It’s a Networked World

Posted on February 16, 2018 by ehurst

The core of the geek community is rabidly hostile to anything that smacks of censorship, and militantly favors radical free expression. Their influence is not always recognized by the broader consumer public. These two groups overlap some, but it’s hard to measure. What we see on the Net is a thin veneer of mindless consumerism hiding a very dark and powerful faction that could and would readily destroy the whole thing.

Big Technology is fully aware of this tension. They have to walk a tightrope, but there are too many bigshots who forget or imagine they have the power to ignore the geeks. But it turns out that the geeks have a very real power to ignore the windbags among tech titans and proceed with whatever the hell they please. Companies that tried to push the geeks out, or who tried to cherry pick the ones they wanted, tried to tame them with corporate culture, are the ones we remember vaguely, now gone from the scene. The core of entrepreneurial vitality makes room for the antisocial geeks, even in what passes for their boardrooms.

This is the new wave of activism; this is the real deal. It’s not so much they are right-wing, but an odd mixture of libertarian and liberal influences that defy easy characterization. To the mainstream, the geeks seem often juvenile, pushing the social boundaries for the sheer fun of shocking the mainstream. It’s a mistake to imagine they’ll grow out of it. One man’s puerile is another man’s moral responsibility. The geek is whole new thing previously not possible before the Internet.

The one thing they will not tolerate is the social justice warrior (SJW) movement. It’s not just lampooning, but open spite and persecution of the SJW snowflakes. They have driven executives out of their high-paid positions by merciless harassment. They pick their battles rather well. Quite often they are content to wound their targets without trying to finish them off. Still, their true power has yet to be seen.

Despite the geeks animosity toward SJWs, that is mere entertainment compared to the very real threat of corporate censorship. I note in passing that geeks would not hesitate to read something on an openly socialist website; their actual politics are eclectic. It’s much more useful to understand their moral philosophy, and to keep a very cynical eye toward established political institutions. Unilever is seeking to use their economic leverage to oppress and silence free expression, a cardinal sin in the eyes of the geek community.

This is all part of our proper understanding of the coming tribulation as the West crumbles and the Networked Civilization rises to take its place. The geeks reflect the core values of a networked society. A significant portion of Big Technology companies are still too much a part of the dying Western materialist world. Their recalcitrance is what will make it so painful for all of us. And you can be sure the geeks are watching them. To the degree Unilever adheres to this evil plan, they will face serious push-back from the geeks.

Unilever names their co-conspirators. You’ll notice that Facebook has wavered a great deal. Zuckerberg wants the mainstream money, but his geek roots won’t let him forget where he came from without paying a very high price. So FB has lost a significant portion of its audience in the past year because of this very real defiance of the geeks’ unlimited free expression. Google has been walking a tightrope and is wobbling. Twitter is on the verge of collapse, though it may not be obvious.

The old advertisement based model of funding is dying quickly. Get used to the idea of micro-payments and other forms of support. Get used to a wide array of small independent operations, and quite a few more who look for ways to participate with the likes of Amazon and remain mostly free. We live in a time when all it takes is a few missteps alienating the geeks and a massive corporation can simply die, replaced with something else, maybe a lot somethings.

Unilever has just painted a huge target on themselves.

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Individualism and Commitments

Posted on February 15, 2018 by ehurst

Under the covenant of Radix Fidem, we know that we cannot simply rebuild the ancient ways in our current society. Rather, we seek to reawaken the heart of what was behind the ancient biblical religion. We aren’t the Hebrew people, but we are inheritors of their commitment to God’s truth. We want the ancient faith expressed in our own context.

This is what was behind 2 Timothy 2:15, for in the day Paul wrote that letter to his young assistant, the “word of truth” was the Old Testament, the only Scriptures they had at that time. The idea was to search the Covenant of Moses in light of Christ’s teachings to discern what was of the essence versus what was merely contextual expression. We find the mainstream Western churches have cut away even the bones of faith, and we have no desire to perpetuate their errors. We seek to understand the Old Testament, not from our own cultural basis, but from the intellectual traditions of the people who wrote it.

It’s a lot of work. One does not easily walk away from everything they’ve ever known and journey to a world that many have tried to bury even deeper in the sands of time. It’s not merely a few things we shift, but a radical removal of everything, pulling up the roots and planting them in a different soil. Thus, “Radix Fidem” translates from Latin into English as “root of faith.”

One of the biggest issues for people seeking to embrace this different worldview is forsaking the individualism of our world. It’s not as if we demand a hive-mind of thinking alike; it’s a false dichotomy to suggest that’s the only alternative to individualism. We aren’t communists; we are family. It’s a question of your commitments.

The Western mind is committed to itself. There may be any number of self-deceptive masks for this. The favorite is the ideal of objective fact. We know from our studies in biblical thinking that this is the big lie of Western society. Logic is just a set of tools designed to exclude convictions of the heart. But logic is not a starting point; it’s just a method, an approach to ultimate answers. It is wholly self-deceptive, because it pretends that one could simply use the rules properly to arrive at some desirable conclusion.

The finest, most austere use of logic has to start somewhere; it always presumes that one thing or another is good and right. Without that basic assumption, logic has no where to go. There has to be an a priori value system in place, a set of assumptions by which we judge the validity of our logic. In reality, logic starts from whatever it is the fallen nature desires. The intellect is part of the fallen nature, and deceives itself in a pretense of objectivity.

In biblical mystical logic (yes, it is a type of self-consistent logic), we openly admit to our presumptions of value — a value system revealed by God. The individual is not simply nothing, but we recognize that the individual is not where God intended without a family, either blood kin or covenant kin (or both). And the individual is meant to find life and meaning inside the family, not as just an individual on his own. An individual without a family has nothing, no matter how much property he can claim. A biblical individual is committed to the family first.

This is why the political philosophy of democracy is an abomination. It pulls the individual out of the family setting, and does not permit that kind of loyalty that God demands. In Western thinking, one is obliged to commit to any number of inadequate replacements for the family. Thus, there are many bogus claims on the individual aimed at robbing the family and destroying covenants.

FYI: There have been a lot of hits on my post about our emphasis on Biblical Law. It seems to have touched on something and it looks like the link is being shared.

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A Ready Answer

Posted on February 14, 2018 by ehurst

We aren’t secretive; we are ignored. Radix Fidem doesn’t register on the radar screen. Perhaps you understand that the only way we could change that is to compromise on the very nature of what we do.

Still, we struggle with this, because we have an instinct to share, to wish that everyone could experience what we do every day. How many people in this world can hear the songs of Creation? We literally talk to the flora and fauna and hear their voices. Our instincts tell us people should know about this, that there is some awful injustice in having it kept from them. It burns in our hearts.

The rest of the world can’t handle that right now. What they can handle is how we live in the joy of shalom; they can see that, even if not consciously. Something inside of them cries out to have a piece of that shalom. There are a lot ways that cry is suppressed and smothered, but it’s there. That something inside them recognizes when they see it in us.

Here’s a word of prophetic warning: We are going to suffer exposure, a form of attention we don’t want. It’s coming. All of my blather about how to put into words what drives us is meant to prepare you all. I want you to be ready to handle the social pressure. Maybe not so much that we can shut down criticism, but that we have a ready answer for the faith that is in us.

We can characterize it in various ways, but “characterize” is exactly what we do. It’s not something we can tell that easily. Even if we could, it requires such a huge leap of faith that most outside folks can’t do it. So we have to use parables and indicators that point to the real answer so they can move closer.

One of the things I’ve done in the past when faced with someone who is very argumentative is tell them that they are clinging to presumptions that don’t apply to me. In other words, they are pressing a priori arguments that I don’t accept. I’m very fortunate to have the kind of education that makes it possible to speak that language, along with dumbed down versions of it. If I don’t buy into Western epistemology, then any debates will have to take that into account.

At other times, I just disarm hostility by owning up to something they can’t dispute. For example, I’ve told several people to just mark me as a nut-case, some alien creature from outer space. I have no use for mainstream respect in the first place, so by moving directly to the margins and plastering simplistic labels on my forehead, I can deflate a lot hostility. Let them call me whatever they like, because disputing such labels is a waste of time and effort, hindering any chance of doing them some good.

So I encourage you to find ways to answer directly when you can, and deflect any disputes when answering is pointless. The time is coming when the best answer is to live in the power of divine justice by the heart. They are going to start noticing us soon, so be ready.

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Draper Points 11 and 12

Posted on February 13, 2018 by ehurst

Just as a point of reference, these are the numbered points on the northern half of Draper Lake (image on the right). Today I visited Points 11 and 12. The morning started out frosty but began to warm about half-way to noon. It looked like it would hit 60°F (about 15C). I headed out just before noon and it was okay with lower 40s (6C) but just before I got down to Post and SE 74th, thick clouds rolled in and the temperature stopped rising. It didn’t get any colder, but it also didn’t get much warmer the rest of the day.

Point 11 is very near to the main road, just a short ride up to the parking circle. The path down to the shore wasn’t quite ridable for me, so I dismounted. This point is way up in the pocket and sees less traffic than others. However, it was nice enough. Most of the shore is a drop-off about a meter above the current waterline. This first image from the point (above left) shows the one thin slice of dirt slope. This next shot shows the southernmost tip of the point, painted brightly by a bombing inland seagull.

From there I took the shore trail around the eastern side, which has seen a lot of foot traffic. It brought me back to the old road, now just a bare dirt and gravel section that goes nowhere. At the opening to the trail for Point 12, a sign indicated this was a recovering preserve and no wheels allowed, only feet, hooves and paws. That meant I had to climb on up to the main road and ride the asphalt out onto the point. All the points visible to me today had been cleared of underbrush, but it was only a half-assed job (above left). There were lots of stumps left poking out of the ground, and some of the cuttings had not been hauled off. Even prison labor usually does a better job than that.

On my last adventure, I shot a picture of Point 12 from across the water, and the bluff was visible. This next image (above right) shows the bluff on the western side of the point is sloped out on the end, but if you could walk farther back up the shore, it would become quite steep. I didn’t want to walk too far away from my bike because there were other folks out and about on this point today, and the trail was too narrow to push my bike (again, riding wasn’t permitted). But out on the point itself, the shore is virtually all rock. On the left here is the western edge of the point.

The point itself is a large sloping rock shelf (right). The advantage of overcast skies is that you don’t have to worry about where the sun is. This place has seen a lot of human traffic, with all kinds of graffiti carved into the soft red sandstone. You can see from this image on the left, taken from farther around the wide point, that the whole thing is rocky. Not so easy to see is several shallow rocky spots just off shore. Despite low wind speeds, it was a lovely noise of water splashing against the rocks.

This last shot is looking around the eastern side of the point. I did walk the trail just a short ways and it’s quite passable on foot. Maybe I’ll come back sometime with a vehicle I can lock safely and walk this are more. This excursion didn’t take too long, and I was on my way out in less than an hour after I got out to the lake area.

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A Scurrilous Political Rant

Posted on February 12, 2018 by ehurst

First, let me state my excuse for this post: People keep shoving political crap at me in the background. They ask me to use my forum here to promote something they are so sure is God’s will. It’s not. I figure that at a minimum, maybe I can stop their lying pressure by spoiling their hopes of hijacking my message. I want to come out with some commentary that makes it clear their preferred agenda will never show up on this blog.

So let’s paint the background first: America is doomed. She is under God’s wrath and it’s just getting started. We are going to see things that will shock the conscience, because the demons are going to be set loose on this country. Their mission will be to destroy the United States as a political entity and humble the insufferable arrogance against God’s revealed truth. There are no good guys. There are a few smart ones who could potentially make things work for awhile, but nobody with any significant influence on the direction of this country is working for righteousness. So the best you could get from anyone in politics is finding a feasible way to make things work as they are, and the demons will ensure no one listens to them.

The folks pushing on me behind the scenes are Trump fans. That man is not the evil his opponents suggest; he is an entirely different kind of evil. Everyone’s attention is on the wrong things regarding Trump. Back off and take a look: He’s unique among all the presidents in US history, because he says very publicly exactly what he thinks at the moment he thinks it. No one can muzzle him. And when he changes his mind later, no one notices that he actually starts to work toward that change in thinking. Why he might change his mind about things is easily explained by knowing who he is and how he operates. He is not a man of principle; he’s a man of profit and power. He’s a showman, the most preposterous and loud-mouthed showman we’ve ever had in the White House. The show must go on, and he is always the star. Keep that in mind and you’ll understand the inexplicable craziness of how his staff change so often.

Notice that I suggest nothing admirable about the man, only that he is not what most of his critics claim. The propaganda against him is cheap and goofy, and misses the point. The real problem is that he has no principles. Thus, he is the single biggest threat to his own supporters. So far, he has reneged on all of the most important promises he made during the election campaign. He could have done a whole lot better, but went into this totally ignorant of how it works, and ignorant of what he was up against — willfully ignorant. He’s too arrogant to have done it wisely, in the sense that it would have required a small army of domestic espionage agents to disembowel his opposition by attacking the things they value most — and they sure as Hell don’t value what they proclaim in public. So we end up with Trump trying to accommodate people who never wanted anything that got him elected, and now he’s just a tool of the neocons.

I said that he was God’s chosen vessel of destruction for America. Not God’s avenger, but a vessel of destruction. He’s not supposed to survive this in the political sense. There is a high probability he will be removed from office. Try to understand how this works: The Special Prosecutor is an independent arm of the FBI; Mueller is a former Director of the FBI. Trump should not talk to this man ever. Why? The FBI has never been about justice; there is no way you can talk things out with them. The FBI is a prosecutorial bureaucracy with a predatory hive-mind. It cannot do what’s right except by accident. No one in their right mind would trust the FBI; it’s a mindless beast of hatred and political persecution. When they have absolutely nothing on a victim, they simply have a conference with the individual and manipulate things so that they can charge them with lying to the FBI. This, while the FBI demands the authority to lie, even to judges, with impunity. Thus, an impeachment is almost a foregone conclusion, sooner or later. Even if it fails, the political wrangling will only get worse.

The political fallout from attempted impeachment is what will fracture the US. We are past the point of no return on that path. It’s not a question of who supports Trump, but who would rather burn the whole thing down than to allow the current opposition any chance of seizing power again. That prospect is so frightening to a certain population that it would mean an armed revolution. But it’s more likely to mean that certain officials in various offices of the federal government, people hitherto officially not supposed to use their leverage for political ends, will be forced to throw their weight behind one side or another in such a political fracas, and it will destroy the system. We could see the military committed to a partisan stance, for example. We already see the FBI committed to such a partisan stance, a stance against Trump. So keep your eye on how other agencies will be pushed into this battle.

As I said: There are no good guys in this battle, and America is doomed.

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Ain’t Happenin’ Here

Posted on February 12, 2018 by ehurst

Seven days without worship makes one weak.

That’s an old pun — week/weak. Let’s pretend for a moment that I wasn’t able to post on my blog for a week or so. Let’s pretend further you all knew why, so it wasn’t a mystery or a concern. Would it make a difference in your daily joy and peace?

It’s one thing to recognize that our human flesh needs reminding that Christ is Lord. It’s another thing to assume the joy of the Lord comes only through certain prescribed rituals overseen by duly appointed leaders. I hope you would miss my posts, but it’s not as if you really need me around to make religion work. That old pun above was actually written: “Seven days without the Lord makes one weak.” I first encountered it attached to an advertisement soliciting participation in a weekday chapel gathering during lunch break on a Baptist college campus. You need to go to church more than one day per week!

This was actively taught in ministry classes. It was presented with well worn arguments that it was in the congregation’s best interest. It was right up there with the constant harassment about tithing. Sure, we all knew that in the Bible, tithing was required of only the farmers and herders, that no one else was expected to give a tithe of their income. But we simply must preach tithing of all income because it’s good for the people as a measure of self-discipline. Or some such patronizing nonsense. It was all a part of the package that the congregation needs management or regulation of their religious life.

Why?

I can see that argument if we are in the context of a covenant nation where the majority of folks are doing religion in the flesh. The Bible makes it clear that you have to develop a cultural milieu that makes moral negligence difficult in such cases. If we presume that a congregation of fellow believers is a micro-nation under a covenant of faith, what happens to the voluntary nature of faith? In a voluntary parish community, we might presume there are some family members dragged to church by their parents, but there should be a presumption of a majority of faithful members, something we can’t have in a covenant nation. Yet I can tell you with all seriousness that mainstream Christian churches assume a majority of folks who show up for all kinds of reasons short of genuine faith. They all assume a social setting where church attendance serves other purposes than actual worship and teaching.

Let me caution you against slipping off into those assumptions when it comes to Radix Fidem. We associate in a parish because it’s obedience to Biblical Law, and also because we like it for the sheer joy of sharing faith. There will be nothing in this that offers any other social benefits. If you can’t go outside and joyfully worship in communion with the grass on your lawn, or the birds flitting about, or the wind breathing in your hair, then you really don’t belong in this parish. Nobody is going to ask you to leave, but you have positioned yourself here as an outsider. We aren’t closing you out; you simply haven’t come inside yet.

For Radix Fidem, the covenant assumes you are heart-led, that you have discovered the supremacy of the heart over the intellect, and have made that fateful choice to subject your brain to your convictions. Included in that is the utter necessity that you commune with the natural world as one living thing and a million living entities, all at the same time. If you do not sense reality itself as a person and friend, you need to work on your perception of things. That’s all presumed under the Radix Fidem covenant.

And with all of that, sharing in the reading of my posts, for example, is just icing on the cake. You don’t need me, though you may want to hear from me. And as much as it is possible to do so via the Internet, I love you, too. It would work better if I heard from you directly some way, but the compassion and favor is there waiting for you to claim. And my faith says I should presume the same of you.

So if you aren’t worshiping and celebrating your inclusion in the Kingdom of Heaven every day, it won’t do much good to gather together in any sense. The foundation of what holds us together is that divine fellowship; without that, ain’t nothing happening here.

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Silence Is Sin

Posted on February 11, 2018 by ehurst

Over the past few weeks I’ve tried to establish in our minds a fundamental truth: What happens in this world really doesn’t matter in the ultimate sense. What matters is our commitment. Your heart-led conviction will lead to specific choices and actions, but those things matter only as indicators of your commitment.

This is why we don’t have to come up with the same answers. This is why we can relax and let our brothers and sisters carry on with their lives in contradiction to our own preferences. In the end, it really doesn’t matter what we think or do; what matters is the heart of conviction. If we can see through the actions and apparent thoughts to the heart of commitment and faith, then we can set aside human differences.

When I share with you some of my ideas about how things could be better in this world, I hope you see the faith behind it, that your heart will assess the conviction behind it and guide your mind to understand what really counts for Christ’s glory. It may well be you would respect my opinion on something, but nobody is holding you accountable for echoing my thoughts — I sure don’t. There’s nothing wrong with bantering back and forth on a worldly level as the means to indicating something about our individual callings.

I’m not sure I can so easily slice and dice in neat packages between heart-led moral wisdom and seasoned social science. On the bottom line, until all human government bows the knee to the Covenant of Noah as the entry point to divine justice, nothing we see really matters in human politics. On the other hand, we could see ways to make things a little better within the context of what we now have. In terms of making things a little better, we should have differing ideas. No two of us will see the same problems, nor see those problems in the same light.

I can tell you that the US government has sinned greatly by poking around in the business of other governments. That’s a simple and direct violation of Biblical Law. The warfare in Syria is largely our fault in the first place; the revolt and the rise of ISIS was the result of our meddling via CIA spies and provocateurs, working alongside Mossad and a few others.

Giving aid to the Kurds in itself is not a problem; as a nation of distinct people they do not warrant the oppression of having their homeland partitioned between Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. But that was something done to them long ago, so there is no simple answer. Still, there’s no harm in helping them. The problem comes in how we do not champion their independence, but manipulate and use them to make everything worse. Thus, our presence among them, particularly in Syria, is inexcusable.

I don’t have space to discuss Turkey in depth, but they are currently so very far from right that it doesn’t matter what they do, it’s almost all evil. Russia has been pretty much on the right side of things in Syria, in contrast to most other participants. Iran is there by invitation, as well. It’s nobody else’s business. Israel is even worse than Turkey; she has done nothing right. And so on…

All of that is partly a matter of Biblical Law and partly just my opinion. Your heart can tell the difference; I don’t need to justify myself in your eyes. You can discern what I’m trying to do here: pointing back to Biblical Law in contrast to the hopelessness of human striving for things nobody should have. Is there some hope that biblical wisdom can help make things a little bit better for human existence on this planet? No. They aren’t going to listen to God; nothing I say will provoke more than a tiny handful of folks to prayerful consideration of what is just in God’s eyes.

But I can’t simply say nothing at all. There has to be a prophetic warning to people to satisfy the duty to calling and mission. That’s what God’s people do. Whether with words like mine or through some other form of personal devotion to calling, we have to point out sin as sin. That tiny handful who will respond are the ones I care most about; they are the ones who justify my efforts to share what’s in my heart. I can’t do much to help anyone else, but I shall not neglect those the Lord has granted into my shepherd’s care.

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Sermon on the Mount 19

Posted on February 10, 2018 by ehurst

False Disciples 7:21-23

Jesus continues the thought in the previous lesson — there are false prophets and false disciples. The same criterion applies; it’s not enough to observe protocol. There has to be a solid connection with the heart and with shalom.

Who will be invited into the Messiah’s presence as a citizen of Heaven? Here Jesus makes it painfully obvious that He is the Messiah who will be ruling with such power. He warns in advance that observing ritual won’t be enough. Once He shows His real power and authority, who would dare be rude enough to openly reject such authority? Don’t come bowing and scraping and hoping to curry favor once it’s obvious. Any fool can do that.

Indeed, it won’t be enough to play political games and hitch a ride on His rising star. People could already see that Jesus did miracles, and the manner in which He did them spoke loudly of authority over Creation as a whole. Again, anyone with ambition can run around campaigning and advertising on His behalf. With all the political ferment among Jews, this was just one more party. So seizing upon the authority of His title as Messiah might have some very real effects on demons and diseases, but that isn’t going to somehow soak down into your life automatically.

Who will be welcomed into His courts for a plum job? The minimum standard is the same one everybody has known for thousands of years: Obey the revelation of God. Jesus says that’s His Father. The Messianic office is bestowed by the Creator, and it is the Father’s Kingdom first. So if you have been a loyal citizen of Heaven from of old, then you’ll be a loyal citizen in the new reign of the Son.

As the Messenger, John the Baptist had warned, now is the time to get right with the existing covenant and you will belong to the new covenant by default. It’s all a continuum. What pleases the Father and wins His favor will work just as well with the Son. He will publicly proclaim as His disciples those who walk by the heart of conviction. Everyone who does not embrace the revelation will be dismissed regardless of attempts to curry favor on the wrong terms.

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Remember the Future

Posted on February 10, 2018 by ehurst

It’s been quite frustrating from the human point of view. It started with a simple service call to replace a couple of case fans on a computer I built for someone a few years ago.

That computer then stopped working right after the job was done. Given the age of the hardware, that’s not shocking in itself, but it was wholly unexpected. And the lady had been planning to replace it anyway, so it was just a matter of timing. She didn’t plan on having to replace it so soon, though she happened to have the money for it. So a replacement was ordered from another supplier because I was no longer confident with the one that provided the previous hardware.

Then she decided not to have all of her eggs in one basket and picked up a laptop, too. And as I was trying to help her get this new system all set up with her favorite collection of software, we started having network trouble. After poking around her DSL modem, I began wondering if the thing was hijacked. I had trouble keeping connected to the modem interface itself. She called someone she knew who could help her with the technical details I couldn’t have known about her DSL connection (cable is not available in her area). For all he could tell, the modem itself was failing. Either way, we didn’t get far with the set up process because we couldn’t keep a reliable Internet connection working.

You get the picture: How many things can go wrong at once? Just when I’m there to help out with a few issues, everything dies on me. She doesn’t blame me for anything; she knows how this stuff works. But it seems just crazy that it all comes apart at the same time.

Of course, I say this is a good time to get stuff like that out of the way. She’s ordered a new DSL modem that has all the latest networking features, and two new computers that can run the latest and greatest software, so she’ll be future-proof. Once everything arrives and is properly set up, she’ll be in good shape for several years. It was all unexpected, but it fits what I believe God is doing right now.

My heart says to persevere because the Lord is actually trying to protect her from what’s coming. I’m going to keep working with her situation until it’s back on track for her business. I believe His favor rests on her, despite what it appears in the flesh. I’m reminded to think about what’s coming and how this fits the pattern of my convictions.

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Bits and Pieces 30

Posted on February 9, 2018 by ehurst

My lower legs all scratched up from yesterday’s ride. Dragging a bike through heavy underbrush is not a recommended activity. But I still feel it was worth it to see that lovely shoreline.

I’m trying to get used to working without a mouse. This XPS laptop comes with a really good touchpad and it takes only one console command to make the driver recognize a three-finger tap as a middle-button mouse click (synclient TapButton3=2) so that I really don’t need the mouse. This makes it easier to use the laptop comfortably under a wide range of physical settings. Besides, it only has two USB ports, so I need to avoid hogging one of them with a mouse. It’s still just a little tricky when processing photos, but I’m getting the hang of it.

The other thing I’m learning to do is avoid keeping all my files on just one machine. The “new” smartphone came with a bunch of free cloud storage. I’m not sure I’ll use anywhere near the capacity, but I suppose it’s convenient for stuff that isn’t too sensitive and private. I have learned how to move files using Bluetooth between the phone and laptop, but it’s not simple. I got a copy of Android Phones for Dummies so I can discover all kinds of tricks for taming this phone. I still don’t like Android, but there’s not much choice.

The current stock market plunge isn’t far enough to bring on a crisis. I figure it has to get down to about half the recent highs before it means very much. Still, we are in the early stages of something a lot of experts have been predicting for a long time. The market is waaaay over-valued. If the stock indexes keep falling, some of the other stuff I’ve mentioned will start happening.

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