Hey there, !

There's so much stuff in the world that is weird and unexplainable - have you read GlitchInTheMatrix subreddit? It's dedicated to stories and objects that just don't look like they should be able to happen in the world. It gets harder to try and explain these things...and after a while I just stopped.

Perhaps it's as I grow older, I grow more credulous. There's a sort of comfort to believe there's something bigger out there, or beyond the veil...and sometimes things just happen that make you think 'well, maybe there IS some sort of magic in the world...'.

I mean, hell, I write a Chinese Zodiac every year that relies on the stars telling you your fortune! So yeah, I think I like dabbling in these kinda things :D

Anyway.

I went to Korea and Hong Kong this year, where people are more superstitious for these kinds of things. Lining the streets at street markets were tarot card readers, palm readers, and various magical prophets. All of them selling promises of being able to read your palm, read your face or use your birth numbers to tell your future - love, money, career - whatever you want!

Hell, in Hong Kong for a laugh I went to Temple Street to get a reading! (It was lame and took my money, but it was an experience. I mean, he told me I'd have issues with getting married, but like, I KNOW THAT ALREADY so how have you helped, really? No solutions either - damn shyster. We used DeepSeek to do our readings instead and it was much more fun.)

I wonder though - there's so much occult and spiritual shit in the world going on that there should be something going on, right? I know I write a lot on this newsletter that we often give meaning to stuff and build our own stories really well that aren't always real, but I can't help but wonder whether there's something else there that these people are tapping into.

But every time I start thinking about that, well...there's an xkcd for everything:

WHY AREN'T THEY ALL RICH?

I mean if you could tell fortunes and know the future, it should be easy to make a crap ton of money right? Will Bitcoin go up? Will Apple stocks go up? What disasters are going to happen in the world? What will your future hold?

If I had the gift of foresight I would not be writing a weekly newsletter for y'all...I'm pretty sure it would instead go:

1. Vince starts investing in anything and everything he can. Get into the stock market, the crypto, the casino, the siq bo, the horses, the dogs - whatever!
2. ???
3. Profit?
4. Vince starts being investigated by ASIO for continuously winning
5. Vince gets whisked away to some secret laboratory somewhere to be experimented on for his gift of foresight

...okay maybe not the best illustration of using this kind of power.

But stock markets and crypto have so much capacity to make money if you're able to see the future - why would you hawk your wares at night markets on the side of the road? Why would you need to be soliciting people in the middle of Hongdae and selling such VALUABLE information?

It's the way of the capitalist, unfortunately - if it ain't making money, is it really real?

From the news, it looks like the main way they try to make money is scam billionaires out of their money through sham wills (which nearly worked btw). And I just found this from a week ago - a fortune teller defrauding Sydney's Vietnamese community of $70 million!

Maybe I should be charging y'all for the Chinese Zodiac stuff...

All this to say I think I should maybe look into changing careers, getting into Feng Shui / the occult and use it to make as much money as possible. Then, uh...find a way to hide it away and disappear forever.

Watch this space ;) If one day I stop posting, you'll know why...

(P.S. If you've got any feedback for the newsletter, just hit the reply button!)

✔️Real Life Recommendations

1. Linda Linda Linda - 4.5 stars - it does what it wants to do SO well. It's the story of a korean exchange student in Japan who joins an all-female band in high school and has to learn how to perform in like 2 weeks. Each part of it is such a beautiful illustration of what high school can be - awkward, earnest, fun and full of misunderstood emotions. something I wish I'd watched a lot earlier in my life, I think. Truly awkward highlights include two best friends encountering each other after moving on, a high schooler confessing his love to the Korean exchange student in the weirdest manner, and another girl trying to hide how much she loves another guy. IT'S CUTE AND WHOLESOME - go watch :D

2. Luke's Banh Mi - there's one in the city, and it's PACKED full of meat for only $12. Hella great value, hella nice food. Recommended!

🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway

1. Remember, Kurt Vonnegut was 47 - if this isn't nice, what is? Something I keep reminding myself is that age can bring wisdom, and wisdom can bring a different maturity to art.

2. Unexpected things that are people - a ship, a river, a corporation?

3. Why does every film and TV series seem to have the same plot? - interesting, hey? Are we trapped in the same kinds of stories?