A quotation from Twain

I could have given my own sect the preference and made everybody a Presbyterian without any trouble, but that would have been to affront a law of human nature: spiritual wants and instincts are as various in the human family as are physical appetites, complexions, and features, and a man is only at his best, morally, when he is equipped with the religious garment whose color and shape and size most nicely accommodate themselves to the spiritual complexion, angularities, and stature of the individual who wears it.

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Novel (1889), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Part 3 “The Tale of the Lost Land,” ch. 10 “Beginnings of Civilization”

More about this quote: wist.info/twain-mark/85582/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #marktwain #twain #connecticutyankee #sectarianism #establishment #freedomofreligion #morality #personalreligion #religion #religiousdiversity #religiousfreedom #religioustolerance #spiritualdevelopment #spirituality

I have an old laptop with the external type of battery, which is dead. I want to recycle the old battery to have one less lithium one in the house, but I'm wondering how safe it is to have the empty slot when the laptop is plugged in.

I'm not so much worried about myself, but if I were to later give this batteriless device to someone, is there a risk of shock/electrocution if, for example, their fingers find their way into the compartment?

(I have no plans to find a replacement battery to fill the slot.)

#computers
#batteries

Finally, something worth reading...

"A concert to remember: Metal band rocks out at Ottawa hospital, granting patient's wish"

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-heavy-metal-concert-bruyere-health-9.7289670

I'm not prone to jealousy, but I do envy people who knew what they wanted to do when they were young, pursued it and achieved it.

People complaining about Firefox going back to Twitter instead of using the fediverse. With the fire hose of abuse constantly directed at them here, why would they use the fediverse?

I laugh when I see people talk about how peaceful it is here. It may be that it's more possible to carve out a peaceful zone for oneself (I've never used Twitter so can't compare) - and that I'm thankful to have done - but the same darkness exists in the fediverse as everywhere else.

Hating on others doesn't become virtuous just because you're on the "good guys'" side. Most people think they're the good guys.

#3GoodThings

For yesterday...

-had a delightfully strange experience with a soup-kitchen patron

-went out for a birthday dinner for a co-volunteer. Had a great time with the people and thoroughly enjoyed the food.

-watched most of The Wiz, a 1978 version of The Wizard of Oz starring Diana Ross, which I had never heard of. Michael Jackson plays the Scarecrow. I've never really liked musicals, but I've also never seen one before with a Quincy Jones soundtrack.

I often wish I had a spiritual home. I consider myself Christian, but I'm not Christian enough to belong, and too Vedic. But not Vedic enough to be Hindu, and too Christian and Sikh. But not Sikh enough to be... You get the idea.

Where I would best fit would be with followers of the Edgar Cayce readings, or maybe Quakers, but those types of communities don't exist where I live.

Spiritual loneliness.

I miss when clicking Read more> simply expanded a post rather than taking me to a separate page with the whole post and a different font size.

#Mastodon
#FirstWorldProblems

#3GoodThings

-I did three good things today: two for other people, the third a perhaps unnecessary show of honesty

-torrential downpour started shortly after I arrived at my indoor destination and stopped shortly before I left

-enjoyed a visit with a friend

-the smell of roasting potatoes reminded me of when I was a kid

This commercial is "Canada-washing" its product (a blower) by boasting that it ships from a Canadian warehouse and costs x Canadian dollars - emphasizing repeatedly the currency is Canadian. It's immediately clear that it's not made in Canada.

The ad goes on to say that tests of this and a competing blower show that this one emits a much greater air speed, expressed in miles per second, which is... not the measure Canadians use.

Everyone knows Canadians measure time in micro-years.

The world truly has lost its mind (the financial world, anyway). An apparent scramble to acquire Spacex stock.

My understanding of the company is that it produces AI, which is a money sink, and aspires to colonize other planets, which is almost certainly impossible, and build data centers in space, which I've read is not feasible (and in any case they are for AI, which is not profitable). What's left is the satellites, which are profitable for now but not enough to counterbalance the rest. Insanity.

I'll have to make some calls to make sure my savings don't get fed to this monster.

#3GoodThings

-was prepared to give something up today, due to frustration, but things went so well it was as if the cosmos wanted me to change my mind. And I did... for now at least.

-great soup kitchen shift. Good feels all around.

-the day was bookended by two well-timed periods of solitude and silence

@Binder

You put me in mind of this tune.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5laG1E0Q4b8

I'm a sucker for the bassline she's playing on the clavinet.

#3GoodThings

-I just discovered a setting in my browser that allows me to pass those bot-detection tests without enabling cookies. I can now read the internet again (for better and for worse)!

-great walk today. Perfect weather and soundtrack. I got agitated at one point but was able to recover my good feeling fairly quickly.

-I saw, I think for the first time ever in person, Canada geese with their goslings. Lots of them!

Rage-muting this commercial they had the audacity to put back on the air.

I'm at my least spiritual during commercial breaks.

#3GoodThings

-went for a walk with a friend I hadn't seen in some months

-walked pretty close to two rabbits without them running away. The key seems to be to pretend you're not looking at them.

-picked up a nice shirt for cheap, in a colour I would normally never wear. (Unfortunately it has overwhelming new-shirt smell, so I may not keep it. Still a fun buy, though.)

#3GoodThings

-got in a very strange conversation with a schizophrenic guy I know from the soup kitchen. I missed the bus because of it, but this caused me to take an interesting and scenic detour on my walk

-barista who alternates between being warmly friendly and borderline hostile was friendly today. I felt seen and appreciated.

-exercised the body, mind, and spirit

#3GoodThings

-a warm day with very forceful wind. I love the wind.

-didn't lose my hat to the wind

-ran into and had a nice chat with a woman from the 'hood that I hardly know, and her daughter who I'd never met before

At the grocery store, you have to put a coin in the shopping cart to release it. It's a pain when you don't have a coin with you, so I started grabbing stray carts that I find in the parking lot and bringing them in for people who need them.

Today I saw a volunteer from the soup kitchen at the store, looking a little lost because he didn't have a buck for the cart. I rolled my stray in front of him without announcing myself and then quickly walked away. He got a free cart without realizing it was me who gave it to him.

I don't like being faceless and using a pseudonym. But at the same time, the internet is forever and, especially now, there are forces scraping every tiny tidbit they can to build the most complete profiles they can, on as many people as possible. I want no part of that.

I only created my account to win a contest and didn't anticipate making connections with people on here. 🤔