Among clovers, pikes, diamonds and hearts

He knew that luck was a being that had no owner, that there was no way to hold her, that, at the first opportunity, she would escape you and you would not see her again for a long time.

He had tried everything, touching wood, clovers, patron saints and even the golden Chinese cat, but there was no way. Luck had left him.

He remembered the times when luck smiled on him. Those endless parties with the gamblers who were already known as brothers, their gestures, their tics, their sardonic smiles and even the smell when the party was twisted. Times when he made a lot of money and luck hugged him hard, until one night he lost everything.

Now he walks into a bar, stops in front of a slot machine and looks in his pockets for a coin he knows he doesn't have. He is mesmerized by the monotonous dance of the pikes, the diamonds, the clovers, the clubs and the hearts, until someone touches him on the shoulder and tells him to move away. Then he turns around and leaves. He doesn't like to see how luck smiles on others.

Then, before nightfall, he goes to the old bridge outside the city to find a good place to sleep downwind among the cartons. There, in between the sleep, he counts the days he has left to receive the four hundred and eighty-five dollars of his pay and to take a shower, shave and sleep a hot night in a crummy pension.

The next morning he'll look for a good hand and see if his luck changes. However, he forgets that luck is elusive, that it is lost in the ethylic vapours, in the dark night and among the clovers, the pikes, the diamonds and the hearts.

Image Source: Pixabay

I already have your bones

I already have your dark moon and well bones,

the forgotten ones in the yellow chronicles of the blue ones,

those buried in the silence of the darkness of barbarism,

the ones hidden by the murderous hands.

I already have your skull,

with two black holes that swallowed your future and your smile,

with two eyes closed forever,

with two holes of rage and blindness,

with two hits to silence your libertarian word.

I already have your memory,

the one left in the black and white photographs,

the one who gave me up with eternal words,

the one I built with the water from the wells of hope.

I already have a place to bury you,

where wild daisies will always grow,

away from dark wells, chasms and ditches,

a place to rest from the monsters' folly,

where they will carve your name with the chisel of justice.

I already have your bones; justice has already been done.

  Image Source: Own

The hassles with the tie

I don't know how many times I've tried to learn to tie the fucking tie and failure has always been present in such attempts. What if the single knot, the Windsor, the half Windsor, the double single, the cross knot or the no less important, small knot. 

They don't teach you how to tie a tie in school, and at least once in your life, usually at weddings and funerals, and in this part of the first world, you have to wear a tie. 

However, once again and with great courage, I have set about it again. I have collected the practical information on the Internet, located the website for the knots and printed the attached documentation. I have set to work in front of my mirror, which is sometimes a son of a bitch, with a sheet of paper on top of the sink and sweaty hands. I decided on the Windsor knot, which is a classic. I can't do it the first time. The second time I'm tuning up the churro and it seems that the manual matter is on its way, but my hands are still sweating. 

Third time, uff. The will falters and if the will falters, I don't know if I will be able to reach my goal. The will, they say, is the secret of success; some talent and a lot of will. 

It crosses my mind to leave it for another day, so that the knowledge settles and my fucking neurons work on the Windsor and allow me to finish the fucking knot.

I take the page and get it close enough. I realize that presbyopia has played a dirty trick on me, because I read a sentence in Times New Roman, size 8: 

It's quite complicated to do. 

I reflect for a moment on whether to abandon the Gordian task and opt for another knot that is more within the reach of my obvious, manual limitations. 

In the end, I decide to continue the fight. I like to finish what I finish. My wife says that's one of my most remarkable qualities. I'm not so sure about that. After an hour, I make the fucking Windsor knot in the balls. 

I'm happy about it. I will be able to go to my appointment as the canons of etiquette command, but with the sad conviction and also with some desperation, that this learning is as ephemeral as the water in the hands. because I have the feeling that tying tie knots is not like riding a bicycle, which you learn forever, but it takes a lot of daily practice and I really think I will see Mr Windsor in a few months' time.

 Image Source: Pixabay

The city singer

She was sitting on a beach bench. She was in her twenties, disheveled, with her hair dyed in various colors, singing and playing the guitar. She had a round voice and she was very well tuned. I recognized the music and lyrics of Bob Dylan's song Blowin in the Wind. 

I stopped to listen to it and, little by little, the people, who were walking along the avenue, stopped to listen to it, until they made a big run around it.  At the end many of those present applauded and placed many coins and notes on the straw hat in front of her. She smiled and thanked, with a slight gesture of her head, for the applause and the gratuities.

Then he continued with a song that I didn't recognize at first, but then I acknowledged the song. It was Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven. 

This song that the singer dedicated to his son who died at the age of four in an unfortunate accident. I was surprised by the change of voice register, different from the round and sensual voice, now it was a hoarse and torn voice. I went over and checked that she was crying. I noticed that some of the walkers were also crying, as if they were contagious with a mystical atmosphere that the singer had created. At the end of the song, the audience started with brave applause and lots of applause and most of them rushed to deposit money in the singer's hat. She returned them with a smile. She picked up the guitar, embraced it and said a few words that I didn't understand. Then she put it in a blue case, collected the winnings and put them in a small blue cloth bag. She got up, took all her belongings, went down to the beach and took a bath. 

I went on my way to a meeting I had in the middle of the morning. Late in the afternoon, while taking a walk around the city, I found her leaving a supermarket with her guitar, her backpack hanging on her back and a bag full of sandwiches wrapped in paper. I followed her from a safe distance, until we arrived at a parking area, in which there were about thirty homeless people taking refuge under its ledge. I watched her greet and deliver the sandwiches to each of the people until she was left without any. 

Then she walked towards the beach, sat on a bench by the avenue and began to play her guitar and sing. This time she sang Bob Marley's Redemption song and I was amazed; the best version I had ever heard. 

When I finished I went over and left fifty euros in his straw hat. Our eyes met and she smiled at me. I walked away as she started singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow from the Wizard of Oz movie.

Image Source: Pixabay

Source of the videos: Yotube

La cantante de ciudad

Ella estaba sentada en un banco de la playa. Era una joven veinteañera, desaliñada, con el pelo teñido de varios colores que cantaba y tocaba la guitarra. Tenía una voz redonda y afinaba muy bien. Reconocí la música y la letra de la canción Blowin in the Wind de Bob Dylan. 

Me detuve a escucharla y, poco a poco, la gente, que paseaba por la avenida, se detenía a escucharla, hasta que hicieron un gran corro a su alrededor.  Al terminar muchos de los asistentes aplaudieron y le depositaron muchas monedas y billetes en el gorro de paja que tenía delante de ella. Sonrió y agradeció, con un leve gesto de su cabeza, los aplausos y las gratificaciones.

Después continuó con una canción que no reconocí al principio, pero luego caí que era Tears in Heaven de Eric Clapton. 

Esta canción que el cantante le dedicó a su hijo que falleció con solo cuatro años en un desgraciado accidente. Me quedé sorprendido por el cambio de registro de voz, distinta a la voz redonda y sensual, ahora era una voz ronca y desgarrada. Me acerqué y comprobé que lloraba. Observé que algunos de los paseantes también lloraban, como si se les contagiara una atmósfera mística que la cantante había creado. Al terminar la canción, el público arrancó con bravos y muchos aplausos y la mayoría se apresuró a depositar dinero en gorro de la cantante. Ella les correspondió con una sonrisa. Cogió la guitarra, la abrazó y dijo unas palabras que no llegué a entender. Luego la guardó en una funda de color azul, recogió las ganancias y las guardó en un pequeño bolso de tela azul. Se levantó, cogió todas sus pertenencias, bajó a la playa y se dio un baño. 

Yo seguí mi camino hacia una reunión que tenía a media mañana. Entrada la tarde, mientras daba un paseo por la ciudad, me la encontré saliendo de un supermercado con su guitarra, su mochila colgada a la espalda y una bolsa repleta de bocadillos envueltos en papel film. La seguí desde una distancia prudencial, hasta que llegamos a una zona de aparcamientos, en la que había una treintena de personas sin techo que se refugiaban bajo su cornisa. La vi cómo saludaba y entregaba los bocadillos a cada una de las personas hasta que se quedó sin ninguno. 

Luego caminó en dirección a la playa, se sentó en un banco junto a la avenida y comenzó a tocar su guitarra y a cantar. Esta vez cantó Redemption song de Bob Marley y quedé asombrado; la mejor versión que había oído jamás. 

Al terminar me acerqué y le dejé cincuenta euros en su sombrero de paja. Nuestras miradas se encontraron y me sonrió. Yo me alejé al tiempo que ella comenzaba a cantar Somewhere Over the Rainbow de la película del Mago de Oz.

Fuente de la imagen: Pixabay

Fuente de los vídeos: Yotube

Mannabase and Universal Basic Income. Towards a new paradigm

The Universal Basic Income is a concept that most of us are already beginning to understand, and that is that at the pace of the technological revolution, we will not be left with anything but to analyze in depth this concept and its possibilities of application.

I have already commented in this article The technological revolution versus work that machines and robots are going to take up most of the jobs that we humans do and many of us are not going to have a chance to work. That's a reality that is already here and we just have to look around a little bit to see what's going on.

The truth is that we are moving towards a change of social and economic paradigm and in fifteen years the world we know will no longer be the same. Yeah, it sounds crazy, but the truth is the change is already here.

In that future society, humans will not have to work so much, or perhaps we will not have to work to earn a living, because that work will be done by machines and states will have to articulate mechanisms for citizens to live in a dignified way and one of the ways that are being considered is the Universal Basic Income.

In this sense, the technology of the block chain has something to say and the creators of Mannabase have made it clear and created Manna, a cryptomoneda to support and shape the Universal Basic Income. Here you can find all the details of the project, which, from my point of view, is a project with a lot of future because it uses blockchain technology to benefit us in a direct way and without asking for anything in return.

This can be a first step towards this paradigm shift, where the human being does not have to work to earn bread with the sweat of his or her brow, but rather try to live and enjoy life in the best possible way, and dedicate his or her life to personal development, whatever it may be.

The great thing about this page is that you only have to sign up. You can make them using this referential link, if you like, for which I will receive some Manna https://www.mannabase.com/?ref=50de04321, then you have to continue with the registration.

The truth is that you are going to receive this cryptomoney, the Manna, just for being registered on the page; you do not have to do anything else and every seven days you will receive the amount you are entitled to in the deal.

I know you're thinking that no one is giving anything for nothing, but Mannabase's are, and he thinks that, at any moment, this coin can take an unexpected turn because some altruistic billionaire thinks it has a future.

You never know and don't forget I told you.

Image source: Pixabay

Steemit and verification in two steps. Safety comes first.

After almost panicking at the thought that my Steemit account had been stolen, I was reflecting on the security of our platform and from that reflection this post emerges.

Nobody can hide the fact that Internet security is an aspect that we have to take very much into account and we have to watch over our accounts and social profiles so that they are safe from criminals who only want to steal from us in order to use them for their benefit.

These criminals are there, even if we don't see them, but they are there and we have to use all the tools at our disposal to protect us from their potential attacks, because these criminals use all the tools available to us to attack our slightest neglect.

It is no longer enough for us to have a hypersecure password, which meets all the requirements that are established to make our password, a very strong key, because soon as you neglect it, it is stolen.

That's why we have to be cautious and put all possible barriers in place to keep our accounts safe. However, that is not enough because criminals are always one step ahead of us and are creating increasingly more and more sophisticated theft systems.

The pirates have set sail for Steemit because they know that our community is positioning itself very well on the Internet and the Steem is resisting the onslaught of volatility in recent months. They know that here they have the possibility of making money by casting their nets in this great fishery and they know that some fish will fall into their nets.

 The user, @emdesan, had her account hacked with that pirated Dtube app. In your entry To Sad Steemit Day: My Account Was Hacked!!!! explains what happened to him.

Having said that, Steemit puts on our backs all the responsibility for the security of our account and repeats, over and over again, that we have to keep your master password safe and secure.

However, I believe that Steemit managers should implement a more advanced security protocol such as the two-step verification system. In such a way that when someone tries to use our username and password, do not allow them to advance in the identification procedure because they would have to enter a code that the system sends to our mobile phone or that we obtain in the code generator recognized by the same system.

This aspect is very important for Steemit users, because unlike other platforms, ours has an economic aspect that distinguishes us from any other and the theft of our account produces an economic damage to consider, without taking into account the loss of the level of reputation that we had obtained, with a lot of effort, over time.

Large Internet platforms such as Google, Facebook. Apple, Twitter, Linkedin, Microsoft and Yahoo have already launched it and Steemit should follow in his footsteps.

I imagine that implementing it in Steemit wouldn't be too complicated and it would be a very important step for us to keep our accounts safe from thieves.

I do not know the reasons why the two-step verification system has not been implemented in Steemit, but I imagine that it will not be for technological reasons because I believe that this is a matter that has been overcome.

Whatever it is, we Steemit users need two-step verification to give more security not only to our accounts, but to the reputation of the platform itself and to ensure that our accounts have the highest level of security.

Image source: Pixabay