Sientir's Blog

They say that life is short But it never seemed quite true Until the weeping maws of death Closed down upon vibrant you What is this horror? What is this pain? To learn of a death That leaves us bereft Of one untimely slain? The days that would've been The conversations The laughter The hugs The love The joy The future That's now simply... Gone An unexpected absence Leaving naught but sorrow In its painful wake. Could this be a mistake? Some cosmic error? How can you be gone? How do I soothe this terror? My heart rent open As I realize The painful truth Before my eyes A human life So like my own Full of dreams, and hopes, and wonder Craving love and pouring it yonder A well of life gone dry. A well of sorrow overflows And rolls down my cheeks As I'm wrung out by the agony Of cruel reality Oh, that I could have said goodbye To one longing for home Who was ready to die Whose time had come. Alas! It was not so. If only we could have said One final time "I love you."

At first came the machines They promised leisure and ease But who could take time To rest and recline Where there's money for greed to seize? So people worked And community died Birthing loneliness That heartwrenching hole But never to fear For profits live here In the land That sold its soul. For when community dies The need does arise To soothe tired eyes Hark! They doth advertise The balm for the heart Of folks torn apart Can be found at the mart So go fill your cart. Each new ailment And hole in the heart Was an opportunity For the cunning and smart. After all Despair Hopelessness and loneliness Are all exploitable By business. And so a nation Sells its soul A piece at a time Bit by bit Forcefed misery And promised a cure If only you'll pay Your tormenter. Monetize everything: Childrearing. Love. Friendship. Passion. Service. Care. If it isn't traded for money Is its worth even there? In the nation That has sold Its soul. You can support Sientir in his creative endeavor

I am adrift on the sea named Desire Longing for an island all my own A place to rest and retire To be free of this turbulent foam Whenever I see an island And the waves, they begin to churn "Could this be the isle for me? The home for which I yearn?" The hope always sparks, A longing of heart Grown deep with weariness Born of the years on the sea The sea named Desire. This sea, it is littered with islands Some have been well loved Made into a rich haven For someone, but not for me Some are pleasant to drift by But though I may circle time and again And delight in their presence They are not the home for me Some are still bubbling With volcanic activity Perhaps they will make a good home For someone else on the sea Most I pass by but once And then I drift on my way Perhaps they'll be a good home But if so, I'll never see I am adrift on the sea named Desire Longing for an island all my own A place to rest and retire For long have I drifted alone Often do I think of my i

I've been thinking some lately about the incentives for media platforms in this current age of "free" content that's paid for by advertising, and what the effects on incentives that revenue model has, particularly when compared with other revenue models. If we assume that these companies are trying to maximize profits, then their goal will be to get as much money from their revenue source(s) as possible while minimizing expenses, with bandwidth being a major expense (notably, delivering high quality video uses a lot of bandwidth). In an advertisement-based revenue model, media platforms are incentivized to maximize user retention—the longer any given user stays on the platform, the more ads that platform can show them, thus generating more ad-based revenue. However, people generally don't like advertisements (a separate problem that I think needs solving, but that's a thought experiment for another time). In general, people are not coming to your media platfor