For all of my lambasting of Big Tech, you'd think I'd just stay where I'm at looking over it all atop a better platform. A couple of days ago, I was driven by the idea of making 2022 a year of less tech. Instead of investing my energy into software and hardware that'll be old by next week (not unlike my bachelor's degree), I would rather use my resources toward something that lasts, namely the eternal.

This really irritates me about tech: I know a lot of things, a lot of things that are inapplicable sans a DeLorean gunning for 88 mph. It amuses me that for all the Microsoft products I once supported, I've jumped off the ride before it reached Windows 11 and just don't see myself ever using Microsoft again, whether with a SAS, an office package or an OS.

For those couple of days, I went back to Google and Microsoft with the mindset that by embracing Big Tech, there would be less tech in my life; I would simply not have to think about anything, but let the West Coast think for me. This did not last long. The gnawing feeling that everything I was doing was being cataloged consumed me! How would I be left to think of other matters while I'm being tracked as a prey?

Frankly, I got tired real quick of their leftist politics being shoved in my face. There's a bunch of lemmings with faces pressed against that glass box in Mountain View, CA. It just ain't me! I used to be accommodating toward folks' crazy ideas, but I'm growing with the idea that I'm just not gonna pay much mind to 'em and the crazy things they say these days. Folks are lost and it ain't nothin' new: for all the innovation and advancement we buy into believing about our culture, words written in Romans 1 some 2,000 years ago are just as applicable today:

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

Romans 1:25, HCSB

There's a lot of fear in our world today. It's like folks cannot see they are already predestined to die. Instead, they set up their little fiefdoms and act as if they were gods while ignoring their own mortality. I'm not too worried about that moment I gotta punch out; it's ever so close at hand! The day it will be has always been:

Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.

Psalm 139:16, HCSB

Instead, how I yearn toward adopting Philippians 4:4-8:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things. Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:4-8, HCSB

The question is, how am I predestined to live? That's really key. How often did I not live as if eternity is not at my very door! And it truly is! I did not live like one chosen before the foundation of the world. And once I remember again, it shapes me as I try to express how THANKFUL I am that God chose me. Ephesians 1 is chockful of content.

For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved.

We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure that He planned in Him for the administration of the days of fulfillment—to bring everything together in the Messiah, both things in heaven and things on earth in Him.

We have also received an inheritance in Him, predestined according to the purpose of the One who works out everything in agreement with the decision of His will, so that we who had already put our hope in the Messiah might bring praise to His glory.

When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 1:4-14, HCSB

Death is my friend who knocks at the door. If it is to be that I will live to my parents' ages when they died, I've got 22 years remaining. I may die before I post these words, but let me err in abundance with what seems to be loads of time remaining. But, is it a lot? I can remember things clearly when I was 21 and everything that happened thereafter. It was 1999 approaching 2000 with all the Y2K fear therein. In a rapid cascade all those years have passed, informing me how the next 22 years toward 2043 into 2044 will be.

I know I need reminding of this for I'll walk in circles through the weeded labyrinth of human frailties. I ascribe importance to things that have little weight and catch myself ignorant to the eternal. This, too, shall change for the rest of the year, into 2022...and beyond 2044.

While I could debate its explicit promotion, social media websites fan the flames, if not outright encourage me to present an idealized portrait of my life. The character on display is crafted with perfect lighting and perfect angles all in a perfect scene with a perfect background. With so much perfection in life, deed and creed, I should never interact with This Guy for my broken humanity would corrupt such a masterpiece!

This observation about our tendency to project a idealized creation is a rather pedestrian one to be sure. More than anything, I say it as a reminder to myself to resist a Monkey See, Monkey Do life while also not to assume that idyllic painting has an analog in reality.

As for me, I am broken; your writer is a sinner. On one hand: I espouse the righteousness of God; on the other: I find delight in the corruption of His good gifts. Make no mistake: the best things are from Him:

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1:17, NIV

My life can be an abhorrent inconsistency! And yes, OF COURSE, this is part of the journey and it does demand patience as I am shaped. In a rich symbol of my justification on a December 3, I emerged from the waters of baptism to start down this long road of sanctification, a quiet path I'm hoofing on some thirty-three years later as He continues to shape me...I gotta admit, how I long for glorification! I look at this dark world and long for things to be restored anew. I HATE my sin and yet...I sin. Insert the Romans 7 throwback here!

And confirming the words I just wrote, this is a passage from my favorite book of the Bible:

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Romans 8:20-25, ESV

If anything, I hope this website is not me presenting a fantasy, an idealized version akin to Weird Al's Albuquerque:

That's when I swore that someday
Someday, I would get outta that basement
and travel to a magical, far away place
Where the sun is always shining!
And the air smells like warm root beer!
And the towels are oh, so fluffy!
Where the shriners and the lepers
Play their ukuleles all day long!
And anyone on the street
Will gladly shave your back for a nickel!
Wacka wacka doodoo, yeah!

A place like Facebook and all its derivations thereof is just that—not entirely, of course, for there are some info sources on there that are more effectively found elsewhere.

For me, a place like Facebook makes me demand to know how I answer a few questions, like:

• Would I be building more community or hiding from community?
• Is it an avenue of personal growth or just one, big, wind-up memory box with the twirling horsey?
• Would I be raising people up or would I be lurking in the shadows?

Finally, where exactly does my involvement wind up on the 'ol dial gauge of 1 John 2:16?

• Desires of the flesh
• Desires of the eyes
• Pride of life

And what's the trade-off, what do I get for my involvement? It's ABSOLUTELY HAS to be MORE than a free pass to walk through an empty art museum.

While I've been reluctant to introduce bookmark syncing in Brave since I got away from that with Google, last night I applied Brave sync v2. I read it encrypts client side with a passkey generated locally before having the bookmarks sent to be hosted on S3. That receives the Bill's Thumbs-Up, 'You're a REAL Winner' Barking Seal of Approval! There's no Google account equivalent, rather, Brave just generates a passphrase.

On my phone, I stepped backward to reinstall Google Play services (com.google.android.gms) so that I could run my Logos Bible app. I didn't like enabling this, but not having GMS available tends to break apps that I pull from Google Play Store via Aurora Store. It doesn't affect my F-Droid stuff. That tells me all I need to know.

I'd like to reach the point where I require NO apps from Google Play Store; I can find its APK elsewhere or just don't need the service. Car insurance seems to be IMPOSSIBLE to pull off—do I really need that app? I've never been involved in a wreck (well, officially) and haven't been pulled over since Memorial Day Weekend 2000—I still insist it was RIDICULOUS that it mattered I was going 74 in a 65 at sunrise on the Bluegrass Parkway, a desolate stretch of southern highway if there ever was one! A simple, paper proof-of-insurance is the extent of the tech that I need there.

For whatever reason, I cannot grab some apps like the one for my insurance or HBO Max without disabling off the anonymizing features of Aurora Store; I haven't found the APKs hosted elsewhere, either. I'm weighing the notion as to whether I should stop installing apps from Google Play store entirely for 2022. It would be consistent with my dislike for that whole model of service.

An official repository has been a part of Linux for a LONG time, predating anything that Google/Apple has done—I absolutely love it! But, where they divide is a Linux repository is all about secure and stable apps, what's best for its users. Google, Apple and Microsoft reek of those evil marketers of the world. Instead of imparting, they are all about extracting: personal info, money, freewill—you know the tap routine. And most of the apps on there are a piece of junk. Some even have nefarious purposes; closed source will do that. Is this at all a surprise? While I intended to reference bit players, isn't that Big Tech's essence?