My recent literature diet. Human beings are simultaneously the strongest, most resilient, most admirable creatures, and the most evil, abhorrent, and sickening. We are truly curious.

Well fuck, nostr, it happened: I've become a statistic. As much as I might like to consider myself vigilant, convenience, complacency, and residual trust in a fiat institution got me. First, the good news: the overwhelming majority of my sats are in cold storage self custody. Thank goodness for that. Worst case scenario, my wife and I will be fine. The bad news: I have a decently sized TFSA, RRSP, and a small but meaningful number of sats that are seemingly at risk. (Queue the litany of I-told-you-so's; I deserve it) What happened: There are a couple of different places where I acquire bitcoin. The first place I ever bought bitcoin from, when I knew absolutely nothing about anything, was Wealthsimple. I now understand that it's a crap place to get bitcoin from, but it's also where I've "held" more traditional, tax-advantaged stuff, and they have a no-fee DCA program if you get your paychecks direct deposited there, so it was convenient. That's why I continued to have a small recurring purchase from them, because of the zero fees. Periodically, I would move to cold storage when I had built up a decent size UTXO. Today, I tried to do one of these regular transfers. However, right when I hit send, the app glitched and signed me out, and when I tried to sign back in I was told that my account had been locked due to "suspicious activity." To regain access to my account, it says I have to verify my identity with their third-party verification partner, Persona. You know, Persona: the digital panopticon that takes your data and shares it with 17 different subprocessors (that we know of), screens you for terrorism and espionage, and retains your data for three years (or so they say)? Nevermind the fact that everyone they share it with probably keeps it forever, even if they don't. Yes, this is all KYC'd to shit anyways, but what if I don't want to give my data to this awful company, specifically? (Reports indicate that Wealthsimple partnered with Persona sometime around February 2026, just as all the terrible news about them was coming out. Bang up job WS, you really nailed this one). What if I refuse? Does Wealthsimple just seize my assets and tell me to get fucked? We shall see, customer service isn't open on the weekends. Maybe my previous KYC information is already shared with them anyways and I'm just crashing out over a done deal (probably, now that I think about it), but I still don't like this. I knew better. I knew my KYC stack was big enough and that I should just focus on acquiring clean bitcoin from now on. But I was lazy. If you're in Canada, there is still a limited time window open where you can put on a covid mask, a hat, and a pair of sunglasses and walk up to a @@npub19mf4...kfu2 ATM with a fat wad of cash and get clean, anonymous bitcoin sent straight to your custody for a mere 7% markup after all fees and spreads. Pretty reasonable, I'd say. This won't last long; the eye of Sauron (Mark Carney) is upon them. I'm done with custodial exchanges and I'm done with KYC. This is so stupid.

Independence doesn't end at the British empire (but it would be a good place to start, CANADA). It's the state vs you, always has been.

Twenty-five years ago my father, recently divorced, was alone, more or less broke, and living out of a rented garage in a bad part of town. When he would get home from his uninspiring job in a mediocre local cabinet shop, he would throw himself, and every spare dollar he had at the time, into an all-consuming passion project: building two exquisite wooden kayaks; one for me and one for my sister (although I now have nominal possession of both). He was at a low point in his life, without his children, and this was a creative outlet into which he could channel his simultaneous frustration and unbreakable spirit of creativity and craftsmanship. Over the years, these vessels have been the source of many happy memories and adventures. Just last week, as my wife and I found ourselves battling unexpectedly rough seas, those boats served us well in making our way back to safety. A three-sixteenths-of-an-inch layer of wood, shaped and set in place by my father two and a half decades ago, was all that separated each of us from a thrilling challenge and an extremely bad, possibly tragic outcome. When work is executed with excellence and craftsmanship, the long term possibilities are impossible to predict.

"Technology is so much our slave that it would seem churlish to notice that it is also our master." -Matthew Crawford, 2009

Cold, metallic door Swings on his rusty hinges Letting in, and out.

New article dropped, exploring risk and taking responsibility for one's own life, from my own unique vantage point. "Though many lack the words to describe it, the modern consumer existence, free of danger, stripped of its highest highs and lowest lows, is abhorent to the free spirit and intrepidness that characterizes this marvellous species that we are so priveleged to be members of."

Apologies to anyone following me, but you're about to get spammed with a bunch of reposts of old content. In an effort to treat my writing more seriously, I will now be using YakiHonne client to publish my longer, more serious pieces as proper articles, rather than just as standard notes which I have been doing so far. This will allow them to stand separate from any shorter, less serious content that I may choose to post, and keep them from getting buried, as I also use Nostr for more standard social media purposes. I have tried to do this at a time when, statistically, the most people are likely to be asleep, so as not to cause undue disturbance. Thank you for your patience.

The Arbutus menziesii (commonly just called arbutus or madrone) is a tree of considerable beauty. Often found in dry, rocky areas exposed to the sea, it thrives where most other trees would perish from malnourishment, drought, and exposure to salt. It is a tough little bastard. The twisted and crooked nature of its wood, however, make it unsuitable as lumber, and it has only limited use as veneer and, occasionally, firewood. Thus, between the difficult terrain it inhabits and its general unsuitability for human ends, it is not a target for loggers, and enjoys a relatively unmolested existence in the pacific northwest. It has neither the fame, nor the ever-present peril, of its grander neighbors; the douglas fir, for example. I feel a community of spirit with this tree.