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Hunt & Peck

Feb 26, 2021
I used to work at a university where I was amazed to watch one the of the deans ‘hunt & peck’₁ at a keyboard. How did a person who creates documents and reports for a living possibly not know how to type? Since then, I’ve learned that the ‘hunt & peck’ approach is prevalent in all fields of expertise and I’ve started to use it as a metaphor for ineptitude. I’m personally guilty in that it took me years to stop glancing at the keyboard on occasion. Even now, I find myself making errors in the dark if I’m not on a backlit keyboard.

I’ve learned the proficiency is really just a matter of perspective and the perspective I have on my work now pales in comparison to that of just ten years ago. I recently read that over 50% of developer time is spent on technical debt and that it costs some $85 billion annually₂. I can attest to the truth in this simply because I spend so many of my working hours fixing legacy software and websites. I sometimes prefer ‘fixing’ over ‘building’ because the results are immediately palpable and the clients get immediate satisfaction. I’ve learned to use techniques to avoid future technical debt. My primary method is simplicity in function and streamlining my workflow.

The video above illustrates a workflow I use when building WordPress websites. I had to retool my front end from Bootstrap to TailwindCSS recently. In the process, I set it up to give me an option for reloading the concatenated production files, syncing all front to back end actions, and dynamically generating triad/quartile color schemes. I customize the Gutenberg native blocks to match the theme exactly in the editor to make it intuitive on the end user. I try to automated and streamline everything I work on in an effort to avoid technical debt. I often get requests to fix WordPress websites because I’ve worked with so many folks on WordPress, it’s so widely used, and because of it’s extensibility. It’s occasionally hacked sites, but mostly due to the technical debt of an array of third party plugins and proprietary code which WordPress has made so easy for users to install. I’ve developed what some may call, a very opinionated approach to best practices. I’ve developed a singular project codebase₃ that I use to test, develop, and repair. I use a singular base theme₄ to build out new projects on my staging site where I keep all the details₅.

I spent many years using the hunt & peck method for typing and web development. I still do on some projects and when I’m learning new things. Although being able to write code without a reference is a time saver, I suppose we all do for the later. There’s a running joke about checking Stack Overflow₆ in r/programming humor₇. And as much as I’m just trying to make myself look smart here, if you were to examine my search history at any point, you’ll see it’s entirely dominated by Stack Overflow.

Hunt & peck is really just a way of learning. Ever since I raised chickens, I’ve compared their behavior to ours. Although I don’t understand how a person who writes reports for a living doesn’t know how to type, I completely understand how a person who writes code for a living uses Stack Overflow. I’ve always kinda had this sneaking suspicion that the end result of having an unlimited amount of information available at our fingertips would be that we would stop storing some of it. Although I don’t believe voice command or code completion tools will get some of us away from the keyboard in the foreseeable future, I should stop using the hunt & peck as a metaphor for ineptitude and start embracing it as a method of learning.
1. Hunt & Peck – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typing#Hunt_and_peck
2. Stripe – The Developer Coefficient – Software engineering efficiency and its $3 trillion impact on global GDP – https://stripe.com/files/reports/the-developer-coefficient.pdf
3. Code – WP – https://code.davidawindham.com/david/wp
4. Code -DWP – WordPress – https://code.davidawindham.com/david/dwp
5. WP Staging – https://wp.davidwindham.com
6. Stack Overflow – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_Overflow
7. Reddit r/programminghumor – https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/
Section 230

Feb 18, 2021
I’d like to share my take on Section 230₁because it came up again while I was watching the congressional hearings on the stock market volatility. The Wall Street Journal had the best opening line on it with “It turns out a congressional hearing aimed partly at investigating stock-pumping on the internet is a great opportunity for, well pumping stocks on the internet”₂. I really enjoyed the testimony₃ from Keith Gill (“Roaring Kitty” aka DFV )₄. The whole thing just reminded me of the early days of internet pump and dump spam schemes revisited and the fact that again, folks are publicly asking about how internet communications are having an effect on our society. Although I didn’t have any personal financial interest, I was pulling for the Wall Street Bets crowd because I was more interested in the power of communication medium. When Section 230 was mentioned during the hearings, it just reminded me of the other recent debates encircling the law so I’ve been thinking a good bit about it and making some mental notes.

First off, let me say that I think the actual bad part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996₅ was not Section 230. It was Title III Sec. 303, the law that deregulated media cross-ownership. Supporters of the law implied that it would create more competition, but in reality all it really did create more media concentration, less diversity, and higher prices. It’s why a handful of companies own almost all local radio and television stations. That’s an essay for another time and for now I just want to focus on Section 230.

It’s Title V, and particularly Sec. 230 that’s been making the news. It states:

“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider”.

And with those words, the the majority of the modern internet and social media flourished because it allowed platforms to host user generated content without liability to the content. The reason it’s such a hot topic item now is the fallout from the foreign interference in the 2016 United States elections_6,the subsequent online information war about the 2020 elections, and the recent banning of some users. There have been several bills introduced in an effort to remove section 230 protections. What it really emphasizes is how powerful our online communications have become. It’s no surprise that the same communication platforms responsible for the Arab Spring would also be responsible for meddling in elections and so on. I’m a moderate on it and can easily see both sides of the argument. However, I still firmly believe that a private company such as Twitter can set their usage guidelines however they see fit and removing the liability protections of section 230 will do very little to change those policies while filling the courts with libel cases.

I’ve only had a couple real life experiences with section 230. I learned quite some time ago how pitiful folks can act when they keyboard warrior₇ behind a screen. I saw this up close when used to manage a bunch of daily newspapers with user commenting enabled. I kept wondering to myself why people could be so rude with their comments and my explanation to myself was that folks were just miserable out there. I often wondered why we even offered comments on the articles and I suggested to the upper brass that we only provide social sharing links so that folks could discuss their opinions elsewhere which many publications now do. The only clever thing that came out of dealing with those comment sections were that we designed a system that allowed us to ‘black hole’ an offensive commenter where we would still allow them to comment, but only show the comment to that particular user. It stopped the offender from just creating a new account by giving them the impression that their comments were being published. I also had a bit of real world experience more recently when my home owners association decided to send out an email stating that buses of protesters were coming to upscale neighborhoods. I checked with the management, my cousin in law enforcement, and with some others in the community to try and find the source of this information. Sure enough it originated on social media and spread like any other rumor does. I took the time to track down the original source of the information in a tweet from an account likely run from an overseas misinformation farm. The Twitter account in question had actually posted two contradictory tweets. One was that rioters were being bussed to Greenwood, South Carolina and the second was that the local police would be putting snipers on rooftops. This was widely documented to have happened all across the US₈. The most distressing part of it was how rapidly this misinformation could spread around a small town without anyone ever really verifying the source of the information and literally landing in my inbox alongside of all of my neighbors. It’s for exactly this reason, that I’ve primarily abandoned social media.

Social media companies could be held liable for their users postings without the protections afforded by Section 230. If I slandered someone on this website and then had the top search result for that person, I’d certainly expect to receive a cease and desist. But let’s say I slandered someone over the teleconference call. Does that mean that the telephone provider should be held liable? Section 230 does not preclude providers from hosting anything that violates state of federal law, so the current debate really revolves around issues of civil liabilities. The impetus for which revolved around pornography because at the time it was passed, Congress was preparing the Communications Decency Act (CDA)₉ which was challenged by the Supreme Court and removed all of the anti-indecency sections of the CDA and left Sections 230 as law. The major conflicting issues about Section 230 primarily revolve around exceptions to free speech not protected by the First Amendment. I think the most pertinent current topic related to Section 230 is disinformation, or as is written in the First Amendment, false statements of fact₁₀. The supreme court has established a complex framework for determining which types of statements are unprotected. Essentially Section 230 has provided a shield to providers from libel and slander laws. Although I’d like to think it’s our own responsibility to verify sources of information, it’s become abundantly clear that a large swath of the population is unable to do so given the relatively complex nature of internet communications mediums. I believe that it is the responsibility of our laws to protect the majority of our citizens. And with Section 230, I think it’s the responsibility to moderate content that isn’t protected under the First Amendment₁₁, particularly threats of violence, hate speech, child pornography, copyright, and false statements of fact.

I do not think we should remove Section 230. I think instead, that lawmakers and elected officials should focus on the end users and not the medium. They could do so by explicitly adding another provision stating such and giving them the rights to user discovery. There are two tricky parts to this. The first is that so much of the disinformation and other exceptions to free speech not protected by the First Amendment are not being created by our own citizens held accountable by our laws. The second is that in order to focus on the content creator and not the medium, we face issues removing privacy protections. It’s my opinion that if you violate the law in a way that hurts others, that you should lose your privilege to privacy. The provision should be written in an attempt to stop providers from shielding the identities of those who could be sued or prosecuted. Without being very carefully crafted this could have a chilling effect₁₂ on privacy rights for other users.

So here we have the same folks saying that social media companies like Facebook are taking away their rights to First Amendment speech while they simultaneously consuming a rapid spread of disinformation that is clearly not protected by the First amendment. It’s a mess. I’ve tried to think of some clever ways to deal with this which don’t infringe on our rights to privacy or free speech. My personal approach has been simply to not participate in social media, but I don’t think my drop out attitude is a real solution for the majority of our citizens and it needs to be addressed by the law. As far as the law is concerned, I’m leaning towards the idea that social media companies should have the legal responsibility to moderate user generated content that isn’t protected by the First Amendment in which they have recently shown a propensity towards. I also think that we need a more robust legal mechanism of discovery to reveal users that break the law. I believe that the only real solutions are going to happen over a generation by educating the citizens as to the usage of the internet, their rights to privacy, and free speech online. I think we’re just now seeing the first real effects of a communications revolution where the laws are trying to play catch up. And yet, here I am keyboard warrior’ing on about my opinions with very little knowledge of the law, just like everyone else on the internet.
1. Section 230 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230
2. On YouTube, GameStope Hearing Just Another Pumping Opportunity – Wall Street Journal – https://www.wsj.com/articles/on-youtube-gamestop-hearing-just-another-pumping-opportunity-11613746504
3. Testimony of Keith Patrick Gill Before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services – https://docs.house.gov/meetings/BA/BA00/20210218/111207/HHRG-117-BA00-Wstate-GillK-20210218.pdf
4. Keith Gill – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Gill_(investor)
5. Telecommunications Act of 1996 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996
6. Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections
7. Keyboard Warrior – https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/keyboard_warrior
8. Antifa Rumors Spread on Local Social Media with no Evidence – https:/www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/antifa-rumors-spread-local-social-media-no-evidence-n1222486
9. Communications Decency Act – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Decency_Act
10. False Statements of Fact – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_statements_of_fact
11. United States free speech exceptions – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exceptions
12. Chilling Effect – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilling_effect
24/01/31 – I’m watching the Senate Judiciary Committee when my representative, the Chair Lindsey Graham addresses Mark Zuckerberg saying “you have blood on your hands, you have a product that is killing people” – https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5104614

While I agree that social media has been harmful to some children, I don’t think legislation will be the singular answer and they haven’t changed my opinion on Section 230. The internet is larger than ‘social media’ and they seemed to be asking these companies to police not only the internet but society itself. I didn’t think it would drastically change my opinions on it, but I do enjoy watching these folks debate the issues in a public forum. Zuck has gotten better and Evan Spiegel of Snapchat was the standout.

2020 in Music

Jan 9, 2021

I make new playlist every month of new releases. It keeps me entertained while I’m in front of the machines. I keep up with all of the music I listen to at https://davidwindham.com/studio/music . Every year I export those playlist to a list. Here are my lists from previous years. ( 2019, 2018, 2017 ) and here are my playlists from 2020 with a list of the tracks.

Artist Name	Track Name	Album Name
John Williams	A New Home	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Abdullah Ibrahim, Dollar Brand	Blues For B	Dollar Brand Plays Sphere Jazz
The Wood Brothers	Little Bit Sweet	Little Bit Sweet
Ziggy Marley	Friday’s On	Friday’s On
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross	LIFE ON MARS?	Watchmen: Volume 3 (Music from the HBO Series)
Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers	I Know You Don’t Care About Me – Live	Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers Live, Vol. 1
Frank Zappa	Piano Music – Section 1	The Hot Rats Sessions
Pearl Jam	Love, Reign O’er Me	Love, Reign O’er Me
Galactic	Float up (feat. Anjelika Jelly Joseph)	Float up (feat. Anjelika Jelly Joseph)
Terry Allen, The Panhandle Mystery Band, Shannon McNally	All These Blues Go Walkin’ By (feat. Shannon McNally)	Just Like Moby Dick
Béla Fleck, Toumani Diabaté	Nashville	Nashville
Frazey Ford	Holdin’ It Down	U kin B the Sun
Khruangbin, Leon Bridges	Midnight	Texas Sun
John Moreland	Terrestrial	LP5
Peter Bjorn and John	Drama King	Drama King
Destroyer	The Man in Black’s Blues	Have We Met
Ryuichi Sakamoto	Night Garden	Night Garden
Beck, St. Vincent	Uneventful Days – St. Vincent Remix	Uneventful Days (St. Vincent Remix)
James Taylor	As Easy As Rolling Off A Log	As Easy As Rolling Off A Log
Roger Eno, Brian Eno	Celeste	Celeste
Terry Allen, The Panhandle Mystery Band, Shannon McNally, Kru Allen	City of the Vampires (feat. Kru Allen and Shannon McNally)	Just Like Moby Dick
Roger Eno, Brian Eno	Blonde	Blonde
Pat Metheny	Same River	Same River
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit	Be Afraid	Be Afraid
Huey Lewis & The News	Remind Me Why I Love You Again	Weather
Frazey Ford	Purple And Brown	U kin B the Sun
Khruangbin, Leon Bridges	Conversion	Texas Sun
Jonathan Wilson	Enemies	Dixie Blur
Dirty Projectors	Overlord	Overlord
Kevin Morby	Gift Horse	Gift Horse b/w I Was On Time
Béla Fleck, Toumani Diabaté	Kauonding Sissoko	Kauonding Sissoko
Peter Bjorn and John	Music	Music
Quantic, Denitia	Nowhere	Nowhere
Michael Kiwanuka	Living In Denial	KIWANUKA
Marcus King	The Well	El Dorado
Andy Shauf	Clove Cigarette	The Neon Skyline
The Avalanches, Blood Orange	We Will Always Love You (feat. Blood Orange)	We Will Always Love You (feat. Blood Orange)
Moses Sumney	Cut Me	Cut Me
Destroyer	University Hill	Have We Met
Shelby Lynne	Don’t Even Believe in Love	Don’t Even Believe in Love
Gorillaz, Fatoumata Diawara	Désolé (feat. Fatoumata Diawara)	Song Machine Episode 2
Tame Impala	Breathe Deeper	The Slow Rush
The Strokes	At The Door	At The Door
Jungle Fire	Biri Biri	Jungle Fire
James Taylor	God Bless The Child	American Standard
Sweatson Klank	How the Sun Rose	Good Days
Little Dragon, Kali Uchis	Are You Feeling Sad?	Are You Feeling Sad?
Kenny Barron, Dave Holland Trio, Johnathan Blake	Until Then	Without Deception
Nicolas Godin	Concrete and Glass	Concrete and Glass
Pixies	Under the Marigold – Demo	Beneath the Eyrie (Deluxe)
Antibalas	Koto	Fu Chronicles
Jonathan Wilson	Golden Apples	Dixie Blur
Metronomy	Whitsand Bay	Whitsand Bay (Remixes)
The Meters	The Look of Love	The Look of Love
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit	Be Afraid	What’ve I Done to Help
Thundercat	Dragonball Durag	Dragonball Durag
Nick Murphy	Waterfalls	Music for Silence
Jordan Mackampa	Magic	Magic
Kutiman	Saluf	Saluf
King Krule	Alone, Omen 3	Man Alive!
The National	Never Tear Us Apart	Never Tear Us Apart
Lianne La Havas	Bittersweet – Radio Edit	Bittersweet – A COLORS SHOW
Kevin Morby	I Was On Time	Gift Horse b/w I Was On Time
Son Little	about her. again.	aloha
Jonathan Wilson, Mark O’Connor	Pirate (feat. Mark O’Connor)	Dixie Blur
Jóhann Jóhannsson, Yair Elazar Glotman, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Else Torp, Kate Macoboy, Viktor Orri Árnason, Budapest Art Orchestra	Childhood / Land Of The Young	Last And First Men
Roger Eno, Brian Eno	Slow Movement: Sand	Slow Movement: Sand
Dirty Projectors	Isolation	Isolation
Waxahatchee	Can’t Do Much	Saint Cloud
El Michels Affair, The Shacks	Enfant	Enfant
Fiona Apple	Shameika	Fetch The Bolt Cutters
Billy Taylor	Poinciana	One For Fun
Hiss Golden Messenger	My Wing – Live	Forward, Children: A fundraiser for Durham Public Schools students
Four Tet	Insect Near Piha Beach	Sixteen Oceans
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit	Only Children	Only Children
Buscabulla	NTE	NTE
Thundercat, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil B	Fair Chance	Fair Chance
Israel Nash	Down in the Country	Topaz
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown	Please Tell Me Baby	Boogie Ramble! The Blues of Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown
Leifur James	AAID	AAID
Tom Misch, Yussef Dayes	What Kinda Music	What Kinda Music
Shelby Lynne	I Got You	I Got You
Alexander Nestor Haddaway, Bodek Janke, Shishani Vranckx, Kristjan Randalu, Phil Donkin, ATOM String Quartet, Bill Evans, Gilad Hekselman	What Is Love	Song 2
Thievery Corporation, Puma	Weapons of Distraction – Symphonik Version	Symphonik
Andrew Bird	Capital Crimes	Capital Crimes
Thys, Amon Tobin	Ghostcards	Ghostcards
Sara Evans, Old Crow Medicine Show	I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (feat. Old Crow Medicine Show)	I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (feat. Old Crow Medicine Show)
Sufjan Stevens, Lowell Brams	Backhanded Cloud	Aporia
Hiss Golden Messenger	Jesus Shot Me in the Head – Live	Forward, Children: A fundraiser for Durham Public Schools students
John Adams, Yuja Wang, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel	Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?: III. Piú mosso: Obsession / Swing	Adams: Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?: III. Piú mosso: Obsession / Swing
Arvo Pärt, Gianluca Cascioli	Für Alina	Work From Home With Minimalism
Andy Shauf	Try Again	The Neon Skyline
The Rolling Stones	Living In A Ghost Town	Living In A Ghost Town
Béla Fleck, Toumani Diabaté	Elyne Road	The Ripple Effect
Ana Tijoux	Antifa Dance	Antifa Dance
Matt Rollings, Lyle Lovett	Accentuate The Positive (Feat. Lyle Lovett)	Accentuate The Positive (Feat. Lyle Lovett)
Tres Leches	Nieve	Nieve
Ludwig van Beethoven, Van Baerle Trio, Jan Willem de Vriend, Residentie Orkest The Hague	Piano Trio in E-Flat Major, Op. 38 after the Septet, Op. 20: V. Scherzo. Allegro molto e vivace	Complete Works for Piano Trio Vol. 5
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown	Pale Dry Boogie (part 2)	The Aladdin & Peacock Sides 1947-1960
Grover Washington\, Jr., Bill Withers	Just the Two of Us (feat. Bill Withers)	Anthology
John Prine	That’s the Way the World Goes Round	Bruised Orange
Béla Fleck, Toumani Diabaté	Throw Down Your Heart	The Ripple Effect
John Lennon	Isolation – Remastered 2010	Plastic Ono Band
Warren Zevon	Splendid Isolation – Remastered	Transverse City
Local Natives, Sylvan Esso	Dark Days [Feat. Sylvan Esso]	Dark Days [Feat. Sylvan Esso]
Céu	Carinhoso	Carinhoso
Bob Dylan	I Contain Multitudes	I Contain Multitudes
Gilberto Gil, BaianaSystem	Emoriô / Dia da Caça (Ao Vivo)	Gil Baiana ao Vivo em Salvador (Ao Vivo)
Bon Iver	PDLIF	PDLIF
Gorillaz, George Benson	Humility (feat. George Benson)	The Now Now
JR JR	This Side of Paradise	This Side of Paradise
The Band	It Makes No Difference – Remastered 2000	Northern Lights-Southern Cross (Expanded Edition)
Roberta Flack	Compared to What	First Take
SAULT	Living in America	7
The Flaming Lips	You Are Alone	The Terror
The Specials	Ghost Town	Stereo-Typical: A’s, B’s & Rarities
Arcade Fire	Wasted Hours	The Suburbs
Khruangbin	Time (You and I)	Time (You and I)
The Billy Taylor Trio	Day Dreaming	A Touch Of Taylor
UNEQUAL, Band of Horses	Items Taken	Items Taken
Norah Jones	Tryin’ To Keep It Together	Tryin’ To Keep It Together
Flying Lotus	Black Balloons Reprise – Instrumental	Black Balloons Reprise (Instrumental)
Billy Bragg	Can’t Be There Today	Can’t Be There Today
John Scofield, Steve Swallow, Bill Stewart	Radio	Radio
Robert Glasper	Gone – Instrumental	Fuck Yo Feelings (Instrumentals)
The Billy Taylor Trio	Memories Of Spring	A Touch Of Taylor
Otis Sandsjö, Petter Eldh, Dan Nicholls, Tilo Weber, Jonas Kullhammar, Per ‘Texas’ Johansson	Tremendoce (feat. Jonas Kullhammar & Per “Texas” Johansson)	Tremendoce (feat. Petter Eldh, Dan Nicholls, Tilo Weber, Jonas Kullhammar & Per “Texas” Johansson)
White Denim	I Don’t Understand Rock and Roll	I Don’t Understand Rock and Roll / Work
Jungle Fire	Biri Biri	Jungle Fire
Fred Hersch, Anat Cohen	Child’s Song	Child’s Song
Hazel English	Off My Mind	Wake UP!
Wilma Archer, Samuel T. Herring, Laura Groves	Decades	A Western Circular
African Head Charge	Peace and Happiness	Churchical Chant Of The Iyabinghi
STRFKR	Never The Same	Future Past Life
The Billy Taylor Trio	Blue Cloud	A Touch Of Taylor
Woods	Where Do You Go When You Dream?	Where Do You Go When You Dream?
Sharon Van Etten	Beaten Down	Beaten Down
Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Brian Blade, Christian McBride	Father (feat. Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride & Brian Blade)	Father (feat. Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride & Brian Blade)
Ray LaMontagne	We’ll Make It Through	We’ll Make It Through
The Barr Brothers	Saint Cecilia	Red Moth Solar Companion
Marcin Wasilewski Trio, Joe Lovano	Glimmer Of Hope	Glimmer Of Hope
Gorillaz, Tony Allen, Skepta	How Far? (feat. Tony Allen and Skepta)	How Far? (feat. Tony Allen and Skepta)
Michael Franti & Spearhead	I Got You	I Got You
Bob Dylan	False Prophet	False Prophet
Dirty Projectors	Lose Your Love	Lose Your Love
Blitzen Trapper	Magical Thinking	Magical Thinking
Gilberto Gil, BaianaSystem	Água (Ao Vivo)	Gil Baiana ao Vivo em Salvador (Ao Vivo)
Thom Yorke	I Am a Very Rude Person	ANIMA
Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ashley McBryde	Outlaw Blood	Outlaw Blood
Playing For Change, Keb’ Mo’, Roberto Luti, Nico Bereciartua, Chris Pierce	Walking Blues	Walking Blues
Molly Tuttle, Old Crow Medicine Show	Helpless	Helpless
Ben Harper	Don’t Let Me Disappear	Don’t Let Me Disappear
Dion, Van Morrison, Joe Louis Walker	I Got Nothin’	I Got Nothin’
Neil Young	Try	Try
Brad Mehldau	L.A. Pastorale	L.A. Pastorale
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit	Letting You Go	Reunions
Sharon Van Etten, Josh Homme	(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?	(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?
Matt Rollings, The War and Treaty, The Blind Boys Of Alabama	Wade In The Water (Feat. The War and Treaty, with The Blind Boys of Alabama)	Wade In The Water (Feat. The War and Treaty, with The Blind Boys of Alabama)
Ludwig van Beethoven, Martha Argerich, Mito Chamber Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa	Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 19: II. Adagio	Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2; Grieg: Holberg Suite
Philip Glass, Jenny Lin	Metamorphosis No. 1	Glass: Piano Works
Father John Misty	I Went to the Store One Day – Live from the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie on August 8, 2019	Off-Key in Hamburg
Earl Hines	Them There Eyes	At His Best
Ray LaMontagne	Strong Enough	Strong Enough
Sarah Jarosz	Pay It No Mind	World On The Ground
Chris Joss	Waiting for Science	Hyperacusis
Run The Jewels, Zack De La Rocha, Pharrell Williams	JU$T (feat. Pharrell Williams & Zack de la Rocha)	RTJ4
The Neville Brothers	One Fine Day	This Is: The Neville Brothers
Jaime Wyatt	L I V I N	Neon Cross
Glen Hansard	Cold Comfort	Cold Comfort
Soul Revivers, Ernest Ranglin, Manasseh	Harder – Dub	Harder
Michael Franti & Spearhead	Watching the World Go by with You	Watching the World Go by with You
Cass McCombs	Confidence Man	Confidence Man
The Flaming Lips	Flowers of Neptune 6	Flowers of Neptune 6
Jonathan Wilson	Reach Out I’ll Be There	Reach Out I’ll Be There
Neil Young	Try	Try
Dion, Paul Simon	Song For Sam Cooke (Here In America)	Song For Sam Cooke (Here In America)
Becca Mancari	Hunter	Lonely Boy
Bob Marley & The Wailers	Burnin’ And Lootin’ – Live At The Rainbow Theatre, London / 1977	Live At The Rainbow, 4th June 1977 (Remastered 2020)
Sergei Rachmaninoff, Yuja Wang	14 Romances, Op. 34: No. 14 Vocalise (Arr. Kocsis for Piano)	Rachmaninov: 14 Romances, Op. 34: No. 14 Vocalise (Arr. Kocsis for Piano) [Musical Moments]
Khruangbin	So We Won’t Forget	So We Won’t Forget
Mt. Wilson Repeater	Buried	Burned Up Ghost
Half Moon Run	All at Once	All At Once
Chancha Via Circuito, El Búho, Gus Goncalves	Una Pulgada de Silencio	Pleamar
Blitzen Trapper	Magical Thinking	Masonic Temple Microdose #1
Jockstrap	Acid	Acid
Early James	Stockholm Syndrome	Singing for My Supper
Mulgrew Miller, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen	I Got It Bad	The Duo
Caribou	Lime	Suddenly
Hiss Golden Messenger	Blue Country Mystic – Live	Forward, Children: A fundraiser for Durham Public Schools students
Beck, St. Vincent	Uneventful Days – St. Vincent Remix	Uneventful Days (St. Vincent Remix)
Run The Jewels, Josh Homme, Mavis Staples	pulling the pin (feat. Mavis Staples & Josh Homme)	RTJ4
Father John Misty	Things It Would Have Been Helpful To Know Before The Revolution – Live from the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie on August 8, 2019	Off-Key in Hamburg
Robert Rich	Distant Traveler	Offering to the Morning Fog
Yusuf / Cat Stevens	Where Do The Children Play?	Where Do The Children Play?
Jaime Wyatt	Demon Tied To A Chair In My Brain	Neon Cross
Goya, Stephen Marley, Lij Tafari, Djani	Pan Y Chocolate	Pan Y Chocolate
Brad Mehldau	V. remembering before all this	Suite: April 2020
Norah Jones	To Live	Pick Me Up Off The Floor
Neil Young	Vacancy	Vacancy
Rage Against The Machine	Wake Up	Rage Against The Machine – XX (20th Anniversary Special Edition)
David Wenngren, Hoshiko Yamane, Library Tapes	Ending I – Revisited	Ending I (Revisited)
Logan Ledger	River Of Fools	River Of Fools
Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne, Ringo Starr	Looking For You	Young Boy EP
Norah Jones	Stumble On My Way	Pick Me Up Off The Floor
Neil Young	Homegrown	Homegrown
Khruangbin	Pelota	Pelota
Busty and the Bass	Summer	Out Of Love
My Morning Jacket	Run It	The Waterfall II
Bob Dylan	Crossing the Rubicon	Rough and Rowdy Ways
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down	Temple	Temple
Ben Harper	Don’t Let Me Disappear	Don’t Let Me Disappear
Toro y Moi, The Mattson 2	Ordinary Guy (feat. The Mattson 2)	Ordinary Guy (feat. The Mattson 2)
Chancha Via Circuito, El Búho	El Mago Georges	Pleamar
Michael Stipe, Big Red Machine	No Time For Love Like Now	No Time For Love Like Now
Willie Nelson	We Are the Cowboys	We Are the Cowboys
Toots & The Maytals	Warning Warning	Warning Warning / Got To Be Tough
Strand of Oaks	Tea Song	Aquarium Drunkard’s Lagniappe Session 2011
David Wenngren, Hoshiko Yamane, Library Tapes	Shelter II – Revisited	Patterns (Revisited)
Aretha Franklin, The Boys Choir Of Harlem	Never Gonna Break My Faith (feat. The Boys Choir of Harlem)	Never Gonna Break My Faith (feat. The Boys Choir of Harlem)
Jon Hassell	Fearless	Fearless
Phoebe Bridgers	Garden Song	Punisher
Tom Misch, Yussef Dayes	Julie Mangos	What Kinda Music
Busty and the Bass, Macy Gray	Out Of Love – Single Version	Out Of Love
Pedrito Martinez, Eric Clapton, Kenny Garrett	Yo Si Quiero	Yo Si Quiero
Ray Wylie Hubbard, Peter Rowan	Hummingbird	Co-Starring
Marcus King	No Pain	El Dorado
Pink Floyd	Money – Early Mix	Money (Early Mix)
Gabriel Fauré, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax	Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in A, Op.13: II. Andante	The Art of Itzhak Perlman
Sylvan Esso	Rewind – Live	WITH
Buscabulla	La Fiebre	Regresa
Gregory Porter	Mister Holland	Mister Holland
Sasha Mashin, Rosario Giuliani, Benito Gonzalez, Makar Novikov	The Hidden Voice	Happy Synapse, Part 1
Matt Rollings, Alison Krauss, Vince Gill	Stay (Feat. Alison Krauss, with Vince Gill)	Stay (Feat. Alison Krauss, with Vince Gill)
Roger Eno, Brian Eno	Manganese	Manganese
Steve Gunn, Cass McCombs	Wild Mountain Thyme	Sweet Lucy / Wild Mountain Thyme
Khruangbin	So We Won’t Forget	Mordechai
Throttle Elevator Music, Kamasi Washington	Second Breather	Emergency Exit
Ray LaMontagne	We’ll Make It Through	MONOVISION
Los Coast, Gary Clark Jr.	A Change Is Gonna Come	A Change Is Gonna Come
Bob Dylan	Mother of Muses	Rough and Rowdy Ways
Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Brian Blade, Christian McBride	Floppy Diss (feat. Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride & Brian Blade)	RoundAgain (feat. Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, Brian Blade)
David Wenngren, Library Tapes	Above The Quiet City	July Skies / Above The Quiet City
Sufjan Stevens	America	America
Roger Eno, Brian Eno	Moss	Mixing Colours (Expanded)
Father John Misty	Anthem	Anthem +3
Library Tapes, Olivia Belli	Entering	Entering
Loudon Wainwright III	A Ship Without a Sail	A Ship Without a Sail
William Shatner, Canned Heat	Let’s Work Together	Let’s Work Together
Tigran Hamasyan	New Maps	New Maps
Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Brian Blade, Christian McBride	Your Part To Play (feat. Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride & Brian Blade)	RoundAgain (feat. Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, Brian Blade)
My Morning Jacket	Magic Bullet	The Waterfall II
Ray Wylie Hubbard, Pam Tillis	Mississippi John Hurt	Co-Starring
Bob Dylan	My Own Version of You	Rough and Rowdy Ways
Postcards	Fossilized	Fossilized
Ben Harper, Rhiannon Giddens	Black Eyed Dog	Black Eyed Dog
The Avalanches, Jamie xx, Neneh Cherry, CLYPSO	Wherever You Go (feat. Jamie xx, Neneh Cherry & CLYPSO)	Wherever You Go / Reflecting Light
Father John Misty	Anthem	Anthem +3
Sylvan Esso	Ferris Wheel	Ferris Wheel
Jon Hassell	Moons Of Titan	Seeing Through Sound (Pentimento Volume Two)
Anderson .Paak, Rick Ross	CUT EM IN (feat. Rick Ross)	CUT EM IN (feat. Rick Ross)
Los Miticos Del Ritmo, Quantic	Salvación	Salvación
Library Tapes, Olivia Belli	Entering	Entering
Caylee Hammack, Alan Jackson	Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good	Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good
General Roots, Hollie Cook	Slow Down	Slow Down
Matt Rollings, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson	That Lucky Old Sun (Feat. Lyle Lovett, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Willie Nelson)	That Lucky Old Sun (Feat. Lyle Lovett, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Willie Nelson)
Ricky Reed, Jim James, duendita	Us (How Sweet It Was)	Us (How Sweet It Was)
Ziggy Marley, Ben Harper	Play With Sky	Play With Sky
The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Page	Scarlet	Scarlet
Robert Plant	Charlie Patton Highway (Turn it Up, Pt. 1)	Charlie Patton Highway (Turn it Up, Pt. 1)
Beck	Dark Places	Hyperspace (2020)
Bahamas	Own Alone	Own Alone
Sylvan Esso	Rooftop Dancing	Rooftop Dancing
First Aid Kit	On the Road Again	On the Road Again
The Flaming Lips	Will You Return / When You Come Down	Will You Return / When You Come Down
Elvis Costello	We Are All Cowards Now	We Are All Cowards Now
Ricky Reed, Leon Bridges, Kiana Ledé	Better	Better
Father John Misty	To R.	To S. / To R.
Fantastic Negrito, E-40	Searching for Captain Save a Hoe	Have You Lost Your Mind yet?
Jesse Harris	If You Can	If You Can
S.G. Goodman	The Way I Talk	Old Time Feeling
Johannes Brahms, András Schiff, Jörg Widmann	Sonata for Clarinet and Piano No. 2 in E Flat Major, Op. 120 No. 2: 3. Andante con moto – Allegro	Brahms: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano No. 2 in E Flat Major, Op. 120 No. 2: 3. Andante con moto – Allegro
Yusuf / Cat Stevens	On The Road To Find Out	On The Road To Find Out
Courtney Barnett	Just For You	Just For You
Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne, Ringo Starr, Linda McCartney	Beautiful Night	Beautiful Night EP
Darrell Scott, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Robert Plant	A Satisfied Mind – Live	A Satisfied Mind (Live)
Ziggy Marley, Angelique Kidjo	Jambo	Jambo
Gillian Welch, David Rawlings	Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss	All The Good Times
Mexican Institute Of Sound, Gaby Moreno	Yemayá	Yemayá
Lomelda	Wonder	Wonder
Nation of Language	Rush & Fever	Introduction, Presence
Charley Crockett	The Man That Time Forgot	Welcome to Hard Times
Ana Tijoux, Pj Sin Suela	Pa Que	Pa Que
Jonathan Wilson, Mark O’Connor	’69 Corvette (feat. Mark O’ Connor)	’69 Corvette EP
Liam Bailey	White Light	White Light
Ian Hawgood	A Love Without Rumour	The Endless Sadness of the Shoreless Heart
Angel Olsen	Waving, Smiling	Waving, Smiling
Taylor Swift, Bon Iver	exile (feat. Bon Iver)	folklore (deluxe version)
Justin Page, Doug Weiss, Justin Robinson, Kevin Hays	Poinciana	Lost and Found
Father John Misty	To S.	To S. / To R.
Rufus Wainwright	Trouble In Paradise	Unfollow The Rules
Nick Drake	Black Eyed Dog	Digital Box Set
Ben Harper	Inland Empire	Inland Empire
Brian Eno, Jon Hopkins, Leo Abrahams	Ship In A Bottle – From “The Lovely Bones”	Ship In A Bottle (From “The Lovely Bones”)
Yusuf / Cat Stevens	Miles From Nowhere	Tea For The Tillerman²
Sufjan Stevens	Sugar	Sugar
Loudon Wainwright III	I Thought About You	I Thought About You
Ziggy Marley, Judah Marley, Gideon Marley, Abraham Marley	Wonderful People	More Family Time
John Luther Adams, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Ludovic Morlot	Become River	Become River
John Lennon	Mind Games – Ultimate Mix	Mind Games (Ultimate Mix)
Robert Ellis	I Must Be in a Good Place Now	I Must Be in a Good Place Now
Peter Broderick	Wild Food – Radio Edit	Wild Food (Radio Edit)
Liam Bailey	Angel Dust	Angel Dust
Aimee Mann	Avalanche	Avalanche
The Rolling Stones	Angie – 2020	Goats Head Soup (Deluxe)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds	Galleon Ship – Live at Alexandra Palace, 2020	Galleon Ship (Live at Alexandra Palace, 2020)
Ben Harper	London	London
Kurt Vile, John Prine	How Lucky	How Lucky
The War and Treaty	Hey Pretty Moon	Hearts Town
Sturgill Simpson	Life Ain’t Fair and the World Is Mean	Cuttin’ Grass – Vol. 1 (Butcher Shoppe Sessions)
Hiss Golden Messenger	Rock Holy – Live	School Daze: A fundraiser for Durham Public Schools students
Pixies	Hear Me Out	Hear Me Out
Sinéad O’Connor	Trouble Of The World	Trouble Of The World
Tame Impala, Blood Orange	Borderline – Blood Orange Remix	Borderline (Blood Orange Remix)
Kevin Morby	Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun	‘Wander’ b/w ‘Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun’
Gorillaz, GoldLink, Unknown Mortal Orchestra	Severed Head (feat. Goldlink and Unknown Mortal Orchestra)	Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez (Deluxe)
Ólafur Arnalds	Woven Song	Woven Song
Robert Plant	Nothing Takes the Place of You	Digging Deep: Subterranea
John Lennon, Yoko Ono	Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) – Ultimate Mix	Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) [Ultimate Mix]
Chris Stapleton	Starting Over	Cold
The Rolling Stones	Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) – 2020	Goats Head Soup (Deluxe)
Blitzen Trapper	Requiem	Holy Smokes Future Jokes
Lee Ritenour	Dreamcatcher	Dreamcatcher
Kevin Morby	Campfire	‘Wander’ b/w ‘Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun’
Prince	Starfish And Coffee – 2020 Remaster	Sign O’ The Times (Super Deluxe)
First Aid Kit	Come Give Me Love	Come Give Me Love
Sturgill Simpson	I Don’t Mind	Cuttin’ Grass – Vol. 1 (Butcher Shoppe Sessions)
Fleet Foxes	For A Week Or Two	Shore
Lucia Cadotsch, Otis Sandsjö, Petter Eldh, Kit Downes	Wild Is the Wind	Wild Is the Wind
Amanda Anne Platt & the Honeycutters	Desert Flowers	Desert Flowers
The War and Treaty, Jerry Douglas, Chris Eldridge	Hustlin’ [Feat. Jerry Douglas & Chris Eldridge]	Hearts Town
Elvis Perkins	See Through	See Through
Bruce Hornsby, Leon Russell	Anything Can Happen (feat. Leon Russell)	Non-Secure Connection
Ron Carter	595	595
Jonathan Wilson, Mark O’Connor	The Woods Are Greener (feat. Mark O’Connor)	El Camino Real EP
Black Pumas	Colors	Black Pumas (Deluxe Edition)
Brandi Carlile	That Wasn’t Me	Bear Creek
Laraaji	Quiet Journey	Quiet Journey
Drive-By Truckers	Sea Island Lonely	The New OK
Ben Harper	Paris	Paris
Quantic	Theme from Selva	Theme from Selva
Kevin Morby	Wander	‘Wander’ b/w ‘Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun’
Kurt Vile	Speed of the Sound of Loneliness	Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (ep)
Sufjan Stevens	Run Away With Me	The Ascension
Gorden Campbell, Eddie Brown, Kamasi Washington	Homeland (feat. Kamasi Washington & Eddie Brown)	Homeland (feat. Kamasi Washington & Eddie Brown)
Diana Krall	I Wished On The Moon	This Dream Of You
Dirty Projectors	Bird’s Eye	Earth Crisis
Yusuf / Cat Stevens	Father And Son	Tea For The Tillerman²
Erik Satie, Alexandre Tharaud	Satie: 3 Gymnopédies: No. 1, Lent et douloureux	Le Poète du piano – Satie: 3 Gymnopédies: No. 1, Lent et douloureux
Drive-By Truckers	The KKK Took My Baby Away	The New OK
Van Morrison	Born to Be Free	Born to Be Free
Kronos Quartet, Brian Carpenter	Waist Deep in the Big Muddy	Long Time Passing: Kronos Quartet and Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger
Mac DeMarco	Out Of My Head	Other Here Comes The Cowboy Demos
JR JR	I Made My Peace With It	I Made My Peace With It
Loudon Wainwright III, Vince Giordano And The Nighthawks	I’m Going to Give It to Mary with Love	I’d Rather Lead a Band
Lost Horizons, John Grant	Cordelia	Cordelia
Desure, Nikki Lane	On Me	On Me
The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, John Lee Hooker	Boogie Chillen – Live	Steel Wheels Live
Kurt Vile	Pearls	Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (ep)
Yusuf / Cat Stevens	Hard Headed Woman	Tea For The Tillerman²
Laraaji	Bathed In A Glow	Moon Piano
Chico Mann	Sorrow Tears & Blood	Sorrow Tears & Blood
Portugal. The Man, “Weird Al” Yankovic	Who’s Gonna Stop Me (feat. “Weird Al” Yankovic)	Who’s Gonna Stop Me (feat. “Weird Al” Yankovic)
Ólafur Arnalds, Bonobo	Loom (feat. Bonobo)	Loom
Neil Young, Stray Gators	Come Along and Say You Will	Come Along and Say You Will
Gorillaz, Beck	The Valley of The Pagans (feat. Beck)	Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez (Deluxe)
Tim Arndt, Near The Parenthesis	Only the Ocean	Intervals
Ron Carter	My Funny Valentine	My Funny Valentine
Akkan, Chancha Via Circuito	Ananda	Ananda
Sharon Van Etten	Let Go	Let Go
Elvis Costello	Newspaper Pane	Newspaper Pane
Peter Broderick	But – Radio Edit	But (Radio Edit)
Gotthard Odermatt, Albrecht Mayer, Kimiko Imani	Les couleurs de l’eau, Op. 22: I. Fleuve tranquille et puissant	Odermatt: Les couleurs de l’eau, Op. 22: I. Fleuve tranquille et puissant (Musical Moments)
Sturgill Simpson	Life of Sin	Cuttin’ Grass – Vol. 1 (Butcher Shoppe Sessions)
Van Morrison	As I Walked Out	As I Walked Out
Neil Young	Homefires	Homefires
Aretha Franklin	Somewhere – Alternate Version	Somewhere (Alternate Version)
Brian Eno	Blood Red – From “BBC Arena – Francis Bacon”	Brian Eno – Film Music 1976 ~ 2020
Elvis Costello	They’re Not Laughing At Me Now	Hey Clockface
Quantic	Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five	Theme from Selva
Kevin Morby	US Mail	US Mail
Sylvan Esso, Maya Jane Coles	Ferris Wheel – Maya Jane Coles Remix	Ferris Wheel (Maya Jane Coles Remix)
Karen O, Willie Nelson	Under Pressure	Under Pressure
Jonathan Wilson	Baby You’re A Star	Dixie Blur (Deluxe)
Cass McCombs, Angel Olsen, Bob Weir, Noam Chomsky	Don’t (Just) Vote	Don’t (Just) Vote
Khruangbin	Summer Madness	Summer Madness
Laraaji	Through Luminous Eyes 1	Through Luminous Eyes
Lee Ritenour	Charleston	Charleston
Andrew Bird	Mille Cherubini In Coro	HARK!
Sergei Prokofiev, Daniil Trifonov	Piano Sonata No. 8 in B Flat Major, Op. 84: II. Andante sognando	Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 8 in B Flat Major, Op. 84: II. Andante sognando
Ian Hawgood	The Past Is Just Decay	Echoes from the Edges of Time
Jonathan Wilson, Mark O’Connor	Pirate (feat. Mark O’Connor)	Dixie Blur (Deluxe)
Elvis Costello	The Last Confession Of Vivian Whip	Hey Clockface
JR JR	Take What You Need	Take What You Need
Ahmad Jamal	Bogota	Macanudo
Branford Marsalis	El Train	El Train
Ludwig van Beethoven, Theodosia Ntokou	Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, Op. 31 No. 2, “Tempest”: III. Allegretto	Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, Op. 31 No. 2, “Tempest”: III. Allegretto
Brian Eno	Design As Reduction – From “RAMS”	Brian Eno – Film Music 1976 ~ 2020
The Avalanches, Perry Farrell	Oh The Sunn!	We Will Always Love You
Sturgill Simpson	Jesus Boogie	Cuttin’ Grass – Vol. 2 (Cowboy Arms Sessions)
David Wenngren, Library Tapes	Sea of Clouds	Sea of Clouds
Eraldo Bernocchi, Hoshiko Yamane	Fall	Mujo
Landlady	Supernova	Supernova
Pat Metheny, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet	Pat Metheny: Road to the Sun, Pt. 2	Pat Metheny: Road to the Sun, Pt. 2
Brian Eno	Decline And Fall – From “O Nome da Morte”	Brian Eno – Film Music 1976 ~ 2020
The Avalanches, MGMT, Johnny Marr	The Divine Chord	We Will Always Love You
Peter Bjorn and John	Gonggong	Endless Play
The Avalanches, Blood Orange	We Will Always Love You	We Will Always Love You

The Value of Time

Oct 1, 2020
We harvested our sweet potatoes and planted our fall garden. Tonights harvest moon₁ marks the passing of the season. This always remind me of how we value our time. Even the phrase ‘our time’ implies that it belongs to us. My time. Your time. Sure, it’s really all we have… each moment in the passing of time. It bends through space to form the fourth dimension₂. Unfortunately, the impetus for writing this was so much more shallow. If that’s what you’re looking for, here are a couple of quotes to ponder₃.
- Truth was the only daughter of time – Leonardo da Vinci
- Time is a game played beautifully by children – Heraclitus
- The first thing necessary for dealing with time is to learn to live in the reality of the present moment. The present moment is all we have – Rollo May
- All truth is cooked, time itself is a circle – Friedrich Nietzsche
- Idleness makes hours pass slowly and years swiftly. Activity makes the hours short and the years long. – Cesare Pavase
- It’s weird that I am constantly surprised by the passage of time when it’s literally the most predictable thing in the universe. – Randall Munroe
- Time eases all things – Sophocles
- Time bears away all things, even our minds – Virgil
- Nae man can tether time or tide – Robert Burns
- Time, that aged nurse Rocked me to patience. – John Keats
- Time is money – Edward Bulwer-Lytton
- Time is a waste of money – Oscar Wilde
I had my own little epiphany about time many years ago. I used to make some long haul drives running back and forth to from home, college, and my girlfriend. What I noticed was that the driving at night always seem to take a shorter amount of time so I started making them at night. What I determined is that time is related to your senses and that the reason it appeared to be shorter was that you perceive less in the dark. There are no landmarks, or signs, or even clouds to mark the time passing. Time is experience.

Last night, we were in bed thinking about buying some new sheets because I tore a tiny hole in our favorite pair with a toenail kicking them into position because I like to sleep cool and my better half could use the electric blanket all year. She scours the tablet searching for the sheets that are just right and points out a pair because their manufactured regionally using organic cotton and says “but they’re over $300”. To which I say “think about it like this… we sleep eight hours a day 365 days a year and we spent more than that on food in the last month”. Anything I do that regularly has value to me and my point was that we often don’t consider the value our own time. We spent thousands on several days vacationing trying to make some memories. We buy items we barely use. Folks spend ridiculous amounts of money on vanity items. I tend to value the mundane in terms of how much time is involved. I eat three hours every day. I spend five hours a day in front of a computer screen. I’m always impressed by people who choose practical shoes because we wear our shoes for half of our lives and they’re literally the foundation on which we stand.

This wasn’t my first time with using this argument which got me to about me thinking about noting it in an essay. I paid my way through part of college by working at a furniture store. My boss there literally pulled me aside one day and said that he wanted to lower my commissions because I was making so much money. There are some various reasons as to why I was nailing it, but the one that I remember is my pitch when discussing purchases with customers. It went something like this: “Consider your time. If you spent eight hours a night using it. Isn’t it worth it. Is there anything else you do more?” I would ask. This worked for couches, chairs, and mattresses. Those are some of the higher ticket items in the store and the mattress companies would give you a second little kickback. I moved the upper end items and it paid handsomely. Asking someone to consider their time is an easy way to have them reflect on the actual value of something.

I jabbed at a local acquaintance recently over his move to distribute his business documents using a third party service which charges the customer money and shares a percent with the business. He responded back to me with “well, isn’t your time worth money” the very same way I used it to sell furniture. I pointed out that it was his company time he was trying to skimp on to make money and not mine. I’ve been asked on several occasions as to why I set my hourly rate low in relation to some other software or web developers. I always answer that it’s not if you consider that a typical 40 hour work week for a full year is almost a hundred grand. Now, I don’t make that because I don’t work a typical 40 hour week and I only bill for productive time. Nevertheless, I usually respond “because I think it’s fair to both of us”.

Even though I’ve used our propensity to value it, I’ve never equated my time to money because it’s cheap. Cheap in the sense that time is priceless and mine is not for sale. What is for sale are my knowledge, ability, and skills because I’ve invested quite a lot of effort into them and that’s what customers are really after anyway. They’d do it all themselves if they had the appropriate knowhow. We like to play a game with ourselves in equating time to money and staying busy pushing the running wheel in circles. We should value experience over our time… and the experience of those expensive sheets, even if I’m only awake for several hours a night, will last me over ten thousand hours, which comes out to 3 cents an hour. I think that’s worth it.

I’ll leave you with a quote from a book by Khalil Gibran entitled The Prophet₄ that was gifted to me many moons ago.
- And an astronomer said, “Master, what of Time?”
- And he answered: You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.
- You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to the hours and seasons.
- Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch it’s flowing.
- Yet the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness,
- And know that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.
- And that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.
1. October 2020: Harvest Moon – https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/1520/october-2020-the-next-full-moon-is-the-harvest-moon/
2. Spacetime – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime
3. Quotes on time – https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Time
4. Khalil Gibran – The Prophet – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahlil_Gibran
Farm Aid

Sep 27, 2020
Do yourself a favor and take a break to watch and listen to Farm Aid 2020. With the whole Covid thing going on, there wasn’t a festival this year. Watching performers on their own turf is potent. We loaded it up on the tv/stereo and opened the doors and windows so the neighbors could hear it. Willie Nelson and his family are something else. Willie at age 87 still taking care of business. Neil Young playing with his chickens is classic. I liked the original pieces, the unsteady footage, the host, the interviews, and I really liked the message.

Farm Aid is an honorable cause. We donated. We planted our fall veggie garden and we had a bumper crop this summer from our little suburban garden beds. We always do our best to support our local farmers market and otherwise purchase and eat sustainable food products.
1. Farm Aid – https://www.farmaid.org/
2. Farm Aid – Our Work – https://www.farmaid.org/our-work/
Our 16th Anniversary

Sep 25, 2020

My wife and I celebrate our 16th anniversary this weekend. We’ve only been married for six, but we like to say our anniversary is when we started dating because neither of us ever really wanted to get married. About year six we started saying things like “if we make it ten, we’ll consider it”. I proposed on our tenth anniversary. We had a quiet little personal ceremony and got on with it. I like to joke that it’s been at least five happy years, but in reality it’s been 16 pretty solid good years give or take a few bumpy patches. I usually just refer to Ginny as my better half. Although a term of endearment, it’s mostly true. We’re a good team for a bunch of reasons. We often put that to the test on the tennis court as a mixed doubles team. Most folks scoff at us playing together because they always say “I can’t play with my husband/wife”. There’s some truth to it and we’ve spent some long rides silent rides home after losing in tennis tournaments. Last week while we were out playing, a friend came across our court and said “can y’all do me a favor and not ride your bikes by our house because my wife always says look how they do everything together”. We do do everything together and it’s been our M.O. (modus operandi) since day one.

We met during the second week of a class at the College of Charleston. I’ve got a couple years on her because I had dropped out and returned to college. I asked her for her phone number just ‘in case I missed class’. I knew what I was doing. She wasn’t sitting right beside me. In her words, the reason I got her phone number is because she had actually come to class ‘dressed’ for another date. The class was late in the afternoon. It was the History of Landscape Design. We still very much like landscape design and working in the yard. I even quizzed her on some of the material from our college class the other night in bed while watching a house design show. We both got A’s in that class, but she claims she had a slightly higher average. This photo is from my textbook with her name misspelled in my handwriting. It’s the only textbook from college I saved.

I casually asked if she’d like to join me for dinner after class and she obliged. In retrospect, she always said that she was just trying to shake off several other boyfriends she had at the time and I’ve never doubted it for a minute. Our first date was at a sushi restaurant. Aside from her intelligence and natural beauty, I was really struck by one particular quality… her sense of humor. I legitimately found her funny, whereas I had previously always just kinda faked my response to gals attempts at being clever or funny trying to get laid. She is smart tough and could out drink me. We used to eat and drink. We would drink several bottles of wine at dinner and then go out for drinks. I remember another one of our other first dates where we were completely inebriated. While we were leaving a bar on King Street in Charleston, another fella said something to her and next thing I know she was mouthing off about ‘**cking him up’. I’ve always respected that kind of independent mindedness and she retains that same spirit today.

We set our anniversary date as a reference to our first weekender. I randomly picked up a couple flights to New York and we did it up big city style. We ate and drank our way around town for a couple of days. I was trying to impress her and I think it worked. I think after that hangover wore off, we knew we were hitched. We split our time between my house up in the country and her carriage house downtown. We finished college and graduate school while we continued dating. I ended up taking a job back near her childhood home in Augusta SC and we moved into her parents home temporarily until we found our own place. I’d recommend that to anyone seriously dating. Go live in their childhood home with their parents if you want to see if it’ll work. As much as some folks may frown upon it, I also recommend living with one another. I said to a somewhat conservative and religious mom recently that her college age son should live with his girlfriend long before they get married. He appreciated it, but her… not so much. We spent our first several years living on a small farm taking care of a garden, horses, and chickens. We’ve since gone suburban and we’re considering a blend of the two for our next move. Every time we’ve pack up for a new move, it kinda feels like we’re college age kids moving in again. We’ve applied that team approach to most everything we do.

After ten years of dating, and even though I’d always said that I wasn’t the marrying type, I formally committed. It’s turned out to to be the best move I’ve ever made. Ginny has been nothing but supportive and encouraging. Her personality balances mine out perfectly. We often find ourselves talking about that balance. We got married in a private ceremony at an Episcopal church because we really liked our pastor at the time and we saved the money we would have spent on a big wedding ceremony. And although our honeymoon plans were to return to Charleston and fly up to New York we ended up skipping the big city just to stay holed up in a downtown carriage house. Anytime we ever need to feel like college kids again, we just pack up the bikes and head down to Charleston to eat and drink.

We’ve had our life challenges just like everyone else does and we’ve managed to handle them in stride. The real parts of life will just creep up on you when you’re not looking. Life and death happen. We’ve supported each other at every turn. We’ve never wanted kids but we have joked about adopting a disadvantaged older child to help them financially and emotionally with college in return for a bit of assistance in old age. I’m not sure you’d want to put that on an adoption form. We’re currently taking care of the last of our three original dogs. Zeke will turn 18 years old in January if he can make it that long. We’ve got aging parents and one last grandparent on her final stretch. The strength of our bond has made all of those challenging experiences much more rewarding.

After 16 years, we now like to joke about middle age and getting old. We often say to other folks that we are the ‘oldest young people’ you know. Our habits are more akin to retirees then middle aged folks. She called me ‘chubs’ the other day on the tennis court and couldn’t keep from laughing. I’m under 190, so it’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but my hair is greying and I’d need to lose about 20 pounds to be where I was when we met. She put on her graduation dress the other night to show it off, so I’ll try to cut back on the carbs this winter. Aside from health goals, we’ve also been working out some long term financial and life planning. We’ve been handling this whole covid mess in stride cooking every meal at home, doing home improvement projects, going for bike rides, and playing tennis together. I feel like we have a slight advantage to other folks out there because we’ve always done everything together. We try to keep our heads up high out of any nonsense and future focused. We know where we want to be and how to get there. I’ve enjoyed the first 16. I cherish every day and hope for many more. I’m confident we’ll go wherever we’d like with a little bit of teamwork and I wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without her.
No, I Can’t Stop Your Spam (Part 3)

Sep 21, 2020
My better half and I have been suddenly getting quite a few spam phone messages in the last month. I’ve titled it part 3 because I’ve posted about it several times before_1,2. I’ll make this one a bit more comprehensive so that, hopefully, it’s my last on the topic. I’ve been guessing that the recent spam is mostly related to the political season or that fact that AT&T is now pimping an add-on paid service to stop robocalls. We both got a spam text message ‘notifying’ us that Senator Lindsey Graham is mailing us absentee ballots and today I got this voice mail yesterday morning:

At least they could have narrowed their spam list down to folks who need braces for pain relief and mobility. And I suppose registering as an independent didn’t help. I had been bragging for years that I receive barely any unsolicited phone calls or emails. We have both of our phone numbers on the Do Not Call Registry₃ but it seems that our officials are more concerned with the idea that TikTok and WeChat are foreign advisaries₄. My brother’s voicemail message says something to the extent of “No, this is not Miquel. I don’t need any insurance, I don’t have any debts, I won’t vote for you if you’re calling me, and I’ll block your number if you don’t leave a voicemail”. Judging by the number of complaints I’ve heard over the last ten years, this isn’t a problem that will solve itself simply because our economy is geared towards getting our attention and changing our behavior.

I mean, technically, the practice goes all the way back to 1864, when a mass telegram was sent advertising a dentist₅. It wan’t called spam until the internet crowd related it to the Monty Python sketch₆. Nowadays, it seems folks have just kind of accepted and even practice it themselves with group text messages soliciting events, products, and whatever else. Even those planes flying above your heads at beaches are just spam. App spam prevails with those little notifications beeps and icons. There’s email spam, mail spam, phone spam, search engine spam, social media spam, air message sign spam, political spam, text spam, gas station spam, spam, spam, and spam. In the words or Graham Chapman from the original skit… “can i just have the bacon, eggs, spam, and sausage without the spam”?

Years ago, I started tearing up the offers in my mailbox and mailing the shreds back to them on their own prepaid envelopes. I remember when unsolicited phone calls starting interrupting family dinners sometime in the 1980s with whatever they were trying to sell and whomever they wanted you to vote for or ask your opinion of. I suppose up until then, having a telephone was quite a technological advance and convenience. Now that so few people actually have land lines, I’d be willing to bet that we’ll look back at our cell phone habits during the last five years and wonder how we were tricked into paying so much attention. I’d argue that those little beeps and notifications on you phone are just another form spam trying to get you engaged exactly the same as the unsolicited, cleverly designed to look official, mail in your mailbox trying to get you to buy insurance. In the case of a smart phone, you’ve volunteered to carry around your mailbox whereas I’ve never volunteered to share my physical address, email address, or phone number with any unsolicited contact.

It’s all in the fine print on your order form, internet service provider, cellular provider contracts, and about every other form that asks for your information. I once maintained a bunch of databases related to education at a job I was working which were collected as an educational resource. One of the vendors at a conference outright offered a dollar amount for access to our databases. I informed the vendor that I was unable to do that and then a week later a coworker emailed me asking for copies of the personal information in them. I was like… “hey… we can’t sell those people’s data without their permission”. That’s exactly what happens all of the time and it’s how you end up getting spam emails, phone calls, mail, and text messages. Vast information systems on people like those used by credit reporting agencies are big business reaching much further than you may realize through various subsidiaries. Internet ‘information’ companies have become the largest businesses ever because they easily cross national boundaries. The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company’s₇ punch cards used by Nazi Germany were part of the foundation of IBM. We’re the product and we trade our information for currency. I voluntarily do it all the time for discount pricing and I have an email account stocked with follow up offers from those companies trying to re-engage me.

Fundamentally, there is a difference between the information I voluntarily offer and that which is traded without my consent. If I pay for a service, then why would you sell my personal information or allow others to abuse the service on top of what I’m already paying to make that service worse. I suppose there’s a well calculated and researched ‘line’ in which they over-monetized or spammed to make the service unattractive. Now there’s even a little spam machine, a tv screen with blaring audio, when you go to the gas station. I’m still going to that station because I trust that brand of gasoline, but at what point does it become completely normalized to bombard you with spam. I’m not going to even touch the internet side of social media spam. Regardless to say, I’ve done some legal spamming myself. I used to send out tens of thousands of real estate marketing emails. It was spam even though I got the email address legitimately by joining the multiple listing services. At that time, I don’t even think many real estate agents understood that it was spam at the time. I also once pitched an idea to a publishing company that owned thousands of billboards to network them to change the digital displays based on information like the weather to get more engagement. I was trying to capitalize on the information age and our psychological propensity to want to be ‘informed’. It’s how the newspaper industry has operated for several hundred years. William Randolph Hearst made a fortune publishing dirt on as many names as possible while famously saying “The news is what they don’t want you to print. Everything else is just ads”₈.

I picked up an interesting tidbit while watching The Social Delimma₉ last week. Tristan Harris₁₀ compared the psychological manipulation used by online social media to magic. I’ve always had a thing for sleight of hand and magic tricks. Perhaps, I’m more keenly aware of the hand behind the back or out of sight. I’ve previously documented my take on and attempts to subvert those online algorithms._11,12,13,14 In these cases, I think the majority of the ‘room’ is still in awe of the trick. I can’t help but to worry about the kids today who will have shared access to much more data and I think it’s very likely that their aptitude will be a data point alongside of their address and phone number. At least the little screens have taken our attention are only in our pockets and attached to our wrists. Although Google glasses died, Facebook announced a partnership with Ray Ban to have glasses next year₁₅. It reminds me of this video I had bookmarked four years ago where the implications for attention economy spam are visualized… literally.

Aside from the junk mail and calls, the very serious side of spam is social engineering, identity theft, and scams. Those scams don’t work if they emailed one person at a time. They rely on the fact that only 1 in 100,000 is a sucker. Identity theft should be called something else…. they’re not stealing my identity. They’re stealing a social security number, maiden name, and an address. We could fix that easy with a pin number attached to our social that could be changed online. I’ve always believed that it shouldn’t be my financial responsibility if someone take out credit in my name after stealing my personal information from somewhere else. The liability should fall on the bank issuing the credit and whomever else is responsible for not protecting my information. Data breaches are very common and you likely have a vulnerable email account right now. You can check at https://haveibeenpwned.com/₁₆. It’s not just data related to an email address either. There should be a clearing house site for who has any of my other personal data and it should be tightly regulated by our systems of government in the same way that HIPPA & FERPA provide privacy for medical and educational records_17,18. Shouldn’t we also have privacy rights on who are friends are, where we live, our sexual orientation, and our belief systems? These are not an unreasonable questions for our us to consider for policies. In 2014 the financial consequences of identity theft surpassed fifteen billion dollars₁₉. Although I doubt the text message spam I received last weekend will be on any agenda anytime soon, I think we’ll eventually regulate personal data more strictly in an attempt to rectify financial losses.

No, I can’t stop your spam, but I can give you a couple helpful tips. Get a throwaway email account that you only use to register non-essential accounts. Don’t use your primary account on non-essentials. Get a second phone number from Google Voice, Burner, or any number of other text apps. Block unwanted calls. Join the Do Not Call Registry (even thought that seems to be doing little for me right now). Monitor your credit. Put your ringer on silent for unknown callers. Tear up unsolicited mail and send it back to them in their prepaid envelope. Use call blocking apps. Contact your service providers to see what they offer. Use the mark as spam tools in your email clients. Contact the same politicians that are contacting you and ask them to pass more stringent legislation. I’ll link to a couple of other basic resources below_20,21. I remember back when I wrote the first “No, I Can’t Stop Your Spam” post. I used to literally pick up the phone and call the companies sending email spam asking for the evidence that the way they acquired my email address. There was also a time I would spam them back. If a company sent me an unsolicited email, I would add all of their employee email addresses to an automated list that would email them once an hour with various random emails. I sometimes joke with friends about rendering their phone numbers or email addresses useless if they spam me. Nowadays, I’m pretty good about ignoring in the attention economy, but on occasion, I still like to let spammers know that I can cheaply automate a spam campaign back against them with text messages, emails, mail, and recorded phone calls. It’s not exactly brain surgery. I’ve suggested a possible solution for social security number theft and I think that would work with domains and phone numbers too. Even the USPS could help out by charging more money to sent bulk mail or a certain size. In order to spam me, I must give consent via written permission₂₂. Although I’m pretty tempted to start texting Lindsey Graham’s staff messages this afternoon with links to this article, I just reported the campaign texts to the Federal Communications Commission as they’ve suggested I do₂₃.
1. No, I Can’t Stop Your Spam – https://davidwindham.com/no-i-cant-stop-your-spam/
2. No, I Can’t Stop Your Spam Revisited – https://davidwindham.com/no-i-cant-stop-your-spam-revisited/
3. U.S. Do Not Call Registry – https://www.donotcall.gov/
4. Reuters Trump to Shut off TikTok and WeChat Sunday – https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tiktok-ban-exclusive/trump-to-shut-off-tiktok-wechat-to-new-u-s-users-on-sunday-idUSKBN2691QO
5. Spamming – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamming
6. Monty Python Spam, Spam, & Spam – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(Monty_Python)
7. Computing Tabulating Recording Company – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing-Tabulating-Recording_Company
8. William Randolph Hearst – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Randolph_Hearst
9. The Social Delimma – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Dilemma
10. Tristan Harris – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_Harris
11. Dirty Algorithm – https://davidwindham.com/dirty-algorithm/
12. Data Mining Our Viewing Habits – https://davidwindham.com/data-mining-viewing-habits/
13. How Does a Website Know My Name – https://davidwindham.com/how-does-a-website-know-my-name/
14. Facebook Weirdness – https://davidwindham.com/facebook-weirdness/
15. Facebook Ray Ban Smart Glasses – https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/facebook-smart-glasses-ray-bans-essilorluxottica-1234772183/
16. Have I Been Pwned – https://haveibeenpwned.com/
17. HIPPA – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Insurance_Portability_and_Accountability_Act
18. FERPA – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Educational_Rights_and_Privacy_Act
19. Financial Consequences of Identity Theft: Evidence from Consumer Credit Bureau Records – https://philadelphiafed.org/-/media/research-and-data/publications/working-papers/2019/wp19-02.pdf
20. C-NET How to Stop Robocalls – https://www.cnet.com/how-to/stop-annoying-robocalls-to-your-phone-using-every-trick-we-know/
21. USA Today How to Block Robocalls – https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/komando/2019/02/07/no-more-robocalls-how-block-unwanted-calls-iphone-android/2778059002/
22. Federal Communications Commission Avoiding Spam – https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/avoiding_spam_-_unwanted_email_and_text_messages.pdf
23. Federal Communications Commission Consumer Complaint Center – https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us
Keep Your Expectations Low

Sep 1, 2020
The Older I Get The More It Feels Like High School

I read a review of Bill & Ted Face the Music₁ entitled Bill and Ted’s Excellent Midlife Crisis₂recently and it chimed in right along the lines of something else I’ve been pondering and joking with my wife about. It gave me just enough motive, alongside of my coffee this morning, to knock out this note. As a bit of context, the original Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure₃ was released in 1989 when I was a sophomore in high school. I remember liking the film at the time even though I might have pinned the ‘air headed’ language as something sophomoric. And here I am now, middle aged, considering it again.

Aside from George Carlin and the clever use of history, I think the stoner-esque ‘be excellent to each other’ sorta motto was my attraction to the original film. Nowadays, I find myself now more likely to want to mimic that sorta ‘party on dudes’ attitude in response to middle age even thought I’d like to think I know better. I don’t want to do a deep dive on a pop culture relic here, but the review just further reminded me of an outlook and experience I’ve been meaning to share. Someone told me eons ago that it helps to set folks expectations low so that you always exceed them. It was likely in a business meeting where I generally ran into every new project with an unbridled confidence saying things like, ‘if it can be done, I can do it’. That person was right in every respect, not just in work, but in personal relationships too. Turns out that if you set the expectations low, that you can gradually exceed them along the way making everyone happy. I regularly use phrases like “I’ll give it a shot” or “I’ll try my best” even though I know I’m perfectly capable. Although I try my best to practice that now with business, I still struggle a bit to remember to set my expectations low with social relationships.

The recent events have really just put an extra amount of unease into in the air. I can sense it in my emails and general interactions with others. My wife is dealing with it too and we’ve started jokingly saying “remember to keep your expectations low” as a way to deflate some of the concern. I’m often accused by my better half of being too critical. As much as I’d like to add falsely to it, she’s right. I’ll subject anything to ridicule at the drop of a hat. I often wonder if I hold myself up to the same standards and where it came from. I try to tone them down with humility. I’ll tell the waiter that everything is great and then turn to my wife to say… it’s alright, the tuna is overcooked, there’s too much sauce and the like. I’ve come up with all kinds of excuses for this. The recent events have agitated my criticism so much that I’m having to defer to the low expectation thing as a defense mechanism for the world in which I find myself. I’m unsure why I ever really expected otherwise, but reality sometimes falls short of my expectations. Although perspective is often subjective, the expectation that reality will somehow change or improve alongside of situations is often untrue. If I only had that thing, did that job, or lived there, things will be different. I think there’re a limited number of circumstances in which this truly has an effect. My father told me one time that people never really change. I think he used ‘really’ to define the core personality traits that are often unrelated to circumstance. It’s something I’ve really come to appreciate. When I delve into a strangers personality, I’m often trying to asses their background. And In that regard, the older I get the more it feels like high school.

Even thought I set my expectations for ‘adulting’ to be low, I didn’t expect them to feel this juvenile. I suppose I should pre-empt that statement with the fact that I also felt that way in high school. I think the primary reason for this is about conformity and group values. It’s especially applicable for me living in a small town and having gone to a small high school. It’s now the same little cliques of folks running around ‘adulting’. It certainly doesn’t help that half of them actually went to high school together. Recognizing this has given me quite the advantage in that I think of behavior in terms of the same probabilities and understandings that I formed in my teens. Perhaps natural selection has wired us to store experiences in these terms and I suppose this is more of a sociological question than a psychological one. Regardless to say, I’m very keen on the idea that most of the adults around me still possess the same fundamental personality traits of children. Jockeying for social status, the need for attention, the desire to fit in, and the like. It’s just that these have manifested themselves into career level, net worth, social network, significant others, where you vacation, how well your aging, and how well your kids are achieving. I’m a fan of any literature or film that portrays the intelligence or sensitivity of children as superior to that of the adults around them. In many ways, the new Bill & Ted Face the Music is about exactly that on repeat and it has exactly the same lighthearted potency it had on me as a teenager.

I’ve found that the best way to break up our behaviors are to belittle them with good humor. I routinely mock business meetings, beguile so-called professionalism, sarcastically slander social status, prod at productivity, mock maturity, deride sophistication, and generally do my best to act juvenile in an attempt to subvert all things adulting. The ongoing reminder between my wife and I to keep our expectations low is just a defense mechanism we use to easily exceed the status quo. I try to keep them low because the older I get the more it feels like high school. And the more it feels like high school, the more I just want to party on and be excellent.
1. Bill and Ted Face the Music – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Ted_Face_the_Music
2. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Midlife Crisis – https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/08/bill-and-ted-face-music-keanu-reeves-alex-winter-interview/615772/
3. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Ted%27s_Excellent_Adventure
Nationalism

Aug 31, 2020
Anytime someone says something I disagree with, I tend to go looking into it in a bit more detail. I was playing tennis with a fella recently when he exclaimed “you can’t trust the Chinese”. I asked for a bit of clarification… “Chinese people or the Chinese government?” and he responded with “both” and I responded with “that’s dumb”. My relative youth and social standing most likely resulted in my comment as being brushed off as naivety. However, I am entirely confident in my assessment given that I know several decent Chinese folks who are no more or less proud of their country than I am of mine… which is to say it’s relative. Although he may have had some bad experiences with business, I brushed off the generalization as a type of blind nationalism most likely in tune with some of other rhetoric that’s been going around. In response, I thought I’d share a couple quotes on nationalism and text him a link to this article. I’m moderate in thinking that although most nationalism is junk, nations should preserve their unique cultures and history provided they don’t stifle progress. I kind of touched on this in my essay Good News Everyone₁. The first quote is taken from an interview with Albert Einstein in the Saturday Evening Post of October 1929 by George Sylvester Viereck₂: “Do you look upon yourself as a German or as a Jew?” Einstein:

“It is quite possible, to be both. I look upon myself as a man. Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”

Albert Einstein, “My Credo” (1932)_3,4.

“I am against any nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism. Privileges based on position and property have always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as did any exaggerated personality cult.”

George Orwell, “Notes on Nationalism“₅:

“A nationalist is one who thinks solely, or mainly, in terms of competitive prestige. He may be a positive or a negative nationalist — that is, he may use his mental energy either in boosting or in denigrating — but at any rate his thoughts always turn on victories, defeats, triumphs and humiliations. He sees history, especially contemporary history, as the endless rise and decline of great power units, and every event that happens seems to him a demonstration that his own side is on the upgrade and some hated rival is on the downgrade.”

Carl Sagan, Cosmos₆:

“National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.”

Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms₇

“Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”

Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana₈

“Somebody must trespass on the taboos of modern nationalism, in the interests of human reason. Business can’t. Diplomacy won’t. It has to be people like us.”

Buckminster Fuller, “The View from the Year 2000“₉

If you think in terms of people divided up into countries, you won’t follow me. The idea of countries is going by the boards. Young people are getting wonderfully uprooted and they’re too strong to get sucked into this ‘country’ crap.

George Washington, Farewell Address (1796)₁₀

“Nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated.”
1. David Windham Good News Everyone – https://davidwindham.com/good-news-everyone/
2. Saturday Evening Post, What Life Means to Eistein – http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/what_life_means_to_einstein.pdf
3. Albert Einstein – My Credo – https://www.einstein-website.de/z_biography/credo.html
4. Stack Exchange Skeptics – https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/19539/einstein-nationalism-is-an-infantile-disease-it-is-the-measles-of-mankind
5. George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_on_Nationalism
6. Carl Sagan, Cosmos – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos_(Sagan_book)
7. Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer
8. Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Oxiana
9. Buckminster Fuller, “The View from the Year 2000” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller
10. George Washington’s Farewell Address – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington%27s_Farewell_Address
Mac Mini

Aug 27, 2020
I broke down the old Mac Mini₁ yesterday. I’m a big fan of the minis and I got this one in 2012 with a 2.6GHz quad-core i7 Intel chip₂. We use it on one of the televisions mostly as a media server mainly for listening to music, watching movies, and scrolling the intrawebs. Because it has two terabytes (an internal and external), I also use it as a centralized backup solution for our other computers and storing large media files like audio, photos, and video. I replaced the drives with new Samsung Evo SSDs and maxed out the RAM. I not going to rehash the process because there are hundreds of tutorials on line for doing so₃. This machine will be stuck on Catalina because Big Sur will not support it₄. My future migration plan will likely rely on the two year Mac transition to Apple silicon₅. Although the leaked benchmarks on the Apple Developer Program Transition Kit Mac Minis look pretty impressive₆, I’ll wait it out because I’m a late adopter₇. Because the chassis on my machine hadn’t been previously opened since new, it took a lot of wiggling and prying. My fat fingers and deteriorating eyesight aren’t very well suited to this type of work. My cat also tried numerous time to get the static electricity in my fingers charged. Regardless, I’m glad to say it’s back in service and running like a champ.
1. Mac Mini – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Mini
2. Intel Core i7 ‘Ivy Bridge’ – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Bridge_(microarchitecture)
3. Google Search “Mac Mini Upgrade” – https://www.google.com/search?ei=G8BHX6ClD4-y5wK6waiACA&q=mac+mini+upgrade
4. Big Sur – https://www.apple.com/macos/big-sur-preview/
5. Mac transition to Apple silicon – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_transition_to_Apple_Silicon
6. Apple Developer Transition Kit – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developer_Transition_Kit_(2020)
7. Late Adopter – https://davidwindham.com/late-adopter/

The Older I Get The More It Feels Like High School