added thing about wholes and parts

1 files changed, 109 insertions, 32 deletions

diff --git a/scratch.txt b/scratch.txt
index 0fab28d..6c837ac 100644
--- a/scratch.txt
+++ b/scratch.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 The energy of chaos is required to change the existing order.
 
+"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing" -- Helen Keller
+
 # Scratch
 
 Your power is proportional to your ability to relax.
@@ -212,20 +214,55 @@ People have forgotten how important the sun is. You can die from lack of sun.
 
 Every little withdrawal you can make, not only resists the system, but empowers you. Yes even tiny acts like paying cash to a person rather than swiping your implant at the self checkout screen.
 
-## Second Spring
+## A Cup of Coffee
 
-Driving 1800 miles north in a week was like stepping back in time. Spring came and went in Florida back in early march. By the time we left Florida was well into summer, whatever the calendar might have said. Here in Washburn though spring had barely arrived. 
+One of the interesting things about repairing engines is that they teach things about life more generally. Engines have taught me that while the parts might influence how the whole functions, all that really matters is the whole. If the whole isn't right, it doesn't matter how good the parts are.
 
-The night we got in the overnight low was 34 degrees. The trees were mainly still bare, save the birches, which leaf out really early. The undergrowth was still spindly and the creek, which normally afforded the kids somewhere to play where no one could see them, was visible to the whole campground.
+It doesn't matter if you have the best headers in the world if your rings are cracked and leaking. Your brand new rings are useless if you put them above an old and worn cam. All these parts have to function as a whole[^1]. They only matter in the context of the whole. And that whole, you quickly learn, is greater than the sum of its parts. All wholes have something that cannot be found by breaking them down into parts.
 
-There was also almost no one in the campground save us, the camp hosts, and few other seasonal campers. We even mainly beat the birds up here. There were a few warblers around, some swans, geese, and ducks, but the resident merlins, and most of the spring warblers had not shown up yet, and there were hardly any flowers to be seen.
+This is the way of the world. Everything must work as a whole or it doesn't work at all. The engine stutters and dies, the heart stops, the tree falls, the salmon floats belly up. All those things are themselves also part of larger systems, and those in turn are part of larger systems until there is, one primordial system, *the prime movement* if you will, which began everything. 
 
-In two short weeks all that changed. Leaves came out so fast I swear the kids and I watched them grow one day. In two weeks the creek was hidden again. Unfortunately the mosquitoes also grew. Thicker than we've ever seen them around here. I was some small comfort to hear some locals say this is the worst mosquitoes have ever been around here, so far as anyone can remember.
+Strangely, we live in an age where the dominant myth, the story most of us live by, says the exact opposite. 
 
+The myths we were handed from 17th-century culture (which is where our myths mostly begin) claim that everything can be reduced to understandable parts, dealt with at that level, and the whole will somehow benefit. The famous mechanistic universe. Anyone who has spent any time working on engines should have serious doubts about Descartes mechanistic universe. Pipe organs, which were the beginnings of the modern engine in many ways, were probably no different than internal combustion engines when it comes to mysterious failure of the parts to make a whole. Descartes, I suspect, did not turn his own wrenches.  
 
+If he had he might have saved us a 400 year long detour from the reality of the world into the fantasy we currently inhabit. We do not experience the world as the sum of its part and, so far as I can tell, this is not at all how the world works. It might be nice if it were how the world works. But it doesn't. On the plus side, if the universe truly were mechanistic I don't think half the hacks and things I do to keep the bus going would work. I think this is the first clue I had that things were very different than what the stories claimed -- things that should work didn't, things that shouldn't work often do.
 
+I read a lot of writers who explore this space, the gap between myth/story and the reality we experience. There tends to be a good bit of hand wringing about how this leaves us fragmented, incapable of certain things that were easy to someone living 500, 1000, 5000 years ago when myths better matched the world. That may well be the case. Certainly what I have read of indigenous people of North America, they seemed by the large have cohesive myths that created a world in which they were... content? Where things made sense to them. 
 
-## A Cup of Coffee
+That would probably be nice live with, but it's not where we are now. It's not, apparently, where we need to be. We are here, which I take to mean we need to be here for some reason. Perhaps we need figure out how to either live with the gap between myth and reality or to create new myths that better match reality. Perhaps both in some cases.
+
+I don't know that I am capable of creating a new myth, but one thing I can say is that you can certainly cast most of what culture handed you and get by on your own terms. It's a lot of work, and it will really bother some people (which is odd, but it happens). There a plenty of days when you think *what in the hell am I doing this for?*, but then there are far more days when you know exactly why you're doing this.
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+This is basic systems theory. A good intro to the study of systems is Gerald Weinberg's *An Introduction to General Systems Thinking*, though it's worth keeping in mind that even breaking things down into systems is fraught with problems. In other words, it helps the have your cooling system sorted, but if your exhaust system is a mess then the whole system doesn't work and your cooling system really doesn't matter.
+
+Divisions between systems are useful at times. While it's true that the bus running is a small part of the system that is our live in it, it is a part that can generally be dealt with as though it were discreet. I find though that I am better at keeping it running when I am conscious that this division is artificial and arbitrary and best treated as such. The idea that there is a division between the bus and my life is a temporary tool I use when it useful and discard when it is not.
+
+Personally though systems theory leaves me cold and I think is in the habit of, ironically, focusing on very small systems. It is really just considering larger parts, but it still isn't willing to confront that everything is connected through that prime movement (and throughout the flowing of the universe).
+
+
+[1]: On the other side of the coin, your worn cam might not matter that much if the rest of the system is fine.
+
+You can drink all of the structured water, bask under the UV rays, dim your EMFs, clean with baking soda, only wear organic materials on your body, breathe good air, lift weights and move until the cows come home, (and you should) but if your mind is full of poison and your heart is closed to light, it’s all for naught. 
+
+I know people often read sites like this because they think we lead interesting lives and like to live vicariously. There can be a trap to writing a site like this because you feel the need to be interesting all the time, which tends to translate as doing stuff. 
+
+Really though I think what's interesting about our lives is how little we do. We've essentially traded a certain level of stability (I would argue it is illusory anyway, so not much of a trade really) for the ability to appreciate the now
+
+The secret to 
 
 One morning twenty-four years ago I went to work and found the coffee shop I worked at padlocked shut with an eviction notice on the door. Unsure what to do, I ended up going back home where I found another eviction notice on my own door. It wasn't the best day. I decided it was best to ignore it all. I went to the beach for the rest of the day.
 
@@ -263,6 +300,19 @@ https://www.vagabondjourney.com/you-cant-get-lost-anymore/
 
 # jrnl
 
+## Second Spring
+
+Driving 1800 miles north in a week was like stepping back in time. Spring came and went in Florida back in early march. By the time we left Florida was well into summer, whatever the calendar might have said. Here in Washburn though spring had barely arrived. 
+
+The night we got in the overnight low was 34 degrees. The trees were mainly still bare, save the birches, which leaf out really early. The undergrowth was still spindly and the creek, which normally afforded the kids somewhere to play where no one could see them, was visible to the whole campground.
+
+There was also almost no one in the campground save us, the camp hosts, and few other seasonal campers. We even mainly beat the birds up here. There were a few warblers around, some swans, geese, and ducks, but the resident merlins, and most of the spring warblers had not shown up yet, and there were hardly any flowers to be seen.
+
+In two short weeks all that changed. Leaves came out so fast I swear the kids and I watched them grow one day. In two weeks the creek was hidden again. Unfortunately the mosquitoes also grew. Thicker than we've ever seen them around here. I was some small comfort to hear some locals say this is the worst mosquitoes have ever been around here, so far as anyone can remember.
+
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+
 ## Going Up North 
 
 Eight days of travel. Six days driving. 1508 miles from the shores of St George Island to the shores of Lake Superior. 
@@ -3925,68 +3975,95 @@ pnyway, there you have it. X11 for the win. At least for me. For now.
 
 ## How to Get Work Done on a $75 Tablet
 
-Fresh out of the box Amazon's Fire tablets are crap devices. All they can do is hook you up to the fire hose of Amazon content, which is then shoved down your throat. That's why Amazon sells them for as little as $75 for the 10-inch model. Technically it's $150, but it frequently goes on sale for around $75. The time to buy is major holidays. To do any work you'll want the Finite keyboard. The tablet-keyboard bundle typically runs about $75-$120 depending on the sale. It's $200 not on sale. Don't do that, it's not worth $200.
+Turning a Fire 10 Tablet Into Something Useful
+
+Fresh out of the box Amazon's Fire tablets are useless. They're just firehoses designed to shove Amazon content down your throat. That's why Amazon sells them for as little as $55 for the 10-inch model. Technically it's $150, but it frequently goes on sale for around, and sometimes under, $75. The time to buy is major shopping holidays, Prime Day and Black Friday/Cyber Monday are your best bet. 
+
+To do any work you'll also want the Finite keyboard. The tablet-keyboard bundle typically runs about $75-$120 depending on the sale. It's $200 not on sale. Don't do that, it's not worth $200.
+
+For $75 though, I think it's worth it. Once I strip the Amazon crap out and install a few useful apps, I have a workable device. The price is key for me. This is what I take when I head out to the beach or into the woods or up some dusty canyon for the day. It don't want to take my $600 laptop to those places. $75 tablet? Sure. Why not get it a little sandy here and there? So far (going on a year now), it's actually survived. Mostly. I did crack the screen, but it's not too bad yet.
 
-For $100 though, I think it's well worth it. After a bit of tinkering to get rid of everything Amazon and install a few apps I need to work I have a workable device. The price is key for me. This is what I take when I head out to the beach or into the woods or up some dusty canyon for the day. It don't want to take my $600 laptop to those places. $75 tablet? Sure. Why not get it a little sandy here and there. So far (going on a year now), it's actually survived.
+It lets me work in places like this, which happens to be where I am typing right now (picnic tables in the middle of nowhere are rare, but I'll take it).
 
-And it lets me work in places like this, which happens to be where I am typing right now (picnic tables in the middle of nowhere are rare, but I'll take it)
+<img src="images/2023/2023-04-11_152857_st-george.jpg" id="image-3587" class="picwide" />
 
-A Fire HD 10 is not the most pleasant thing to work on. The keyboard is cramped and there's no way to map caps lock to control, which trips me up multiple times a day, still, after a year. But hey, it enables me to get outside and play and still get a little work done when I need to. 
+A Fire HD 10 is not the most pleasant thing to type on. The keyboard is cramped and there's no way to map caps lock to control, which trips me up multiple times a day. Still. After a year. But hey, it enables me to get outside and play and still get a little work done when I need to. 
 
-If you're interested, here's what I do.
+For anyone else who might be interested, here's what I do.
 
-First you need to disable all of Amazon's crap. But before that you need to make sure you have a launcher and a browser installed, because if you turn off Amazon's defaults before you have new ones you will have nothing. There are millions of browsers and launchers for Android. I happen to like Vivalid as a web browser, which you can download from UptoDown.com (that's officially supported by Vivaldi by the way). For a launcher I like [Nova Launcher](https://nova-launcher.en.uptodown.com/android).
+First you need to disable all of Amazon's crap apps. Before you so that though, you need to make sure you have a new launcher and a new web browser installed, because if you turn off Amazon's defaults before you have new ones you will have nothing and you'll be stuck. There are millions of browsers and launchers for Android. I happen to like Vivaldi as a web browser, which you can download from UptoDown.com (which is officially supported by Vivaldi). For a launcher I like [Nova Launcher](https://nova-launcher.en.uptodown.com/android).
 
-Once you have those it's time to start shutting off all the amazon crap. To do that I use [these instructions](https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-no-root-remove-amazon-apps-on-fire-10-hd-2019.4009547/) from the XDA forums. They're a touch of of date so to get things shut off on newer tablets you may have to search for the new app names.
+Once you have those it's time to start shutting off all the Amazon apps and services. To do that I use [these instructions](https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-no-root-remove-amazon-apps-on-fire-10-hd-2019.4009547/) from the XDA forums. You need to install the adb developer tool, connect that to your fire, and then run a series of commands. The commands themselves are a touch of of date in the XDA article, so to disable some apps on newer tablets you may have to search for the new app names. 
 
-I wrote a tutorial on [how to install the Google Play Store](https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-install-google-play-store-on-amazon-fire-tablet/) for Wired that you can use if you need any apps that only Google Play offers. I don't so I don't bother. The apps I need to work on the Fire are Vivaldi, Slack, Zoom, and Airtable. All those seem to work fine being downloaded through UptoDown.com, so that's what I do. 
+Once you've eliminated Amazon from the Fire HD 10, you have a base on which to build. Over the years I've purposefully built a workflow based around very simple tools that are available everywhere. If it can run a terminal emulator, I can probably work on it. On Android devices, the app I need is Termux. That and a web browser and I can get by. All of those work fine without the Google Play Store installed. If you do need apps from the Play Store I wrote a tutorial on [how to install the Google Play Store](https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-install-google-play-store-on-amazon-fire-tablet/) for Wired that you can use.
 
-For my actual writing and accessing my documents and other files I use the command line app Termux, which is available via F-Droid. Normal people would probably be best served by some kind of word processing application that syncs to the cloud, something like Google Docs perhaps. I rely on Vim and Git. I prefer to write in a Vim running in a terminal, I track changes using Git and push them to a remote repo I host on a server. When I get back to my laptop, I can pull the work from the tablet and pickup where I left off. To make everything work you also need the Termux:API, which for some reason is a separate app. 
+For writing and accessing my documents and other files I use Termux, which is available via F-Droid. I write prose and code the same way, using Vim and Git. I track changes using Git and push them to a remote repo I host on a server. When I get back to my laptop, I can pull the work from the tablet and pickup where I left off. To make everything work you also need the Termux:API, which for some reason is a separate app. 
 
-To set things up the way I like them I install termux and then configure ssh access to my server. Once that's setup I can grab my dotfiles repo and setup Termux to mirror the way my laptop is setup. I can also [install git annex]() and clone my documents and notes folders. I don't often access these in Termux, but Termux can share them with other apps so I can use a visual file browser to get those documents and make notes. The last thing I do is clone my writing repository. That gets me a basic setup, but there are some things I do to make life on Android smoother.
+To set things up the way I like them I install Termux and then configure ssh access to my server. Once that's setup I can clone my dotfiles and setup Termux to mirror the way my laptop is setup. I can also [install git annex]() and clone my documents and notes folders. I don't often access these from the tablet, but I like to have them just in case. The last thing I do is clone my writing repository. That gets me a basic setup, but there are some things I do to make life on Android smoother.
 
 First install the termux-api package with:
 
 ~~~
 pkg install termux-api 
-
 ~~~ 
 
 This gives you access to a shell command `termux-clipboard-set` and `-get` so you can copy and past from vim. I added this to my Termux .vimrc and use control copy in visual mode to send that text to the system clipboard:
 
-That works for updating this site, but some sites I write for want rich text, which I generate using pandoc and then open in the browser using this script:
+~~~
+vnoremap <C-x> :!termux-clipboard-set<CR>
+vnoremap <C-c> :w !termux-clipboard-set<CR><CR>
+inoremap <C-v> <ESC>:read !termux-clipboard-get<CR>i
+~~~ 
+
+That works for updating this site, but some sites I write for want rich text, which I generate using [Pandoc](https://pandoc.org) and then open in the browser using this script:
 
 ~~~
-#! /bin/sh
+#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh
 cat $1 \
-  | pandoc -t html \
-  > /tmp/output.html \
-  && open output.html \
-  && read -n 1 \
-  && rm output.html
+  | pandoc -t html --ascii > /storage/emulated/0/Download/output.html \
+  && darkhttpd /storage/emulated/0/Download --daemon --addr 127.0.0.1 \
+  && termux-open http://localhost:8080/output.html
+~~~
+
+I saved that as rtf.sh, made it executable with `chmod +x`, and put it on my path (which in my setup, includes `~/bin`). Then I run it with whatever file I am working on.
+
+~~~
+~/./bin/rtf.sh mymarkdown.txt
 ~~~
 
+That'll open a new window in my browser with the formatted text and then I can copy and paste to where it needs to go. Note that you'll need to install [darkhttpd](https://github.com/emikulic/darkhttpd) (a very simple web server) with `pkg install darkhttpd`.
+
+####Issues and Some Solutions
+
+There's no `esc` key on the Finite keyboard, which is a problem for Vim users. I get around it by mapping `jj` to escape in my .vimrc. 
+
 The one thing I have not solved is the capslock key. I am so used to having that set as both Control and Esc that I hit it several times a day and end up not only not running whatever keycombo shortcut I thought I was about to run, but also activating caps lock and thus messing up the next commands as well because they're now capital letter commands not lowercase. I've considered just prying off the key so it'd be harder to hit, but so far I haven't resorted to that. 
 
-Getting around esc as a Vim users is pretty easy, I just remapped jj to escape, but I constantly hit capslock thinking it's control. I've tried quite a few key remapping apps but none of them have worked consistantly enough to rely on them. Such is life. 
+I've tried quite a few key remapping apps but none of them have worked consistently enough to rely on them. Such is life. It's $75, what do want really? I get by. I write and edit in vim, copy/paste things to the browser. That's all I need. Again, part of the reason I can work on a tiny $75 computer is that I have chosen to learn and rely on simple tools that work just about anywhere. 
 
-That gets me enough to work though. I clone my various git and git-annex repos (my documents folder is in git-annex), write and edit in vim, copy/paste things to the browser. That's all I need. I suppose part of the reason I can work on a tiny $75 computer is that I have purposefully chosen to learn and rely on simple tools that work just about anywhere. 
+That said, this thing is not perfect. The keyboard is prone to double typing letters and also not registering a space bar press. I end up spending more time editing when I write with it. I also constantly reach for the trackpad that isn't there. Also, sometimes I get to the middle of the woods and realize I don't have the latest version of the document I want to edit. Git comes to the rescue then though, I just create a new branch, work, push the branch to the remote repo, and then merge it to master by hand when I get back to my laptop. 
 
-So I drag this thing out to all sorts of strange places and 
+If you don't do everything in a terminal you might be able to still get something similar set up using other offline-friendly tools. I'm sure it's possible I just have no need so I haven't explored it. Anyway, if there's something you want to know, or you want me to try to see if it might work for you, feel free to email me, or leave a comment.
 
-Then I push, pull on the Fire and pick up again. Do I ever forget to push on the laptop, get to the middle of the woods and realize I don't have the latest version of the repo? Yes, yes I do. But that's what Git branches are for. 
 
 ## Git Annex Piece
 
-I rarely have access to fast internet. What little speed we get my wife uses to tutor her clients over Zoom. This works because I don't need fast internet, but the fact that I don't need fast internet is not by chance or circumstance, it's the result of technological choices made with the end goal of not needing bandwidth. And more to the point, having irregular access to internet.
+I rarely have access to fast internet. What little speed we get my wife uses to tutor her clients over Zoom. There's no way around that bandwidth.
+
+I on the other hand can make do. I don't need fast internet. Or internet at all really. 
 
-Despite this I manage to work remotely, record and store (and backup!) gigabytes of audio, video, and photos, and have lived this way for six years. 
+The fact that I don't need fast internet is not by chance or circumstance -- it's the result of technological choices made with the end goal of not needing bandwidth, or regular access to the internet, in mind. Despite our situation I manage to work remotely, record, store, and backup, gigabytes of audio, video, and photos, and have lived this way for six years now. 
 
-The secret to all this is a little program written by someone who also understands what it's like to live on limited bandwidth. That would be Joey Hess and his program git annex.
+I have discovered in this day and age of always-on internet and constant silent background updates that this way of living is somewhat anomalous to people. A few of them emailed me to ask how we do this. Rather than respond just to them, I thought I'd write it up here.
+
+The question was something like, you are often in places with little to no bandwidth, but yet you advocate having three backups and store tons of data, how do you do that?
+
+Well, secret to my system is a little program written by someone who also understands what it's like to live on limited bandwidth. That would be [Joey Hess](https://joeyh.name) and his program [git annex](https://git-annex.branchable.com).
 
 If you are not a nerd and don't know what git is, nothing beyond here will make any sense to you, nor will my solution work for you. Sorry. If you do know what Git is, git annex is a wrapper around git that makes it possible to store large files in Git. 
 
-That's nice, but that's not the power of git annex. The power of git annex is in the concept of remotes. 
+That's nice, but that's not the power of git annex. The power of git annex is in the concept of remotes.
+