Hawaiian Dream

After a tumultuous period in San Francisco and Minnesota, I decided to store all my belongings and leave for Hawaii. Just for while. I’ll let the wind blow through my head. A small break from blogging, internet and… hectic cities.

And here I am landing into yet another new adventure I realize the world is my home. Locations can change but the one thing I always carry with me, is myself. And here I am. Now on a beautiful tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Whales park themselves here in the bays. Dolphins play in the waves, you can join them any time. I have been swimming with them and their sounds are truly amazing. Its like listening to my mothers New Ages  CD’s but then real-time.

The plants here give us a 100% guarantee on  survival. They provide us with medicine, food and clothing. And in this perfect ecosystem that is only partially (unlike some other tropical islands) destroyed by influx of capitalism, I find myself again.

I’m hitting the same walls, Im applying the same believe systems. The same pain bodies are being triggered by simple and unimportant little events. And paradise is the same as SF, Europe or any other place that I have lived. Its yet again, a challenging jungle of inner thoughts. And it is wonderful.

Perhaps this time, its time to let go of some luggage. I’d like to become lighter and lighter.

While storing my belongings downtown San Francisco, I had to throw away my ‘clutter’. I believe a material cleanse preceded a mental cleanse. Its hard sometimes to throw away long saved ‘things’. It can be a thought, a piece of clothing or a painting from Mexico. The same question arises:  Do I want to let go? Or do I want to hold on? And I do want to let go.

All I want to have is a small backpack of habits, believes and expectations. I’d like to leave my mental house behind.

So here it is: letting go.

Hawaii gives me the tools. I left my long hair behind, and it already feels lighter! Now I am going to apply the same to my thoughts.

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Flow and Control

Sometimes, I just stop writing. Sometimes creativity is blocked. And that is alright, it always comes back. Sooner than expected. Lately though, I have been a bit silent on my personal blog. Perhaps new thoughts are washing through me. And I need time to organize. Maybe there are blocks.

Roller-Coaster Rides

For just a bit, I decided to take a step back from the internet. In order to let it flow more after. And then I don’t write. Simply because I can’t. Instead, I let my life flow, undocumented. My travels of the last half a year, revealed a lot of realities to me. I had indigenous ceremonies in the desert, went to the Netherlands to visit family, burned with 60.000 people in the Nevada desert during Burning Man, had a beautiful love affair in San Francisco, traveled throughout Brasil, met John of God, got acquainted with Argentina and Uruguay and experienced magic/ exhilaration/ chaos/ instability/ judgement and stagnation all in this sort period of time.  

And I found myself sitting in a roller-coaster without a safety belt, ready to be launched into space any second. Things went faster than normal. They went fast!

It made me live the moment, and write less. But I know, it will always come back. Just hang in there…

 

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May the dream be with you

Via the Cloud9 IDE blog:

We are all leaders. You are, will be or have been a leader. This might be the leader of your family, your children, your development group, your sports team, your neighbor meetup group or your personal charity group you just started. Or maybe you are leading your own company, your city, your land or your own universe. You will always lead something, and if it is just you that you lead, than I would say: Great job!

How do we become good leaders?

This week, Marc Benioff gave us the right example at Dreamforce. He showed us that we can learn from current leaders that blow our minds away. And as Anthony Robbins says: ‘Always take the best of the best as your example, your mentor’. So Marc Benioff he gave us the opportunity to meet exquisite leaders (including himself) and hear them out. He invited for example Sir Richard Branson founder of Virgin Group, General Colin Powell, Jeff Immelt (CEO of General Electric), Dr. Larry Brilliant and Dr. Dean Ornish and motivational speaker Anthony Robbins.

I think Marc’s dream to change the world beyond software, created the dream behind the force of Dreamforce 2012. And why? Because Marc has made it possible for himself to do this. And he cares.

Salesforce invited Cloud9 IDE to be part of the conference. We were demonstrating our integration with the Salesforce development side. Something that still runs in beta but that you will hear more about soon! 

While being at Dreamforce, I had the opportunity to leave my booth once in a while and check out the keynotes that had been announced. At the beginning of the week I thought about Dreamforce: yet another conference. After the Dreamforce week I think: Is it really so, that companies and not always governments, will lead us into a better world?

By following these talks, I was introduced into a world where values, friendship, social, love and even meditation are becoming an everyday reality. A world where companies stick out their necks in order to make change. Not only in their field of expertise. They want to make a global change. Where certain politicians sometimes fail because they depend on numbers, voters and elections, brilliant company leaders step in and approach world problems the same way as they approach business problems. And they do it not to make money. They do it because they care about their world.


Sir Richard Branson is one incredible example of a game-changer that not only cares about building new experiences and products for people, he cares about their state of being. And as he said: having someone successfully run a great company and him being a horrible mean person at the same time, that is quite rare. In general, you will see the opposite. And by looking around in Silicon Valley, I think I agree.
I was impressed when Richard Branson spoke about ‘The Elders’ ; an independent group of global leaders who work together for peace and human rights, initiated by himself. And they mingle in politics, because they believe countries themselves can not manage to bring the peace we need.

Many of the speakers at the Dreamforce conference showed they make changes for environmental (this has a very high priority for many, and it should, time is ticking) and humanitarian reasons.

For us who don’t know how to change, Marc Benioff asked the help of Anthony Robbins. I have just done a 4 day course with Tony Robbins. I’m a big fan. And it was great to see that thousands of my industry colleagues were equally excited during his 3 hour training. Robbins told us that we have to change our state and understand our blueprint if we want to be happy. And as he said: happy people don’t want to hurt, bomb or kill others. So we’d better start implementing his advice. Start small and later on you will change big things. We are social beings, and we influence each other.

The message I got from Dreamforce was that we are all leaders. And no matter how many people you will lead, a country or just yourself, you have to give the right example. Only then, will we create a better world. Technology is a gift, created by thousands and thousands of brilliant minds. And we use it for the better. We will use it for being social. And being social means: We care. And when we care, we change the world.

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Did you know…. Who are we?

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The Art of Life

When you were born in the eighties, especially in the beginning of the eighties (like this person that is almost turning 30!), it is easy to lively remember a period without cellphones, computers or email.

I remember the time that  it all began. A classmate in highschool was angry with me for not installing my Hotmail. She said I was lagging behind, and that she wanted to send me ‘e-mails’. But I saw her every day, so I didn’t know what she wanted to send me messages about. It made no sense to me.

Growing up in a village pretty much assures that as a kid you spend your summers outside in the woods, and your winters inside fiddling with clay, making paintings, listening to music or just watching the rain go down the windows hitting the windowsill. Just stare at things. I remember I could sit hours in front of the new stereo-system, looking at the bars of the equalizer going up and down. That was technology for me. And other days I would just sit on the sidewalk, thinking. I entertained myself.

My dad grew up on a farm, and his stories were even more ‘back to basic’ than my own. He told me how the boys on the farm entertained themselves with taking apart the tractor, running through corn fields and walking the cows from one field to the next. I unfortunately never had the privilege to live on a farm, but my grandmother did so we got a small taste of it. And we lived between farms, assuring me that I could visit others peoples farm animals.

When finishing high-school, the computer pretty much infiltrated my life. I set up that email account my friend wanted me to, installed MSN messenger, downloaded movies and music with Napster and I was suddenly connected to websites that allowed me to buy cheap flight tickets and fly to far away places where I could find temporary jobs. Those jobs I found through their websites. It was all in place within 2 years. Internet came out of nowhere, and transformed my life.. It was easy, and with no limitations set by yourself, pretty much everything was possible.

I turned out to be over averagely good with computers, so I did media studies for a year. I lived inside the computer for an entire year, and that was comfortable to me. My exterior world was suddenly less important, I didn’t see it anymore. After quiting the media studies (I pretty much taught myself everything I needed to know and wanted to move on) I ended up at the university. But I was never disconnected from ‘online’. Travels made new friends, hence new reasons to be on messenger, and write emails. New friends meant more travels. New travels meant more people online. And your world fills up. After my studies, working for jobs that required me to be online 24/7 seemed like a good idea. Most of my time I was online anyways. And then phones became smarter and smarter. My job gave me one of those ‘intelligent’ phones so that I could have my own hybernate. I didn’t have to think really, I could just look anything up. And that felt comfortable. For years.

Quite a transition to go trough…in only a period of 12 years, everything became digital. And I grew up with it, was comfortable with it. I became digital too. And quite a transition if you look at the history of humanity. Only one generation ago people were mostly still growing their own food, or helping others get it. Now we go to the supermarket, and we are so busy with our smart-phones, that we don’t even wonder where all that wonderful food comes from. And there is so much of it (at least in the western world, where I grew up)!

But recently, things are changing. My focus is changing.

I have many things to ‘arrange’ on the computer. I need to write documents, do research, connect to people. But recently every time I need to sit down in the evening or weekend to do something behind a screen, something else will call my attention. Things that require my hands to be active.

My preparations for burning man were jeopardized by unexpected travel. So instead of buying clothes for it, I decided to make them myself. Because I did have time to go to the fabric store. And at home in the Netherlands, I spent two nights making clothes. And it was wonderful.

This evening,  I had to fix something on the computer. But suddenly I saw all these things around me that needed to be taken care of! Fixing up all my old shoes seemed way more important. And after that, the eggplants called my attention and I decided to learn how to make fresh Baba Ganoush. All handwork. And every time I start doing something with my hands, I feel so peaceful.

My hands are itching, they want to make things, like I did as a little girl. It feels like I had a 10 year computer addiction that I’m suddenly waking up from. And I’m realizing my hands are not just good at typing buttons. My hands are  capable of doing really intense work. And the rest of my body and mind loves it.

Where does this go?

What else can we make but websites and unimportant messages that become the to-do list of others?

I’m not the only one having this awakening moment. I have been speaking to many people who’s hands are itching, who’s minds want a break from the screens around them. Who’s systems are overloaded with digital crap.

We are waking up, becoming more aware. And I am horrified with many things I’m seeing. The massive garbage production (I’ve been fighting that for years, but lately its becoming painful) we are creating. The ridiculous way that we are presenting food at the moment. My awareness about food has completely shifted. I do not buy processed food anymore. This means I challenge myself to make everything from scratch. And by doing that, I suddenly start to wonder where all that wonderful organic food comes from that I buy. At farmers markets I talk to the farmers. And suddenly I  realize that they supervise the process of growth of these products. And they put love into it. And its their job. And it sounds wonderful! Suddenly I start to wonder: what if I’m disconnected for a month from their supplies. Then what?

Then I wouldn’t know how to grow even a cucumber…  Nor would I have the space to do it. Am I self sustainable? Yes I’m good with fixing stuff. But can I survive? And what would I do if I really had the freedom to do whatever I wanted. At burning man people got the freedom. And what do they do? They give each other gifts. And they play. And we all make it possible. Because we love what we are making.

My hands are itching. My mind is intrigued. Where are we heading towards? What are we going to do?

One thing is for sure, we are not going to continue in the life that we are living now. We are not sustainable. And that… will prove itself soon.

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Flawed and Fabulous

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Hmmm so Beautiful Burning Man

A MUST watch for the ones who still need to be persuaded…

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For the ones who missed it

Yep, this is what it looked like.

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You brought me back to life…

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Burning Man 2012

How it was? I guess you just had to be there…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Burning for a Week

See you at the Playa:

Staying at 9:15 on Esplanade

See you there!!!

For the rest, I’ll be back after Burning Man, full with Love, Sun, Sand, Hugs and Kisses!!

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What to think?

I’m no supporter of starting unrest when nothing is wrong. Never done so, I’m always positive and  in for happy thoughts and pleasurable moments. I embrace life, love people and am intrigued by the creativity around. It’s not my intention to start ‘premonition talk’. I never used this blog to deal with politics and economics before. Even though my Master is in political science, I have always stayed away from it. But now I won’t. It could very well be that nothing is wrong. Still, I’d like to pay some attention to what is going on.

I have been following news closely lately, both while being in the USA and in Europe. And there are some things on the way, as I posted earlier this week. My last post was mostly about us, how to deal with ourselves and how to look within. But now I want to give more of a warning. And again, it might very well be that nothing is wrong. But at the same time, we have to keep our eyes open.

There is unrest. Last week when in Europe I could feel it. The economic regression was pretty much the discussion of the day. Here in the USA there have been droughts up North that are going to push food prizes up. But that is not the only thing. The economy, just recovering from two depressions, might just get a third hit. And that could have an external reason.

There is extreme unrest in the Middle East. What seems like a civil war in Syria, might just be more than you think.

Yes, it might seem very far away.  Nothing to worry about, you might think.

‘The Middle East has always been volatile,’ you might say. And that is true. But there is something about the conflicts of today that rings a bell. There seems to be some gravity to the situation that I have not felt before. It might just get China, Russia and the USA involved. Together with a very uncertain economic situation and a lot of environmental distress, we have a scenario that might end up in something more than we can forsee. Moreover, China and Brasil are exchanging currencies in order to weapon themselves agains a global regression (or getting ready to dump US treasury bonds). If China was ever prepared to take out the USA as a big player, this might be the right time to do so, with oil prices already going up due to Middle Eastern conflict, and the elections on their way. Russia might stand against the USA due to their support of Syria, double weakening the USA in their global position. When it comes to Europe: Finland is getting ready to step out of the EU zone, making the Euro highly unpredictable. Whatever happens, Euro-land seems to be fighting their own battles at the moment, making them very weak on the global scale.

I wanted to write an analytical post myself the situation of the Middle East. But I found an article, just posted today, that pretty much sums it up.  And just follow the news closely. We live in an interesting time. And that is an understatement.

One thing: Live in Love. When there is love, there is no room for fear. So then there is nothing to be afraid of, ever. Get your shit together. And just stay alert.

Syria And Iran Dominos Lead To World War

Brandon Smith
alt-market.com
August 22, 2012

Almost three years ago I wrote an analytical piece on the concept of deliberately engineering wars, big and small, by elitists to distract the masses away from particular global developments that work to the benefit of the establishment power structure.  That article was entitled ‘Will The Globalists Trigger Yet Another World War?’:

http://www.alt-market.com/neithercorp/press/2010/01/will-globalists-trigger-yet-another-world-war/

In that analysis, I concluded that since at least 2008, the power’s that be (whether posing as Republicans or Democrats) had set in a motion a series of events that revolved around Iran, and most disturbingly, Syria, which could be used to trigger a vast global war scenario.  Today, unfortunately, it seems my concerns were more than valid, and circumstances evolving in that particular region are dire indeed.

Now, some may argue that circumstances in the Middle East have always been “dire” and that it does not take much to predict a renewal of chaos.  Admittedly, for the past six years alone the American public has been treated to one propaganda campaign after the other testing the social waters to see if a sizable majority of the citizenry could be convinced to support strikes against Iran.  The U.S. and Israeli governments have come very close on several occasions in rhetoric and in the build up of arms, to just such an event.  However, I would submit that the previous threats of war that came and went are absolutely nothing in comparison to the danger today.

Syria’s civil war has developed into something quite frightening, well beyond the blind insurrections of the so-called “Arab Spring”.  So many outside interests (especially U.S. interests) are involved in the conflict it is impossible to tell whether there are actually any real revolutionaries in Syria anymore.  This unsettling of the country’s foundation has taken a turn which I warned about recently, namely, the removal of UN monitors from the area, which was announced only days ago:

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/16/syria-crisis-idINL6E8JGDXH20120816

The removal of UN monitors is a sign that some kind of strike is near the horizon.

Accusations of potential “chemical weapons stores” in Syria are being floated by the Department of Defense as a clear cut rationale for invasion, and Israel has essentially admitted that an attack on Iran is not only on the table but beyond planning stages into near implementation.  Even Israeli citizens are openly worried that their government is “serious” this time in its calls for preemptive attack, stockpiling gas masks and even protesting against the policy:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-14/israel-plans-for-iran-strike-as-citizens-say-government-serious.html

The tension of the atmosphere surrounding this crisis is unlike anything the Middle East has seen in decades, and that includes the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

But before we can understand the true gravity of this situation, we must first confront some misconceptions…

Firstly, I realize that there are many people out there who have natural and conditioned inclinations towards the hatred of Muslim nations.  There are also just as many people out there who are inclined to distrust the intentions of the government of Israel.  Both sides make good points on occasion, and both sides also have a tendency to get lazy, painting with a ridiculously broad brush and blaming all the woes of the world on one side or the other so that they don’t have to think through the complexities of globalism and the one world technocratic club, or accept that “Al-Qaeda” is not the biggest threat to peace and stability.  It’s much easier to convict an entire race, or an entire religion, than it is to comprehend the mechanizations of an elite minority that plays both sides off each other.

Whatever side you may favor, simply know that in the end the sides are irrelevant.  We could argue for months about who is just, who is right, who was there first, etc.  Again, it’s irrelevant.  What does matter, though, are the potential consequences of an exponential conflict in the region, which no one can afford.

Sadly, there are still plenty of Americans out there that believe the U.S. is the “richest nation on the globe” and has finances beyond reckoning with which to wage endless wars.

Here are the facts.  Here is exactly what will happen if the U.S., NATO, or Israel, enter into a hot war with either Iran or Syria, and the results are not optimistic:

1)  Syria And Iran Will Join Forces

In 2006, Iran and Syria signed a mutual defense treaty in response to the growing possibility of conflict with the West.  Both countries are highly inclined to fulfill this treaty, and it would seem that Iran is already doing so, at least financially, as Syria spirals into civil war.  In fact, the U.S. supported insurgency in Syria was likely developed in order to strain or test the mutual aid treaty.  Given that the CFR is now applauding Al-Qaeda for its efforts in destabilizing the country, I hardly find it outlandish to suggest that the entire rebellion is being at least loosely organized by NATO interests to either draw Iran into open military support of Assad and a weakening proxy war, or to remove Syria from the equation in preparation for a strike on Iran itself (take notice that whenever the mainstream media shows images of Syrian rebels, they are always smiling or looking valiant with guns held high; a typical subliminal tactic used to paint them as “the good guys”):

http://www.cfr.org/syria/al-qaedas-specter-syria/p28782

2)  Iran Will Shut Down The Strait Of Hormuz

With all the grandstanding at the Department of Defense, you would think that the Hormuz is a non-issue.  This is a mistake.  The strait is around 21 miles wide at its narrowest point which lays right off the coast of Iran, however, of that 21 miles only two safe shipping lanes are available, each measuring a miniscule 2 miles across.  Hormuz is one of two of the most vital oil transit checkpoints in the world, and approximately 20% of all oil produced passes through it.  The logistics for blocking the two working shipping lanes on the strait are simple given the existence of the new Ghader Missile System, which Iran tested successfully this year.  The weapon is specifically designed as a “ship-killer” with the ability to travel at Mach 3, and evade most known radar methods:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-01-01/iran-missile-test/52318422/1

In the tightly boxed in waterways of the Hormuz, a large scale and difficult to track missile attack would be devastating to any Navy present, and would turn the sea lanes into a junk yard impossible to navigate for oil tankers.  Result?  A catastrophic inflationary event in oil around the world, making gasoline unaffordable for most people and most uses.  The EU’s recent move to stockpile oil in preparation for an Iran strike reveals the seriousness of the situation:

http://www.euractiv.com/energy/europe-starts-piling-oil-iran-wa-news-514340

3)  Israeli Action Will Draw In The U.S.

Forget what the U.S. Joint Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey says; the U.S. will absolutely involve itself militarily in Iran or Syria following an Israeli strike.  To begin with, there is no way around a supporting or primary role, especially when Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz.  With 20% of the world’s oil supply on hiatus, at least half of the American populace will be crying out for U.S. military involvement.  Guaranteed.  Dempsey’s claim that Israel may not get American support is simply a charade meant to infer that the subversion of Syria and Iran is not necessarily a joint venture, which it absolutely is.  There is zero chance that an Israeli strike will not be met with frantic calls by the Pentagon and the White House to open the floodgates of U.S. military might and protect one of our few “democratic allies” in the Middle East.

4)  Syria Will Receive Support From Russia And China

The Russian government has clearly stated on numerous occasions that they will not step back during a strike against Syria, and has even begun positioning naval ships and extra troops at is permanent base off the coast of Tartus, a development which I have been warning about for years:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/03/us-syria-russia-navy-idUSBRE8720AO20120803

Tartus is Russia’s only naval base outside the periphery of its borders, and is strategically imperative to the nation.  Action by the U.S. or Israel against Syria would invariably ellicit, at the very least, economic retaliation, and at the most, Russian military involvement and possible widespread war.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/21/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8610SH20120821

China, on the other hand, will likely respond with full scale financial retaliation, up to and including a dump of U.S. Treasury Bonds (a move which they have been preparing for since 2005 anyway).  With oil prices skyrocketing due to increased Middle Eastern distress, multiple countries including the BRIC trading bloc nations and most of the ASEAN trading bloc will have the perfect excuse to dump the dollar, allowing for the introduction of the IMF’s newly revamped SDR (Special Drawing Rights) global currency mechanism to take hold.

Syria is the key to what I believe will be an attempt on the part of globalists within our government to actually coax a volatile conflict into being, a conflict that will create ample cover for the final push towards global currency, and eventually, global governance.

5)  Economic Implosion Will Become “Secondary”…To The Banksters’ Benefit

In the minds of the general public, the economic distress that we will soon face regardless of whether or not there is ever a war with Iran and Syria will be an afterthought, at least for a time, if the threat of global combat becomes reality.  The fog of war is a fantastic cover for all kind of crime, most especially the economic kind.  Sizable wars naturally inhibit markets and cause erratic flux in capital flows.  Anything, and I mean anything, can be blamed on a war, even the destruction of the U.S. economy and the dollar.  Of course, the real culprits (international and central banks) which have been corrupting and dismantling the American fiscal structure for decades will benefit most from the distraction.

Syria and Iran are, in a way, the first dominos in a long chain of terrible events.  This chain, as chaotic as it seems, leads to only one end result:  Third world status for almost every country on the planet, including the U.S., leaving the financial institutions, like monetary grim reapers, to swoop in and gather up the pieces that remain to be fashioned into a kind of Frankenstein economy.  A fiscal golem.  A global monstrosity that removes all sovereignty whether real or imagined and centralizes the decision making processes of humanity into the hands of a morally bankrupt few.

For those on the side of Israel, the U.S., and NATO, and for those on the side of the Middle East, Russia China, etc., the bottom line is, there will be no winners.  There is no “best case scenario”.  There will be no victory parade, for anyone.  There will be no great reformation or peace in the cradle of civilization.  The only people celebrating at the end of the calamitous hostilities will be the hyper-moneyed power addicted .01%, who will celebrate their global coup in private, laughing as the rest of the world burns itself out, and comes begging them for help.

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Getting Ready!!

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Love is EveryWhere

Even in darker times!

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Babylonians

I was born in a system, that doesn’t give a fuck about me nor you nor the life.
Don’t be a victim of things I do too survive.

Cause I won’t wish you any good, you Babylonians

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