I appreciate that Nostr is a social media protocol that I can enjoy but not be addicted to. X is a huge time suck. It's not really about civil discourse. It's about one-upping each other in our reactions to things that enrage, divise, or provoke us. Because that's addicting.

I bought $100 of #Bitcoin using #Monero around three weeks ago. That Bitcoin is $92 now, and the Monero is $106. This is an ongoing comparison experiment to see how the value fluctuates. I know such a narrow snapshot is not even close to being a fair indication that leads to an overall conclusion, but still. With its built-in #privacy, I'm happy with being all in with Monero. The privacy is worth more to me than numbers, because I don't trust the direction of our increasingly technocratic, big-brother society. Not that any crypto will save the world (that's Jesus' job), but having Monero can certainly be helpful with regard to privacy. The same can be said for encrypted messaging (e.g., #SimpleX, #Session, #Signal, #PGP, OMEMO, et al): not the solution, but helpful.

At a community play a couple nights ago, a quite elderly man was holding the door of the restroom while a couple of us were entering. We thanked him politely. I had gone in quickly only to grab a few sheets of toilet paper because I had no Kleenex with me. The old, frail, kind man was still at the doorway slowly on his way out, engaging in small talk while a stream of people were coming in and out. As some of us were leaving, he held out his hand. "Where's my tip, you cheapskates?" We chuckled at his joke. As I slipped past him to get to the show, he said, "Bend over and I'll give ya a tip." I wasn't expecting that. There's something about vulgar humor that's not funny coming from an older person. I guess it's because I expect older people to be on their best behavior since they are closer to the grave.

With all his struggles against censorship, why isn't Nick Fuentes using Nostr?

Such brainwashing, all for financial profit. You enjoy your chemical cocktails. I'm good.

"Society has not become feminized; it's become faggotized." -- Milo Yiannopoulos

For the last two days, I've eaten nothing but a stick of butter for lunch.

I didn't exactly go to a guitar Mass today for Thanksgiving, because there were no actual guitars there. It was a beautiful church full of statues, paintings, and biblical stained-glass scenes, but after some delay with technical issues, the boomer priest was able to use his iPhone and Bluetooth speakers to start Mass with a John Michael Talbot song (performed by JMT himself), which came with its own guitar accompaniment and backup singers. The priest said, "Peace be with you." We said, "And with your spirit." He said, "Thank you." I always like seeing people in the front rows turning around to flash the rest of the congregation with a high-waving hippie peace sign. ✌️ My wife and I had been asked to bring up the gifts. I wasn't expecting that, so I ended up agreeing to it. But when the time came, another family was already doing it. I was relieved that there was a miscommunication among the ushers. The pre-homily warm up was a humorous poem written about an exploding Thanksgiving turkey. The priest wanted to read it to us right before the homily, he said, "to lighten the mood." The lady lector and lady distributor were a nice touch, too. It was a treat to hear several more songs during Mass that sounded like I was in Catholic gift shop. After our final blessing we were warned not to eat too much turkey. There's nothing I can complain about, though, because all that matters is having a valid sacrament. Right? I was grateful for at least that, and for all the graces we do receive. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Against my better judgment, I just bought $100 worth of BTC (using Monero). I did it to see how the price goes up in comparison to Monero. If BTC shoots way ahead, then I'll just trade it back in for Monero, the privacy of which I value more than the worth of BTC.

I am against recreational mind-altering drugs and all forms of pornography, but I really like the dark market model of business transactions. I'd be happy, for instance, to buy an "America First" hat or t-shirt, but I'd prefer to pay with #Monero and use a PGP key to communicate my mailing address over the Tor network. XMRbazaar is a good example of this kind of transaction (it's how I bought my GrapheneOS phone), but it should be more widespread.