Books I read in 2023 ~

When I was a manager it helped my bosses understand what I had done to improve myself over the year when I would share the business books I had read during that cycle. So I thought I'd share with you my accomplishment:

I read 24 books in 2023!

I wasn't as focused on learning about "self-improvement" this year so there was quite a bit of fiction involved. I varied some of it so I could learn about different parts of the world, which was fun.

I've gotten to where I try to only read ebooks now. This makes it easier for me to read wherever I go since I have them on my phone as well as the iPad and Kindles.

My Kindle app likes to give awards for my reading accomplishments. I'm over 280 weeks in a row of reading as well as over 300 days straight reading in the Kindle app. And at this point I've had over 13 weeks of "perfect weeks" by reading each day of the week. Woohoo!

So here is a list of the books I read in 2023:

- 21 Prayers of Thanksgiving by Rachel Larkin
Fun to do leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076W2S9L3/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
I've wanted to learn more about India for several years, so I dove into this book. Interesting story of privelege and corruption across the country.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09WZSLSX6/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Avenue of the Dead by Brian L Porter
Fun to learn more about Mexico City and the ancient civilizations in Mexico!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PE2XHBS/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott is an amazingly honest voice and I enjoy reading her open letters to the world about her life.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SEGI8Q/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Confess, Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Fletch is a fun charachter. This book was just as much fun!
https://www.amazon.com/Confess-Fletch-Mysteries-Book-ebook/dp/B0C4C4HFHS/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=confess%2C+fletch&qid=1704044358&sr=8-3

- Controversial Essays by Thomas Sowell
One of my favorite thinkers. I actually bought this book for two of my sons and told them to put it in their bathroom as a reader for when they are sitting on the pot.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001E52S96/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Forgiveness by Jeff Daws
Great book that we went through as a study of forgiveness.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CD2XDS9W/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- God, Improv, and the Art of Living by MaryAnn McKibben Dana
This was a very good book though it is funny to read about turning "living in the moment" into an approach to life. Fun!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B091K7F21S/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Journey Back To Watooka by Steve Connolly
We are planning a mission trip to Guyana and I read this book to learn some history of the country. I learned a lot!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CCB5YJQ/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Letters of Advent by Klint Pleasant
A great way to work through the Advent season leading up to Christmas. I have enjoyed this book for the past two years.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09J1TZNVW/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Life In Five Senses by Gretchen Rubin
I've followed Gretchen Rubin's growth as an author for several years. This book expanded my thinking on how I experience life.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B6Z5LGYW/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Mexifornia by Victor Davis Hanson
A fascinating book about the impacts of illegal immigration in California and in the rest of the United States. I highly recommend it!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EB74DG4/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- No Plan B - A Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09PMZ93DT/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Rising Tiger by Brad Thor
I wanted to learn more about India and China and the friction over there. This was a fun ride to learn stuff on!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09JPJ4V8X/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Stop At Nothing by Michael Ledwidge
Good adventure-mystery. I enjoyed it!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RR9SXZV/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Swarm by Guy Morris
Fun continuation of an AI story I've been reading.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LCN41YV/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner
Longevity stuff. I enjoyed the NetFlix show so I got the book.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BXBF7N4N/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- The Comfort Zone by Kristin Butler
Interesting take on how to accomplish things by staying in your comfort zone instead of becoming uncomfortable.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BCP2Y48Q/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike 1) by Robert Gailbraith
I bought this book in 2013 but finally read it. Great characters and story, though a bit tedious to work through.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AA20E5Y/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- The Drifter by Nick Petrie
Good mystery similar to the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SA5KHEG/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer
Fun ride!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06VXWPQ1N/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- The Ultimate Bathroom Reader by Bill O'Neil
Fun book!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B099ZL67WL/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Titanium Noir by Nick Harkawa
Good science fiction for near-future stuff. I enjoyed this book a lot!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B9WPF9NQ/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- Wild About You by John Eldridge
Great devotional for couples that I've enjoyed all year!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L5WJK3H/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

- You Will Be Made To Care by Erick Erickson
I bought this back in 2016 but finally read it in 2023. Still relevant and so informative!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AR541A2/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

My 12 Days of Christmas gifts ~

 

For the past couple of years I've celebrated Christmas by giving gifts of apps and online things I've used throughout the year on my social media accounts. I usually do it on the 12 days leading up to Christmas.

It's fun! It makes me feel rich and let's me share tools that have my life easier and more enjoyable.

Here are the things I gave as gifts this year:

• The Kinnu app

In the Bible in Proverbs 23 it says to "buy wisdom, buy knowledge, buy insight" a couple of times. But so many times I find myself just scrolling through social media or websites without feeling like I am gaining knowledge.

Kinnu is an app that changes that for me! It has a map of subjects that are available, and as I am working my way through different subjects in a couple of minutes a day I am learning plenty! I highly recommend it. Check it out at:

Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xyz.kinnu&hl=en_US&gl=US

Apple app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kinnu-superpower-learning/id1625333066

• Google Bard

With all the buzz about artificial intelligence taking over industries, writing books, and making some peoples' lives easier you can give AI a try for free with Google Bard. Early on I rolled some of those story dice and asked Google Bard to write a story based on the words for each picture on the dice; the story was actually pretty good!

Give Google Bard a try at
https://bard.google.com

• Notion

I've used several of the notebook/organizers/project managers out there like OneNote, Evernote, and Trello.. They all have their place and usefulness.

Notion is handy for me because it's easy, fast to start sharing links and ideas to, and free unless you want to pay. While I haven't gotten deep in customizing Notion I'm reading a lot of great reviews on how flexible it is.

If you're looking to try an online notebook I suggest you give Notion a try!

Site:
https://www.notion.so
(You can get the app link on their site)

• Duolingo

If you’ve wanted to learn a different language I highly recommend giving Duolingo a try! I’ve been using it for more than 5 years now and can finally understand Spanish. I can speak it a little but because I don’t practice with people enough I still feel like a child trying to speak but I’m coming along. I’m planning on using Duolingo to learn some Italian soon…

While Duolingo is free I pay for a subscription and think you’ll want to pay them, too. Enjoy!

https://www.duolingo.com/
(you can get the app on their site)

• Shazam

When I hear a song with a good beat but don’t who the artist I love to use Shazam. The app listens, searches, then tells me all about the song. And I learned recently that Shazam adds the song to a Spotify playlist automatically so I don’t have to fumble around to listen to it again. And even cooler is that it works on my watch!

You’ve probably used Shazam more than me, but if not I recommend you give it a try!

Android app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shazam.android

Apple app:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shazam-music-discovery/id284993459

• SimpleMind

I am a nerd. When I really want to brainstorm and gather a whole lot of thoughts quickly so I can organize them into an outline, something I still do, I've found mindmapping to be useful. It's graphic, quick for me, and lets me wander around a bunch of ideas without getting stuck on one of them. SimpleMind is one of those mindmapping apps that helps me go that. If you've never tried mindmapping give it a try!

Android app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.modelmakertools.simplemindfree

Apple app:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/simplemind-mind-mapping/id305727658

• Wikipedia

Why in the world would I give you this? What I’ve found this year is that when I want to grab some info without having to wade through all the ads served up by almost every search engine Wikipedia has been very handy. I get information with links to other linked subjects. As with anything on the Internet I read more than just what I see on Wikipedia before I make a decision but it’s been a useful tool for me. If you haven’t tried it lately give it spin!

Android app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wikipedia

Apple app:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wikipedia/id324715238

Site:
https://www.wikipedia.org/

• Google Tasks

I love to make lists of tasks and then cross them off, but I don’t enjoy doing it on paper. I love to use Google stuff and was using Google Reminders because I could tell Google Assistant “remind me” and then say the thing I want to be reminded about and a day and time and it would add my reminder to my list. This year they rolled Reminders into the Tasks app and it’s been great ever since. And Tasks doesn’t have a lot of the confusing flashy stuff that clutters so many of the other tasks “managers” out there. I use Google Tasks daily. Give it a try!

Site:
https://assistant.google.com/tasks

Android app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.tasks

Apple app:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/google-tasks-get-things-done/id1353634006

• The Abide meditation app

One of my hesitations about “meditation” has always been the New Age/ya ya woo woo aspect that seems to come when I try to learn about it. As a Christian I want to meditate on God and his word. The Abide app helps me do just that! The free side is good and they let you have the premium side for 7 days. If you want to learn to meditate on God and his word give this a try!

Abide site:
https://abide.com

Android app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=is.abide

Apple app:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/abide-bible-meditation-prayer/id726031617

• Christmas song playlist
  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVqI204q3ewnmz6vOHeRNXGEU5ZLDUPXl
  As I've gotten older Christmas starting sounding the same, so I started searching for new styles and different types of music that could help me celebrate this wonder-filled season. But I didn't want boring stuff to listen to :-)
  These songs are some of my favorites that I've found over the years assembled into a YouTube playlist. Different styles, different takes, all focused on the reason for the season. I hope you enjoy these!

• Fireplace playlist
  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVqI204q3ewnyGzrtTqyAyod54AcEjTcc
  I love to have a fire going, either in the fireplace or out in the firepit my son Stephen built for us. But often we're in a rush and can't spend the time needed to have a proper fire.
  These videos let me have a fire on the TV screen. Yes, it's corny and cheesy, but it's relaxing and fun for me :-) My mother always reminds me of when I was a boy of 7 or so and we sat in front of a fire when we were on the Big Island in Hawaii. No radio, no TV, just a fire. And I commented on how boring it was and why they liked watching the fire. I understand why a lot better now!
  Enjoy!

• The Christmas Story

I've been watching Bible Project videos over the past couple of years and really enjoy the way they capture the essence of the Bible stories and explain their relevance to our lives today. The whole idea of a "savior" coming in the form of a baby just doesn't make sense, and they explain that well in this video. I hope you watch and then meditate quietly on this for a few minutes. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/_OLezoUvOEQ?si=Pffa0fmiA7SmwRLt

Advent 2023 - Christmas ~

Christmas has such a different feel for me this year. No children in the house except our youngest who is a senior in college. Relaxed schedule as we ease through the holiday season. Looming major life change right around the corner.

And yet the traditions and colors and smells of the season draw memories up that make it a warm and fuzzy holiday. Good vibes everywhere! And when I feel a bad vibe instead of chasing it to figure out the source and try to modify my behavior to meet someone's unexpressed expectations I lightly smile and turn back to the good. Fascinating.

I finished my "12 Days of Christmas" giveaways with the Bible Project's video about the Christmas story in Luke 1-2. One of the most successful invasions of another kingdom by a creator that turned the kingdom on its head. I hope you review the story!

Merry Christmas!

https://youtu.be/_OLezoUvOEQ?si=sPSBfuzXt5PcC0_f

Advent 2023 - Love ~

Love is such a complicated subject. We look around and see so many people expressing love in ways that don’t fit with what we were taught growing up and don’t know what to do. The default answer is go with what we think is expected and hope for the best.

But my understanding of love is different. It’s a verb. It’s something we choose to do separate from what the world around us wants done. The choice to “love” is outside of what is expected by anyone in our current American society.

What is love? Haddaway had a whole “hit” song about this that drove my generation to think about “love” in certain ways”. ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLA0XTO3Avw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLA0XTO3Avw "smartCard-inline") )

I prefer to think about love in the way that TobyMac and DC Talk presented it ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhzCrNd1zOA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhzCrNd1zOA "smartCard-inline") ).

Love at Christmas is a baby being injected into a world that belonged to another king, and this baby brought love and hope to a people surrounded by hoplessness and desire. I hope that you can look to the ceiling and believe that God is listening despite you being in a different kingdom and that he will answer your prayers in ways that don’t make sense right now but that work toward our good.

Bonus material:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slyevQ1LW7A

The Beatles - All You Need is Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVgKio0z1hY&list=PLOJgNPpZvsA2JGb8sOpujVMF3jSuMDOcA&index=26

Advent 2023 - Joy ~

I don’t seem to do “joy” very well. Most people seem to associate the feeling of “joy” with this definition I found: “Intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness, or an instance of such feeling.”

I find that I experience joy more like this definition that I found: “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” The synonym they offer with this definition is “delight”.

I feel delighted a lot more often now than I did in the past. I feel successful, and I’m on the cusp of achieving one of my lifelong objectives. It’s a weird feeling for me, but I like it.

In the past I tended to ruin the times I felt joy by actively looking for the other shoe I knew would be dropping. Something to mess up what I had achieved or what I was enjoying. I let that proactive seeking of disaster mess up a lot of good times.

In this season that is awash in so many emotions and so many entities trying to pluck our heartstrings I hope that you do your best to take delight in a smell, enjoy the warm wishes someone sends you, close your eyes to focus on a Christmas song, reach out and touch someone, and open your eyes to take in the colors around you as God’s creation celebrates the birth of his son!

Bonus material:
Bible Project word study: Joy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72YyijJQgoU

Joy to the World (Joyful, Joyful) by Phil Wichkham
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLEfxk4gKz4

Ted Talk: Where Joy Hides And How To Find It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_u2WFTfbcg

Advent 2023 - Peace ~

My wife and I went to Israel a couple of years ago. It was a beautiful place, and we really enjoyed seeing where Jesus grew up, walked, lived, and taught. And died. It was an amazing!

I was a little scared to go because of all the bad things that have happened there. So much violence. The warring factions between Christians, Jews and Muslims. I just feel like because Jerusalem is right there it's a place where lots of battles happen in the spiritual realm as well as the physical realm.

But while we were there, nothing happened. We saw the Golan Heights and the trenches on the top of the mountain. We saw the barbed wire and the mine fields on the border between Israel and Jordan. We saw Israeli soldiers walking around, armed and ready at all times. They didn't seem to be at peace.

But what I found so fascinating when we were in Israel was how the newspapers and shows had tanks firing guns in their stories about Israel and talked about all the bad things happening there. We didn't see any of that! We saw a very calm place. Peaceful. With people conducting their lives without any issues. Ready. But completely at peace.

As a christian I try to live my life as if I am in a different kingdom. I feel like in this place on the earth we are in a kingdom that belongs to someone other than God

And while God created this kingdom, it was taken away by sin. But I live in peace because I trust Jesus to have taken care of my sin-debt. And I believe in God and look to him for guidance in my life. And enjoy the peace that my faith brings.

I hope you do, too.

Bonus material:

Bible Project video - Shalom “Peace”
https://youtu.be/oLYORLZOaZE?si=QBswOh3vu2SssUNi

Some peaceful Christmas piano music
https://youtu.be/wH-pdh7k9xk?si=pdxstTEDzz_PtEv6

Advent 2023 - Hope ~

I recently started transferring slides that my parents had into digital photos on my phone. In the slides that I've been taking pictures of there are several pictures of Christmas trees and decorations from the 1970s. When I was growing up we always put little icicles that make the tree shimmer. These were fun to see but they go everywhere and you see them around the house for the next six months. Seeing them always gave me hope for the next Christmas season.

Maintaining hope in a God that we cannot see is challenging. How much easier it would be if he was still a pillar of fire or a pillar of smoke and we could all go to one place and see it!

But how much better it is that he wants a relationship with us here in this fallen world that Jesus invaded and then punched a hole in for us to be able to get out. God's love for us, and the caring he has is just so amazing. Yet so many people don't ever experience God's love because they can't touch it or smell it or see it.

Looking back at the slides again and the pictures of Christmas, I'm reminded of decorations, of gifts, and trying to capture that feeling that we just can't capture anymore. We just don't get up to that level of dopamine now.

How burned out our dopamine channels must be from all the stimulation that we give them now. How hard it is to get that feeling of being close to God or even of feeling His presence. And the upside down nature of God's kingdom, like the Israelites, we expect some presence that will dominate and command and take over, but because this is not his kingdom, it's different here.

The last will be first. Believe like a child.  Jesus told his disciples that he was going to go and give himself away for them and us but then got down on his knees and made sure they were clean before he left.

A seed falling to the ground the seed seems useless and worthless but becomes so much more than a seed when it sprouts and grows.

My prayer for you this week is that you find hope in the Christmas story.


Bonus material:
This is the hope for the evil that affects your life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dEh25pduQ8

Phil Wickham - Living Hope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI06nLHVzDw

Radar love ~

I remember long, long ago when my wife and I were in a Sunday school class and the teacher didn't really like my contribution.

Valentine's Day was coming up and the lesson was about love of course. The teacher had a dry erase board at the front of the room. He wrote the word "love" on it. He asked us in the class if we could think of songs with the word "love" in the title. "Endless Love" was named. A couple of others that were good love songs were name. And then I raised my hand and said "Radar Love".

Why? I was a young air traffic control specialist and had been certified for a couple of years. It was very strange for me to be in a Sunday school class because I usually worked Sundays. Somehow I had that Sunday off and was able to go to church with my wife on a Sunday morning, a rare occurrence early in our marriage. An air traffic controller used radar to track airplanes. I really liked the driving beat of the song by Golden Earring. And it just popped into my head!

The teacher scowled and said "that's not the kind of song I'm looking for" and just kept rolling. And then we had a good lesson and a nice discussion. But he made a real quick exit when the class was over and we need to get out to the church sanctuary for service.

I've always been a little bit off be like that. Out of sync with the people around me. Just doing my own thing!

Here's a link to the song radar love:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRlSHG5hRY4

Heat transfer paper in college ~

I've been a nerd a long time. I didn't get a locker in my freshman year of high school so I carried all of my books everywhere at school that year. Asking with my Star Trek book that I was reading at the time.

In college I had a Commodore 64 computer and ran the Geoworks graphical user interface (GUI) on it so I could type up my papers with bigger fonts :-)

One semester I turned in my semester "term" paper on heat transfer paper. I had gotten a printer and some rolls of paper to use with it so I thought I'd give it a try.

I thought it looked great! Yes the paper was different and didn't stay flat the way bonded typewriter paper did but it was the correct number of pages and met the word count rules.

My professors were very unhappy with me about this. I had to argue my case for using the heat transfer paper with most of them for a semester. But they eventually accepted it. Woohoo!

I was a bit of a rebel, too. In my own way :-)

Technically inclined ~

I have been technically inclined for most of my life.

I have done sound in different churches on soundboards from 16 tracks up to 64 tracks. I have done recordings on reel-to-reel tapes, cassette tapes, videotapes, compact discs, DVD digital video discs, hard drives, SSD and microSD drives, and several other types of media. I still have 5 1/4 and 3.5 inch floppy drives in my basement (now some of the most secure storage there is since nobody can read them :-)

I have used computers since the 1980s. I programmed my Commodore 64 to use POKE and PEEK commands to sing three-part harmony before the Internet existed in a way to tell me how to do it.

I could listen to music while I worked in the yard when I was younger. I progressed up from a Walkman cassette tape player that only played one side of the tape to a portable compact disc player that read ahead on the drive so that it wouldn't skip to early MP3 players that were amazing! I had an iPod and iPod apps and other devices to capture my voice. I tend to carry a pocket voice recorder to capture my thoughts for later editing.

I've edited videos in three-minute segments for church announcements. I've even used green screen replacement skills to put dragons landing in baseball fields and other amazing things.

I don't miss the stress of the live performances or the hours of editing it takes to generate a three-minute video. But I do miss using the technology.

Fun memories!

Relaxing videos ~

One of the things that I have done in the past few years to help reduce my stress levels and increase my coolness factor is playing ambient videos on my TV screen.

It started with aquarium videos. I love aquariums and looking at them but I hate cleaning them. The anger, the water, the idea that I'm scooping poop and dead fish out just is not appealing to me.

I found a couple of aquarium screensavers that were awesome but they were only on my computer. As televisions got bigger and became more and more big computer monitors I tried to run my computer on them but found that having the screensaver blink off as soon as anybody touched anything on the computer was frustrating.

As YouTube became more and more available on bigger screen TVs just as a streaming thing and then also with the Chromecast and other things I started showing aquarium videos on my TV in my living room. But I was stuck and left at the whim of the Internet connection. So I found a way to download YouTube videos I started downloading aquarium videos and putting them on thumb drives and plugging them in the back of the TV and playing them.

It was amazing! Relaxing, we had our on the big screen instead of just having a big dark screen in the living room unless you are watching something, it was less distracting but more relaxing all at the same time. I loved it!

I started watching beach scenes and mountain stream scenes and other relaxing ambient videos. They're all a lot of fun and I really enjoy them.

I tried to get into some of the random window sites that have popped up over the years. While they were good they weren't as relaxing as I thought they might be. They were good for a few minutes but then would jump to a different window and the view wouldn't be that good or it wouldn't be something that I want to watch. So I really didn't get into them.

I did find a couple of videos of outdoor caf�s and Sweden or Denmark that had an electric cable car that came by like a bus every few minutes. That was actually cool because you saw actual people doing real things and that was fun. They made me want to go visit those places!

I tried the train videos and the view out of the train window. Some of those are okay but I get tired of looking at train tracks.

I did find a couple of virtual tours of Venice that my wife and I really enjoyed. Sitting there watching because it was so beautiful and so different from our cities.

But the videos were always at my house. I now have them on my home office 48 inch monitor and I play them in my work office on my 40+ inch monitor that just got mounted to the wall.

I have playlists of videos that you might enjoy on YouTube. You can find them at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVqI204q3ewk3SQ7Uj5DXRq97hSCwQs0B&si=aZSs5GRjX5PV4VUC and https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVqI204q3ewkHCrd-lO9xG3C-9X7P22t7&si=XFPnXK_flSxeL8JS.

I hope you find a way to use your technology to decrease your stress levels rather than be driven by the dings and the notifications that keep us on edge. Enjoy!

Apps vs websites ~

Recently there was a story about how Apple was changing policies so e-books from other companies could no longer be bought on Apple devices. Amazon Kindle user anger was expressed in article after article on the web. Tech savvy writers typed or dictated lots of text about how awful this was and what an infringement on their ability use established apps by Apple competitors.

As an avid reader who uses a Kindle device and the Kindle app to read I had to check it out for myself. I went to buy a book in my Kindle app on my phone like I had done in the past and an alert popped up saying "purchases via this device are no longer supported" or something like that.

So it was true! They had tied off the ability to purchase ebooks on my iPad.

Having grown up before personal computers were hot and after using the pre-Internet things like America Online and CompuServe I opened up the browser on my mobile device and browsed to the Amazon website. I searched for the book that I wanted to purchase, found the Kindle format button and made sure I was logged into my Amazon account in my browser. And I purchased the book with no issues. I then switched over to the Kindle, downloaded my newly purchased book, and commenced to reading it.

"Apps" make things very convenient at times, but they have become herding devices. By that I mean they heard us into a sales funnel where the app or service progressively moves us closer to the point at which we part with money. Apps also tend to soak up the data all around them and sometimes even that they have no right to be accessing unless we allow it. I tend to shy away from apps because I just don't trust the company or I just live without whatever it is that the app is providing.

That's not to say I don't have a lot of apps on my mobile device. I do! But I don't let what happens get in the way of what I'm trying to do. If silly stuff like this battle between the giant companies gets in the way I tend to go to the source of what the app is doing, the website, and just keep going. So many times I've found that an app is just a quick exoskeleton that is actually running a browser and browsing the website anyways but with extra overlays and limits put on you so that they can control what you're doing.

I guess the moral of the story is don't lead the battles between the tech giants stand in the way of what I'm trying to accomplish. You shouldn't either!

Seasons ~

It's funny how seasons work in my head. I enjoy the passing of seasons and I actually enjoy all of them (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter). I think my favorite is summer although I love cold dark winter days. I enjoy the fall days with the leaves blowing and cool crisp nights but also enjoy spring when everything is bursting forth and turning yellow from pollen where I live.

One of the things that I notice and myself though is a tendency to think about the opposite of the season that I'm in. It's summer as I capture this and so it's usually a warm day with an okay evening but typically not cool. It's been summer for some time and so I'm finding myself this week thinking about winter and cold weather and wearing a jacket all the time and breaking out my warm shirts instead of wearing thin moisture wicking shirts all the time. Although I tend to wear them all the time anyways.

But I've always noticed in the deepest part of winter after Christmas when people are talking about skiing trips and all that I start thinking about summer heat and how nice it is to take my shirt off and soak in some sun. Although not too much for me since I really don't want to get skin cancer anymore.

But it's funny how I am in the moment enjoying what God has given us but still thinking about the opposite and looking forward to the upcoming season changes.

Weird.

Words mean things - midget ~

I saw a story yesterday about a man that makes a lot of money acting in TV shows commenting on the use of his kind of people in a live action remake of an animated feature movie.

What? I described the story without saying all the words that offended him and offend some of the others. So now I'll use the words.

The guy is a dwarf. Midget, dwarf, little person, height-challenged, whatever. It's not a bad thing, it's just a descriptor to put him in a box so that when we talk about him you know who we're talking about.

The feature movie is one that was made in the early 20th century by Disney. And he was talking a lot about Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

I think it's a shame that our attention-driven economy is so hungry for controversy that it looks for all the "content" that will catch and capture attention and generate discussion like this that one guys being offended causes an entity like Disney to react the way that it did.

I think it's comical in general that the "social-minded" among us are so right and righteous that they get upset that an actor who is playing somebody else isn't actually just like the somebody else that they're playing in whatever special classifier that they're focused on this week is. Like the people who get upset when they see an old Lone Ranger show and see that a white man is playing Tonto. Or when the see a non-homosexual (read heterosexual) play the part of a homosexual in a show.

It's a show! They're actors! They are paid to study and learn and think about being somebody else.

Furthermore, the show is fake. It is not reality! It is exaggerated escapism from the reality of a person's daily life made to manipulate your emotions!

I just wish people would go by the maxim that was taught when kids were spanked and punished for not acting correctly and people actually got put in jail when they broke the law: "If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all."

Women taking care of business ~

One of the most interesting things about our society right now is they encourage men to be responsible and do the right things but it's funny to see women huddling together taking care of things and older women raising younger women trying to teach them the right ways to do things. It's kind of sad in some ways because you don't see the man there. Or if you do see a man he's got two kids with him because he's divorced and it's his weekend of the kids.

But it's such a weird time right now because there's so much pressure to change our societal norms and it's having a profound effect. It's fascinating because what's happening is more more people think that you know whatever goes is normal to the point that a show about a hospital in New York City in the third season has a scene where a woman kisses another woman and the other woman that has been heterosexual her whole life but says this is the only normal thing in my life and goes with it. Kissing another woman and being with that woman sexually is the only normal thing in that heterosexual woman's life. Wow!

So I like it when I go to church. I like it when I go to the Catholic Church on the Friday night fish fry during Lent and talk to a man who's been married to his wife for 60+ years. I like it when I see what I know as normal and I get to be with people like. I don't like to see all the stuff that I do not consider normal on TV and video.

Weird experience at Walmart ~

I had one of the weirdest experiences in my life at a local Walmart recently.

I was moving through the store purchasing things from all over the place. I was pushing my cart and doing my thing. I was being a good consumer.

I'm 58 years old at this point. I move will and feel like I am physically fit. And I don't feel like I appeared to be an aged person.

I made it to the bread and coffee and tea file. There is peanut butter and jelly on one end, a lot of curio egg instant coffee things at the other end. And on the other side a lot of bread and tortillas.

I made the mistake of parking my cart on one side of the aisle while reaching for a package of tortillas on the other side of the aisle. When I started by motion there was nobody on the aisle with me.

As I reached to select some tortillas from the stack of extra-large carb friendly protein rich tortilla packages on the other side of the aisle I heard the telltale sound of another card approaching me.

From my peripheral vision I picked up a massive person pushing a normal sized cart and bearing down on my current location.

As this person approached my current location I looked up and saw the fierce look on the face of a female with her hair pulled tightly up to the top of her head in a bun with a man in tow behind her looking pleadingly at me. She was bearing down on me as if I was a possum in the road blinded by headlights at 2:00am in the morning.

I grabbed for a package of tortillas and then stepped back across the aisle behind my cart for some protection. Foolish, because the cart was on the other side of me and she would've hit me anyways. As my snatch at tortillas happened I pulled the perforated plastic off of a package of tortillas but left the package there on the shelf.

This woman bore down on my position and then blew through where I had just been standing one second ago as if I did not exist or as if I was a squirrel or possum on the road.

"Bitch" was my first thought. My second thought was pity. My third thought was racism, sadly.

Common decency says you pause and wait for people, especially the aged like me. She apparently had no intention to do that. I must not appear aged enough for her to have any pity on me. Or maybe it was the color of my skin or the color of her skin and the experience she has had over life.

All in all it was an interesting but valuable lesson. Don't try to buy across the aisle at Walmart. You'll get run down no matter where you are or who you happen to be.

Lesson learned!

The GOAT ~

I've watched as things that I was taught were corrupted and turned against what I believed. Things taken to such levels of exaggeration that went around to the other side and became the accepted norm. And it's hard!

One of the latest things is the focus on promoting the "greatest of all time". The culture I'm in is so focused on sport and competition and winning the "honor" of being "the best there ever was" and "the greatest of all time". Being Americans of course we shorten that to GOAT. And so now I'm watching the symbol that people have used for devil worship be promoted as representing the greatest thing in the world.

As I watch "settled science" on biology get overturned in the name of personal preference of sex and sexual orientation, as I watch men get declared as the greatest female athletes of all time, as I watch the church turned in to the butt of jokes and the villain in movies and video games, as I watch more and more people do illegal things because nobody is watching them I have to wonder

I read chapter 1 of the letter to the Romans and the Bible and wonder again if we are living that out right now.(https://www.bible.com/bible/97/ROM.1.MSG)

As they keep talking about limiting and tracking all cash transactions with digital currencies and other symbols that we will just have to wave over a sensor and I see fellow Christians react in fear but I actually welcome it. Because the sooner these things happen the sooner my Savior comes back. Come, Lord Jesus!

Running on empty ~

A few weeks ago I did something uncharacteristic for me. I ran my vehicle recently to a point where the empty alert light came on.

I'm a "VIP" with our grocery store and we had built up enough points for $0.60 off per gallon of gas to maximize our savings when I fill my truck up with gasoline so I drove around for three days watching the fuel gauge to get closer and closer to the E.

Finally on the day that I knew I could stop by us at the grocery store I checked the gauge and decided to go for it. I drove to work in the fuel tank was almost empty. When I got off of work and started the engine of my truck I looked at how low the fuel was on it, said a prayer asking God to stretch out my last little bit of gasoline to help me make it to the store, drove by six other gas stations thinking that I was being foolish for doing this and that I'd end up running out of gas and have to call my wife to come and save me, and set out.

I made it! The gas light came on a few miles before I got to the store. I pulled in to the store thinking I was about to run out of gas. Then when I filled the tank I discovered that I was down to about half a gallon of gas left in my tank. Thrill! I felt like I had accomplished so much by saving so much on my full tank of gas. And then it hit me because of all the stress and fretting probably wasn't worth the little bit of money that is saved. What a ride!

Take your vitamins ~

My dad was funny as he got older. After I was an adult anytime that I would call and maybe have a cough or a catch in my throat or runny nose you would express his concern about my health and then asked me did you take your vitamins?

According to him vitamins would prevent a whole array of illnesses. I think he just took a basic multivitamin, nothing fancy. But he took one every day.

Despite all the stories about vitamins passing through your system undigested I remember one where Geritol had been pushed for a couple of years through marketing as baby boomers were getting older. And then they did big stories on how porta potty companies would find that after they filtered through the sludge and waste they had all these whole Geritol pills in the screens left over. So I guess the marketing was working, but the pills weren't really being digested and absorbed.

I went through a time where I thought you had to take all your vitamins separately instead of a multivitamin plan. So I bought the little packets that he ripped open and ate a handful of vitamins. That was expensive, so I figured out if you spent a little extra and by individual bottles of the different vitamins and you could make your own mix and feel better about yourself and feel like you're smarter than everybody else because you're only taking what you need.

I guess that's what it boils down to. The placebo effect is real and if you put your faith in taking a vitamin to keep you well more than likely it will. I know that through the COVID experience I have picked up the habit of taking zinc every morning. I read in several places where the common cold like what COVID started out as before it evolved, however it evolved, was a lot like the common cold. So I take zinc to prevent several things. And so far it seems to be working!

But I always thought it was funny how Dad. would ask that every time I or my wife would get sick. I'm glad that he cared!

Watering down our language ~

I read an article recently about our over use of positive and encouraging words is leading to the watering down of the English language. The author focused on words like excellent and unbelievable and incredible. Those over-the-top words that are used so often now in order to get attention.

One of the interesting things in the article was one he said that overuse of the word waters down its special feeling and descriptiveness. When you hear something is "amazing" over and over and over the next thing that is "amazing" isn't quite so much because amazing now means less than it did before.

Sometimes I wonder if social media has done that to us too. Relationships with people use to be different, especially at a distance. When you had friends outside of your daily circle of existence or even your weekly or monthly circle of existence you would plan special trips to go and see them, you would make the effort if you were in their town to stop by or at least call, and those events were special and cherished afterwords because they don't happen all the time. Now with social media you see and hear from them all the time. Or at least you think you do. And so people tend not to call or make the effort to see you when they happen to be in your town.

At least that's been my experience. What about yours?

Rotting the foundation ~

I don't like it when in a stretch to to be cute or make things more like pop-culture people erode the very foundation of our society.

I remember after my father died my mother was talking about a woman the Dad had worked with for many years. My mother referred to that woman as my father's "work wife"

That just flew all over me! I thought about it for a minute and then I said please don't call her that again.

For me the word "wife" has a very specific meaning. It's the woman a man marries and spends his life with.

They watered it down to something a little bit less when they had to accommodate common law marriages. Special-interest groups have made it so people try to figure out which one in a relationship is husband or wife.

I remember a neighbor's wife had gotten involved with camping with another set of people in the neighborhood. The man's wife wasn't really in to camping but the first woman really enjoyed it. So she would go camping with them but she would go with the other man and help set up camp. She jokingly referred to herself as his "camp wife" I automatically thought that she was probably not faithful to her husband. Sad.

Words mean things! If they don't mean things then we all have to spend a lot more time explaining what we mean. And we have to remember that words define the laws we count on to help protect our rights.

Luckily my mother has not used the phrase "work wife" around me again. And I don't hear it often, which means it may not be completely infused in the pop-culture around us.

And please don't get me started on the phrase "dog mom" or "cat mom"...

Certain flowers ~

I have a weird relationship with flowers. I love flowers! But I'm learning that not all flowers love me.

When my wife and I are out and about when I see pretty flowers I like to take pictures of them. I do this in our hometown as well as when we are traveling short and even long distances. I like to add the pictures to a flowers photo album in my Google photos at and then I view those photos on our wall screen parentheses otherwise known as RTV). That way we have beautiful things to look at on our screen when it's on and we don't want to be watching actively some show or video.

I like to grow flowers, but they're not my favorite thing to grow. I have a Christmas cactus the wind kept alive for several years, but I never get it to bloom at Christmas. I have a pitcher plant that its blooms are like pictures that have liquid in them that catch flies so that the plant can digest them. But I can't get the thing to bloom and so it's just a really long line. I also have what my parents called and loved Lily. It looks like a red starburst on the end of
its stem when it blooms. Typically it only blooms once a year, and it's a bold thing that we keep in pots so that we can bring them in during the winter. But is beautiful and it blooms. And it brings back memories of my father in Florida.

I used to think because of what I saw in my life and the advertising in my life that the way you really showed love to your wife was to buy her flowers. The only way that I need to do that was to order them from a florist. I saw the flowers and grocery stores but I always thought they were overpriced. And it didn't make much sense to buy flowers at a grocery store and then come home and hand them to my wife. Until I got older and figured out that was the best way to do it!

But I got away from that when I ordered flowers from a florist trying to get my moving target life and missed repeatedly. I had several times where my $50 purchase sat on the front porch for days because we typically don't use our front door for our comings and goings. And after a long period where I didn't buy any flowers at all I figured out that buying them at the grocery store and bring them home and handing them to my wife earned me kisses and other expressions of love and appreciation that was a lot of fun!

Over the years, though, I have learned that there is a certain type of flower that florists like to include in their bouquets that my sinus system reacts strongly to. It's the lily-looking plant. It's very pretty, but when we have one of those on her table I discovered that my nose would start running and I would have to constantly blow my nose until I left the room and was away from the plant for an hour or so.

Recently we had a death in our family and my wife brought home a beautiful flower trees that was at the memorial service. It had a lot of carnations in it and a lot of those Lily flowers and. When she went to put it in the cab of our truck for the long drive home I informed her that that would not be riding in the truck with me. So she ended up putting it in my son's trunk and brought it home. Now it's in her office and I can't go on her office without sneezing and blowing my nose for an hour or two after being in there. I guess she's now found my kryptonite!

But I love flowers! And I love the way those lily flowers look, I just really don't like the headache and runny nose that they cause for me.

Becoming a sage ~

I've tried to listen to or read a chapter of Proverbs every day. This book in the Bible (https://www.bible.com/bible/97/PRO.1.MSG) is supposed to contain wisdom that Solomon and a few others learned and shared centuries ago. It has a lot of good advice on how to live your life, things to be careful of, and things to do.

When I read or listen to Proverbs I typically focus on whatever day of the month it is. If it's the third day of the month then I'm reading or listening to chapter 3. If it's the 22nd day of the month I'm listening to chapter 22.

It's worked out well! I've listened to or read the book of Proverbs over 20 times now, in consecutive months. That wisdom is slowly sinking into my head, although I'm still not quite where I want to be.

So often people focus on where the faults are and how not to be a fool but lately I've been focusing on what it says about sages and how to be one of the "wise" people.

Not a wise guy like in the Mafia, or funny guy on stage, but wise in thinking, discerning, and deciding things.

I hope that by doing this I am becoming a sage. It says in Proverbs that a gang of cynics can upset a whole city but a few sages can calm things down. (https://www.bible.com/bible/97/PRO.29.8.MSG)

Proverbs has a lot of other things to say about sages. I think that that's a word we don't use enough nowadays.

I hope that I'm becoming like a sage!

Prayer is like meditation ~

I have now "meditated" for over two years daily. I use the calm meditation at to help lead me in a 10 minute meditation each day. One of the challenges that I have with meditation is that it's so woo woo and new age. When I read articles about it there's gurus that meditate for hours each day. I even read a couple books by a guy that meditates each day for at least an hour in silence. He wrote a couple books that were awesome, but he's a homosexual that is an easy atheist and so it seemed odd why I was led to read his books. But I digress.

From what I've learned meditation is different for each person. For me it is pausing in my day and taking time to stop and focus my attention on listening for God. I don't empty my mind I don't try to yoke myself to the cosmic energy center. I'm actually trying to listen and hear God speaking to me. As woo woo as that may sound that's what I'm doing.

I'm not very successful at it. When I am meditating I tend to throw weights around exercising. I tend to play with my iPad and shop on Amazon which when I realize what I'm doing I stop and chastise myself. I rolled my eyes open to the back of my head and then I chastise myself over rolling my eyes stare at the wall or the picture on the wall. I probably had a change that picture been up there long time. Again, I digress.

One of the memes that I've seen repeatedly on my Pinterest board is that prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening to God. I have taken that in and have tried to apply that in my life. It seems to work okay, but it is imperfect. God is not always the way I want to hear so policy clearing quietly wait listening I don't usually get what I more often I get things when I'm driving or when I am doing other things and flashes of insight happen. When I pause and pray about my daily prayer focus I getting insight about something else not the prayer focus and get frustrated because I'm trying to focus here God what are you doing? But I try 10 minutes a day meditation brings.

I don't know if this is what they did in biblical times. I'm sure that they didn't wait for the rain to fall or press play on some rain stick that somebody turned over and over repeatedly to make the reigning sound. That would be funny to see, have a person in the corner turning a rain stick over and over for 10 or 15 minutes trying to relax you so that you can meditate.

But I try to meditate. And I learn while I meditate

Having adult children ~

As a father of four it is interesting to have all adult children.

When I read books from the past I read about children that died and people that went on to have other children despite children dying. I'm sad for them, but I cannot relate to that. Because all of my children survived.

I remember reading a Frank Herbert book called "The Dosadi Experiment" where there was this alien race on the planet Dosadi called the Gowachin. They were a frog-like race and the males would eat their children that were too slow and could not escape them. I never wanted to do that, but having read that book in my teenage years it always struck me as funny. In a weird way.

https://www.amazon.com/Dosadi-Experiment-Tor-Science-Fiction-ebook/dp/B007PRZP0G/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YGNCTTZXAOYY&keywords=dosadi+experiment+frank+herbert&qid=1689704663&sprefix=dosadi+exp%2Caps%2C702&sr=8-1

All of my children are adults. My wife and I had a goal that our children would grow up to be fine upstanding members of their community. We weren't focused on having doctors or nurses or scientists or lawyers or tycoons or any of that, we just wanted them to take our values and take the launchpad that we set up for them and launch out to be successful adults in whatever community they decided to be a part of. We hope that they will be part of the community that we were a part of, but knowing the way the world works we also understood that they might be in a different part of the world.

My wife and I have been wildly successful! Our adult children are doing good things, paying taxes, helping others, and growing into adults that are doing good things. It's so exciting to see! I'm looking forward to all the accomplishments they achieve.

But it is an adjustment having adult adult children. I can't tell them what to do. I can't tell them where to go or when to be there. I can only smile and say this is what I'm doing and I hope I see you there. It's awesome! They are responsible for themselves, which is awesome! I watch so many of my peers take on responsibilities that are not theirs and then watch as they get so frustrated when they can't exercise and enforce that responsibility on children that are not directly theirs.

I'm very happy with my adult children. I'm happy with what they are doing and achieving. I'm happy with what they are teaching me and I'm happy with what they are learning.

But it is weird being the parent of adult children.

Gum in urinals ~

Gum in urinals is dumb.

One of the things I wondered most of my life, both childhood and adulthood, is why guys spit their gum into urinals.

It just seems stupid to me! They're chewing, taking a leak, and they spit it into the urinal. Do they think it's funny? Do they think that it's hilarious that somebody's gonna have to use their fingers or some sort of tool to scoop their nasty gum up whenever they clean of the bathroom later that day?

I've never known. But it just seems to me the rude to me.

That's like when people spit their gum on sidewalks or in parking lots. I understand that you're done with the gum, but you're just setting somebody else up to step in it, make a big mess on the bottom of their shoes probably grind it into their carpet at work or at home. It's just rude!

I remember one time during the Christmas season these young teens were hanging around the door of the store and they were laughing and giggling because they had thrown catsup packages right where a crowd of people were walking. They were there watching the catsup packages pop and squirt catsup on people. Most people didn't even recognize it and the kids were laughing their heads off because they thought it was so funny that people didn't catch they didn't know it was happening. I went over to say something and they ran off, but it irritated me so much.

The gum thing in urinals irritates me too. But I never catch anybody doing that.

I guess with the way things are going today women will have to deal with this more as more men use women's restrooms. Do women spit their gum out in the women's urinals in the bathroom? I don't know, the few women's restrooms I've seen didn't have urinals and the pictures of women's urinals made it look like it would be a complicated operation.

I guess that begs the question: When are they going to start putting urinals in women's restrooms for the men who identify as women can use them?

LOL

Arguing with God ~

One of the things that I have struggled with in my Christian wall was what God said. Like so many other people I believe that God leads us in ways that are usually hard to explain and tend to seem hokey and silly to others. The feeling and call to write a card when that's not something that I do. Feeling mercy for someone and you don't even know them.

Over the years I felt guilty for not doing certain things that I felt like I was being led to do. I would beat myself up and say that I had let God down and missed an opportunity to spread the love of Jesus but over the years as I read the Bible and listen to sermons at church and read books I learned that I was not alone. Rather than just missing opportunities people actually argue with God about opportunities.

Just look in the Bible.

Moses argued with God about going to Egypt, about leading the Israelites out of Egypt, about what to do in the desert with the Israelites. Lots of things!

Samuel didn't believe that God wanted the missing child and kept looking at people that looked like kings to him instead of following what God was saying.

Other people argued with God too.

I don't find myself arguing as much as just ignoring and so I'm not sure which is worse.

The thing that I always found fascinating from the Bible stories is that God accommodated those people. He made adjustments and provided different things in order to accomplish his goals.

So I guess it's not wrong to argue with God!

New phone alert ~

This week I started getting a different alert on my phone. My weather app kept reporting "hot spot" fires near my location

I had never seen that alert from my weather app. I looked at it, read it and then discounted it because I had not heard anything on the news about a fire and had not seen anything near my home or my location.  A few days later I read an article on a conservative website about the presence of ANTIFA near my location and how they had occupied a tract of land that the local government was going to turn into a police training facility and that they had been setting fires and shooting at the officers sent to clear them from the land.

This is something that I warned my children about when they were growing up. I told them that in other countries when children were taken to school they rode by overturned burned-out cars and buildings that had been shot with holes and rocket-propelled grenades. I told them that we were blessed to live in the United States of America and not have to deal with that in our day-to-day life. But that they should be ready because it could happen at any time.

It saddens me that I was right about this. Thanks, crazy people!

Some things I was taught ~

Growing up I was taught a lot of things that I've discovered needed adjusting.

I was taught that whatever you go out in public somebody was waiting to steal your stuff. That's why we have to lock her car doors, have to be careful wherever we go, and all of that. My parents were very concerned about pickpockets and all the evils in a crowd so to this day I carry my wallet in my front pocket instead of in the back where many other guys carry theirs.

Over the years I've learned that not everybody is out to get me even though that's what I thought. I've learned that there's not that many people that steal things, but there are some. I remember as an adult having a person at our house my dad was very concerned about if I could trust that person and how I knew I could or could not. I explained to him that I didn't know if I can trust them but that I was going to try. Then he asked what if they steal from you? And I told him that was the beauty of it I had put on a $20 bill on the kitchen counter in a place where it was kinda visible but not obvious that I was just watching to see if it disappeared. And if it did then I could ask questions and learn something. He never brought it up again.

I was taught that I had to always wear shoes and socks. Especially out in the yard because we didn't want to get worms in your feet and we didn't want to get other things that will affect your body I've learned that going barefoot is okay and is actually kind of fun. I've gotten to where I wear these sandals that are just like going around in bare feet and it's amazing!

Another one: Anybody coming to the door is probably a salesman or a Jehovah's Witness.

Not true! It depends on what you've cultivated and encouraged. Technically we don't get a lot of people coming to our door, but because we do hold small groups in our home we get people coming to our door that are not salespeople or Jehovah's Witnesses and sometimes when you get one of those it can be an adventure.

I'm not saying that the things that I was taught don't work, I've just had to adjust because they paralyzed me for so long. I would go out and when I went to an event or church service or a dinner I would constantly be on guard and angry because I was vulnerable. The anger was fueled by so much stress that had been built into me.

I continue to work through all of this now. And the progress is coming along, at times I slip fall back into that thinking again. Daily I guess nowadays they call it catastrophizing or something. Anything that happens could become the worst thing that ever happened! That's actually helped me over the years but also hurt me.

I remember we had a sinkhole-like thing in our backyard. The kids came in and told me about it and I got all upset. I went out and looked at it with its proximity to the septic tanks all I could envision was this great big sinkhole like what you see on the news from Florida opening up and swallowing our house. And I talked about it that way! And I fretted until we filled the hole and it didn't get any bigger. Funny now, but that weekend was not much fun for me. It was a short weekend so that wasn't much fun.

I learned a lot of good things from my parents. And I'm working through the things that were not quite as helpful as they may have thought they would be.

Not always anger ~

Recently I had an epiphany when talking about dealing with the situation where people thought I was angry. The epiphany was: what many perceive as anger is not always anger when dealing with me.

I'm a white male legal citizen over the age of 50 with adult children. I have a lot of experience in many areas of life. And I continue to learn and grow as I get older.

When I was younger I would use anger to power through things. To exert my will over situations where I thought I was supposed to be in control. I was afraid often that fear would come out as anger because people were doing things that made me concerned for their health or their welfare. And by welfare I don't mean check from the government, I mean their health, both mental and physical.

When I was surprised I often yelled and cursed. I remember I was asleep one time on top of the comforter on the bed. It was the afternoon after church and I was really tired so I grabbed a pillow and just laid on my belly and went to sleep. My wife came in and stuck her face in my face to wake me up and it scared me. I yelled some profane words and jumped up ready to fight. Another time I was in the shower one of my children that likes to scare people decided he would scare me. He discovered that was not the best idea because of my reaction.

In those situations and many others what came out looking like anger was my reaction to fear.

When I have expectations and those expectations are not met I experience disappointment. Often times I'm unable to express my disappointment in any way other than seeming angry. I wasn't brought up to cry although did plenty of that as a child. I remember one time when we lived 30 minutes from town in Florida mom and dad had to take me into town to go to the store or something. It was a Friday night and one of my favorite shows of the time, the Muppet's "Pigs In Space" show was supposed to come on 8PM. I asked and begged my parents to rush home so that we could get home in time for me to watch pigs in space. Think I was 13 at the time, or maybe 14. But we got home at about 8:03pm and I rushed into the living room and my grandmother was watching a different show and wouldn't change the channel. I was very disappointed. That time my disappointment came out as tears because I didn't know what to do and why she wasn't cooperating. It was before you can record things and watch them over and over frame by frame and I would never see that show again.

As I got older my disappointment seemed like I was angry. When being bypassed for promotions and details to different jobs to develop my career I would be very disappointed and that disappointment came across as anger to many. It was anger in several situations, but the base of it was disappointment. And embarrassment about how things were being done. But that's a different subject.

But as a male most of my negative emotions tend to be perceived as anger by others. I'm slowly learning that that's their problem and not mine. Perception is not reality. If perception was reality my perception of a lot of things would define a very radical reality around me.

But my grumpiness and supposedly angry demeanor is actually a fear of disappointment and nervousness and grief and even sometimes happiness and being thrilled. How you perceive my face and my voice is more your problem and not mine. I am who I am.

Not a scoffer ~

For some reason the word scoffer has been in my brain for the past couple of weeks.

A "scoffer" is defined as someone who makes fun of someone or something or mocks someone or something, usually about religious or moral values. The definition of "to scoff" is to express scorn or derision or content. (https://www.google.com/search?q=define+scoffer)

Strong word! Not a good thing to do.

I think that I'm thinking about this word because of seeing it being done in so many places. Commercials, especially political commercials about opponents of a political figure. Comedians routinely do this and because it's so outrageous people laugh, but I don't think they understand or even care about the damage that they do to the someone that they scoff at or even the damage to their own lives as they scoff.

I remember the word scoffer from Psalm 1 in the Bible. Psalm 1 says that a man is blessed when he does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the path of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers. (https://www.bible.com/bible/97/PSA.1.MSG)

Sometimes I have to pause and not express an opinion about something that I really don't need to have an opinion about. Sports teams and outcomes, certain products that I don't ever see myself using, and stuff like that. People standing on the side of the road. People that walk by in a store or that I see in a parking lot. Other drivers, especially other drivers.

I don't need to have an opinion about any of those people. There is no need for me to scoff and express derision and scorn about them or toward them. Not very loving or Christian if I do that.

I try to take delight in the law of the Lord. I take a lot more delight in the teachings of Jesus who said to "love your neighbor like you love yourself". And "to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength".

So I try hard not to scoff at things. In today's society that's becoming more and more challenging.

Awards and generations ~

Over the years it's been interesting to read about the divisions between what they called "generations". It's just another way to put people in boxes and categorize them but it does seem to work.

The "greatest generation" who fought World War II defended freedom. The Vietnam generation that had to deal with so much and reacted in ways that were sad when our soldiers came home. The boomers who are cast as the selfish and self-centered generation by people of that generation. How ironic! The millennial's. Gen X and others.

While I balk at the categorization and over-generalization that it brings I have noticed some things that fall in line with what I've read.

As a manager I have people that I am responsible for. I have watched the generation before mine celebrate retirements by having gatherings and covered dish lunches and celebrations of standing in front of your peers while whoever happens to be the manager of the facility presents you with a token of appreciation for your years of service. They got away from the gold watch a long time ago but the plaque and a gift card or gift of some item that captures the spirit of a career is always fun and nice to see.

My generation, the people that I have worked with the most and who I consider my peers even though I manage them, tend to not want any attention. When their work anniversaries, especially the big ones like 25 years, 30 years, I even had one guy reach 40 years, come they don't want to have the certificate presented in front of anybody. If I force the issue they want it done in a very small setting with their close coworkers and teammates. And they do not want any kind of retirement celebration. They just want to leave quietly. It's funny because I feel the very same way and am hoping to just fade into the woodwork.

The next generation after mine tends to be all about the certificate and the pin. They want that trophy even though they may not display it and may not tell anybody about it. But I have had several of them come to me and say "Hey when do I get my anniversary certificate?" And then when I do get it they beam when they receive it and then I never see it again. They don't want it presented in front of a crowd they just want to have it.

So there are differences in the generations. Seeing this small slice of it I agree that it's based on upbringing, experiences as a child, expectations of the group, and all the.

But I find it fascinating!

Like Star Trek ~

I am a Trekkie. I watched Star Trek when I was young. I watched Star Trek when I was in my 20s and 30s and 40s. I haven't watched it so much in my 50s, but I still pay attention to it.

I remember when I got married Star Trek: The Next Generation was just starting. When we got to the training center where I had to train for two months to see if I could keep my job one of the most important things I did on the night that we arrived was set up the TV with an antenna to receive the channel that got Star Trek: The Next Generation so we could watch that week's episode and recorded it to videotape.

Over the years I've noticed how much our modern technology efforts match up with what I saw in those shows. The original series, the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, all laid out a path for us to follow into the future.

I now tap on screens like I watched Data and Geordie and Wharf did. I have video readouts on different things in my life. There are sensors and cameras all around me. I have devices with a voice interface that actually works! On multiple systems!

I remember the early voice interfaces that tried to be like Star Trek and they were soooo bad. They tried and they had the sound but they just couldn't recognize the voice well enough to translate words to a command that the computers could actually use. While I don't have a strong southern accent sometimes I wondered if it was my accent that was messing things up. I came to realize that no it was just really poor technology being marketed under the Star Trek name to make lots of money from all the crazy people like me that wanted it to work.

I remember that there was an episode where they were using flashlights that look like flat rectangular boxes. I have a flashlight that is like that but a little bit smaller. It gives me white and red light. I used it with my granddaughter at a late display over the Christmas holidays recently. She was delighted to sit there and press the button and try to make it change colors and patterns. But it looks so much like what I saw in Star Trek that it's scary.

I never went for the flip open phone that looked like the Star Trek communicator from the original series. Although I really would've loved to say "Beam me up, Scotty!"

I have seens ads for a little Bluetooth Star Trek badge that you can pin to your shirt and then press it and have a speaker on a Bluetooth device connected to your mobile phone act like a Star Trek communicator. That would be way too nerdy for me! But it is fun to read about and watch.

Having answers at my fingertips and within the reach of my voice from a computer that talks back to me is amazing. Logging my life in a system that stores it away for future review is awesome.

I continue to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and new civilizations. And I keep boldly going where no one seems to have gone before.

Fun!

Licensed by the FCC ~

I recently bought a handheld radio. It's a good walkie-talkie handheld radio that exceeds Federal Communication System (FCC) power limits so I figured for the price I had to have one!

After I got it I started thinking about how seriously the FCC takes that stuff so in order to press the talk button on it I wanted the license myself and make sure that I wouldn't get arrested if I tried to use it to talk to people. So I did something that I've wanted to do for really long time: I got an FCC license as ham radio operator!

It's cool because now I can use those channels that are licensed for use above the family radio service (FRS) channels that come with the cheap little bubble-wrap walkie-talkies. And I can use those frequencies too. And others. It will be interesting to see what I can listen to and maybe talk to some people.

I am most excited about possibly getting to listen to the talk on International Space Station frequencies during a flyover. That would be very exciting to pull off!

I've always enjoyed radios of different kinds. I remember when my dad brought home a professional walkie-talkie with the huge brick battery and long antenna that somebody lost on the side of the road. My dad was a communications guy so he picked it up and put it on our kitchen counter at home. I was 15 years old so one night while nobody was around I started tinkering with the radio and turned it on. Nothing ever came on the speaker. So I pressed the push-to-talk button a couple of times. And somebody called and said who is transmitting on this? He asked again and I answered and we were able to connect with the contractor who had spent lots of money on this radio and licensing to use it. I went with dad to return it to him. The guy tried to offer dad money but dad refused. The guy him his business card with a discount on fencing or something written on the back of it. Which dad never used.

So now I'm licensed to do what I did when I was 14 or 15 years old! Listen up for my call sign WRNR277. You may hear me out there on the frequencies...

Exercising liberty ~

Where I live there is a section of town that is more industrial than much of the rest of the area. Lots of warehouses and the trucking center where goods are moved from truck to truck or to people from there.

In that area there is a piece of property that has a Buddhist temple on it. I've watched over the years as they've fenced the property, then built a wall around the property, then built decorative parapets on the wall, built an ornate golden gate to get in and out of the complex. They built a temple with very decorative gold turrets and domes. The grounds are meticulously cared for. And beautiful!

What I do not see is those people forcing what they believe to be taught in public schools. I do not see those people things running for government office on a platform that says we will introduce our beliefs into the school systems and everyone will need to learn what and how we believe or they will be punished.

Many people think that beliefs about race and so-called science are being forced on people that do not want them and would not go out of their way to learn them. Some have become so progressive and liberal they see the school system and the University systems as methods of delivery of their beliefs.

I wish that we would just get back to teaching the basics in school and letting families and charitable organizations teach the beliefs. But because so many are destroying families and stomping out charitable organizations every chance they get I guess they just don't see a different way to do it.

It's a good thing that I can stay in my bubble and exercise liberty within that.

McDonald's adventure ~

When I was a teenager I worked at a McDonald's restaurant. I usually worked the grill making hamburgers, Big Macs, and quarter pounders with cheese.

One day when I went to work there was a problem with the metal prep table. The way the grill area was set up there were two big metal grills with burners on to keep them hot. There were powerful fans above them to pull the air and the greasy smoke and steam from the grill up and out instead of leaving and spread throughout the kitchen and restaurant. And behind that a preparation table made of stainless steel. The table had holes along the far side of it held the buckets with the fixings for sandwiches. Lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, onions, all that stuff.

The preparation table was plugged into an outlet on the floor. It helped keep the sandwich stuff cool and there were a couple of heated holes for future use when the McRib and sandwiches like that came out. On this day when I went in the problem was a short circuit. Somehow the table itself had become electrified and whenever we put anything on it or touch ed it we would get a shock. All the other workers were putting the stuff on other things like ledges on the side of the grill where trays could actually be set by design but also tended to fall if he jostled them too much while preparing the sandwiches. They were put him on the sink behind the preparation table. They were putting him over the oil at the fry station. It was generally just a bad time the grill area of our McDonald's.

The manager on duty kept trying to figure out where the short might be. And me being the guinea pig while I was cooking the burgers he would have me touch the table. I got shocked so many times that day! It got to where I was afraid to touch the table but I kept doing it because we needed to figure it out. And I thought it was funny later that he did never touch the table he made me do it. Good management, right? Eventually he found where the problem in the wiring was in the did a quick repair job with some electrical tape. And the show went on - yay!

But I always thought it was funny I got shockef all those times trying to keep things going while trying to help troubleshoot and find the issue.

Good memory!

Changing music tastes ~

I remember when I was younger my wife and I would take our family to a town up in the mountains. It was a German village and they had craft stores and cool little restaurants that were very custom for their German village motif. It was near a river and so there was river tubing near there that would go through the town and everybody would wave as the tubers went underneath the bridge.

I remember there are shops there where when you went and they were really relaxed and quiet but they had this background music. Sometimes it was Indian flutes and chants. Sometimes it was spa-like music that I had never really heard and it just sounded so soothing and relaxing. And I thought how cool it must be to be able to work in that environment all day long.

Fast forward to today and I do that more often than not. I play relaxing music while I'm at work so that when I'm in my office I can enjoy that as background music. I have some Indian flute music, but I also have some spa music and a lot of smooth jazz. I've downloaded some of those three or four hour-long music videos of relaxing tunes from YouTube and put them on my player so that they come up in the mix.

But is fascinating because I still seem to gravitate towards that more and more as I get older.

Don't get me wrong, I still like a good rock 'n' roll song or some hits from the 80s. But because I need to concentrate more I don't turn the music up as loud as I used to. And because I have to listen and talk more I don't turn the music up very loud anyways because I don't have to turn it up and down and up and down to hear somebody talking to me.

It's fascinating how my tastes change over time.

Apartment living ~

When I was in college I lived at home for the first couple of years. The good kind of challenge and with my age and my younger brother six years younger than me. So took out a couple of student loans and moved to live in an apartment while going to college.

My parents helped me move. My dad cried when he left me there. I never understood that all my adult children started moving out of them I understood it perfectly.

It was a good apartment! It was on the corner on the second floor. It overlooked the pool kind of. So I could go out there and swim in the sun after going to class. I didn't do that a lot because I was working a lot trying pay for food and entertainment and gas to go back to see my parents and my girlfriend back at home an hour and a half away.

But I remember when I would be laying in the bed trying to fall asleep and people would be walking by my apartment window. And I was always scared that they were going to break in and take my stuff. Or break in and do bad things to me. It was always something I was worried about.

I got that from my parents who always warned me of the bad people out there in the bad things that could happen. And it was always a challenge because those things usually didn't happen. What a great learning experience!

Augmented reality ~

One of the most talked about technology things in the nerd circles that I read is augmented reality. It's similar to virtual reality which has been talked about for years and is finally becoming more and more available. I've been excited about virtual reality for years, but it's just never been personal and portable.

I remember one of my favorite games in the video arcade: Battle Zone. It was a tank simulation with wireframe tanks around the flat surface with wireframe blocks and pyramids scattered throughout. And these tanks would get you in their sights and start shooting at your tank. And your goal was to avoid getting shot while shooting them. I remember my strategy was always to go backwards as fast as I could so that I could see them, and pull in on their tail and shoot them before they got me in their sites.

Battle Zone was fun and gave you that sense of virtual reality but because it was a big arcade machine that you had the press your eyes up against in order to see the playing screen it wasn't quite what we were hoping for now with technology so personal now and with us all the time I want something that's with me whenever I wanted.

Augmented reality is where you wear glasses or goggles of some kind and GPS network location and landmarks things like little windows above people's heads or above places of interest however over those things in your line of vision. You can see everything and you're just looking through glasses but superimposed over the reality is this augmentation with extra information.

Heads-up display is one of the best examples of that that has got a lot of play in high-end cars and fighter jets but it just never took off in everyday life. But it's coming.

Recently I was thinking about augmented reality and how as a Christian I can use God's vision and leading like augmented reality. As I look around I can open my eyes to the Holy Spirit and see needs and prayer requests and things that I can do or help with. I remember the song "Give Me Your Eyes" was one of my favorite Christian songs a few years back. It's a story song of a guy on an airplane and praying that God would give him God's eyes so that he could see the surround him instead of just cruising through life without paying attention to the things that people need and desire.

I pray that God augments my reality with being able to see those things and then reaching out and actually trying to help people with those things.

Walking at work ~

I have spent a career working in a dark windowless room with a lot of other people all doing whatever they can to keep things moving and keep people safe.

Over the years I found different ways to reduce my level of stress while at work. Early on I would splash my face with cold water whenever I would go to the restroom. It helped me feel refreshed! As I got older I started wearing glasses and splashing water on my face became more complicated and I didn't do it very often.

Being an introvert and wanting some quiet I would go for walks around the parking lot when I was younger. And I still do. Early in my career the cafeteria was the place to go and that's where all of the people would take their break. Guys would sit around tables and laugh and complain and make fun of each other. It was very distracting and not my kind of thing so I tended to go outside and walk. Or try to find a corner to sit in and read.

But I always found it interesting that nobody else was walking around the parking lot. It was an easy walk, nice and cool in the evenings and mornings. Sometimes the heat of the day actually felt good after being in a cold dark room for a hours. But I walked. Usually one lap, sometimes two laps around the parking lot. It was fun! But I was alone out there.

I remember being made fun of for walking around the parking lot. People would ask why I did that and say that it was stupid. That was early in my career. That was also in the middle of my career. But as I've gotten older it's more crowded out there. A whole lot of these younger people are out there walking around the parking lot every break.

I remember when I was in headquarters doing a lot of programming on a computer I made it a point to stand up and walk around the floor of the building that we were in once an hour. It didn't matter how long the walk took, I just got up to step away from the keyboard and clear my head for a couple of minutes. Sometimes I would do two or three laps through the building just to extend it out. My boss would chew me out and say that I wasn't focused and needed to concentrate and stay busy. I was sitting in a room with several other programmers and everybody looks like they're doing a whole lot but most of them were just surfing the early Internet and writing gag programs to prank each other with.

A few years ago I ran across an article that said that getting up and walking around once in hour was probably the best thing you can do for your mental and physical health. Since then I've read multiple articles that talk about that and talk about the dangers of sitting for too long and how our office jobs have led to our sedentary lifestyle so many times.

So I like to think of my walking around the parking lot at work as another case of me being ahead of my time. I love that!

Grateful for streaming ~

Holy David Post

Recently my wife and I went to a retirement community to visit with her mother. Her mother was in her 90s and required full-time care.

The visit went well and we enjoyed seeing her and doing the little activities that she does where she lives. We took her on a couple of adventures which was fun. But it required us to slow down and do things a little bit differently than what we're used to.

But there was one thing that reminded me of the past that I'm thankful we're not in now. Due to storms the Internet connection for the place where we were staying was out of service. The Wi-Fi was up and running and we could connect but there was no Internet.

In the room where we stayed they had a TV with an antenna and all the channels you can pick up on digital TV now.

We resisted for a couple of nights but then one evening we had some time on our hands and wanted to vegetate in front of a show. So we turned on the TV and found a show we used to watch, Law and Order.

Having to watch commercials again was terrible! Five minutes of show followed by 10 minutes of commercials was mindnumbing. The commercials themselves while they could've been funny were just wrong. One was about your skin, one was about your bad health issue that you needed to get this medicine for, one was about things you needed to buy, one was about clothing that you should be wearing or shoes that you should be wearing, and I can't remember the other one. Over and over and over these things just pounded on our psyches telling us that we were not enough we did not have enough and that all we needed to do was give our money to these people and give our time to these people and they would make us enough.

Having to watch over the air TV that night makes me incredibly grateful for streaming services that I use now. While XM Radio drives me crazy with their commercial free channels that talk about XM radio and what are basically commercials I really enjoy the music. And I enjoy being able to listen as we drive cross-country without having to hunt for a local station filled with commercials about things that I don't want to spend money or time on. I love Netflix, I love Prime Video, I love YouTube without commercials or ads. And I love my ad blockers on my browsers.

Just a reminder of how far modern technology has brought us. I hope they have ad blockers in the meta-verse!

Sending postcards ~

Over the past couple of years I've been sending postcards. I love sending postcards! I use them as a way to share what we're doing and just give a piece of my life to others that I love.

For a long time I would buy postcards and collect them whenever we would go on trips. I would take stamps with me and I would write out several postcards but I was also buying extras so that I could put them away in my collection.

Now I use an app called TouchNote that uses pictures that I take and then I can upload the picture type on the back of it and pick an address from my address book and send it even while I'm out and about. It's amazing!

What I found is that postcards allow me to share a little bit more directly in places where I can't necessarily be as often as I wish that I could be.

I remember my wife's sister would send postcards whenever they would go on trips. Different places around our country, different islands, we got a couple of postcards from Europe. It was a lot of fun! But with her I always thought that she was bragging and trying to show people how great she was doing.

I hope people don't think that of me and what I send on postcards. They're one of those things where I'm thinking of them and wish that I could share more of my life with them but I can't and so this way I can let them know that I'm thinking of them. My thought is that they might enjoy whatever it is that I send them.

I tend to send postcards of my wife's paintings to our kids and other family members. I tend to send pictures of our adventures to our kids after we visit them. That's a lot of fun!

I've started sending postcards to myself when we go on trips so that I have a picture of the adventure when I get back. And I'll send one every day so that I get a record of what we did and get to enjoy it all over again when the postcard comes in after we get back.

If you've gotten a postcard for me I hope you enjoyed it! If you don't send postcards yourself you ought to give it a try. It's actually a lot of fun and it's a quick and easy way to be kind and show love to others.

Have fun with it!