Stephen Castro-Starkey

Surprising how little I’ve been reporting on my coding adventures. Coffee Time is making good progress! Have been working on little things after getting feedback from conversations. Also started thinking about wiki!

My new inquiry: how much default mode network activity is too much? And: would answering this question and somehow training my brain to have the “right balance” mean enlightenment?

I have found a meditation practice that allows me to temporarily shut it “off” so to speak, and every time I’m successful my anxiety level drops dramatically. Is that because of the network itself? Or simply the fact that my unique configuration happens to have lots of anxiety inducing connections?

It is comfortable to continue in the rat race. I don’t like how comfortable I am.

This update from Scott Santens is worth quoting:

When folks argue that a Universal Basic Income would deter working, think about those million-dollar CEOs. If a modest $15k is enough to make one quit working, wouldn’t multi-million dollar packages make CEOs practically comatose? Yet, here they are, still CEOing. Weird isn't it?

Yes. Quite.

My feelings on the upcoming election (not just presidential). We should vote for whoever will:

• Maximize our chances of restoring bodily autonomy for women.
• Maximize our capacity to celebrate and treat as equals every person. This is regardless of color, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, or other way of being different in ways that don’t harm others.
• Maximize our chances of avoiding the impending climate apocalypse.
• Maximize the chances that every person within our borders has all their basic needs met without conditions.
• Maximize our capacity to welcome, include, and integrate any person who has something to contribute to our culture.
• Maximize our ability to move from punishment as a capitalistic system towards restorative justice writ large.
• Maximize our safety.
• Minimize our contribution to global human suffering.

Our economy is supremely powerful. It is time we harness some of the greed that got us here to do the bare minimum for our fellow humans who have been marginalized due to no fault of their own. In the long run we will become even more powerful. If we can’t get to this new stage of development, very likely our planet will become uninhabitable for us. Just a bit more cooperation and harmonization with our environment can go a long way towards alleviating the suffering of all our fellow sentient beings.

No big deal. Right? 😃

The latest Supreme Court of the US decision about unlimited presidential power fills me with dread. I’m sure I’m not alone! Before the decision came down I decided to host a conversation about the current political climate.

We may feel powerless alone. But we are more resilient together. Will you join me?

Starts Tue, Jul 9, 2024, 1:15 PM PDT

We are headed to San Francisco for a sorely needed vacation! On the agenda: Colombia vs Brazil in Copamerica! And some tourist things and maybe fireworks?

Last night was awful. When the power goes out I don’t sleep because I need my CPAP. And Georgia Power doesn’t exactly have the best track record of keeping the lights on in south Atlanta.

I have not been focusing on my weight lately. It seems to take too much mental energy!

Excited about our trip to Ohio! It'll be nice to relax for a few days with family.

Well, ok, so I've rebuilt all the blog functionality I lost when I removed Patreon integration. At least enough to keep people apprised of things. Now I'm wondering if those posts should be part of the global RSS feed! Gotta think about that.

Also, as I write this post I realize the tag name is not correct. I really need to build functionality to delete and edit tags.

I am feeling the pain of not having a team to work with me on Coffee Time. It is very slow going. Motivation comes in fits and starts. I often wonder if I could have done a particular thing better. I wish I had the energy to grow my user experience capacity. But side projects like this don’t seem to attract people. I will have to go out and find! But where?

Starting to engage again with a solar installer. Thinking hard about doing it not just to save money but also for the planet!

The novelty has worn off. I need a new method to keep me coming back to log my habits. Whatever will I do?

Coffee Time is back! And on a whole new domain!! With embedded video, password-based authentication, and everything. Check it out https://coffeetime.social