with the coal so dark of the night,

Take a breath of the smoke of that last dying light;

Our light is dark and our dark is light,

Spoke that old man by the last dying light

A movie without a metaphor, what kind of title is that?

This is the first blog article in a series where instead of looking for some symbolic meaning behind a piece of media I’ll be trying to craft a literal story from it as if it were happening in our reality with our logic

Perhaps that wasn’t the best explanation but I guess it’s better to just show you than tell you so here goes nothing – A literal interpretation of “The platform”

So the main character goreng was just placed into the real world, it’s a cruel world; where social status is random and it’s much easier to descend than ascend up the social hierarchy.

The social hierarchy in this world is determined by the amount of resources you have.

Goreng’s biggest skill as a young adult is knowledge and we can see that from his ownership of the book Dom Quixote. He’s in college trying to get his degree and quit his smoking addiction.

Goreng was raised by a single father Trimagasie, who’s in the Middle Class of the society, and who pulled himself up from nothing. Trimagasie resents his son for having more opportunity than he had, and being ungrateful for them.

Trimagasie has a short relationship with Miharu, who’s struggling to get over the loss of her daughter. Trimagasie eventually loses his job and their social status drops. Their relationship becomes more strained until trimagasie dies of a heart attack.

Goreng wallows in the misery for awhile before eventually pulling himself up the social hierarchy. Goreng is becoming more like his father.

Goreng gets into a relationship with an older woman imoguiri. She’s a member of the government and goreng attempts to help her change some aspects of the world. Her policy changes ultimately have no effect on the rich and only affect a very small portion of the population.

Imoguiri ends up getting diagnosed with cancer and dies by euthanasia without proper medical care from the system – leaving goreng even more depressed as he enters into his thirties. Goreng also becomes more aware of the problems of overpopulation in the society. Goreng also becomes even more like his father and this displeases him.

After some time Goreng builds up a good solid career with his foundation from college and reaches the upper rungs of society – along with his friend baharat.

Baharat is a very religious political social climber and is trying to reach the highest office to make a change but fails to do so.

(Side note: One thing that I find interesting is that social climbing is indeed possible, perhaps through prostitution or money)

Since baharat can’t reach the top he despairs because he can’t make “real change” but he and Goreng decide to use what little power they have to make change.

They redistribute as much money/resources as they possibly can, and baharat gets old and dies in the process. They decided to send a political message to the upper class.

Goreng eventually adopts a little girl during this time, and they spread her tragic message to the upper class in the hopes that some change will be made.

But alas the message is lost on the upper class and the system continues on.

So there you have it; A movie without the metaphor. An article about taking a metaphor and making it literally occur in life without subtext.

All feedback is appreciated

Italy

1. Italian focus on the Quality rather than quantity of units – Mussolini wanted 100 infantry divisions, and as a result they were poorly supplied, say he focused on 20 high quality infantry divisions who were better supplied and equipped instead?
2. Italian Naval Focus – Italy pours more resources into submarines in the 1930’s instead of scrapped projects like aircraft carriers, it fields a slightly larger number of ships
3. Early Italian Mobilization – Italy was ill prepared and Ill equipped for WW2 as they didn’t believe a global war was on the horizon, and they didn’t start mobilizing until 1940 and didn’t get fully mobilized until 1942, perhaps if they’d started mobilizing earlier in say in 37 after the fall of Ethiopia they could’ve been fully mobilized and ready for war in ‘39.
4. Early Italian Realistic Objectives and Prep – Italy invaded Greece with only 10 days of preparation, and they didn’t have any realistic goals in the war, so here are some: capture Malta, North Africa, Greece and western Yugoslavia. In this timeline they have plans in place for all of those.
5. During WW2 invades Malta and captures it, taking a strategic piece away from the allies
6. During WW2, Joint German-Italian-Turkish Invasion of Greece in October, Greece falls by November due to better planning and equipment and another front
7. Immediately Afterword a Major Focus on capturing Egypt Joint German-Italian-Turkish effort from two fronts; Rommel dispatched in winter 1940 when the campaign starts: better supplied etc. Capture Egypt in early 1941 kicking British out of that half
8. Assist Turks in capturing Greek islands including Cyprus in 1940

Spain

1. Allows Germany to invade Gibraltar and Portugal in late 1940 after the fall of france; they were too weak to actually invade Portugal, but Germany could have, and that would’ve provided a valueable strategic port at Gibraltar which combined with Egypt would’ve sealed the Mediterranean from the allies before 1941, there would be a stalemate in Egypt but the axis controls North Africa

Turkey

1. Joins the axis in June 1940, the least realistic part of this but the most impactful.
2. Helps secure Egypt
3. Sieges and secures the Middle East
4. Ties up British and Russian troops
5. Provides a railway for Dutch east indie oil to get to Germany; the British wouldn’t be able to stop the Japanese navy, German navy and Italian navy all at full strength from delivering oil to turkey while also focusing on defending its homeland, it would prioritize Britain. The two sides would have nearly equivalent numbers.

Japan

1. Doesn’t invade China in 1937, this ties up soviet resources in the Chinese theater; this also keeps the un and us off Japan’s back
2. Focus on the Dutch East Indies only, and first, this keeps the us embargo off the table. They conquer it and fill their and Germany’s oil needs while crippling Britain; they conquer all of Indio China except the Philippines and Vietnam.
3. During WW2 they invade The Soviet Eastern Ports and Conquer British Islands in the Pacific, otherwise they provide naval support and tie up soviet Troops
4. They don’t declare war on the US

Germany

1. Keep chezh as a protectorate instead of invading
2. Four corners peace conference, could’ve actually happened, Germany gets the polish corridor and Italy gets the coast of yugioslavia
3. Albert Spear/ Wartime Economy Focus in 1939, adding around 40,000 total tanks to the German supply for the start of the war. Germany will also focus specifically on Panzer 4’s instead of any project like V8 rockets that didn’t go anywhere. So add an extra 10,000 tanks.
4. Germany launches Barbarossa after they finish conquering Greece in early 1940 a few months ahead of OTL,
5. Germany opens a new front to capture Murmansk, this is of vital importance, and Germany uses Finland and Norway to get it, whatever the casualties it’s fine.

The outcome

1. Barbarossa goes better than in OTL, better supplied and equipped axis, who starter earlier in the spring with better quality troops invade a Soviet Union who has to keep extra troops in turkey and in the north and who has exactly zero ports receiving lend-lease from the US. They probably get close to Moscow by the winter and wrap up the war in 1943, stale mating at the Ural Mountains with what’s left of the soviets on the other side

0. Get a first job (if you don’t have one) and a second job; or a first job and a small job like lawn mowing on the weekends to make some extra money
1. ⁠Get a “discovered it” secured credit card for $500 so you can build a credit score early
2. ⁠Get a credit builder Loan from “self”; 1 year is fine to build some more credit; should cost around $50 a month or so and when you get the money back add it to the next step
3. ⁠Set up an emergency fund in a high yield savings account; goal is 10k in there; also 1k cash on hand and 1k in precious metals for an emergency; should take around 1-2 years to build depending on your income
4. ⁠After that’s complete open up a Roth IRA and contribute $120 a week until it’s maxed out; if you do this for 40 years (until 60) at a 9.8% (which is what the market returned) rate of return you’ll have $3 million tax free, so your retirement is secure
5. ⁠Don’t buy a new car, get a clunker for cheap or something 5+ years old so there’s no depreciation
6. ⁠Go to college, and focus on your education outside of college
7. ⁠Finally focus on real estate, after the emergency fund is setup put every penny you can into a second high yield savings account, your goal with this is to get to 30k and to buy your first rental property to generate cash flow; you should be able to buy at least 3 properties by age 30, check out other subs for more info
8. ⁠Also open a bank account at a local bank, they usually offer student accounts
9. ⁠If your company offers a 401k do it, especially a Roth 401k, contribute then necessary amount to get a company match, for example if they match 100% on 5% contributed that’s free money; if you put in $15 a week, they’ll give you an extra $15; remember you can’t withdraw the 401k or IRA until age 59.5 (basically 60) so just forget about it.
10. ⁠Make a budget every month, write down your bills first, then write down your investments but pay the investments first and bills second; ex: gym, insurance then investments but pay the investments first

I like to repeat this list five times every day to drill it into my subconcious, these are all the mindset phrases given out on charisma on command.

1. Confidence – it’s okay if I fail, I’m still worthy of love; I am enough so others want to hear me, I’ve succeeded before so everything will be alright as long as I have myself, because there’s many options for me to win with; no matter what I’ll be okay.

2. Honesty – I don’t enjoy confrontation and may be disliked for it but everyone is disliked by someone it’s normal, honest conflict is better than dishonest harmony so tell the truth always what something makes me feel and what my experiences have been in my own life, I’ll share my goals, I’ll always do the right thing and focus on me, no truth is unspeakable.

3. Respect – I control my life whether I succeed or fail and my choices, I’ll date who I want and do what I desire, there’s nobody I should be except the best me, I’ll decide whether I like doing what I’m doing set goals to get me where I wanna be and a plan on how to get there, I’ll do what’s scary everyday, if it won’t matter in a week I’ll just do it, I have a right to be here, heard, seen and take up space, I only need myself.

4. How can this be good in disguise, elevate myself and everyone to higher standards, help out those in need, how can this help me or benefit me? How can this help others or benefit others? I don’t know others struggles so I won’t judge their choices because I’d make the same choices in their shoes. Everything will be okay because I or those I’ve chosen are solving it. Praise others, learn about others. Entertain myself first, always go first, quality of connection over who I’m connecting with, everyone’s doing best so don’t join hate.

I’m writing this in the midst of a dopamine fast, a way to reset my body and mind for the next week, it’s a great thing to do and you should try it.

What is a dopamine fast? It’s an attempt to reduce the amount of dopamine produced in your brain to zero for a specific period of time. It’s a way we get accustomed to doing the difficult thing so that way we’re mentally tougher, a core tenant of stocicism.

You should try it, and here’s a list of what’s permitted

1. No food, only water and a multi-vitiman

2. The only excercise you get is a walk

3. Meditation is your friend, as often as possible

4. Ice cold or swimming pool temperature showers are great

5. Journaling will help organize your thoughts

6. Writing is permitted, so you can work on a book

7. Cleaning your house is permitted so make sure it’s spotless

8. Gardening is permitted

9. Fishing is permitted

What isn’t permitted:

1. Tech (the one exception is a computer only open on Microsoft word for writing),

2. No reading, or entertainment of any kind, no Netflix, etc.

3. No pleasure – sex, masturbation, etc

4. Minimal talking

That’s basically it, this is the template you can follow

I’m bored in the house, like Tyga so here’s yet another lyric breakdown

“Okay I’m bored in the house and I’m in the house bored (bored)
I’m bored in the house and I’m in the house bored (bored)
Bored in the mafukin’ in the house bored
And I’m bored in the mafukin’ in the house bored, ha
Bored in the house, bored in the house bored (bored)
Bored in the house, bored in the house bored (bored)
I’m bored in the mafukin’ in the house bored
And I’m bored in the mafukin’ in the house bored (aye)”

He seems to be bored in his house, sounds like he needs to get some hobbies, learn a language, play guitar.

“Aye, I need me a thick chicks
Sittin on a couch and I’m going through my Netflix”

You seen avatar the last airbender, bomb they put it on Netflix.

“Bored in the motherfucker, I ain’t doin’ shit
Tell her pull up make it shake like Nesquik”

Remember, girls are going through quarantine for these dudes, disgusting.

“Neck frozen we’re nowhere to go bitch
Pop in CoD on a PS4
Tell the bitch chill like refrigerator doors
We can heat up some ramen
Can’t go to the store, haha”

Ramen is pretty bomb, tbh

“Can’t eνen go on tour nigga so bored
I am losing my mind (mind)
All these girls tell ’em one at a time, (time)
Nigga still hatin’ tell ’em catch me outside (side)”

I think we all are Tyga

“I’m Fernito, Fernito
At home like Depot , depot (aye)
She gonna suck it like mosquito (squito)
I’m a lion, she a Leo”

This song is really basic, but I love it

“Ayy, married to the money dressed in tuxedos (yeah)
I could show you mine like I’m Magnito (peang)
Got my Vans on and they look like sneakers (yeah)
Explore like Dora on the hunt like Easter”

Super basic, it sounds like he’s bored rapping this, but I do like the song

“Aye, I’m in the crib like an infant
With some bad dude playin’ brenna incense
Bottle, tonic gin mixed in
Snoop house shoes getting
Down in the kitchen ay”

Sounds like a fun time, chillin by yourself – I like it

Imma socialize at a distance
I’m living my best life minding my business
And my anti-socials for the win-win
Locked down I’m gonna stay stayin in in”

There’s a lot to do at home, you go dude

“Ramen noodles every night for my din din
Hulu binge-watchin episodes of Ben-10
And I’ve got T-Raww for assistance
Bad boy Imma have to ball like a Piston”

Win two rings while you’re at it

“In quarantine I’m the quarterback (quarterback)
MVP I’m scoring that (scoring that)
Ain’t a fool here, shout out door dash
Where the napkins? I need more of that”

That’s true, fuckers never put napkins in anything, lazy pricks

“Ay, can’t find the remote outta control
Outta my mind, outta my hands
Outta my soul honor the coke
Got my locks bla-blinded in gold”

That’s the worst, when you can’t find a remote, just use your phone, it works way better and it’s mobile.

“I’m in a house and I’m so damn bored
I’m in a house like Corey
Where you could find me like Dory
Ki keepin me on her story (story)
Son and I’m all like a Maury
My competition is boring”

I think you’re projecting, this song is boring but I still like it