Travel Interlude (IV): Whimsy Imagines

 

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The older I get, the more I embrace whimsy.

I embrace it because - as I continue to discover - my interests and passions are inherently whimsical.  They do not fit into the modern world at all.  They likely will not move me forward in "the world".  They will certainly not enhance my bank account or my career.  They might enhance my social media standing, but only with those that value such things.

And what have I discovered?  That those who value such things are the sort of people whose opinions I actually care about and in whose lives I am actually interested in.

So go be whimsical.  And then have the courage to build your life around that whimsey.  It will likely be far harder, but will also likely be so much more fun along the way.

Travel Interlude (III): One Friend

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Friendship is an odd thing - as more than one person has said, it can sometimes seem like walking down an aisle, randomly grabbing someone, and saying "This one.  This one is the one."

Most of those that have been or become my good friends over the years are not ones that I would consciously have chosen at first. They very often seem like a set of random events in meeting among the hundreds of people that we encounter in our lives.  There is something - some interest, some spark - that moves it beyond the greeting phase to the "Hey, this person seems like someone worth spending time with".  That moment is often lost to the history of friendship, but there are times I can still remember it happening: the moment where The Director introduced me to Uisdean Ruadh in the Spring Semester of our freshman year of high school, the moment at work where Rainbow and I started taking a walk at lunch, the moment when The Shield Maiden moved beyond just another throwing acquaintance to a friend.

What  difference those friendships make.

My friends believe in me, sometimes more than I believe in myself.  My friends have listened to me rant and rave and helped me come out on the other side, if not better than at least feeling heard.  They lift me up when I down, remind me of the things I have done when I can only think of the things I have failed at.

How empty my life would be without them.  

And what a testimony to the fact that one person, one friend, can truly change a life.
 

2026 Mt. Whitney: The Triumphant Return

Friends - After 8 days, 85 miles, and 23,000 feet of elevation gain (more or less), I am back.  For the second time, Mt Whitney- the highest peak in the contiguous 48 U.S. - was successfully summited.

I have vague and general notes to get together so I must once again beg your patience, both in documenting it as well as responding to your comments while I was away.  I leave you with a few pictures as a good show of faith.

Your Most Humble and Obedient (and Tired) Servant,

Toirdhealbheach Beucail

A Year Of Kindness (XXXII): Worthy

 

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There is nothing more crippling to a person that to tell them that they are not worthy and are not loved.

You do not really appreciate the depth of the issue until it has happened to you.  And likely, it has happened to all of us at some time:  a parent, a spouse, a friend, a coach, a manager, a relative, a coworker.  It can come from anywhere. 

But its impacts can last for a lifetime.

To believe that one is not worthy and not loved is to carry a burden that no human was designed to carry.

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To believe one is not worthy and not loved can manifest itself in one of two behaviours.

In one behaviour, we are always searching to make ourselves worthy and loveable.  We will go to any length, do almost anything - sometimes very foolish or even dangerous things - to prove that what we were told about ourselves was not true.

In the other behaviour, we become hardened.  We do not care if we are worthy or loved - and too often, we come to treat others as not worthy or not loveable.  After all - if I am not, I need not treat other people as they are worthy or loveable either.

Instead of being confident and coming from a place of love and strength, we come from a place of desperation or anger that tinges everything we do.

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When we are kind to another - when we offer them worth and love simply by treating them kindly, we strike back at a world that does not share such a message.

Francis Schaeffer writes often about the importance of treating people - all people - as if they matter to us, because in point of fact that matter to God.  The Bible says they do, of course - after all, God sent His Son to die for all, that all might be saved.  But often we can fall short of this:  we treat some people as they matter, just as the world does.

We should treat people as if they are worthy and loveable, just as God treated us in the same way.  And that can start by simply being kind.

2026 Garden: Mid-Autumn Edition

  Slightly after the middle of Autumn.  I remain remarkably impressed by how any of this is going at all.

The cherry tomatoes remain productive.  Sadly, I failed to take detailed pictures of the Roma tomatoes, although you can see them in the background:

However, there may or may not be spinach growing:

The spinach/leeks planted here have done nothing,

but if you look closely, you will see leeks peeking out below:

The pole beans are starting to fade,

but their pods are drying out:

The buckwheat is still blooming:

My onions are struggling a bit, but still hanging on:

Soybeans:

And I may actually get some corn this year (drying corn, but still corn)!

The volunteer potatoes continue their groove, 

As does what I believe to be my one surviving sweet potato:

For a first year, I am very pleased at the results.

On Earning A Cryptocurrency

One of things going on in the (very far) background is the fact that I continue to using Brave as my main browser (sadly, Blogger no longer works well with Brave and - begrudgingly - I use Google there).  And one of the "selling points", as you might recall, is that as part of that service, you earn cryptocurrency ("BAT") on a monthly basis as you view add notifications.

I had performed a cryptocurrency experiment that older readers may recall (Reflection, End) and at one point used some of my BAT to procure a $25 gift card for The Mother Of All Shopping Sites.  And even I had "liquidated" my general holdings, I still continued to earn my BAT every month - and every month, I get a notification of earnings.

At the time I exercised that purchase, BAT was about $1.00 a token.  It now sits at $0.07. What would have been well over $150 in value 5 years ago is now barely $12.

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If you do a quick search on Cryptocurrency, you find varying assessments on how it has performed.

For example, apparently Bitcoin (even I have heard of Bitcoin) is still a major contender, with around 50% of the total Cryptocurrency market. Certain assets - Solana, XRP - have done better than Bitcoin as an investment.  The peak of cryptocurrency ownership was 2022 (33% of the U.S. Population), with 2026 showing 30% participation (I guess I am one of that "30%).

I also tend to observe how an industry is doing by its layoff pattern - and here, cryptocurrency suggests it is an industry in transition.  My regular daily scan at Dailyjobcuts.com shows the same patterns as many other tech companies:  layoffs and consolidations, with the notes of "greater efficiencies and use of Artificial Intelligence" being used as reasons for the changes.

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If there is a lesson here for me, it is that - once again - value is truly in the eye of the beholder, and all the wishing for things to be worth more does not make it so. Value is defined as what it is worth to the buyer, be it cryptocurrency or comic books or silver coins.)

(As a note, silver in the same time frame sold at $22.39 an ounce now currently "sells" at $63.58 - but that is the spot price; a seller will not get that.)

I do not intend to change anything I am doing in this regard of course:  I continue to use Brave, the "accumulation" (a very large word for a very small amount per month; last month I earned $0.03) does me no harm, and who knows - maybe sometime I will still hit it big.  

But it is occasionally a good reminder to me that sometimes, financially speaking, I get it right.

A Year Of Haiku (XXXIII): Meowing Moon

 

Summer's moon peeking

through clouds of pre-dawn darkness:

Cat lazily sleeps.