I was pretty happy to find out that the spaghetti squash that I thought I had perhaps harvested too early on account of powdery mildew that stopped the plants in their tracks in early September, ended up being more than sufficiently ripe, and baked up really nice. It came out with a fork in nice long strands, and the seasonings and spices I used worked out great. Olive oil, Garlic Plus, salt, pepper, paprika and a little brown sugar. 40 minutes at 400F. Such an easy plant to grow, and yields a good amount of edible mass. Plus lots of seeds to use or toast up. Two down, 14 still in storage. It’s hard to believe that with a vertical trellis, 16 squash only used 4ft square of bed space. The closer of the two trellises pictured were Long English Cucumbers. #gardenstr

I swear if I knew half of what I know now about the nature of our relationship with government when I was 18, before I had dependents that would suffer if I weren’t around, the country would have had a persistent problem for at least a few months. Maybe I’m just pussing out right now, but martyrdom at this point to achieve nothing just doesn’t make as much sense as spreading awareness and focusing on achieving food, water, energy and monetary sovereignty. But the need remains to educate young men and women about the traps that lie in store for them in this system. And the importance of practicing non compliance at every turn. After all, it’s a beautiful world. We just need to take it back. View quoted note →

OK after a long time contemplating it and failing at various methods of introducing Bitcoin to people, I’ve finally found a simple way to spark further conversation about Bitcoin if someone asks you about it, for example, in response to seeing a company Bitcoin hat or a shirt logo on or near you. Or maybe something company related you are holding in your hand. It’s not pushy and it initially doesn’t even employ the word Bitcoin. It also quickly qualifies if you’re talking to someone with a genuine interest or whether they are looking for an opportunity to spew FUD or talk to you about their shitcoin. Now I generally don’t advocate displaying Bitcoin swag in public because it makes you a potential target, but if you know you’re going to be in civilized company and perhaps have an opportunity for discussion, it’s not a bad thing to wear a monogrammed shirt or something like that, in my opinion. Step 1: Make it local. People’s interest in a topic can often be sparked by seeing something with a local flavour that they’ve never heard about. Particularly in small towns. For me the magic bullet appears to be some monogrammed shirts that simply has a ₿ logo on the left breast, then immediately below that, the name of our town or region followed by the word Bitcoin. For example, Tri-City Bitcoin, Napa Valley Bitcoin, or even a specific town name. If you are not an already established business, then guaranteed almost everybody that sees it will know there is a new company or educational organization in the area that they’ve never heard of. If they’ve ever had even a passing interest in Bitcoin but not known where to start in the learning journey, it will almost invariably result in at least a simple question: “Hey Dave, what’s Tyler TX Bitcoin?” Step 2: Keep it simple. When the question comes up and someone asks you what this organization or company (represented by the logo) is, you simply say “We teach people how to protect their savings from inflation.” Then don’t say another word for at least 3 seconds. Let the person pursue the topic if they wish. If not, simply say: “If you ever want to learn the basics, I can give you a call sometime.” Pushing the main conversation to a later date or time eliminates the possibility of it turning into a confusing, dry conversation on monetary inflation, a “FUD deflection session” or otherwise. in a group setting it also eliminates the possibility of someone in earshot coming in from the side and derailing your conversation. The initial goal is to simply plant as many seeds as possible and inspire interest by not making it look like a sales pitch. Anyway, I’m sure there’s a million variations on this, but I think the concept of planting seeds rather than getting into lengthy conversations initially, is a pretty good way to go. If the individual is really hungry for knowledge, go for it. But Bitcoin itself employs “sly roundabout ways”. Maybe we need to be subtle too. #bitcoin #grownostr

It wont.stop.snowing. I’ve been on the end of a shovel quite a bit these last weeks. If I build a place up here I’m definitely going to build a minimal need for snow clearing into the design. Partially covered walks and entry doors, a steep metal roof on all structures, and a mega weeping tile/window well drain system around all building foundations, beside the footings. #homesteading

One of the software projects that I was able to get features successfully added to in its earlier days through simple direct user engagement with the developers, is one that I also think really needs to have an open source counterpart, without any of the data collection and with decentralized, Nostr protocol based storage of user data. The app is What3Words, and it has revolutionized the way users can leverage GPS navigation, and the sharing of location information, down to 10 sq ft accuracy, anywhere on the planet, including lists of points that each have a field for X number of characters for labelling. What3Words divides the surface of the globe into roughly 55 billion 10’x10’ squares, and rather than designating them with a sixteen digit GEOREF coordinate set, simplifies the matter of memorizing/sharing a location by assigning a three word identifier to each box, preceded by four forward slashes. Once a location is selected on the interactive map, it can be navigated to with conventional navigation apps like Apple Maps or Google Maps with a simple “Navigate” button. The app also instantly recognizes any three word combination preceded by four forward slashes as a potential W3W location, and tries to resolve it to a known three word location in the database. What this means is that any location, even those without civic or rural addresses, can be tagged with even a neatly handwritten or other type of sign, and if a user scans it, the app will zoom onto the location and be able to share that location with others via electronic messaging of any kind, or SMS. It is for this reason that emergency services and even some higher end vehicle manufacturers have started to integrate What3Words into their dispatching programs and vehicle dashboards. Such accurate location information that bypasses the need for active GPS dilution of precision correction, allows users to share easily remembered locations of assets, cold drop locations, targeting info and drone delivery locations with other users in a cool new way. Have a hot fishing spot on the edge of a river that you want to share with your son? Send him the three words. Have a list of points that directs your friend along a specific route through the bush to safely get to a good hunting blind? Drop and save points as you go or project a series of points from the comfort of your desk, save the list of points, label each point as you wish, and share the list. I can see a great opportunity for integrating this location information sharing scheme with apps like #bitchat and over LoRa mesh networks. As someone who does a lot of work in the bush and in places without addresses, this app has really revolutionized the way I direct crews and equipment. The great thing is that in addition to saving each point as a three word identifier, it saves the standard sixteen digit coordinates, which can be longhand copied and pasted into any GPS mapping software for linear and area measurements. I wonder if the What3Words project is on @jack ‘s radar. I see endless possibilities for creating something similar in open source. Here’s a sample location if anyone wants to test out the app on the web or via the iOS/Android app with a simple copy/paste: ///bigger.chairs.fever Have fun