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Todd Grotenhuis

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    43

    Photo by Hans Eiskonen on Unsplash

    There are six things that the Lord hates, even seven things that are an abomination:

    haughty eyes,

    a lying tongue,

    and hands that shed innocent blood,

    a heart that devises wicked plans,

    feet that are swift to run to evil,

    a false witness who pours out lies,

    and a person who spreads discord among family members.

    Proverbs 6: 16-19

    43: the number of senators who were too scared or too shortsighted to vote in favor of conviction.

    Unfortunately, it’s not surprising that the vote did not pass. More interesting is that there were actually 7 brave senators who did the right thing. In the modern USA, tribal affiliation & licentious grandstanding are much more important than truth, liberty, or justice.

    “This is not who we are”, people said after mobs attacked congress. But unfortunately, it is part of who we are. And the result of this vote is another signal that it is part of who we are and who we will continue to be.

    That is why I said “shortsighted”: far too many people are continuing to normalize lying and violence as acceptable means to achieve political goals. This is the road to ruin.1

    This vote (and continued denialist behavior) all-but-guarantees that we will have more political violence. Further, the next populist & would-be-autocrat is unlikely to be as bumbling as 45, and much more capable at helping the powerful & politically-connected at the cost of everyone else.

    All with good will towards humanity should seek to prevent the rise of the next dangerous populist, and to limit the harm that they can do if they gain power.

    Here are some of the things Christians are called to do:

    • Speak truth and refuse conspiracy, lies, and false witness2
    • Love our neighbors and the people we encounter, especially ones unlike us3
    • When we feel a loss of power & privilege, feel maligned, or have been harmed: love our enemies & persecutors and pray for them4
    • Seek the good of the poor, the prisoner, the ailing, the oppressed5, the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner6
    • Dismantle our weapons and create tools that support life7

    1. Lying and violence are especially being normalized for groups that already have great power, with peaceful protests from among the marginalized being attacked and labeled as terrorism. This combination is not only the road to ruin but the road to fascism. ↩︎

    2. Exodus 20:16 ↩︎

    3. Luke 10: 25-37 ↩︎

    4. Matthew 5: 43-48 ↩︎

    5. Luke 4: ↩︎

    6. Zechariah 7: 8-10 ↩︎

    7. Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 ↩︎

    ∞

    Questions for people who say “politically correct” and “cancel culture”

    • Do you think it’s wrong to extend basic decency to people in the way we talk to them and about them?
    • Do you think it’s wrong for there to be consequences for our behavior?
    • Do you agree actions (especially harmful actions) have consequences, but are afraid there are too many, too much?
    • Do you personally know someone who has lost their livelihood due to a truly minor offense?
    • Are you allowing people to manipulate you into being more scared of consequences than you need to be?
    • Why do you suppose someone might be pushing to create fear, paranoia, and sense of persecution?
    • What ends might that push be serving?
    ∞

    Knowing My Strengths

    Do you know your top strengths? When it comes to personal assessments, the Strengthsfinder (or Clifton Strengths) is my favorite. Based on research from Gallup, Strengthsfinder looks at 34 different themes, and helps you understand what your best approaches are.

    You can get the Strengthsfinder 2.0 book here. It includes a code to take the short assessment and receive your top 5 strengths. (You can also unlock more of your strengths on their site.)

    The research behind the strengths shows that we can make a much bigger difference by leaning into our strengths than by focusing on our weaknesses. While we might need a certain level of baseline proficiency for some roles & responsibilities, after meeting those requirements, our time is most impactful if spent on the ways where we do our best.

    My top ten strengths are the following:

    1. Activator (I)
    2. Intellection (S)
    3. Analytical (S)
    4. Ideation (S)
    5. Command (I)
    6. Connectedness (R)
    7. Input (S)
    8. Strategic (S)
    9. Learner (S)
    10. Self-Assurance (I)

    You may be wondering about the letter after each (or the corresponding color above). Let me explain that first. The 34 strengths are grouped into 4 categories of themes, based on how they relate to leadership.

    • “I” stands for “influencing”. My #1 strength and 2 more of my top strengths are related to influencing.
    • “S” stands for “strategic thinking”. A whopping 6 of my top strengths are related to strategic thinking.
    • “R” stands for “relationship building”. Connectedness is my top strength related to relationship building and Individualization (not pictured) is my second highest.
    • “E” stands for “executing”. Belief and Responsibility (not pictured) are my top strengths related to execution.

    With all that explained, what is the overall summary of my top strengths, and what do they say about the way I best approach life?

    Strategic Thinking is a major theme

    There are 8 themes related to Strategic Thinking, and they dominate my top strengths.

    If you know me at all, you’ve probably noticed that I’m continually learning, collecting insights, sifting through information to find the signals in the noise, clarifying situations, engaging in deep conversations, imagining possible futures, brainstorming, asking tough questions, analyzing paths of possible success & failure, and spending time in intentional reflection.

    My Strategic Thinking strengths mean that I can be a major help when it comes to creating a vision, breaking new ground, developing new ideas, setting direction, focusing our attention on what matters, changing systems, and accounting for changing factors.

    But there’s always a downside, right? With so many strengths related to Strategic Thinking, there is a chance that nothing comes of all that thinking. Analysis paralysis. Theory without practice. Cheap talk.

    All this strategic thinking needs to actually be useful.

    So what are we going to do about it?

    We need an antidote for thought-without-action. Luckily, Activator, my #1 strength, is just what the doctor ordered! The Activator theme is precisely about turning thoughts into action.

    Leading from this strength means I’m always looking at what’s next, bringing energy and excitement to it. Having a vision of a future is great, but it starts to become reality when I’m spurring myself and others to actually get moving in that direction. I don’t leave important conversation without concrete next steps, even if those steps are small ones. Building on that excitement and momentum is key to getting change happening.

    Activator, combined with my Strategic Thinking strengths, means I’m eager to actually test out theories and get rapid feedback. We can get real data to know if the approach needs to change, move full speed ahead, or be shelved to make room for something better. Innovative ideas plus rapid feedback cycles are how we evolve.

    My so-far-unmentioned top talents also relate to Activator, too. With Connectedness, I am often bringing people together and sharing the broader picture, both of which helps people rally around the cause. Command and Self-Assurance mean people often look to me to make tough decisions in risky situations, reassure or inspire them, and help remove roadblocks & barriers. These, too, help us make progress even with things are hard.

    But again, there is a drawback to all this quick movement, motivation, and momentum. I can impatient and tough. I have to be careful not to set too high of standards or push too hard, or I risk burnout and hurting relationships. To counter this, I must repeatedly go back to the Strategic Thinking strengths: pushing hard only where it makes a big & lasting difference, making sure we have time to recharge & reflect, and adapting systems to make changes more sustainable.

    What about you?

    Do you know your strengths? How do you use them?

    ∞

    on Cakes and Violence

    Let’s consider these two opinions together:

    • A business shouldn’t have to sell a cake (or pizza, or medicine) to someone whose personal choices they don’t agree with
    • Social media companies shouldn’t be able to kick people off their platform, even if when they promote violence

    We’re hearing from people who support both of these opinions at the same time. I’d like to briefly examine how this is the worst of four possible options.

    Let’s look at each option:

    Option 1: Neither Cakes nor Violence

    Private businesses are not required to serve anyone. This is internally consistent. You can choose to do what you want with your own property and business, so long as your aren’t infringing on others’ rights. This is the “default” mode for liberal democracy & libertarianism.

    Option 2: Both Cakes and Violence

    Private businesses are required to serve everyone. This is also internally consistent. This treats businesses like a public good rather than private asset. For things like social networks, that means they act more like a public utility than private business (and may even be state-run and state-owned). This is the “default” mode for social democracy & state socialism.

    Option 3: Cakes but not Violence

    Private businesses can’t choose who to serve based on who people innately are (or perhaps even based on what those users/customers believe), but they can otherwise reject service to those that break rules of the business or break rules that endanger the polity/society. This is the “default” mode in progressive democracy.

    Option 4: Violence but not Cakes

    Private businesses can reject service to people based on identity, but may be required to provide service to those that are endangering others. This is the “default” mode of fascism.

    —

    Personally, I prefer option 1 (with some additional safeguards/protections) over 3 over 2 over 4. But regardless of your preference for options 1 through 3, I hope it is clear that option 4 is the most inconsistent and dangerous of all of the positions.

    ∞

    2020: 🎶 Review

    To view other 2020 review posts, visit the main post here.

    I love music. And though I listen to less than I used to (due to more meetings and more podcasts & audiobooks) I still really enjoy listening to music when I can. I explore new sounds and visit old favorites. I play music for different moods & contexts. I curate playlists with a unique style of sound. I still think of my music sometimes like I would when I was a DJ.

    After Google killed yet again another one of their best products (Google Music) and replaced it with something worse (YouTube Music) I again started working on going back to the tried-and-true-but-takes-more-work method of owning and managing my own music.

    I prefer to source my music from Bandcamp. I like Bandcamp because they seem to treat the artists better than other sites, and they allow you to manage and re-download or stream the music you have bought through Bandcamp. They also have many features for music discovery. On many Fridays throughout 2020, they removed their cut entirely and let the full purchase price go to the artist/label. I think they do this every once in a while even in non-awful years, too.

    I also re-signed up for iTunes Match. Apple has somewhat hidden this service, because they want you to use their streaming service. However, it’s still there (look under “Features” at the very bottom of the main iTunes store page) and is a nice option to make your library available on all your devices. It takes all your apple music, plus anything you have in your chosen music folder (e.g. from CD rips or Bandcamp purchases) and either matches it to the iTunes version of the song, or uploads a copy for your devices to use, if they don’t think they have it. It costs much less than streaming services, too.

    With this move, I also started “scrobbling” again. This is a method where you ping a scrobbling service with each song you play, and it keeps track of your listening stats. I use last.fm, though there are other compatible services available. I didn’t start scrobbling again until I was adjusting my setup during the year, so my numbers don’t represent the full year. That said, I can at least see what I’ve been listening to later in the year.

    Overall

    I scrobbled 5653 plays, and my top genres according to my last.fm report were:

    - Industrial
- Electronic
- Metalcore
- Industrial Metal
- Rock

    Artists

    I listened 1230 different artists! The top 10 were:

    Some of these top 10 could arguably even be smashed together. Argyle Park, Circle of Dust, and Celldweller are all bands from Klayton (aka Klay Scott aka Scott Albert). In addition, Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly is a prominent contributor (as producer, electronic musician, or remixer) to many of the Fear Factory albums & songs that I listened to.

    Most of the bands listed this year I’ve listened to for years, but Seeming is new. I found Seeming on Bandcamp this year and and have been enjoying some of their catalog, especially their newest. On that front…

    Albums

    I listened to 1819 different albums! The top ten were:

    The 4th one there is kind of a cheat, as it’s really 3 Haste the Day albums re-issued in 1. Based on the counts, you can see there was really nothing that I listened to on repeat all year, but several of these albums had multiple playthroughs, as well as scrobbles from listening to my “loved tracks” automatic playlist.

    I reviewed NOENEMIES and Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes earlier this year, and shared some thoughts and favorite tracks.

    Igorrr is the undisputed king of wild genre mashups, and Spirituality and Distortion once again shows continued evolution in their art. In any given track you may find a combination of baroque music, metal, opera, electronic music, eastern musical styles, western music styles, hand-made instruments, and various other influences. Watch & listen to “Downgrade Dessert” for one of the more “normal” but amazing tracks on the album.

    Tracks

    I listened to 3917 different tracks! The top ten were:

    The top 3 tracks I definitely listened to on loop at some point in the year. Both “Computorr” and “Go Small” could be theme songs for 2020.

    “Computorrr” (listen) is a gltchy, sample-filled, frenetic track that should have you dancing around and thinking about how technology works in our lives.

    “TV got your brain”

    “I want to get online”

    “I need a computer”

    “We work with anybody else who’s fighting the system”

    “Go Small” (watch & listen) is a simple, haunting, independent, somewhat-melodramatic track that evokes many feelings of the year.

    “when the world is drowned in flames write something you can understand”

    “the earth is radiantly suicidal if there’s any play in favor of survival, it’s: go small”

    What did you listen to this year? Any recommendations?.

    ∞

    2020: Nonfiction 📚 Review

    To view other 2020 review posts (including fiction, feeds, newsletters, and magazines), visit the main post here.

    I read 23 nonfiction books this year, down from 31 last year. I attribute this to a tough year, and also reading more fiction as well as reading more from other sources. I read more overall this year than last.

    I prefer to read nonfiction in ebook format, so that I can create highlights and notes and have them automatically export to Readwise, where I keep all my reading notes for review. I read through the notes when finishing a book, so that I can capture what I learned in my own words (an important part of learning & synthesizing). I also have Readwise setup to surface 15 highlights from my reading every day (with a built-in “smart system” that follows my weighting choices based on source and recency of the work).

    My first choice is to borrow the ebook from the local library, using Overdrive/Libby. Then I can read in the Kindle (or Kindle app). If not available there, I try to buy it as epub, and open it in iBooks. Both Kindle and iBooks are supported by Readwise.

    When I read a paper book, I buy my own (usually from Bookshop.org these days, to support independent bookstores) and underline text and write in the margins. Then I also add those to Readwise using the Readwise app and follow the same process I listed above. It just takes more time, which is why I prefer ebooks.

    If I’m not sure if a book is going to be relevant, high-quality, or have a lot of content that I want to highlight, I will listen to an audiobook, usually from Overdrive/Libby again (though we have an Audible subscription as backup).

    I have collected my 2020 recommendations (both fiction and nonfiction) on a Bookshop list for easy perusal. That, and all of the individual book links, are affiliate links.

    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ How to Invent Everything by Ryan North - I can’t recommend this highly enough (micro review)
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Born a Crime by Trevor Noah - this had been on my list for a while, but I picked it up to read with a book club at work, after Noah came to our company all-hands meeting for a deep, insightful, and humorous interview with our company president.
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I Am Not Your Enemy: Stories to Transform a Divided World by Michael T. McRay - Resilient Review
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Deep Work by Cal Newport - How do we get meaningful work done in a world of increasing fragmentation and distraction? Newport has some ideas. (f you like this, see my in-depth Digital Minimalism reference and review)
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Four Futures by Peter Frase - What are different directions our political economy might go, especially in light of increased automation and ecological crisis? These thought experiments will help you ponder not just the author’s four directions, but others, too.
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis - Lewis brings his famous explanatory lens to high-frequency trading (micro review)
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ No Name in the Street by James Baldwin - insights from Baldwin’s life that we unfortunately still need to hear today
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What Is Reading For? by Robert Bringhurst - A thoughtful and beautiful talk-turned-book. I bought a second copy so that I could have one to mark up on one to keep clear.
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Immunity to Change by Lisa Laskow Lahey & Robert Kegan - When actions & systems don’t change even after declaring our intent and good plans to do so, it’s usually because someone (including yourself) is invested in the way things are. Real change requires addressing that. (micro review)
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Remote by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson - As a remote-first company, the Basecamp & Hey founders share what they’ve learned. There’s a lot here that will be valuable even after more desk jockeys start returning to the office.
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim - what Kim did for Ops & DevOps in the Phoenix project, he has continued for product development in this work
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan - in this work, Pollan shares the history of “nutritionism” and ways we can reverse the trends in “western diets” and proliferation of metabolic diseases
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Imaginary Borders by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez - Resilient Review
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek - micro review
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder - I thought this was going to simply about people who lived like nomads, but it’s a look at people living precariously and the industries and companies that are exploiting them
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes - like Pollan above, Taubes looks through the history of nutritionism, especially the problems with how we adopted a high-carb diet, and zeroes in on habit change to address the most dangerous parts
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Get Together by Bailey Richardson, Kai Elmer Sotto, and Kevin Huynh - how to build and maintain community
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin - powerful essays that (as with No Name in the Street above) have far too much relevance still today

    Other Books

    Here are the other at-least-3-star books that I read in 2020. Books that are unfinished, I abandoned, or I only gave 2 stars are omitted.

    What did you read this year? What do you recommend?

    ∞

    2020: Fiction 📚 Review

    To view other 2020 review posts (including non-fiction, comics, and magazines), visit the main post here.

    I read 37 works of fiction this year. I enjoy reading fiction in a variety of formats: paper, audio, and ebook. A good narrator (such as James Marsters for the Dresden books) really makes an audiobook come alive.

    I try to get my physical books via Bookshop.org to support independent sellers. If I cannot find directly there, my next search is on Indiebound, for the same reason. I have collected my 2020 recommendations (both fiction and nonfiction) on a Bookshop list for easy perusal. That, and all of the individual book links, are affiliate links.

    For audiobooks and ebooks, I recommend checking your local library using Overdrive/Libby to borrow the digital books. Many digital booksellers have not adopted a good way for us to pass on, resell, or share digital books like we can with physical books (despite it being easier), so I recommend supporting the library system first.

    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie - This was a re-read. I upgraded this to a rare 5-star when I re-read with my spouse this year. (mentioned in last year’s review)
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Alien: Out of the Shadows by Tim Lebbon - This is the start of a trilogy of novels in the Alien universe (not movie adaptions, but tied-in), and I’m a sucker for things in the Alien universe. I listened to a version that was recorded as an audio drama, and it was very well done.
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut #1) by Mary Robinette Kowal - my micro review
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Toll (Arc of the Scythe #3) by Neal Shusterman - three years in a row (book 1, book 2), this trilogy ends up on my recommendations list. I’ve now bought the series in a hardback boxed set.
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris - not much to say here, other than the usual advice: the book is better than the movie.
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Strain - Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan: my micro review
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Caliban’s War (Expanse #2) by James S. A. Corey - still very much enjoying this hard-scifi-with-horror-thrown-in. I hope to catch up more before I try the show, again.
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Gravel Peril (Dresden #3) by Jim Butcher - This was a re-read. This is where the series really starts to pick up.
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - my micro review
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Summer Knight (Dresden #4) by Jim Butcher - This was a re-read. I enjoy the twists and turns and escalations in this one.
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Binti by Nnedi Okorafor - this novella is a captivating struggle, wherein the protagonist is first of her people head to the the greatest academy in the galaxy
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Shadows by Alex North - my micro review
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - through paths that were traveled differently, we learn a lot about family, race, and ambition
    • ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates - this was my first foray into “magical realism” books

    Other Books

    Here are the other at-least-3-star books that I read in 2020. Books that are unfinished, I abandoned, or I only gave 2 stars are omitted.

    What did you read this year? What do you recommend?

    ∞

    2020: Project Review

    To view other 2020 review posts, visit the main post here.

    Outside of work, I had several projects this year. Frankly, I didn’t have a lot of success. Though I am glad to have been able to work from home easily this year, the workload and stress were extreme this year, even in an industry that is already know for high rates of burnout, suicide, and addiction (that industry being cybersecurity). This will be my most personal post in the series, with the rest being more focused on external reviews, and more personal examens not going on the blog at all.

    Here’s how different efforts turned out (or didn’t):

    Resilient

    Resilient (here) is a project through my consulting LLC (Open & Secure) to share helpful & meaningful insights into various realms of resilience: “security, society, sustainability, and self.”

    I originally thought the main output would be podcast episodes, as several people had asked me to do a podcast. I found it difficult to get through writing, recording, re-recording, editing, etc. in a timely manner. While I am very comfortable with casual conversations, presenting to key or large audiences, and writing effectively…it feels like podcasting combines these communication styles in a way that undermines what makes me comfortable with any of those styles. In conversations and presentations, you can read your audience, adjust, and respond. You also have the grace of it being a “work in progress” and conversational. Yet podcasts go into the world more like the written word: something recorded as-is, lacking the interaction with the audience. Thus, it feels like it needs the more careful planning and precision of the written word…but is still expected to have the conversational tone. Thus, the amount of work it went into making even (admittedly amateur) episodes.

    So, I wrote more instead of recording more. I shared about some security tools. I wrote a few posts about COVID very early in the pandemic. I reviewed a couple relevant books. I started a Resilient book collection. I wrote about watersheds and the importance of thinking about our local ecologies. I made my Roam Research graph (notes) from OWASP and CSO50 conferences available to my full subscribers (all of which are comped, except for one person who was comped and made a subscription anyway!). Even with the conferences, I was able to attend far fewer sessions than I would like, due to work overtaking even my vacation time.

    I host Resilient on a newsletter platform (one which allows for using RSS for the feed instead of email, and also supports the podcast episodes and forum/conversation posts). Like podcasts before, I’m concerned about the state of newsletters, with there being too many of low quality, too many not worth people’s time, and the impact on the medium as a whole.

    I’m not looking to make big money on the Resilient. The primary reason it has a subscriber model at all was to keep some of the content opt-in and not available to the whole web (see concerns around podcasting, above). When I set the rate for subscription, I chose the cheapest option the provider allowed, and then added a discount on top of that via the payment provider. I offer a comped subscription to people that I know who sign up, and to anyone else who asks.

    But I do think about the audience, the reach, and how often and how well I am delivering value to the audience. I’ve not posted enough this year, and not done as much analysis as I would have liked. I keep wondering if I should kill the project and move the items into my general blog.

    Yet I also know there are folks specifically wanting or asking for the kind of material that Resilient provides, and it is the common theme of expertise in my life. So for now, it stays, and I look for ways to make it better as hopefully the stress and workload gets better in 2021. I welcome your feedback!

    Northern Fires

    I started the Northern Fires (Guernica) reading and writing project in May. One of the most interesting bands to me these days, Silent Planet, has a lyricist who includes many intelligent references in each song, and includes those in the liner notes (and YouTube video notes) for each song.

    The idea of the project is to do a read through and discussion of those works for one of the songs: Northern Fires (Guernica). I haven’t found people that are interested in joining up, yet, so I’ve spent less time on this than on other reading.

    It’s a shame I deprioritized this, because there are many lessons from the Spanish Civil War that are incredibly relevant to the world, today. I’m going to pick up reading and writing for this project more in 2021, even if others aren’t reading the works along with me. Maybe some will glean points from my commentary or be inspired to read along with some of the works.

    40 for 40

    I turned 40 this year, and expected to have a nice vacation and get a start on a project where I would dole out 40 bits of experience. The vacation never happened (for obvious reasons) and between that, stress, and concerns about hubris, I abandoned this project. Much of what I’d started collecting will probably make it into the next project…

    DearKiddos

    DearKiddos was something I started doing to process my lessons-learned and offer them to the next generation. For nieces, nephews, friends of kids, and youth at church.

    This one was well-received by several folks, and I plan to periodically do more. I have many topics queued up to write, and will plan to get more out over the next year. I am purposefully avoiding writing too many too fast, so that I don’t get burnt out on the project.

    Inktober

    I had some vacation in October this year and thought it would be a good way to join this tradition. I made a few entries and catch-up entries which were frankly pretty bad…but I knew that going in. Though I wasn’t consistent and didn’t finish, I learned a lot (both about the drawing and the photography!) through the process. I’m not sure if I’ll do it in 2021, or not.

    Home Office

    My spouse and I used to have one room that was storage and a shared office. Since both of us are working from home full time now (and for a while still to come, it looks like), we converted that room to her office and the guest room to my office.

    I’m happy with how my office is turning out, making it serene and suitable for focus. I installed two shelving units (including this one). I have one more item I’m still trying to get from Ikea, and I hope to get a reading chair when it seems safe to go shopping for those, again, but otherwise it’s been very good. I have a south-facing view, which means I get some nice views of the outdoors and sunlight.

    Wet & Wild

    (OK, this title is a joke. I wasn’t sure what to call this.)

    I’ve been looking for acreage within an hour and a half our our home. Something with at least a few acres (hopefully 10 or more) and some water (like a pond, or lake or creek access). I’d like to have a place to camp and eventually build a cabin/cottage to our unique specifications. I want to preserve some of our ecology and plant some trees, maybe even re-wilding a space, depending on it’s current state. I also see it as an investment when a lot of investments are problematic, these days.

    I’ve found a few things that sorta work with our criteria (including one I need to investigate further), but nothing yet that has made us move on a purchase. I’ll keep my eyes open still in 2021, and am open to leads!

    I’ve also been getting prepped to go camping more, which I miss quite a bit. I got my Biolite stoves tuned back up, am preparing to remediate my dad’s old cooler (it has a crack in the internal lid), replaced our old tent, and got a cold weather sleeping bag.

    What projects have you had this year? How did they go?

    ∞

    2020: 🎙 Review

    To view other 2020 review posts, visit the main post here.

    I enjoy podcasts, particularly when doing chores, driving, or playing games. Since podcasts compete for attention with audiobooks, they really have to be a cut above to earn a spot. In general, I’d rather do the deep reading (incl. listening) with a book than have a superficial conversation about something in a podcast.

    Before we go into the recommended podcasts, let me say a little about how I manage my feeds and listening. I am a happy Overcast subscriber and highly recommend it. It syncs well across multiple devices, has a web listening portal, allows me to manage smart lists, and has configurable-but-reasonable settings.

    “Overcast is a self-funded app that has sustainably succeeded on its merits and respected your privacy for the last 6 years.”

    OK, on to the podcasts that are making the cut:

    • The Ezra Klein Show - This was my favorite “ideas” podcast this year. Ezra brings on a variety of guests, does the homework to understand his guests' arguments, and pushes at the edges of their arguments. There’s great, deep, respectful back and forth almost every episode. He recently announced he’ll be leaving Vox (and this podcast) to go to the New York Times as a columnist and also host a new podcast.
    • The Peter Attia Drive - This is my favorite science & health podcast, and I am a paid subscriber. I get immense value out of the detailed show notes, which often make their way into my Readwise highlights and Roam Research graph (database).
    • Risky Business - This is my favorite cybersecurity news & analysis podcast. I don’t often listen to the “sponsored content” (on principle), but even those are done pretty well, and they put them at the second half of the show so you can skip them after the news & analysis.
    • Scene On Radio - This is my favorite documentary podcast. Each season goes deep on a topic. Season 4 was “The Land That Never Has Been Yet”, investigating the USA’s history as a democracy.
    • The Long Now - Two podcasts (“Long Now Seminars” and “Conversations at The Interval") present a variety of topics related to long-term and strategic thinking, something we desperately need in an era of distraction, social media, ambient advertising, and quarterly reporting.
    • The Knowledge Project - This is an interview podcast with “great minds”. Some of the episodes are full of difficult questions and helpful insights, while some of the other episodes are more like fan interviews full of confirmation, hindsight, and success bias. The host does not generally interrogate the objectives of success, so there can be conversations that are about how to be more successful at doing the wrong or harmful thing. Yet, there’s still enough good here that I stick around for the great moments and insights. I recommend you combine this with something that causes you to think about the purpose and impact of strategies, too (Like Ezra Klein or Long Now, mentioned above).
    • Rebel Steps - This is a podcast that helps people understand and get started with political organizing and direct action. I think we all need a source that makes sure we are thinking about the people marginalized in our societies.

    What podcasts are you listening to? Are they better than books?

    ∞

    2020: Feeds & Newsletters Review

    To view other 2020 review posts, visit thee main post here.

    In addition to traditional newspapers & news magazines (see that list here) I get some of my news via feed or newsletter. I send both to Inoreader.

    If you’re not familiar with feeds & feed readers, the basic idea is that instead of having to go and check a bunch of sites periodically for updates, you can list the ones that you like, and have those items come to you. Feed readers often add other functionality, too. For Inoreader, I like the ability to take in normal (RSS) feeds as well as newsletters and Twitter accounts. It also has filtering rules, so I can use criteria to hide or highlight certain items.

    The net result is I don’t have to wait for those things to hit my inbox nor do I feel the urge to obsessively check sites & social media. I can just periodically open up Inoreader and check them on my schedule instead of having the schedule dictated to me.

    I check my feeds about once a day, see which items are worth my attention, and either read them directly if short, or export them to Pocket if they are longer or worthy of highlights. My highlights go to Readwise, where I keep all my reading notes for review.

    Security & Technology

    News & Reporting

    • Beautiful News - though now over, this was year-long project to share good news through well-designed infographics
    • Pro Publica - investigative reporting
    • Reveal - investigative reporting
    • The Markup - “big tech” reporting

    Essays & Longreads

    People & Opinion

    Faith & Health

    Other

    • Standard ebooks - a feed of classic books being published by this great free ebook standardization project
    • Cool Tools - tool recommendations
    • Shareable - “people-powered solutions for the common good"
    • Cabin Porn - photography of cabins, interior and exterior (no, there is no nudity, and rarely any people)
    • Hunter Angler Gardner Cook - recipes (and sometimes essays) for wild food
    • Kickstarter - new project recommendations feed
    • The Cramped - “celebrating the unique pleasures of analog writing"

    Mine

    • Resilient - an occasional newsletter, post, or podcast related to resilience: for security, society, sustainability, and self (please let me know if you want a comped full subscription)
    • This Blog - has a little bit of everything, often in short-form or micro posts

    This examen helped me clear up my feeds list by removing a lot of inactive or broken feeds, and also removing ones that I don’t read very often. It also made clear that I need to diversify my authors list.

    What are you reading? Who and what can you recommend?

    ∞

    2020: News & Magazines Review

    To view other 2020 review posts, visit thee main post here.

    Newspapers and News Magazines

    I tend to prefer “slow news”, focusing on quality over quantity & speed. Most “breaking news” (or even daily news) I don’t need to hear about, and the net effect of rapid-fire news is to introduce more interruptions and unnecessary stress into our lives. I also try to mix both broad (global) perspectives and local reporting.

    I reserve most news reading for Saturday mornings, where I usually peruse the following sources, reading just the articles that are relevant to me or challenging to my perspective:

    • The Economist weekly magazine - This is a very high-quality global-perspective news magazine, though a bit limited in topics of focus. I often read from the app, exporting articles to Pocket that I want to highlight or annotate, so that they enter Readwise, where I keep all my reading notes for review. If I have errands to run before I get through reading, I switch to listening to the articles.
    • The Guardian (US edition) weekly news magazine - This is another high quality global-perspective news magazine, and will often hit the important topics that would not have made it to The Economist. I get the actual physical edition of this, only. The puzzles at the back are a nice bonus.
    • Anabaptist World - This year, The Mennonite and Mennonite World Review merged to become this news magazine. It’s published triweekly or so (16 issues a year), and covers various USA and global anabaptist news and commentary.
    • The Indianapolis Recorder - This is my local news and the best source in Indianapolis. Even though it is labeled with the purpose of continuing to “support and empower African Americans”, it has the broadest and best reporting for all.
    • Delayed Gratification - This is a quarterly news magazine that looks back over the quarter. Though I love the idea of this one, and they create a beautiful product, I will probably be dropping it when it is renewal time, as the topics tend to be a bit too pop for my tastes.

    Other Magazines

    On the “not news” front, I enjoy a few other magazines. All of these are no (or almost no) advertising. This is important to me, as ad-free means the subscription price represents the truer cost of the writing, doesn’t prejudice the editorial stance of the magazine, and helps free the writing to do much more than “get a reaction”.

    • Plough Quarterly - this is another Anabaptist magazine. It is published by the Bruderhof (rather than Mennonites), and has a broader scope & appeal and is not just for Anabaptists. It has both current and historical essays and material.
    • New Philosopher - a high-quality magazine, with each issue being like a symposium on a certain philosophical topic or question.
    • Offscreen - a physical product for digital people. This magazine brings humanity to technology. (warning: this one does have supporter ads, but they are minimal and minimalist.)
    • Ernest - I just started reading this one after learning about it from @adders. It’s a beautiful journal of adventure.

    Doing this examen helped me to cull a handful of magazines that I’ve not been reading much.

    In the next post (here), I will cover Feeds (RSS, etc.) and Newsletters that I subscribe to.

    What are you reading? Anything you recommend?

    ∞

    2020: Comic Review

    To view other 2020 review posts, visit the main post here.

    I’m not someone who typically reads many comics. But this year, a couple things had me reading more.

    After having had Saga recommended multiple times, I started the series, and enjoyed the first couple volumes.

    Second, after learning about the “complete marvel reading order” from a friend, I signed up for Marvel Unlimited and setup a “just the essentials” comic box on CMRO and started going through the key classics. I saw the introduction of the Fantastic Four, Ant Man, The Hulk, Thor, Spider Man, and some others. My favorite of the early comics ended up being the Tales to Astonish series, which often included an Ant Man short comic, a couple other short comics, and a two page story. I also read the Alien 3 comic adaption.

    Overall, I read 25 comics this year.

    What comics did you read this year? Any recommendations?

    ∞

    2020: 🃏, 🎲, & 🕹 Review

    To view other 2020 review posts, visit the main post here.

    As you may already know, I enjoy games. Especially ones with a social element, or where we get to create some sort of emergent story together. In the year of the pandemic, a lot of traditional card and board games were harder to play (unless you took them digital or used tabletop simulation software).

    Pandemic Gaming

    For a handful of pandemic get-togethers, we played some Jackbox Party Pack games over Discord. Ones I particularly enjoyed include:

    • Bidiots: where you create “fine art” and then bid on art at auction
    • Push the Button: where you have to figure out who the aliens are on the ship

    On that note, Among Us became another hit this year, with not too dissimilar play. I played this with some groups online, as well.

    At home, we played some classic Hand & Foot, a rummy-like game where you have two hands (a hand and a foot, get it?). I’d link to rules, but like many of these classic card games, it seems like every family has their own version, and ours doesn’t match the varieties I’ve seen online.

    Role-Playing Games

    On the role-playing games front, I played a variety of things this year, as online games continued to work well. We typically play online with just a video conferencing tool and then Rolz for our chat & rolling.

    My local game participated in a playtest for Torchbearer 2nd Edition. Torchbearer and Mouse Guard are a tight version of the Burning Wheel engine. I had not played very much of Torchbearer 1st edition, because our group is often playing different kinds of adventures than what it was best suited for. But 2nd edition is honing many things and introducing tools to facilitate more types of playstyles. I’m very excited about what Luke & Thor have created and am looking forward to this release. (Watch for our names in the credits!)

    When the playtest was over, we took our setting (Mauragaaqtuq) back to core Burning Wheel, starting our 4th game in the setting (the 4 being: a long BW campaign, a one-shot LARP, the TB playtest campaign, and now another BW campaign). I’m really impressed by the richness that the players (aided by system components such as Wises, Circles, and Beliefs) have added to the setting. We just started Season 2 of Mauragaaqtuq: Murder of Crows.

    My already-online game group with friends from Puerto Rico and Chicago (which also got our start years ago, playing Burning Wheel in the Wheel of Time setting….yes, of course we called it “Burning Wheel of Time”) has tried a few things this year.

    First, we had a game set in Shadows of Esteren but using the Blood & Bone system. This was tough, as we were trying to simplify and not do a lot of homework, but it was tough to do in practice. The game engine took a lot of nods from things that worked in other games, but IMO failed to deliver them as a cohesive set.

    Next, we went on to playing a fantasy-historical game set in a mythic version of Tyre. We used the hidden gem of a game engine Dominion Rules, with some added house rules. This is my favorite open source game, and still feel like it has a lot of potential many years after its release. Alas, this did not last as there was some COVID burnout.

    Now, we are on to something new…err old. We’re using Palladium 1st edition and engaging classic dungeon-delving in a published module. Palladium Fantasy is new to me (though I’ve done a little Rifting back in the day), and I’m not big on the “old school” nostalgia (partially because “old school” for me isn’t Palladium and original D&D but West End Games' Star Wars, and partially because the “scene” is rife with miscreants and vice-signalling), but I’m having fun because the group is fun and I’m leaning into the randomness and weirdness of the setting and system.

    Over break, I got to play the Labyrinth Adventure Game with my niece and nephew, and this was a blast. It’s a beautifully produced product with a simple system & great scenes that offer a lot of replayability for zany adventures to get back things stolen by the Goblin King. In contrast to many RPGs, there is plenty of excitement and adventure without having to focus on fighting.

    As for live action games (or LARPs), those were mostly cancelled this year (and for good reason), but some communities continued to get together in chat and audio events. I played in a handful of these events on Discord, with my One World by Night main character, but obviously it is not the same.

    Video Games

    I tend to play non-twitchy open world-type games. This is both so that I can listen to podcasts or audiobooks while I play, and because I don’t need the adrenaline from twitchy games. (I get enough of that working in cybersecurity, TYVM.)

    As in years past, most of my video game time was spent in the Bethesdaverse (e.g. Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, particularly, the “online” varieties this year) and the Borderlands franchise. I’m mostly on Elder Scrolls Online recently (add me for Mac/PC/Stadia: @groten), as I’ve got some family and friends who are playing, too.

    I played some Disgaea as well, and though I love this game, the menus and repetitive motion mean that I can’t play very much at a time without sore hands/wrists, so I end up quitting before getting through the postgame fun. I hope they will come up with some improvements on that for future games.

    What did you play this year? Any recommendations?

    ∞

    2020: 📺 & 🎥 Review

    To view other 2020 review posts, visit the main post here.

    When it comes to screens, I prefer to do something that requires engagement from me. Thus, when I’m in front of a screen for enjoyment, I’m often reading or playing. When I’m watching, I prefer something humorous, challenging, or both. I generally don’t like passive entertainment.

    With the diffusion of shows and movies across streaming services (and Netflix & Apple TV not playing nice together), I started using [JustWatch] (https://www.justwatch.com/) to track “to watch” lists. JustWatch let’s me have a single watch list, and go to wherever I can stream (or rent or buy) the show or movie.

    This year, I continued my quixotic quest to “watch all the sketch comedy”. Here are some of the new (to me) ones I that I recommend:

    We like to watch “funny news” at our house. My favorites are:

    • Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: the in-depth segments cut deep but also discuss opportunities to do something about it.
    • Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj: a little less what-can-you-do-about-it and a little more in-depth. These could be heavy, which is probably why it’s now cancelled.
    • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: I would occasionally watch the previous night’s intro portion of this show while having my breakfast. I find Colbert (& his writers) to be the funniest of the late night hosts. Also, lately, the moments where you can hear his wife (or their interactions) are charming.
    • Late Night with Seth Meyers: Like the above, it was an occasional morning watch of the intro portion of the show. He pulled no punches on calling out problems in the USA presidential administration, to the point where I’m frankly surprised he’s been able to stay on the air.

    At our house, we also enjoy some murder mysteries and “police procedurals”. Here are the couple that stood out for me this year:

    • Endeavour: It’s Inspector Morse when he was younger, and they do a brilliant job of creating the setting of each episode (which is really a movie): visually, historically, and audibly.
    • Criminal: the premise of these series is that it’s a very sparse set of the interview rooms and a couple hallways, yet they are able to do so much with it. ( note: check for 4 different countries and languages; there are multiple versions with different stories)

    Here are other shows that I recommend:

    • Ted Lasso: this is my top recommendation from this year. On top of being very funny, I appreciate how much maturity and humanity people show each other, even in the face of most of the characters going through something incredibly difficult.
    • The Repair Shop: this is an incredibly charming show about a shop where people bring in their antiques, family heirlooms, and broken items to be reconditioned. It’s a brilliant spot of light in a throwaway consumerist culture, and there are wonderful moments of joy.
    • The Good Place: a hilarious show that introduces and mashes up a lot of philosophical concepts and questions
    • Watchmen: full disclosure, I hadn’t seen the movie or read the comics before watching this spinoff TV show, but am familiar with their basic story line and themes. This was an incredible production that explores a number of both contemporary and timeless problems.
    • Fargo: like Watchmen, I haven’t seen the movie, but I am riveted to every season of this show. What I like most about this show is the juxtapositions: beauty & horror, fortune & reversal, education & gallows humor, and much more.
    • The Mandalorian: yes, it’s full of fan service, but it’s really well-done fan service that re-explores many tropes in fresh ways.
    • The Boys: these comedy-horror comic book characters made it to TV, and it presents a scathing critique of various power structures.
    • Community: I wrapped up this series this year. It’s intelligent and funny, but you really do have to watch from the beginning in order to understand the characters and their dynamic. Troy & Abed will always have a special place in my heart for the way they portrayed nerdiness in a more authentic and laughing-with rather than laughing-at way.
    • Alone: I generally shy away from “Reality Shows” due to vapidity, repetition, and manufactured melodrama. I will often check out survival shows, though (hey, Eagle Scout here!). What I like about this one compared to some others is that you can see how they setup for the long haul, giving us a chance to see how challenges and priorities shift over the duration of their stay. (Of course, it’s also relevant to my theme of Resilience.)

    The Big Screen: I didn’t watch a lot of movies this year (who did?), but here are the two that stuck with me:

    • Knives Out: as I mentioned earlier, we enjoy murder mysteries in this house. This was a great twist on those tropes. (I feel like it’s this generation’s Clue)
    • El Hoyo (The Platform): this minimalist dystopian horror film offers several critiques of the current age.

    What did you watch this year? Any recommendations?

    ∞

    2020 Review

    As has become my tradition, I’m spending the week around year-end reflecting each day. We grow most rapidly when we lean into and learn from challenges, and 2020 was certainly a year of many challenges.

    While many of my reflections are private material, I will share reflections and recommendations in the following categories:

    ∞

    📚 Review: An Unintentional Accomplice

    📚 Finished Reading: An Unintentional Accomplice by Carolyn L. Baker ⭐️⭐️⭐️

    Note: I received a free pdf of this book, with the agreement to provide a review when complete.

    Recommended for: people who like autobiographies and who want to pursue racial justice

    Gabrielle David, African American woman and publisher of 2Leaf Press, gave guidance to the author and also wrote the introduction. Here is David in the introduction:

    Some would suggest that it is the systems that are broken. But none of these systems are broken; it is white people who are broken, but they do not have to be. And broken is not evil. Broken means it can be fixed. Healed. Changed. And recently, quite a few white people are stepping up to acknowledge, repair, and heal. This is what Baker has set out to do, to understand a complicated American structure that holds us all hostage.

    The systems, it turns out, are working as designed. Our unexamined assumptions, intentions, and practices need to be re-evaluated, and then we can work together to design systems with better outcomes for all.

    —

    After the introduction, Baker takes us through the phases of her life, chapter by chapter. Along the way, she examines the ways that she may have benefited from white privilege, and the ways she may have allowed or perpetuated racial injustices. This, in reference to the title, is her being an accomplice. Each chapter is a vignette of her growing awareness of those challenges, and grappling with her thought patterns around them.

    One of the interesting angles to Baker’s reflections is that it is clear that throughout her life she has been socially-conscious in many ways, and has spent much of her life serving others. Yet, as Baker shares, that doesn’t mean one gets everything right. This is a useful reminder for all of us.

    —

    In the main part of the book you will not find many concrete actions to take in order to fight injustice. This is understandable, as it is a work of self-reflection. However, for those who are looking for ways to respond to the book, Baker has provided a couple resources.

    Throughout the book, Baker often cites many of the works that helped her along her journey. These are helpfully collected in a bibliography, one which would make a great reading list for people who don’t otherwise know where to start.

    Second, an Anti-Racist Checklist follows the main text. This is Baker’s own list of how she is exploring her responses to racial injustices. Many of these may be helpful to white people who are looking to turn their reflection into action.

    —

    While I would normally prefer a different systematic approach (academic, treatise, essay, etc.) to topics such as this, it was refreshing to read a personal perspective that was both thoughtful and did not make the author out to be a savior, villain, or villain-turned-savior.

    ∞

    #DearKiddos: A Vaccine for Cruelty

    #DearKiddos:

    I was reading this article today from the Economist: “No Vaccine for Cruelty” (image).

    It’s about how people in political power have done nastier and nastier things during the COVID-19 crisis, and have largely gotten away with it.

    The article says “no vaccine”, but I want to try to give you one, anyway. A vaccine is a medicine you take to make it so that you can get through it when a nasty infection comes your way. So let’s give this a shot.

    How authoritarians rise

    First, by “authoritarian”, I mean someone who takes away power and choice from the people, and keeps that power with threats and violence. They’re sometimes called strongmen (and yes, they’re almost always men) or tyrants.

    There’s a pretty well-know path to getting this kind of power. It goes basically like this:

    1. Make everyone afraid
    2. Blame someone for it
    3. Claim to be the savior

    Let’s break that down a bit, and talk about what we can do ahead of time to prevent getting sick from it (that’s the vaccine!).

    Make everyone afraid

    There are several ways the strongman can go about this. Sometimes, they will simply put lots of attention on something that’s genuinely scary (example: financial problems, pandemics). Other times, they will create chaos by encouraging people to fight amongst themselves (example: encouraging racism). Other times, they will create boogeymen (example: conspiracy theories and communist scares). Other times, they will allow things to get bad via neglect (example: climate change). Often, they do more than one of the above!

    As you can see from these short examples, the fear could be real, made up, or even caused by the strongman. The main point is that they want to increase fear, because fear makes us want to react. When we’re afraid, we want someone to do something, and they want to be the one to offer that something (see phase 3).

    So what’s our vaccine for this stage of the cruelty?

    First, we can practice gratitude, thankfulness, and hope. One simple way to do this is to have a time each day where you think about what you are thankful for. You can even write this in a gratitude journal, or share what you are thankful for with friends, family, or church. For hope, we can build hope by being hope. When we work with others to give and receive help, we build hope for both us and them. We can feel the difference, imagine a better future, and trust in one another. Can you think of other ways you might practice gratitude, thankfulness, or hope?

    Another way we can protect ourselves is to be thoughtful when people are trying to scare us. This is extra true in news and social media. Unfortunately, because most of the places we get our news are driven by advertising (sorry, that’s the topic for another post), they are likely to tell stories in a way that scare us, because it gets us to click, tune in, share, etc. So, our news does a lot of the work for the strongman. But we should still ask ourselves questions like:

    • Who is the original source of this information?
    • Is this mostly facts or opinions?
    • Is this showing things in only the worst way?
    • Who are they trying to scare?
    • Does the story feel inspirational or does it feel demotivational? (Meaning: does it make us want to solve a problem together, or does it make us feel alone and angry?)

    There will always be some truly bad news, for sure. But with these types of questions, you can start getting your news from better sources, and you will more likely know when someone is trying to make up, exaggerate, or misuse bad news.

    Blame someone for it

    The next step of the strongman is to convince you that a person (example: their political opponent) or a group of people (example: a race, class, region, or religion) are to blame. Specifically, that they are to blame for the things that the strongman has been trying to scare you about. You might hear this called “scapegoating” or setting up a “fall guy”.

    This is a powerful trick, because it gives scared people something to agree on, to join together in blaming. It’s a sad way to create fake togetherness. It’s “belonging” through a common enemy. (This is another reason that working together on hope was so important: it creates real unity instead of false unity.)

    Now, it’s true that there may be someone or some people who are partially or wholly responsible for problems that you are experiencing (and it might even be the strongman himself, as we saw in phase 1!). But the strongman is not trying to truly diagnose the problem and work together on a solution. He’s trying to whip up anger, to create a mob, to create vigilantes, and/or to bring in his own forces.

    So what’s our vaccine for this stage of the cruelty?

    One thing we can do ahead of time is to have met or know people that are different from us. We can live in neighborhoods where there are people with different backgrounds. We can go to schools where everybody doesn’t look like us. We can make friends with people with different experiences than us. When we travel, we can learn from and be respectful to the people that are local to the area. We can be part of groups and activities where we meet people who think or act differently. Here’s why: when you know people that are in the accused group, it’s hard for someone to convince you that they are the enemy, because you’ll be able to see that the lies and stereotypes aren’t true.

    Also, along the lines of hope from phase 1, we can build teams, support, and organizations that serve people and solve problems. When we’re used to doing work to make the world a better place, we know that problem-solving is rarely an us-vs-them situation, it’s usually something where diversity actually helps in finding new solutions!

    What other ideas do you have for protecting us against the hateful blame game?

    Claim to be the savior

    At this point, the cycle of blame and fear has ramped up, because the blaming has created more division and fueled fear further. Now the strongman makes the claim to be the savior. They tell you “look, I know what the problems are…I warned you about them” (back when they made people afraid) and “I know how to solve it…I told you who is at fault” (back when they blamed people). See what’s happening here?

    They will tell you they are the only one smart enough to see it all, and strong enough to do something about it. They will often use the language of “law & order”, meaning that they will wield power, control, and even violence over the groups that they setup to take the blame.

    So what’s our vaccine for this stage of the cruelty?

    If you’ve been following along, you’re probably noticing that the strongman isn’t really following tradition & law, and is actually creating disorder or at least adding to it. You’re right, the claim to “law & order” is a lie, but that doesn’t really register for the people who are already afraid and bought into the blame game. That means the best way to defend against phase 3 here is to defend against phase 1 and phase 2, as we discussed above.

    That said, if you’re a person of faith (or even if you’re not!), you should be wary of anyone who claims they’re the only solution to your problems. It’s healthy to be a bit cautious (“skeptical”) of power, and one of the things we can do ahead of time is to build our organizations and institutions in ways where power is shared among more people.

    Conclusion

    Authoritarians are seizing more power around the world right now, and it will likely happen again in your lifetime. But when you and your community practice some of these defenses, you can help limit the times it will happen, and lessen the damage that comes when it does.

    ∞

    iSideWith Support Map

    As a rather nonpartisan person and someone generally unrepresented by politicians1, one of the most interesting features of iSideWith is the feature to show a “support map”, e.g. where political stances are closest to mine.

    The Map

    Key:

    Not pictured: Hawaii and Alaska, which were medium-to-low support.

    Where are my strongest support areas (red on the map)? Let’s break down the locations, by State, and then by district, with a representative city mentioned for each district:

    California:

    • 2: Petaluma
    • 12: San Francisco
    • 13: Oakland
    • 14: Daly City
    • 18: Mountain View
    • 28: Los Angeles
    • 30: Los Angeles
    • 33: Los Angeles
    • 27: Los Angeles

    District of Columbia

    • The whole thing2

    Georgia

    • 1: Savannah

    Illinois

    • 1: Chicago
    • 7: Chicago
    • 9: Chicago

    Massachusetts

    • 2: Worcester
    • 3: Lowell
    • 5: Cambridge
    • 6: Lynn

    Michigan

    • 12: Ann Arbor

    Minnesota

    • 5: Minneapolis

    New York

    • 7: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn
    • 9: Brooklyn
    • 12: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn

    Oregon

    • 3: Portland

    Washington

    • 2: Bellingham
    • 7: Seattle

    Wisconsin

    • 2: Madison

    Analysis

    I’ve looked for some patterns, of course. Many of them are cosmopolitan places (or at least one of the most cosmopolitan places in their state). Many of them have college towns. Many of them are tech forward. But none of these factors is universally true across them. What do you notice?

    What does yours look like?

    Show us your map?

    1. according to iSideWith, I agree with one of the major USA parties only 55%, and the other 18% ↩︎

    2. technically not a state yet, but they do have one at large district with limited representation ↩︎

    ∞

    A song for Columbus Day 🎶

    (which should actually be Indigenous Peoples' day)

    🎶: Silent Planet - Native Blood

    The barren wastes, bearing down on me.1 Cracks in the clouds leave me wondering: Did the oceans dry out and return to the sky, for a privileged perspective of our final goodbye?

    Pretend it’s a house of peace while she’s buried underneath. You built your Father’s house over my mother’s grave.2

    Bodies - a mass grave collapse the concave floor. These sanctimonious steeples will meet us in the dirt. Because the earth is trembling,3 if only we had eyes to see it shake. Ignorant until we expire.

    When the ocean fills our veins and the soil becomes my bones:4 Maybe we’ll fall asleep tonight to the madness in the melody poured out for slaves.

    We were dressed in potential now we’re draped in sorrow.

    Our race is a bloodstain spattered on a profane political campaign - manifest your destiny. Stripes and stars comprise my prison bars - the cost of liberty.5

    Maybe we’ll fall asleep tonight to the madness in the melody poured out for slaves. Maybe this storm is a perfect score for wretched bodies washed ashore, poured out for me.6

    The life I loved looking up at me: saplings struck like daggers hemorrhaging streams as the breath of my people return to the ground7 so forests can once more abound.

    The suffering cross that overcame,8 the name of Love made concurrent with shame.

    This melody - I thought it familiar it sounds like your heartbeat keeping time,9 then you turn and remind me that this pain has a purpose. And maybe we’ll fall asleep tonight.

    Brought to you by the same band I’m covering in #Northern Fires

    1. South Dakota badlands ↩︎

    2. Indian Removal Act of 1830 ↩︎

    3. Proverbs 30:21 ↩︎

    4. Inspired by a quote attributed to Chief Seattle of the Suquamish tribe ↩︎

    5. The Dawes Act of 1887 ↩︎

    6. Matthew 5:45 ↩︎

    7. Psalm 146:4 ↩︎

    8. Christus Victor ↩︎

    9. *irregular - JLW ↩︎

    ∞

    An Alternate Geography

    I live in the:

    • Nation of Ohio
    • State of Wabash
    • County of Patoka-White
    • City of Upper White

    Let’s reverse that order, starting with Upper White and zooming out:

    Upper White:

    image

    Patoka-White:

    image

    Wabash:

    image

    Ohio:

    image

    Ohio and neighbors:

    image

    images sourced from: [https://water.usgs.gov/wsc/map_index.html](https://water.usgs.gov/wsc/map_index.html)

    What are these?

    These regions are “watersheds” or “drainage baisins”. They represent an area where all the water drains into one body (stream, river, lake, etc.).

    In the USA, the numbers you see in the above images represent the 8-digit “HUC” or Hydrologic Unit Code. From my example, 05120201 represents Ohio (05), Wabash (12), Patoka-White (02), Upper White (01). As you can see, they are all named after the major river(s) of that region.

    In addition to the 8-digit HUCs, there are also 12-digit HUCs, representing two additional layers of zoom-in and specificity. Using my proposed naming above, perhaps we could call these Townships and Neighborhoods.

    What are mine?

    In the USA, you can find your regions by progressively zooming in via this tool from the US Geological Survey. For each region, they also provide many linked resources.

    To get even more specific, you can check your 12-digit HUC using the community water search from the EPA. This is also a great resource to see the quality of the water in your area, including the safety of swimming in it, the health of aquatic life in it, and the quality of your drinking water.

    (Note: if you live outside the USA, please feel free to share in the comments how to look up watersheds where you live!)

    Why does it matter?

    As the saying goes: water is life. People, wildlife, and the entire ecology within a watershed are all part of the same stream of life.

    In addition, ecological health is tied to financial health, and both are affected by community interactions and governance within the region. Their fate flows together.

    Thus, the thought experiment of using the terms: Nation, State, County, City, Township, Neighborhood.

    Political boundaries can often feel arbitrary, based on agreements or impositions that may have had very little to do with the people that actually live in the area (or were even contrary to their interests, such as in colonial situations).

    But watersheds are based on shared life. Regardless of wealth, ethnicity, or other factors, people within a watershed have shared destiny.

    So what?

    What would it mean to think of our local watershed as our polity, our political unit?

    Could we become better at seeing our neighbors as people in the same boat, rather than as enemies?

    Could we more readily identify how systems are interacting?

    Could it enable more long-term thinking, strategic thinking, thinking that considers not just the current moment but the impact to the financial, social, and ecological health of the region?

    How is the health of your watershed? What might you do, knowing that?

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