My brother helped 3D print this Pyramid Arcade insert, and now instead of 10 colors of 3 trios, I now have a full stash (5 trios) of all 14 of my current pyramid colors. That includes the special releases of grey, “kickstarter green”, pink, and neon yellow.

I can also fit in all the Pyramid Arcade components, plus some extra dice and black and white glass beads (for classic Zendo).

Just in time to expand the collection with the Pyramid Quartet kickstarter and grab the silver pyramids!

Flobots - NOENEMIES

Flobots have created some of my favorite “protest songs” including White Flag Warrior, Stand Up, and Handlebars. Naturally, I wanted to check out their latest offering.

Flobots is MCs Brer Rabbit and Johnny 5, along with a host of musicians & guests. I really appreciate the electric violin, which frequently shows up in various tracks. Songs tend to blend hip-hop, singalong, and political sensibilities. This album doesn’t disappoint. You’ll find yourself singing the choruses, headbanging to the raps, and probably looking up references in the lyrics.

Favorite Tracks:

• 5: Quarantine
• 6: American Dreams
• 7: Rattle the Cage
• 12: Voices of the Dead
• 14: Related
• 16: Sleeping Giant

I’ve recently dug back into checking out and buying albums directly, rather than streaming. I’m limiting myself to an album or couple EPs a month, up to what I might spend on streaming. I’m going to share about my picks here, once a month. With that, here’s the first album:

Moor Mother - Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes

I first found out about this artist via The Rebel Beat podcast. Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes is a smart and challenging album. It’s genre, like much of my favorite music is: “ummm, yes?” and contains elements of hip hop, folk, spoken word, punk, electronic, noise, and more. This is not an easy listen, but it’s a good one.

Favorite tracks:

• 3: After Images
• 6: Black Flight (feat. Saul Williams)
• 11: Private Silence (feat. Reef The Lost Cauze)

Sunday, 13 years ago, my spouse and I joined our Mennonite community and church.

You might be surprised that a Mennonite is here on the Internet, talking about things like cybersecurity. So let me give you the world’s shortest history of Mennonites and a few quick points about modern Mennonites.

History

Mennonites are descendants (sometimes literally) of the reformation, specifically, what’s often called the “radical reformation.” In that movement, the radical reformers believed that that one’s place of birth or government should not dictate one’s religion, and that one should profess their faith once they were capable of freely accepting one. For this, the label “anabaptists” or “re-baptizers” was used as an epithet, and it stuck.

Anabaptists also opted out of the violence and warring between religious and political factions, choosing to disassociate or flee to a new location, as needed. They practiced a “priesthood of all believers”, meaning that there was no formal clergy and that all were called to hold each other accountable in interpretation and life. They put a focus on Jesus’s teachings and life, not just his birth and death.

None of these stories are without exception, and I could write several other posts about the asterisks. But I promised you a short history.

Modern Anabaptists include Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, Bruderhof, Church of Brethren, Brethren in Christ, and several variations on all these.

Modern Mennonites

Here are what I see as the most-common traits of modern Mennonites:

• Reconciliation: conflict mediation, healing relationships, restoring ecology, practicing redemption, disaster-relief
• Peacemaking: nonviolent struggles for peace & justice, echoing the voices of the voiceless, reducing harm, operating from subversive & prophetic weakness instead of domination
• Simplicity: living intentionally, being kind to animals & the earth, humility, avoiding consumerism
• Christocentrism: viewing the whole of the Bible through the lens of Jesus’s teaching and action, seeing the image of God in our neighbors & enemies

Again, this is very short list with exceptions omitted. If you want to read a short book with more, I’d recommend The Naked Anabaptist or (somewhat longer) The Upside Down Kingdom.