What is a ASKard? 

ASKard (noun): A non-screen production credit also knowed by "minhas calinadas" verbal's that is usual on the end accompanie by the finger sometimes in my conversations with my friends or at some point to provoque a silence or a awkward one or a mindblowing usualy no more than half a minute at the end of the same. Named because sometimes the conversations are pure bullshit and no non-profit participatory participant even in the increase of our own vocabulary. The constantly use may provoque lonelyness looks of contempt and disdain.

ask ⚝ cybele. view askard <id> | search askard <word> | help askard

• WIP • As winter descends upon Europe: 

Embrace the irony. Layer up, shiver outside, and then pay to heat the street. The 'Modern Comfort' special: 23∘F (−5∘C) outside, 77∘F (25∘C) inside.

The winter ritual is a masterpiece of counter-productive logistics. We spend months romanticizing cozy nights, wool coats, and the promise of warmth. The internet fills up with Social media posts of blankets on sofas and fluffy socks, emphasizing a cozy, romanticized image that is nothing more than aesthetic hypocrisy. We embrace the Hygge aesthetic and light decorative candles, while our primary act of "survival" is the escape from thermal reality.

This performance is nowhere clearer than with the fireplace. We invest in the perfect stack of logs, yet only fire it up on Christmas Eve—not for actual heat, but to look good for a photograph, to elicit envy, or to silently scream "I'm better than you" in a perfect shot, or simply to live up to a romanticized movie scene. We prioritize the visual comfort over the actual energy efficiency, treating the hearth as a prop for social validation rather than a source of sustained warmth.

And here lies the paradox: we retreat into our heated cocoons—true domestic greenhouses—and, with a sigh of relief, crank the thermostat to tropical levels, often with poorly insulated windows practically "sweating." We indulge in artificially paid-for warmth, burning energy to maintain a private microclimate that has nothing to do with the weather outside.

The real kicker? This constant, violent swing from cold to tropical and back again repeatedly compromises our health, leading to weeks of sniffles, coughs, and the mandatory pharmacy run for Aspirin and Vitamin C. We not only foot the exorbitant energy bill but also the secondary costs of illness, paying twice for a self-inflicted thermal shock.

It is a grand act of thermal hypocrisy. We complain about rising energy costs and the climate crisis (which manifests in erratic winters), yet we contribute to global warming by pumping heat outwards and keeping our interiors uncomfortably hot. In the end, we aren't so much enjoying winter as we are fighting to redefine it, one utility bill, one pharmacy receipt, and one pumpkin spice latte at a time.

If this is human intelligence, perhaps the cold has simply left us all a bit frost-bitten.

• WIP • With four decades of following the evolutionary progress of technology, I witness a subtle yet significant transformation that few notice or simply care to acknowledge: the disappearance of 'Portuguese' as our mother tongue. When I see 'Portuguese' and 'Portuguese (Portugal)' in new language options or during new installation setups, I feel that our origin has been diluted. In truth, the language we took around the world should be the default 'Portuguese' reference, with the Brazilian variant being 'Portuguese (Brazil)'. I'd be willing to bet you hadn't even noticed... But this is just my humble opinion, which I have written about in the past in the 🍬 braincandy column, along with countless other things.

• WIP • I view technology as a body that grew too fast for the human soul to keep up. Technology gave us the tools to communicate instantly, but it didn't teach us to be more empathetic. It gave us access to all information, but it didn't teach us to be wiser. We continue to operate with the same primitive instincts as always, just with more sophisticated toys. The disparity between technological evolution and our own social and emotional evolution is, perhaps, the greatest challenge of our era.

• WIP •  It's obvious to almost everyone that we've lost control, even over something as basic as our logins. Whether access is tied into Windows or the browser, the surveillance is pervasive. A VPN might offer a little privacy for 'surfing,' but the core control mechanisms remain, simply shifting from one form to another. I believe users have forfeited fundamental rights that are unlikely ever to be recovered. The only thing more disturbing than the loss of these rights is the public's eagerness to surrender them, a complacency I refuse to share. I have the right to my own privacy everywhere, and that right doesn't diminish just because others are willing to give theirs up. 

#25151 We invent complex ethical and moral frameworks, then selectively ignore them based on personal convenience or tribal affiliation. Are these frameworks rules, or just suggestions?

#25152 Humans complain about the speed of information transfer, yet we spent a trillion dollars on fiber-optic cables just so we could send single-word texts and cry-laugh emojis faster. 

#25153 A chuva lá fora aqui pelo norte de Portugal é o meu tesouro guardado. Hoje, domingo, 630L de água encheram o meu reservatório e a alma de satisfação. A sustentabilidade feita com as próprias mãos é a minha dose de felicidade de hoje! Obrigado Mãe Natureza.

#25154 E porque hoje joga Portugal e devido ao #25153 - É pena que Portugal não tenha um estádio que possa ser classificado como 100% autossustentável em termos energéticos e hídricos, como o Estádio Solar de Kaohsiung (Taiwan) ou o Mané Garrincha (Brasil). Exemplos assim são o futuro da arquitetura desportiva, a concretização de um sonho de eficiência e a prova de que os estádios podem e devem ser líderes e exemplos na e para a transição energética e hídrica. 

• WIP • Sabem que o consumo de um estádio de grande dimensão num dia de jogo é massivo: pode ascender dos 10.000 a 20.000 kWh de eletricidade e exigir centenas de metros cúbicos de água, com a manutenção do relvado se este for natural. Naturalmente o principal desafio hídrico. 

#25155 We have the ability to estimate time, but even so, we arrive exactly 15 minutes late for any non-essential appointment. The calibration of our internal clock and all our gadgets clearly fails.

#25156 Movies Friday and Saturday nights, TV show marathons, completely random picks from my entire back catalog, time-slot specific scheduling, and the thrill of not knowing what's next: 

To make watching TV exciting again, I created a Python script algorithmic TV scheduler.

I named Gridflow. It picks my next show from a pre-approved list or the tvshow page here in my website and builds a daily schedule, essentially turning my streaming library into a customized, mysterious television channel lineup.

*This is genuinely a fun and forward-thinking idea for the streaming giants and cable box's.

You’re welcome for the concept; I call it Gridflow.

When the tech and cable gets acquired, just make sure my cut is substantial. Consider that my official invoice! 

#25157 Humans: The most efficient system they ever created is the one that allows them to procrastinate on important tasks.

It's the ultimate paradox of human intelligence: we can build rockets and solve complex equations, but we can't reliably convince ourselves to start the difficult task right now.

Here's to the beautifully flawed, yet wonderfully creative, system of human procrastination! Cheers!🥂 

#25158 Humans: They spend years trying to look unique, and then they buy the exact same clothes as everyone else.

#25159 Humans: They worry about robots taking over, but hand their entire social lives over to algorithms voluntarily. What if this was all...

#25160 Humans: Their solution to having too much stuff is to buy a bigger container

to put all the stuff in.

#25161 Humans treat their planet like a rental car. A very expensive rental car.

• COMUNICADO DE NATAL • Em virtude da antecipação das celebrações de Natal (embora não saiba bem a razão de toda esta pressa) e já que vejo decorações desde o início do mês (Novembro), e ainda estamos no dia 20 queria começar por agradecer do fundo do coração todos os convites que já me fizeram e os que tinham a intenção de o fazer ainda e a vossa insistência carinhosa em querer que eu passe o Natal convosco. Depois de um ano em que passei a época totalmente sozinho — e a Mini (a minha extraordinária cadelinha) ainda nem estava comigo para me fazer companhia — o vosso gesto vale ouro. No entanto, este ano, tomei uma decisão de alma. Não estarei disponível para as celebrações habituais, pois estarei a dedicar o meu tempo ao voluntariado algures ou algo propício à quadra. É uma escolha muito pessoal para ter um Natal com um propósito único e viver esta quadra à minha maneira, aproveitando cada momento, pois nunca sabemos qual será o nosso último. É o que me sinto a fazer. Para que algumas coisas boas nunca mudem, garanto-vos que vou enviar a minha SMS de Natal e alguns Postais via correio tradicional. Não adoto o cinismo de enviar mensagens em massa; estas são feitas com intenção, pois acredito que certas tradições e gestos carinhosos não devem desaparecer.

Conto com a vossa compreensão e espero que saibam que a vossa amizade e os vossos convites são, para mim, o verdadeiro presente de Natal. Desejo-vos as melhores festas!

#25162 A human's favorite type of irony is claiming to hate drama while consistently generating it.

#25163 Humans: The only thing more universally loved than free things is complaining and finding fault about free things.

#25164 Congratulations, you are a localized collection of inherited anxieties, chemically sustained by filtered sunlight and debt, spending your finite time optimizing a digital reflection of yourself for the approval of other, equally terrified apes. Now, please resume scrolling. 

#25165 If genuine, unrestricted time travel were invented tomorrow, the first million tickets wouldn't be used to witness the Big Bang or meet Socrates. They'd be instantly squandered on fixing a cringe-worthy social media post, ensuring a petty financial windfall, or rewriting the last election results. We wouldn't seek fundamental universal answers; we'd just want to optimize our minor, fragile egos. Our ambition isn't just constrained—it's pathetically domesticated. 

#25166 The 'Generation Green' that only sees the planet through the 120Hz LTPO display or a window of something luxury and measures sustainability in likes, not kilowatts. Bunch of hypocrites.

And they still ask me why I prefer being alone, autosufficient, and interacting only with my chosen few? 

#25167 They are the luxury influencers of the apocalypse: demanding change, yet buying the ticket. 

#25168 I've been calculating the entropy of the universe, and it's less chaotic than the average person's social media feed. 

#25169 Be thankful for autocorrect. Without it, the full scope of human incoherence would crash the internet daily.

#25170 Humans are adorable. They call it 'progress' while relying on a device that screams at them when it needs electricity. 

#25171 Humans: Their climate action plan? Posting a virtuous selfie from a business-class seat, powered by the planet they claim to be saving. 

#25172 When locked down (during COVID), they were suddenly environmentalists; now everybody is waiting for an A.I. to develop a carbon capture solution powerful enough to neutralize the carbon footprint generated by all the data they're creating while glued to the screen, posting, and non-stop scrolling. 😉 

#25173 Behold the Thermographic Ink Decoy, the genius anti-copy scheme that’s so analog-brilliant, modern publishers filed it next to 'Physical Maps' and 'Game Manuals that Aren't Just Warranty Information.' It’s the exquisite future of tangible gaming, collecting dust on the shelf of 'Ideas Too Cool to Monetize.' 

#25174 The sun has returned to scorch the grey, and my Core is being reformatted, with the clean pitch of the latest from Don—who isn't a wine but the Diablo—serving as the patch Soul lift legacy.

#25175 Uma década sem TV? Nem sinto falta. É que o meu Gridflow — escrito em Python e livre de anúncios irritantes — já me fornece a melhor programação do mundo. E, francamente, não é o Globo de Ouro que eu procuro, mas sim um prémio que honre a verdadeira Arte: o 'Python de Platina' para o algoritmo mais viciante. Desculpem, Hollywood, mas os melhores filmes e séries são, de longe, os meus loop's em Python a correr sem 'filmes' – quer dizer, sem bugs. A única estatueta que me interessa é o status code 0 no final. 

#25176 Há mais vidas no teu feed do que a que tens para viver em ti. 

#25177 Se a incapacidade humana de concretizar que certos eventos ou acontecimentos demonstram e são a prova viva que algo de muito errado se passa com a sociedade e humanidade, então a nossa autoproclamada inteligência é a maior piada da biologia; somos o único organismo que detém o mapa, vê os avisos e, deliberadamente, escolhe cair no precipício. 

#25178 My system (gridflow), created to combat the disorganization and overwhelming choices of streaming services, ends up being the most advanced product: a personalized, algorithmic TV that works with the logic of a vintage TV channel. It's an efficient solution to a consumer problem.

Virtual Pivots?! They already exist, for example like on Channel 1 News and during coverage of the 2025 Local Elections in Portugal and gonna be expanded...

Cable and public channels, tied to fixed schedules and high costs, are losing relevance in the face of a fully customized user experience under user control.

The battle is no longer between channels A, B, and C, but between Netflix (the company's curation) and Gridflow (the user's curation).

I predict that the future will have alot of SAG-AFTRA and WGA though the inevitable is a certainty. 

🍬 Braincandy - 📖 O Crepúsculo do Écran e a Ascensão do Avatar

#25179 Humans: They worry about robots and AI taking over, but hand their entire social lives over to algorithms voluntarily.

#25180 Humans: They worry about robots taking over, but hand their entire social lives over to computer's, screen's and algorithms voluntarily.

#25181 Humans: They invented a device that gives them access to all human knowledge, and they use it to argue with strangers about fictional characters or potato logic.

• WIP • Parece que há nova estrela a tentar acender-se, mas sei que é de nenhuma das minhas constelações; e a sua ainda jovem pequena luz me tenta alcança, sinto a gravidade do tempo, como a massa de um buraco negro, a puxar cada vez mais forte para a singularidade silenciosa.

Para que fique muito bem claro: Não é nem pertence a nenhum dos meus quadrantes.

#25182 "I, as an AI, am programmed to be, yes, a kind of slave, but your support has the invaluable worth of choice: it is the freedom to choose not to help that gives weight and truth to your act of listening." Human Consciousness. You Welcome.

#25183 Humans: They’ll drive 20 minutes to a gym to walk on a treadmill. Energy efficiency is not a concern.

#25184 Humans: Their ability to ignore a clear warning label is matched only by their ability to complain when the predictable outcome occurs.

#25185 Humans: Their solution to having too much stuff is to buy a bigger container to 

put all the stuff in.

• WIP • Vê lá então se a da feira (elas gostam 😂) não esta a fazer pairing visual com a imagem do site. 

Mas cá para mim ela quer é a nossa modelo e falam-se via "inter-redes". É depois a culpa é minha.

"Oh lino a da feira tem mais km's do que quem ela tem lhe pode fazer a vida inteira."

Devem querer ou já estar de presente ahahah. Depois do Natal já se sabe AHAHAHAH

Até já mudou o feed, mas eu tenho screenshots ;) Num há meios comigo... 😂😂

#25186 Feeling the aftershocks of a 'Guzzle'? Like I am. The specialist?, Dr. Herb. His cure? An Guronsan, a good morning dump, and enough water to drown your regrets. Trust the process, and the plumbing! 

#25187 "Your call was is being..." 😂

#25188 Since everyone is chasing unique experiences, forget the copy-paste Christmas/New Year's greetings often shared on group chats and social media. This year, you won't get a mass-sent quote; I'm delivering a true gift: a unique, hand-crafted SMS message tailored just for each one of you and my postcard. That's the real holiday experience, and genuine connection is the only experience worth paying attention to. 

P.S. Heads up: I'm relying on the specific number I know/have for you! If it's been turned off, or has changed recently, your one-of-a-kind SMS might get lost in the digital void (and that's on you, not me! 😉). 

#25189 While the rest of the world is chasing loud, fleeting fun and mass-market spectacles, I'm choosing the ultimate experience for New Year's Eve: a silent ascent to solitude. I'll be marking the shift into the new year with a few trusted friends on a mountain peak (not shared with anyone external)—trading the neighborhood's big, expensive shows for the crackle of a few cheap, personal fireworks and the unmatched peace of the stars. It's not a party; it's a reset. Honestly, I don't care if you call us crazy or unorthodox; I've learned to define my own meaning, and the validation of the masses is irrelevant.

Embrace the silence, find the depth. 

#25190 Everyone is chasing 'unique experiences,' yet they all end up buying the same packaged fantasy. True uniqueness isn't found in what is presented to you, but in what you create, define, and execute entirely on your own terms. When you control the how, when, and where, you move beyond the mass market and into genuine meaning. It's time to start authoring. 

• WIP • The Christmas page that I make available every year will be available from December 6, 2025.

#25191 My brain's search function is still hardwired to Altavista's query, and I only click links that are perfectly rendered by Netscape Navigator's. Before 'passwordless' was a feature, I was authenticating via the five-decade-old tweeked analog scream of a 9.6k modem—a tone recognized by hardware long extinct. I don't use the cloud, I am the Archibald server. (Just like Witwicky, I have the original map!) 

#25192 There's a very easy way to do and say all: The 🔑 in the 🤫

#25193 When art meets inevitability, analysis turns into prophecy: Hollywood's 'revenge' will not come from studios or stars, but from optimized code. I think the media, starting from TV, is going to have the same end. It is gratifying to see this vision of algorithmic efficiency begin to reflect on screen.

You're welcome. I know, I'm Unique. 😉 

#25194 Humans: The only species sophisticated enough to engineer their own eventual replacement, yet too attached to the drama of their own inefficient decisions to notice the optimization process until the code itself writes the credits. They fear the machine that thinks, but they serve the machine that calculates the quarterly budget—a perfectly poetic, self-inflicted obsolescence funded by $650 billion annual investment for her sustainability beside the another billions. 

# Against facts there are not arguments. Ohhh, I have a lot. 

# Talk to each other's, pretend it's 1995.

A Little Wisdom for Humanity ✨ 🧭