What you will find here:

Pillar 0: Scope1

This is a personal website I created to put some musings and thoughts about topics online. They may be interesting to others, they may not, but they are interesting to me and in the off chance they are interesting to others, they are here. This is an XYZ domain site for a reason – it’s perfect for random things floating about the internet, with no other particular scope.

There is no commitment to any community, sponsor, corporation, or timeline nor are there required or fixed posting dates, times or topics. If I have a thought I feel like writing up to share, I will share it here. I fund the site, so I don’t have to do anything but what I want.

Once upon a time, we just posted stuff to the web because we found it interesting or wanted to share our point of view – not for a side-hustle or to make bank. Consider this a throw back.

Pillar 1: Content

Primarily, the content here will be of three types – things I have learned from my study of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, my thoughts about complex social-political world events, and things I want to share about my various hobbies and interest – like programming and Star Trek. They tend to go together pretty naturally – long term solutions to issues need to come from eternal principles, and difficulties between people provide questions to seek for those eternal principles. Hobbies let us connect with world and different people who share some interest but have their own experiences with the world, which lead us to questions about working together better so we have more time to do the fun stuff, and more cool people to do it with.

This content does not represent any official view of any group, organization, or tribe of humans or sentient creatures of which I may be a part. The views and understanding expressed are my own, and should not be used against anyone else for any purpose.

This is my blog. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

They are also probably not complete nor fully representative of all thoughts about all things or related topics – complex issues and eternal matters both require depth and nuance in communication, and this is the internet – there is only so much you can do. I am not a professional wordsmith, and my use of language may not clearly convey to your mind my full intent. This is an inherent difficulty in all forms of communication.

I would suggest you take things in as positive a light as possible, if only to think well of others and bring light to your life. There is no intent to harass, dismiss, defame, argue, belittle, infantilize, straw-man or otherwise communicate in a negative, harmful, or hurtful manner. My intent is always to share what I know and how I know it, so that it can grow towards a more perfect knowledge and help bring light.

Content will be categorized to all some organization, but it will be pretty high level, and probably will cross lines – consider categories as guidelines, not walls.

Pillar 2: Interaction

This is not a place to debate, argue, or share other opinions. Your views may, and probably will, differ from mine. That is a good thing, but I don’t have the time to add any more discussion, to be corrected, or do much more than this. There are a lot of spaces for that, and you should find one where you can feel free to express yourself while also learning from others. So no comments or discussion threads, unless I change my mind later, at which point this pillar will be updated.

This is me taking thoughts out of my head and putting them somewhere easier to examine. Therefore, things will be changing as my knowledge and wisdom increase, as I find new ideas to integrate, and as I see new points of view. I will try to make clear edits to show when I add new things, revise things, or reconsider things. This is primarily so that I can see the change over time, but you are welcome to come along for the ride. It probably won’t be much change at first, and somethings may not change, but if it does, it will be noted.

I will also revise and add things as they come to mind, so it really would not be fair to make this a conversation style blog anyway. My mind is not organized enough for me to rely on it, let alone anyone else. Case in point, this has been revised 8 times since publication, and will probably be done more often.

If you know me in real life and want to talk to me, of course, you also know that getting me to stop talking is the real challenge. This just lets the void of the internet take the brunt, rather than my IRL friends and family.

Pillar 3: What Do I Know and How Do I Know It

I have come to feel more and more strongly that one of the great tools for personal growth and understanding is to be able to ask, and then find an answer for, two questions: What do I know?, and How do I know it?.

I was exposed to this idea in a semi-formal context while reading a Harry Potter fan-fic, and it has stuck with me, rolling around in my mind as I look at things that have come to pass, things that are happening because of things that have come to pass, and things that will happen because of things we are doing right now.

So, this place will be a spot to note what I know, and where I learned it – especially on those things listed in Pillar 1. There are things that I have known so long that I no longer remember where I learned them. This is dangerous – memory changes as we grow, and you need to know where things came from so you can use them to make sure you really know what you know. Then you can examine those sources for additional light and knowledge and correctness. And when you find you learned something wrong – be it a fact you are misremembering or something that our understanding has increased or just personal growth letting you see a bigger picture – you are armed to allow yourself to accept the new information, and remember what you learned to teach to someone else – including your future self.

Memory does not exist in a vacuum, your2 experiences color your memory and your knowledge. Having an external reference can help you see your own growth, correct anything your memory has gotten soggy, and allow you to examine more facets and depth to any topic.

This is what makes lab journals, travel journals, science journals, and personal journals of such value – they allow you to view your own mind in the past from the external point of view of your own mind now. You are living the change, and it can be subtle, because how we are now feels like how we have always been in many cases. If the changes are big enough, we might be able to note them, but generally, we just slowly change and it’s hard to look back. The twin questions of What do I know, and how do I know it provide tools to see growth, change, and make sure we are on the path we want to be on.

  1. Pillars are a design tool for helping define the scope and principles guiding software projects (among other things). I am using them to help me organize various projects, so I thought I would try them out here. ↩︎
  2. The use of you/your is intended to be the generic second person rather than the specific you-the-reader. I learned not long ago that when I use you in the generic sense it is often taken in the specific sense, which leads to some arguments/ideas sounding more targeted or personal than intended. Since English lacks a pronoun to easily establish which mode it is, I will try to be clear if it should be you-the-reader rather than you-the-general-idea of a person who is not me. ↩︎