FrJoshMiller
Fr. Josh Miller

Catholic priest. Normie poster. Taipan enjoyer. Here for the freedom network. Bitcoin ambivalent (save for some skeptical hostility every now and again).

Public Key

npub13tahtl9pjw9u5ycruqk84k6sfmkyljsr7y2pc4s840ctlm73fxeq3j6e08

NIP-05 Address

frjosh@primal.net

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsg47m4ljse8z72zvp7qtr6mdgyamz0egplz9qu2cr6hu9lalg5nvspz4mhxue69uhkzem8wghxummnw3ezumrpdejqz9mhwden5te0veex5mmndqhxummnw3erztnrdaksk9jkm5

Publishing to

Author Public Key

npub13tahtl9pjw9u5ycruqk84k6sfmkyljsr7y2pc4s840ctlm73fxeq3j6e08

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Last Notes

2026-05-28 03:40:50 UTC

I've lost 96 pounds since late July. Au naturale, no drugs. I'm swirling a sub-200 weight for the first time in a couple of decades.
I stepped on a scale at the end of July and blinked. It'd been a few years. Sure, my pants were getting bigger, but 298? No. Decided right then and there. Wasn't going to happen.
Diet and exercise. Cardio combined with resistance, with the objective of gaining muscle. Intermittent fasting and calorie counting, followed by a shortening on the fasting, always calorie counting. Everything calories, if not with an app then mentally.
The gains were easy at first. The weight melted off, because I am one stubborn Gaul, and none are as fierce as the Belgae, or so Caesar says.
Plus, I was fat. I had nowhere to go but down.
Anyway, I stalled out at around -70 pounds. That's okay. Stalls happen. But this one stuck around a while. I didn't know how to get 'er out of neutral.
Then I stopped drinking alcohol, and the weight loss picked back up with a vengeance. I'm a social drinker, and a social guy.
Only recently did I read about the metabolic effects of Mr. Booze. I ran through the chemistry today, dusting off ancient knowledge from undergrad I'd intentionally kept buried. I despise chemistry as a field of personal study, and I resent having to do this.
Turns out, though, alcohol isn't just something to calorie count like I was doing previously; it's a substance that works against fat-burning metabolically. I intensely dislike knowing this. You may now dislike me for knowing this, too.
I've gone 45 days without a beer, but feel no real impetus to have one now.
Sometimes, ignorance is preferable.

2026-05-25 00:55:56 UTC

First sunburn of the year, let's go. Get it over with and get outside.

2026-05-23 17:52:54 UTC

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Out of college, I was offered a job writing rock crit for Yahoo Music. I am dating myself here with this, but the pay was so substandard even back then that it moved me into grad school as fast as anything. 😂

2026-05-23 17:31:44 UTC

True.
https://blossom.primal.net/e134ac48756d457ec119ab29795ec1ce4bbfa6faa2b1e7c33d458c5ec8303a14.jpg

2026-05-23 03:47:18 UTC

A beautiful visualization of the grift in real-time.
https://isaiprofitable.com/

2026-05-22 17:04:37 UTC

Friday vibes. Happy
(I rarely become enamored by "new" bands I discover. I studied popular American forms extensively as a kid, especially folk, blues, rock, and country -- and there's nothing new under the sun. But these girls bring it, along with their big throat singer, combining forms to make something truly unique and worth listening to, the way select American bands (Turnpike Troubadours, Old 97's, Wilco) still combine forms to produce something uniquely their own.
So, Alatau on, my Siberian friends.)
https://youtu.be/rvNeotbRsJs

2026-05-22 15:43:43 UTC

I consider my Signal chats private.
I consider my hotel traffic via Obscura to be... mostly private.
I consider nothing I do on a publicly viewable chain to be private.
We should know this by now. If privacy is the aim, I'd use XMR under the presumption that it is still not compromised.
All this to say that I find current debates about zaps... amusing.

2026-05-22 15:21:49 UTC

Mo Bitar brings the goods again.
https://youtu.be/waFl4uBfXRA

2026-05-22 05:11:20 UTC

Jesse Welles is a treasure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCCWjgWCI4g

2026-05-21 20:19:30 UTC

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It's funny. We all know about the "money printer go brr" meme and see it whenever the government does a giveaway day, but this is what it really looks like. This is how fake wealth is created, and dollars are really "printed."
#nevent1q…hrd6

2026-05-21 20:08:28 UTC

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This is one of the reasons you will see a cooldown on the hype.
A friend of mine likened it to electric cars: the technology is NOT QUITE THERE to make it what it needs to be for mass adoption, or -- in this case -- cost efficiency.
Until they get cost under control, though, you'll see a dial-down in the AI hyperbole.

2026-05-21 20:06:28 UTC

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Totally, and not forgotten about at all. This is why hype is so important. Everyone knows that AI trained off of copyrighted material. It's just that nobody cares, because AI Good! AI will solve all world problems! AI will make life glorious!
We're consequentialists with regard to our moral reasoning. We'll excuse any evil, as long as the payoff is (at least perceived to be) big enough.

2026-05-21 19:54:14 UTC

The AI grift track:
Unsustainable cost/business model as they continue to circulate capital between themselves, calling it "income" (ala Nvidia/OpenAI swapping funds back and forth) -->
--> Hype. Lots of hype. We've been living this for two years or more now. AI is dangerous. AI will change the world. AI will revolutionize the way you eat your Cheerios -->
--> High IPOs. OpenAI just announced theirs. This is where the big boys get paid. -->
--> Scaling back on the hype, including the quiet shelving of "Data Center" madness. Notice how none of these are actually being completed and opened? Because compute is so expensive and the model is unsustainable, I fully expect OpenAI and Anthropic to shift to legacy corporate customers only, abandoning individual users. There is no way to make it cheap enough for you to use, especially as these models keep scaling up in terms of complexity -->
--> The destruction of the little guys who cannot keep up with big boys, leaving only OpenAI/Anthropic and the smatterings of Big Tech with functional (diversified) business models -->
--> You and I running open local models only. Not a bad thing, as they are getting better, and will do everything you probably need them to.
And that's the grift. Nostrajoshmus has spoken.

2026-05-21 01:41:13 UTC

I like zaps well enough. The problem was never including them as a feature. The mistake was leaning on them so heavily as a selling point of the protocol.

2026-05-20 17:35:23 UTC

My complicated view of AI and art being what it is, I find it incredibly pretentious to take issue with this, unlike our smug article writer here. Nothing wrong with taking inspiration from outside sources. We all do it anyway, as art fuels art.
https://lithub.com/nobel-laureate-olga-tokarczuk-apparently-used-ai-to-write-her-latest-novel/

2026-05-20 15:23:31 UTC

Real-talk for just a minute here, friends: I know not of a single "sovereign" individual in this universe. Not one has existed free from the constraints of some governing power. There's no such thing, and any notion otherwise is self-delusion. You are subject to a governing hierarchy, both on earth and in Heaven.
Not even the King of the British Empire is sovereign. Never was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xNpXHnbvSw

2026-05-20 14:58:00 UTC

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Just think about the possibilities here. One could raise a child, without that child ever knowing another flavor.
#nevent1q…atcs

2026-05-19 21:08:44 UTC

Big, awful, oversized frames for glasses are back from the 1980's, and I just want to say: no, kids. No.

2026-05-19 20:01:10 UTC

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$377.02 sitting there, ripe for the picking. Your nsec will not survive the night.

2026-05-19 15:31:24 UTC

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Not even remotely, because Canada poses zero threat in any tangible form. The mercenary military you speak of -- which doesn't exist -- would be activated in the theoretical war game scenario in which the U.S. military invaded Canada. By Canada's own admission, that invasion would take about a week. Which is pretty entertaining in itself. But then they'd switch to guerrilla warfare model to battle the U.S. military, with these theoretical militias that don't exist, neutralizing the U.S. military occupiers.
All of this is pretty entertaining. The United States is not going to invade Canada. The militias don't exist. Nobody cares, and the reality is that Canada's economy is pegged to the United States, today and tomorrow.
I kind of like this PM, though. He's a mini-Trump. He's out there saying bold things, just to get attention and look big. And even if people know it's all a circus act, all bluster, he's still trying to look tough in the Canada-first kind of way, which is good. Trudeau was a fop, a disaster, your typical Frenchman: all style, no substance. At least this guy looks like he cares about the country, even if he's expressing it in a hilariously ridiculous way.
That he looks like Scrappy Doo wanting to fight a scary monster 100-times his size makes it all that much more entertaining.

2026-05-19 06:32:01 UTC

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The best improvement since 2024, reportedly. Which probably explains the brief fluctuation, since monetary value is tied to economic strength.

2026-05-19 04:51:03 UTC

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*shrugs.* Just saw a tweet earlier this evening.
https://x.com/spectatorindex/status/2056579089969123574?s=20

2026-05-19 04:48:55 UTC

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Economic growth of .5% reported this quarter in Japan, exceeding expectations. I suspect that's what is responsible for the (however brief) rebound.

2026-05-19 02:31:17 UTC

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A good exploration of how they continue to try and dupe you with this marketing strategy. I guess we aren't quite past it yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j6dQK_MggU&t
#nevent1q…xm9e

2026-05-18 18:16:33 UTC

One of the better criticisms of the state of modern AI I've seen in a while.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or8butOTUp8

2026-05-17 04:10:01 UTC

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It's the absolute best way.

2026-05-16 22:07:06 UTC

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You nailed it.
Even if you think BTC is fantastic, even if you think it IS the savior and the way towards an egalitarian monetary paradise, EVEN if you think about it this way --
-- you're just a boring economics nerd, talking about money, and playing to a small audience of people interested in such things.

2026-05-16 18:54:06 UTC

32 years ago on this date. I was 13, about to turn 14.
https://blossom.primal.net/ee597d55faec4a1064145d7f3a881d44874de1df4de0a52be9763fe9baaad357.jpg

2026-05-16 18:45:27 UTC

I just updated Brave and I'm stunned.
All windows returned to their proper desktop positions in MacOS. This one small thing is the best development I've experienced technologically speaking in years.

2026-05-16 18:10:33 UTC

Nostr will never be awash in normies. There's simply too much coin talk here, and BTC is normie repellent. Any kind of crypto talk works better than bear mace.
You don't have to like it, but that's reality.
If we're talking marketing, we have to keep hammering away at the free and open nature of this network. Some people still care about that, and we need them. That's the sell, along with your own normie content.
Nostr's best bet, since the bear mace ain't going away any time soon.

2026-05-16 16:23:52 UTC

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Sometimes, you got stuff to do

2026-05-15 16:50:21 UTC

Really, AI is just like Web3, except with a lot more VC behind it.
And like Web3, there will come a moment where we step back and say, "So this is it, huh? This... this kinda sucks."

2026-05-15 16:32:40 UTC

I love this guy. Like me, he doesn't hate AI. He just despises the nonsense around it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juHv_Vi4giU

2026-05-15 14:53:14 UTC

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Remembering when we were knee-deep in ""ethics"" conversations re: the power of AI. "You can't handle an unregulated AI!"
Glad we're past that marketing strategy, even if it was funny at the time.
#nevent1q…vyyd

2026-05-15 14:49:53 UTC

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Slop AI finding slop bugs = no bug bounty program = bugs.
Well done, everybody. Now go build another data center.
#nevent1q…3j06

2026-05-15 04:14:48 UTC

I remember back when I was a kid, interested in the creative, the explosive, the avant garde, I lived with a former Art History doctoral candidate, also my former high school English teacher, in his 50's. By the time I made it to college, he let me stay at his place when I visited my girlfriend in that old town. A lifetime ago.
We'd talk about art. He just wanted art that was pretty. Didn't really have to be creative. Just make it nice, pleasant. I wondered at the time where he might have lost that flame for the innovative, for the style that set your hair and on fire and bleached your eyes white. Bob Dylan going electric at Newport. Goya painting his madness. How could you lose your love for that wildness?
Turns out, my friend didn't really lose it. He just got past it as a necessity. Art doesn't have to be clever. It doesn't have to set your hair on fire.
I know that now, being at that exact same point, aesthetically and creatively, 25 years later. Just make it pretty.
So here's something pretty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HMBniu9Evg

2026-05-14 16:50:03 UTC

I concur 100%, and would never turn the parish into a political spectacle in favor of a candidate.
Unless....
https://www.osvnews.com/new-data-shows-americans-oppose-houses-of-worship-endorsing-political-candidates/
https://blossom.primal.net/54efb4cb7b1ec62ada7c5b06a3144cd1d96958374a8ce520bc6887d0fdc71dd3.png

2026-05-14 15:51:17 UTC

And also, while we're at it: end the bad China-Vatican "deal" that two (good) popes rejected before one came along and said, "Eh, what harm could it do?"
Turns out, a lot.

2026-05-14 15:49:46 UTC

Free Jimmy Lai. Simple as.
https://www.osvnews.com/catholics-await-word-on-jimmy-lai-as-trump-meets-xi-in-beijing/

2026-05-14 00:52:27 UTC

One cannot glaze AI and then bemoan the data center epidemic.
So join me in despising them both.

2026-05-14 00:44:57 UTC

We laugh and joke, but... yes. It's real-life content, eh. That's what brings 'em in. Bloviation about Bitcoin ain't exactly going to do it.
#nevent1q…lf0j

2026-05-13 19:40:36 UTC

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History LARP. He technically has all power, but must never exercise it. Lame waste of money.

2026-05-13 17:32:20 UTC

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This is amazing.

2026-05-13 00:22:43 UTC

Ephemeral notes need to be a thing. The poll from the other day has convinced me.

2026-05-13 00:11:43 UTC

The sacristy cactus -- which I care for exclusively -- is still alive over a year later, and throwing off kids.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55265611397_ea97702954_b.jpg

2026-05-12 18:02:40 UTC

Never forget what happened when Rolling Stone Magazine left Prince out of their Top 100 Guitarists of All-Time list.
They listed him at #14 in a revised list later on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWRCooFKk3c

2026-05-12 17:42:26 UTC

The boys poured the concrete platform for our new hall sign today. Coming along.
https://i.nostr.build/rc6qy7bY3lYrlj5j.jpg

2026-05-12 17:17:23 UTC

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ME, from just inside the curtain: There will never come a time where elites give up their control over money. Start there, and work your way forward. Hard to craft a utopia, huh?
#nevent1q…f8fj

2026-05-11 20:40:20 UTC

Hey folks, I think this Trump guy may not be on the up-and-up...
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/590-000-buyers-paid-59-223500998.html

2026-05-10 23:40:35 UTC

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Most of my notes would be ephemeral by choice; like musical notes, the majority are supposed to hang for only but a time.
#nevent1q…4jhl

2026-05-10 04:17:48 UTC

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(I'm Belgian -- third generation American, first male not to speak Flemish. I can poke fun at the French from time to time, even if Belgium is worse.)

2026-05-10 04:04:38 UTC

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Joining every country everywhere in their pursuit to break encryption.
France, though -- being filled with the French -- just feels the need to complain about it out loud.
#nevent1q…66mc

2026-05-10 00:44:16 UTC

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Sweet Vitamin N.

2026-05-10 00:37:23 UTC

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As one who recently lost 90 pounds through the grind, I feel you. We know neither the hour, nor the day.
On the other hand, I know I feel a lot better now than I did when I was a fatty. So that's the reward (and thus the motivation) I cling to.

2026-05-09 16:22:48 UTC

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People are classically terrible at risk analysis. This is why there's a knee-jerk reaction to label something as terrible if it carries any risk at all, because the majority do not parse through the weeds before leaping.
Continuing on with our theme of the week in pandemics, one side told you "the vaccine is totally safe" while the other side said it'll turn you in to some kind of human mutant or else kill you. Both are examples of what happens when we either fail or do not trust the general populace with the task of threat assessment, weighing potential costs against potential gains. Meanwhile, the truth -- and thus the best course of action for the individual -- is stranded somewhere in the middle, because we do not do our due diligence by thinking things through.
#nevent1q…nzvq

2026-05-09 16:05:23 UTC

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This one irritates me too. I want to say, "Now try that with lemonade and see what happens. Next, use orange juice."

2026-05-09 05:22:21 UTC

The proper response to the media looking to farm your cynical virus of the month response:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55258189961_5c52f8f361_b.jpg

2026-05-09 05:17:12 UTC

If you ever think you're having a bad one, just remember that Teddy Roosevelt lost his mother and first wife on the same day.

2026-05-08 23:45:57 UTC

My brother and sister conservatives, please avoid this circular tendency:
1) The media baits you with some junior-grade virus tucked away on page seven, because they've got toilet paper ads to sell, and they know it'll get your attention after 2020.
2) You take the bait, saying something akin to "here we go again, prep for the lockdowns!"
3) The lockdowns never come (because see #1: the threat was never real).
4) You never retract, nor do you develop proper cynicism towards the people pushing the toilet paper ads, simply waiting for #1 to occur again in order to repeat the cycle because it reinforces your cynicism (some of which I share) about what went down in 2020.
You're not sounding an alarm. You're playing their game.

2026-05-08 19:37:32 UTC

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Of course, that "little" is what the AI twisted (and the original poster didn't bother to check). As stated, it's "do whatever you want on Shabbat," which I most certainly will 😂

2026-05-08 19:20:56 UTC

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Except, this didn't happen, and of course you can blame worthless AI for not being able how to read, which is why I went and found the actual declaration:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as Jewish American Heritage Month. I call upon Americans to celebrate the heritage and contributions of Jewish Americans and to observe this month with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies. I further call on all Americans to celebrate their faith and freedom throughout this year, during this month, and especially on Shabbat to celebrate our 250th year.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fiftieth.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/05/jewish-american-heritage-month-2026/

2026-05-08 16:27:24 UTC

“He said, 'Well, would it matter if I tell you I’m Pope Leo?’ And she hung up on him. I mean, I would have hung up on him,” said Father McCarthy.
https://www.osvnews.com/customer-service-story-of-relatable-pope-leo-xiv-gone-viral-resonates-with-everyday-people/

2026-05-08 16:24:38 UTC

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Scambuster. Pretty entertaining. Crypto scams are a speciality.

2026-05-08 15:22:30 UTC

I despise AI. I recognize that it does some cool things, especially in the realm of coding.
But I absolutely despise what it's doing to energy and hardware needs, driving up the cost of everything in its wake. We needed market corrections yesterday, and it's still not happening, so everything is rising in cost. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

2026-05-08 14:21:01 UTC

Looks like we got us some state alien documents droppin'. The economy must be doing excellent.
https://www.war.gov/UFO/

2026-05-07 20:23:28 UTC

This is just fun.
(Cubs up 8-1 over the Reds at the end of 6.)
https://csechrest2.github.io/wrigley-scoreboard/

2026-05-07 20:02:08 UTC

https://rmoff.net/2026/05/06/ai-slop-is-killing-online-communities/

2026-05-07 16:06:28 UTC

My generation was just old enough to witness the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the pitiable Soviet Union; it was impossible for us to entertain seriously the possibility of Communism, because we watched how vapid the political philosophy was in real-time.
Apparently not true for the late-stage Millennial and beyond, though. That there are grifters on the Internet making a name for themselves pumping up communism is bonkers.
Kids: it didn't work. It never worked. It won't work in the future.

2026-05-06 16:36:57 UTC

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Strong, lucid take. This sums up my skepticism behind digital currency in general, precisely because I see the opening of the first exchange (wherein value became tethered to the USD) as the end of the line for any romantic notion.
And it's only gotten worse, as the mainstream now treats it like a commodity.
#nevent1q…09ad

2026-05-05 22:12:19 UTC

AI music is instantly detectable, and not just because of the poor sound quality or the innocuous YouTube packaging. The audio lacks soul, authenticity. Dylan once said the most important thing when listening to a song is, "Do I believe this?" With AI slop, there's nothing to believe. It's just sounds.

2026-05-05 22:08:36 UTC

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Amusing in a "I thought we were passed this nonsense" kind of way.

2026-05-05 20:06:00 UTC

Occasionally, just for funsies, I'll have an AI model write a homily for me. Never to give, but just to read out of amusement.
They're always long, rambling, unfocused things without a central thesis, covering multiple topics that would leave a listen either lost or tuned out in boredom.
But today, it occurred to me: that's perfect. These models were trained by real homilies, which are almost always long, rambling, unfocused things without a central thesis.
Boys, remember: one point. In and out. You have 500 words at most. Go get it.

2026-05-05 19:57:36 UTC

As I watch political conversations from the sidelines, it amuses me that we're back into the Neocon grindset: if it betters America, violent intervention in foreign affairs is actually good.
Amusing that MAGA's non-interventionism is now in tatters, and we're essentially standing in Dick Cheney country again.

2026-05-05 17:50:42 UTC

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I can think of nothing more horrifying than a phone constantly drawing every bit of data it can to train its own model. Of course, one might argue this is already happening now with Googled phones at best, Apple devices at worst. But this is just making it a little too obvious.
#nevent1q…ehns

2026-05-05 15:55:39 UTC

Freedom is glimpsed in the realization that 90% of all meetings are worthless wastes of time.

2026-05-04 18:41:57 UTC

iOS 26.5 now with E2E RCS capability. I'll stick with Signal, but this is good progress.
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/05/04/ios-26-5-rc/

2026-05-04 18:17:07 UTC

AI models are doomed anyway, only a matter of time. The models all train on the Internet, which is currently high percentage AI slop, thus producing more slop, and this will continue until it's all slop, at which point one weird soul with an analog library will scratch their heads and pick up a book and say, "this isn't right," just before the mobs begin torching the data centers.

2026-05-04 18:04:40 UTC

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eBay is how I buy most of my pens and paper, from the fine folks over in Japan looking to mark it up slightly less than the online retailers in the states.
I also buy vestments, mostly from India.

2026-05-04 18:02:20 UTC

Much of what I see coming out of home assistants (OpenClaw, etc.) is akin to digital gluttony, the production and accumulation of data for data's sake, serving no real purpose. An absolute waste of finite resources for the equivalent of technological masturbation.
You probably just don't need it, even if you think it's cool.

2026-05-03 22:15:20 UTC

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I believe all I ended up doing was typing it in to my profile page.

2026-05-03 21:52:22 UTC

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In general, psychologists and doctors will tell you "two drinks a day." No more than that, though. Not healthy.

2026-05-03 17:54:17 UTC

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Well, kind of. We've seen it with Western kit once, in Ukraine, where tech countries donated the goodies. It all comes down to what a nation is capable of technologically, because, as you rightly point out, it is so asymmetric.
I'd argue that we've not really tried to control the Straight of Hormuz; we're still playing the politics game, which I am grateful for, and we've been just kinda lazily hanging around while Trump does Trump, always looking for the deal, always threatening that "now we're about to get serious."
He could, but he won't.

2026-05-03 15:43:20 UTC

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The difference between the two countries and their technology/resources is immense. Russia is rich in soldiers, USA rich in tech, and tech wins wars. Not really fair to say "because Russia X, then USA Y," when the disparity between the two countries is so great.
But even then, no ground campaign with Iran. No thanks.

2026-05-03 15:34:54 UTC

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You always post these interesting little picture poems. Thanks for that!

2026-05-02 15:34:58 UTC

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Of course, this post is halfway tongue-in-cheek.
But only halfway.

2026-05-02 15:07:04 UTC

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In order to end the tyranny of the morning person, we must first prove that they do not exist.
Even at the neurological level, study after study has proven that the brain isn't at peak function in the morning for the general populace. This is especially prevalent in children, and yet it seems families build their sleep schedules around early-rising kids (who are only such because they have to get to school, where they sit comatose before their brains actually turn on).
Anecdotally, I see the science evidenced frequently: the joke that hits hard at 4pm Mass might sail over everybody's head at 7:30am, because people just aren't awake in a church filled with people who will tell you they "get up early. " I feel like tapping on the mic. Making them get up for a little calisthenics, like they did to us in grade school when everyone was half-dead.
There's a reason comedy clubs don't do 9am shows.
Farmers have no choice, and I know this via experience in the field. Gotta do what you gotta do, whether you like it or not.
Hemingway used to write in the early mornings. But this was only because he couldn't wait to start drinking at midday. Honestly, I see the appeal -- but what could a sober Hemingway have accomplished in the power of the night?
His fellow Nobel laureate Bob Dylan has spoken over the years about the night, and how certain things live there creatively, inaccessible during the day. He's right. The "mystic hours when a person’s alone," he called them on his last album.
St. Thomas Aquinas, mega genius he was, wrote during the day. But what he wrote was the product of long nights spent before the Blessed Sacrament in prayer. Those mystic hours when a person's alone. He slept very little, and I suppose that's the ideal.
It's really the cycle of sleep that makes the fake morning person. People who are tired after long days, turning in early. Can't argue with that. Older folks who cannot sleep in long stretches, beginning sleep in the late evening. Understandable.
But not natural, not even by basic brain function. Patterns of living thrust upon us via extraordinary condition.
The morning person does not exist: they are only made such through anguish, exacerbated as it is by the Protestant work ethic.
Big Coffee does not want you to know this.
#nevent1q…68sd

2026-05-02 13:28:39 UTC

There’s no such thing as a morning person. There are simply those without the fortitude to stay up late.

2026-05-02 13:17:24 UTC

Ss. Pius and Athanasius in one week. I am still amazed that anyone says yes to being a bishop after reading about those guys. I reckon they say, “How bad could it be?” before it gets awful.
Happy weekend all!

2026-05-01 22:24:59 UTC

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They fry my eyes. Why not my brain?

2026-05-01 16:50:42 UTC

GM. Around these parts on Friday, that entails office work leading in to visits to the homebound.
Have a blessed one out there good people, and slide on in to that weekend.
https://i.nostr.build/Y3kPP0NzjEO0xjtm.jpg

2026-05-01 07:29:57 UTC

A cleaned up version of "How to Make an Awesome Confession."
https://frjosh.org/blog/how-to-make-an-awesome-confession/

2026-05-01 03:56:20 UTC

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Thanks! Some good stuff here.

2026-04-30 23:10:33 UTC

Just learned of David Allen Coe’s passing. He wasn’t a perfect guy, but none of us are. An outlaw who did the genre proud.
https://youtu.be/LZbso7sNqv0

2026-04-30 21:01:30 UTC

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Much Tex Mex is not actually Mex. Burritos. The very concept of "taco" most Americans/foreigners hold. All mirages, fakes.
One might argue that even the flour tortilla is a foreign invention, flour having been introduced by the Spanish. Small soft corn tortillas, meat, cilantro, onions. That's how you make a taco.

2026-04-30 18:40:03 UTC

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My long, drawn-out episode with USPS is now ended. The package came today, and -- surprisingly -- the contents were not destroyed.
#nevent1q…n4j2

2026-04-30 01:44:16 UTC

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Amazon could have literally sent this thing by donkey and it would have been here quicker than with the USPS.
#nevent1q…l96l

2026-04-29 23:28:39 UTC

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In my dream world, the interior smells like spilled beer and cigarettes.

2026-04-29 23:24:16 UTC

"Do you think the owners inside will hear us if we start it up?"
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55239232566_0ee9becc7c_c.jpg

2026-04-29 19:11:23 UTC

The new pop discourse is around "assassin culture," but that's a messy term.
I saw the pivot ca. 2020 with the "punch a Nazi" dialogue, where consensus grew among certain groups that committing an evil (unprovoked physical violence) is morally permissible because it brings about a desirable outcome (owning a "Nazi"). This is really just utilitarian pragmatism in contemporary clothing, and is nothing new, even if it speaks to a weakened moral formation.
Rule #1 of Morality: Do no evil.
Rule #2 is implied via the first, but apparently needs to be reaffirmed: Do no evil such that good may come of it.

2026-04-29 16:14:15 UTC

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I am perpetually an old man.