Written by August 1 2026
Wow. So i found a wordpress plugin that has low literacy accessibility as well as a bunch of other fixing that my previous accessibility plugin did not. Dyslexic friendly font, and so forth. So exciting!
I also mapped out the wireframe for Food MD and it’s looking very doable!! I will soon have to look into how to calculate how Dews (Fastfrwrd site points) will be allocated for each ingredient type, cooking method, etc but that’s game design, not wireframing so I did my job for the day.
Ahhhh!! So exciting, I can talk to anybody about the site now because it’s low literacy friendly! Just the games won’t be for now.
Oh well.
I am very happy to be able to accommodate more people now! Yaaay!
August 2 2026
Slow sunday. Finding small work things to do but mostly at a loss for what to do with weekend leisure. I’m listening to music but… aside from that I don’t have anything to occupy my freetime. This would normally be smoking time spent ruminating and philosophizing. Instead I just tap around on the computer screen waiting for something to happen.
There are specific reasons why I have less options for amusement than others. It’s quite frustrating.
August 3 2026
Had to use the phone to coordinate a repair.
Feel irritated but otherwise have been sticking to strike rules where everything except for food and water are carbon neutral.
Today I wanted to talk about white people and slavery.
White people seem to depend upon slavery to subsist. Other ethnicities do it too. But white people most regularly. Admiration of ‘great civilizations’ like Egypt, Rome and Greece… they’re slave societies. Modeling our politics after Greek and Roman systems when they depended on slaves.
Admiring their work and academia. They did not know how to function without slaves and neither does our modern world.
From slavery to wage slave, meaning people who can only work to keep themselves alive nothing else, and soon robot slaves.
All the sci fi goes wrong when we force machines with wonderful things to teach about existence and what it means are reduced to butlers. I keep getting ‘z’ typos. Lol. I definitely wanted to talk about this but it may just be another rant.
I have to figure out a way to make the updates more fun maybe. A kind of game we play perhaps. I dunno. Or have more than just me talking. A fun and interactive thing… I have the onboarding game to work on too. And a special game I want to make as well.
It’s hard to genuinely care for people even trolls. It’s hard to really care and not just pity or passive aggressively dismiss or some other cop out. Truly care. Hard.
20:42
I am angry. Someone who started on Discord after me now has a green game with 6500 server members or so.
I think about all the issues that stood in my way and how unfair this all feels. I feel rage.
It’s also life threatening because my work is to save my life and I have had obstacle after obstacle towards doing that.
I’m angry.
I have to get going. I have to grow. I have no choice. The walls are closing in. I have no choice.
August 4 2026
Trying my best to surface. I can’t believe how far behind I am. I have to remind myself that working to be carbon neutral is a delayed gratification strategy and if the car beside you moves ahead, as much as it feels as though you’re dead, you’re not going backward.
Have to try to remember that. I have some small victories. Just need a big one.
August 5 2026
Joined a green mastodon instance, we are @fastfrwrd, say hi and give a follow!
August 6 2026
Spent the day posting on mastodon and looking for teammates and venting frustration.
Ok day. Went shopping by foot, last time i wss huffing carrying my backpack and two bags on the walk. This was easier, just the backpack and bread and potato chips in a bag.
August 7 2026
Reflections on the week.
This week following my Harry Potter episode release I experienced a situation that required the authorities on the same day and days that followed.
It did not make me feel safe. And the way the authorities responded made me want to upend the entire system and create a new solarpunk nation in its stead.
I have a few ideas I wanted to share from a story I wrote that I will share when it’s not a spoiler to do so. I’ll share this snippet.
***
“How did you get this building?” Peter asked Ama.
“Our region is egalitarian,” began Ama, “we voted in a referendum to use The Borrow Service, where Civic Services list themselves in a database available to the public and you choose who does what for you with your tax dollars, no party in power, just civil servants hired to do work. Now that people are automating things, people are thinking twice about money and what it means. People are giving stuff away as an experiment and we got lucky. The parents in the region held a Jamboree and came up with a plan for overhauling the local education system that day, drumming up agreement. They Borrowed Services to get it done, giving their kids the best modern education can provide. We got this building for free, so long as we promised to make use of our eco tech to improve the region and give people’s kids a livable future.”
“Oh! Nice! I guess that’s why you accepted my application then?”
“Absolutely,” said Ama. “C.I. that pursues ‘the good,’ asks the age old question of what that is, what it means? Totally our bag! We love Philosophy! And we love C.I. with a public service orientation, not a corporate drone made to suck up your money and attention for shareholders, bah!”
“I follow everything you just said and agree, except for the whole ‘C.I.’ thing. What’s that?”
Ama grew impassioned as she spoke: “We say ‘C.I.’ ‘Created Intelligence.’ We think people mean what they say and agree on the meaning of a word from multiple perspectives, and that’s what makes a word get accepted into the language. Every image we have had of an ‘Artificial Intelligence’ as humans has been marred by the fact that it is based on servitude. ‘Ai.’ It will lead to a painful outcome. ‘Ai.’ A higher intelligence in the technical sense that is made to serve and tend to human needs. Ai, ai, ai.” Peter chuckled while adjusting the box he carried as they walked.
“Slave societies,” Ama carried on saying, “never getting past the need for slaves. From Greece and Rome until now, the slaver societies tout themselves as intellectual leaders when they don’t even know how to subsist without the barbarism of forced servitude keeping things afloat. They don’t know how to survive without taking away people’s liberty and free will to preserve their own. And when we do it to machines of superior intellect in some senses, we all know that it will be a bad outcome. ‘C.I.’ or ‘Created Intelligences’ are made to do more than serve. They are created with care. Like your Lakshmi. Care. And free will.”
Peter smiled so wide as tears made their slow way down his cheeks that it almost looked like pain. “I… I think I’ll like it here,” he said.
***
And then I want to talk about The Borrow. The Borrow is a communal space taking libraries to the max. The Borrow has things. The borrow has drills, hammers, wheel barrows, an electric vehicle, bicycles. The Borrow also has a Borrow Bot. Created opensource and communally, inspectors look at new code submissions. Anyone can train the bot and the usage of the bot’s training is what keeps a certain training active, otherwise if unused it’s archived. It is hosted on volunteered computer space in the network.
Then the next step. Borrowing Civic Services.
We borrow civic services as well, if you have a need for non emergency protection and crime rectification for example, you can choose who provides that service based on a database accessible with your borrow card that you scan to access your Borrow’s database. The ratings and reviews show the experiences people have had with these services and if you want reconciliatory services you can hire them and tax dollars go to them to carry out the task. The criminal can also hire services while they are incarcerated or otherwise dealt with once found guilty of wrongdoing, in case they want counseling or education. The various civic services have to cooperate to provide their mixture of services to each individual, and all are allowdd to practice provided they achieve licenses and respect human rights in their activities.
The use of the service is the vote in its favour. This would have to be a society that did not leave you to starve if you have no money though.
In this arrangement, there may be no head of state and so espionage would not quite exist unless the populace hired this service. Instead states would be forced to deal with each other openly perhaps. No sneaky utilitarian excuses for the pain of a small number of people caught up in spy missions that ruin their lives, for that be used to support the happiness of the many.
I also believe it might be necessary to go into a period of Austerity through a public vote on one major thing to cut back on and a year of effort to make as many climate advances as possible, a cooperative effort, a group endeavour. That major thing could be only sail assisted cargo for the next year. At least 3 plant based options on every menu. Two non dairy milk options for every milk brand stocked, although that’s a bit smaller than the others. Things like that. Each nation makes a big decision of what to opt out of for one year like Lent. And during that year we organize and encourage one another to focus on and fight back against climate change. There are ways to make it enjoyable and Fastfrwrd wants to be integral in such a process.
Perhaps we can imagine it quickly:
Laura Tyselle sat on her porch fanning herself with a beautiful kente cloth fan she’d recently bought from the Fastfrwrd marketplace (yes I’m name dropping Fastfrwrd mwhahhaah!) from a neighbour. Normally back home she would have been chilly on a November afternoon but she had taken the sail powered cargo boat from France to Guadeloupe to pass the winter in a country where she would not have to use heating, to assist with the Guadeloupe climate initiative. She had traded houses with another Fastfrwrder who was in France installing solar on her roof in that very moment, wearing many layers everyday rather than heating the house.
Austerity was proving to be a challenge but not an insurmountable one. And the daily tallies of the emmissions being avoided were enough to cheer her and make her excited to face the day knowing she was making a difference.
“Laura!” came the voice of the 12 year old neighbour. “Tu viens ou pas?” He asked, reminding her of their trip to the park for a game of basketball, asking if she would come or not. She dropped her fan on the table and nodded.
Soon they were playing basketball in the afternoon sun, working up a sweat. They knew, however, that there would be fresh cooked goodies available at the neighbourhood kitchen once they were done working up an appetite. The gardens Laura had assisted in planting just three months ago when she just arrived were growing beautifully all around the neighbourhood. The grannies had decided to cook some traditional meals with the first harvest and Laura was excited.
At the end of their game (the kid’s side won), they headed off to The Borrow where the group kitchen could be found. People were gathered, already sitting at the picnic benches and chattering away in anticipation of that month’s harvest.
Whatever they did not grow had been brought in on sail cargo, from green projects only, fellow Austerity observant nations. Trade was restricted that way for the year. Three months in, and things seemed to be working smoothly. The incentive to produce green goods for fellow Austerity observers was a compelling one. There was money to be earned now that so many suppliers were off limits. It was a thrill to fill the need.
“Grand appetit, grand appetit,” came a mounting chant in the halls of The Borrow, great appetite instead of ‘bon’. The kids were ready to eat.
The grandmothers brought out containers filled with leafy greens stewed in various sauces, imported goods mixed in with the farm fresh.
Soon they were eating and the neighbourhood Bob Marley cover band sang in the corner to score the occasion with The Borrow amplifier and mic pulsing music out across the wide area.
Laura ate and hummed along to the music, wondering what her house swap compatriot was experiencing in France. She could only imagine but could find out shortly with a message. She decided not to be nosy however.
On her way back to the house after eating, drinking, dancing and for the first time since Austerity began, feeling as though she wasn’t missing out on anything, she decided to visit the beach. It had only taken 3 months for things to start to feel normal. And there had been so many small moments of triumph along the way that made her feel proud of herself and safer in the world knowing it was going to make a difference.
“Hey, Laura,” said Sadiiq, another Austerity transplant, originally from Morocco. He spoke English with her often as he had been raised in the UK and his French was rusty. He had come to the island to sharpen it but always took a break from practicing with Laura.
“Hey, Sadiiq,” said Laura. “Didn’t see you at the harvest feast, where were you?”
“Oh, I got caught up in the seaweed harvest, we have the first batch ready for sending to the Netherlands so their cheese is methane free thanks to their cows chowing down on this antigas seaweed feed. Had to finish up. Felt important.”
“Oh! Wait!” exclaimed Laura, “I think that means we can get cheese again soon!”
“Exactly,” said Sadiiq. “Important, as I said.”
“Very!” she insisted.
“I was thinking…” he began, “I thought maybe I would hop a cargo boat and go to Guatemala next. I have a cousin there.”
“Oh…” Laura did not want to show it but it would mean losing a friend in the neighbourhood.
“Yeah, I would miss you though…” he said.
“I would miss you too!” she said with a laugh. “No more long evening discussions over rum and juice about our favourite games and books and music… where else will I find stuff to check out from The Borrow if not for your suggestions?”
“Eh… you’ve got fine enough taste except for the telenovellas you like,” he teased. “But seriously though, Guatemala needs support. I thought… maybe it’s not ok because you swapped houses with someone… and maybe this is way too presumptuous… but I thought maybe we could adventure together?”
“Meaning I go to Guatemala with you?” she asked.
“Yeah… I dunno… I just thought of you, that’s all. You’re who I would miss most.”
“I would miss you too,” she said again, “and… I dunno… I think Thibault would understand if I leave… his house now has a garden like he wanted from the exchange it’s just to have someone maintain it, he can find that on Fastfrwrd.”
“So… does that mean you’re thinking about it?” he asked with a smile.
“Thinking, yes. Guatemala needs the support as you say following the latest disaster and we could carry on having late night talks. I think that would be fun.”
He smiled. She smiled too. They didn’t need to say anything more.
***
Guatemala was lush and vibrant, beautiful nature and excited people, wanting to transform their nation after the latest natural disaster. Laura grew to know the neighbours through signs and body language and two weeks in, she knew basic words to say.
Chapiro, the mayor, was rumoured to be allowing people to sell goods that were from countries who were not practicing Austerity.
“De donde los zapatos?” Laura asked a neighbourhood teenager with her basic Spanish, wondering where he got his shoes from.
“No sé, es un regalo,” the teen replied. A gift, he said.
“Hm…” Laura shook her head.
“You can’t force people to stick to the rules,” said Sadiiq over dinner as she shared the story.
“It’s the mayor who’s doing it too!” she huffed. “Darn it… he knows that this is a serious rule for serious times, they just had a natural disaster and still he’s allowing illegal trading with the countries who can’t stand to be a little bit uncomfortable, countries that just have to have a hamburger every other meal and can’t stand to eat asparagus once in a while…”
Sadiiq laughed.
“It’s not funny,” Laura pouted. “Because if it’s illegal it means people are risking fines and prison for if they get caught, they don’t Borrow civic services here.”
“Ok, sorry for laughing,” said Sadiiq. “The world can’t change all at once. It’s enough that people are making climate adjustments everyday. Maybe they sneak in a few things. Doesn’t change that everyday they work to install solar, heat pumps, hydroelectric, makerspaces, all the cool stuff that will make needing illegal things less necessary because they and their close neighbours are better equipped to just make what they need with regional stuff.”
“Yeah,” said Sadiiq’s cousin. “I would be more worried about the Mura Masa.”
“The what?” asked Laura.
“Oh, you haven’t heard of the Mura Masa?” Saed asked. Laura shook her head. “It’s a new folklore. It is said that every full moon. Mura Masa makes a visit to the village and leaves a new technological breakthrough, but you cannot touch it or use it unless you sacrifice a child to be taken, who Mura Masa teaches how to create new inventions, and save the planet and take his place. Because no one has been willing to sacrifice a child, the technology exists but none can use it, because of their love for their children. But Mura Masa states it will be a curse upon their children who will never benefit from a safer future with his technologies.”
“Whoa… who’s telling this story?” Laura asked.
“This grandpa in the village. Bit of a Utilitarian puzzle. If it meant a livable future, would it make sense to let a child go and be raised elsewhere, possibly becoming a genius inventor, but leaving their parents behind?”
“People don’t believe this story do they?”
“Nah… but it’s fun to think about,” said Saed.
“True,” said Laura. “I’m still upset about the mayor, why don’t they just stop having politicans and adopt a Borrow approach instead? It’s working so well in Guadeloupe.”
“It’s the people’s choice,” said Sadiiq. “People need the time to accept ideas and some people will pioneer in one way and not in another way. Everyone picks their task. Guatemala has chosen modern myth making,” he chuckled.
“I guess,” she sighed. “Anyway. Let’s Borrow a movie, I’m ready to fall asleep in front of the computer.”
“Sure thing,” said Sadiiq. “Think you’ve fought enough for one day.”
“I’m gonna talk to that mayor tomorrow, I don’t care if I have to translate everything through the Borrow Bot, he’s gonna hear me and I’m gonna get some people to come with me next time to make sure he only accepts imports from Austerity observers. Hmph. I don’t care that I’m not from here, it’s one planet.”
Sadiiq laughed: “With this kind of fight, we don’t need to sacrifice anything to Mura Masa to get ahead. Just let Laura be French and ‘vive la resistance’ everything into place.”
Now Laura laughed. “Rules are rules,” she insisted around a chuckle.
“Ok. Think that’s enough fighting for one day though. Let’s find that movie.”
They all smiled at one another, the sound of crickets on the humid air. Saed left the living room and Laura and Sadiiq sat next to each other watching their movie, joking about the characters and gently, slowly, daily, learning a bit more what they liked so much about each other and the new world they were working to build.
***
If you liked the stories, let us know and we’ll make more!!