The Night 17 Million Precious Military Records Went Up in Smoke by Megan Greenwell

This collection of essays from Wendell Berry is thick and luxurious as it has taken me over a month to get through it. It is also deeply serious and passionate in a way that can be draining on one’s soul. I would almost call the tone scolding. I would say read it but give it some room to breathe in your brain.

AI-Created Art Isn’t Copyrightable by Winston Cho

There is no magic in how AI creates new works as it is based on prior art in the learned model. This is arguably not different from how humans derive new art, but I am pleased that we are not rushing to give the output of these algorithms human status with copyright protections.

Anyone can be a CEO… given enough drive, a growth mindset, and massive luck.

A big breakthrough for my marriage and how I have a healthier relationship with home improvement projects has been the use of a Kanban board to organize what we wish to do and turn it into action. It’s cheap and easy to have a wish, but it’s quite another matter to turn that into a completed project. The agreement is, that anything can go on the Kanban board, but it’s a joint decision of what gets prioritized. Luckily we live under our means, so sometimes the constraints of cost come up, but that goes into the decision-making. As the primary laborer for the projects, I will only actively work on one project at a time. Sometimes things go on hold, so they will move to the Waiting column.

I needed a job when I started college. Kinko’s seemed like a good place to work, so I applied at the location nearest to where I lived in Las Vegas. I immediately liked it. It was fast-paced and had just enough computer-related things to hold my interest. Best of all, I worked the second shift, which meant we were left without the store manager to fend for ourselves. The customers at this store were an interesting mix of local businesses and people, both needing something in a hurry. Best of all, Kinko’s was a transferable skill, which would prove valuable as I moved around in my youth. It was mostly the people I worked with who were fascinating and memorable.

The Inescapable Rise of Moral Superiority by Michelle Cyca

As cathartic as venting one’s outrage can be in the moment, it’s clear that moral grandstanding accomplishes very little beyond the fleeting satisfaction that it brings. Shaming people doesn’t seem to change their behavior, and invoking mass shooting victims in an argument about hamburgers doesn’t move the needle on gun control. Social change doesn’t come from posting but from purposeful collective action: organizing, voting, protesting. At worst, the catharsis of grandstanding deludes us into thinking that virtuous online posturing is a meaningful form of solidarity and not a fruitless, ego-driven impulse. Tosi and Warmke argue that the purpose of recognizing moral grandstanding isn’t to get other people to knock it off; it’s to stop doing it yourself.

Does your spirituality involve working on your character?

Does your spirituality acknowledge we are all deeply flawed?

My new wonderfully ridiculous running hat is from https://getsprints.com.

I’ve had a running injury since April. It has been an ongoing source of annoyance and demoralizing to my spirit. I had thought it was plantar fasciitis, but through the magic of the YouTube algorithm one night, I stumbled upon this video: