Writing
The Old Technology Debate
I don't want to stir up any trouble. I really don't. I am here to be as helpful as possible for people who are trying to make purchasing decisions about the technology they are going to acquire during this holiday season. Not only that, but I was perusing social media during lunch and lo and behold, I saw the decades old debate about the suitability of Apple computers and computers running Windows, raging on the same as ever. I thought folks were over this, but evidently, they are not.
I started using personal computers in 1993. My first computer was an IBM 486 with Windows 3.1 installed. Over the next six years, I went from a novice to someone working in the support industry. The first time I received a call from a person who owned a Macintosh computer and wanted my assistance, I was incredulous. I couldn't believe that someone spent their money on something so expensive and so incompatible with everything with which I was familiar. In 2000, I was hired by a local school system, issued an Apple laptop, and immediately put to work servicing thousands of Apple computers across 21 schools. Within six months, my ability to configure and maintain Macs surpassed what I had learned in six years as a Windows user. Because I had to support both platforms, my knowledge of Windows and how to maintain it has never faltered. Although I haven't purchased a Windows machine for personal use in over a quarter of a century, I have been issued a few at work and touched literally thousands of them in my job.
For a while, purchasing a Mac was a considerable investment when compared to obtaining an entry-level PC. I will admit to buying inexpensive Dell laptops for my daughters when they were in college. My mother, on the other hand, who is more financially secure, is the one person I recommended buying a Mac. The Dell PC she previously had during the early part of the 21st century was repeatedly infected with different forms of malware and hard for her to maintain. Since she entered the Apple ecosystem with an iPhone, an iMac, and an iPad, she's had very little problems, and like many users, has actually moved away from a desktop machine to using only handheld devices. Some tech snobs think that Apple locks you into their ecosystem by tying the devices together, but I can assure you that most regular people appreciate rather than resent that feature.
These days, you can get an entry-level MacBook Air or a Mac Mini for under a thousand dollars, and the days of them being prohibitively expensive are over. Most people find that an entry-level PC purchased at Best Buy or Walmart will disintegrate within three or four years, whereas most Macs last up to a decade before they need to be replaced. Sometimes people that have never used anything but Windows will accuse Max of not being user-friendly, but the problem there lies with the user and not with the device. For 20 years, I watched five-year-old kindergarteners sit down at iMacs in a computer lab and begin to do things immediately. One little known fact is that low-end computers purchased in big box stores do not have the same components that other computers made by the same manufacturer enjoy. Period. There is definitely a trend towards awarding parts contracts to the lowest bidders, and certainly not to the ones who provide the most quality outside the gaming machines that some PC users purchase. Apple computers, on the other hand, enjoy the same quality components regardless of where they are sold.
There are still people who believe that Macs are only good for graphic designers and creators. These same people believe that you must purchase a Windows machine to get real work done. I have news for them. I work at a small private university in the IT department. My job consists primarily of supporting Windows users and maintaining the computers on the university network. I use various Microsoft tools to do this. All of my IT related work is done on an iMac. If I need to use Windows, I simply log in via a virtual machine on the network to get access to the tools I need. The big graphics companies like Adobe have long made versions of their software for both Mac and PCs. Most of the time, outside specialized enterprise applications, users can get their work done regardless of the platform that they are on. Our university requires every student to purchase a computer, but we do not specify whether they must buy a Microsoft product or an Apple product.
I am long past considering the type of computer one uses as criteria for evaluating their worthiness as a human being. It's just a machine. People who are fighting religious wars over computing platforms need to get a life. They are stuck in another decade. Having said that, I don't see a compelling reason to use Windows outside the specialty enterprise applications I mentioned earlier or just because one is familiar with the platform. I think a legitimate argument can be made for the superiority of Apple's operating systems and the apps that run on them by most knowledgeable people.
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On Collecting Quotes
More than a decade ago, a discovered a fun little app called Quotebook the app was deprecated within a couple of years of my discovery. By some miracle, it has continued to work. I have transferred from phone to phone and continued to use it for its intended purpose, collecting quotes from news stories, books and memes. As a backup, I also use individual text files named after the speaker/writer. Once that folder contained over 500 individuals. I created a GitHub repository to make it easy to share with others. Available as a ZIP archive or as single files you can find it here.
I prefer finding my quotes organically rather than harvesting tons of them at a time, but I will occasionally go looking for a quote on a specific topic. A good place to do that is here -
If you use IFTTT, you can get quotes emailed to you daily. I've been doing it for years. The day's choice goes out shortly after midnight, so it's always waiting for me when I wake up. You can get the same service with a free account.
Email me a famous quote every day - IFTTT
There are a few other quotes collecting apps available for iOS and Mac. I've tried them all.
Are There Ethics to Blogging?
When I began to publish my writing online a year ago, I had no idea whether I would make it a habit or whether people would read anything I wrote. I hoped they would, but I had very little idea however all of this works. Blogging challenges were a mystery to me. My knowledge about how the whole community of personal bloggers from various platforms coalesces within social media circles was scant. The more I wrote and the more consistently I shared, the more learned about the unwritten expectations I would begin to place on myself. I also saw the constraints other people operated under, by choice, and how they differed from mine. Instinctively, I understood that being true to myself was the most important rule to follow. The other unwritten rules of blogging are just things I intuited along the way.
To my delight, I learned that writing my own version of someone else's idea is totally fine, as long as I give them a shout-out for the inspiration. Having someone do the reverse for me is high praise. Any time I've written something and then been able to read someone else's experiences in the same set of circumstances, it's been enjoyable. I end up feeling a particular closeness to the writer. I like it best when there are other significant differences in our lives, so I can see that my feelings of being unique aren't particularly valid. People tend to be more alike than they are different, in my experience. I wrote a post on what it was like to attend 13 schools over a 12-year period, only to read accounts from an English-Canadian woman a couple of years older than me who had done something similar. I also discovered a fellow who lives a continent away who is similar to me in many other ways besides our schooling history. Taking inspiration from others writing is a way of relating in a more deep and connected way than social media could ever offer.
Another ethical issue I and others have to deal with is the prevalence of AI writing tools and easily accessible they are. Things like grammar and spell checkers have been around for decades, but tools that can create an entire post from a mere prompt are new. I don't see myself letting some company's plagiarism machine create something that I would stick my name to. I don't have a problem having my spelling, grammar and punctuation checked by a computer because I'm used to that. Using a service that significantly changes my words, the tone and the structure just seems dishonest. There is a place for that in business, that being a cold and heartless environment. Blogging should have a soul. It should have a heart, and it should have an ethical code that the text you put under your byline is real and created by a human.
On the honesty scale, I'd say I come in around 90% to 95% honest. Sometimes one has to stretch the truth a bit to protect the innocent or make a story worth telling. My style of writing is autobiographical. There are times when I just can't remember the exact order of events, where I was living or who I was married to (just kidding). I do the best I can. I aim to be entertaining and interesting, not to please a professional fact-checker. Of course, there are some things about which I always try to be scrupulously honest. When I write about sobriety and recovery, you can take it to the bank. If I convey a particularly funny story about something that happened while I was in the army, there may be a detail or two where I take a literary license. Most of military life is dull and boring, so if something sounds interesting, it's probably just in the way I'm writing it.
I also tend to stick to just the facts when I write tech related posts. I want nothing more than to help someone find a real solution to a software issue. I'd feel horrible if I misled them about an app's suitability for a task, or if I wasn't diligent about pointing out a show stopping flaw. To the regular people in the world, a detailed explanation of menus, buttons, submenus and other user interface trivia is pure textual sleeping pills. For my fellow nerds and software geeks, it's vital information.
At some point, my goal is to have more time to write more polished and detailed work, to spend more time fine-tuning what I put out there for folks to read. I want to work through more than one draft, like what I envision a real writer does, Meanwhile, I will continue to be a happy hack making stuff that's good enough to share even if it won't win any rewards.
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Black Friday - Alternatives to Shopping
Any shopping I do on Black Friday will be of the online variety. There aren't enough bargains in the world to get me into a store with crazed bargain hunters today. I've seen the videos of shoppers being trampled so someone could save $50 on a big screen T. I plan to spend the day in the company ot my kids, grandkids and my Mom. We will hang out, telling stories and snacking. Our one trip away from home is a planned excursion for lunch to get some pho from the very appropriately named Vietnamese Restaurant. That's its name. The even funnier part is that all the people who work there are Korean.
Black Friday Alternatives: Things To Do Instead of Shopping - Parade
What To Do On Black Friday Instead Of Shopping
12 Things To Do On Black Friday Besides Shopping - It's My Favorite Day
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Thanksgiving 2024
This year's Thanksgiving has a special flavor. My son, who lives far away in Austin, Texas, is here for a visit. I still live in the house where he grew up, and he enjoys these nostalgic returns. After we got home from the airport yesterday, he went for a run. He came home to report that he'd passed the homes of old friends, the middle school he attended, and various spots where he's committed various teenage sins in his wayward youth.
A little later, we went to the train station to pick up his daughter, our granddaughter, who was traveling to meet us from Virginia, where she attends school. We all went out for a sushi feast before coming home to hang out, telling stories, and making each other laugh.
I get up early, and as I sit here writing, I have that wonderful protective parental feeling that reminds me of my younger days when I'd wait for the kids to get up so I could make them breakfast and start the day. Later on, we will all be traveling across town to attend the annual family gathering at the remnants of my uncle's farm, where I lived during my high school years. My daughter and two of our other grandchildren will be there, along with other relatives ranging in age from nearly 80 down to a six-year-old.
Luckily, no one will talk politics in mixed company. If the coast is clear, the progressive wing of the family may console each other under our breaths, but no one will be wearing a MAGA hat or thanking the Good Lord for the election of Donald Trump. We will be asked to give reports on anyone who is missing. One of the best parts of these rare family conclaves is the chance to catch up on family news.
Wonder Woman is sitting across from me, already beginning our holiday shopping. With five children and 13 grandchildren, she has a lot of gifts to buy. I send her ideas and give her feedback, but all the real work, including wrapping the gifts when they get here, falls to her. My Black Friday shopping is relegated to taking advantage of software sales, a relatively selfish pursuit that I thoroughly enjoy. I probably won't be getting many new apps this year because, quite frankly, I have so many already that it's hard to even find things on sale that I don't already have installed!
I make a gratitude list every day as part of my journaling practice. It helps me stay in tune with how fortunate I am in so many ways. Since last Thanksgiving, a lot has happened that has given me new reasons to be thankful. After a long pause, I started blogging again, giving myself a creative outlet that is enjoyable and therapeutic. I've enjoyed a marked resurgence in my interest in technology and married that to my writing to produce content that's been viewed over 400,000 times by people all around the world.
If you are reading this, know that I appreciate you. Thanks for being interested in my world. Feel free to leave a comment or to reach out on social media. Have a happy Thanksgiving, whether you live in the US or not. Let's make a better world in the year ahead.
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Weird Thanksgiving Traditions
Here in the United States we traditionally celebrate Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November to celebrate the supposed feast celebrated by New England Pilgrims and Native Americans in 1621. President Lincoln created the holiday in 1863 in the midst of the American Civil War.
My family's traditions are pretty normal. Wonder Woman and I alternate each year between her family and mine. Both families have all the expected Thanksgiving foods, turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce and various vegetables and deserts. No one person has to cook it all. We do it potluck style, where everyone attending brings a dish or two. The only slightly out of the ordinary offering is the occasional bushel of oysters we may have on hand, since we all live relatively close to the Atlantic coast.
Doing a little research, I discovered there are some definitely strange customs followed by different people in the US. Here are a few for you to peruse.
Weird Thanksgiving Traditions: Turduckens, Cap'n Crunch Stuffing & More
These Are The Weirdest Thanksgiving Traditions Ever
These Unusual Thanksgiving Traditions Are Common in the U.S. - Immihelp
Whatβs your βunusualβ Thanksgiving tradition? : r/thanksgiving
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AMA - Balancing Act
AMA - Finding comfort in the familiar things in life and having new adventures - which way do you lean?
Growing up as I did, where my family moved frequently and I was always changing schools, left me with a craving for stability and, well, sameness as an adult. I get a good deal of comfort out of living in the same house for decades now. I was glad to keep the same job in the same building for 20 years before retiring. On the other hand, traveling and seeing new things is a special treat. My favorite part of my months-long honeymoon was sleeping in a different place every night. I like both things.
In my job, most people are very unenthusiastic about having their computer updated, or god forbid, being issued a new one. When it comes to technology, the average person definitely prefers the familiar and comfortable over anything else. Not me. I'm always ready for new features, bug fixes, and extra security. Of course, since it's my profession, I'm more confident that I can fix any problems that pop up. Most of my career has been spent in education, where you would think people would be all about learning something new and expanding their horizons. You would be wrong if you thought that. Our ongoing controversy at work is around asking users to change the wireless network they use. That's it. Just select a different one from the list of what is available, type in your user name and password, and move on. Do I need to tell you how many meetings and conversations have already happened around this?
Lots of decisions come down to something familiar vs. something new. Take going out to eat, for instance. Wonder Woman and I have a handful of tried-and-true locally owned restaurants which we frequent. When I see a new place featured in the newspaper, I immediately think of checking it out if it looks like something we'd fancy. We like international cuisine and we need gluten-free options. Yet, when it's the end of a long work day and we've decided that cooking is too much of a hassle, we almost always head to one of the places where we've been 100 times before. It's not called comfort food for nothing.
I drive a 2005 Toyota Camry. It is a twenty-year-old hand-me-down from my mother, who literally drove it to church on Sundays. It has well over 200,000 miles. The paint is stained from being parked under an oak tree, and there are various scrapes and dents on every side of it. I've put exactly zero thought into getting a replacement for it. I haven't had a car payment since the Bush administration, and that thought horrifies me. I only drive it a couple of times a week to work and back anyway. Wonder Woman has a new Subaru Outback with all the bells and whistles, Apple Car Play, heated steering wheel, automatically adjusting mirrors and seats, a backup camera, the whole deal. I love to drive it and do so every chance I get. It is indeed a balancing act.
There are a few areas where I lean one way or another. I'm not much on rewatching movies or TV shows if I have already seen them, but I will re-read a book without hesitation. On my computer, I've used some of the same apps for many, many years, such as PathFinder (20 years), Evernote(15 years), and Launchbar(17 years) - all of which I ditched last year for replacements that I am now quite happy with. For other things, like email, I'm still using the same thing, the Gmail web interface that I have used since 2005.
They say that without newness, memories don't get created, and life just sort of blends into a big blob. I believe that, so I do seek out new adventures. But I also relish in the comfort of the familiar. I expect most people are the same in that regard.
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The Fascinating History of Swearing in Movies
Left to my own devices, my language is quite profane. I temper myself in public and on the Internet, mostly because my Mom reads my blogs and I care about offending her. But, when I am working on a troublesome computer or dealing with carrying my groceries across a rainy parking lot, swearing is in order. It's all kind of silly of course, deciding that one sound is OK but another sound is bad. I know a certain Kindergarten aged boy whose take home behavior chart recently had a big red X on it and a notation that he "Said the F Word!!" He probably won't do that again, not worth it I'm sure.
As for movies, well society seems to have moved from not letting Lucy and Ricky Ricardo sleep in the same bed to an anything goes situation. In the first season of The Wire on HBO (AKA, the greatest TV show ever made), there is a scene that is just shy of four minutes long during which the F-Bomb is dropped 38 times by two actors. What a great play on words!
One fact I learned while looking for links for this post - the director of Gone with the Wind paid a fine equivalent to $100,000 today just so Clark Gable could say, "Frankly me dear, I don't give a damn." That is a commitment to art right there!
The First Onscreen Curse Word Was in This Classic Movie
Well, I swear: A brief f---ing history of profanity in the movies
The top 10 movies with the most swear words
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Don't Burn Bridges
Some of the best advice I ever received was an admonition against burning bridges. An old co-worker told me that when I was getting ready to leave a job at which I was unhappy. The immature side of me wanted to leave in a blaze of glory, letting everyone know what I thought of them and the place that employed them. Somehow I'd convinced myself that my opinion was important and that all those people needed my approval to be happy - none of which was actually true. You may have seen someone do exactly what I contemplated. It's always icky and transparent and never looks good.
Sometimes people start burning their bridges when they are getting ready to leave a group as a way of self-protection. They don't want the separation to hurt so they begin to withdraw and cut off relationships. That's understandable. But I try to avoid doing it as best I can. Sometimes in our lives a certain group dynamic only exists for a short while under a certain set of circumstances that can never be recaptured - political campaigns, social movements, even some educational opportunities are like that. Just because the magic of the moment is gone doesn't mean that the people involved in it are no longer valuable, not because of what they can do for you, but just because people and relationships have an intangible worth that we honor when we continue to respect them.
In the current political environment in the US, I am very much of the mind to avoid people who like and support the president-elect. Their values and mine are obviously tremendously different. At a fundamental level, I just don't understand what makes them tick, nor do I have a desire to. But, I'm not seeking out every conservative I know to let them know that Lou Plummer thinks they are a bad person. There are ways to avoid people without purposefully alienating them. This in no way means that I'll silently nod my head when someone begins to spout off about how wonderful DT is, it just means that I don't feel the need to tell anyone off preemptively.
When someone decides that ending a relationship with me on a negative note is the thing to do, it makes me wonder what they hope to gain. It doesn't happen very often, and usually when it does, it's part of a mass casualty event when a disgruntled co-worker exits, but occasionally it's personal. It reeks of immaturity and poor judgement. I do the best I can not to take it personally. Some people are just built that way, I suppose. In reality, telling someone off, getting the last word, and making a dramatic exit only kind of feel good and only in the moment. That action is usually followed by a big let down and moments of self-doubt.
It's like my Mama (and probably yours too) used to say. If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything. Itβs not trite. It's true in most contexts. Exceptions can be made for calling out injustice and bigotry.
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To All the Ones I've Loved Before
The social media landscape is in flux these days. Twitter is having it's second mass exodus. The first happened when Elon Musk purchased the network in 2022. The most recent is a result of the 2024 US election. The primary beneficiary appears to be Bluesky. Mark Zuckerberg is being mocked for rapidly making changes to Meta's Threads to copy the things people like about other networks. Even Instagram is now allowing users to reset the algorithm so they can see more from people they follow and less of what Meta wants them to see.
Over the years there have been many social networks come and go. They promise to be the next big thing but they end up falling to the wayside when they end up not being able to compete with the behemoths. Let's hope the underdogs make it this time. I'm heavily invested in Mastodon and I am beginning to also spend time on Bluesky. I want them to last.
Here are a few of the late, great attempts to catch on that tried and failed or were just superseded.
What Happened to Myspace? The Fall of the Social Giant | Enterprise Tech News EM360
The Quiet Death of Ello's Big Dreams - Waxy.org
Looking Back on Ping, Appleβs Failed Social Media Platform β iDrop News
Why Google+ Failed: 5 Lessons To Learn For Entrepreneurs
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Living a Life of Leisure
For years, I fantasized about not having to work and all the really fine things I would do when that magical time arrived. Then I retired and was at a loss. I read a lot of books and watched a bunch of movies, but it wasn't what I'd call really fun. Instead, it felt like I was just doing things to occupy my time. Eventually, I just went back to work. That was a pretty good solution, but not a perfect one. I still think about not having to work a lot, but I think the next time I get that opportunity, it will be different.
My fantasy retirement includes plenty of time for writing. Over the past year, I have made blogging a priority by default. It's something I enjoy. I do it every day, and I can just imagine having the time to fully develop ideas, do research, and polish my posts instead of the rush jobs I'm knocking out now. I'd like to have a nice office space at home with decent speakers to play music on, a really comfortable office chair with all my tried-and-true computer essentials right there at my fingertips. I don't currently use my office space because it's not where Wonder Woman hangs out. When we are at home together, we like to be together.
I'm so conscious of my limited free time right now that I don't like to use any of it to do anything except exactly what I want to do, with a few limits. I imagine myself with more time, being more willing to get a walking routine established with just the right mix of music playlists and downloaded podcasts like I did before my mobility was limited by knee surgery. I would not be forced into early pre-dawn walks like I am now.
Since I'm a couple of years older than Wonder Woman, part of my fantasy retirement will be spent at home while she is still working. I will be able to use my time to do some of the chores, like grocery shopping, that we now do together on the weekends. I'm not going too far out on a limb by claiming that I will be Molly Maid or anything because that ain't happening. The cleaning and lawn services we've had over the past few years have been among the best investments we've ever made, and I am way too used to them to think about moving backward and taking that stuff back over myself.
A few years ago, I looked into volunteering at a few places using the skill set I have in technology. I didn't find anything that was a good fit around my work hours, but I'd be willing to look into that once more while having a much more flexible schedule. We have one of the best military history museums in the world in my hometown, but it's mostly staffed by retired guys from the 82nd Airborne and Special Forces. My half-communist ass would probably not fit in well there, although you never know. I have some retired military friends who are just as radical as I imagine myself to be.
The primary benefit of not having to go to work is that I'll no longer have to do customer relations. I'm not the biggest people person. Although I don't have any problems with getting along with folks at work 99% of the time, that remaining 1% is a giant PIA that sucks the joy out of too many days. When I never have to crawl under another desk to plug something in for another adult, I will truly be a happy man.
For the time being, however, I'm going to keep punching the clock and just enjoy knowing that, if push comes to shove, I can make my way towards the exit. I'll enjoy the 99% of the job that isn't aggravating and be extra grateful that I get to ride back and forth (and eat lunch!) with the love of my life.
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Superlatives
The Guinness Book of World Records became famous when I was a kid. I don't know how many times I read it fro cover to cover, but it was a lot. The things we curious types could read about back in the 70s were much more exciting than what books kids can get a hold of today. Aside from Guinness we had Ripley's Believe It or Not and multiple books on things like The Bermuda Triangle, Bigfoot and more. These were shelved in the non-fiction section and honestly, as a kid I though they were going to be a much larger problem than they turned out to be.
Back to my original point - here are a few links about superlatives you may enjoy.
What movie has been viewed the most times?
Most Watched Movies Of All Time
What is the most watched television show of all time?
List of most watched television broadcasts in the United States - Wikipedia
What is the largest city in the world?
Top 10 Largest Cities in the World By Population 2024
What is the best selling book of all time?
The 24 Best-Selling Books of All Time - Mark Manson
Who is the richest person in the world?
The 10 Richest People in the World
What country has the longest life expectancy?
15 Countries With the Highest Life Expectancy - NY Requirements Blog
What is the most valuable car in the world?
What is the most expensive car in the world? - Autoblog
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I updated my /now page - What I’m reading and watching, plus links to this week’s blog posts, the week’s best purchase, and the links I added to my personal bookmarks.
Winners and Losers
Now I've been a-lookin' for a job, but it's hard to find.
There's winners and there's losers.
And I am south of the line.
Well, I'm tired of gettin' caught out on the losin' end.
But I talked to a man last night.
Gonna do a little favor for him.
Atlantic City by Bruce Springsteen
Societies, including ours, have a habit of classifying people as winners and losers. In World War Two, Japanese soldiers committed mass suicide in battle after battle rather than surrendering or being beaten. I am reminded of a scene from the Will Ferrell comedy, Talladega Nights, after Ricky Bobby's sons brag of throwing their grandfather's war medals over a bridge and disrespecting a teacher, their dad exclaims "My boys are winners and winners get to do whatever they want." It's obvious that a lot of people share that sentiment.
Athletic contests by design have a winner and a loser at the end of the competition, but who is going to call Aaron Judge of the NY Yankees, a man whose salary is twice that of the entire Detroit Tigers, a loser? Are the athletes who go to the Olympic games and don't win a medal losers? Maybe they use that definition on their own minds as motivation, I don't know. I've only been around a couple of Olympians and I didn't ask them. I just know that from my own athletic career, I felt like a winner every time I gave the competition everything I had. What more could I do?
I've never been as opposed to anything in my life as I was against the Us war with Iraq. I opposed it with everything I had. When Obama, who unlike other prominent Democrats, had never supported the war, was elected, I felt like the antiwar movement had won. So did a lot of other folks. Most coalitions closed up shop as we waited for the troops to come home. Only it took years for the last soldier to leave Iraq (2011). When Obama left office in 2017, there were still American soldiers in Afghanistan for reasons no one could really explain.
There are people who turn just about everything into a competition to satisfy some need they have to be better than other people. I've known too many dentists and ad execs who, in their minds, turn into Tour de France riders on a Saturday morning bicycle ride at the club ride. Putting other people in danger and disrupting the flow of the entire undertaking is entirely acceptable in their minds if they can beat a bunch of school teachers and retirees to the next stop sign. Even on something as neutral as the Appalachian Trail, there were those people who bragged at camp sites about how many miles they'd covered and how fast they'd hiked. No one cared.
It's funny how these competitive types never try to win the competition on the job to close the most tickets or help the most customers. I wonder why.
After the recent election, a lot of people feel like they are on the winning side, but I have news for them. Unless they are in the 1%, they are going to come out of the next four years on the losing end. The educational system is going to suffer, and that hurts everyone. Unmitigated climate change will accelerate, and that hurts everyone. Pollution will increase. Government services will be deprecated. We will all live in a less functional country. All of that Trump-style winning is going to help one fat guy with a bad combover and too much makeup.
Winners are happy people. Winners are those amongst us who live in peace. They don't have the biggest houses or the nicest cars. What they have is appreciation for what they've got and an absence of longing for what they don't. They enjoy what they enjoy without a need to beat someone else. I like winners like that.
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Diamonds Are a Racket
Contrary to what you may believe, the practice of giving diamond engagement rings isn't a long established tradition. It's a 20th century practice concocted by a single company, DeBeers, and promoted through an exhaustive marketing campaign. Today the image of men holding a little box up to a woman to propose marriage is instantly recognizable for what it is, a conditioned practice reeking of human rights abuses that puts young couples into debt for a rock, robbing them of an opportunity to use their resources to actually improve their quality of life. It needs to stop.
How DeBeers Invented the Engagement Ring
Blood diamond | Conflict, Trade & Human Rights | Britannica
The diamond industry is lying to youΒ β¦
Diamond Trade Still Fuels Human Suffering
The Big Lie About Diamond Engagement Rings
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AMA - What Are Your Favorite Childhood Memories?
This might be rough for some. Not everyone had a happy childhood. Mine certainly had its rough spots, but for the most part, we had a lot of opportunities for pure joy too. So, in no particular order, here is a hit parade from the 70s.
Music - My mom and stepfather had a record player that stayed busy. I grew up listening to music that I still play today. We had all the Beatles albums. James Taylor got a lot of airtime. Especially for us kids, we got to listen to Pete Seeger sing Little Boxes and Abi-Yoyo. I even remember my stepfather playing a particular Arlo Guthrie record with Alice's Restaurant. My own dad was partial to Neil Diamond, so I get feelings for him whenever I hear one of the familiar songs.
Food - My mom didn't always cook breakfast, but more often than not, we didn't have to resort to cereal. Being in the South meant that bacon, eggs, and grits were a staple, although she had an actual waffle iron, so we got that sometimes. Pancakes and oatmeal were also on offer. When we did get cereal, there was always a controversy over whose turn it was to get the prize in the bottom of the box. I wasn't really fond of the "eat everything on your plate" rule that my stepfather imposed because Mom insisted on regularly serving English peas, which I despise to this day. I did learn how to enjoy asparagus though.
Travel - We weren't that well off, but we managed to have plenty of opportunities to visit parks and beaches when we happened to be living in the eastern part of the state. We moved a lot. When I grew up, I took my kids to some of the same places I'd been able to go to as a kid. One problem with travel was the size of the cars my parents had. Imagine five people in a Ford Pinto on a late-night trip up Interstate 95 from central NC to Washington, DC. That one was partially a business trip. My stepfather, a journalist, got to attend a press conference with other NC reporters to grill President Ford.
Holidays - Despite the lack of funds, we were never disappointed at Christmas. We got all the regular stuff kids get: bikes that lasted for years, baseball gloves, and always books about whatever we happened to be interested in at the time. We usually traveled to see family too. To my mother's everlasting credit, even though she and my dad got divorced around the time I started school, she has stayed in contact with his family to this very day. My dad lived out of state, but we still got to see our grandparents, our aunt, and our uncles.
Freedom - In the time before cell phones and excessive protectiveness, we had the license to roam. I was a hustler as a kid, always on the lookout to make a few bucks, and I rode my bike far and wide looking for soda bottles to sell back to the store. I walked the roads looking for aluminum cans. My mom willingly took me to the salvage yard to cash those in. We always had permission to go to the library when we lived someplace where it was close enough to get to. Some summers I practically lived there. Lots of times we lived in apartments with pools, and when we didnβt, we joined a co-op pool, which I didn't realize until I was an adult was whites only. I was born the year the civil rights act was signed, but there were still vestiges of segregation around if you looked.
TV and Movies - We had the same 19-inch TV my entire childhood. In the afternoons, we'd watch black and white re-runs of The Beverly Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, and Gomer Pyle. Some of our favorite nighttime shows were Happy Days and * Laverne and Shirley.* One little town we lived in had a main street movie theater with one-dollar tickets. We could just about see the place from our house, and we got to go there whenever anything appropriate was playing. We still make fun of my sister for leaving Pippi Longstocking early because she got scared.
What was best about all of that was that it took place in an environment of my mother's love and commitment to give us the best childhood she could. She 100% succeeded, and I am so very grateful to this day.
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What Do Kent State, Bloody Sunday and the Next Four Years Have in Common?
The last time Donald Trump was in power, he told the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, that he wanted the military to "beat the fuck" out of racial justice protesters. "Just shoot them,"he told Milley. When Attorney General William Barr and Milley explained that the law didn't allow that, Trump responded, βWell, shoot them in the leg β or maybe the foot. But be hard on them!.β
Many states havepassed laws that provide immunity to drivers who kill protesters with their cars. Think about it. Republicans, and all these bills were passed by GOP-controlled legislatures, are essentially invoking the death penalty for the crime of blocking traffic. Following the alt-right/Nazi rally in Charlottesville, VA in 2017, Heather Heyer was killed by a self-professed Nazi who drove his car into a crowd of protesters. If he'd done that in modern-day Iowa or Oklahoma, he would be free today instead of doing life in prison.
When Richard Nixon ran for president, he did so on a law and order platform. Under his watch, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students protesting the Vietnam War and the invasion of Cambodia at Kent State University. Four were killed. Nine more were shot but survived. The Nixon administration blamed the students for the shootings. None of the National Guardsmen were ever convicted of any criminal charges.
Less than two years later, Irish Catholics marching for civil rights in Derry, Northern Ireland, were fired on by paratroopers from the British Army. It was January 30, 1972, a day known as Bloody Sunday. Fourteen unarmed men were killed. Twelve more were shot but survived. Many outright lies were presented by the British government justifying the killings. It took decades before British Prime Minister David Cameron finally absolved those killed of any guilt. By then, it was too late. Thirty years of violence between the IRA, loyalist paramilitary groups, and the British Army resulted in over 3,000 deaths.
If the Trump administration resorts to militarized responses to the legitimate grievances of the American people, we are going to have a lot of new articles on Wikipedia about infamous incidents with lists of the names of those killed by a government that will blame the innocent and the unarmed for their own deaths.
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Living in the Bible Belt
For a good part of my life, I tried to be religious and failed miserably. During my formative years, church was a social connection as well as a place for religious instruction. During elementary school, my Mom was married to a non-believer, so she didn't attend church, but my siblings and I went with a neighbor to a Southern Baptist church on the outskirts near the prison. My brother and I were active in the boysβ youth group, called RAs for Royal Adventurers. In the summer, we went to VBS (Vacation Bible School).
In high school, I lived with my aunt and uncle. They went to a Presbyterian Church, one of many in the area, reflecting the Scottish heritage in the part of North Carolina where we lived. One of my favorite parts of each week was the Sunday evening Youth Fellowship meetings. It was the one place where kids from the different high schools in the area hung out together. We had a church league softball team that was a lot of fun. Our yearly beach trip was something I looked forward to immensely. I got a lot of love there in spite of getting caught smoking weed by the youth minister. I wasn't a well-behaved kid, but I was still welcome.
As an adult, I have attended Baptist, Presbyterian, and Seventh-day Adventist churches. I've been baptized at least twice. I may have also been baptized as a baby since during the brief time my parents were married to each other, they attended the Methodist church, which practices infant baptism. All three of my children attended private, church-affiliated schools for part of their K-12 lives.
Both my sister and my father are ordained ministers in the United Methodist Church. It was a second career for both of them. In retirement, Dad no longer worships at a Methodist church because it has grown too liberal for him. My mother has done medical missionary work in Rwanda. She is a member of an Anglican church that is affiliated with the Rwandan version of that denomination. She was a member of an Episcopalian church for a long time, but when her congregation split after the ordination of Gene Robinson, an openly gay bishop, she went with her husband and the other conservatives to form a new congregation. My sister has many of the same political beliefs that I hold, and she is one of the few people I feel comfortable talking to when it comes to issues of faith.
Despite all that churching, I ended up a non-believer. I tried as hard as I knew how to find a connection with a supernatural God, but I never felt anything, not ever. As a recovering alcoholic from the 12-Step tradition, which relies heavily on the concept of a "higher power," I had to do considerable mental gymnastics to finally get sober. I finally resolved to use my AA group as a power greater than myself. Collectively, that is 100% true, and it was only after I stopped fighting against what I felt was an inappropriate religious influence that I was able to stop drinking for good, or at least for the last 16 years.
Aside from the lack of an emotional connection with religion, my other reasons for the position I hold are much the same as many other non-believers. I can't reconcile things like the Holocaust and childhood leukemia with a loving and caring God. The historical reality of how the Bible became canon is more than a little sus to me as well. I really like quite a few parts of it anyway, especially The Sermon on the Mount, which is as good an outlook on a righteous life as I have seen anywhere. I am also disgusted to the very core of who I am as a person with right-wing-influenced Christianity. People who talk Jesus out of one side of their mouth and cut nutrition programs for the poor out of the other side are contemptible, and I want as little to do with them as possible. When I think of the average white conservative Christian, I think of the ways they advocate for things like discrimination against LGBT people, their support for the death penalty, and their attempts to force their beliefs into the political fabric of a country that was founded on religious freedom. I like Christians like Jimmy Carter and Martin Luther King, Jr. I do not like Christians like James Dobson and Tony Perkins. I think they are evil people.
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Bluesky Resources, If You're Curious
I am by no means an expert on Bluesky. My account is coming up on a year old and I have about 1400 posts on the site, the majority of them from cross posting. Until the great migration happened, I didn't have much real involvement with people there. As someone with an interest in tech, I've stayed abreast of what's happening behind the scenes and out in public. As a compulsive note taker and data hoarder, I've collected some information in the forms of guides and articles that I am happy to share. I'll be adding more and you can bookmark this page to see what gets aded. Also, feel free to send me any links you have to share.
You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for the collection.
If you want to connect on Bluesky, I am amerpie.lol.
AMA - Do You Have Faith in the Future?
Brandon asked - "Do you have faith in the future of humanity? Why or why not?"
By nature, I am neither a pessimist nor an optimist. I do the best I can to live in the moment. The future will take care of itself, I figure. I do have my moments where I dare to contemplate what's going to happen. I don't always have a rosy view. Like a lot of people, the recent presidential election shook me to my core. The realization of a lot of my worst fears is already in motion as our new government takes shape. From a purely personal perspective, here in old white guy land, things are just grand. The future of Lou is pretty rosy, but I will be damned before I let that selfish perspective be the lens through which I view the world.
As bad as things look, there is one overriding truth. Throughout the history of mankind, things have always gotten better. Sometimes the pace has been excruciatingly slow. At other times, progress has been made at breathtaking speed. I look at things like HIV research. We've gone from an epidemic illness being a death sentence to it becoming just another treatable illness in one generation. We went from the first airplane to landing on the moon in a single lifetime. Mankind is badass like that.
When I talk to friends having a rough time, I like to remind them that every bad thing that has ever happened to them in the whole entire life hasn't killed them. Whatever they happen to be going through at the moment, whether it be a lost job, a divorce, or something else, isn't likely to kill them either. Sometimes in life, you lose battle after battle only to win the war. During the civil rights movement, the people of Birmingham had police dogs turned on them and were sprayed with fire hoses as police chief Bull Connor dealt violently with nonviolent protesters. John Lewis had his skull fractured for marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The very next year, the Civil Rights Act was passed. Bull Connor lost, and John Lewis won.
Life is a series of peaks and valleys. When we are down in the valley like we are right now, it's hard to remember what the mountain tops were like. It's a lot easier to be pessimistic than it is to be positive. People of faith have heaven to look forward to, but secular people just have their one wild and precious life. I'll not let anyone take away the things in this life that give it meaning. I will continue to be a loud and proud progressive. I will hold on to the values I have until I find a better alternative. There are plenty of people like me. The conservatives have won two majorities over a period of 32 years. Their current hold on power is temporary, and unless we move into a total dictatorship, and I realize there is a chance of that, we will have weapons of democracy to use.
The challenges we face are real. Climate change, competition for resources, rising authoritarianism, oppression of vulnerable minorities - all of these things are real. We will experience setbacks in combating them, but we will win in the end. We always do.
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