Audio (MP3): 20180831 - Generous with my humility

Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
— Step 8 of Alcoholics Anonymous

When I got to the Eighth Step I was kind of disappointed that they use the word “harmed.” I didn’t like it because I didn’t like the thought of me actually hurting people. We get a taste of peace after working the previous steps and then Step Eight comes crashing in like a bowling ball. Announcing we’d done harm.

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A client gave me a book of Carl Sandburg poems yesterday at our meeting.

In one of his poems Sandburg talks about god playing out in the backyard garden. I tend to agree.

#photos #moonflowers

Dinner with this beautiful girl is one of my favorite things.

cottoalegna.com →

#photos #sara

Audio (MP3): 20180830 - No smoking at the entryways, peeps

And then there was that one time a few years back when I was standing at the front door of the work building. It was a cool autumn day and I was enjoying a beautiful cigarette.

Enjoying the smoke, the solitude, and the cars going by.

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Somebody put on some ZZ Top 🎸

#allislost

🌸 ⛈ #photos #flowers

Peeps, here’s your full-speed, non-stop Vaseline’s cover to power through this Wednesday afternoon. It’s one of the few songs I’d take with me anywhere.

The raining always starts when you go away.

I loved Nirvana so much. Cobain was Elvis for my generation.

#musicvideos #nirvana

Audio (MP3): 20180829 - The 5 gallon bottle was empty

Today when I was driving to work I was thinking about the water cooler there. Yesterday morning when I got in the 5 gallon bottle was empty. At one point in my career I would’ve thought, “who do I have to blow to get somebody to change the water?”

Yesterday I didn’t think that at all. I just changed the water bottle so I could fill my glass.

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In 2017, four US states generated more than 30% of their electricity from wind

Last week, as President Trump made bizarre and wandering remarks about “windmills” being an inferior source of energy, the Department of Energy (DoE) released the 2017 Wind Technology Report (PDF), showing that wind energy had an extremely successful year.

In four states—Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and South Dakota—wind contributed 30 to 37 percent of each state’s entire electricity generation. These are fairly unique cases, because the states are sparsely populated and benefit from areas with high wind speeds. But the fraction of wind-generated electricity is growing in many other states, too. Fourteen states had more than 10 percent of their energy come from wind. On a wider scale, wind contributed just 6.3 percent of national generation, although that’s up from 5.7 percent in 2016.

Wind turbines are my favorite thing to see while road-tripping.

Renewable energy is the future, there’s no way around it.

#windpower #lettherebehope

Verizon throttling could trigger FTC investigation of deceptive practices

Thirteen Democratic members of Congress on Friday asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Verizon’s recent throttling of the Santa Clara County Fire Department while it was fighting California’s largest-ever wildfire.

“Throttling directly violates core net neutrality principles,” the letter, led by US Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), said. “In light of the repeal of net neutrality, we urge you to investigate whether Verizon’s practices were ‘unfair or deceptive’ pursuant to Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.” The letter was sent to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons.

So the Santa Clara County Fire Department had an “unlimited” data plan but Verizon throttled their service after they used 25GB. Throttled them while they were fighting fires. Fires that’ve left 14 dead so far.

#goteam #netneutrality