SpyJournal 3.0 - Filtering the web for you

Melbourne

jethro — Sat, 25 Nov 2023 23:30:35 +0000

Cold steel frames glass canyons wet with rain
Concrete and plaster, curtains and carpet
LED lamps make cones of golden light
An oasis in the urban jungle

Surviving is not living as you should
Experience everything leave nothing
No stone unturned or crevice unexplored
People seen as fellow adventurers

Chance meetings destined to be pivot points
Synchronicity of shared compulsion
Advancing intellectual ideas
Bright spots of energy coalescing

Grey clouds are a sign of impending rain
Though Melbourne has 4 seasons in a day
Artistic expressions explored in paint
Echoes talent left for us to enjoy

Tall seats raggedly line worn counter tops
Tired staff complete their morning routine
Nicotine and caffeine the drugs of choice
Life’s pleasures lost in daily drudgery

Stark reminders we should always enjoy
Conversations as connected beings
Not distracted by physical actions
Just two souls briefly engaged in knowing

Poem written by Timothy Miller 26 November 2023 (c)

Dawn over Sandy Bay

jethro — Sat, 18 Nov 2023 21:39:39 +0000

Cold predawn light filtered through gumtree leaves
Rocky shoreline interrupting marching
Inexorable lines of crashing waves
Muted birdsong heralding a new day

Eyes straining extracting details from gloom
Watercolour scene reminiscent of
Billabongs surrounded by smoky fires
Damper cooking alongside Billy tea

Digital technology has no place
Unrelenting forces of wind and waves
A millennia of repetition
Civilization made a mockery

How many humans have stood and listened
Footprints just temporary impressions
While capturing visual moments of time
Diversity of shared recollections

Do experiences create the scene
Or does the scene script the experience
Oral traditions of past memories
Tiny shards of shattered recollections

Rocky outcrops hold distant memories
Beyond transient homo sapiens
Brief excursions amongst ancient beings
Force perspective of our place in this world

Giant ghost gums add their rustling whispers
Foliage doomed in an endless cycle
Sprouting and blossoming only to fall
Trod underfoot and remembered no more

Will the memories of my lifetime here
People and places and things I hold dear
Matter one whit in six months or a year
Does anyone notice or even care

Of what import are words of love and care
The universe makes it brutally clear
Two souls intertwined whose pathways are shared
Does true love exist to just disappear

Are rocks and trees cognizant of humans
Meandering briefly through their landscape
Ignoring their longevity as we
Crash like waves that are remembered no more

Cosmic repercussions of two lovers
Declaring thoughts aloud into the air
Waveforms of sound now historically there
Imbued into the weave of time and space

Aeons of history pivot on this
Singular expression breathed into life
Daring the universe to object to
The daring impertinence that is l

Two souls tread lightly through ancient forests
Dance over pebbled shores glistening with
Transient foam blissfully unaware
Their actions have altered reality

Poem written 19 November 2023 by Tim Miller

Through The Weave of Reality

jethro — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 23:25:37 +0000

Unremarkable white SUV
Sneaking quietly
Through the countryside
The Squire of Affinity
Tiptoeing gently
Through the weave of reality

The Squire of Affinity

jethro — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 23:28:31 +0000

Today I walked lightly on my feet, feeling refreshed from a good (if broken) sleep. I had napped early and then watched some female warriors sparring in a match before heading back to my chambers to rest alone.
My destination was sure, the exact journey unknown as I navigated through crowds of horses and carriages conveying their passengers to the bustling commerce quarter. Many would be going to browse, purchase and taste the delights of the many vendors all clamouring for your coins. Others would be going to spend a day of drudgery; serving, washing dishes, saying please and thank you and being polite to rude rich women and passively aggressive wealthy men. Others were heading to a boring office with many corporate overlords in fantastic commerce ventures or bureaucratic government work pens. I'm not sure which I would have preferred, but I am glad I do not have to be part of that rat race.
I had wended my way into quieter streets through a leafy suburb in my carriage before leaving my team of horses and my racing cart with a valet service to be cared for until my return. Of which time I was necessarily vague, as I had a leisurely day before me. The first stop was to be a den of disrepute, although hiding behind a facade of public benevolence. The furtive meeting with the crime lord who controlled the major drug supplies around here while appearing to work out of a government office was the best cover ever I thought. He slipped me a secret handshake that let me know as I passed my gold coin over inside my palm, that his motley crew were going to give me the best private sensory experience possible. I slipped into the hidden room through the panel that didn’t look like a door, and immediately was enveloped in the mystical ambience of the industrious space. Arcane figures were silhouetted behind frosted glass windows fronting rooms of potions and bottles of mystical and exotic ingredients. These wizards were the brew masters. Kept in thrall and forced to brew their potions every day, they were the masters of their craft.
Other workers bustled around the many patrons attending to their every need. Some visitors to the establishment were bright and alert, the drugs energising them as they made conversation, often loudly, with their clients and sycophants, maybe minor family members or distant cousins. Other patrons were clearly under the spell and the grip of the many courses of drugs they had consumed, lying back glassy eyed, alone and ignored by all.
I headed for my usual chair as the staff flocked around me making their requests. Did I want my usual brew, what boosters and additives did I desire and were there any adverse effects to my previous experience? I acknowledged them all and thanked them for their service as I gave the answers. The magicians in the rear were making the best stuff and I was enjoying the rush, the clear headedness, the ability to focus and my ruthless ambition to realise my dreams that was inspired by these chemicals.
Today as I lay back and was pampered I planned on delivering some strong messages to some clients informing them I knew their risky business practices were ging to get them in trouble. However they could ensure their safety and security by employing my team of agents, technical wizards and strongmen. From others I ensured my regular extortion and protection money was being extracted and letting them know just what we had done for their protection money. They were as much reliant on us as we were on them, a symbiotic relationship if you like. The large network of spies, agents and information gatherers I had built over many years of shadowy dealings on the side of the large corporates had many rich information sources. I reached out to some of these people via secret messengers who slipped in and out of the shadows, took my notes or returned notes from the recipients. The day was advancing rapidly to the next item on my list, the port. Down here where the whistle of the gulls, the fresh salty air blowing my hair and the hoarse yelling of stevedores combined with the many scents of fish, fresh cut timber and tar, and the occasional bitter smell of tobacco and coffee as labourers took their breaks. Here I had to slip a package to a freight forward agent I had marked for reliable service. I knew from previous experience he could be relied on to get my package to my client. My own team of wizards had constructed a marvel of the ages, for which everyone hankered after. My client was desperate for the latest and best to please his mistress, and so this had been constructed especially for her desires and needs. It even included personal touches with a magical enclosed viewer that displayed her memories of her children to her, as if she was there!
I knew this gift would have my client being blessed with her favour and in turn deferential to me. I know he will become reliant on these marvels and thus my service to him assured and my riches amass.
After the port and all its bustling commerce, I will attend a luncheon, a simple repast for the time of the day when my mistress of many years will regale me with tales of dealing with the tiresome servants while we are entertained by some jesters in the background.
The afternoon is yet to be determined. I like the chaotic nature of energy that is released when just in that moment of time with no regard to past or future.
After whatever that period of time brings to me, I will press the magic buttons that summon food to my table before retiring to my entertainment chamber. No female warriors tonight, rather I have granted an audience with the researchers who are using my body to assess the gains to its athletic capability while meditating and taking ice baths.

Actual scenario - hospital for cancer chemo treatment during which I will triage my emails and bill some customers, followed by the post office where I send a new PC to a client for his wife, lunch on the couch with Jude with Netflix in the background. Dinner and a video call with the university researchers whom I have joined a study by Whoop with.

What is this emotion

jethro — Mon, 01 May 2023 23:15:02 +0000

Went through the hard times together
28 years I’ve known ya
Roh you are never gonna be forgotten
Cos I love you mate
And you live in my heart forever and
It stinks
Cos I won’t get to hear your voice again
And that sucks
To think about this is an emotion
Raw and wide open
I don’t know what this feeling is
And it sucks
I hold all my memories of times with you dear
I’ll treasure your grin and laugh
Your endless giving of support
Your generosity of spirit
Waves of sadness are rolling off me
Grief for your loved ones
Grief for the world’s loss
Grief – what an emotion
It sucks
Pause
Remember
Spark
Memories comes to me
Snippets of video igniting afresh in my brain
Moments I’ve stored for healing in this time
Shared experiences, rallies, photos, cars, models, tech, family, hospitals, floods, the list goes on
I’m getting emotional
This side of the brain is deeply delving
Remembering
Savouring
Grieving
Laughing
Joy
Your spirit lives on

Written on the news of Rohan hills Passing
1 May 2023
© Timothy Miller

A Beach Poem

jethro — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 23:21:39 +0000

The waves rhythmically lap against the shore. What seems permanent in the moment is variable and shifts over time. The sand banks of today are the gutters of tomorrrow.

A continuous line of boats and jetskis heading out to play. A heron stalking it's prey while next to it two Spoonbills are busy digging for theirs. All right in the moment.

Fishermen repeatedly cast and wind, cast and wind.
My wife and daughter are chatting in the water. Catching up on each other's busy lives in this stolen moment of peace.

The sun warms my back as it continues its inexorable march towards its destiny. A yellow billed lapwing observes me with beady eyes. What does it see? How does it value time?

My shadow reflects my every move. Crows caw. Swallows flitter and squeak. Boats creak. There is serenity in this moment. I choose to rest in the midst of turmoil.

Dread

jethro — Sun, 22 Jan 2023 21:37:56 +0000

As the rat catcher stepped on my head
I felt a visceral wave of dread
Pounding me down like legions of dead
Skeletons glimpsed in the mists ahead

Oh no I’ve opened the licht kings lair
So now I must needs go sneaking near
Hoping to find an unguarded stair
That way I may take him unaware

And just as I find a doorway in
A feeling I am about to win
Floods me with chemicals from within
Creating a neural network in

I just hacked into the minds archive
Find what I need to keep me alive
Arcane records from which I derive
Futures unfolding yet to arrive

Written 22 January 2023

Perspective

jethro — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 09:55:05 +0000

One thousand butterflies dancing across naked skin
Gossamer touches of ecstasy and pain
Delicate spiny toes stabbing soulward
Chemical nanites coursing through wide veins
Alluring alleyways of awareness
Self realisation

[PAUSE]

Deep frequency dreams thrumming through taut sinews
Discombobulating foundations of knowledge
Grasping for theoretical solidity
Butterfly wings soaring over an abyss
Paper pillars portray illusion
Oblivion

[PAUSE]

Crows caw conjecture and contention
Mighty trunks splintered by ravenous beaks
Shredded remnants of trust
A feather twists and drops
Resident amongst ruin and neglect
Forgotten

Free Speech, Racial and Religious Discrimination in Australia and New Zealand, or an essay on Bigotry

jethro — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 01:24:00 +0000

I have written this essay offline before posting it because I didn’t want to fall foul of the error I believe most posters on social media have, and that is of writing in haste, the social media equivalent of opening your mouth before putting your brain into gear. I am as guilty as the next. This essay has been exhaustively analysed and edited before posting. Of course, there will still be errors and flaws. I hope you will be polite enough to point them out to me.

I am a New Zealander by birth but Australian by residency and choice.

What is free speech?

We don’t have a constitutional right to free speech in Australia. However, there is an implied freedom of political communication. https://www.humanrights.gov.au/freedom-information-opinion-and-expression. Of course, different locations have different rules and practices, and some regimes even have great restrictions on what their populations may or may not say. I think however we may be able to agree on some common ideals, even if they are actively discouraged and even persecuted in some regimes. Here in the democratic Australian and New Zealand societies at least we believe these rights exist, and we welcome those refugees from harsh climes who escape to our freer society.

Free Speech does imply the right to criticize but not to engage in violence, to disagree but not to hate, to stir up action against opposing schools of thought but not to incite violence as a method of protest. If we consider the act of war as the failure of diplomacy, then equally demonstrating with violence is akin to a failure to communicate.

What is not allowed is Race discrimination or religious discrimination.

The Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 defines discrimination as:

(a) any distinction, exclusion or preference made on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin that has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation;^[7]

This goes every which way you can think of. Do you ever look at someone with a different skin colour and feel repulsed, or even just “different”? If you see someone wearing a turban, headscarf, cross on a necklace or wiccan pentagram does that make how you thought of them different than if they hadn’t been displaying their faith openly?

If someone makes a post on a social media platform that exposes their religious belief, including atheism or agnosticism (lack of belief), does this make your reconsider how you would approach them for a job, or as a prospective employee? What about as a customer or a purveyor of their services?

Do you even just think of “them in that suburb, those who frequent that restaurant, or those of that skin colour or those who practice that faith. I think if so you are dangerously close to the point where you discriminate.

What is bigotry?

Recognising a distinction is fine. We all associate with tribes, be they genetic, familial, faith or activity based. Discriminating based on tribal association is the first step towards intolerance. Being intolerant of other people’s opinions and ideas based on these “artificial” discrimination points is bigotry.

Bigotry is defined as an intolerance towards those who hold different opinions. From https://www.dictionary.com/browse/bigotry “stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own.”

As I write this, I must also ensure that I recognize and change any motives or thought patterns I have that demonstrate bigotry. Often bigots are unaware of their bigotry, having learned it from an early age through mimicking their parents and grandparents’ intolerances towards others, or maybe as part of a culture they are currently enmeshed in and do not even recognize.

Bigotry can I think be seen easily in the social media world in “us versus them” type posts. As soon as you see a group of people being different (even if they are legitimately actually different) and then (this causality is very important) make a distinction based on that difference you have taken the first step to wards bigotry. The actual moment comes when you make the comment, post the post, reshare the article or meme, that expresses that distinction and separates the two types of people and essentially classes one as higher than the other. You my friend, have just shown intolerance of someone else’s views based on discrimination and you have just become a bigot.

Congratulations!

There is a road to recovery. Reconsider your intolerance, review your assessment based on the discriminatory difference and view that person as you would your mother, sister, brother auntie or child. Now does it matter what they do, look, or act differently?

What is acceptable?

Discourse, objections and differences of opinions are vital to communication and our humanness. It is part of what makes us human – our uniqueness is expressed visually, genetically, spiritually and intellectually. Of course this is fine. But to call on others to discriminate because of these differences is to both be a bigot and incite others towards the same. And that culture is not acceptable.

What I have also come to realise in the last few days is also not acceptable, is to idly stand by while others engage in bigotry online and in real life. Bigots can change. Your intolerances can be unlearned. You can become friends with a someone from another faith, even an opposing faith. I am a Christian, yet I have friends who are Wiccans, Muslims, Buddhists and atheists. Some even call me friend back!

My challenge to myself and others is to call out intolerant attitudes and speech. Don’t stand idly by and in doing so provide tacit approval for what is essentially hate speech.

Should I cull my “friends” list?

I have thought about this quite a bit. Because my business involves a lot of networking and accepting friend requests from all sorts of people, I have never culled my lists. I have blocked a couple of extremely offensive people, but that is it. I am not sure that I want to cull.

Don’t sit on the sidelines, instead Act

What I want to do instead is make a polite request.

If you make a post that I see and it is intolerant of others, racist, extremist, or degrading of others because of their religious choice, I will comment on it with a link to this article, for you to read and reconsider your statement. It is up to you to deal with it in a mature manner. Recognise your bigotry and change or remain intolerant and have a go at me for daring to suggest you might be bigoted.

I’m going to operate on a one strike rule. You get once chance. If you repeat it, continue to justify your position, argue that you are not a bigot while still sharing intolerant memes, comments and posts, I will block you. If you agree with my essay, then I challenge you to also do the same. Call out the haters. Give them a chance to learn and become compassionate. Then cut them from your lives if necessary.

Conclusion

Intolerance towards others is learned, it’s a behavioural habit, not a genetic bias. It can be unlearned. We can learn to think more rationally, to recognise errors in our thought patterns, attitudes towards others and discriminatory practices and behaviours.

The Christian religion is often misunderstood, and I am not referring to the organised church hierarchies most would associate with the word Christian. Instead I am talking about the personal practice of faith. I think it can be summed up in two statements that Jesus made as quoted from Matthew 22:37-39. The first is spiritual looking toward a deity from a personal point of view. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

Bigotry is essentially the opposite of this. My response to counter bigotry is to learn how to practice the second statement. That comes after learning how to practice the first.

Whatever conclusion you come to, I would be interested in your genuine comments.

Privacy Policy

jethro — Wed, 09 May 2018 01:19:46 +0000

Privacy Policy for SpyJournal

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Last Updated 9 May 2018