Thank you to all the Angels

To those who read my appeal and upgraded your subscriptions to help make 2023 the "year of the miracle" for my beloved: a heartfelt thank you. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

As I drove to work this morning, I was greeted by a gorgeous pastel sunrise following the recent rains and high Sierra snows. I am constantly reminded of the natural beauty that God surrounds us with, even at times of difficulty in life.

Vistas like these bring me a quantum of solace.

To see beauty like this, one simply needs to stop—at precisely the right moment—and look. To stand in awe, to see and feel, to capture, to reflect, and to be in the moment.

I do this often on the way to work; people who drive by me in the morning or late evening sometimes see a strange man in a pickup truck suddenly pull over to the side of the road and park in the mud and dust.

They see me hop out, wade a few steps into a field wearing muddy boots and carrying a cell phone, and they wonder what madness I’m up to.

They see me stand and squint and hold my phone camera up at arm’s length, sizing up the shot.

They don’t know what I’m looking at, but I do. Perhaps they saw the same thing I see, but they missed the moment and the meaning. One thing I know: they didn’t stop to capture the scene as I did.

Squatting down, I often stare off into the distance or down into a puddle looking for just the right angle. There’s usually calming music playing on my truck stereo. I’m sure that I make an odd sight.

Some people drive by and look at me quizzically, some smile knowingly.

I particularly like capturing sky reflections in puddles; it brings out a beautiful symmetry captured in a quite-literal “moment of reflection.” Today, seeing this beautiful scenery made me pause and think about finally publishing the post I wrote yesterday.

Writing that post yesterday was something that I struggled with for a while. I needed to ask but wrestled with how. I’m not good at asking for help; more often I’m the one giving it.

I do this photography in the morning as I drive to work. It lets me orient myself in the world and prepare for the workday ahead. I have the same camera and the same opportunities to see things that other people do, but somehow, they seem to miss what I am able to see.

I suppose the same is true of my writing. I see things that others miss.

Today, those of you who answered my appeal to upgrade to a paid subscription already brought me, in a single day, 10% of the way toward reaching my dream: finding a way to unite with and take care of my beloved and her daughter a thousand miles away in Michigan —and to work as a researcher, mentor, and writer for a living.

As the days pass, I pray that the day will finally come when I can be free again: free to write, to create, to study, to coach, to live, to love, and to prosper as I once did.

I mentioned yesterday that I had a backlog of drafts waiting for me to find the time to finish researching and writing.

Here are some of the titles of works that I have in draft form that I want to find the time to complete. I crave the opportunity to focus my time and attention on this work full time.

• Human Behavior: Stochastics vs. Intent

• The Pandemic

• My path to Discovering the work of Dr. Randell Mills

• Stampede of Free Money and the Way Out of the Trap

• The dangers of AI-assisted Search: A reality distortion field

• The Fermi Paradox: A unique answer that is overlooked

• The Dark Matter Distraction

• The Dangers of Curation

• The Inspiration of the Original Thought and Consciousness

• Goedel’s Incompleteness Hypothesis and Faith

• Exoplanets, Tardigrades, and Earth’s Carbon Dioxide: A Thought Experiment

• The Cryptocurrency Game

• Photons and the Other side of Forever

• The Story of Jack (a Dog story)

• AI Chatbots: A nightmare of epic proportions

• AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) has no Soul

• Eyes on the MetaVerse

• Deux Ex Machina

These and more titles are coming this year. Thank you again for supporting and encouraging my work.

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Please…consider upgrading to a paid subscription. Your generosity and support for my writing will literally make miracles happen. It will change my life, my fiance’s life, and the future of her 7-year-old forever.

You can also contribute in other ways: buymeacoffee.com is one way, or a direct contribution via cashApp is another. Both links can be found here.

You can also reach me at cognitivecarbon@protonmail.com if you have other ideas that may help.

God bless all of you Angels who choose to support my work.