Another way of thinking about the @SpaceX mission sending four “amateurs” into orbit is that they were the least prepared astronauts in history to survive such a mission. Good for them. The good fortune will run out. How will the world react to the first fatalities? Tourists.

Here are the twelve-step text instructions. I couldn’t find good instructions on the interwebz. No screenshots. :pouty_face:

Let’s say you want to add Bill Gates to the Vaccine Conspiracy public distribution list (PDL).

1. In Outlook, use Home > Address Book
2. Set Address Book to Global Address List
3. Search for Vaccine Conspiracy
4. Right-click menu and select Properties…
5. Click Modify Members…
6. Click Add…
7. That opens the Address Book again
8. Find Gates, Bill
9. Double-click on Bill’s name
10. Click OK
11. That returns you to the Contact Group Membership, where you click OK again
12. Click out of remaining dialogs with OK

The ticket I didn’t buy

BBC News asks, “Do Abba’s new songs live up to their hits?” I am looking forward to hearing for myself. This article links to some videos etc. I put the YouTube links in my watchlist to enjoy tonight after work. bbc.in/3gZkS93

This prophet lived about 2700 years ago. How much longer must we wait for this to come to pass? I’m especially thinking of the new law in Texas that protects unborn children after their heartbeat is detected. Clever design of the law. But this prophecy is protection for those who accuse, not the accusers. The ESV puts it a little differently than Prof. Peterson’s paraphrase. “You shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.” The other parts of the prophecy sound good, too. Lord Jesus come quickly.

“Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied: I’m about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise, Lay your foundations with sapphires, construct your towers with rubies, Your gates with jewels, and all your walls with precious stones. All your children will have God for their teacher— what a mentor for your children! You’ll be built solid, grounded in righteousness, far from any trouble—nothing to fear! far from terror—it won’t even come close! If anyone attacks you, don’t for a moment suppose that I sent them, And if any should attack, nothing will come of it. I create the blacksmith who fires up his forge and makes a weapon designed to kill. I also create the destroyer— but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged. Any accuser who takes you to court will be dismissed as a liar. This is what God ’s servants can expect. I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.” God ’s Decree. — Isaiah 54:11–17 (MSG)

TIL Yieldstreet via 1440join.com

Life is a challenge. Either too many chips and not enough salsa, or too much salsa and not enough chips.

a10n = abbreviation
A11l = American Idol
A31e = A goal is a dream with a deadline
a7d = abandoned
am9n = amortization
B10e = Bitcoin Core
b18r = brick & mortar store
b20r = better late than never
b7h = bandwidth
b8n = blockchain
c10n = conversation
c11n = communication
c11s = consciousness
c11y = cybersecurity
c12e = cancel culture
c13y = crypto-currency aka crypto currency
c14k = commonplace book #commonplacebook
c20s = critical path analysis
c5t = correct
c6y = category
c7y = community
c8ed = categorized
c8n = connection
c8s = categories
c9d = credit card
c9g = calendaring (gerund)
c9s = communities
d10e = decentralize
d10er = decentralizer
d12e = data warehouse
d12n = documentation
d12r = display driver
d13y = declare victory
d14n = decentralization
d14y = declared victory
d15y = declaring victory
d20n = difficult conversation, compare with e20n
d24t = disembodied soulless robot
d32k = decentralized social media network
d37y = distributed and self-sovereign identity
d5y = display
d6e = database
d7d = dashboard
D8h = Ducksearch
d8n = discussion
d8y = dependency
d9p = desktop app
e11e = email archive
e12t = expense report
e15t = earth environment
E25t = Excel Number Stored as Text
e6s = emphasis
e7e = emphasize
e7t = excellent
e9n = emphasis on
E9o = Excel macro
f10n = fountain pen
f11e = facial tissue (generic Kleenex)
F13l = Facebook Portal
F14e = Firefox Lockwise
f15g = found by Googling
f5d = factoid
G10e = Google Drive
g10r = get-together
G10s = Google Books
G11s = Google Sheets
G13e = Google Timeline
G13r = Google Calendar
G13s = Google Contacts
G14e = Google Translate
G14t = Google Assistant
g15e = glowing rectangle
G22r = Google Calendar reminder
G27g = Gmail plussed user addressing
G6I4s = Google Images
G6P4s = Google Photos
G8c = Google Doc
G8ps = Google Maps
G9ce = Godincidence
G9ks = Google Tasks
G9s = Google Docs, different use from G8cs
h10s = hearing aids
h18f = hashtag note to self (#noteToSelf)
i10n = interruption
i12n = implementation
I14e = Internet Archive
i7n = ibuprofen
i7w = interview
i7y = inventory
i9g = interesting
i9t = improvement
l18y = learning opportunity
L21r = Lady Chatterley’s Lover
l24r = longer-than-I-can-remember
M12d = Microsoft Word
M12e = Microsoft Edge
m13g = mountain biking
M13h = MySQL Workbench
M13o = Microsoft To Do
M15e = Microsoft Surface
M15s = Microsoft Windows; considered W5s, but this is better
m17r = mysterious behavior
M18p = Messages Android app
M18t = Microsoft SharePoint
M20b = Microsoft Feedback Hub
m24e = measure twice and cut once
M7t = Microsoft
m8p = membership
m9e = maintenance aka maint
n10n = notification as it pertains to computer and phone i10ns, including the less-intrusive methods
n8g = networking
n8h = next month
o10n = organization
O11e = Orange Menace
o12s = organize notes
o17s = open-investigations
o6e = organize
o8g = organizing
o9y = opportunity
p10n = presentation
p10y = productivity
p12n = prioritization
p13l = private channel
p13n = procrastination
P13y = Pandemic Legacy
p18t = preparing to restart
p19y = personal productivity
p21g = plussed user addressing
p23n = planning & prioritization
p6d = password
p6g = planning
p6y = priority
p7on = production
p7ze = prioritize
p8a = phantosmia
p8e = productive
p8s = priorities
p9e = performance
P9e = Pivot Table
pa7e = passphrase
r10p = relationship
r11y = recommended by
r12n = reconciliation
R12r = Radical Candor
R14r = Windows 10 Resource Monitor
r14s = reasonable guess
r6g = reading
r6ing = restarting
r7g = recycling
r8g = recruiting
s10a = social media (better than SoMe or qqSoMe)
s11n = splash screen
S14o = Satoshi Nakamoto
s15g = social networking
S15M = Slack personal DM—where one can talk to oneself
S19l = Slack private channel
s19n = system administration
S21r = South Dakota v. Wayfair
s21s = stream of consciousness
s24n = structured procrastination
s6n = solution or soln
s8t = screenshot
s9e = screenshare
s9t = spreadsheet
s9y = serendipity
Skif18m = Skif’s Internet Theorem
T10r = Task Manager (Windows 10)
t10t = talked about
T11m = Texas hold’em
T11r = The Moviegoer by W10y
T14r = The Jesus Prayer
t15g = tactical planning
t19s = total billable hours
t6w = tomorrow
t7e = test case
T87h25 = The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth. 25th anniversary ed.
t8e = transcribe
t8n = transition
u11d = uncategorized
v10r = vertical bar because it’s hard to search on ‘|’
v11n = visualization
v12n = virtualization
W10 = Windows 10
W10y = Walker Percy
W12m = Wilhelm scream
W13e = Wayback Machine
w14n = we have moved on
W15t = Windows Spotlight
y7y = yesterday

Image copied from techcompose.com/internationalization-i18n-in-ruby-on-rails/

I’m sitting at my kitchen table in my southeast-facing nook, enjoying the view of Pikes Peak outside my window [1], writing on my mbike. That’s short for mind-bike, which is short for mind-bicycle, which is short for bicycle for the mind. I’m too lazy to research the quote. Whether or not he said it, and regardless of the context in which it was said, I’ll credit Steve Jobs with coining the description of a personal computer (PC) as a bicycle for the mind. If he said it, he said it in the earliest days of the PC, B.I. (Before the Internet), in the age of the ARPANET, of which I suspect Jobs was relatively ignorant because the ARPANET was not accessible from PCs. He was all about the PC. (Some say he invented it!) Modern mbikes unleash the power of the internet. An mbike is the third of four levels of computing power.

I have written before about the four levels of computing power. (Ducksearch it.) The lowest level is six cubic inches of wireless computing in an LGR, which is short for little glowing rectangle. Everyone else calls an LGR a phone, which is short for smartphone. I used to think I could live with three cubic inches. That was how tiny the first iPhone was. I have never owned an iPhone. Steve Jobs did not invent the smartphone. The Handspring Trēo was my first smartphone—which, remember, is an LGR—in 2003. I upgraded to a Palm Prē in 2009, still about three cubic inches. These days, now that Jobs is dead (it didn’t happen when he was alive because he was fixated on three cubic inches) at the lowest level, I need at least six cubic inches. An LG G7 suffices. It still fits in my pocket.

The highest level is defined simply by a maximum-size display—the largest display an individual can afford. I’m happy to go with the accepted term, big-screen TV, but let’s shorten that to BSTV. I still use a now-obsolete HP SmartTV.

Between LGR and BSTV are two more levels. When I want to read, I switch from my LGR to the second level: a tablet. I have an Amazon Kindle, but that’s an appliance. My iPad has more computing power than my LGR, but less than the third level, my mbike.

An mbike is bigger than a tablet and smaller than a BSTV. All the power of the internet is unleashed in mbikes. LGRs and tablets are not powerful enough to be bicycles for the mind. To be mobile, they make compromises on size, computing power, and electric power consumption. When we talk about the third level of computing power, we are talking about power with no compromises. My mbike is a notebook computer with a reasonably-sized clamshell design for integrated keyboard and display. My work mbike (wmbike for short) is a desktop tower with traditional keyboard, video (I love my 4K display!), and mouse (KVM). All are glowing rectangles: the LGR, the tablet, the mbike, and BSTV. (We spend too much time in front of glowing rectangles, don’t you think?) Anyway, the mbike is special. It is where human creativity is fully unleashed. How creative can you get without a keyboard? [2]

What about servers? you ask. What about them? I answer. Servers are mbikes. And “the cloud” is merely somebody else’s mbike—an mbike that you don’t control. The internet is simply LGRs, tablets, mbikes, and BSTVs talking to somebody else’s mbike and through that mbike to other LGRs, tablets, mbikes, and BSTVs. Soon, neighbors won’t need mbikes to use the internet. When that happens, human freedom and creativity will be expanded in peer-to-peer connections. Peer-to-peer (p2p) is not a very catchy name. It’s all about decentralizing the internet. (Ok, that term isn’t much better.) Decentralization, d14n for short (and decentralizing = d12g and decentralize = d10e and a decentralizer is a d10er), is another way of thinking about p2p. That takes us back to the way the internet used to work. Back when it was more free as in freedom. There are already some p2p services. (We won’t be truly p2p anytime soon, unless we all want to get amateur radio licenses. I’m considering it for myself, thinking of my friends Bdale and Stephen.) I’m rambling too much. That’s enough for today.

I have spoken.

[1] I would love to get to know you, Neighbor, well enough to have you at my home to enjoy my view! Let’s connect! In the accompanying photo, you can see Pikes Peak as viewed from the bridge between America the Beautiful Park and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum.

[2] Ok, ok, that’s not quite accurate. My tablet (at the second level) is the platform for my recording studio, so I can create raw content for podcasts without an mbike. But I move to my mbike to edit my podcasts. (Audacity rocks!) I’m talking about true human creativity. Creativity that extends beyond the effort that “thinkers” put into Facebook and Nextdoor posts and TikTok videos and tweets. We call it micro-blogging for a reason. Twitter and other micro-blog platforms compromise human creativity. God forbid if politics was ever exclusively energized by micro-blog-sized thoughts. Can you imagine the Federalist Papers as tweets? That’s a Bad Idea.

Edited to fix typos and add tbc tags; original word count was 878, character count was 5019.

This post is tbci0828a; tbch0429a is a tag (Ducksearch it)

Mike at St. George’s Anglican Church COS Men’s Breakfast: Forgive them and fix yourself [or forgive others and fix yourself]. ¶ Twittered first.

Relieved my Google Mini of its music-playing duties #fired ¶ I have a Bose SoundLink Revolve. Puts the cheap Google speaker to shame. ¶ Twittered first.

I remember when POTUS41 George Herbert Walker Bush (RIP) signed the Americans with Disabilities Act #MMPTBAA

And now, today, it MMPTBAA to know that the Paralympics are under way in Tokyo and NBC is broadcasting it!

As Josh Blue (exParalympic soccer player) so cleverly puts it, we’re all just one bad #bike ride away from joining the disabled community. (Made Simon Cowell laugh on AGT.) (Twittered first.)

(Twittered first. Experimenting with publishing styles that downplay Twitter.) I’m thinking of Mike Brown and Alan Stern. I’ll side with the guy who gives us the most data! Language matters. Let the IAU keep its definition. The public will remain in dialogue forever. You cannot define “dwarf” planet without planet. Haha. #PlutoIsAplanet

As I said earlier this year, I fear civil war. Today, another milestone. @lsanger Twittered links to a couple anthems by Five Times August (Dallas based singer/songwriter/guitarist Bradley James Skistimas): “Jesus… What Happened To Us?” and “God Help Us All.” They sound like folk songs to fuel a revolution inspired by resentment over the way the American government handled the pandemic. I’m not buying it. Skistimas calls on Jesus and God (note lack of mention of the Father and the Holy Ghost). I studied the lyrics, and I allowed the images to flow over me at 2x speed. I muted sound to eliminate the strong level of negative emotion the song incites. Yes, it is a call for revolution. Yes, God—but by God I mean Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—God help us! We shall see.

I love Makoto Fujimura’s art. I once saw a few of his pieces. He was invited to speak in Colorado Springs and brought some of his work. I was delighted to be there. See for yourself. (Bing image search)

tbci0410a

My friend Paul Hsieh Twittered, “One of my friends is a Trump supporter and they just posted this. I don’t agree with the sentiment, but I think it is important that people understand what a significant part of the country is thinking. (2 screen captures. Post anonymized.)”

God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—have mercy if this indeed represents what a signficant number of neighbors in my belovèd country are thinking. Before the election another friend, Eric Schwartz, persuaded me to listen to Dan Carlin (DC). DC talked about civil war. I blogged about it. I am more concerned now than I was then. Not yet fearful, but closer to fear. That is all I can bear to say about that today.

tbci0131b

This is the end of a journey I started on Twitter last year: “Would you please share a picture of a clock in a public place on Chinese soil that has Roman numerals?” It has 2,958 impressions and 14 engagements, still counting. Nobody responded to my request, though.

I tried again in June. Only 211 impressions and 4 engagements: “Would you please share a picture of a clock in a public place on Chinese soil that has Roman numerals? And I am not afraid of CCP. …“

Next, in October, I Twittered, “Do you have a picture of a clock in a public place in mainland China that has Roman numerals? Please show me,” and paid $5 to promote it. That was a fun experiment. As I write, it continues to draw attention: 34,802 impressions and 1,892 engagements, etc.

But still no help.

Last month, Mega Wolf @WolfEyeRight asked, “So. You still haven’t got that result?“

I replied, “Kinda spooky. I’ll chalk it up to serendipity. I got motivated this afternoon. As you Twittered this, I was searching and found several results on my own.…“

It turns out, results are easy to find. I think I still have those search results open on my notebook. I’m writing on my desktop though, too lazy to check. I simply searched Flickr today for china clocktower, beijing clocktower, and tianjin clocktower. I’m only going to share one: Here’s a crop of what I was looking for, from a typical picture of the China Railway Museum’s clocktower in downtown Beijing by kitmasterbloke.

Wolf saw my ad and Retweeted because they thought it was “weird” that I would pay to promote my request. And they wondered “why someone wants to find out something so specific.” Well, Wolf, this may be disappointing, but here’s why. Last year it struck me that China has a long history all its own, and the Chinese have invented many devices ahead of or in parallel with the West. I wondered what place, if any, Western clocktowers, Roman numerals and all, hold in Chinese architecture. After I got that in my head, I attached it to Twitter and wondered if any Tweeps would see my request. When I got no reply, I thought it would be interesting to see if I could pay a modest sum to motivate a response. Not the response I was looking for, but I’m glad you asked, anyway.

It’s been fun. Moving on…

“Clocktower of China Railway Museum, downtown Beijing” by kitmasterbloke is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Bought a Google Mini for $9.99 (discount code). Plugged it in today and set it up. It’s called The Google Assistant. I now have a disembodied soulless robot (aka d24t) of my very own. Its portals are the Mini and my LGG7 LGR. It answers to “Hey Goo” (2 syllables, nice and short).

glfalawah covfefe

I see too much effort put into inflating an interpretation of America’s situation beyond reality. POTUS45 was a threat to democracy but he was barely down the road to fascism. Saying so does a disservice to history seeing how the fascist nightmare ruined Germany & Italy. #mbnov

Puzzle muzzle nuzzle Razzle dazzle hassle Mass hole black hole Magnetar 300 million false prophecy of the priests of scientism False hope Resist despair Love takes effort Mentally awake is another way of expressing the state of mindfulness #mbnov

We have a President who stoops to dog-whistling his base with unfounded suspicions of election fraud, and who wants to disenfranchise voters with an infantile tantrum over votes that are, in fact, legally cast. #mbnov

The Kingdom of God is near. #mbnov

Good politics begin with good theology. Prayers are essential. I was struck by Listener prayers for our nation, podcasted this morning.

I love that the first prayer offered is #24 For an Election, from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide the people of the United States (or of this community) in the election of officials and representatives; that, by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your purposes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I should have prayed that before now. Never too late in tight races, though.

I wondered about one of the other prayers and found an English translation. It’s a prayer by Calvin.

Here is my own lightly edited version of that one for good measure:

Father, the depravity of our nature is so great that we cannot bear prosperity without some wantonness of the flesh immediately raging in us and without becoming arrogant against you. Grant that we may profit under the trials of the cross; and when you have blessed us, may we, with lowly hearts, renouncing our perverseness, submit ourselves to you, bearing your yoke submissively. And may we proceed in this obedience all our lives, and so contend against all temptations as never to glory in ourselves, and feel also convinced that all true and real glory is laid up for us in you, until we shall enjoy it in your celestial kingdom, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

This microblog post is not written to astonish you. I am phoning in the third day of #mbnov just to catch up quickly so I can go to sleep. I waited until midnight local time November 3rd to send it. Been having trouble sleeping. I blame Annus Horribilis.