45 - Start the year - looking forward
🇭🇰 New Years Day was something of a "Groundhog Day" experience. Just like 1st January 2022 we did the regular Peak Hike, going up the Escalator from Central, along Conduit, up Morning Trail and back down Old Peak Road. It was busy at the top but this time no girlz in the trees. Happily the FCC was open and available again for lunch so we did enjoy that to the fullest.
During the week V and I also went to see Avatar: Way of the Water - lots of ritualistic symbolism - once you see it you cannot unsee it. A couple of clues include the oft-repeated fixation on Eclipse and the much of the discussion on Water itself. There are plenty more - how many can you spot?
Clearly a switch has been pushed and a new scenario is starting up. That was evident when John Lee couldn't get back quick enough from Beijing to announce a 180 change in policy and start switching things in HK into a different gear ahead of Chinese New Year. For sure, Year of the Water Rabbit will be different from Year of the Water Tiger. Recall the significance of Water in Avatar; things are "hiding in plain sight" - and how Arthur Dent realised too late that it had all been "on display at the townhall".
Just like last year I do believe that where you are and who you are with will very substantially influence how you experience things during 2023 - so choose wisely. We have been planning things for the coming six months or so to have a stake in the ground. Make sure you are where you want to be, doing what you want, with whom you want.
“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
- Steve Jobs
How is your planning going? Recall tips and suggestions here. Do comment below.
Read on - more in this week's newsletter
- South Coast walkabout
- Dates for the Diary - some of these will be big
- Worse is being planned for you - speak up or forever hold your peace..
- Watch out for the NPCs - they are closer than you think
- Oxford UK - seriously?
- Optimising your browsing and viewing experience - remove Adverts
- Project updates - Linux, Umbrel and Bitcoin node
- Links of the week
- Bingo!
South Coast walkabout
We did have a great walk along the South coast from Ocean Park via Deep Water Bay to Repulse Bay. That temple at the end of the beach still amuses me!
South Island Beach walk - Ocean Park to Repulse Bay
Dates for the Diary
Do keep in mind the following dates during the year. Important things and changes do tend to happen around many of these dates and there can be much telegraphing in advance for those who look.
Of course many will say that this this is "just coincidence" but when do you have too may coincidences? Consider, for example, last year when Terra Luna collapsed on the first Lunar Eclipse of the year and FTX collapsed on the second one. Consider too the image of the Solar eclipse below and what was repeated many times in Avatar; keep that in mind.
The Solstices and Equinoxes tend to be very significant days - pay attention. The two solar eclipses are already well-presaged - see here - involving the ones from October 2023 and April 2024.
- VERNAL EQUINOX.....(SPRING) MAR 20 2023 2124 UTC
- SUMMER SOLSTICE....(SUMMER) JUN 21 2023 1458 UTC
- AUTUMNAL EQUINOX...(FALL) SEP 23 2023 250 AM 0650 UTC
- WINTER SOLSTICE....(WINTER) DEC 21 2023 1027 PM UTC DEC 22
The lunar cycles for the year are below; a bit of analysis will reveal that many things tend to follow lunar cycles (rather than calendar months). The deeper you dig, the more you will be surprised - for example.
Do share your experience with any significant dates - comment below.
⚠️ It's not over - worse is being planned ⚠️
You should read what the WHO is doing out of sight and without any public consultation. The are proposing to drop reference to the reference to 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and quite a few more things too.
James Roguski
Click to read - this does need to be stopped
Recall that we did discuss what you can do about it here - along with simple things like turning off your TV, start meeting and discussing with friends and in your community and then collaborating together with like-minded people.
When considering the above note too the latest information via Dr John Campbell.
⚠️ Societal Manipulation - what role do you play?
You do want to listen carefully to Rob's explainer on how you (and those around you) are being manipulated. Life in the Matrix - you really are "plugged in".
If you think this is scaremongering - just look at what is happening in Oxford, UK.
✅ Optimise your browsing and viewing experience
In case you are fed up with adverts and propaganda ruining your web browsing and youtube viewing experience, recall - we have discussed the best setup for Browsing the Web and finding and following trusted and worthy sources. If you pay a bit of attention to this it will vastly improve your experience (removing all the adverts) and it enables you to view your own trusted sources rather than the propaganda that you would otherwise be fed. Tools to consider include:
- Use Brave Browser with uBlock Origin extension and as few other extensions as you really need. One that I do find useful is "get rss feed url extension" that helps you to find the RSS feed(s) for any website if they are not published or hard to find. You will particularly appreciate the lack of intrusive adverts everywhere with this combination. If you run Linux on ARM there is not currently a Brave implementation - so the fallback here is Chromium with uBlock Origin.
- Avoid Google's Chrome, Microsoft's Edge and Apple's Safari browsers as much as possible. I know that Safari is particularly convenient in the Apple environment with multiple tabs on tab-group pages that synchronise across devices; so "never say never" but if you use one of these think twice and use it for particular things rather than generally.
- Worth saying that it is good practice to have several browsers that you use for different purposes - this helps to minimise tracking and some browsers are better in specific circumstances - eg Brave's ad-blocking and Apple's tab-group syncing.
- Next essential is NetNewsWire (for Apple devices) or another RSS reader on other platforms (examples here). There are plenty of recommendations but NetNewsWire works for me; it is not cloud hosted but does allow synchronisation via iCloud. I love it!
⚠️ BTW - if you were ever in doubt about what is being tracked and why you would want to minimise or (if possible) even avoid it - consider this short explainer by Rob Braxman.
🛠️ Project updates
You will recall from last week my discovery of the old MacBook and how error 5010F caused me to give up on resetting and selling it, persuading me instead to install Linux on it. Well, what fun! Having this separate machine opens up all sorts of new possibilities.
First and foremost I am running a Bitcoin node on it and in the coming months I will be exploring further hands on with many of the other infrastructure components including Lightning Node and BTC Pay Server. There are pros and cons to having a physical machine compared to a Virtual Server and I may or may not have both.
After a bit of researching and trial/error I have got to recommend Umbrel. This is really slick and just works. Super easy to install and get going with all the necessary bitcoin applications available to run in the same managed Docker environment that it installs on your machine. You will want to install this on a separate disk (get an SSD - I went for SanDisk Extreme 2TB - in HK you can negotiate on the price!) - just follow the instructions on the first prompt that you see. For such configurations you will also want to dedicate the machine for Bitcoin only and not be tempted to run other things on it. Keep it clean and simple.
Umbrel really have raised the bar for such products. The software is all Open Source and inspectable. It is available free to run on your computers and they have a super interesting community discussion board.
See also Rob's discussion on very affordable Linux systems you might consider. Having additional machines for other purposes is easy and affordable.
🎓 Reading, listening and learning
Like many I do not trust mainstream media to give balanced or unbiased information. RSS feeds provide an easy way to follow the people and sources that you trust and as mentioned above NetNewsWire is a great tool to help you build this into an easily-accessible and well-prioritised collection - it is like having your own personal mentor/coach or getting insights and contacts from top-notch conferences.
Living in an echo chamber is not good and likely no better than living in the propaganda world today. That is why I do recommend following informed commentators who do real research and are open to discussing and debating. Also do not think you need to agree with all that you hear - disagreeing and discussing are part of making and informed decision on things. By selecting your sources rather than taking what you are fed you can pick a well-varied diet of information to consume.
📰 Current news analysis and discussion:
Some well-researched and dependable sources that I often refer to for commentary and information include. Below some websites and RSS feeds for you. Enjoy:
- James Corbett is in a league of his own and has been doing quality research as long as I can remember (RSS)
- Richie Allen UK - the largest independent "radio" station in Europe (RSS)
- Charlie Robinson - incredibly smart, well-connected and deep researcher. (RSS)
- Greg Carlwood and HigherSide chats is a superb weekly source of fascinating (and sometimes disturbing) research (RSS)
💰 Bitcoin
- Stephan Livera is one of the original Bitcoin OGs and several times a week he does very interesting and quite technical interviews (RSS)
- BTC Magazine - the most trusted source of "mainstream" bitcoin information (RSS)
- Aleks Svetski - rather outspoken and straight talking - you will love him or hate him. He is the driver for The Bitcoin Times. He recently did his 100th podcast before taking a break for a few months to work on a new book (RSS)
- Bitcoin audible - you have got to love listening to Guy reading the best bitcoin articles. He also reads many audiobooks. (RSS)
🔐 IT Security
- Surveillance Report - this one is important in case you did use LastPass - spoiler alert: they have been less than fully open in their public statements about what happened and it certainly seems like the hole is deep (RSS).
If you did ever use LastPass - you should take action. As a minimum you should consider change passwords on your most important accounts and ensure that wherever possible you have Multi-Factor Authentication enabled. You may also consider moving to another tool or service for your password management and deleting your LastPass account - suggestions include KeepassXC or Bitwarden - for a deeper dive listen to Steve Gibson explain (start at 21mins).
🤪 Bingo!
You can watch Grace assemble her 2023 bingo card. The dialog is most amusing. I rather think she has a high chance of winning with this card.
Click to watch
... and of course the characters are based on Wizard of Oz... Recall the discussion of recent weeks on this.
Lastly, not to be outdone - Charlie Robinson has his own Bingo Card for the year of 2023. I think he is going to give Grace a run for her money with his card.
Listen and learn and feel free to comment below - Happy New Year.
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No one can be told what The Matrix is. No one can be told what The Matrix is.
You have to see it for yourself.
- Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix
You have to see it for yourself.
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You can also email me at: LetterFrom@rogerprice.me
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