Burnout / An Internet Fast. In the summer of 2024 I did this I have been moderately online for a long time, yes I took breaks from social media, and from the daily harangue of news. But not for a long. And not completely off the net. No email. No web browsing. No social media. No online research. No streaming, music nor videos. As if t...

🌲🌲🌲 Random Notes on timber harvesting. (not in any order, nor edited) I am NOT against sustainable harvesting forest products, but timber industry giants like Weyerhaeuser need die Fun Forest Fact. The Weyerhaeuser Company owns more than 12,400,000 acres (19,400 sq miles) of timberlands in the U.S., and manages an additional 14,000,000...

A true love story. Between a military man and a hippie chick. Finding true love when you least expect it, after many tries, and at an age when most give up on it. She was a true flower child of the late '60s. He a lifer in the Air Force. She was an artist, painter, sculptor, musician, free and open with her emotions. He was a a technic...

Local: 2025/01/20 32ºF, Sunny, Light wind. Morning Forest Walk About "panic does not suit you." Says the crow, high in the Fir tree. "ya know how you walked up here, slow and with the help of a staff." Ya that's how I always walk up this old logging road. "well, that's what i'm saying, you didn't run" No. "give me those nuts you have i...

So this just happened. A knock on my front door, and it is a neighbor, one I don't interact with much. A guy just a bit younger than me. Also lives alone. He was walking around our little neighborhood, knocking on doors and asking if we needed a hug, he gives big long bear hugs. He said, "Tomorrow is the start of a bad time, we all are...

Origins: "We know for certain, for instance, for some reason for some time in the beginning there were hot lumps. Cold and lonely, they whirled noiselessly through the black holes of space. These insignificant lumps came together to form the first union: our Sun, the heating system. And about this glowing gasbag rotated the Earth. We w...

In Coming Months For all you who support terrorist, domestic or foreign. Just a note: A lot of us lefty, liberal, woke, democrats might be peace loving. But we are also armed. And not a threat to any other peace loving soul. We don't brag, nor flaunt, nor worship the tools we use. Yet we know well how to use them. And when not to use t...

A Seven Year Experiment In Not Sucking. Despite what you have heard, there is an internet place for social interaction, that does not cause your brain to melt. I know because I frequent it often. If you go looking for it you will find a ton of disinformation about it. I have read such things as: "this place banned me, after my first po...

Death and Grief. Alright, here goes. I'm old. What that means is that l've survived (so far) and a lot of people l've known and loved did not. I've lost friends, best friends, acquaintances, co-workers, grandparents, mom, dad, relatives, teachers, mentors, students, neighbors, and a host of other folks. I have had two children, and I h...

Regeneration "Gem, can you move it already, that beam is getting uncomfortably close to my head." "Sure thing boss." She shifted a meter upslope with grace of a dancer. I knew exactly how heavy that backpack was, and the 18 megawatt handheld laser it powered. We settled down again to wait. And I asked for the hundredth time, "How old a...

Here is a story about document automation. First, the problem. Paperwork all over the place, desks, boxes, filing cabinets, and random piles. Some of it slightly organized, but mostly not. Some of it very important, down all the way to junk, and everything in between. Idea, let's get all this organized. Sorted out. Filled in some manne...

Shopping Day Up early today, shopping day, and my turn. Yes we still do community shopping, we save gas, and time, and reduce exposure, to all the nasties. ~~~~~~~ So this happened. Shopping in town. I stoped by an Asian specialty grocery mart I shop at often. Really nice folks, great selection. They like me because I always place a bi...

Random Notes An example: For much of human history the role of shamans, or their like, used story, and other tools, to guide the community through a tough time. Or to equip us to think laterally or outside the box. This often lead to outright lies being told to wake the sleeper to the mysteries of nature and the world. They were not ju...

Cleaning house Organizing your email is like alphabetizing your recycling. If you're organizing stuff that you don't want, don't need, and will never use, you're going in the wrong direction. You might end up, warehousing the past in a way that isn't wholesome. To do anything about this, first make a hole. Part of making a hole is to f...

February 10 1999 My clean and sober date. 25 fucking years. I suppose I should write something, I don't know, encouraging, or insightful, or anyway something. Sometime around 5 years clean, I started to have more good days that bad days. And that ratio has only increased. But those first 5 years were crazy making. This was not the firs...

Audio Also in my time off the net I while visiting my best friend. Listening to music. She has an almost completely analog music system. She does not belong to a streaming service. Listens to vinyl and tape. It would be totally analog, but she does have a neighbor down the road, who will for a small fee, take downloaded FLAC files and ...

So what is this? This is a very short work, prompted by the following two quotes: “Talk, loudly and frequently and in detail, about the future you want. You can’t manifest what you don’t share.” ~ Madeline Ashby And “Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within....

Caution: This is a rambling, unfinished thread. I just want to put it out in the world. I have some thoughts. ~~~~~~~~ What is a flourishing community? How do we sustain & grow better, individually, in community? Here is a start to the answer: First, We need to grasp the idea that individuality, & community are completely and universal...

The Gift Note: The other day a close friend of mine had a birthday. He had been feeling sort of at a loss, unsure of what he should be doing. So I gave him a gift, with these instructions. Instructions: Problem statement. Life ain’t fun anymore. The muse moved out. There’s a hole where the meaning used to be. Even comedy and snark seem...

Informative Transgressions As one gets older, one has a larger historical frame, and thus can notice subtle changes. I have noticed a marked increase in what I call “Informative Transgressions”. In my casual conversations with people I don’t really know, but interact with often. The tone, and the content of stories, has remarkably chan...

Xmas 2020 In the true sprit of the day. I will be out in the cold, helping to feed the homeless. Also distributing gifts of warm clothes, and camping gear. In my area the homeless population has grown by 20%, and we expect that to triple in the coming months. One thing different this year, the number of people in need, the number of pe...

A cat story. So in 1991 I move to Portland Or. Was clean and sober about 3 years. One day on my way home from work I heard some kittens crying in an abandoned house. On investigation I found two small kittens buried in refuse in a back room. Took them home, and then to a vet. One didn't make it but the other I adopted. We thought is wa...

On a personal note: My working life: For about 400 years all printing was done by wooden, steel, or lead type. Or etched metal plates, for line drawings. Now it is all done by computers and lasers. But for a brief time between these two technologies, existed photo mechanical offset printing. This is what I became expert in, working for...

Safety Third: Some time in the early 1990's I moved to a new city and needed a job badly. So I applied at several temp agencies. After working 2 or 3 truly shity jobs, the temp agency called and said, "because you showed up to work on time and worked hard at each assignment, we have a very special long term placement for you", (by the ...

My recipe for great coffee. Cold brewed coffee. So why do this? Flavor, Flavor, Flavor. Very low acidity, almost no bitterness, and best of all it is just plain simple. One can make a lot of it at one time, so no waiting in the morning. Just heat and drink. It all starts with good coffee beans. Don't scrimp on this. Good beans cost mor...

To do and notice: Some of the fabric of what most call the Internet is unraveling. The blue bird has self destructed, mastodon and other social media have grown. But also splintered the idea of one size fits all. This is generally a very good thing for most people. It is bad news for the few that had become dependent on getting the wor...

So what is this? This is a very short work, prompted by the following two quotes: “Talk, loudly and frequently and in detail, about the future you want. You can’t manifest what you don’t share.” ~ Madeline Ashby And “Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within....

This started when I was about four years old we had moved to the San Juan Islands and my dad was teaching me how to swim in Puget Sound. He did this by having me climb on his back, my arms around his neck while he would swim slowly out into the bay. One morning as we got to the dock, and an old fisherman said that a pod of Orcas were v...

Random notes on: Is Buddhism a religion, or a cultural technology. "You Don't Look Like A Buddhist." When one first comes to Buddhism, one is often put off, both by the strange language, and the fact that everyone seems to be talking to each other like "insiders". As if they already know this stuff, and are repeating some inside joke. ...

My Christmas Story. Just over 38 years ago, was not the first time I kicked heroin. It wasn’t the last time, Yet it was the one time it happened at Christmas. Many years ago, (1986), I was destitute, homeless, and strung-out. I finely decided to go to a medical detox and get clean. I camped out in front of the detox center for 3 days b...