JOHN RUBENS is no Mother Teresa.

The flip side of a smart phone.

I was an early “proto” user of the internet via ericsson mobile phone in the 1999-2004 Y2K era until AT&T wireless stopped giving me free usage.

“If lovin’ you is wrong…I don’t want to be right.”–Rhythm and Blues c. 1969 Otis Redding?

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

Also: Routes: Do I follow pragmatic, charitable, intuition? What is my best course of action throughout the day. In France, the aggressive panhandlers in 1983 were very aggressive. They were a distraction and I thought of them even when they weren’t confronting me. I would avoid them.

What about charity? How much do I give without being a “virgin without oil” and the virgins with oil don’t give me any? Psalm 88: How can I praise you Lord if I am in the grave and have nothing to praise with?

Now the homeless line our streets too, like espresso bars and street cafes.

“Just say no”? Happy medium. We “ought” to at least be conscious of the being[s] in need. Maybe we can’t help, maybe we can. After passing one beggar with his dog on the street today, I proceeded home with my New Year’s egg nog, beer and Cooks Champagne, feeling a bit guilty about the guy and his dog, a regular fixture on the Boulevard, I saw an older man ahead with a scruffy beard. My intuition said he might be trouble and was thinking of employing the inattention method of avoiding distraction but it being New Year’s Eve and just having watched Pontifex on EWTN, I looked up and smiled like Mona Lisa at the pedestrian who wore a cap like mine. He smiled back broadly. So he may be a drinker like me. He wished me a surprise for New Year’s that way, with a smile on his lips and in his eyes telling me one good turn deserves another. We’re not all strangers even if we haven’t met. We are closer than we think. “Do unto others as one would have them do unto you.”–Jesus

Sometimes intuition, discrimination and prejudice are dead wrong.

Hear the tune, “Jubilee Street”. I think it’s by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

calnewport.com/blog/2016/12/18/on-digital-minimalism/

Is shallowness in the eye of the beholder? Shoot the moon. Pedro, 1969-1973.

What about the 30 minute episodic from Aaron Spelling in 1967-1969. That was a mind bending show. Made me want to learn poker. The Guns of Will Sonnett. Walter Brennan in the starring role as the grandfather of his charge, someone like Michael Landon, an actor named Dack Rambo. They and Jason Evers as the father and son, allowed me to suggest to my paternal parent “I want to learn poker.”

“I’ll teach you poker,” he said cheerily.

My grandfather played poker fairly well.

#DeepWork by @Calnewport

Wikipedia him.

“He’s insecure.”

Filing system upgrade to add, incorporate or hyper-extend Dewey decimal system to include tweets, emails, #youtubevideos, podcasts to published and public domain material. #Smithsonian #twitterfirehose? #USLibraryofCongress @GWBlibrary; #ReaganLibrary #UCLA

“Yeah, fuck him.”

The Guns of Will Sonnett, 1965-1967 @abc #AaronSpelling, starring Walter Brennan.

shallow focus group fodder we are? We are more. I do it part time. I find pleasure in shallowness or have in the past up until this moment.

#GeorgeWBush: and not one of them is mine. Library entries.

We have your speeches Mr. President, #43.

Sometimes the best way to convey deep thought is through shallow wording. See, Deep Work Cal Newport.

“I’d rather be stoned as a consequence, albeit my choice, of being surrounded by people who do not promote my work, but it’s still preferable to actually living in those people’s skin.”

“How do you know?”, Yuval Noah Harari might ask.

“Feelings?”–I respond, echoing his view on the progression of algorithms is largely a consequence of feelings. See, Homo Deus (circa 2017).

Compare: Scientific American or An Elegant Universe by Brian Greene as works which are meant for general audiences but the words and concepts are challenging for the newly initiated. 

See also, “generative adversarial networks” [GANS], binary code, dialectic theory, discrimination vs. inclusion and diversity [in a sociological context].

One thing about @twitter: critiques, relatively “easy”, compliments, take the backlash–to date. We can adapt and find new “metrics”. See also “Deepfakes and the New Disinformation War” @ForeignAffairs @ 147, JAN/FEB 2019.

The Book has said, “All things shall be revealed.”

One thing about @twitter: critiques, relatively “easy”, compliments, take the backlash–to date. We can adapt and find new “metrics”. See also “Deepfakes and the New Disinformation War” @ForeignAffairs @ 147, JAN/FEB 2019.

A kinder, gentler nation.–George H.W. Bush

Reform the myelin in your brains. Wrap it with a sheath of fortitude.–John Matthew Rubens

Practice makes perfect. An age-old saying that turns out to be empirically verifiable. See, Deep Work (2016) by Cal Newport.

“[T]rying to squeeze a little more work out of your evenings might reduce your effectiveness the next day enough that you end up getting less done than if you had instead respected a shutdown.”
― Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Wealth, stimulation, admiration, duty, discretionary spending money, meeting people, Holy Spirit, food, clothing, love, shower, rest, get ahead (competition)–The soldiers are coming home to Los Angeles; accretive job competition. I’d better get motivated. Do the dishes, make the bed.

It’s not difficult with a caring spouse and a lot of free time. It’s when I’m in conflict with others’ views of ‘positive’ that I often contend. Sometimes my contention devolves to contempt as sports sometimes cascades into violence.