How do you discern truth from fiction if thinking itself is augmented by AI? The Keyes Protocol explores this from a spiritual and technical perspective in the setting of an action sci-fi thriller. a.co/d/07R19yGE

This has happened to me. I swear sometimes we can communicate while we’re sleeping in that semi-awake state.

I bought a bullwhip. Because America is the land of the free and I can learn how to do something cool like whip stuff if I want to, and I recently had a birthday. Already made a few overhand cracks and a few oopsies with the back. Stay tuned for more.

Christianity is the best conspiracy of all time. I love conspiring with my fellows on how to help those who are lost and wandering, leading them toward the salvation of real love.

When you conceive of a new story idea are you conceiving of the framework the story takes place in, or the struggle that happens through a framework you then place? In my experience, the latter is more important because it gives readers something to chew on. But I have a harder time conceiving those plot points because they require nuance and don’t appear as inspired moments. It’s why so many ideas rest dormant in my mind, waiting for the reason to exist.

Yesterday was not a great day for PHP

Since I don’t like info dumping on my reader, I will instead have a character not understand something. Another character either explains it to them, or they pick up clues from their environment and figure it out themselves. Regardless of how it’s done, my standard is the foil must challenge the informer as to why this info is needed. If the informer can’t justify it then it isn’t needed in the story.

Allow me to introduce you to napping.

Bros will see this and say hell yeah

My dad had money; as his POA I found the nicest place in the area for him. It cost nearly $10k/mo and still occasionally smelled like shit when I came to visit him in memory care. Demented people shit themselves. They die suddenly. They eat unseasoned food. They are cared for by med students transitioning through college or older caregivers needing a job. There will always be an air of this around such places, no matter how nice their lobbies are. It’s sad but it’s true. I cried every time I visited him. He cried when I left. But I am glad he was there instead of in my home because it allowed me to visit as a son instead of live as his nurse and administrator. Those last few months are precious in their grief, and changed me for the better. Showing up makes the difference. At the end when he couldn’t even speak, his face recognized mine and I just held him. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”

Sometimes I wish my boy could grow up temporarily so I can show him some of the best R rated movies, then send him back to 12 so we can continue enjoying his youth together.

An appropriate level of creepy

When I was 5, I made pressed dried flower artwork. I won grand prize in the state fair for making one that was a self portrait.

I love how simple kids are. Want to get to know someone? Ask them what they like to eat, their favorite color, if they want to see something cool that you have or know how to do. Easy peasy. Now you’re friends.

Finished reading The Three Meter Zone by J. D. Pendry. While this book is written for NCOs seeking to be better leaders it’s quite applicable to everyone in leadership. His first major point is every organization, including yours, has a list of values they make people memorize. But very few people take the time to write down what these values (and others they highly esteem) actually mean to them. He tells a story of being a CSM assigned to a new battalion and meeting with his new XO. He came expecting a lecture where the XO tells him what his job will be. Instead, the XO shared his own values, how he wants to be talked to, and how he wants to be held accountable. This established a clear idea of who the leader was and made their time working together much more productive.

Yesterday at our church youth retreat a teenager said I’m like his church dad, meaning he loves me and looks up to me as a role model. It’s an honor I never expected and am greatly humbled by.

Nods while turning up Paul Robeson’s “Ballad for Americans.”