Taking A Breather
And catching up with the world
I hope the dear reader will indulge me today. Our little corner of the interwebs has grown so much so fast in the past month that I would like to catch everyone up on what RadioFarSide is about, and answer some questions that regularly come up in comments and email.
First of all, I am profoundly grateful to all the subscribers, new and old, and especially the folks who recently dropped tips in my digital hat — thank you George, Jana, Thomas, Robert, and the anonymous BTC hoddler, and TT our Founder member! We blew through 1,000 subscribers like it was sitting still with 20,000 views in just 8 days, and Telegram members swole up like a blue tick. That might seem small potatoes to the Big Guys out there, but for a hick hack in the back woods of the Archipelago, that’s stunning.
With regard to the Telegram channel, the link below takes you to my news feed, tracking stories I think are apropos, with a bit of humor thrown in. If you click on “Leave a comment,” you will be taken to a private chat room, where really smart folks toss ideas and opinions around without censorship on my part. You can join either channel separately, or both if you wish.
We seem to have reached a tipping point, with profound thanks to Lew Rockwell, 321Gold, The Liberty Treehouse, Jeff Rense, the various Substack outlets, and most importantly, all the great folks who’ve shared a link. It’s both exciting and terrifying to see all this activity.
Readers can find links to our various platforms and other stuff at the end of every post. I’ve been at this for 15 years, on Blogger and now on Substack, and the archive contains over 1,200 posts on just about any topic I can imagine.
RadioFarSide (RFS or Rufus) is always free. I don’t charge anyone for anything here, I don’t post ads or do reads, and consequently I don’t have a members-only section either. Substack only pays out to Stripe, and Stripe doesn’t function in Indonesia. I have spent hours with their chatbots trying to change this, but to no avail as of now. I have several options listed below for anyone who would like to drop a tip in my hat, and my gratitude is more than I can express for all of them.
I am working on two serialized novels to be offered on separate tabs here — one is a semi-biographical tale of my journeys as a backpacker, and the other is a sci-fi tale. You can see one tab (All The World’s A Stage) in the navigation bar at the top. Those will likely be paid subscriptions if I ever get that functioning.
I have three video channels — YouBoob, Rumble and BitChute — though I haven’t paid much attention to them recently. Google demonetized me a decade ago and has since been slowly deleting or hiding my videos, so Rumble and BitChute have become the primary outlets. I plan on getting back to the vids soon, now that I have a work station instead of a laptop. It’s a matter of time management.
A number of readers have written asking who I am. I prefer to promote the RFS brand, rather than myself, so it can expand beyond me as things progress and the stars align. Of course, a little mystery never hurts either.
I am a professional writer, editor, producer, director, and theatrical promoter, a 7th generation Texian, and living in Jakarta and environs for lo these past 16 years. I moved here to work on a mining project and stayed on to see what surprises awaited, and there have been plenty.
This explains why I am a bit slow in getting back to folks — nothing personal. Just yesterday, I was working on a Profit and Loss statement on one screen, editing a newsletter on the other screen, and holding several WhatsApp conversations on my phone. My local time zone is anywhere from 5 to 16 hours ahead of most readers here, and many of my clients. Consequently, comms come in when I’m sleeping, and go out when you are. This circumstance plays hell with deadlines, which are always yesterday…literally.
One project I have been planning for some time is a trip to the Java Pyramid, known in these parts as Gunung Padang (mountain of enlightenment), hopefully with the geologist who first dated it and found the hidden chamber under it in tow. The pyramid is located about 100km south of me, and it has become a political hot potato because of what it represents. Once I get the logistics, costs and technical ducks in a row, I will mount the expedition, possibly with live streaming video for at least part of it. Graham Hancock did an excellent documentary on it in his series “Ancient Apocalypse”.
I don’t want to dwell too much on self-serving clap-trap, but I did want to address some frequently asked questions, assure folks that I am a living human being and not an AI blogbot, and welcome all the new folks coming in. It’s wonderful to see all the new faces here, and I shall endeavor to maintain the quality, topics and style that brought you in…and the free part too.
I encourage readers to “like” posts, and share when so moved. This seems to tickle the algorithms just right and move RFS up the visibility scale. I also welcome your comments below, and respond to as many as I possibly can.
If I haven’t said it enough, then thank you everyone. Your presence and readership mean so much. A writer without a reader is pretty much useless.
And now, onward through the fog!
Pulling back the curtain on the Far Side:
E-book: Paper Golem: Corporate Personhood & the Legal Fiction
Contact Bernard Grover at luap.jkt @ gmail . com
Radio Far Side, published (mostly) every Sun/Wed at 7a CST/7p WIB, is a labour of love. We don’t use a paywall, and we don’t sell stuff. We just create things to inform and entertain. But like any good busker on the digital mean streets, we put our hat down and if you feel inspired, drop a coin in to show your appreciation:
BTC wallet - bc1qth6drgzcyt7vlxxpvqh6erjm0lmaemwsvf0272
A fellow Texan over at the Highwire kept posting your substacks, so I ambled on over. Hello from another Texan!
One has to wonder about the fascination about Telegram from people who likely do not know what Morse Code is.