i just had a brilliant idea for all the gold & silver bugs who distrust government: you don't have to be a full-fledged "bitcoiner": just keep a bitcoin wallet with enough money to buy bitrefill gift cards for everyday purchases. so you can use bitcoin as means of exchange until power goes out and then switch over to fire/ smelting/ scales and coal digging/timbering after that. the purpose is to just get the murderous dollars out of our hands. the biggest bitcoin influencer for me this past year was probably Candace Owens. she doesn't even mention bitcoin, but the simple questions that she is asking are extremely powerful. for example, why did Feds show up so early to the hospital. why did they control Charlie's body so closely. why did they prevent the doctor from re-entering his room. why have they not released an autopsy. why have they not shown the evidence for Tyler. why is the media not allowed in his hearings. i'm pretty sure justice doesn't need censureship and privacy. If i were GenZ i would be so angry. the fact that my government just randomly plucks up a random 20 something and locks them up without ever proving anything. i mentioned this to some church-going, well-grounded boomers and millennials. they were completely unaware: they think it's all been figured out and they "Forgive Tyler" and give the family the respect that they need to mourn. these are the same people who actually listen to me when i talk about bitcoin because they have been used to being on outs on supporting issues like pro-life or religious liberties. they look at me like some crazy person. it's all i could do to not scream "have you not read Agatha Christie, people!" Church people are supposed to be "wise as serpents". meanwhile, i'm checking the internet, the organization that Charlie was trying to audit before passing is having firework shows at their events?? buy your gold, silver, bitcoin and bitrefill gift cards and lets drain that swamp. i can't believe i lost friends voting for Mr. T and it looks like he literally just killed off a potential dyanstic rival... the last time this happened was like Herod the Great.

i've recently discovered BitRefill. it's fun buying things with lightning. 10% cashback on Lowes giftcards makes me want to build a whole house. trying to figure out what the catch is.

I read Cathie Wood's suggestion that she would start a business with ChatGPT if she had to do over, so i asked what business would Grok design for me: Grok: Build and operate premium rural "homestead hubs"—beautiful, off-grid-ish properties (think modern farms/ranches with high-speed internet, solar/Bitcoin-mined energy). So Grok thinks I should be a glamping hotelier. the truth is, i love the suggestion. i like living in places where people come and go and bring new ideas/recipes/excitement. i'm currently in such a rural place. however, there's nothing else out here besides furniture factories. Not sure how i would advertise that. "Drive down the Blue Ridge parkway, exit before you fall over the divide into North Carolina." "don't mind the farm dog, he only likes women." "If you're a couple and not married, you'll get an extra complimentary room on the house" "i'm sorry we are a tad bit Amish without all the romance novels" "it's a bit of a dry household, but we have lots of lemonade made with well water" project ideas: ham radio tower --> can sats be sent out over this thing mesh network --> the cows in the barn need wifi potential water wheel in the creek? can we use quartz rocks to make electricity? treehouse? summertime new river kayak/canoe adventure? stargazing would be amazing here.

wading in deeper in ALby hub note to self to keep test amounts small because i'm still learning. first test: what happens when I delete Sub-wallet on ALby Hub: it looks like it's marooned the funds (1000 sats) in the attached Alby Go instance (and i didn't save the connection secret as suggested). so basically, if i offer someone to host their wallet, i can maroon their funds if I want to... no wonder my brother was like "nah thanks" when i offered to make him a self hosted wallet on my server.

speculation is always a thing & oh to be more like the Germans "Undaunted Courage" Stephen Ambrose: "Tobacco wore out land so fast there could never be enough, but tobacco never brought in enough money to allow planters to get ahead. Their speculation in land was done on credit and promises and warrants, not cash, so they were always land-rich and cash-poor. Small wonder Jefferson was obsessed with securing an empire for the United States. "Tobacco culture represented an all-out assault on the environment for the sake of a crop that did no good and much harm to people's health as well as to the land, not to mention the political and moral effects of relying on slavery for a labor force. But to Virginia's planters, even to so inventive a man as Jefferson. there appeared to be no alternative. In fact, an alternative existed right under their noses. "German immigrants, farming in the Shenandoah Valley, had a much different relationship with the land from that of the planters of English stock. The Germans had not received huge grants of land from the English king or the royal governor, they had bought their land, in relatively small holdings. Coming from a country with a tradition of keeping the farm in the same family for generations, even centuries, they were in it for the long haul, not for quick profit. They cleared their fields of all trees and stumps, plowed deep to arrest erosion, housed their cattle in great barns, used manure as fertilizer, and practiced a precise scheme of crop rotation. They worked with their own hands, and their help came from their sons and relatives. No overseer, indentured servant, or slave-men with little interest in the precious undertaking of making a family farm was allowed near their fields.(33)" tobacco farming --> bitcoin mining? self hosted custodial servers/miners --> small family farms speculation --> tradfi cos