Bigger Brother. Matthew Vandenberg
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is No Joke. Here's How it Affects Your Body, https://www.canadianliving.com/health/sleep/article/missing-out-on-sleep-is-no-joke-here-s-how-it-affects-your-body
8 Vera Blue - Lady Powers ft. Kodie Shane, https://youtu.be/SX9nvO8wL2g
9 Stacie Orrico - (There's Gotta Be) More To Life [Official Video], https://youtu.be/wUOcQnWbk_U
10 Niall Horan - Slow Hands (Lyric Video), https://youtu.be/nBmNcLBaPUE
Back Again
Gao puts on a mouth mask as she simultaneously removes her eye mask. Only half her face is ever visible at once.
'You think that the smell of bad breath is a drug?' Gao asks. 'What if it smells like the Rafflesia [1.] flower of Indonesia?'
Matt shrugs: 'So long as it's breath and not an actual rotting corpse then I think that would be nice.'
'I almost feel like my head's in two pieces, the way only half is visible at once,' Gao says. 'So maybe my breath smells like divisiveness, but I can begin to mentally see the beauty of an open mouth if I close my eyes.' - Gao laughs.
'You had a nice sleep then?' Matt asks.
'That's a good question,' Gao says. 'But I think I was searching for some answer while asleep but can't remember the question, so I can't really be sure that I'm satisfied with the sleep I got. And my back hurts when I think about Russia: psychosomatic back pain [3.] induced by thoughts of a despot [2.]. Which begs the question: what was I actually thinking when I was dreaming? Was I a despot? The members of Pussy Riot don't presently have more power than Vladimir Putin, do they? And I'm not a member of the band? So my dreams are dead. Hence the smell of the Rafflesia flower potentially filling the air should I remove my mouth mask.'
'So we're figuratively in Russia now, not China?' Matt asks.
'Let's make that clear,' Gao says, sitting up. 'So that ironically we may be seen in China [6.] like we're made, and asexual laymen. Made night watches on a ship can help with strong organization fueled initially by sleep, just sleep. With night watches we could theoretically take out Putin. All we need is a date, just a date. But that's wishful thinking, like thoughts of having made backs behind us with no strings attached. But who has any spine to stretch this a bit?'
'Mental and physical exercises can help us feel as though made backs have our back,' Matt states. 'Forget drugs [3.]. If words are a vehicle for ideas can they be rolled over to separate the bad from the good actors? Stars' vehicles can be for an incredible performance when we think about the significance of a state. Intimidation [2.], arrest [2.], and barring [2.] of the significant others is wholly despotic. Us and the others should turn our made backs on Putin. That's taking charge, when shit hits the fans: Putin's. Over time, simple speeches can solidify opposition to despots. Opportunities for overtime to be in when winning when on abound, so made backs can no longer be considered bad. We're hard and physically and mentally fit.'
'I should get up then, shouldn't I?' Gao asks, naked back in hands.
'There's a lot to think about in twenty twenty [4.],' Matt states. 'Watch your back [3.] with two hours of stretching [5.].'
'Robots don't require sleep or sex, just made backs,' Gao says. 'So maybe they can truly go places without looking suspicious, so long as they only go from China to the Kremlin, and not the other way. So no made floor's passage of plays, for artful fencing, should be obvious. Back pain can be psychosomatic, like paranoia, so what can we make Putin think about just who has his back? Made backs have the money to take people out. It's hard to find made spines though. But people can watch and learn how to mentally three-D print them for themselves like pistols. Can thought experiments alone fix backs? It's worth a shot. Truly artificial intelligence [7.] could perhaps help China locate terrorists OUTSIDE OF Xinjiang, and, specifically, in the Kremlin. For now. But similarities and differences between certain people may become obvious.'
'Hard or soft, we need to be careful what we say,' Matt says. 'Focusing on hard lines of hard people between citizens and politicians creates waves. It's enough to bring back pain if people are not active enough (square dance). Take up surfing for instance and Insta, to save lives and backs. The spine of our gang can both shiver when voices are soft but still be the showers of cords of strings moving just the right way to bring opening chords to life along with hard and fast backing tracks as despots prepare to take on water from afar (it's hard then) until fast people are properly active enough to put an end to suffering.'
'There's strength in numbers like figurative spines in backs,' Gao says. 'I wear my spine on my mouth like it's money, and I bet that Putin's going down on Thursday (and this is not divine pornography featuring Thor).'
_____________________
References
1 Stinky flower is more than a metre wide and the largest ever found, https://www.newscientist.com/article/2229335-stinky-flower-is-more-than-a-metre-wide-and-the-largest-ever-found/
2 The Economist, Leaders, Glued to the throne, How Vladimir Putin is preparing to rule for ever, https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/01/15/how-vladimir-putin-is-preparing-to-rule-for-ever, ["But they owe perhaps even more to state control of television, the barring of popular opposition candidates, the co-opting of tame opposition parties and the arrests and intimidation dished out to the less tame ones. The murder of political opponents is no way to foster genuine competition for power."]
3 The Economist, Leaders, Backs on the rack, Vast sums are wasted on treatments for back pain that make it worse, https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/01/18/vast-sums-are-wasted-on-treatments-for-back-pain-that-make-it-worse, ["For most back pain, the best treatment is non-medical. Do some stretching exercises. Keep moving. Don’t give up work or lie in bed for days on end—that will probably make things worse. Above all, be patient. The problem may not be your back; it may be that the brain’s pain-signalling system is not working properly—and, alas, medical science does not know why. The pain may be partly psychosomatic. The stress of a bad marriage, a horrible boss or a sick kid may bring it on. People who suffer mental trauma when young are more likely to experience back pain in middle age. In many cases, the right exercises and the passage of time can ease the pain. And unlike surgery, they cost very little and are unlikely to make things worse."; "In America, Australia and the Netherlands, insurers pay for back operations costing tens of thousands of dollars, but barely cover physiotherapy. The answer is to educate patients better, so they don’t feel they are being fobbed off when told to do stretching exercises."]
4 How To Survive 2020 | Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj | Netflix, https://youtu.be/JHOgUkuSXn4
5 The Economist, Briefing, The burden of back pain, Back pain is a massive problem which is badly treated, https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/01/18/back-pain-is-a-massive-problem-which-is-badly-treated
6 The Economist, China, The year of the rat-fink, Some people in China help the party police the internet, https://www.economist.com/china/2020/01/18/some-people-in-china-help-the-party-police-the-internet
7 The Economist, China, The digital divide, Different views of AI fuel distrust between China and America, https://www.economist.com/china/2020/01/16/different-views-of-ai-fuel-distrust-between-china-and-america
8 TLC - Waterfalls (Video Version), https://youtu.be/8WEtxJ4-sh4
Congolese Pyramids
'Our rent for the week is zero dollars,' Matt says, placing a slip of paper that fell from the ceiling onto a round counter in the kitchen. 'It seems as though our words alone, figuratively sleeping with and in the heads of advertisers, have been conducive enough to the generation of revenue that we don't owe any money to anyone big.'
'We don't have money here anyway,' Gao states. 'We may as well be in a remote village of the Congo with an abolished currency [1.].'
'With no roads [1.] and only a river [1.] it would seem as though houses are as few and far between as in San Francisco for the poor [2.],' Matt states. 'I guess that's another earthquake. See how rift valleys dot the terrain like vacant houses.'
'We don't know where we are,'