the return of taste.

I just read…

If 2025 was the year of AI speed, 2026 is the year of human taste.

And I couldn’t agree more, or be happier.

I’ll say it again, I think people are quickly learning there is not much ego boost when creating something that is obviously AI and that will quickly lead people to not want to use it and, almost, be offended by it. We, as humans, create to be noticed and if AI is not helping us, it’s going to leave.

Not to mention it doesn’t have taste… and if 2026 brings it back, I’ll be thrilled!

america is the best…

At four things in the world… based on statistics.

It’s not healthcare, or education, or equality or safety, or lifespan, or happiness, or environmental cleanliness, or inexpensive power, or creativity, it’s not literacy rates, it’s not elderly care… ok this is getting ridiculous because it’s only four things so rather than list everything it’s not, here is what America is the best at.

Innovation. This one is awesome. I’m a huge fan.

Entertainment. This one, I feel mostly neutral about.

Money and Power.

The world’s largest economy and the largest military.

That’s it.

Innovation.
Entertainment.
Money.
Power.

With all that innovation, entertainment, money, and power, we can’t lead in any other category that actually benefits American citizens.

Cool. Just think on that for a bit.

well this is it.

Watch the video or read it below. (the comic referenced is below the text)

It’s so dead on.

The key to understanding the world today is in this comic right here portrays a brave older marine in a coffee shop where the barista says, "Can I interest you in a soy latte?" He says, "No, just coffee black." "Caramel macchiato?" "Just coffee black." This scenario has never occurred once anywhere in the history of the world. And if you say, "Well, yeah, but it's just a joke." I'm saying the thing that it's exaggerating has never occurred.

But the perception of the world that caused the artist to create this and motivated people to share this millions of times is incredibly important because in reality no one ever took his black coffee from him. Every shop like this has black coffee. All that happened is the range of options for other people expanded and he perceived that as persecution as his choice having been taken away.

This is not political. This is a human nature thing. Most people are not satisfied to simply have the option to live their life the way they want. They also want to feel normal. They want to walk around and see that most other people have made the same choice they made. And if over time they see that their own personal preference has become less popular and even worse is now seen as being basic or unsophisticated, they will perceive the mere existence of those other options as a criticism of them, even if they've never heard anybody voice that criticism.

This is why it's so important for some people to imagine the archetype of the angry vegan. Even though one, I have never run into one of those people in real life, not even once. and two, meat statistically is more popular now than it has ever been in the history of the world. There is basic psychological comfort in knowing that you're conforming to what the world wants and in the reassurance that that world is not going to change.

And this is why it doesn't help to simply tell people you can keep doing the thing you were doing. No one's stopping you from drinking your coffee because it's not about the coffee. It's the fear that if everybody else stops drinking coffee the way I drink it, then I will become an outcast. And that is scary to someone who suddenly is remembering how they have always treated outcasts.

laugh or cry.

Or just throw something through a nearby window when you read this shit.

“They should have done that strike regardless,’ she said. “Every human being does have value, but if you’re caught up in something that’s very detrimental to society, I think that you should die.

“She compared these strikes to a story in the Bible, when Jesus healed someone on a Sunday, contradicting religious rules that forbid work on that day. Some laws are worth breaking for the betterment of mankind, she said, just like the biblical story was trying to show.”

Shit like this is why I left Christianity. I know not every Christian believes this but after trying to defend a religion full of people who believe this - and are encouraged to by the religion - for so long, I finally realized I was the one who was wrong

This is more Christian than I wanted Christianity to be so I figured I might as well leave.

Just wild.

your favorite.

What if we went through life saying what our favorite was, instead of what we hated or what sucked?

That’s all. Just try that today.

a mystic mythical book of myths

I don’t know what you think of the Bible.

I’ve barely even looked at a verse in the past five years. But, take any story, and make it a mystical, mythical, myth, and you’l find something pretty interesting. Every time.

I mean, I think that applies to almost every writing - as it should - but definitely the Bible. And it’s the reason most people who do read the Bible miss everything.

the worst part of being a human

It’s the marketing. The damn marketing. The constant attempting to convince others that our

art
style
humor
product
core being (no big deal)

is enough for someone to

spend money on
date
believe in
laugh
love

And some will say, you don’t need them.
But we do.
Who are we kidding?
We need them to believe something about us that we think we might believe ourselves.

And if we don’t believe it
They’ll never believe it
And if they never believe
We won't believe it.

And so, we just keep on this endless circle of convincing ourselves and others
We’re enough.

And if there’s anything harder, convince me of it.

a human hair

In a recent F1 race, the wear on Lando Norris' car was 0.12 millimeters over the limit, and on Piastri's, it was 0.26. Because of this wear, both drivers were disqualified from the race and lost vital points and a potential championship - we’ll see this Sunday.

For some context, the width of a human hair is between .017 to 0.181 millimeters.

Imagine that, a driver could miss out on the F1 championship by less than a human hair,

It doesn’t matter if you care about F1, you have to care about the details of life though.

two quick ones…

Cynthia Erivo opened the Las Vegas Grand Prix with a little montage thing but, wow, two lines hit me.

Discipline is the metronome.

It takes everything you are to see what you might become.

trump rant no. 5422

Trump loves to talk shit about Seattle and our new “communist” mayor and how he might remove the World Cup (which, of course, he can’t). But from a recent Seattle Times article.

Seattle is one of the safer of the 11 U.S. cities hosting World Cup games. The Washington Post tallied the latest homicide rates in big cities, and Seattle’s rate this year, 4 murders per 100,000 population through Oct. 31, is among the lowest. We’re tied with Boston and just behind San Francisco and New York, both at 3 per 100,000.

Trump never mentions the most dangerous World Cup cities. Those are Dallas (12 murders per 100,000), Atlanta (16 per 100,000) and Kansas City (39 per 100,000).

So you’re nearly 10 times more likely to be killed in Kansas City than in Seattle.

I don’t every now and then it’s worth just hi-lighting the actual facts that Trump never does.

you actually can.

You really can make a change. All those little sayings are true. A few days ago, I opened the door for someone at a coffee shop, they smiled, said thanks and we told each other to have a great day.

And they I kept imagining the story - like I can do.

They’re a guest in Seattle. They think, because of me, wow Seattle really is a friendly place. They go back to where they’ve come from and they tell friends that Seattle is really friendly. Those friends tell others and soon people think a city is friendly because I opened a door and smiled.

That is actual, tangible impact that’s possible from one interaction. And it can go either way.

We actually can impact the world, hard to believe. Better, we actually are impacting the world constantly.

How do you want to?

the best mediocre…

We were high and we went out to eat at this very decent Italian food place. While we were eating it, I said “this is the best mediocre Italian food I’ve ever had” which really got me thinking.

Is that good? How did I know? How can something taste great but I know it’s not great?

And, once again, the value of getting high and opening up great questions.

Is mediocre god if I really love it? Is mediocre, mediocre if it’s not mediocre in the moment?
Am I always convincing myself something is great when I know it’s not?

nuance is reality.

We’re living in an increasingly black and white world.

It’s either this or that.

You’re for them or us.

We’ll fix this by doing that.

The thing is, we’re told we’re living in increasingly black and white world but we’re not. We’re just living in an increasingly “talked about” black and white world that is still very nuanced.

Sex. Religion. Politics.

Some of the most complicated ideas and system that exist in the world that are not black or white in any way shape or form.

So, any time anyone is telling us how black and white a problem or solution or reality is, just remember they are talking about something that does not exist.

inner critics.

It’s great you quieted the inner critic.

But, have you amplified the inner cheerleader?

but he’s naked

You know the story. The Emperor’s New Clothes. He’s wearing nothing but everyone has been told that if you can’t see the clothes, you’re incompetent and stupid. Damn, Hans Christian Andersen (Danish, of course, bringing it in 1837). Pinker in his latest chat on Armchair Expert talked about the “intimidation to not believe what you see”.

And I just had to stop there.

Intimidation to not believe what you see.

Wow. And also, fuck that. He’s naked. The kid said it and then everyone else felt the freedom to say what they knew to be true too.

Say it, shout it when you see it.

when to look at the past.

Every morning I write down a list of “contracts” or things I’m trying to do that day. They are the same every day and one of them is..

Live in the present, when tempted by the past or future.

But, that got me thinking and this is still a work in progress but it’s thanksgiving so I’ll throw it out there.

Maybe it’s not just the past or future but how we look at the past or future.

Looking back with gratefulness? Great.
Looking back with regret? For a second.
Looking back with jealousy or anger or even, longing? Maybe not.

Looking forward with dreams? Great.
Looking forward with a plan? For a second.
Looking forward with anxiety, worry, or even, longing? Maybe not.

So, maybe it’s more how we look then looking… but also, maybe gratefulness and dreams also require the present? I don’t know, next time.

For now, going to keep trying to stay in the now as much as possible.

sex isn’t that.

On the topic of sex, still, in this podcast, toward the end, Carter Sherman talks about sex not being just about two people in a bedroom.

It’s political, societal, cultural, etc…

Which got me thinking… wow. What if we saw sex as something that effects way more than just the two (or three or four) people involved but instead what linked to culture, society, religion, and the way human beings are seen and treated.

I know, right… good luck with 2 billion being spent every year on abstinence training in America. We’re a long way from talking about sex in nuanced and realistic ways but hey… maybe we can start?

just a sorry?

Was listening to Carter Sherman and Trevor Noah talk abut sex - a great podcast, by the way.

In it, at one point, Carter said she was sexually assaulted in college. She didn’t report it and nothing really happened. Later Trevor asked her what “justice” would have looked like and she said, simply along the lines of Just a sorry. Just an acknowledgment of what was done.

Which led to a discussion about punitive justice and restorative justice.

Which led them to the fact that punitive justice often has more money and so we often seek it, instead of just a sorry (where that works - which is, obviously, not all the time.)

But all of this really stuck in my head. Wow, even our justice is often about money in our culture and, because of that, we just miss out on so many opportunities to just say sorry and to just hear sorry.

Ugh.

my pet peeve.

My pet peeve is people who act more_____ than they are.

More wealthy. More enlightened. More cool. More sexually experienced. More fill in the blank.

But, in reality, it’s more that I think I’m more _____ than I think you are (or are acting) which means it’s very ego-centric and my own issues.

Maybe my biggest pet peeve is that I’m constantly judging. Or my pet peeve is that I can’t stand my own pride.

that’s NOT pizza!

Was talking to a friend who just got back from Naples. He was telling me that he ate a pizza there and it was very different from the pizza in Rome so he asked the chef… what makes them different?

The chef blew up. What! That is NOT pizza! This is pizza! That is NOT pizza!

I guess when that happens, there are a few choices.

1. Conserve the tradition. You’re right. This is the only pizza.

2. Try to push the tradition. You’re wrong. This is pizza too!

3. Leave the pizza game. I don’t care. I’m not even making pizza. I’m making good food. Call it whatever you want.

This has nothing to do with being a pastor for 10 years and being told what is and what is not Christianity.