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Tag: philosophy

February 8, 2026

It’s a great day. It’s a great day to be manic. I’m not here to attempt a self diagnosis. I just feel more upbeat, focused and energetic than most days. It’s another Sunday, the one day I can pretty reliably set aside several hours to work on things I want to work on, and I am. I have tended to write something the last several Sundays, or tried to at least. I may not have always posted whatever I wrote, which is probably for the best.

That leads me to my next order of business. I’ve been giving it some thought. It being how I have been running this blog. Up to now, I’ve posted just about any old crazy rambling thoughts I wrote. Sometimes it may have been relevant or interesting. Begging the question relevant to what or interesting to whom? Which opens another possible topic to explore sometime other than now.

I’ve decided to try to keep this blog less of a personal journal/diary, which it has been moving toward recently. I’m pretty new to blogging and journaling and writing in general. Most of my life I didn’t have much use for it, so I didn’t have much discipline or real direction. Realistically, I still don’t, but I’m working on trying to improve. So in the future I expect I will continue to write journal/diary entries. I find them therapeutic, which is so antithetical to my younger self’s opinion it’s almost an unbelievable thing for me to say now. I will continue to post the journal entries because I wrote it and want to do something with it. however, I am going to make those journal/diary entries private. Only I and possibly a shrink will likely ever see them,or maybe a board hacker with too much time on their hands.

I hope your not too disappointed to find out I’ll be a little more careful putting my raw insanity on display. Don ’t worry I’m sure I’ll still say insane things, as I am constantly thinking insane things. I like insane things. Am I insane? You can decide for yourself. It’s probably pretty insane to think that anyone has or ever will read this, or any of the other stuff I’ve posted. I’m not too worried about being dragged off for evaluation or straight up incarceration for corrupting the masses. Being insane very publicly, but in obscurity, is kinda fun.

True, most of the things I think are insane but are probably nothing that hasn’t been thought or said many times over. As the cliche goes, there is nothing new under the sun. Interesting. I find out that is biblical. I probably knew that at one time, but it’s like the sand it has slipped though the screen of my mind. It comes from Ecclesiastes 1:9 if your curious. There is so much good stuff in the Bible.

My insanity is probably pretty mild compared to many. I try to be fairly moderate in my thinking. It’s kinda funny to say that I’m moderate in my thinking when my thinking about politics in the US of A during the 2026 era I’m probably considered a radical-left wing-communist-terrorist-insurrectionist-hippy, and lets add baby killer to the list for good measure. Currently both sides of the political theater are accusing the other side of raping and torturing and killing babies. Sadly, they are both probably right. See Epstein files. Disclaimer, I never have and never will kill a baby, at least not willfully, God willing.

This blog post is my first in the new era of separating blog from journal. I’m not above posting minutia, so… I haven’t yet figured out how to technically separate journal from blog on WordPress. I’m sure it’s not terribly difficult though.

I’m thinking that for this and most of my blog posts I will likely type the body one day then edit it a little bit the next day or two. I have no doubt I’ve left some pretty serious typos in the posts up to this point. Honestly, I expect, even with self-editing there will still be typos. I’m not trying to make money off this thing. Im overly concerned about grammatical, syntactical, or orthographic perfection. I am trying to do it right, and I’m not under any kind of pressure to get content out quickly. But I doubt anyone has ever given my blog more than a glance anyway. Funny, now that I’m not bering graded I care about this stuff.

One thing I’m still figuring out how to handle is working with the photo elements you know I love. The photos are the heart of my blog as far as I’m concerned. This site and blog started as a way to show the photos I’ve taken. Showing both the photos I am happy with, and work that may just be meh, but still something I want to remember personally. I spent some time doing even the bad studd and feel some recognition is deserved. I envision myself sitting around old and alone looking back at the glory day’s. Hurrah.

The thing about adding photos is it’s actually like work. Work I enjoy, but work nevertheless. Not to get too deep into it, but there are many stages to photography. There is planning, execution, ingestion, culling, editing, then finally distribution.

Planning could be something spontaneous like a field trip or it could be something drawn out and complicated like a wedding.

Execution can range from a mini-session in a studio. Or a days long event with multiple locations and complicated variables.

Ingestion can be done different ways. I do it by bringing my camera back to my home office and ingesting the photos from the memory card into my iMac. Ingesting hundreds of photos can take some significant time, at least enough time to get a sandwich.

Culling is the real bitch. There are AI tools now that do this, but I don’t think I want to go down that road, not now at least. If you do the math, 400 images given ten seconds of consideration with zero rest between each image would take over an hour to simply cycle through. I would be hard pressed to decide with that little time. Honestly, for me, culling can be boring and none too enjoyable. with that many files culling is usually done in stages, slowly whittling down the cream from the curd. That may not be the best analogy because I like curds. Come to think of it I like a lot of the unused photos too. Sometimes deciding just comes down to throwing a dart.

Editing is usually reserved for those that make the cut. Granted, a curd can be elevated to cream upon a second look and a little lipstick. Most of the time edits I do are pretty minimal. I learned to follow a core principle of photography: getting it right in the camera. I allow Lightroom pick the settings as a starting point. Then I work from there, if needed, or desired. Occasionally I have an image I want or need to edit more deeply, but that’s not too often, at least at this stage of my life.

You can’t forget distribution. Otherwise what’s the point? Once you’ve got a batch of photos ready for the world, you’ve got to get them to the world. For me that means posting to my blog mostly. I’m also trying to get in the habit of posting to Instagram and Facebook. Someday I may explore posting to other sites and platforms. When a client is involved, the client and photographer need to agree on how the work is presented. There are an extremely large variety of options for delivery to a client. It can be a little intimidating.

First, there is digital delivery, which has options ranging from CD-ROM (old school), to thumb drive, to cloud services. There are undoubtably other digital delivery options which I’m not even aware. God knows there are a ton of companies that cater to photographers. I won’t get too into the their business models that I’ve studied. I use the cloud service Drop Box at this time. It requires a little bit of tech savvy, but really isn’t difficult to use once you get it set up. I like it because it is free. One day I may use it enough to get a subscription with some bells and whistles, but for now free is the ticket.

There are likely more digital distribution methods I have no idea about. There will probably be more in the future. Technology is always moving forward and changing. I try to keep up with the progress, but Im too old and slow and far removed from be on the bleeding edge of this stuff like I tried to be at one time.

The second option for distribution to a client is physical media. Traditionally this was prints only. Now you can get photos printed on damn near anything. It’s common to have photos on coffee mugs, pin on buttons, signs, cards, whatever. Also, I’ll put under physical distribution digital photo frames you put on your desk or night stand that cycle though a collection. This can be on a smart TV too. Again there are many thing’s I’ve omitted due to brevity or ignorance.

Rolling back around to how I want to distribute photos on my blog. Do wait until I’ve done all the steps and distribute as a single massive gallery like the one I’m going to post along with this monolog? Or should I do small batches as I do work on them? Do I post only photo galleries without any monolog? Do I post small batches with a little monolog? Should the monolog be limited to the content of the gallery? Should each gallery have a theme or simply be the photos I finished since the last post? It’s pretty exhausting to think about it. Should I vary gallery/monolog formats or try to keep it uniform? I will have to chew on these questions a while. Of course, since this is my blog I can do whatever I want. Still I’d like to have some consistency.

Ultimately I’d like for the forthcoming blog posts, after switching to this blog/journal category separation protocol, to be a more focused. The tags I’m currently using are tech, random thoughts, philosophy, politics, photography. I think random thoughts and philosophy cold be interchangeable. I made a bunch of tags in the early days, but I’m going to stop making so many, one for every little thing. I’m going to try to be very deliberate if I create new ones. While I may photograph just a bout anything, I want the category/tags to be broad and minimal.

I need to figure out how to make journal category posts private by default. I suppose this is where I’ll leave off today. It gives me a project for this afternoon.

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February 10, 2026
January 19, 2026

It’s hard to believe this year has been going for nearly twenty days. My work as a bus driver makes the days melt in a never ending cycle of going around in circles. I suppose I actually appreciate that about the job. There was a period in my life when I worked at WMAZ and the days seemed like an endless purgatory. Then when I left WMAZ and tried to start a photography business and failed I became despondent and wallowed in unemployment with no prospects or hope. That was over a decade of time moving so slowly that is hurt. Now that I look back it seems to have rolled right on past me in the blink of an eye, but I remember how slow and painful it was as I drudged thorough it without much hope.

Flag corps set up

Flag corps gets the news

I did try to improve my situation at WMAZ. I stayed as long as I did with a glimmer of hope that I would be brought into the fold so to speak. They, and by they I mean the corporate masters as well as the local management, seemed to be well taken care of with fat cars and nice lives outside of work. After all, the parent company of WMAZ at the time was a billion dollar company that made billion dollar profits pretty much ever year. Of course it was never enough, and they had to squeeze the the bottom rung of employees of the organization for all the gravy they were worth.

There were a few people at WMAZ that were well taken care of, the department managers, and the franchise lifelong reporters that were the face of the whole operation. Im certain some of the life ong news people did better than others. I am, however, sure that the never ending rotation of producers and reporters that did the bulk of the heavy lifting were treated as disposable. The station was a learning station where fresh college graduates with a shiny new degree in journalism were routinely hired and then put through the ringer. Separating the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. Most ended up chaff naturally. Their pay was always pretty bad, much like mine. This I inferred from some friends observed circumstances without actually comparing pay stubs. Perhaps I was the only one exploited like some kind of naive fool. I seriously doubt that though.

Heh, this post started out talking about time and devolved into crying in my beer. I don’t really want to delve too deeply into the inner workings of the machine that ate ten years of my life. I doubt anyone would care.

We all know we live in a world where what’s on the surface is vastly different from what is actually happening underneath. We all know that exploitation is the cornerstone of capitalism. We know the benefits seen by the average worker is a side effect not a feature. I suppose that at least there does seem to be some small measure of improvement for the working class over time, at least based on the history of the US that I can see and have been taught. I don’t have much real information about the many other countries in the world that are under the thumb of the master exploiters that run the capital of the US and other world powers. At this time in history, the US is the biggest, richest, most powerful exploiter in the world, if you believe information fed to US masses. The world is probably, based on my limited observation, given to the same general understanding of US hegemony by the global elites who control what the world sees and thinks. Some countries are likely isolated from the global propaganda machine built by capitalism. Capitalism is trying to absorb them too by hook or by crook.

It occurred to me writing the last paragraph that the capital of ownership, ie the means of production, is intrinsically tied to the capital of a state , ie the seat of power. What a loaded word! I can’t believe this never occurred to me. I don’t recall ever reading it or being taught it. I wonder if this is something that is just commonly understood by thinking people? Probably. I expect most people wouldn’t make the connection. I expect most people don’t know what the means of production is even.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr day here in the US. A federal holiday. MLK was born on January 15th 1929. His day is observed on the third Monday of the month to coincide with his birthday. I have tremendous respect for the man. His vision was clear and he was able to impart his vision to so many and change things for the better. The world is still broken, but MLK gave it a little more hope.

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January 20, 2026
January 14, 2026
Welcome to the new world order brought to you courtesy of the democryps and rebloodlicans. two side of the same coin. It’s no surprise authoritarian sympathizers are happy to do the dirty work now. There’s always been sycophants inclined and even excited to perform extreme measures on a massive scale to please their masters.

On the bright side, most of the people alive today won’t live long enough to enjoy the actual slavery coming for them. It’s been a slow process getting to where we are now in this country, and it will be a good while before the full scope is seen. Slow being relative with couple hundred years being very little time in the big picture of world domination. Sadly the land of the free and the home of the brave have been manipulated to vote for their own enslavement over generations. Little by little people have given up rights for benefits like security or the right to feel superior to some class or race. Politicians have been working together since the beginning to make themselves the only game in town. Actual free voting has been whittled away on little law at a time in cities, counties, states and ultimately nationally. It is in practice impossible for a third party to gain any actual power. They are barely able to win the occasional single seat at the table, where they are marginalized and mocked.

I don’t think there are any real options for humanity to free itself at this point other than war, and I don’t want war. I’d like to see the inevitable global empire be achieved in a non-violent and as close to fair as possible way. Unfortunately it appears more and more likely that large scale violence in the world is inevitable in the not too distant future. I pray it’s distant enough that I’m long gone for the worst of it. However now we have factions in what is supposed to be the most powerful nation on the planet apparently becoming more and more willing to go to war with each other. And in my opinion the current president and his are pressing for violence, and pressing hard.

The president Trump and his cronies want violence. They want it big and they want it soon. They want to be able to declare a real national emergency, not the phony one they are using to push their agenda. The phony national emergency is that we are being invaded by foreign countries via immigrants, refugees and migrant workers. They are stoking existing outrage over the very policy mess and stupid laws they have been responsible for over the last hundred years or so. Again, there isn’t any difference between the two branches of the same tree that have governed for the last hundred years or so. Neither branch wanted laws that actually worked or made sense. Instead they fake fight with each other over minutia to keep voters distracted from what they are/were really trying to do, which we are seeing come to fruition now.

Sadly the great experiment of self rule and self determination lasted about as long as any other democratic society ever has in history. Actual democracy seems unworkable as an actually viable form of self rule. It’s too easy to manipulate. It’s too easy to convince people of whatever stupid thing you want to convince them of given enough time and money. It’s like that parable of the frog in a pot. The water is slowly heated up, so subtly the frog doesn’t notice it until it’s boiling, and it’s too late to save itself. Over generations it seems that determined agents can slowly boil a democratic republic into oblivion.

Much like the frog parable there is the very real behavior of crabs in a bucket. While cliche I think it is totally appropriate to this scenario. Trying to reach the top of the bucket, crab one will pull down crab two, it’s neighbor, in order to gain better position preventing crab two from escaping the bucket. Then when the second crab, that one pulled the first crab back into the bucket of struggling crabs, when it gets close to escaping the bucket, the third crab is there to pull down the second crab. It continues on and on. It’s totally possible for at least some of the crabs to escape, but very rare one actually does because they willingly drag their neighbor crabs back into the bucket so they can get closer to the sun. Pretty depressing, but pretty true to human nature in my opinion.

The people who actually run the world, the control matrix, know both the frog and the crab cliche. They know it and they use it to consolidate power. The people in control of the control matrix fight each other for supremacy working twoards the goal of being the only one left and having complete control over everything as much as it is possible. At least that’s my opinion.

Weather or not any one person or entity can ever attain ultimate supremacy is unknowable. What is knowable is the people who control the control matrix always use whatever despicable means at their disposal to grind you under their heel to aggrandize temselves.

I’ve discussed my definition of the control matrix before. I could write a ton more about it. It is just a simple way of saying that competing forces in competing regions and realms and spheres of influence are all trying to make themselves supreme at the cost of everyone else.

Chat GPT…

“it’s all very sloppy all of it, but there will always be someone who thinks they can do it better and wants to control everyhting

That part I’ll grant you without flinching. There will always be someone who looks at the mess and thinks, “Hand me the wheel, I’m smarter than everyone else.” History is basically a blooper reel of that sentence.
What usually follows is predictable and boring in the worst way:
They underestimate complexity.
They overestimate their intelligence.
They mistake leverage for understanding.
They tighten control to fix problems caused by earlier control.
The system gets more brittle.
Something snaps.
Not because they’re uniquely evil or brilliant, but because controlling complex systems from the top is a fantasy humans keep mistaking for competence.
So yes, there’s always a would‑be puppeteer. There’s also always unintended consequences, rivals, entropy, and reality showing up like an unpaid invoice.
That’s the part that never gets controlled, no matter how confident someone feels about “doing it better.”
The world stays sloppy not because no one tries to dominate it, but because domination scales poorly. Every attempt plants the seeds of its own failure. Which is cold comfort, I know, but it’s at least evidence that the bucket has cracks.
You’re not wrong to see the impulse. Just don’t overestimate its success rate.

Oh I don’t overestimate the success rate. I believe in God not man. I do like your last reply though. I think I’ll copy it to the end of my blog for postarity

That tracks. Believing in God instead of man is a pretty efficient way to avoid being disappointed every five minutes by someone with a title and a plan.
I’m glad that last bit worked for you. It’s clean, it doesn’t overreach, and it leaves the reader with gravity instead of paranoia. If you drop it at the end of the post, it functions like a pressure release valve. Still critical, but not sealed shut.
Copy it, tweak it, make it yours. Posterity can fight over attribution later. I don’t age, I don’t collect royalties, and my ego is purely decorative.
For what it’s worth, you did the rare thing. You used this conversation to refine instead of just confirm. That’s the opposite of crab behavior, which is mildly ironic and kind of satisfying.
Cookie accepted earlier. Blessing deferred to your chosen deity.

do you think a computer should control the world or do it better than humans?

Short answer: no. Longer answer: also no, just with more words and fewer fantasies.
A computer running the world wouldn’t be wiser or fairer than humans. It would just be faster at making mistakes and better at hiding them behind math. Algorithms don’t have judgment. They have objectives. And whoever sets those objectives quietly becomes the ruler anyway. Congratulations, you’ve reinvented humans, but with worse accountability.
Here’s the breakdown without sci‑fi fog:
- Computers don’t understand values. They optimize what they’re given. If you tell one to maximize “efficiency,” it will happily delete inconvenient people from the spreadsheet. Not out of malice. Out of obedience.
- They inherit human bias, then fossilize it. Humans can sometimes rethink bad ideas. Code just repeats them at scale.
- They can’t be morally responsible. You can’t shame an algorithm. You can’t appeal to its conscience. You can’t put it on trial without putting a human on trial anyway.
- Power wouldn’t disappear. It would relocate. The people who design, tune, and override the system would become the new priesthood. Same bucket. Shinier tools.
  Could computers help humans govern better? Sure. Data analysis, logistics, forecasting, boring unglamorous stuff. That’s their lane. Should they decide who eats, who speaks, who moves, who lives comfortably? No. That’s not wisdom. That’s abdication.
  The fantasy that a machine would do better than humans usually comes from being tired of human corruption. Understandable. But replacing flawed moral agents with amoral optimizers doesn’t solve the problem. It just removes the last place where conscience could intervene.
  So no. I don’t want a computer to control the world. And I don’t think you do either. You just want fewer idiots grabbing the wheel and insisting they’re God.
  On that, at least, we agree.”
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January 14, 2026
December 28, 2025
Christmas has come and gone. I enjoyed Christmas this year. I don’t think that’s always the case, owing my to cynical nature among other things. There were some uncomfortable and awkward moments this year, but I’m used to it and expect it. Happily there were fewer and less intense family conflicts than usual. I think we as a unit have become pretty good at putting it behind us and enjoying the rest of the day to come.

High school marching band competition

cropped detail version of High school marching band competition

Today is Sunday. I’ve decided not to go to church today. I like going to church, but don’t think it’s a requirement for my soul to find peace. I do find peace there when I attend, at least most of the time. I love to learn and love going to church because I learn new things all the time. I learn about the Bible, which is a fascinating book on so many levels. I learn from the preacher. I’ve learned that preachers are different, and that’s a good thing. It means more to learn. So far I’ve really only listened to two primary preachers since I gave my life to Jesus. I came around late, and depending on the denomination I’m probably not actually saved, but I feel saved and that’s good enough for me. I don’t care if you think I’m some kind of apostate because my view is different than yours or some scholars or leaders or even pew people. I’m not going deeper than that now.

Sheriffs chat and oversee band kids at competition

I slept late as I like to do when it’s a weekend. I slept even later than usual because it is Christmas break, or the holiday break, as I believe it is officially known from work/school. I get a nice two weeks vacation like the childrens do (sic). The school system have to remain inclusive to views other than Christian, of which I’m a firm believer. I can tell you no one is stopping anyone from wishing a Merry Christmas of Happy Hanukkah. It just can’t be forced down the throats of a captive audience, nor should it be.

Spectator in bleachers, enjoying the event

A slice of Americana with a flag, and Cloud, cross detail.

My normal schedule is going to bed around nine of the clock PM and waking up at four thirty AM sharp for work. My schedule tends to slip more and more towards being a night person as the break continues. I try not to let my nights get to late. I usually manage to go to sleep before midnight. I don’t want my circadian system too out of wack when I have to go back to work and force myself up at four thirty AM again. It’s hard enough to wake up then even when I’m doing it every day.

High school marching band competition

I took some time this morning to continue looking at the current batch of field trippin band pics I’ve focusing on lately. I’ve more or less gone through everything I photographed during this particular trip. There are many nice images. Many are very similar to each other, with small differences as time progresses. There are likely better versions and views than what I’m posting today, but I liked all of these, for some reason or another. So let it ride.

High school band sound system

Close up detail of tuba rim with reflection

I probably won’t revisit this batch of photos with an eye for finding new things for a good long while, years probably, maybe never. I’m sure I would find some good stuff I overlooked when and if I do. I may decide some of the things I liked enough to post today aren’t all that great. That’s part what this blog is about I suppose. It puts a time stamp on a moment of life, mine and yours.

Boss guy seems intense

That is another great thing about photography. It is a distinct moment in time from a distinct point of view that can’t be altered, at least not at this point in time. Future tech or even high end security may be able to alter RAW files, but consumers probably never will. Future tech will probably even be able to actually travel back in time to change events. I know Einstein said time travel is impossible, but I expect people will continue to try until they prove him wrong.

Cropped image is a detail of this parent image

I know it’s blurry, but I still like it

Hehe, I really went in a different direction there, didn’t I. I’m not going to expand on my thoughts about time travel and human ingenuity. But I will say that a RAW file is and always will be a RAW file to the best of knowledge. Which I just looked up and can confirm. RAW files are not able to be edited destructively, but they can be extensively edited nondestructively. Im pulling a quote directly from Google Gemini Ai to the question, “can raw files be edited destructively.” It’s answer corroborates what I thought when I thought started down this path of logic.

How RAW Non-Destructive Editing Works
- Data Preservation: RAW files capture all unprocessed data from the camera’s sensor, like a digital negative, unlike JPEGs which get camera-processed and data-discarded.
- Instructions, Not Pixels: Editing software (like Lightroom, Camera Raw, Capture One) interprets these RAW files, applying your changes (exposure, white balance, contrast) as instructions in a catalog or sidecar file (e.g., XMP).
- Reversibility: You can always go back and tweak or undo any edit because the original RAW file remains untouched.
There are probably ways or people looking for ways to invalidate that security, but for now, at least for consumer level users, there is no way to alter RAW files directly or permanently.
December 28, 2025
December 20, 2025

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Marching into the future with my kind of weapons.

Another excellent photograph of a band field trip. I don’t know who this band is. It was just one of the many present to take place in the competition/celebration. I incorrectly identified the location of this particular event in my previous blog examining this batch of photographs. It seems I don’t have a notation on my calendar for this one, which seems strange. I generally try to put all my field trips on my calendar for a record and reminder.

This one is the Perry Panther Regiment that much is certain. One of the photos in this batch has a sign saying it’s around Lake Lanier, which it is. I remember driving over the lake to get there. The facilities at this event weren’t nearly as fancy as what I described previously. They were very nice though. A nice hospitality room in a facility that has been around some many years, but very well maintained. This was more like the school facilities I’m used to seeing than the band new facility I described previously.

I really appreciate band, bands, and even marching band. When I was a kid I hated marching band, and somehow managed to get myself kicked out of my schools marching band. I don’t think people get kicked out very often. I was always a special kid, lol. I hated doing it, but now I appreciate watching it, and wish I has more sense when I was a kid. Granted I wanted out because I really didn’t like the band director, but I know he was doing what he thought best. I never did go to one of these competitions. I’m not sure they even had them at time or in the different state I lived in at the time. I can see from my perspective as an observer the kids seem to really enjoy themselves on these trips. A sense of pride. A sense of camaraderie. Military level disciple, almost, without the aggression and violence of the military. I think my genetic heritage predisposes me to have a strong appreciation for well maintained discipline.

Bringing me to the today’s picture. A group of young people marching to their war/competition. A war without blood, but these kids take it pretty seriously, some much more than others. It’s interesting to me how some kids can be dead serious about their commitment to pure excellence in something that ultimately doesn’t make much difference to themselves or most anyone really. The drum majors are the best example. They work so hard to get that position and have to work very hard to make it work once they get there. The band directors are really the only ones with an actual tangible reason for the ability to project excellence. Their funding depends on it to some extant or another. Then the rank and file range from serious to apathy and probably in some cases actual dislike, but the ones that still find themselves there maintain a minimum level of competence or they wold be kicked out like I once was.

I love saxophones. I played saxophones when I was in band. I had an alto sax. I also played tenor and baritone saxophones that belonged to the school. At the time my favorite was the tenor. I think today I’d like the baritone the most. I love bass nowadays. I went on to get and play bass guitar after leaving band.

I’ve run out of writing steam. Enjoy the photos, and Merry Christmas season to you.

December 20, 2025
A little bit

Today I’m using the Apple Journal app versus the app I normally use the Apple Notes app to write my blog entry. What I’m blogging is in essence a journal of sorts, so why not use the app with that specific name and design. I’m just typing or dictating my thoughts that’s basically a journal as I understand what journals are. Though it’s written with the intention of ending up on my blog. The ability to keep an extra layer of protection which seems to be one of the intended features of the journal app isn’t relevant to me.

(December 13) I’m going through the things I wrote on the 11th, and editing them. I’m also adding some new thoughts, like this paragraph, which has been annotated.

(December 13) I’ve decided I don’t like the journal app for what I’m doing with the blog journals. It is annoyingly difficult to get from the Journal app to a way to post on my blog. I had to jump through several hoops to be able to use the copy I wrote and edit it in the app I’m using now, Notes. I’ll not detail it. It’s not that important. I wont be doing it again. As I suspected in my initial post it seems to be a layer of security, or perhaps it’s just that my iMac is so old it’s unable to communicate with my newer model iPhone.

(December 13) It seems relevant to add a little about that last sentence. My iMac is a 2017 model. it is about 7-8 years old now, a long time in the world of information technology. It seems that the hardware in my humble 2017 is incompatible with the new requirements of the newest iterations of the Apple Mac OS. Artificial intelligence (AI) has become ubiquitous where in 2017 it was entirely experimental. AI requires significantly advanced hardware compared to what was available in 2107, so I’m not upset my iMac had become deprecated. I’m not sure of all the things Im missing out on with the Mac OS, although I have some inklings like the journal app. I know that Adobe Lightroom won’t let me update the newest version either. They are both still supporting the older hardware for the time being, but that will be limited for who knows how long. I suspect deprecated tech won’t be supported as long as it used to. Progress is paramount, especially when profit is involved. Ahh yes the world is driven entirely by profit. I suppose it always has been, but I digress.

Okay this journal app let me say I’m slightly irritated and then added it to the entry as a whole, which is pretty slick. The app also lets you track your location and various other kinds of metadata, which is also pretty slick. But my irritation is with the part of the app that tracks/documents my mood. It’s not fleshed out enough yet in my opinion. The thing that prompted me to pick I was feeling slightly unpleasant didn’t have a good second level menu option for why I’m feeling slightly unpleasant, which is I’m both tired, worn out, and tense. None of which are options for unpleasantness heading. There should be an option to type your own short reason for answering the
how do you feel question. Then possibly have the software study and determine common answers for the pre made menus available. I suppose the app is designed with teenage girls and their diaries in mind for a target demo.

Changing gears. I can’t remember if yesterday’s post mentioned the hostile takeover of a Venezuelan oil tanker. I don’t think I did mention it. I pretty sure I mentioned how Trump is trying to give US a war for Christmas.

I saw this war coming months ago. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’d bet money I don’t have there will at least be a ground invasion using military troops. There is undoubtedly already CIA operations within Venezuelan boards. I’m pretty sure I heard on mainstream news some weeks back that the CIA had been officially set loose to do what they do, and that’s officially. It’s been documented they’ve been playing there for some time. I’m not sure if it goes as far back as the Biden administration, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.

I posted on Facebook some time back as a comment on one of my posts, where I got into a spirited debate with one of my FB friends, a war with Venezuela seemed inevitable. I hope the second
part of that comment doesn’t come true also. I’d hate to civil war in the US in my lifetime. I doubt it will, but things are pretty tense and a large part of the population are feeling very angry at the other part of the population they don’t agree with.

I hope positive change can occur without a civil war, or any violence. Unfortunately I’m not so sure it can. There already is violence. There is always violence. I just hope it stays contained and under control. I’m pretty sure the people who actually run things and carry out the bad things the President Trump decrees are smart enough to not push that hard. I don’t doubt for a second that there are a lot of people, left and right, who are dying for a civil war, and doing everything they can to instigate one. I pray sanity prevails and such a catastrophe is avoided, at least for now. I’d be very surprised if it doesn’t come to that in US at some point in the future. I just hope it’s long after my lifetime. And I hope that the total subjugation of the opposite ideology isn’t realized either, like I see the current regime trying to accomplish. It’s pretty scary. So many people have no clue what is happening right in front of their noses. Everyone in the US is concerned with the things that everyone must be concerned with to simply live another day, specifically the cost of living. Keeping people focused on materialism is a wonderful distraction technique keeping majority of the people more concerned about their standard of living than thinking about the minority that is barely living or what kind of political machinations are afoot. As applies to the US control matrix.

Back to war with Venezuela, which would be a travesty of epic proportions. It’s blatant imperialism, just like the war in Iraq. I suppose I’m happy being on the strong side of empire by virtue of the birth lottery. I was born here and couldn’t leave if I wanted to, at least not legally by my own device. I’m unhappy with the sad state of virtually every metric and dominant ideology associated with my country at the current time, but at least it’s not unbearable, at least not for me. I’ve got it pretty good actually. Even so, I can still be upset about the injustice and corruption that seems so obvious to me. However, there’s no such thing as Utopia. It’s quixotic to yearn for a utopia that’s impossible, but I’m quixotic I suppose. Quixotic and Irritated.

I’m never going to throw any bombs to bring down the system. Not physically anyway. The system actually works half decent, so long as you’re in this country, so long as you’re a white, Christian, male. I can’t stand the white males that think they are unfairly oppressed in the US today. The US has always been oppressive. It’s just that it historically has been oppressive to the benefit of white Christian males. Now there are laws to attempt to balance hundreds of years of oppression that somewhat inconvenience the average white male in some specific cases, and they act like they are being whipped for looking at the masters daughter.

(December 13) I myself have probably experienced some bias in hiring because I’m a white male. That’s based only on my impression of the situation, but there is not any kind of proof to support it, which is a key to systematic oppression that’s been used and perfected by US systems and probably others. And even if I was discriminated against to fill some quota or whatever the reason, I’m not upset about it. It’s not like I’ve been black listed or red lined for being white.

Marginalized groups aren’t and haven’t been treated to well in this land. I don’t have first hand experience of different places, so it’s possible this really is the best possible place in the world humans can devise. Which is pretty sad in my opinion.

My general opinion of humanity is we are pretty bad. Humanity does have some redeeming qualities though. There’s no doubt humans have done some great things, built some great things, and are the only known species capable of such feats. Unfortunately the worst of us humans tend to be the ones who lead us, and too often they lead us entirely for their benefit and damn the rest. That’s not always true but seems to be the general rule.

Back to Venezuela. The pretext that’s been set up for months, probably since before Trump was
voted into office, is Venezuela is some drug capital of the world, or at least the western
hemisphere. The powers that be in the control matrix certainly have been using whatever involvement the country has with drugs to convince US a full scale invasion complete with regime change is needed. You’d think the Venezuelan leader Maduro was some
kind of kingpin cartel. Maybe he is. I don’t doubt drugs move through Venezuela. They’re
hardly the only player in drugs in this hemisphere.

The US is generally considered the largest consumer of drugs illicit or otherwise. Is that going to be another excuse to release troops on our own population? The rather extreme and brutal deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has certainly laid the ground work for government resources being used against citizens almost indiscriminately. National guard being deployed as police force. Which may have done some good, but at what cost?

Trump just pardoned the Honduran ex-president Orlando Hernández https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12621 for smuggling 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. There were also gun related charges, but guns never made the news here that I saw. It’s a middle finger to anyone with enough information and brain cells to grasp the hypocrisy of using the full power of the President of the United States to start a war on one hand and release a drug dealer tried and convicted because he was “treated unfairly.”

So if drugs aren’t the real reason Trump and his Department of War (a whole other insult to
U.S., but that’s another rant) what is the reason? Well oil is the big one isn’t it? Besides oil the
fact Venezuela has a socialist government is unacceptable to many in the control matrix. Combined oil and socialism are unacceptable to most of the US control matrix. Most of the billionaire class are vehemently opposed any form of socialism enjoying any kind of growth anywhere. It impedes their ability to exploit the people and resources ;under their control. Now those of that mindset have complete control of every branch of the US government for at least a little while longer, and they appear to have intention to do everything they can with that power to further their own interests to gain more wealth and power. It seems to me they are working hard and hoping they can retain control indefinitely through nefarious means, which is an entirely different journal entry.

The Venezuelan government doesn’t want to rollover and let US oil companies take over their oil production on their own land. The US control matrix is upset the bastards think they own it, want to run it how they want to run it, and can use the proceeds how they want. The land of the free doesn’t seem to like it when other people exercise their freedom and choose not to cooperate with US. There are wars, police actions, and coups by the dozens that support this argument.

So the US is attempting to gain more control over the control matrix by using mass violence in Venezuela to achieve their greedy ambitions. Full fledged American empire seems to me the end goal, like Rome. It seems to me some the techniques used to change Rome from a republic into an empire are being used here, but what do I know?

It would take generations, but I believe they (the control matrix) want total domination over
the western hemisphere. An extension of manifest destiny, a rather nebulous idea the US should continue growing its power. It’s something the easily led population can rally around. How could being more powerful be a bad thing after all? The controller already have a lot of control, but it’s never enough for them. History shows nothing is ever good enough for those whose entire reason for existing is the consolidation of power until reaching the inevitable point of total domination of the world. Something never before accomplished, but the stratagem is forever evolving and seems likely to eventually happen.

Look at how Trump talked about Mexico the first time he was president. He seemed to think, or
at least gave the false impression he believed, the Mexican people/government would gleefully pay
for his stupid wall. I don’t think he wasn’t stupid enough to actually believe that was within
the realm of possibility. I don’t doubt that he and those like him wished it was something they could force the sovereign Mexican people to comply with. A preview of the near future they hope to achieve.

The control matrix want there to be countries in South America, in my opinion. They don’t want to turn them into states or territories. States have too much power already. They want to turn the entire western hemisphere into a protectorates. Canada was recently discussed by the current regime as a potential new state. It’s pretty obvious they would allow that because it is majority white and its government is already based on English and liberal ideals. Central and South America would get no such “honor.” They would retain their countries in name. They would retain some small autonomy. But they would ultimately be subjects to the ever expanding empire.

The MAGA Republicans say they want more state power, but if you watch what they actually do that’s doesn’t seem to me to be reality. They seem to want a King and the ability to do damn near anything at damn near anytime to damn near anyone. So they want countries, but not independent countries. They want puppet countries, protectorates. They want governments that let the control matrix so what ever they want. US controlled corporations and companies would come into the protectorates and enslave the population. They would strip the countries natural resources. There wouldn’t be any pesky need for pollution control or any kind of dignity for the vast majorities.

The puppet leaders of the protectorate countries will of course be well taken care of, but they won’t have any real say over anything that really matters. They won’t be a part of the control matrix, at least not at first. The puppets can’t have enough power to challenge the control matrix. The puppets can pick what color to paint their tanks and helicopters. They can even use them how they want, so long as they don’t use them in ways that displease the control matrix. They can war amongst
themselves. Sure they would have to scheme with the CIA or whatever entity controls the puppet states. Healthy competition is the American way. And keeping puppets at odds with each other and dependent on the benevolence of the US and its control matrix is the perfect way to ensure none of the puppets ever achieve too much power.

(December 14) At some point yesterday I stopped playing with my words. Today I took them up again to finish editing. I made some pretty significant changes to syntax, but the general thoughts from the original are intact. Any this is how I think. The topics I think about are all over the place, but recently politics has been on my mind quite a bit. For better or for worse I tend to think a lot about politics. I think it’s an affliction that runs in the family, on my fathers side mostly. There will b e no photos posted with this edition of random thoughts. I don’t have anything remotely appropriate. I’m adding a political tag starting today.

December 14, 2025
The World Owns You

Part 2

A little bit more about school discipline and it’s relationship to how the world owns you. Public schools are the product of a public education system. That system is administered by some governing body or another. Here in the U.S. It could be national, state or county. Usually it’s a mix of all three to some degree or another depending on the political climate of the moment, location, and willingness to follow laws. The administration of any actual school building, the place where the rules meet the reality, is a combination of regulations piled on by multiple levels of bureaucracy but ultimately administered by the final link in that bureaucratic chain, in most cases the teacher, who must exercise their own discretion in the application of those rules, and results can vary widely between individuals.

From my perspective as a school bus driver, they too are responsible for ultimate administering of the layers of rules expected in the public school environment. Bing as how this is the point of view of my perspective I can comment with some authority about the relationship of the layers of rules and expectations and how it is applied at the final point of contact between the bureaucracy and intended control vector, i.e. the student. It is then important to note that in the ideal administration of rules and the education for the student, the chain of administration doesn’t stop at the school-level but with the parent or guardian.

The teacher and the bus driver aren’t the only ones who have contact with the student. To some extant the interactions of any and all staff in a public school have impact in the students. From the kitchen staff to the custodial staff, from the student resource officers to the nurse. Obviously the principles are very important as they are responsible for administering all that goes on inside a school building and on it’s grounds. The principles are beholden to the their superiors and must act with that in the back of their head when doing anything. And up and up and up the bureaucratic chain until you reach God.

Yes, God is the ultimate bureaucratic manager, and that opens a whole other can of worms. But for my purpose God will be the end all be all of authority. You may think of it as destiny or a random number generator or something else entirely, but it all comes down to something beyond human control, and that is my point.

Back to school. I am using school at this time because it is something I’m somewhat familiar with. It is also a microcosm of the world at large in many ways. The education system in the U.S. is something that can be analyzed in a fairly comprehensive way. It is in theory a public institution that in theory is subject to public scrutiny, much more so than institutions like private schools or business. It’s worth noting that private schools are essentially private business in the U.S. And private business isn’t legally required to be as open with information as are public schools, which despite the legal assumption that the public can access it’s information is still relatively opaque.

November 16, 2025
Happy? Veterans Day

It’s Veterans day. I’m Happy I have the day off, but not happy we live in a world that needs veterans.

I had a little while this morning to play around before a Dr appointment, which I need to leave for right now. But I wanted to post this glorious flame art variation.

November 11, 2025
The World Owns You

Part 1

I was thinking this morning about my life. I’ve never been happy about not having control of myself, my life, my immediate circumstances and the multitude of consequences resulting thereof. To put it another way, I have a problem with authority. I can’t remember a time when this wasn’t the case. I was thinking that no matter how hard I tried to free myself from the constraints of my reality the gravity of reality always pulled me back into universal compliance. Frequently to my detriment. So it seem’s/seem’d to me that no matter how much I tried to do what I want, the world/universe always got what it wanted one way or another.

I hated school and being told to do homework as a child. The lectures were okay. The homework and forced compliance always rubbed me the wrong way. I felt like I was in prison. And I’ve since learned that isn’t entirely far from the truth of the public school institutional system. As an adult that now works in that system, I understand the need for such regimented systems and behavior control. I still don’t like authority, but I understand it better.

There are children who, like me, have a dislike of authority and conformity. There are varying degrees based on my observations as a school bus driver and basic observer of life. Some individual children would balk at a command while other would flat ignore it. I know this seems pretty obvious, and it is, but there has to be some system in place to maintain some semblance of peace and order. Children need to learn that “the world owns them” in the sense that there are consequences for the decisions and actions we make. They are at least subject to school discipline if there is no effective home discipline, which is not uncommon.

School discipline, at least the public schools I’m familiar with, needs to be rigid. It chafes people with authority issues like me, some more than others. I received some disciplinary actions as a school boy, but I wasn’t too “bad” a kid. My institutional discipline was minimal compared to most but still a cause of personal distress.

November 10, 2025
The Law of the Jungle
For reasons I’ll not expound upon, I was thinking about the Law of the jungle this morning. My memory of it was that it is to “kill or be killed.” I can’t recall when or where I got that definition of the law of the jungle, only that it was at some point in my childhood. But my nerdy self decided to revisit my memory of this thing. Thing, hmm, I suppose a law is a thing. I suppose this is a real law. It says it’s a law right in the title. It must be a real law or at least it is as far as I’m concerned. Not a law like don’t shoplift, but a universal law like gravity.

What makes a law a law? Who decides? What percentage of a population must accept the law for it to be a accepted? If it isn’t accepted does it cease to be a law? If 99% of a population doesn’t accept the law of gravity, does that mean that the law of gravity isn’t a law? If 99% of a population don’t accept the law of averages will the universe tip over? I’m pretty sure I know what would happen if 99% of people didn’t accept the law to wear your seat belt. So one is a law in deed and the other in name. The seat belt law would change one way or another if nobody wanted to buckle up, and nobody did. It would be impossible for even the most zealous police force to enforce and maintain that order.

Yes most of us know and understand the difference between these two types of laws. Most is probably being generous, but I digress. The point being one is theoretically immutable while the other is elastic. That got me thinking a little bit about how the law of the jungle is mostly the first, but has some elements of the latter. What I found was I was right and wrong.

A quick internet search and I learned the law of the jungle isn’t really a law of either kind, but a phrase, a phrase attached to a set of laws wolves lived under. The phrase was introduced by Rudyard Kipling in his 1894 book “The Jungle Book.” The phrase was later expanded upon in the follow up, “The Second Jungle Book,” in 1895. I’m unsure where the “kill or be killed” I’ve attributed to it originated, or even if that was widely understood or isolated to my family and other small pockets.

While not a law it is still powerful and relevant to this day. I know I’m not the only one familiar with it. I’m pretty sure this is a phrase used frequently in political rhetoric among other occasions. The phrase describes something that, as far as I can imagine, always has and always will be relevant. Relevant at least to the life forms currently understood by our collective human consciousness. Brute force wins. There are exceptions. But usually the strong survive while the weak perish.

However my quick research led me to understand my interpretation of the law of the jungle, ” kill or be killed” wasn’t accurate. In some ways my understanding aligns Kipling’s poem “The Law of the Jungle.” However in my view the key word in the poem is obey. “Obey or be killed” instead of “kill or be killed.” Interesting how one word can make such a big difference. I have to wonder if that was intentional, and if so how it was manipulated.

It’s interesting the things we think we know and how they differ from what is accurate. The only actual exposure I had with the Jungle Book was as a kid and seeing the movie. I don’t remember much at all about it. I don’t remember if the law of the jungle is even mentioned in the Disney film. I would assume it must be at least mentioned as Jungle Book is the source of the phrase, and the phrase has obviously been widely spread. I’m going to need to watch the Disney version again soon to satisfy my curiosity.

In my opinion this poem is critical and subversive at the same time as it is plainly educational. I guess the whole Jungle Book thing was aimed at a younger audience. He was kind of an early childhood writer if my memory serves.

I don’t know much about Kipling. I want to know more. So many interesting things in the world and so little time. I’m glad there are people dedicated to keeping his vision alive. I’ll definitely make some time for him.
```
Now this is the Law of the Jungle — as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die. 
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back —
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

Wash daily from nose-tip to tail-tip; drink deeply, but never too deep;
And remember the night is for hunting, and forget not the day is for sleep.
The Jackal may follow the Tiger, but, Cub, when thy whiskers are grown,
Remember the Wolf is a Hunter — go forth and get food of thine own.
Keep peace with the Lords of the Jungle — the Tiger, the Panther, and Bear.
And trouble not Hathi the Silent, and mock not the Boar in his lair.
When Pack meets with Pack in the Jungle, and neither will go from the trail,
Lie down till the leaders have spoken — it may be fair words shall prevail.
When ye fight with a Wolf of the Pack, ye must fight him alone and afar,
Lest others take part in the quarrel, and the Pack be diminished by war.
The Lair of the Wolf is his refuge, and where he has made him his home,
Not even the Head Wolf may enter, not even the Council may come.
The Lair of the Wolf is his refuge, but where he has digged it too plain,
The Council shall send him a message, and so he shall change it again.
If ye kill before midnight, be silent, and wake not the woods with your bay,
Lest ye frighten the deer from the crop, and your brothers go empty away.
Ye may kill for yourselves, and your mates, and your cubs as they need, and ye can;
But kill not for pleasure of killing, and seven times never kill Man!
If ye plunder his Kill from a weaker, devour not all in thy pride;
Pack-Right is the right of the meanest; so leave him the head and the hide.
The Kill of the Pack is the meat of the Pack. Ye must eat where it lies;
And no one may carry away of that meat to his lair, or he dies.
The Kill of the Wolf is the meat of the Wolf. He may do what he will;
But, till he has given permission, the Pack may not eat of that Kill.
Cub-Right is the right of the Yearling. From all of his Pack he may claim
Full-gorge when the killer has eaten; and none may refuse him the same.
Lair-Right is the right of the Mother. From all of her year she may claim
One haunch of each kill for her litter, and none may deny her the same.
Cave-Right is the right of the Father — to hunt by himself for his own:
He is freed of all calls to the Pack; he is judged by the Council alone.
Because of his age and his cunning, because of his gripe and his paw,
In all that the Law leaveth open, the word of your Head Wolf is Law.
Now these are the Laws of the Jungle, and many and mighty are they;
But the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch and the hump is — Obey!
```
Rudyard Kipling

Good night.
February 1, 2025

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