Little boy playing SimCity 3000 on a Powermac G4.

With folk off the streets our churches and non-profits could focus on jobs, permanent housing, and other issues at a more human pace and with less stress on both sides. If we aren’t afraid of someone dying in the cold, we can better give them space to move at their own pace. 🦞

I know there’d be problems, but problems are solvable. Given land, with a simple warehouse structure, some temporary partitions, some rules, etc. I’d think we could keep the majority of folk off the streets. 🦞

Maybe I’m naïve, but it sure seems like the City could help homelessness with a small hotel tax. Like even a few pennies per room would help. They’ve got land, they can make exceptions to codes and zoning, they have security & other resourceses. 🦞

Thankful to wrap presents for our homeless brothers last night. 72 decks of cards are wrapped and ready to be given out over the Advent season.

Bluesky has been great for bringing back the parts of Twitter I missed (local news & events). But, boy, I’d forgotten how much the mainstream left obsessed over abortion. It’s wild! A conversation on just about anything can turn into a digression about needing to “protect” your daughters’ “right” to murder your grandchildren. What a world!

Waiting on my Global Entry & TSA PreCheck interview at the airport. — Random thought: It seems this should just be part of passport, no? If you can’t pass these qualifications should you really have a US passport? If we can expedite security and entry for some, why not all?

I didn’t necessarily have a dog in this fight, but McDermott’s pretty convincing here. I do see his prima scriptura as the framework the Catholic church, Reformers, and Anglican Divines were workinging from. overcast.fm/+AAhNQQSP…

New Zealand is a lovely place, but why in the world are we manufacturing common medications there? Why fly something like this half way across the world?

St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, ora pro nobis.

Pray for the renewal of Christ’s Holy Church. Pray that we might give and serve freely as you once did. Pray especially that we might point all away from ourselves and instead to the One True Light, Jesus.

Amen.

During the winter the tree outside my window has no leaves and the sun shines directly into my eyes. Dear Internet, what would you do? Outside blinds? Desk-attached canopy? Outdoor canopy/awning? Some sort of temporary insert?

Standing desk with a stained glass windows behind it. Two bookshelves on either side.

The most important thing about your Christmas (Eve) service(s) shouldn’t be the candles.

🚨 POLITICS 🚨

• I can’t talk to economic policy, but it seems obvious to me that prices will go up with tariffs. • Low prices relied on foreign, near slave labor. • If we want local manufacturing with living wages, stuff is going to be more expensive.

🚨 POLITICS 🚨

• I’ve never understood why I should subsidize $7,500 of an electric car for wealthy people.

Buy, buy. Deal, deal. Hurry, hurry. And yet. We are still in ordinary time. Advent starts Sunday. It is not yet Christmas. We have time. There is no rush. Christ reigns. Enjoy time with those you love. The stuff and the stores will still be there tomorrow. And the next day. And the next week.

I’ve been ruminating on what the baseline target for a Christian to dedicate to service is. I still want to think more on it and there are, as always, caveats. But… I’m coming to a 2:1 ratio. I.e., for every hour spent in corporate worship/study the Christian should spend two hours in service.

I’m really frustrated that there aren’t any current reviews of the Daylight Computer. $800 is a lot to spend on an unknown. I love the idea, but when the iPad mini is much less expensive & I already have a Onxy Boox…

I’ve begun to see my moral consumer choices as mandates over preference. Do I want to see Amie and Lyndon at Botanist and Barrel in the spring? Then I need to visit their wine shop, and maybe bring a few extra bottles to Thanksgiving.

— Shopping Local in a Storm

I don’t recall when I bought this book, but it was a really great read. Learned a lot about how English came to be. It really is an odd language! — Finished reading: Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by John McWhorter 📚

So, Nashville folk: I noticed downtown this weekend the horse-drawn carriages for tourists were back. I could have sworn this got banned a few years back. What’s up with that? 🦞

Back on the near daily 10k steps train. I took a week off, that I really shouldn’t have. Feels good to be back at it.