Field Notes
from the Balcony

Subject: The Metallic Hibiscus & The Red Onion Smell It started in 2020. Mr. Yuk's tg group chat kept getting nuked. I was learning color curves from outrepool, trying to make a hibiscus look metallic. Just pixels on a screen while the world shut down. People have been dying ahead of me. Damn it. Friends lost to the whirlwind. I couldn't bring myself to quit because I might not wake up if I pass out. So I overdrove. Archiving stuff. Pressing buttons. This bot... this "404 Micro Festival"... it's a pocket universe. A balcony-born glitch garden transplanted into the highlands. It's not about the auction. It's about the hum. I’ve had this idea since around 2020 — a micro-auction system where the amounts stay intentionally small so people stay playful. I’m prototyping a live micro-auction bot designed for real-world events — think synths, projections, an emcee, and tiny stakes. The bids are intentionally small so participation feels brave and playful. The history stays visible, so escalation becomes a performance. Telegram becomes the crowd noise, the webpage becomes the scoreboard. I’ll probably host a tiny live stress test at some point as a tiny balcony / virtual reality parcel / twitch stream / studio / club-night experiment rather than an “app release." The “this survived time” version I’ve had this idea since around 2020 — a micro-auction system where the amounts stay intentionally small so people stay playful. Not commerce, not gambling. More like a group game with attention, timing, and a bit of FOMO. I finally got it working: a Telegram bot + a live bid feed on a simple webpage, meant to be projected during a real gathering. It’s funny how some ideas don’t go away — they just wait until you’re ready to build them properly.

It's not commerce. It's an arcade game. I wanted to build this back in 2020, when the world stopped. We were all stuck inside, losing friends to the quiet war, trying to feel something through screens. I wanted a way to make our hearts race together without betting the farm. THE MECHANIC: POPCORN BIDDING We trade in "Layout Pennies." Small increments. Rapid fire. It's designed to feel like a horse race. The ticker blinks. The leader changes. You aren't buying an object; you're buying the right to see your name in lights for 10 seconds. It's a "Micro-Festival" tucked between the coffee farms and the cloud. A pocket universe where we huddle together and hum.

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME 1. Open Telegram: @MFAuctionBot 2. Type /start to wake the machine. 3. Wait for the Auctioneer (Me) to open the floor. 4. Type /bid 420 (or whatever amount). 5. Watch the screen. Panic when the yellow text blinks. THE RULES: - Increments of 20 pesos only. (Popcorn Bidding). - No crying if the internet dies. - This is a stress test. Break it if you can.

Built with: - Google Apps Script (The Brain) - Telegram API (The Mouth) - Neocities (The Face) - Duct Tape & Anxiety (The Glue) "I quit on this bot so many times. It was fun 12 hours ago. Now I'm just wasted time pixel count." But it works. The Horse Race ticker works. System Online.