I’ve gotten som “complaints”, apparently I’ve done too few Childhood’s End shots for a while. Pinkie even tried to drown his sorrows not being photographed for an eternity just to learn that you can’t drown them, they can swim…
Drowning
Elon Musk is a hypocrite
The last couple of days the crypto market took a nose dive, especially Bitcoin lost, and it’s all because of that so called business man that goes by the name Elon Musk. Earlier this year he invested a shitload of money in Bitcoin and also announced that his Tesla cars would purchasable using this crypto.
Suddenly this week he announced that this wouldn’t happen and that it would be because of fossil fuels being used for mining and transactions. It’s not like the Bitcoins are dug up from the ground, the mining is digital and is run by electricity. The same electricity people driving his Teslas use to charge the batteries. Will they also begin vetting people buying those cars to make certain the only use “green” electricity? Does he understand that all banking systems are run on the very same electricity?
As a business man Musk should have done his research already before purchasing Bitcoin instead of rushing ahead creating a surge. To be honest I’m convinced he purposely have done this to get a nice little tax write-off without considering all the small investors he’s screwing over when destabilizing the market. It must be nice to have the means to do this, but most us don’t and are losing money because of that crook.
Looking at the very graph Mr Musk himself have published on Twitter you can clearly see that there is a massive rise in power consumption beginning at the same time as he himself bought all those BTC’s creating a buzz luring a lot of people to begin mining and trading. In fact, the root cause for this increase is none other than Mr Musk.
Now he’s pushing Dogecoin instead. Honestly, doesn’t those mining rigs run on the same electricity? Or do they siphon the juice out of thin air? Give it a month or two and he’ll most likely do the same thing all over.
Musk should be concerned over the impact his Spacex operations have on the environment rather than crypto mining. Those rockets sent up surely aren’t giving 100% clean exhaust fumes. Where’s the concern over the impact the mining for metals for his cars has? Or the strip mining for lithium for the batteries? Or the impact the cars batteries will have once they’re unusable in the future?
Elon Musk is a hypocrite.
Excursions
Finally some nice weather with sun, blue skies and warmth, at last I can get going with the Alphas generating loads of nice imagery to share with the world now that my joints will begin to cooperate a little. The last two days have been filled with excursions together with a friend into some nooks and crannies of the county where I live.
One of the nice places visited today was a small lake called Ljusgrytan where a lot of people ventured out to enjoy the weather and fish for trouts. I got some really good shots while walking all the way around the lake, for instance this strapping young lad trying to hook a nice fish or two.
HELL NO!!!
Finally, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, I thought. The other week I was approached by an online rock publication about a collaboration with me as a concert photographer. At last something happens and I might have a chance to salvage the sinking ship, sinking because of all those pesky restrictions imposed due to the Chinese affliction.
Yeah right!!!
When I recieved the agreement document they wanted me to sign the light faded instantly. They wanted exclusive rights to the images published by them and that could have been acceptable, but they wanted them without compensating me. They wanted me to provide them with unique concert photos that normally sell for between 2,000 and 5,000 USD each with exclusive rights.
Yeah, no, that ain’t gonna happen!!!
It didn’t stop there though. They wanted me to agree to surrender copyright without compensation if and when they arranged promotional shoots with artists. The usual way is that a publication (or anyone) who is an intermediary for these shoots get a finders fee, a precentage of what the photographer is paid, but the rights to the material remain with the photographer.
Yeah, no, that ain’t gonna happen either!!!
To sum it up, all I can say at this point is HELL NO!!!
In Flames
Bored out of my skull with no events to shoot and to top it all off lousy weather as well so nature walks with the Alpha is out of question. Not even the traditional Walpurgis Night celebration will take place this year, no assemblies with more than a few spectators are allowed because of that Chinese affliction. Fuck the Chinese. At least I can dig out photos from last years celebration trying to remember the feeling of welcoming the arrival of spring.
In fact, this is the second year with this celebration to welcome spring is cancelled just as so many other events. This year as well as last year will be forever lost for me as an event photographer.
Yellow
Two weeks ago we finally got some warmth and blue skies, that lasted for a weekend and then it went back to being cold and mostly cloudy. There has even been snowfall a couple of times since then. I do believe the weather Gods are amusing themselves on our behalf.
Hopefully it’ll soon turn around and the warmth will come. Then I can at last get a little better in my joints and get going with showering you with great pictures. At least I got a shot of a colts foot with a flower fly on top of it that weekend a fortnight ago.
Poverty
It’s been dreadfully quiet here for a while and for that I am sorry. Due to the Chinese affliction there has been absolutely nothing to work with and to top it all off I got this years pension statement, that pesky document where you can see how big (or rather small) the pension will be when you retire. Talk about getting a cold shower when I opened the envelope to discover that the government somehow had cut my funds with two thirds from last year! Not only has my current economy taken a massive dive the last year and a half, when I retire I will do so in poverty.
So, I have been rather busy with beginning to build me a retirement fund where the authorities can’t put their greedy hands on the money, I’ve been going in a new direction with crypto to build a long term earning with staking. After all, there are ways of earning as much as a smashing 200% or more annual interest on staked funds and there are plenty of reliable places to do it enabling me to stay clear of all the scammers there are out there. I have found that it is possible to quadruple my funds in a single months and with 9 years to retirement I will be able to stay clear of poverty.
As for pohotography I will never let it go, after 45 years with system cameras I’m somewhat addicted to shooting and will continue to give you great imagery. Hopefully with the spring coming with warmer weather and more sun I’ll be able to get some great new shots. In the meanwhile please feel free to join the Street Photography Katrineholm group on Facebook.
Rear End
Honestly, aren’t people able to read and understand at all these days? I went about and started a Facebook group called Street Photography Katrineholm and in both the groups description and rules clearly stated the images posted should be street photography from the city of Katrineholm and even gave a short explanation of what street photography is. A bunch of members joined, so far so good, but then it all went sideways.
Last time I looked The Eiffel Tower was located in Paris, France, and Manila street vendors could be found in The Philipines. At least these were street photography photos although they weren’t even shot in the right country. Then there were a shot of a snow covered road in the woods (no people), shoots of beaches (no people) and an assortment of sunset shots (no people).
Really? Is the concept of street photography really so hard to grasp? And is it so hard to look on a map (or Google) to find out where different locations are in the world?
If you’d like to enjoy some street photography please feel free to join the group below. It is a Swedish group, but imagery are without language.
Street Photography Katrineholm
Valentine
Happy Valentine’s Day, Y’all…
Cinematic Currency
There are a couple of movies with the name Tron, but as far as I know the crypto currency with the same name has nothing or little to do with the movie. The crypto Tron (TRX) though has proven to one of the more stable currencies and now that Bitcoin (BTC) has become unusable for small investors it is also far more interesting. In addition, where the transfer fees on BTC are beyond rude TRX has very modest (if any) fees.
Recently I signed up for and invested in a high yield investment program utilizing Tron, Trx Forever, and it has proven to work beautifully. I invested 10 TRX to begin with, just feel the program, and in 1 week I could withdraw my principal without a hitch (the withdrawal was carried out instantly). So I reinvested those 10 TRX back into the program and lo and behold, another week later I had a profit of 20 TRX which I withdrew.
At this point I reinvested another 10 TRX and kept my principal making me breaking even, from now on it will be just profit as I will keep taking out more than I put in. In another week I’ll be withdrawing 30 TRX and put 10 TRX back in giving me a working investment earning me dough of 40 TRX. I’ll keep doing this for a while until I have some major funds so I can put a little into their second plan which pays 15% daily instead of 12%. I may very well raise the investment amount in the lesser plan as well once I’m seeing some real profit to speed things up a bit.
Minimum investment on the lesser plan is 1 TRX which means that basically anyone can get going without it costing an arm and a leg. The greater plan has a minimum investment of 1001 TRX and when I’m in there I will have two investments working simultaneously earning me more TRX. The 12-15% daily are supposedly for life, but programs like these tend to disappear sooner or later although I’m keeping my fingers crossed it won’t, so it should be during the lifespan of the site.
If you don’t have any TRX you most likely have another crypto and can easily swap some of that in your wallet to get what you need. Myself I’m using FaucetPay to hold my TRX (and other currencies).
Remember to never invest money you can’t afford to lose!
