claquenumber9

[claquenumber9]

Reality, Augmented Reality.

“break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored”

- Ariana Grande

Breast augmentation. Enhancing the natural. Some believe. Augmented reality. Enhancing the natural. Some believe. I find myself drawn to augmented really. Let’s call her Ari.

The first time I saw Ari. I lost all sense of time and space. Her dimensions, measurements, colors, expression…rather exciting. She knew the lighting and she knew mathematics. Others have tried to court her through money and a good time, but she still needed to find herself. Through self-development she has learned the science, Not art, of seduction.

Like Miss Piggy implanted with a Neuralink I am timid to introduce myself from behind the curtain. CNET has video highlights of this scene.

Can you blame me? I’m only a retail investor. Ari, she has an ability to move the market with her mere presence. Statista forecasts a 72.8 B market in 2024 for her and her more clingy sibling, virtual. That’s a 54% 5 year CAGR. If that isn’t intimidating, then you dear reader, have an above average chance for her to reply on Tinder or tell you an authentic opener on Bumble. Even buying bagels before drinking coffee on CMB. I digress.

Facebook and Ray-Ban, IBM, Snap, Alphabet and all the other Serenas, Simones, Annikas, Peggys of the world are looking to hold her hand when she cannonballs into the sea of bulls and bears to make sure she makes the splash but comes up unharmed.

I predict Ari wins gold in the technology sprints. A few hurdles perhaps.

Thus far, I portray Ari as a pleasant female jock that has the world in her sights like a snow globe on her desk. But the technology of augmented reality itself is more akin to the image Joaquin Phoenix seems to have of his digital assistant in the movie Her. Real Imagination. At its best, augmented reality can help us wonder and feel gratitude to live in the natural world. To marvel at the possibilities of creative expression.

At its worst: deep-fakes, disconnection, and the continued path towards less meaningful face to face interactions. Visually beautiful misinformation will be as distressing a problem as climate change, space junk, ego, and the yips. Emerging technology this emotionally charged without ethical forethought can turn Joaquin Phoenix in Her to Joaquin Phoenix in the Joker. Inspiring to delusional. Loved to starved.

I guess if Ari becomes my girlfriend I’ll break up with her, not because of boredom but because she needs to develop and find her purpose in life and society. I hope she comes back around and I can get to know how she taught her kids to speak 3D modeling and occlusion. I can’t even get my horse to drink.

January 23, 2021

[claquenumber9]

House Coffee

“This Little Light of Mine”

-Harry Dixon Loes

20% recovery even after 7.5 hours sleep. Felt driven to R, data, and the process of discovery. Another Saturday where time moves slower. Time moves slower w/ an object nearby with a bigger gravitational pull.

Left the apt. earlier than usual to check out T.J. Maxx, a beloved store and frequent hallmark in the life of Frances, an elderly colleague, loving mother and wife, and a soul that embraces adventure. I offer her rides home because she reminds me of the best maternal figures that have affected me through the years I’ve lived on the 3rd planet.

She feels, at times, she is a burden on me. In fact, the 22 minute drive home with her provides a lift of many mental burdens that weigh me down during the pandemic. I feel a sense of gratitude when she reveals the diamonds that are lodged in the mines of our insecurities. I won’t mention them here, since they deserve to be discovered through face-to-face, and felt; rather than displayed in words.

In a time where the most vulnerable are protecting themselves unlike ever before. Her showcase of vulnerability is brave and a feeling of purity in the skinniest of strokes. If I ever become a #girldad I hope that my daughter can have the same resilience as this gentle giant of a woman.

After an escapade at T.J. Maxx, no items bought. A golf bag travel kit is mini and creative. Decent stitching matched with a grandpa sweater pattern surrounded by faux leather. $11.99 sale. Could come back for it but such an awkward size. Would surely make Robin Williams smile. I stopped in a cafe, across the street from work, and next to a gentleman’s club. I order the house coffee for here. Kanye West rhymes something about getting by and the artist formerly known as Prince serenades a beret of the raspberry kind. The coffee sits for a handful of minutes and then I sip. Perfect warmth for an 18 degree Fahrenheit day, very pleased with that. Smooth, little bitterness at the end and an overall great house coffee.

Got into work earlier than normal. Watched some Greek food show in the lunch room. Went to the bathroom. Mentioned yesterday’s passing of Henry Hank Aaron, the Home Run King. Hank grew up in Southern poverty and dealt with savage racism and swung the bat like no one before. Many baseball legends have passed away in the past 365: Lou Brock 2nd all time in steals; Don Larsen only pitcher to hurl a perfect game in the postseason and it took place in the World Series; Phil Niekro a knuckleballer that surely shaped Tim Wakefield, Tommy Lasorda 2x World Series winning manager…and sadly many more giants of the game that deserve some mention but the point is that 2020 and the early part of 2021 is historically insidious.

2020, though, did see the baseball record books finally integrate records from the Negro Leagues. How the statisticians decide to handle Ty Cobb’s .367 and the incoming batting average of Josh Gibson will be interesting. In short, Gibson’s at bats is more than 9,000 less than Cobb’s. I would not want to make that call. Manfred cannot win that official interpretation.

SELECT name, AtBats

FROM Mlb, NegroLeagues

The murder of George Floyd, certainly provided a booming call to action and this merger of databases is an action. George’s ancestors could have been slaving for George, surname Washington. Enough of that. Or maybe more of that. The discussion seems to be fading.

The co-worker, mentions how Hank gripped the bat left hand over right.

“It wasn’t until the minor leagues that Hank was told that it’s the other way around. I’m surprised you know about Hank Aaron, you look young.”

I will certainly talk more with this colleague, even if only to save my generation. The classic rock n’ rollers and the Dan Rather audiences think I don’t know about Hank Aaron. If baseball is America’s pastime, isn’t the Home Run king and his passing a news article my generation can read. On any news site. This man was on the greatness level of Muhammad Ali and the humbleness of Tim Duncan at an Old Navy. #1 in HR, #1 in RBI, 25x all-star, and the list scrolls down beyond that. Would he have swung so hard if he had to play in a negro league? I certainly would feel better bashing a 93 mph 2-seamer from a Whitey after living through the Jim Crow south.

Hank seemed to me as a forgiving man. His bat, less so.

January 23, 2021