Amerpie by Lou Plummer Profile Photo

Amerpie by Lou Plummer

Working in educational IT since the 90s. Dedicated Mac user trapped in a PC world. Obsidian fanboy. Blogger. Friendly 😊
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Writing

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    Little Luxuries

    taco_trailer-resized

    I remember vividly when I was finally able to go grocery shopping without having to constantly calculate the cumulative cost of the items in my basket. On more than one occasion I had to reluctantly tell the cashier that I'd decided not to get an item or two when my math was bad, and I ended up short while standing at the register. I remember, too, the inability to afford a full tank of gas in the beaters I drove in my early adulthood. I rarely had more than $10 at a time when to buy fuel. When the day came that I could fill up the tank whenever I needed to, I felt like I'd reached a new level in the game of life.

    One of the best mental health practices anyone can adopt is what 12-steppers call an attitude of gratitude. I've been makinga three-bullet list in my journal for well over a decade. Many days I record nothing but the little luxuries life offers. I'd rather have a whole basket of the little things than a big, fancy car.

    I lived in a 100-year-old farm house in high school. For air conditioning, we had a couple of window units in the house, but none of them reached my bedroom. Our heat was a wood stove. My first adult jobs were mostly of the outdoor type. When I finally scored employment with the state, it was at a prison constructed decades ago. There was no AC, just giant floor fans to blow the hot air around. Subsequently, I moved to a giant Westinghouse factory with a massive machine shop, high ceilings and shipping bay doors open to the summer weather. I'd already turned 30 before I finally made my way into the white-collar world where I could work at a desk, sitting down in air conditioning.

    We didn't eat out much when I was a kid. I'd use my money from whatever little hustles I had going on to occasionally treat myself to some fast food. We lived for a while in Jacksonville, NC and there was a place on the outskirts of town selling three hot dogs for a dollar. I loved that place! To this day, I get more excited than I probably should by the prospect of restaurant food, I don't care how mundane. I'm super happy if I get to go to a taco trailer, and on top of the world if we go to a real sit-down Mexican place with chips and salsa. We could conceivable afford to eat out for every meal, and it's only Wonder Woman's sensibilities that keep from indulging in that.

    I've only slept a new mattress a couple of times in my life. One of those times was just a few years ago when we got one of those foam jobs that comes in a box and expands when you take it out. After relying on cheap hand-me-downs, actually having a quality place to sleep was a luxury I didn't know I needed. It's a rare night when I don't feel incredibly lucky climbing beneath the sheets. My super-power is being able to sleep anywhere at any time under just about any conditions. I can now save that skill for when I really require it.

    There are plenty of other things that make me feel a little like a Rockefeller:

    • Never, ever going on a road trip without a stop by the Circle K for soda and a snack
    • That first trip to a bathroom with porcelain after spending days upon days on a hiking trip
    • Owning and using fleece lined slippers
    • Being able to get the fastest Internet you can get to a residential building
    • Car repairs that don't go on a credit card
    • Rarely saying no to our favorite charities
    • Every pair of Levis blue jeans I've ever owned

    I'm not a perfect gratitude machine by any means. I despise flying. I am almost always glad to be traveling somewhere, but the miraculous act of hurtling across the country miles up in the sky leaves me singularly unimpressed and grouchy. I also thought email was cool for a while until I realized it was a way other people could add items to my to-do list. Then I didn't like it as much. Still, though, there is enough of that poor kid left in me that any time I buy something and I don't feel forced into getting the cheapest model of whatever it is, I'm amazed on the inside. I feel like I've arrived.

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    If You Read This Tiny Apple Rant - I'll Give You Some Good Automation Tips

    opt-2025-01-28-%1_11

    Apple is both proving to be something other than the romanticized ideal corporation many tech people once thought it to be. It is a ruthless profit machine committed to taking advantage of every legal and close to legal loophole it can to "return value to shareholders." That means extracting capital from the working class to put it into the hands of the investor class. I'm an Apple guy, but I am fully aware that the company decided last year to take 30% of Patreon contributions away from podcasters and bloggers and other creators who downloaded the app from the App Store. There was a god-damned thing anybody could do about it, either.

    So, when I mention my love for Apple tech, it is in the context of what the ecosystem allows me to do, which is get work done with tools I enjoy using. I don't feel a kinship with the ghost of Steve Jobs,a miserable bastard if there ever was one. The current CEO just gave $1 million to Donald Trump, so screw him too.

    If you use a Mac to GSD - here are a few links with useful information on automating your workflow,

    Easily find Raycast Extensions!🚀

    Coding Bull Junky – Automation and Personal Productivity for macOS

    My Triumvirate of Mac Automation Technology – Mike Burke

    Sync Mac/PC and iOS using Syncthing + Möbius Sync

    How to Use Karabiner Elements to Get More Out of Your Mac Keyboard - TechPP

    How To Use Hazel To Automate Your Repetitive Tasks - Asian Efficiency

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    Cooking With Men

    brisket

    My mother believes in participatory humanity. Whatever she's doing, she welcomes you to join right in. Some parents discourage their kids from using household appliances or cooking because I guess they are scared the kids might break something or get hurt. My Mom does not have that fear. I don't remember not knowing how to start a load of clothes in the washing machine, turn on the dryer (after cleaning the lint filter because you don't want the house burning down) and I certainly don't remember feeling helpless or lost in the kitchen.

    I remember being tasked with cooking bacon for breakfast. Mom had these distinct tongs used for just that purpose. A few years ago, when I mentioned how I'd never been able to find a set like that for myself, she gave me hers, the same ones I used 50 years ago as a kid. I know for a fact that some food prep tasks she handed off to me were things she hated doing herself. Grating cabbage for coleslaw is a prime example. I'm willing to bet she only has it when I'm visiting her, and she can rope me into doing it. I didn't mind helping, actually. Back in the day, we didn't worry about raw eggs in cake batter and getting to lick the batter from the mixing bowl or the beaters from her handheld mixer was a rite of passage.

    I left home as a teenager and got married. My wife could cook and enjoyed making fancy dishes, but I took on the day in and day out food prep duties. She was a military brat and didn't know much about Southern cooking, My grandmother advised her to season vegetables with a little grease, as we do down here. Mema was referring to pork grease, rendered from fatback or bacon, but the young lady I was married to didn't catch that part and soon poured hamburger drippings all over a pot of green beans and didn't understand why they weren't as tasty as she expected.

    My kids all managed to make it into adulthood without dying of malnutrition. Their food memories tend to center on things they didn't like rather than all the delicious meals I prepared for them. My son, was the kind of kid who ordered chicken fingers and french fries at Mexican restaurants, has excellent taste as an adult and an adventurous palate, but he swears that the only way he survived his teenage years was by begging me to let him make extra sandwiches to eat in his room. My girls favorite food group was cereal. The happiest days of their lives were the times when I'd buy something apart from raisin bran.

    After the kids left home, and I was heavily involved in endurance sports, I learned a lot about nutrition and training. Some of my favorite activities burned massive amounts of calories. I was dedicated to clean eating and went through chicken breasts, sweet potatoes, bags of spinach and cage free eggs like mad. When Wonder Woman and I got married, she was just as dedicated to that diet as I was. She still is, although not quite as rigidly as before. She still prefers brown rice over white rice. I've never known her to eat canned vegetables. For years, she prepared a week's worth of the most colorful salads imaginable every Sunday, and we ate them for lunch during the week,

    Since I decided I didn't like being retired and went back to work, we've opted for meals that are quick and easy to prepare so we can have more leisure time at night. I've promised to go back to more cooking from scratch when I finally retire for good. I have a quite nice grill and smoker combo that hasn't gotten a lot of use lately. It does great pork shoulders, beef brisket, whole chickens and turkey breasts. I need to fire that back up soon.

    I get the same complaints other male cooks get, primarily centered around being messy, which is true. I am messy. It took me a while to learn how to judge the right portion sizes for my diminutive wife, who, while indeed small, also has to stay fueled up for ultramarathon training. I have also learned that by some miracle of modern medical science, I am to blame for any numbers on the reports she gets after her physical that she doesn't like. Either I'm not serving enough foods rich in vitamin D, or I'm screwing up her HDL and LDL readings.

    She still loves me though and readily accepts her plate each night when I deliver hot chow to her after she's waited for me to prepare dinner for us. Few things make me happier than to see her dig into whatever I've made.

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    This is Not Nam. This is the Internet. There Are Rules.

    Like the memorable scene from the Big Lebowski, I sometimes feel the need to remind people on the Internet that there is some structure to the world and that failing to acknowledge that can leave you entering a world of pain.

    Read the Room

    Every online community develops its own personality, its in jokes and its taboos. Take some time to learn them. You may not agree with them, and if not that's OK. Stick around, earn some respect and maybe you can play a part in changing things over time.

    Gatekeeping Makes You Look Like a Jerk

    I've run into some remarkable people online - like a developer who worked on the original version of the Safari web browser, a guy who was coming up with ideas for the Mac OS X dock while the rest of us were still using Classic, the guy who coined the law "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." I've read many, many social media and blog posts by these illustrious folks and I have never seen one of them try to throw their weight around or act exclusive in any way. Everyone has been a newb and no one is an expert on everything. Cool it with the gatekeeping.

    Unless It is Morally Necessary - Do Not "Well Actually" Folks

    Sometimes accountability needs to be the order of the day and fate might select you as the person who has to bring it about, but be honest. That's not going to happen regularly and once you've had a turn calling out something egregious, let someone else do it next time. Don't make yourself the Internet Sheriff. Most of the time, someone making a mistake online can just be ignored. Plenty of people will recognize where they are falling short, You don't get any points for correcting other grown ups.

    Resist the Urge to Tell People Why You Hate the Thing They Love

    I feel like this ought to be easier than it seems to be. But, it's not. Go some place on the Internet tonight and proclaim your love for your favorite ice cream, car, web browser, vacation spot, sexual position or just about anything elese and it won't be long before someone arrives to tell you why it sucks. I sure would like to start a movement to stop people from doing this.

    We Are Living Through A Facsist Takeover of America - Don't Tell People Not to Talk Politics

    Lucky me got to live most of my life playing this game on easy mode - straight, white and male. Sure I've had some tough times but none of them were because I'm straight or because I'm white or because I'm a dude. Of all the people that are going to get screwed over in the coming years, I'll probably be in the group that suffers the least real damage and yet I can not shut up about what's happening. People are freaking out and they have every reason to be. I get it that you are bored with it all. That you'd prefer not to be constantly reminded of how horrible things are for people. Just keep that to yourself. Go spend some time alone. Don't try to police what people want to talk about in the Year of Our Lord 2025, because a lot of them want to talk about how an evil bunch of people are attacking some of the most vulnerable members of society.


    opt-2025-01-27-%1_10


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    Chances Are, You Probably Helped Make Internet History

    Google

    The 20th Century featured the greatest acceleration of science and technology in human history. For hundreds of years, the lifestyles of most societies on earth were not remarkably different than what had been common one, two or even three hundred years or more into the past. Then within a single hundred year period, sanitation, medicine, electricity, air and space flight changed the world so much that no one from 1900 would ever feel at home the night we all survived Y2K. It happened fast.

    Many Millennials, Gen X and Boomers types witnessed the birth of the Internet as we know it today and most participated in some now fondly remembered relic of the early days: Prodigy, AOL, Compuserve, GeoCities, StumbleUpon, Digg - the list goes on. Take a look through these collections and see where you were and what your were doing while the Internet evolved right in your own home.

    Internet Artifacts

    50 Old Websites: A Nostalgic Journey From Our Digital Past

    10 Popular Websites: What They Looked Like When They First Started

    The Invention of the Internet ‑ Inventor, Timeline & Facts | HISTORY

    18 Famous and Interesting Internet Milestones [INFOGRAPHIC]

    The Big Internet Museum | Communication Arts

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    What Happens When You Read Too Many Books on Habits

    Habits

    In the fall of 2017 I got the urge to investigate self-improvement in a methodical and purposeful way after reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, an Ivy League educated attorney and former Supreme Court law clerk who gave all that up to become a writer. I wanted no part of any self-help, psychobabble, New Age flavored literature. I decided to come up with a plan based on scientific studies of practices that would improve my life physically and mentally. Some of the other books I read include:

    By January 1, 2018, I was ready. I had a list of goals, spreadsheets, apps for tracking various habits and a folder of bookmarks on the idea of the quantified self. My primary goals were:

    • Average walking four miles a day for the entire year, counting only purposeful walks and not steps taken in the course of the day.
    • Get a minimum of 10,000 steps every day
    • Close the rings on my Apple Watch activity tracker every day requiring at least 30 minutes of exercise, 800 calories burned and no prolonged sitting over 12 hours each day
    • Meditate every day in a sitting position, alone using a timer
    • Read 52 books
    • Deadlift and squat 400 lbs

    Out of pure stubbornness, I hit every one of those goals. I once had to go for a walk during a hurricane, but I managed to get my steps that day. I was blessed with good health the entire year, maintaining a healthy weight and dealing with my arthritis successfully.

    It was fun, and I am glad that I did it, but it was not the happiest year of my life, which is what I was going for. It wasn't that it was bad, not at all, but it didn't elevate me to a new plane of existence or anything. It was a series of tasks that took self-discipline and dedication, not much different than other challenges I'd given myself through cycling or long-distance hiking. Wonder Woman was her usual awesome self. She never complained about the hours I spent walking or behind closed doors on my meditation pillow or with my nose stuck in a book.

    I continued some habits deep into 2019. It wasn't until August of that year that I broke the streak of 10,000-step days and closed activity rings. My arthritis flared up significantly in the spring. Between the uncaring attitude at my orthopedist's office and the weaponized incompetence and malevolence of my insurance provider, I dealt with untreated chronic pain for months while fighting to get the treatment I was entitled to. I ended up as depressed as I'd been in years, and bitter that creating the perfect set of habits hadn't made me immune to the black dog that has hounded me since my 20s.

    I'm all for anyone doing the things I did. I believe in the benefits of exercise, meditation and mental improvement. My experience is that none of those things are miraculous cures or preventatives for the slings and arrows that life can throw at you.

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    Believe It or Not!

    Ripley's_Believe_It_or_Not!_2023_logo

    I don't want to brag about my trivia knowledge, but if the British government ever finds out How good I am, they will probably ban me from the country to keep me from showing up and winning all the pub quizzes. I have studiously been assimilating useless knowledge since I was old enough to read. At a young age, I was a recognized expert on Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and the Bermuda Triangle. I've written previously about my multiple readings of the Guinness Book of World Records. Another series of books from my younger days played a big part with my fascination in knowledge that won't do anything more than give you something to talk about is the Ripley's Believe it or Not books. The series started as single panel newspaper features by American cartoonist and amateur anthropologist Robert Ripley.

    Although Ripley died more than 75 years ago, the franchise he started is still going strong with museums, known as odditoriums all over the world and books still in print.

    Today on Ripley's Believe It or Not - Comics by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! - GoComics

    Ripley's Believe It or Not! - YouTube

    Ripley’s “Believe it or Not!” – fact check – Ramblings

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    Winning with the Kiddos

    IMG_8409

    Aren't Saturday's amazing? I don't work on Saturdays. I get up whenever I want, usually early and spend my morning writing and doing the kind of tech chores I enjoy: curating photographs, adding entries to Day One Journal, perusing my saved articles on Pocket and via RSS and scrolling through the feeds of my favorite people on Mastodon and Bluesky.

    After a couple of hours of that this morning, Wonder Woman and I made a drive across town to pick up the only three of our grandchildren who live close by: 12-year-old Forrest, 10-year-old Harper and 7-year-old Tristen. Despite their age, we still collectively refer to them as "The Babies." When we arrived, they came busting out the front door before our car even came to a complete stop. Obviously, all three of them were standing by the front window just waiting for us to get there. Their Mom came out to say goodbye and then the rest of us were off.

    The first stop was Zorba's, our neighborhood diner, which the kids call "The Pancakes," after one of their favorite breakfast choices. Tristen is mostly just a little carnivore, though. When the waitress asked him what he wanted, he looked here in the eye and said "Sausage." She asked if he wanted any grits or eggs to go with it. He thought for a minute and said, "Bacon." That's what he got, too.

    We only live a couple of blocks away, so we were home immediately after we ate.Forrest teases me because my preferred perch on the couch is well-worn and obvious. All my electronic gear is on the table beside where I sit, along with coffee cups, screen wipes, and other items he relates to me. Every once in a while, he will jokingly try to climb into my spot, which generally prompts me to ask him if he's lost his mind.

    We all just hung out in the living room and talked for a few hours. They told us about school, their Dad's new puppy, and who had been mean to who lately. All of them aspire to be Internet superstars and content creators. Harper already has a private TikTok channel which is shared with just us and a couple of friends. She makes videos of herself doing random things. She disappeared for a while later in the day, and we all assumed she was off in another room making a video.

    In a couple of hours they were hungry again, wanting Mexican for lunch, which I was delighted to oblige. I have to work a little on Tristen's cultural sensitivity. Not only does he order chicken fingers and fries, he also complained today because the music was in Spanish and he couldn't understand it. He likes the Latino kids he goes to school with and can correctly use the Spanish pronunciation of their names, so I don't think he has ant budding MAGA tendencies, thank God.

    After lunch, we went to see Mufasa: the Lion King, as promised. You have to pass a huge candy store on the way to the theater's front door, and we did not even try to skip past it. We let them get a grab bag and put it in the car before the movie started. We still got popcorn too! The kids all tease me about my proclivity for frequent naps, which I take any time at any place. I didn't know that today they'd already told their Mom they thought I'd fall asleep in the theater with it's soft reclining seats. They were right, or course. Wonder Woman punched me so many times for snoring that my shoulder is sore.

    By the time the movie was over, they were ready to go back and see their Mom, who they all adore. We do too. As we pulled into their neighborhood, they pointed to houses for sale and suggested point-blank that we buy one of them because obviously, we want to live closer to them, right? Wonder Woman and I have only been back home for a couple of hours, and I am already looking forward to the next time we can go see The Babies again.

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    Tech Product Grab Bag

    Aura Digital Frame

    After discussing it for the last 12 years, my wife decided to begin scanning multiple albums of old family photos so that we could some to our new Aura frame and back them all up to the cloud - in three different places: iCloud, Google Photos and Amazon Photos. Our 12-year-old Scan Snap 1300i was not up to the job of scanning hundreds of snapshots. The images had lines in them and the process was slow. It was time to find a new scanner that could handle the assignment without venturing into pro territory, which we didn't need.

    I also had some accumulated gift card credit and took the opportunity to cross quite a few things off my wish list.(These are not affiliate links. I'm not trying to make any money, just sharing gear siggestions.)

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    This Week's Bookmarks - 2025 Books, Beans and Greens, 10 New Museums, 2025 Movies from Books, Trump's MAGA Makeover, Reddit Bans on X, Roman Emperor with Shortest Reign

    2025_Books

    Thrilling debuts to big-name authors: 40 of the most exciting books to read in 2025 - From the most anticipated literary debuts to the return of heavyweights like Stephen King and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, there's plenty to add to your TBR pile this year.

    Barbecue Beans and Greens Recipe | Food Network Kitchen | Food Network - Easy, full-flavored sides are a must for your summer cookout rotation. This side features canned black eyed peas, punched up with spicy barbecue sauce and smoky bacon. Frozen chopped collards are a great convenience product which melt into this saucy side dish.

    Ten Must-See Museums Opening Around the World in 2025 | Smithsonian - New institutions dedicated to artificial intelligence, West African art, barbeque and more are expected to welcome visitors this year

    The Most Anticipated Book Adaptations of 2025: Movies and TV Shows - The New York Times - Hilary Mantel's "The Mirror and the Light," a new "Bridget Jones" and Michael Bond's Paddington Bear series are some of this year's most anticipated adaptations.

    Trump executive orders list: What orders did Trump sign on first day - President Trump is carrying out his pledge to give the U.S. a MAGA makeover by signing a slew of executive actions in his first week that erase progressive policies and fulfill his poisonous campaign promises

    More than 50 Reddit communities ban X links to protest Musk - The cascade of link bans came after Musk made a a Nazi salute, which many cited in their protests, among other things.

    Which Emperor had the Shortest Reign? - by James Coverley - Over the past few weeks, we've looked at some interesting details about Roman emperors - how old they were, on average, how many of them were assassinated and so on - and today, we're answering a reader's question about which of them ruled for the shortest amount of time.

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    Time Travelling

    Ashmont School The Remains of Ashmont School Where My Mother Went in the 1950s

    If you live in Europe, I'd like for you to read this post without laughing at me or immediately going on social media to mock me. I'm going to talk about old stuff. Yes, I know I live in the United States and that we don't really have any old man-made artifacts here. Many of you in Ireland, England and on the continent live in houses that would be museums and tourist attractions if they were transported here. I was in Leeds in the UK a few years back and my host stopped by Kirkstall Abbey on a whim and didn't make a big deal out of it. The place was built in 11152. It blew my mind, but to him, it was just a place on the edge of town.

    I live in North Carolina. The First Nations people who lived here when the first English settlers landed included the Cherokee, Tuscarora, Catawba, Lumbee, and various Siouxan tribes like the Occaneechi, Haliwa-Saponi, Waccamaw Siouan, Meherrin, and Coharie. We still have a sizable Native population. One county over from where I live, there are between 40K-50K members of the Lumbee tribe. There are ancient burial mounds in my county located near the Cape Fear River.

    There are no remnants of the state's most famous early settlers, known as the lost colony. A group of 117 English men and women landed on Roanoke Island, a few miles inland from site where several hundred years later the world's first airplane flight would occur. All of these settlers disappeared in a three-year period when the organizers of the colony returned to England. Included in the missing was Virginia Dare, the first child of English descent born in the new world. Today, Roanoke Island is home to the community of Manteo, a nice place to visit on the way to the Outer Banks.

    We were one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from Great Britain in 1776. There are historical markers a few miles from my neighborhood where the British Army encamped on the way to get their asses handed to them at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge. I could walk to the spot where the state ratified the constitution from my driveway. Because of numerous fires through the years only a couple of pre-revolutionary buildings still exist in town, fittingly, the largest of them was a once a tavern.

    My paternal lineage, meaning my ancestors with the same last name that I have, came to the US around 1800. The first of us listed in a US census stated that his father's birthplace was France. I suspect he may have been the son of an English soldier, born to a camp follower. Whatever. I have no real way of knowing the exact story. What I do know that is we've been hanging around this same county now for 225 years.

    I am not one of those Southerners with any sort of positive attachment to my heritage connected to the Civil War. Numerous ancestors from all branches of my family were in the Confederate Army, some drafted, some volunteered. One died of disease before ever going into battle at a giant unsanitary recruitment center located on what is now the grounds of the veterinary school for NC State University. Another was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia. My favorite was an extremely reluctant soldier who served at three different times but only for very short periods. He kept trying to get out of it and come back home. Good for him.

    Another branch of the family were Quakers. They didn't participate in the economy of enslaved people, nor did they serve in the Army. They farmed and worked in cotton mills and generally minded their own business.

    For you Outlander fans, part of my family were Highland Scots who came here after the Battle of Culloden which ended the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland and placed it firmly under English rule. The family name is McFadyen and they were good Presbyterians who farmed the land on southeastern NC into the 20th century. One of them, my grandmother's brother died in Italy fighting Nazis during World War Two.

    Even though we are deep into the 21st century now, there are still signs of the past all around, if you know where to look. There are tobacco barns built from logs and chinked with mud on various farms. That type of tobacco production was last practiced in the 70s. I have hiked all the way through the NC mountains from our border with Georgia all the way to Virginia. Some of the trails today's hikers follow are the same routes Native Americans were using when we got here, I am always amazed when I am following a difficult mountain trail and I come to a stone fence or giant stone piles and I realize that at one time the thickly forested Appalachian mountainsides were clearcut and hardscrabble mountain folks planted crops there and plowed the fields with mules.

    I am not a flag waving patriot in the traditional sense. I am not proud to be from where I'm from. I'm not ashamed of it either. We all have a history and I just happen to know mine because I'm curious and sought the information. That information gives me a connection to the past I would not otherwise have.

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    Watch People Trying to Do the Right Thing

    Ally_at_Pride

    My people aren't putting up with it, and by my people, I mean those committed to human rights and being active, committed allies to the LGBT community, people of color, women, immigrants and the poor, By "it" I mean the non-stop, relentless attacks by the US government and the people who voted for it. Now is not the time for lukewarm support or just trying to get along. Nope. Now is the time to be more outspoken than ever before. It's time to make your average middle-class liberal friends put up or shut up. It's time to recognize that our society is literally in a war that the right-wing declared on all the people I mentioned above.

    The little microcosm of society inhabiting the IndieWeb just went through some growing pains over what supporting marginalized people, in this case, trans people, looks like and what it takes to demonstrate commitment to them. Feelings got hurt. Words got written. Some people experienced growth. Other people exposed their true selves and not always in the best way.

    I don't have the forensic skills to unearth every detail, but I would like to share some select and enlightening posts from people involved and on the periphery, so you can see what struggle in the modern era looks like.

    The pressure to stay genteel - Coyote Tracks

    Let's Try to Always Provide a Dignified Way Forward | Havn

    Context // Vincent Ritter

    Violence • melkat.blog

    Manton Reece - Enough

    Fuckity fuck fuck - annie's blog

    My husband asked me tonight, … | Small Good Things

    Adam Newbold: "This is a time to pay close at…" - social.lol

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    What A Drag it is Getting Old

    Vivaldi - 2025-01-23 at 20

    Mick and Keef wrote "Mother's Little Helper," a song about a pill addled Mom a whopping fifty-nine years ago. The line that resonates with me is "What a drag it is getting old." For me, the drag is the physical part of aging, much more so than the accumulated years, which in themselves are kind of cool.

    Sports scientists estimate that men reach their physical peak somewhere between 26 and 30, That is so patently messed up because it means that you spend the majority of your life slowly deteriorating. In the major spectator sports, it's the rare athlete who can compete past the age of 40. This doesn't mean that you can't be active, though. In my twenties and thirties, my kids were young and I was trying to get established in my career. Sports and hobbies took a back seat. My most physically active year were my 40s. I was 48 when I hiked the AT.

    Wonder Woman is 58 and still running ultramarathons. She's a bit of a mutant, though. We have a physical performance lab at the university where we work. They asked her to come in for a study a few years back. In her early fifties, she was tested as having a fitness level compatible to that of a college athlete in their early 20s. During her first year competing in ultras, at age 52, she ran in and won races at the distances of 50K, 50 miles, 100K and 100 miles. Just for a lark, she ran one road marathon with no special training and placed in the top 10 among thousands of entrants. She also completed a 100-mile bike ride after only very light training over a couple of weekends.

    My parents were young when I was born, so even though I'm almost 60, I've still got both of them. My mom also has mutant genes, having walked all the way across Scotland in her early 70s and then completing the Camino de Santiago across Spain just a couple of years later. Dad enjoyed a little too much bourbon and Salem cigarettes for too many years to have maintained much fitness, and today walks with a cane.

    I feel like I'm kind of wearing out prematurely myself. After dealing with painful arthritis in both knees for years, a drag physically and psychologically, I had them replaced five years ago. Although ai still have my hair, it turned white within the last decade. Wonder Woman insists I need a hearing aid. At least, I think that's what she said. This year, I finally reached the point where I can't function without glasses. Throw in the other aggravations of male aging, like getting up to pee three or four times a night, and it's no wonder that the trope of grumpy old man seems to fit so well on some days.

    On the other hand, having lots of life experience is remarkable. I've lived in seven decades and seen 11 US presidents leave office. I'm in the oldest cohort of Generation X so I can be old without suffering the indignity of being a boomer. Not only that, but I've pumped regular gasoline, used a rotary dial phone and bought vinyl records not to be trendy but because there was no other choice. I saw VCRs and DVD players come and go. I had AOL dial up and a fiber connection to the Internet.

    I hope to last a few more years. I want to around when Wonder Woman retires. We're probably won't have any more grandchildren. Thirteen is plenty. In a few more years, though, great-grandchildren should start coming along. I definitely want to be here for that. I also would like to see America come to its senses before I'm gone because I bet Jimmy Carter was pissed having to live out his last months after the 2024 election.

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    Remembering Apple's Think Different Campaign

    The Crazy Ones

    I miss the way being an Apple fan used to make me feel.

    The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, recently donated $1 million of his personal funds to the inaugural fund for Donald Trump. He did this after publicly congratulating him for his win. It made me furious to see the powerful out gay man in the US kiss the ring of the leader of the party that seeks to persecute and demonize LGBT people at every turn.

    My IT career became heavily Mac focused in 2000. I went to work for a school district where the majority of computers used by students were LC-575s and Power Mac 5500s. Our new purchases were Bondi Blue G3 iMacs with the infamous hockey puck mouses. There were still plenty of Apple IIe desktops in use. Lots of Oregon Trail was played. We bought hundreds of computers at the time and received boxes of promotional material from our Apple rep. It was my first encounter with the iconic black and white posters of the crazy ones the people Apple selected to represent the Think Different campaign. I still have a few hundred of the rainboa Apple stickers that came with new computers in those days. I wish I had some of the posters too. Today they sell for up to $500 apiece.

    The name was inspired by a passage from Jack Kerouac's book On the Road

    "The only people for me are the mad ones the ones who are mad to live mad to talk mad to be saved desirous of everything at the same time the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn burn burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'""

    Apple's version was:
    "Here's to the crazy ones.
    The misfits.
    The rebels.
    The troublemakers.
    The round pegs in the square holes.
    The ones who see things differently.
    They're not fond of rules.
    And they have no respect for the status quo.
    You can quote them disagree with them glorify or vilify them.
    About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
    Because they change things.
    They push the human race forward.
    And while some may see them as the crazy ones
    We see genius.
    Because the people who are crazy enough to think
    they can change the world
    Are the ones who do."

    The people pictured in the ads were by and large heroic figures from the 20th century with a couple of billionaires thrown in because nobody's perfect.

    • Albert Einstein
    • Bob Dylan
    • Martin Luther King Jr.
    • Richard Branson
    • John Lennon (with Yoko Ono)
    • Buckminster Fuller
    • Thomas Edison
    • Muhammad Ali
    • Ted Turner
    • Maria Callas
    • Mahatma Gandhi
    • Amelia Earhart
    • Alfred Hitchcock
    • Martha Graham
    • Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog)
    • Frank Lloyd Wright
    • Pablo Picasso.

    Only three of those people are still alive, Richard Branson,.Yoko Ono and Bob Dylan. Branson may have voted for Trump out of ruling class solidarity, but I doubt Yoko did, and you can god-damned bet your bottom dollar Bob Dylan did not.

    Thinking Different about Apple’s "Think Different" Campaign

    Think different. • Original Ad

    The Legacy of 'Think Different': How Apple's Campaign Continues to Inspire Creatives

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    Keeping Secrets Safe

    IMG_0160

    The threat from bad actors who seek to access and exploit user data increases every year. The list includes for-profit gangs, unscrupulous developers, the world's largest social media companies and repressive governments. The information they could potentially use includes, but isn't limited to, financial records, political or social organizing records, medical records, blackmail material, passwords and personal communications. Those who seek to access your data have increasingly sophisticated methods of bypassing weak security.

    There are many aspects of making your digital life as secure as possible. The links in today's post are to help you get started with encryption, protecting your data from prying eyes.

    A Beginner's Guide to Encryption

    Which Files Do You Need to Encrypt?

    How to encrypt a flash drive for Windows and macOS

    How to Encrypt Email on Gmail, Outlook, iOS, Android, and Other Platforms

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    ∞

    Let's Talk about Some Uncomfortable Topics, Shall We?

    Men Yelling

    Since I became politically active in the 90s, I've dealt with some pretty harsh behavior from people who didn't like my views. I'm not just talking about conservatives, either. When I was organizing veterans and military families against the war in Iraq was the worst. I live beside the most populated military base in the United States and even though I'm a vet with two kids who also served, plenty of people were pissed about anyone here openly opposing the war machine. I got death threats in the mail, my car window was shot out in my driveway, and I got some nasty notes taped to my door at work. Other than that, I've just had to deal with the normal name-calling and harassment many lefties endure. Recently, someone added my name to three moderation lists on Bluesky, labeling me a MAGA troll, a porn spammer and accusing me of some sex thing that I was scared to look up.

    On the flip side, if you've never been involved in left politics, you have no idea how people on our side can be vicious to each other in stupid purity tests. I've been accused by people who I wanted to be allies with of being insufficiently supportive of Palestine, women, LGBT rights, the environment, the Iraqi resistance and more. The worst people weren't far-left folks, though. The ugliest, most mean-spirited comments I've ever dealt with came from Blue State liberals who think every person in the south is a MAGA loving moron. I've seen people from NY and California and other places literally celebrate natural disasters in NC, including Hurricane Helene last October. I've been told that if I was a real Democrat, that I would move and never talk to anyone from NC again. These superior types don't even realize we have a Democratic governor and AG or that the state GOP has had more than a dozen voter suppression and gerrymandering laws eventually overturned.

    I believe in accountability and responsibility. I don't accept unacceptable behavior from people who think that just a bit of fascism or racism is OK. I'm mad at the state of my country, and I feel like lashing out more than is probably healthy. I also know this stuff is complicated and the practical application of my political values and societies expectations are difficult to balance if I turn off the bravado for a minute.

    I fantasize about being able to act on the anger I feel about the political state we are in. I'd like to be able to call out every person who has done anything to enable the hateful policies that (white) people are applauding. I would like to refuse to deal with people with backwards views on gender, race, and immigration status. If they want to take food away from hungry kids or medical care away from sick people, I would like to be able to write them out of my life loudly and publicly because they deserve it.

    But let's step back into reality for a minute.

    I live in one of the larger cities in North Carolina. It votes reliably blue, as do most of the cities of its size in the state. The surrounding rural areas are as red as can be, including the county that employed me for twenty years. Even here in town., many of the residents are former or retired military and most of the white ones are Republicans. If you tried to gauge elections by yard signs, the GOP would win every time. It is not an echo chamber in any way. Conservatives and liberals live and work side by side.

    I am very openly on the progressive side, with the appropriate bumper stickers and snide remarks about Republican policy every once in a while. I don't cross the line at work (anymore) but I walk right up to it. Always have. I try to let me fellow white people know that I am not in their club. I'm not the one you come to complain about diversity hiring or to whine about Joe Biden being responsible for egg prices. I will absolutely get loud when subjected to backwards behavior but correcting every non-woke opinion in others is not my life's mission.

    I have someone close to me who is lucky enough to live in Austin, TX. He worked for Samsung for 15 years. When the Tesla Gigafactory was built, which was before the company CEO bought Twitter and revealed himself to be a fascist, recruiters for the EV maker made him an attractive offer which he accepted. It was a great opportunity for someone with no degree to get a job in a green industry, making a sizable six-figure salary with stock options vesting in a few years and potential bonuses to offset the two kids he's single-handedly putting through school. He is 100% aware of the behavior of the man at the head of his company's food chain. He does not defend him.

    Most of the people in my family who stay informed about politics and have an opinion, lean left, but both of my parents are Republicans, although Mom isn't a Trump voter. One of my Dad's bothers is also conservative, and he happens to be the person responsible for me reaching adulthood without going into the juvenile justice system or foster care. He's the only person in my family who goes to a multi-racial church. He's just constitutionally incapable of voting for a Democrat because we'll take away his hunting rifle…or something. It makes me sad.

    I'd like to boast about having come out of the womb with a natural inclination towards perfect politics, but I didn't. I didn't develop any strong political feelings until I was almost 30. I voted for one of the worst Republicans in history when I was 19 out of pure ignorance. I even skipped a couple of elections. I believe I've done an adequate job in the past 30 years of achieving redemption with the help of committed activists and mentors and my own open mind. Someone had to educate me about the backwardness and ignorance I lived in on a whole list of topics:

    • Unions
    • Israel/Palestine
    • US Military Policy
    • Criminal justice
    • White privilege
    • Affirmative action
    • LGBT rights
    • Patriarchy

    I'm not going to confess every sin I've ever committed against the values I hold today, but there were many, from the horrible use of inappropriate language to joining the army and working in a prison. It took what it took to get me where I am today, but, yeah, I wish I'd gotten here sooner and with less baggage. I am not a unique or special case. I know others who've had journeys similar to my own. We made the most of our leaning opportunities and came out better for it. We learned to forgive ourselves, and we didn't defend our former attitudes.

    This is not the paragraph where I am going to wrap everything up into a neat package and hand it to you so that you know what to do. I wish I knew. I know that as angry as I am, I also have to practice empathy, understanding, and forgiveness, or I'll just be a shitty excuse for a person. I also have to resist the urge to just get along with people and take the easier and softer way of ignoring things that need to be dealt with. It's a balancing act and a hard one. Just do the best you can and act from a loving place as much as possible,

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    ∞

    One of the mysterious Carolina Bays that lie scattered across the south. - About Carolina Bays

    The image shows a picturesque, calm lake reflecting the blue sky and the treeline on the opposite shore.
    ∞

    A Few Excerpts From the Story of a Long, Long Walk

    2013-07-04 15

    This blog is the third version of my life online. The first version only exists in fragments via the Wayback Machine. The second version, was composed exclusively on an iPhone 5, usually right at dark while I lay on my back in my tent or in one of the shelters that dot the path of the Appalachian Trail, a 2,189-mile footpath from Georgia to Maine that I hiked on my honeymoon in 2013. It is still online in it's entirety and covers the period in the weeks leading up to starting the trail, through the 156 days we actually hiked and then a few follow-ups as I reflected on the experience. - Lefty and Hush's 2013 Appalachian Trail Journal (Note: Our hike started in Harper's Ferry, WV on May 6. We summited Mt. Katahdin in Maine on July 31st. We returned to WV and walked south towards Georgia where we climbed Spring Mountain on October 9th)

    Day One

    I should remember this date. Cinco de Mayo, right? Of course it's also the day Hush and I got married and the day we took our first steps on the Appalachian Trail. Busy much?

    We were at home this morning (at Midnight). A train ride brought the night took us to Union Station and after an interminable wait, another train deliver us to Harpers Ferry, WV. Within minutes we'd crossed the Potomac river and we were in Maryland. We hiked along the river and the old C&O Canal before diverting to the Harpers Ferry Hostel, we are camping tonight. Since we've not laid down since yesterday morning, I predict a pretty good nights sleep. 

    I'll kill he urge to wax on rhapsodically about all of this. We are happy, excited, it's Spring and we are in love. Queue the music.

    Last Night in New York

    Tonight the white noise machine is set to bird calls and mountain waterfalls. After a delicious dinner of Stovetop Stuffing (minus the butter) and a peanut butter covered Clif Bar I treated myself to a wipe down with my trusty bandana by the aforementioned mountain waterfall. 

    Lying in the shelter with Hush, Piper and Bright Side we are all trying to figure out  a plan for Tuesday. Hush and I are in desperate need of some quality down time but the choices are few. The trail towns are small with limited lodging

    Going Above Treeline

    Today after a three-hour climb we went above tree line and stayed there for two and a half miles. We experienced the unforgettable sight of the barren 5,000 ft. peaks of Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette as we climbed the rock strewn ridge line  towards them. In gusting winds but under sunny skies we marveled at the 360 degree views of rock slides, small towns, ski resorts and amazingly, the small lake we'd hiked around yesterday. From that lake, we photographed the mountain where we now stood. In the distance we could see the ominous outline of Mount Washington, the tallest point in the Northeast. Amazingly, we could also see a few of the peaks of Southern Maine. 

    Anyone who tries to get in big miles in the White Mountains is missing a lot. For one, the hiking here is so physically demanding that pushing it will break down all but the fittest. Secondly, blasting down the trail and ignoring the overlooks is something we all do some times. But if you do that here, you're missing more than just another view of trees from overhead. You're missing something special. 

    I'm way too tired to write much more.

    Climbing Katahdin

    Everyone at the thruhiker's campsite was up well before dawn. Hush and I were the first to head up the mountain. About two miles up the Dutchmen passed us as we took a break by the last spring below tree line. Those two are practically professional adventurers so we didn't feel bad to see them disappear. 

    Katahdin has the capability to break your heart. No other mountain throws so much at you. There are sections that look impossible. In one place, pieces of broken (!) rebar stick out of a boulder at rude angles, pretending to be climbing aides. You can't use hiking poles because you must use your hands (and knees, butt, back and in one case my head) to leverage your way ever upward. Thankfully you can see the summit from nearly two miles down the mountain. Fueled by adrenaline, you don't feel much pain in that long third hour of climbing. 

    We made it to the northern terminus of the AT at 9:30 AM. The Dutchmen took a few pictures for us as they drank the beer they packed to the top for the occasion. We started back down the 5.2 mile knee jarring descent, wishing we had gloves for the rocks. Three and a half hours later we were done.

    The Trail Out of Damascus

    Welcome to the Abingdon Gap Shelter, a few miles south of the Virginia line. No one is here tonight other than Hush and I. Entries in the log book repeatedly complain about the noisy shelter mice so i suppose we do have some company. All of our food is hanging from the home made mice proof food bag hangers. So are our packs. 

    We're deep enough into the woods to hear nothing but nature, bird calls, wind in the trees, the buzz of flies and the whine of stinging noseeums. There's no creek here, just a spring at the bottom of the hill, the long steep hill. This shelter, like many in TN I'm told, has no privy, just lots of mysterious trails into the surrounding woods. 

    We ate our standard dinners, tuna and peanut butter on (separate) tortillas, salty snacks (gluten free pretzels, Chili Cheese Fritos) and candy (Milk Duds and Whoppers). We had some hot tea as well. 

    Since its our first night out, we went over our plans for the next few days. Thankfully there aren't any long days coming up. That's good. I'm tired, footsore and just don't have as much energy as usual. After a few mild days, ill be ready to do something crazy,

    The Last Mountain

    We started hiking today at 6:15 AM. The last time we started that early was Maine. We managed to hike in the dark for well over an hour using our head lamps while still making decent time. The trail leading to Springer goes through several gaps but the tread way is good. We had a little extra motivation to make good time. 

    After we passed the Hawk Mountain Shelter we stopped for our last creek water coffee break. We started seeing other hikers shortly after that. I told every person I saw that today was the last day of our through hike. I was a little excited. 

    We had 14.5 miles knocked out by 1:15, putting us in the Springer trail head parking lot. We hung out, talking to other hikers, scoring consumable trail magic and trying to come to terms with it all. 

    When my Uncle Fred and my Dad arrived we headed up Springer, where I got teary eyed only briefly. We were undefeated in our struggle to become thruhikers. We won. 

     We took a bunch of pictures. I left a rock from Katahdin up there with a note asking someone to take it back to Maine if they happened to be going that way.

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    ∞

    Some Role Models for Journalists

    Bad Journalism

    Journalists aren't getting much respect these days, some with good reason. Others are being constrained by cowardly and sycophantic media companies bowing down to MAGA.

    When I was in the third grade, my Mom got married to a newspaper reporter. For the next few years we moved all over the state as the chain he worked for kept promoting him from reporter, to city editor to editor in chief. I learned how much work goes into reporting the news as I watched my step dad work long hours at marathon city council meetings for the Gastonia Gazette. I learned how to keep stats at high school sporting events for the New Bern Sun Journal and how to develop film in the darkroom of the Harnett County News. Our family made a trip to Washington, DC once so he could attend a press conference President Ford held just for the NC press. The biggest story he ever worked on was the return of Robert Garwood, an American Marine captured in Vietnam in 1965. Garwood didn't return to the US until 1979. He was sent to Camp Lejeune adjacent to the city of Jacksonville, NC where lived. My step father covered his court martial where he was found not guilty of desertion, the solicitation of U.S. troops in the field to refuse to fight and to defect and of maltreatment

    When people criticize everyone involved in reporting the news of being untrustworthy, or sellouts or downright dishonest, I know better. Journalism can be a low paying, thankless job performed ny incredibly dedicated people. Here are a few examples.

    Woodward, Bernstein reflect on Watergate reporting 50 years later - ABC News

    How investigative master Seymour Hersh broke the story of the My Lai massacre - Nieman Storyboard

    The story of Pulitzer Prize-winning publisher Horace Carter in "The Editor and the Dragon: Horace Carter Fights The Klan"

    The Panama Papers: Exposing the Rogue Offshore Finance Industry - ICIJ

    How the CIA Watched Over the Destruction of Gary Webb - The Intercept

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    Slash Page Highlights

    Slash from Guns-n-Roses

    Last year, when Robb Knight created the Slash Page website, I spent an afternoon creating a few of my own. Since then, I've periodically updated them as life has continued around me. Robb defines Slash pages as "common pages you can add to your website, usually with a standard, root-level slug like /now, /about, or /uses. They tend to describe the individual behind the site and are distinguishing characteristics of the IndieWeb."

    Although some grumpy types rebel at the thought of having the same pages on their blog as others have, as is their God-given right, I happen to enjoy seeing how original different people can be as they riff on the same ideas, If you've created your own Slash pages, feel free to drop a link in the comments so others can check them out.

    My Slash Page Home

    Check out the links to the individual pages of you want to see the whole thing. These are a few highlights

    /Interests

    /Nope

    • No, Mr. Paywall, I do not have to pay to read. I haz skillz.
    • Pay TV with commercials is an oxymoron
    • I don’t want to upsize, super-size or biggie size. Bruh, have you seen my waist?
    • Person at my door, I don’t want to buy magazines, home security or anything else
    • I want gas, not a carwash for my rusted out 2005 Camry

    /Someday

    • Eat dinner in New Orleans
    • See assault rifles banned again
    • Palestine
    • Go to my Mom’s 100th birthday party
    • See a woman elected US president

    /Blogroll

    /Save

    /Feeds

    /Subscriptions

    Blogs
    Joan Westerberg $4.17
    Jason Kotke $2.50
    Hey Dingus $1.00
    Matt Langford $1.00
    Flohgro $1.00
    Keenan $1.00
    Manuel Moreale $1.00
    Numeric Citizen $1.00

    | | $12.67 |

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