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Week 1: Dvorak
05:12
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Week 1 of Dvorak. It’s a struggle at times and autocorrect puts me off. It makes me realise how slow I am. It also reminds me of why I need to ignore it and just type as it’s not always right.
I am just so slow. I think in letters not words. It is as painful for me as it is for you. Especially when I forget 1 letter and the comp knows.
73 words
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3. |
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Week 2
I am getting better. Still slow but better.
I wrote a list of words I often use. I have written 5 novels so I got the most common words and put them in a list. The plan is that I will practice these words so I have shortcuts when I write. The most common word was the. I am already quicker with it.
I still get frustrated. When I know what I want to say but the wrong finger types it is annoying. I am thinking quicker than I can write but I am thinking further ahead now.
100 words
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4. |
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Week 3
Calm. Believe. Tolerate. Hope.
These are the stones I chose from the stone people. They live down the road and write messages on rocks they have spray painted gold. There is no point to it beyond bringing the community up a little bit.
I like pointless acts of kindness. It isn’t random, it just is.
So I made this song by way of thanks. I am going to burn in onto a cd and put it in their letterbox.
I think that one random and pointless act deserves one in reply. They are a small bit of positivity in a world of grey. I think they are great.
110 words
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5. |
Week 4: Gamestop Hopes
05:38
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Week 4
Today is the 29th of Jan. 1 month of Dvorak.
More to the point, it’s the 28th in usa. The wall street bets crew are going to town. It feels like tomorrow will show if it was all worth it.
I used to visit the sub a lot a few years ago. Lot of to the moon memes and shit. Now, these self identified autist and apes are going to do it. They use old school offensive slang, they are sticking it to the man, and half of them wouldn’t be far out of school.
It might blow over. It might not. There’s every chance that these fuckwits will actually do it and make people pay attention to the finance sector. It’s like an actually effective occupy wall street and it fills me with hope.
Hold!
138 words
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6. |
Week 5: Working Less
06:24
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Week 5
I think that we work too much in general. I don’t understand why either. Sure, there is a point where you need money. And not having enough and stressing about things is horrible. It takes the joy out of life if you don’t know how you are going to pay the bills.
But what about when those things are covered?
If you work 5 days a week and get 2 off, do you have time to do the things you want? Or is monday staring at you the whole time?
I know some people love their jobs. That is a different thing to me. That is having value in what you do. The majority I would say don’t love their jobs. They work and they come home tired and each day is one less. Death is inevitable and time is a finite resource. So why are we all ok with spending most of it at work?
Is it to buy things we don’t really need? Is it to be proud of a bank balance? I understand that retirement is something you want to work towards so you are comfortable in old age, but how many get there?
Take a day off next week.
205 words
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7. |
Week 6: Indecision
06:02
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Week 6
I am indecisive at times. I am ok with this but it gets frustrating. For the past 15 years or so when this happens I turn to the stars.
I don’t believe in astrology. I do believe that I am easily influenced. When I read something or listen and give things a lot of my time and attention, I give it value. I want these things to come true so to speak. I want to look at things through the lens of what I am thinking. I want to solve the problem on my mind so I read star signs on a website that does my full chart. I don’t believe it, but by reading it I want to make it happen or am wary about certain things.
It works for me.
But astrology as a whole? Think about it. If you are a nurse on a shift what is more important? The safety of the people or the time when the baby is born? With all the machines beeping at the end of an 8 hour shift, does 8:38 or 8:40 matter? In astrology it does but most people would have the wrong time written.
But if it helps people then does it matter? I like it. Try it one day.
216 words
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8. |
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Week 7
I have been listening to a book by Yanis Vourafakis. It is called talking to my daughter. I highly recommend it if you want to be an informed and functioning adult in a world growing weary of late stage capitalism.
An example given is to think of a tree. It sustains our life through o2 shit. It gives us shade on a hot day. It gives us experiences that can be pleasant and helps us make memories.
Unfortunately, the tree is not seen as valuable unless it makes money. So the tree is more valuable when it is dead and used to build things, for firewood, or for toilet paper.
This is a very strange way to live. We are actively attaching a price to something at the end of it’s life and ignoring all of the amazing things it does because there is no money in it.
You probably didn’t decide this either. I know I never got a vote on it. It comes down to money, and in turn, power.
So read the book and learn why this is an important conversation. Don’t just shut down when you hear the word economy. We need a solution.
200 words
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9. |
Week 8: Live Music
05:09
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Week 8
I tend to get down now and then when I think about how it is inevitable that our society will fall. It feels like it will happen. I always thought a post apocalyptic world would be ok. As I have gotten older, not so much, as is natural I guess.
Covid has made me realise something though. If the world did all fall apart, we would never hear loud music again.
I went to a gig last night and it was amazing. It is so good to hear really loud music. Drums that you feel in your chest, guitars that pierce your ears. Noise on a level that cannot be replicated by a home stereo.
It was great. It made me realise how lucky we are to be living when we do. Nothing comes close to that level of noise, at least not in a beautiful way such as music.
I highly recommend anyone out there who can get out to a gig, to do it. Don’t put yourself in danger by any means but make the effort to hear some noise. There is truly nothing like it in the natural world.
194 words
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10. |
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Week 9
This past week has gone by quickly. The best thing that happened to me was I went to a gig last night but I’ve mentioned gigs last week. The next best thing was having a really good sex god for the week.
Without going too deep into this, I got invited into a secret group a couple of years back. Cult like and utterly pointless, it’s like a reverse stone cutters. There is nothing tying us together except that we keep talking. And there’s soda.
The sex god this week has been great. They have talked about communication, confidence, stagnation, orgasms and BDSM. It’s been very insightful and through those conversations I have redefined myself offline a bit and finally gotten onto some dating apps.
I never thought I would go back on them. I’m really not a fan of them, but this time around I’m trying to be a bit more playful about the whole thing. It’s weird, I would much rather life to just happen but at a certain point you need to accept the paradigm. At the moment, it’s this and not meeting people in real life.
Anyway I guess this week I am looking forward to more posts from the sex god. They have kept their throne, not through merit but by having 68 other people actively want to be a part of this group. There’s only 140 of us total but of them all, 26 still continues to confuse me the most. Incognito as fuck. Love it.
254 words
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11. |
Week 10: Camping
02:30
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Week 10
I have just gotten home from a weekend of camping. It was great to get back out in nature, it has been years since I’ve been up to the Bill Murray.
It was a quiet weekend. Lot of talking bullshit and drinking beers and watching koalas swing in trees, I don’t know how they don’t fall. Then again, do they? Is it really common for them to fall? They put trust in branches I wouldn’t but they have been doing this for longer than me.
It’s nice to be home. But it’s also nice to go away so you enjoy coming home. Only 2 nights, hopefully next time I get longer.
113 words
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12. |
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Week 11
I have been thinking for a while now that a smart idea would be psychedelic ration packs to incentivise people to stay indoors during covid.
I mean it’s a bit of a bold statement for sure. But if the government way back this time last year had of said right. Your needs will be met. We want most of you to sit indoors and chill, and if you want you can apply for 2 -4 weeks of rations. This might be LSD or some pot or mushrooms, whatever it is.
Then, we stay indoors. We don’t go out shopping. We don’t go out doing much of anything. We instead, as a collective, take a breathe. We ask ourselves what do we want? Do we want to keep living in a world that prioritises money over everything else? Commerce above all things? What is wrong with taking some time out of what is ‘normal’ to see if we are heading in a direction we want to go?
Of course, that would never happen. And it is ripe for abuse, like everything. But I wonder what it would be like. It would certainly take a lot of the paranoia out of the trip if you knew that in the eyes of the law, as in the physical law not a spiritual one, that you were doing exactly what you were meant to be doing.
A man can dream.
238 words
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13. |
Week 12: Contradictions
05:41
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Week 12
I have too many things I want to talk about but I can’t get the words out right. I don’t want to offend anyone. I want to offend everyone. I think anyone should be able to say anything. I don’t want to say the wrong thing and get the hatred of the internet. Fuck the internet. I love the internet. I want to get some work. I never want to work again. Our world would be better off if there were less people on it. I want to meet someone and have kids. I’ll never find someone again. I’ll hate losing my time when I do meet someone again as I inevitably will.
I am a walking contradiction. I hate it and love it. I don’t know what to type. I know what to type but I am hesitant about saying it. I think I enjoy making these videos. I think this will be the last one I do.
Let’s leave it there. I really think after 3 months, it’s time I put it down for a while and had a think about what I want to do with my time. I want to do a shitload of creative things and this is feeling like something that hangs over my head every week. If I thought I could speak freely, I might keep doing it, but there is a real fear that I will say something and there will be repurcussions that I can’t comprehend. That’s the internet you know? We can get fired for thinking the wrong thing these days.
I guess I am quicker at dvorak than I was in week 1.
276 words
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14. |
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15. |
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The Amazing Sloth Rider Geelong, Australia
The amazing sloth rider is a musician, writer, and film maker from Geelong. He has worked in mental health since 2006 and
makes art about the disconnect between an individual’s values and societies expectations.
His art motivates and disturbs as necessary. Far from perfect, he seeks out new ideas, people, and experiences which end up in his music.
... more
The Amazing Sloth Rider recommends:
SectApe. The brainchild of Mauro Ochoa (The Electric i) has been the main musical project I've been involved with this year apart from Sloth Rider. It's a combination of... just give it a listen.
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Art As Catharsis. Can you think of a better name for a label? Consistently blowing my mind with new and exciting Australian releases including Omahara, Hashshashin and We Lost The Sea.
go to album
Dream State Intervention
by Vivisect
Vivisect. Experimental drone music from Melbourne and the soundtrack for my nano story in July. It just creeps into your subconscious, really amazing stuff.
go to albumIf you like The Amazing Sloth Rider, you may also like:
St Celfer returns with tracks culled from a series of live shows, each one a showcase for his inventive experimentalism.
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Seattle’s St Celfer returns with four more boundary-breaking electronic compositions sparked with sudden bursts of melody.
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Radioactive Desire
by Bob Bellerue
Recorded on the hottest days in the longest year, "Radioactive Desire" is an avant-garde piece with an almost visceral impact.
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