About 25 years ago, I learned that someone stole my social security number to get a job. It came up on an employment background check. It turned out the #IRS was very happy to receive #taxes being paid by two different people using the same SSN number. They never said a word. With the massive data breach that we knew was probably true, is the IRS now looking forward to collecting taxes from multiple people using the same social security number?

**Leverage a troll's behavior and make money.** Once upon a time, there was a misguided troll. They spilled hate, frustration, and vitriol. I typed up a lengthy reply to educate, but realized instead I was after a checkmate. There are thousands more, all unoriginal and predictable. Satisfying this one with a response would be laughable. The screen of newly written content stared me in the face, helping me realize I could keep up the pace. "What to do instead?" I asked. Keep it to myself or rip off their mask? Sending a reply causes my followers and account to hurt. At that moment, I realized I had more power by choosing not to blurt. The wall of text made itself clear, a new creation waiting for an ear. "I can be repurposed," I heard it say. Nodding in agreement, I replied, "Let's make them pay." The content and I joined forces that day, realizing I would make money by writing it another way. Articles, posts, and video scripts, too, the content would become new. Publishing the several new versions over time, in theory, makes me well more than a dime. The troll attempted to discredit my statement, when all he did was increase my payment. Thank you, troll, for being you. Without your garbage, my bankroll would be few. Let this be a lesson to all trolls far and wide. You will never hurt us, and you'll take your defeat in stride. ---Misty S. Bledsoe, August 19, 2024

If you answer enough of these one-line questions people place for engagement farming, you actually disclose quite a bit about yourself. - Previous locations - Lifestyle habits - Pay - Assets - Debts - Previous incidents - Family vulnerabilities Be careful about that.

The train's horn sounds like the dark suspensful music you see in the old black-and-white movies. High, then low, then lower. It's still loud, but the tone is all wrong. It must be broken. That was both a little awesome and creepy.

I haven't slept well in so long. Now that I am, it feels good to start seeing the creative juices come back again.

My wallet/node thing has been sorted. The break gave me some needed time to discover more how I want to publish going forward.

My wallet connections are broken right now. I have no idea what I did to break it or how to fix it. I'm working with Alby to get it sorted, but I don't have an ETA. My stress levels are kind of high due a combinations of things this morning. I'm putting my devices on do not disturb in about 20 minutes. I wasn't planning on investing the amount of time I had this morning on any of what I ended spending my time on.

Yesterday, I realized the difference between trying to become a syndicated newspaper columnist 30 years ago and publishing on the internet today, both with the same end goal. I know what my instincts are nudging me toward, but I don't like it, mainly because I've spent so much time building over the last 18 months. Today, I saw some of the new analytics on my X account. It was incredibly eye-opening. It's not what I intended. I know I could take it in one of (probably) three different directions. Right this second, I'm unsure of the best way forward. My instincts are showing me an obvious path forward for part of my future work. But it's just one part. Things feel fuzzy, and tonight, my brain is unwilling to dissect and analyze the possibilities. I will decide once I can get some perspective and clarity.

I need open a can of worms. On #Nostr, how do I sell or provide full-length guides or courses available for download? If this isn't possible, which client allows me to #publish full-length guides/books/and courses that include videos in one post or one spot?

On Nostr, notes don't live forever necessarily. They only live if they are still part of a relay that's communicating.

When I was a teenager, my family of four had to move into an 18-foot Class C RV. My dad took a job across the state, and we had nowhere to live and no money. My parents did the best they could. We eventually moved into a little double-wide for rent in town. People might look down on that, but I'm telling you right now that summer and the next 18 months were my childhood's two most memorable years. We did free things and drove almost daily into the region's outskirts. My brother and I would explore the ruins of abandoned cabins, peeling back layers of wall insulation of the day (newspapers) to reveal dates from the early 1900s. We played outside because the inside was really only for sleeping or shelter during storms. We went to every museum and attended every free event downtown put on. We became experts at which washing machines and dryers worked the best in the local laundromat. We spent copious amounts of time in the libraries, especially the one that had the basement where a rummage sale happened each week. We experienced extreme weather bouts where we learned so much about ourselves and the world around us. We hiked on the weekends. Mom had to take a part-time job. I used to help her periodically and learned some things by doing that, too. I learned about angry yellow jackets, bucket rides that helped you scale mountains, and legends of the local Native Americans. Forest fires happened the following summer. After that, we joined the mushroom pickers for a chance to make extra money. I remember I got to keep around $20 for putting up with Dad dragging us up the mountainside. Mom wasn't 100% pleased, that I remember, but it was a good adventure, and by the end of the day, my brother and I were too tired to argue. The wildlife was unmatched for that part of the world. I'm sure my parents had an entirely different perspective on things, but those two years were full of imagination, awe, and discovery. Thirty-five years later, I still remember the most details from that period. I never would have had those experiences had we not moved into that tiny RV, no matter how temporary. #story #stories #memoir

Part of the challenge of being on #social media is that I have the belief that every time I step foot onto a platform, it's going to be a fast and easy trip. Nope. Opinions flying. Things you can help with. Things to laugh at. Sometimes you can make a difference. But I have to change a bit how I do this. There's things in the morning I want to accomplish first.

One of the most significant gaps I see in #documentation is failing to document anything other than the happy path the company built it for. Engineers and product owners like to only document the perfect happy path a user is supposed to take. They subconsciously forget to document certain things because they are used to the one primary use case. It's common not to consider that what's already written, such as product messaging, marketing, etc., might have already planted specific expectations in a user's mind about the product or service. Only once I play with the product as a user do I spot all these inconsistencies and gaps. - What happens if you try this path? - As a user, I expected it to do X, but you're blocked at Y. - The UI said such and such, so I assumed it could this and that, but it can't. You must tell the users what the product or version should not be doing. If workarounds exist for known issues, provide them, especially in an #MVP product where early documentation versions are necessary. If the public should refrain from implementing those workarounds, instruct them not to take the actions that lead to the problem.

If I write a long-form post on habla.news, will it show up on other clients if the other clients have a post character limit that is less than the length of the article? If it does show up, does only the first maximum set of characters display based the client's maximum post display length?

There's nothing to watch on social media anymore. I have the choice between Office Space and Jaws. Jaws it is.

I don't want AI spontaneously generating and synthesizing content on the fly for me. Bring back CBs and pirate radio. Combine them with the internet. Oh, wait. #Nostr already did that.

150 words are not long form.

My first Quran in Arabic arrived in the mail today.

Could someone post their last Will and Testament on Nostr and have it considered legally binding? A person's signing key would help ensure it really was from the deceased, and therefore, it could be considered automatically #authenticated and permissible to use as #evidence. 🤔 I'm not sure what made me think of this. #legal #document #willandtestament #usecase

Tell me if my Internet vs. Nostr analogy is correct. Today's internet is basically sending information through a path that all goes through a central point and then back out again to wherever it wills. That central point (regardless of what it is) is controlled and owned by a regulating authority or business license of some kind. Nostr is like talking on a CB or a Ham radio. You send messages out from you, from your location, and some people in the surrounding area within range picks up your message. If needed, they'll repeat that message from their CB or Ham radio to their surrounding area where some more people in their range picks it up... and so on. Is that the right way to describe it?