One comment on Current Events (For Today)

AI the savior or boogeyman? Who knows, I love what you can do with all the free stuff I've messed with. I get the concerns but this article describes in a real way how this technology is being safely developed. 

The issue that bothers me the most is the insistence on demonizing China. China is doing exactly what we wanted them to do minus a shift to some version of democracy. So the fuck what! China studied Europe and the United States in 1978 and 1979 after coming out of the horror years of Mao. Now 40+ years later, China is a capitalist economic nuclear reactor. Just growing with no end in sight BECAUSE....China is working aggressively with all the African countries that the United States only wants to put a military base in. China has assumed the role of the world's lone super power because the United States doesn't want to lead anything anymore. That is all I will say about that last bit today but unless I see 80 percent of the electorate vote Democrat in these elections then I know that ultimately the Trump MAGA, Project 2025 folks will get everything they want. 

I hope Canada will allow me to immigrate? Anyway, good article below. 

Anthropic's Road to a $1 Trillion IPO | Claude & AI Growth

I am fortunate to have come across this article posted above. It gives me hope in a real way. Read this because in a nutshell, this describes a proper way for a major multi-trillion-dollar AI enterprise to run. Anthropic is registered as a Public Benefit Corporation and cannot be sued by aggressive shareholders into shitty decisions that hurt the public. Most of that last sentence is lifted directly from this article and this constitutes my citation of that material. 

The Main Reason for this Journal

 On the blog page I have a rubric of sorts I came up with during my first stay in jail last year. 

Then I went further and went to in patient rehab and worked on this idea more. 

The focus is on my recovery, but it can be anyone's. I feel the need to document everything I've been thinking about for the last 18 months. These truths about living my life with much more purpose and meaning have helped me get to a place where I finally feel like I have my own life. 

I began to develop my own thesis on what is ultimately wrong with America in general and it's that people just do not care anymore. It is frightening at times to see just how close the United States is to hurtling either itself or some major part of the world into a deep abiding economic and climate stressed depression. 

Since I have my own internal demons to conquer, I decided to develop a way for me to focus myself on staying sober and acting more intentionally every day. C. A. R. E. 

Each letter is associated with words of positive affirmation. 

Each morning (preferably) I will write a letter; i.e., A and a positive affirmation such as "Atonement". That will be my focus for the day. To pray, to seek and or to work on something that is directly related to working to be better than my former self. 

That is it for now. Pick a different letter each day and an associated positive word and focus everyday on something related. Also...take a look at a book called Recovery Dharma. 

Copied here is another thing I do daily (most of the time) and that is focus on the core principles of Buddhist mindset for daily life. 

FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS AND THE EIGHT-FOLD PATH

I.                THERE IS SUFFERING, I COMMIT TO UNDERSTANDING THE TRUTH OF SUFFERING.

II.              THERE IS CAUSE OF SUFFERING, I COMMIT TO UNDERSTANDING CRAVING LEADS TO SUFFERING.

III.            THERE IS AN END TO SUFFERING, I COMMIT TO UNDERSTANDING AND EXPERIENCING THAT LESS CRAVING LEADS TO LESS SUFFERING.

IV.            THERE IS A PATH THAT LEADS TO THE END OF SUFFERING, I COMMIT TO CULTIVATING THE PATH.

EIGHT-FOLD PATH

1.       WISE UNDERSTANDING

2.       WISE INTENTION

3.       WISE SPEECH

4.       WISE ACTION

5.       WISE LIVELIHOOD

6.       WISE EFFORT

7.       WISE MINDFULNESS

8.       WISE CONCENTRATION

In the Recovery Dharma book; each element is explained and shows you the relationship to a mindset change required in addiction recovery. 

I will endeavor to persevere' [credit to the movie, The Outlaw Josey Wales]

Medical Equipment for the Under Served

During a recent visit to see my Ostomy nurse. I found out some information that has spurred an idea in my mind to set up a non-profit organization to assist the under insured. I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Colo-rectal cancer in Aug 2019. I have subsequently under gone chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. After surgery; I've worn an illeostomy bag for the last 10 weeks. I am fortunate that my ostomy will be reversed; so, I will not need to order supplies long term. If this were not the case and my ostomy was permanent; I am equally fortunate to have insurance (military retiree) that would cover almost all cost associated with said equipment and or supplies. 
My concern going forward are those people who have to face life with a bowel diversion without the resources to adequately supply or care for themselves. I recently found out about two volunteers that work out of a hospital near my home that operate a free Ostomy/Medical supply closet. The cancer center at this hospital allows the volunteers to use excess office space to store donated supplies. Once a week the volunteers are available for anyone to walk-in and obtain whatever supplies are available. This is currently the only location I'm aware that offers this type of service. The volunteers that helped me the other day told there is another hospital north of where I live that would like to set up a similar ability to help the under insured in their area. 
I plan to work with the two volunteers I met to assist them with 1) spreading the word; and 2) organization and communication via the internet, and social media to more effectively advertise for the types of supplies that are sorely needed. After my surgery I knew I wanted to do something to help others and this effort looks like a great way to grow a desperately needed service in this and other communities in the state of Virginia. 

Journey Phase 1 day 3?

My surgery date is in jeopardy after a spot on my lungs found during a chest x-ray is being evaluated further with a follow up CT Scan. Anxiety gets to you. Anxiety has me thinking too. Critically no less! With the stay at home orders in place I've watched quite a few documentaries. One was about food production. I will get the title later but the bottom line is this was a documentary showing how meat (primarily) is produced. Beef and Pork. Slaughterhouses and pig farms and oh yeah; chickens. This is big corporate business. No idyllic farmer and family providing meat and potatoes for America. Farmers don't even have freedom in America. Farmers are essentially contractors for industry and can't independently farm and bring their product to market here in America or overseas. WE ARE NOT FREE!

I was thinking about writing a book and I think I'm going to start here. We are not free; would document in print what I saw in that documentary and just expand on the socialist agriculture policy going on in America. The annual farm bill. I need to actually read these laws to see what they do or don't do; what they allow and or not allow. I have anecdotal information but I've never actually read the legislation, so I will start there.

More to come; now that I have a focus area.

The Journey: Phase 1 day one

Just starting reading Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt copyright 1951

Decided to start from the beginning. First started reading the book over a year ago but need to give a fresh look. As I mentioned in the list of books from my last post; this will include me reading and taking notes and then giving my opinion. This should feed me with insight on the kinds of information I believe to be important to save and share. As I continue to identify what is important to me; this exercise should inform what I do next; post surgery.

Hannah's book is about antisemitism and how that started; all the who, what, when, where and why questions are addressed. Along the way many topics come up and the first one from chapter 1 page 4, 3rd para ; is a discussion for how an idea can spark a movement towards discrimination on a national or international level. "wealth without visible function is much more intolerable because nobody can understand why it should be tolerated".

The quote above is applicable to our situation today. We have a pandemic (public health crisis) that is cratering the economy. Governments of major economic powers are propping up markets/banks/businesses. Part of our economic salad bowl are venture capitalists, hedge funds and other forms of asset management if you will. If some of these entities go down right now you have to ask the question about preserving them if they have no visible function; other than to make money speculating (gambling) on market conditions of individuals companies or concerns.

More importantly is the next important point Ms. Arendt makes: "Even exploitation and oppression still make society work and establish some kind of order. Only wealth without power or aloofness without a policy are felt to be parasitical, useless, revolting, because such conditions cut all threads which tie men together."(pg5,chp1,para3).

• This writing above is exactly what some folks feel around the world right now. As decisions are made for who to give money in relief to stabilize the economy due to #covid19. I find this quote instructive. I will leave it that for now.

I have a feeling this is going to be a lot of data; that is okay with me. Quarantine life is giving me something useful to produce.

I have to say right now...the word 'that' is useful. 0000.9% of the time. Makes it so hard to write and read.

The Journey

In Quarantine with time to think...I wrote earlier about me taking stock of myself for the next 4-6 months. Part of me taking stock will be to read and write. What do I mean by that? I will read a little from a handful of books I have started but not finished and then write a little on this blog/journal to make sure I capture what I think I read and then use that information to inform my self assessment and guide me to where I want to be. Maybe it is writing in and of itself. Don't know if it will take the form of a book but I could take advantage of all the tools available and self-publish. That is a thought. Would definitely have to be non-fiction with my evaluation of what I've experienced in life
and the types of things I care about.

Books on the docket:
- SEPARATE - Steve Luxenberg; Story of Plessy v Ferguson and America's Journey from Slavery to Segregation
- POLITICAL ORDER AND POLITICAL DECAY - Francis Fukuyama; From the Industrial Revolution to Globalization of Democracy
- THE PORTABLE ENLIGHTENMENT READER - Edited by Isaac Kramnick
- THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM - Hannah Arendt

Need to note which book and chapter/paragraph I'm referencing each time so there is some order to all this.

I watched a TED talk today given by a Shaolin Monk. He said (paraphrasing) that if you never start you will never finish your climb. If you only talk to others about the climb or journey you want to take that the others have finished; you will never experience the uniqueness of that climb vicariously because it is not 'your' climb up the mountain. What others see at the peak of their achievement can never be appreciated by someone else or better yet experienced by someone else via a story or interview. You must make the climb and experience the view from the peak or however high you make it up the mountain to understand what it means to you.

I will add books to this list as I go. I have some books from college that I want to explore. I wish I had some of my old text books now; especially from my Critical Thinking class. That class shaped me at the time because I had never self assessed my own thought process. I am and continue to be somewhat ADHD. NOTE: mention this to the doctor after surgery to see if you can get meds. I need assistance with focus.

I know I could really get so much more done if I had the opportunity to really focus without my mind wandering. If that means medicating then so be it. You only live once in this portion of the multi-verse at least so if I can get some adderall I want that edge to produce what I care about.