z_cress / Zach is on Nostr

Dad. Husband. Math teacher. Runner. Amateur writer. Fisherman. Mediocre guitar player and volleyball player.

We need a new cultural enlightenment. I want to be a part of it.

Last Notes

2024-02-10 15:31:29 GMT

Government, economists, etc.: Inflation is good for the economy.
Me: Well I hate paying more for stuff year over year and sometimes month over month so maybe just STFU and stop telling me I will pay more and be happy – for “the economy”.

2024-01-15 16:56:43 GMT

- reply

Oof. Sending warm thoughts your way.

2023-12-28 00:39:35 GMT

- reply

Here you go. It's been trending up since 2020. https://m.primal.net/HVcS.png

2023-12-09 12:47:54 GMT

Our society is not well. There are a lot of things contributing to that but and many places we can see the evidence for it, but I’m thinking about the future and where it goes from here.
The idea of national unity or shared vision or direction at a scale of millions is pretty much out the window. We had a flavor of national unity for about 5 minutes at the beginning of covid before it devolved into tribalism. The Internet, social media, algorithms, and rent seekers mean the chance for shared vision is gone.
We see cultural decay everywhere. In the absence of religion we see people trying to bootstrap religion ether explicitly (seeking spirituality or something similar) or implicitly signing up for pseudo-religions (like wokeness or red team versus blue team politics).
When I read national news it seems like the country, and the world for that matter, is a dumpster fire. Of course, it’s not. That’s a distorted sample of the most click worthy stuff. But there’s enough signal in the noise to pick up the trend line.
There is also evidence of this decline in my own community. The culture wars have not missed us and neither has the crisis in meaning, the death of the stable family, or the opioid crisis (all of which is connected anyway).
However, when I consider the future I believe that small communities will become more and more important. People “out there” seem crazy, but when I walk around my community I see people mostly just trying to struggle through life. Trying to make a living, raise their kids, and find some enjoyment in life.
This is why I’m increasingly skeptical of the federal government and more focused on state and local government. We need to be allowed to build systems that fit our communities without interference from forces wildly disconnected from them. Especially when those forces are loaded with rent-seekers and narcissists driven by greed and power.
The rub, obviously, is that even if we all decide that we’re going to focus on building healthy local communities, there are countless forces that will transcend those boundaries, ranging from pandemics to global military conflict to environmental disasters.
I guess I see two approaches for individuals concerned about the future of our society or, put simply, the world our children and their children are going to inhabit. We can either focus on the large scale, trying to solve problems through things like national politics or “winning” the national (global?) culture war. Or we can try to focus on our local communities first, devoting proportionally less energy to systems which are increasingly disconnected from us.
Of course, it’s not a simple dichotomy. However, we can choose where we set the slider. While I recognize the allure of being part of something much bigger than yourself is ever-present, I think too many people have set the slider to the former. And I’ve little confidence that the latter will succeed at a massive scale. It would require a radical change in where most people spend their energy (and there’s a reason that so many people don’t right now – it’s difficult). But I am certain that the former approach will fail and in fact is currently failing spectacularly before our eyes.
I’d encourage you to take an audit of where you spend your energy. Is it shouting into the noisy nihilist void? Or is it developing yourself, your family, and your community in such a way that they grow and develop into something greater than they were before?
#plebchain

2023-09-16 13:14:34 GMT

This is a beautiful song.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/where-the-wild-wind-blows/1310652333?i=1310653664

2023-08-09 22:30:26 GMT

- reply

Glad you’re feeling better!

2023-07-29 00:06:57 GMT

I can smell this picture. #note19hp…lz44

2023-07-12 22:15:56 GMT

- reply

It’s a way to avoid using your private key (nsec) in a bunch of places. All of your data that you’ve posted on nostr is protected by that key. Inevitably clients will have security accidents where private keys leak. nsecBunker allows you to create “keys” for different clients, without giving those clients your private key.
I want to try out a couple of mobile clients so I can’t use the Alby or nos2x browser extensions. That’s why I’m trying to set it up.
#[2] has a great explainer here: https://habla.news/a/naddr1qqxkuum9vd382mntv4ez6a3jqyf8wumn8ghj7ur4wfcxcetsv9njuetnqyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqy08wumn8ghj7mn0wd68yttjv4kxz7fwdehkkmm5v9ex7tnrdakszynhwden5te0danxvcmgv95kutnsw43qz9rhwden5te0wfjkccte9ejxzmt4wvhxjmcpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejsygrlts45uj9qa8lv5caydvfumwpy386qyquc6c9zqu9fdr92sxxht5psgqqqw4rswnspch

2023-07-07 23:06:18 GMT

- reply

Best of luck, man. I know the struggle.

2023-07-03 17:34:21 GMT

- reply

I really want to test out these kinds of micro apps, but I’m hesitant to put my private key all over the place (I’m on an iPhone). Not being technical, I have no good way of knowing whether a client is responsibly handling keys or not.

2023-07-02 12:13:50 GMT

- reply

It's quirky but it doesn't take long to get used to. If you're confused about something - ask! Most people here are really helpful.

2023-05-14 23:54:49 GMT

First run in over two weeks as I’m trying to get over what I think is plantar fasciitis. Didn’t go great and definitely still have pain. I might switch to cycling for a while. https://nostr.build/i/a81f81dace4208d8d77039652e06ef32bfe777127f247aa50c116cfe2d67d373.jpg

2023-05-14 12:15:56 GMT

- reply

Is the goal to untether social media as an analog for actual, in person, conversation? We don’t give each other money when someone we know makes a good point. Why would we want to build a digital analog for conversation where that’s all we do.

2023-04-11 14:43:13 GMT

- reply

Awesome, thank you!

2023-04-09 12:47:03 GMT

When you know you hid 30 eggs and the kids only found 29 and you can’t remember where the 30th egg is, the Easter egg hunt becomes fun for the whole family. 😂