I asked Perplexity about the Kindle book controversy. Got a good summary: perplexity.ai/search/summarize-the-controversy-over-e7sdQH.PQ9WhfQh9jm9KBw

What you need to know is this: Download your Amazon Kindle book purchases by Feb 26th or lose them forever.

HT lithub.com/next-week-amazon-is-stripping-away-your-ability-to-download-your-ebooks for mentioning this tip by @craigmod.com for a simple browser script to back up all my books.

Photo by juliane Monari (with a special shout-out to Pexels.com!)

According to Grok 2

The “Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad” is a reference to a fictional calendar system in David Foster Wallace’s novel “Infinite Jest.” In the book, years are sponsored by corporations or products, leading to names like “Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad.” This particular year signifies a time within the narrative where time is measured by corporate sponsorships rather than traditional calendar years, highlighting themes of commercialization and the pervasive influence of advertising in society.

In “Infinite Jest,” this year is part of a timeline where traditional Gregorian calendar years are replaced by these sponsored years. The “Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad” is one of several such years mentioned, including the “Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment” and “Year of Glad.” This satirical naming convention serves to critique consumer culture and the commodification of even time itself.

For those interested in exploring further, there are analyses and discussions of this concept available in various literary forums and reviews. For instance, on Reddit, users have discussed and even created visual representations of this idea, reflecting on its significance within the novel’s broader themes.

Then I asked: Who is POTUS47?

Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025, following his election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. His campaign and election were marked by significant events, including surviving two assassination attempts, which contributed to the historical context of his presidency. (According to Grok 2)

Compare POTUS47 IRL with fictional Johnny Gentle.

(The following is according to Grok 2)

Comparing Donald Trump, the real-life 47th President of the United States (POTUS47), with Johnny Gentle, a fictional character from David Foster Wallace’s novel “Infinite Jest,” reveals several intriguing parallels and contrasts:

Similarities:

• Entertainment Background: Both Trump and Johnny Gentle come from an entertainment background. Trump was known for his reality TV show “The Apprentice,” while Gentle is described as a former lounge singer and B-movie actor. This reflects a critique on the blurring lines between entertainment and politics, where charisma and public persona play significant roles in political success.
• Populist Appeal: Both figures capitalized on a populist wave, appealing to voters who felt disenfranchised by traditional politics. Trump’s campaign was marked by anti-establishment rhetoric, promising to “Make America Great Again,” while Gentle is portrayed as a leader of the “Clean U.S. Party” (C.U.S.P.), promising to clean up America from both literal and metaphorical pollution.
• Nationalism and Isolationism: There’s a shared theme of nationalism. Trump’s policies, like his stance on immigration and international trade, reflect a form of nationalism and isolationism. Similarly, Gentle’s policies involve isolating America by creating the “Great Concavity,” a vast waste dump area given to Canada, reflecting a form of extreme nationalism.
• Germaphobia: Trump has been known for his particular attention to hygiene, notably avoiding handshakes during the early stages of his presidency due to health concerns. Johnny Gentle is explicitly described as a severe germaphobe, to the extent of wearing surgical masks and promoting extreme cleanliness.
• Use of Vulgar Language: Both Trump and Gentle are noted for their use of profanity in public or political forums, which was somewhat unprecedented for their respective times. Trump’s use of coarse language was often highlighted in the media, while Gentle is depicted as the first U.S. President to say “shit” publicly.

Differences:

• Political Experience: Trump had some political experience before becoming president, having been involved in politics, though his background was primarily in business. Johnny Gentle, on the other hand, is portrayed with no prior political experience, jumping directly from entertainment to the presidency, which serves as a satirical commentary on American politics.
• Policy Execution: While Trump implemented policies that often stirred controversy, like border wall construction, tax reforms, and immigration policies, Gentle’s policies in “Infinite Jest” are more extreme and surreal, like giving away toxic land to Canada or the concept of “Subsidized Time” where years are sponsored by corporations.
• Outcome and Legacy: Trump’s presidency was marked by significant domestic and international impacts, including economic policies, judicial appointments, and international relations. Johnny Gentle’s administration in the novel leads to a dystopian scenario where America’s obsession with entertainment leads to its downfall, with a focus on cultural and environmental decay.
• Character Depth: Wallace uses Gentle to explore themes of entertainment addiction, environmentalism, and political satire in a deeply philosophical and absurd manner. Trump, as a real-life figure, embodies these themes but through the lens of actual policy, personal behavior, and political strategy, providing a different kind of narrative and public discourse.

In summary, while Donald Trump and Johnny Gentle share some thematic and superficial similarities, their differences lie in the execution and the reality versus fiction of their political actions and personal characteristics. Wallace’s Gentle serves as a hyperbolic mirror to critique aspects of American culture and politics, whereas Trump’s presidency provides a real-world case study of similar themes in action.

Compare the Department of Government Efficiency IRL with the fictional Organization of North American Nations.

(The following is according to Grok 2)

Here’s a comparison between the real-life “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) as proposed under President Donald Trump’s administration and the fictional “Organization of North American Nations” (ONAN) from David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest”:

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - Real Life:

• Purpose: Announced by Donald Trump as a presidential advisory commission aimed at restructuring the federal government to reduce expenditures, cut regulations, and increase efficiency. It’s not a formal department but rather a commission led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
• Structure: Despite its name, it’s not intended to be an official federal executive department, thus not requiring congressional approval for its establishment. It operates outside the traditional government structure, focusing on advisory roles.
• Goals:
  • Dismantling government bureaucracy.
  • Slashing excess regulations.
  • Cutting wasteful expenditures.
  • Restructuring federal agencies.
• Criticism and Challenges:
  • Concerns about conflicts of interest given the leadership roles of Musk and Ramaswamy, both of whom have business dealings with the government.
  • Skepticism about the feasibility of achieving the $2 trillion in budget cuts proposed by Musk.
  • Legal and ethical concerns regarding the influence of private sector leaders on government policy without formal accountability mechanisms.
• Impact: As of early 2025, it’s too early to determine its real impact, but there’s skepticism regarding its effectiveness in navigating the complexities of government operations and legislative hurdles.

Organization of North American Nations (ONAN) - Fictional:

• Purpose: In “Infinite Jest,” ONAN is a fictional superstate formed by the unification of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, ostensibly to deal with environmental issues but more so to reflect a dystopian vision of nationalism, corporate influence, and entertainment addiction.
• Structure: ONAN is depicted as an exaggerated, bureaucratic entity where traditional national boundaries are blurred, and governance is influenced by corporate sponsorships (e.g., years named after corporate products like “Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad”).
• Goals:
  • Dealing with toxic waste through the creation of “The Great Concavity/Convexity,” essentially giving away polluted land to Canada.
  • Promoting national cleanliness and isolation under the leadership of President Johnny Gentle, a former B-movie star turned politician with an extreme focus on hygiene.
• Criticism and Satire:
  • ONAN serves as a critique of American exceptionalism, consumerism, and the merging of entertainment with politics.
  • The environmental policy satirizes the absurdity of solving problems by simply relocating them, highlighting a lack of genuine commitment to environmental issues.
• Impact: In the narrative, ONAN’s policies lead to a dystopian society where entertainment, particularly the addictive “Infinite Jest” film, becomes a tool of control and escapism, showing a society in decline.

Comparative Analysis:

• Efficiency vs. Bureaucracy: DOGE aims at efficiency through deregulation and budget cuts, whereas ONAN is a satire on inefficiency, bloated bureaucracy, and misguided environmental policies.
• Leadership: While DOGE involves real-world business leaders, ONAN’s leadership, particularly Gentle, mocks the idea of celebrities or entertainers in political roles, echoing themes relevant to Trump’s presidency.
• Outcome: DOGE’s outcomes are speculative and subject to real-world political and legislative processes, whereas ONAN’s outcomes are satirically exaggerated to critique societal norms and political structures.
• Public Perception: DOGE has been met with mixed reactions, with concerns over its practical implementation, while ONAN is used by Wallace to explore deep philosophical questions about identity, nationalism, and the human condition through satire.

In summary, DOGE represents a specific, contemporary attempt at government reform, while ONAN is a broad, fictional critique of government, nationalism, and corporate influence, using humor and absurdity to highlight systemic issues. Both concepts, in their own ways, comment on the complexities and often the absurdities of modern governance.

Image by NightCafe (link)

Stream-of-consciousness blogging. I have a committed audience of one. (Hi, Son!)

I retired April 1st (no kidding). I was not adjusting to it very well. Friday I twittered that I was coming out of retirement to write a book. I have two working titles: Internet Wisdom, First Edition, and Sparky’s Booklet. I am not even sure what it’s about, yet. I started writing it in my commonplace book (c-book for short) a little bit at a time, out of order. I wrote “Begin my book” in my c-book on October 17, 2021. (That was 1183 days after I started gathering my thoughts in my c-book, by the way. I knew it was going to take a while to come together, not that the only reason I keep a c-book is to write books.)

I like to say that the first draft of my book is already written. All the words are in my c-book. Problem is, the words are not in the right order. And I don’t think the first draft is salable. Meanwhile, I blog.

I am writing this sitting inside Pikes Peak Brewing Company (PPBC). They have good fast Wi-Fi, and I am in the corner, an elbow away from my laptop’s power plug. As soon as I got here I ordered a dark meat chicken wrap from Tossed Food Truck. The band was on their final break. They started up and played until 4pm. I bought a Rocky Mountain root beer for $4 “plus change.” The “change” includes a brewer’s fee, which I am happy to pay. I ate my wrap. It was delicious! I had a nice chat with the owner, Morgan.

Before PPBC I was at Serranos, where I had the strangest “conversation” of my life. To protect the identities of my friends, I’ll call them Alex and Bob. Both are men.

Take a trip back in time with me. I join them. Bob reacts like an aggressive stallion. He doesn’t greet me. The exact words aren’t important. The message to me is, “You are intruding on my time with Alex.” He doesn’t tell me to leave, though, and I decide to stay as the third wheel. I am literally eavesdropping on their convo, and they are both aware of it! Alex is playing along with Bob. They are both talking about me, knowing I am here, and neither is inviting me to speak. So I remain silent. I’m learning things about both of them that they don’t talk to me about: their opinions on transgenderism, religion, etc. I learn that when Alex was growing up (some decades ago, but continuing after Vatican II), Catholic churches published the giving of every congregant. They published the attendance at activities such as pro-life rallies. These reports (confessionals?) were mailed to parishioners every month. As a Christian, I get it. I can see, theologically, how such transparency might help disciples grow spirtually. But that’s just not cool to do in America. Alex doesn’t know if the church still does that. But still. Wow.

Strange convo, right? It took me time to get used to the situation. I made mistakes, but Bob was consistent with his feedback. His message: “You may stay, but do not join the convo. This is our time to talk one on one.” At one point a laugh slipped out of me, and Bob mocked me. That worked. I didn’t make another mistake after that.

One final thing I want to mention today: AI. Generative Pre-trained Transformers. I like Brave Leo, built into the browser. This post’s image is a screenshot of the food truck’s home page and a convo I had with Leo about it.

Some of you were locked in a dark cell, cruelly confined behind bars, Punished for defying God’s Word, for turning your back on the High God’s counsel— A hard sentence, and your hearts so heavy, and not a soul in sight to help. Then you called out to God in your desperate condition; he got you out in the nick of time. He led you out of your dark, dark cell, broke open the jail and led you out. So thank God for his marvelous love, for his miracle mercy to the children he loves; He shattered the heavy jailhouse doors, he snapped the prison bars like matchsticks! — ‭Psalms 107:10-16 (MSG‬) (bible.com)

Read Part 1

I first published this twelve years ago. I have lightly edited it. Take a journey back in time with me.

It’s funny, this digital music thing. Giddily-funny. In the 90’s I dreamed of paying 10¢ each for tracks. I expected I’d soon be able to buy them directly from the artists. I still hold out hope that someday musical artists will make a decent living supported by their fans through direct micropayments. Meanwhile, there’s CD Baby. (Thank you, Derek Sivers!) You can pay in chunks. I’m a fan of The Cook Trio. Delightful Gypsy jazz. And I will never forget the radical internet music pioneer Janis Ian. (Well, I did forget her name tonight, but a little Googling cured that lapse. What I never forgot was the impact she made on my understanding about how the internet was changing the music industry. That was before Radiohead was famous.) No Connection with CD Baby. Support independent music. Buy something through CD Baby.

And this brings me (finally—I know, I ramble) to my vision of the evolution of writing onto the internet. I think it was fair to talk about reading first. And music is just another form of art. Anyway. Writing. I’m about a thousand words into this piece. Why is that important? Because the art form I’m promoting is internet-enabled writing. This is the evolution of the blog post. I’m limiting myself to between 1700 and 1800 words. As I said, I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that I red 1734 words by Larry uninterrupted and 1,794 words by Charles Murray before diving into my own work. That’s plenty of space to create a thoughtful essay. And I like to think of the blogger as an evolution of the essayist. (Thank you, Ken Myers, for the Mars Hill Audio Journal; thank you, Alan Jacobs, for being a frequent guest on MHAJ and for writing Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant, which has been on my to-read list since I heard Ken interview you, and thank you for introducing me to the father of essayists, Montaigne.)

The interview of Professor Jacobs by Ken Myers inspired me to download Charles Lamb’s book, Essays of Elia from Google. (It goes without saying that we all owe Google a debt of gratitude for starting to digitize the world’s books. But I’ll say it anyway: Thank you! You don’t have it all figured out yet, but you are taking digitization of human knowledge far beyond where Project Gutenberg has the resources to go.) Prof. Jacobs mentions Lamb’s essay, “Poor Relations”, which I found on page 173. I checked my journal. My entry for February 2, 2011 is: “[I] red the essay on [my wife]’s iPad. Exquisite!” I have not yet red Montaigne himself, but Prof. Jacobs raised my awareness of his importance, and a month later I listened to Sarah Bakewell discuss Montaigne on a Philosophy Bites podcast with Nigel Warburton. The next day I red “Montaigne’s Moment” by Anthony Gottlieb in the New York Times (online, of course—thank you, Lady Gray, for fighting to carve a path forward for digital newspaper survival; I loathe your myopic political bias but do not deny your influence).

And so I will restrict the length of my essays so that I can preserve a form that is comfortably readable on the internet. I appreciate how Twitter restricts me to 140 characters. (That restriction is to make a tweet fit in a single text message. I don’t know who decided on the length of text messages, but Wikipedians agree it was so they would fit into the existing signaling formats, and that sounds truthy enough for the purposes of this essay. (I have to double up on parentheses here to point out that it’s absurd to cite Wikipedia. Human beings create the content. They’re mostly anonymous cowards, but they’re all human. So you’re not citing an authority, you’re citing a crowd. Get it right! (And, tripling the parentheses, I thank you, Stephen Colbert, for inventing truthiness!))) I like to work within constraints. It’s good practice for all aspects life.

I now have to get ready for breakfast. This essay is just a little short. Better than risking being too long. But more than essays in past centuries, it lives! It’s not a finished draft because I don’t have time to review it thoroughly. Spell checkers catch gross mistakes, but we all know to write the first draft from the heart and the second draft from the head. I don’t have time to use my head if I want to get this published in the proper sequence. Up it goes. Then comes publicity: Instantly on Twitter. But later today at Google+, Facebook (default—I’m not sure if it will be public or not) and (perhaps—I’ll remove this parenthetic when I’m sure) LinkedIn. And email. Email isn’t being replaced by social media. It’s not either/or. It’s both-and. (Thank you for that image, Michael!)

Larry helps the reader avoid distraction by publishing links at the end of his essays. I’m taking it one step farther. Google and Wikipedia contain all the answers you need if you wish to follow up on anything I’ve said.

I first published this twelve years ago. [1]. I have lightly edited it. Take a journey back in time with me. It is in two parts because, ironically, it is too long for my modern micro.blog theme. Constraints. I mention that below.

It’s 0226. At least, it was when I started writing. At 0429 I realized I had more to read before breakfast. I got back to writing at 0504. (I’ve been using military time more and more. A symptom of the evolution toward 24-hour culture. What will this do to our natural rhythms of sleep and wakefulness? I’m the wrong person to ask. I have narcolepsy. No cataplexy, hallucinations, or sleep paralysis, thank God. Just a blurring of wakefulness, unconsciousness and REM sleep. Doesn’t explain the insomnia. In this case, my knowledge of my own sleep patterns leads me to conclude I couldn’t sleep because of my anticipation of my full agenda today: Discussing Early Christians Speak over breakfast with the men of StGAC, training for county GOP (unpaid) election work, then meeting fellow volunteers for the campaign to re-elect Amy Stephens for State House District 19. Then again, I would like to think that The Holy Spirit woke me up because I had work to do. Writing is work. To work is to pray. Therefore, by writing, I pray. And the purpose of prayer is to seek unity with the Creator of the Universe—thank you, Fr. Scott. But that’s enough theology for now.)

I think Larry Sanger is onto something. I red Part 1 of his blog series, “How Not to Use the Internet.” I agree: it’s a problem that the internet distracts us. And I am also reading Charles Murray’s piece in the New Criterion, “Future tense, IX: Out of the wilderness.” (Thank you, Arts & Letters Daily for the teaser, “What conditions give rise to great artistic achievements? Wealth, urban centers, belief in God. Wait: What? Secularism is incompatible with creativity…”) In fact, Part 2 of Larry’s piece (Part 1 of which I finished uninterrupted—1737 words according to Microsoft Word), is sitting right ahead of Murray’s piece in my Instapaper folder. (I’m not reading my collection in sequence. And, by the way, Instapaper totally rocks! I’m reading that folder offline in my Kindle app as a .mobi “magazine.”) His piece is 5592 words and I’m 1794 words into it. Coincidence, I don’t think so.

When I red Murray’s sentence, “In literature, the organizing structure that created an eruption of great work starting in the late eighteenth century was overwhelmingly dominated by a new principle: the modern novel,” I was hooked. Who has time for novels anymore? Well, I do. Sort of. I recently became aware of Thomas Pynchon’s existence. It seems he wrote an award-winning postmodern novel. Murray assumes his readers know this. I haven’t red the first word of it, though. The book I’m focused most on is a pair of stories in one volume: Not Quite Dead Enough and Booby Trap by Rex Stout. This book is a milestone for me. I’ve red other long works electronically. In the 90’s I had an IBM PC-XT that ran on two AA batteries and fit in the palm of my hand. I red The Imitation of Christ on it. I got through it, but it took much longer because it wasn’t very comfortable. I had to use some custom software to rotate the text into portrait mode, and the LCD contrast was not restful on the eyes, unlike a modern Kindle. I still haven’t finished Pride and Prejudice. I started it on an iPod Touch. I red a chapter or three in paperback, and I downloaded it to my NOOKcolor™. (That e-reader didn’t survive a fall from the floorboard of my car to the pavement. R.I.P.) It’s still sitting in my NOOK app library on my iPad, beckoning me. I don’t know how quickly I’ll finish it. But I fully intend to get through Stout’s nostalgic, light yet profound pair of stories on my iPad. They’re both contained in the first ebook I ever checked out from my library. (Thank you, Pikes Peak Library District, for inspiring me in 1979 with the idea that technology can make the humanities better!) I’ve already “renewed” it once (re-download after timebomb auto-delete). I have sixteen days left before I have to repeat that awkward yet tolerable (hey, what can one honestly expect for free?!) process. And so, for me, the novel is well underway toward being supplanted by electronic text.

Murray is also elaborating on music as art. That went digital before books, as we all know. My lovely and talented wife giddily shared her new acquisitions as we carpooled home yesterday evening: Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” and Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats.” (Oops. A tiny bit of her privacy just leaked onto the internet. Sorry, Sweetheart. Forgive me?) This was also a milestone. She paid $1.29 apiece. She said it was the first time she’d bought tracks since obtaining an iPhone. There was no easy way to confirm they’re MP3s during our trip, but I seem to remember that Apple raised their prices at the same time that they began selling the open format. I get my MP3s from Amazon for 23.26% less.

Continue reading Part 2

[1] http://home.pcisys.net/~tbc/posterous/posts/2012/05/the-evolution-of-writing-onto-the-internet.html

I love the art of digital letter writing (AoDLW)! It’s not the same as ephemeral email. (You do archive your important email, don’t you?) My handwriting is poor (a disability of being left-handed), but I still enjoy breaking out the fountain pen every so often and committing words to paper in my ugly (but unique and personal) script. Script isn’t even taught in all elementary schools anymore. May I live long enough to see that trend reversed! Many cultures know the value of communicating with one’s hands. Not all people have the ability to write with their hands, but for the able-bodied, typing is not what it means to be fully human.

Here’s the first rule of digital letter writing: No TOFU (“Text Over, Fullquote Under”). A letter should stand alone. Most mail apps add TOFU by default. Delete it before sending. Email has meta-data that automatically “threads” replies, anyway. Making every letter stand on its own is more challenging than continuing to top-post replies. It’s good to think about style. For daily email—and even for informal letters—TOFU helps keep the entire conversation in one place. But I find it liberating to write without TOFU. I can associate freely, and I can choose how much context to include.

There is a risk that the letter writer won’t include enough context, and the recipient will have to review previous correspondence. Again, that’s what email “threads” are for. Also, don’t give up the ancient tradition of saving correspondence for future reference. (I Twittered about letter-writing a long time ago [1of2, 2of2]). Before email, I made photocopies of my letters. Before photocopies, we used carbon paper, and before that people had to copy letters by hand before sending. Not all practiced such discipline, and more’s the pity. Note that we have Thomas Jefferson’s correspondence because he made copies of all the letters he sent. Jefferson (not counting his flaws) is one of my heroes. (And Clay Jenkinson is also my hero because he brings Jefferson to life through chautauqua. But I digress.) So the second rule of letter writing is: Archive your correspondence!

I’ve seen the difference that social media makes regarding the AoDLW. Letters in the past century were normally the main way people communicated at a distance. Some might catch up (or get to know a pen pal more closely) with long distance phone calls. But unless they actually met face to face, their lives were relatively isolated. Now it’s so easy to stay in touch. Some would say it’s too easy, but just because it’s easy shouldn’t mean one should settle for shallow. Samuel Johnson wrote, “A short letter to a distant friend is, in my opinion, an insult like that of a slight bow or cursory salutation;—a proof of unwillingness to do much, even where there is a necessity of doing something.” But Johnson didn’t have email. The third rule is: Buy time by sending a note or SMS.

It is also common to send “newsletters” to multiple recipients, and I would argue that’s also a good use of technology. I loved writing annual letters to include with Christmas cards (writer’s block since my mom died, but that doesn’t distract from the principle), and I love getting the same from friends and family. It’s more challenging to write to an audience larger than one. Those letters can inspire personal correspondence, phone calls and face to face visits, though. I myself now have twenty years of snapshots of family life that gives me great enjoyment to share (reminisce) with my now-grown children and grandchildren.

Finally, to my readers with whom I am behind in correspondence: Please forgive me. Time is more precious than gold these days. May we all live long enough to see that destructive trend reversed! I believe technology makes us more efficient with only a minor cost to our humanity. Txt me or DM me on Twitter (tbc0) if you’d like to chat!

Let’s get this project going together! I’m eager to hear how you practice the art of digital letter writing.

The author of this post is Tim Chambers 1E4AF729D5CEFFD0 aka tbc0. I first published this on the now-defunct Posterous. I am pleased with how well it reads now (ten years later.) I made light edits from the version I published today at post.news (link).

TIL americanlifeinpoetry.org, and what strikes me is the scribbles they publish. Different color backgrounds. When you have no better picture, scribble and use color! #poetry #sarcasm via tbc0.com/archives/161

Syndicating my first “real” content from my “Minifeed” — a project of the Knowledge Standards Foundation. My post is about #prayer.

I know my Father hears my groans
I want to honor Him with words
A framework of memorized poetic / prose prayers forms a firm foundation; my groans are like incense rising up to Him; above memorized are extemporaneous prayers; above that and below groans may be tongues
tbc0.com/archives/135

I don’t have a micro.blog tag for prayer. It’s categorized as theology, cosmology, and culture, which I find to be a harmonious combination.

And for anyone who’s seen my sha256sum tweets, here is my style:

$ cat tbc0.com/archives/135;sha256sum tbc0.com/archives/135
On prayer

I know my Father hears my groans
I want to honor Him with words
A framework of memorized poetic / prose prayers forms a firm foundation; my groans are like incense rising up to Him; above memorized are extemporaneous prayers; above that and below groans may be tongues, but He has not seen fit to give me that gift
ef7397fdb68c04bca0446cd04b2be05cd8c518cc7e68cd7eed492e6fa3eee47977a2f8b59b41533548c808ae9e02de4b19d588b5093123a8d5ccaed2987fd3cb  tbc0.com/archives/135
$

Image credit: svgsilh.com/image/2025655.html

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)

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)

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.)

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.

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

I listened to Common Sense 320 Steering Into the Iceberg by Dan Carlin aka DC. He grates on me. He meanders way too much. Whenever I listen to him I find myself shouting at the player, “Get on with it! Make your point!” I did it at a friend’s urging. It was tolerable at 1.7×. I calculate I saved 30 minutes. Here are highlights. He spends the first several minutes talking about … nothing. Total waste of time. Around 19:53 he is reflecting on POTUS45’s call for his supporters to refuse to accept his defeat at the polls. A rigged election will be the battle cry for civil war. I say who’s surprised? POTUS45 admires Putin and Kim Jong Un. At 29:35 I was thinking about DC’s references to Caesar crossing the Rubicon. He says Congress did nothing. But the House sent impeachment articles to the Senate. It’s the Republican Senate who is not leading. Now I understand how Rome ended up with Caesar. Around 34:45 he calls for oppositional voting. Vote against the authoritarian. He rants about POTUS45 with his finger on the nuclear button. He urges us to steer away from the civil war iceberg. Plus the harmful conspiracies iceberg. At 42:00 he names QAnon. At 51:40 he talks about non-violence. Then he riffs on the idea that the US is a democratic republic. By 1:07:00 he is using the metaphor of a bus with 60 steering wheels. He is Jeffersonian,” a we the people guy.” Wraps up with a desire for a ”meeting of the minds.”Oh the drama, ending with Franklin’s quote: ”A republic, if your can keep it.” Mic drop, ending at 1:13:00.

I am not happy with Google search results for mmptbaa. Googling “what does mmptbaa mean” is no better. Let’s see how long it takes for Google to index this post. MMPTBAA is an acronym that stands for “makes me proud to be an American.”

"Stars & Stripes"by Henri Photography is licensed under CC BY 2.0

TIL the Faroe Islands.

HT Windows Spotlight.

I also discovered this fun website where-is-this.com. So I added the picture and am monitoring wagnerwagner@mailsucker.net for replies.

I am sad to learn that the residents of the islands are slaughtering whales and dolphins today (grindadráp); however, I respect the right of the local communities to carry on this long-standing tradition. It seems they eat what they kill.

Nobody has an adequate concept of how large the Universe is, so the plot of the Avengers movies was flawed from the start. Guardians of one mere galaxy are inconsequential on the scale of the Universe. I will believe that God created the entire Universe just for life on Earth until we have evidence otherwise. I want to keep searching for life so we can keep not finding it and so materialists and evolutionists can get more and more frustrated.