Tech Bros, Nakedness and Overexertion

Well, here we are -- our last morning in Pevensey Bay. A few hours from now we'll be in an Uber to the train station and then on a direct train to London. I won't be sorry to get home to our own bed, and to water the garden, which I'm sure needs it desperately. We had a smattering of rain here on Wednesday but otherwise the weather has been sunny and clear, and if the same is true at home the plants must be parched.

The picture above was actually taken on Tuesday. Yesterday's sky didn't even have that many clouds in it.

I spent the morning reading one of my New Yorkers -- in particular an article about a political thinker named Curtis Yarvin who basically wants to jettison the USA's governmental system in favor of a single CEO-style strongman. He's apparently been an inspiration for Peter Thiel and some of the other Silicon Valley "tech bros." I won't rehash the article, which is here, but even though I've read about Yarvin before I found it eye-opening.

It struck me that some of these guys who are very into technology have simply spent too much time with machines, living in the simulated realities of video games and computer code. It's like the elements of their humanity involving empathy, compassion and cooperation have withered away for lack of sunlight and warmth. Surprisingly, Yarvin does cry at two points during the article's reporting -- once when gesturing toward some nearby homeless people and, by extension, the failures of our current government, and once when envisioning the future for his children. But those are virtually the only glimmers of emotion we see in him. Mostly he seems possessed of a (to me) menacing desire for control.

In the afternoon I took a long walk down the beach in the direction of Normans Bay. When we were here in December 2023 I walked in that direction, and as I remember I could only go so far -- eventually there was a barrier or channel that prevented my going further. I didn't find that this time, though, maybe because it was low tide. I did discover that Normans Bay beach seems to attract older naked guys. That was a surprise.

I just kept my head down and looked for interesting rocks.

(Incidentally, if you click back to that earlier post, you'll see my mention of the Royal Sovereign Lighthouse, which used to stand off the coast here and was being disassembled at that time. It's completely gone now.)

I came across a big flock of seagulls who all took off at my approach. See what I mean about the cloudless sky?!

In the afternoon, Olga and I sat out on the deck. I had a gin & tonic while she watched a handful of passing visitors. Just in the short time we've been here, Dave and I have seen the cast of local characters change a few times over, with people coming and going from surrounding houses. The one next to us has had three groups of occupants in the week we've been here. (Ours is rented by the week only.)

Oh, and by request, here's a selfie of me in my dashiki. I took the picture in Eastbourne right after I bought the shirt, in order to show it to Dave. It's not a very good picture of me -- I look like "The Old Man and the Sea," minus the sea -- but having the Queen's Hotel behind me was a happy accident!

Olga has had two wildlife encounters this morning, one with a fox and one with a cat. Both of them involved her streaking out onto the deck with her hackles up, and then collapsing with exhaustion immediately afterwards. I hope she gets through today's travels OK. She's had a lot of excitement this week.