I reached out to someone new on social media through #SimpleX.

That's nearly the perfect use case. I don't want strangers having my direct contact info, in case they turn out to be weirdos.

The best case would be a complete stranger in person. I would NEVER give a stranger on the bus or plane or street my number. But I'd be happy to share a one-time SimpleX contact link with anyone.

The person I contacted ended up being cool enough.

I really like SimpleX. I wish more people were willing to use it -- to forever ditch SMS, FB Messenger, et al.

The same goes for Monero.

But few appreciate the simple fact that Monero transactions are obscured by default. There is no exchange or government or other entity that can track you through the blockchain to see who sends how much to whom.

The idea of digital cash, with absolute privacy by default, is a tremendous concept. And it exists right now!

Stack digital cash!

Don't be afraid to spend some, too -- it costs pennies at most to send!

#XMR

nostr:note19kz8wc6v5dlkt8g439k3dus76ejacn77rkwjuqkgftpv0zperzzs7zmhg0

How do you manage yours? I really don't know what others do. I'm not sure what the standard practice is.

But maybe when clients provide people an nsec, they should make a practical suggestion rather than only saying "don't share your nsec with anyone else." Maybe they should add something like, "One popular way to save and protect your secret key is to use a trusted password manager, such as...."

But then I dont know how many normal people are familiar with password managers. I only started using them during COVID when I become privacy conscious.

I don't have easy answers. I'm still working on getting people to ditch SMS messages for FOSS encrypted messengers.

When people don't care about commonsense privacy, they don't care to make any extra effort regarding messengers, emails, crypto, or social media. They're products of the system.

I don't see it as difficult. I just put them in my password manager (KeePassXC).

Done -- except I have my password manager file saved in a couple places for redundancy.

I figure it's because I bought $100 worth -- thinking if it were to go up in price, I could buy more Monero with it.

But BTC has gone down and XMR has gone up.

It seems like one way to achieve the benefits of the Squatty Potty without purchasing one is to simply lean forward a bit with elbows on your knees, while raising up on your toes.

It's good for the calves at the very least.

Signal is the best first step for normies to get a taste of privacy.

I use it a lot.

But I also use SimpleX, Session, Matrix, and XMPP.

Would be happy to.

I feel certain that when times get tough -- when worse people get into public office, our enemies -- many people will be exchanging Bitcoin for #Monero.

How can that not be the case?

Spooky interview by Naomi Brockwell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fshsk8MCAf4

I'm looking forward to going home right now. My wife is preparing homemade buffalo wings and other delights for when we watch a game on TV together.

It's a great blessing to be married to a good housewife.

Isn't tallow hard? How do you whip it? Doesn't it harden?

When I see the list of so many cryptos I never heard of, I don't see why a good privacy company doesn't accept a privacy coin like Monero (XMR).

I don't need a badge or tax forms. I would just give if you would just receive.

Back in the day, I was the only one I knew in real life who had a Gmail address. (At the time you could only get one by invitation.)

I thought it was awesome.

Now, I might be the only one I know in real life who has chosen to de-Google altogether.

I think it is awesome.

#privacy

*divide

Ever create an account and log in to a school alumni site?

Good luck getting off that spammy mailing list.

I love addy.io. It gives me email aliases that I can disable at a whim. Instantly. I can keep my email inbox clean and orderly.

I appreciate that Nostr is a social media protocol that I can enjoy but not be addicted to.

X is a huge time suck. It's not really about civil discourse. It's about one-upping each other in our reactions to things that enrage, divise, or provoke us. Because that's addicting.

On Sundays I usually eat a 1.5-lb sirloin with 4 eggs on top. Best meal of my week.

During the week it's usually ground beef and eggs for me.

I bought $100 of #Bitcoin using #Monero around three weeks ago.

That Bitcoin is $92 now, and the Monero is $106.

This is an ongoing comparison experiment to see how the value fluctuates.

I know such a narrow snapshot is not even close to being a fair indication that leads to an overall conclusion, but still.

With its built-in #privacy, I'm happy with being all in with Monero. The privacy is worth more to me than numbers, because I don't trust the direction of our increasingly technocratic, big-brother society.

Not that any crypto will save the world (that's Jesus' job), but having Monero can certainly be helpful with regard to privacy. The same can be said for encrypted messaging (e.g., #SimpleX, #Session, #Signal, #PGP, OMEMO, et al): not the solution, but helpful.

At a community play a couple nights ago, a quite elderly man was holding the door of the restroom while a couple of us were entering. We thanked him politely.

I had gone in quickly only to grab a few sheets of toilet paper because I had no Kleenex with me.

The old, frail, kind man was still at the doorway slowly on his way out, engaging in small talk while a stream of people were coming in and out.

As some of us were leaving, he held out his hand. "Where's my tip, you cheapskates?" We chuckled at his joke.

As I slipped past him to get to the show, he said, "Bend over and I'll give ya a tip."

I wasn't expecting that.

There's something about vulgar humor that's not funny coming from an older person. I guess it's because I expect older people to be on their best behavior since they are closer to the grave.

If you're fat due to crappy diet (like I was), the best way back to health is ketosis and fasting.

All natural, free, and effective.

The fasting part is like taking one's body through purgatory. It involves some suffering, but the desired end result -- restoration to health -- makes it all worthwhile.

He is back on X because of Elon (he had been banned), but he is still not allowed to get the blue checkmark. Elon does not like him.

On Nostr, our npub IS our blue checkmark -- except better. No one can refuse it or take it away.

With all his struggles against censorship, why isn't Nick Fuentes using Nostr?

Such brainwashing, all for financial profit.

You enjoy your chemical cocktails. I'm good.

Are you saying there is no sane reason to believe humans have an immortal soul that survives bodily death?

Death is the separation of the body and soul.

The body obviously needs the soul to survive (otherwise, it wouldn't be a body, but a corpse).

But the soul, which is spiritual, does not need air or nourishment or any other bodily assistance for it to survive. Strictly speaking, it doesn't need the body to exist.

It is spirit, not a physical thing. Without the soul's animation, the body dies and decomposes into many parts, no longer unified, no longer held together.

But the soul has no parts. It has no geographical location. It is simple. It is one. Yet it is manifestly real.

"Mother Nature," on the other hand, is manifestly a metaphor, a personification, a literary device.

That's fine as far as it goes, as long as we don't use it as a replacement for God -- which is not a metaphor, not a personification, but ultimate reality.

This is the sincere conclusion of countless sane and even brilliant men in history, both ancient and modern.

Only a knucklehead would seriously try to defend the reality of the tooth fairy or Father Time or Mother Nature. Not so when it comes to God's existence.

Let every September 10 be CK Day.

#charliekirk

I've been impressed with the nostr client Jumble.social. Good work!

Sounds great. What you say is true.

That's my main complaint: obsession with Bitcoin and the Nostr protocol itself rather than normal human content, which would be most attractive.

And sometimes I get flustered by how relays work or don't work. But mainly what you said. I will try to listen to your podcast.

My first crypto was Monero -- all obtained without KYC -- and I've never held anything else.

I don't want (1) the government tracking, taxing, and punishing me for having it or for how I spend it, or (2) neighborhood thugs eyeballing my public portfolio.

I'm not trying to get rich with it. Just trying to have digital utility with privacy.

Greed blinds us and will always bite us in the end.

Yes, and imagine if you've done a great job of stacking sats, and your home address -- combined with the public blockchain where anyone can see what you have -- falls into the hands of a ruthless, desperate, and violent criminal in your neighborhood?

Disturbing thought.

True story:

I once played basketball with a learning-disabled teen who literally could not tell the difference between left and right, which was a problem for executing our plays.

I did not make fun of him, but tried to help.

I said to hold out his hands and see which one formed an "L" with his thumb. That's the Left hand. He was happy.

But the very next time he tried it on our end of the court, he held out his hands palms-up! 😆

I will push back if I may.

Our past does matter. It affects our present state. And our present affects our future state, which, from a Christian point of view, is all important.

That said, our present duty is not merely to enjoy, but to unite ourselves to Jesus Christ -- to redeem our past and to ensure our future.

We should be mindful of our past, present, and future and offer it all to God. That is our duty, our calling.

I scored a 23.

I never had a Walkman and never removed a CD player from car.

Born 1973.

Doing great, Real hodlbod. Thanks.

Long live Coracle!

Painful

https://vlogstr.com/video/5cac8b79b8981db7a647d0c1102bd1e1a6a63e722f3ef866d7ca9981df2ae9ee

That was it -- my notifications were turned off. Thanks for mentioning it. 👌

XMPP works best between my wife and I because I have very bad data reception at work, and XMPP is so light it even works if I'm stuck using 3G.

My brother insists on Matrix for communications with him.

My more normie friends, if they're OK with anything, are OK with Signal.

Only the elite few use SimpleX, which means no one uses it with me. (I did get one guy to download it and connect with me immediately, but he had a problem not getting notifications with it.) So I only use it for public group chats. But if ever a weird stranger I just met wants my contact info or number, I will insist on SimpleX.

I used Session with my brother before he dumped it for Matrix, so now I have Session only to hear from SimplifiedPrivacy.

I think people who are like us are nerds or somethin'. Not really, though. We just have common digital sense.