Nova Daily - 8 August 2025: Astrology

Hi!

As many of you know, I'm normally reluctant to join new groups. It's quite simple why that is: I'm here to improve my game of chess, and I love reading and writing. You can do these things on your own, and I usually do so, but I also like to do things in a group. Two know more than one, and different perspectives are very valuable. Within the blogging community that we have, we have a lot of capable minds who all bring something new to the table. This makes our microcosmos a dynamic and interesting whole, and it's great to be a part of it.

In itself I'm not against joining new groups, but I don't like an overload of notifs or being part of dead groups. I'm rather busy as it is with chess, writing, and occasionally (i.e.: now) travelling. I want to keep my engagement manageable, and I don't really give much for things that don't align with my personal goals. So I usually let people know that I prefer to decline their invites, and wish them luck with the pursuits of their respective groups.

Astrology

Today I was asked to join something again. Upon asking what would make their groups stand out and why they think that I'd be a good fit, I received an answer that horoscopes would kill to include:

We do things differently.

Such a phrase is completely hollow. There's no communication of information, no meaningful points. But it almost makes the originator stand out by reportedly going against the current.

Astrology is the art of writing such hollow phrases. There are a lot of backdoors within the text, a lot of clever wording, and nothing that you can really pin down. It's a clever linguistic trick to mask that you have nothing of substance to share. "You have a tendency to take too much work upon you." "Someone of the opposite gender will take an unusual interest in you." "You lately have done too much for others and this is wearing you down. Start defending your own position more." "An opportunity will present itself today." 

Other golden phrases are "Something in your house around the baseboards is cause for concern." and "Throw away that set of old keys." Just find a truism that applies to many people, and then say something extremely vague about it.

A more useful bit of advice would be "Don't deep-fry all of your food." Or how about "Watch out when you're crossing the street. We don't want your name in a black-edged message on Page 14 of tomorrow's edition, do we?"

When in this case I asked the other person to be more specific about their group and what made it stand out, the conversation ended abruptly.