For most of Christian history, all churches had sanctuaries with an altar for the re-presentation of the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. Now, many sanctuaries are literally nothing more than musical band stages. Something went wrong.

I wish npub1sn0wdenkukak0d9dfczzeacvhkrgz92ak56egt7vdgzn8pv2wfqqhrjdv9 was still active here.

I am neither, but is being anti-semitic worse than being anti-Russian? I'm offended that the Grand Slam tennis tournaments don't allow Russian tennis players to represent their countries. I am Christian -- why should I try to guard against "Islamophobic" speech when others are free to spew threatening "Christophobic" speech? Stupid hypocrisy.

FALSE: "America is not the government or the land; it's the people." It all goes together. ALSO FALSE: "The Church is not the clergy or the buildings; it's the people. It all goes together. Those who insist that the Church is only "the people" tend to reject the legitimate authority of the Church's hierarchy. And it's a fake and incomplete theology to ignore that Jesus instituted an authoritative clergy.

A very famous spot marked "22" -- the very spot from which Caitlin Clark broke the all-time NCAA scoring record.

Had a good time watching my first Hawkeye game in person against UCLA.

I reached out to someone new on social media through #SimpleX. That's nearly the perfect use case. I don't want strangers having my direct contact info, in case they turn out to be weirdos. The best case would be a complete stranger in person. I would NEVER give a stranger on the bus or plane or street my number. But I'd be happy to share a one-time SimpleX contact link with anyone. The person I contacted ended up being cool enough. I really like SimpleX. I wish more people were willing to use it -- to forever ditch SMS, FB Messenger, et al.

It seems like one way to achieve the benefits of the Squatty Potty without purchasing one is to simply lean forward a bit with elbows on your knees, while raising up on your toes. It's good for the calves at the very least.

I feel certain that when times get tough -- when worse people get into public office, our enemies -- many people will be exchanging Bitcoin for #Monero. How can that not be the case? Spooky interview by Naomi Brockwell:

I'm looking forward to going home right now. My wife is preparing homemade buffalo wings and other delights for when we watch a game on TV together. It's a great blessing to be married to a good housewife.

Back in the day, I was the only one I knew in real life who had a Gmail address. (At the time you could only get one by invitation.) I thought it was awesome. Now, I might be the only one I know in real life who has chosen to de-Google altogether. I think it is awesome. #privacy

Ever create an account and log in to a school alumni site? Good luck getting off that spammy mailing list. I love addy.io. It gives me email aliases that I can disable at a whim. Instantly. I can keep my email inbox clean and orderly.

I appreciate that Nostr is a social media protocol that I can enjoy but not be addicted to. X is a huge time suck. It's not really about civil discourse. It's about one-upping each other in our reactions to things that enrage, divise, or provoke us. Because that's addicting.

I bought $100 of #Bitcoin using #Monero around three weeks ago. That Bitcoin is $92 now, and the Monero is $106. This is an ongoing comparison experiment to see how the value fluctuates. I know such a narrow snapshot is not even close to being a fair indication that leads to an overall conclusion, but still. With its built-in #privacy, I'm happy with being all in with Monero. The privacy is worth more to me than numbers, because I don't trust the direction of our increasingly technocratic, big-brother society. Not that any crypto will save the world (that's Jesus' job), but having Monero can certainly be helpful with regard to privacy. The same can be said for encrypted messaging (e.g., #SimpleX, #Session, #Signal, #PGP, OMEMO, et al): not the solution, but helpful.

At a community play a couple nights ago, a quite elderly man was holding the door of the restroom while a couple of us were entering. We thanked him politely. I had gone in quickly only to grab a few sheets of toilet paper because I had no Kleenex with me. The old, frail, kind man was still at the doorway slowly on his way out, engaging in small talk while a stream of people were coming in and out. As some of us were leaving, he held out his hand. "Where's my tip, you cheapskates?" We chuckled at his joke. As I slipped past him to get to the show, he said, "Bend over and I'll give ya a tip." I wasn't expecting that. There's something about vulgar humor that's not funny coming from an older person. I guess it's because I expect older people to be on their best behavior since they are closer to the grave.

With all his struggles against censorship, why isn't Nick Fuentes using Nostr?

Such brainwashing, all for financial profit. You enjoy your chemical cocktails. I'm good.

"Society has not become feminized; it's become faggotized." -- Milo Yiannopoulos

For the last two days, I've eaten nothing but a stick of butter for lunch.

I didn't exactly go to a guitar Mass today for Thanksgiving, because there were no actual guitars there. It was a beautiful church full of statues, paintings, and biblical stained-glass scenes, but after some delay with technical issues, the boomer priest was able to use his iPhone and Bluetooth speakers to start Mass with a John Michael Talbot song (performed by JMT himself), which came with its own guitar accompaniment and backup singers. The priest said, "Peace be with you." We said, "And with your spirit." He said, "Thank you." I always like seeing people in the front rows turning around to flash the rest of the congregation with a high-waving hippie peace sign. ✌️ My wife and I had been asked to bring up the gifts. I wasn't expecting that, so I ended up agreeing to it. But when the time came, another family was already doing it. I was relieved that there was a miscommunication among the ushers. The pre-homily warm up was a humorous poem written about an exploding Thanksgiving turkey. The priest wanted to read it to us right before the homily, he said, "to lighten the mood." The lady lector and lady distributor were a nice touch, too. It was a treat to hear several more songs during Mass that sounded like I was in Catholic gift shop. After our final blessing we were warned not to eat too much turkey. There's nothing I can complain about, though, because all that matters is having a valid sacrament. Right? I was grateful for at least that, and for all the graces we do receive. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.