Billy the Kid was an outlaw.
Hungry for adventure, untamed and filled to the molars with piss-n-vinegar, he lived at a time when the law was enforced chaotically, often by such authorities that were, arguably, more morally dubious than he was. He was lain to rest by one of the few individuals whom the records showed as having an ounce of integrity. Pat Garett--while he felt the sting of The Kid's thorn--was obsessed, to the point that he authored The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid. I find there to be something relatable in Garett's obsession.
We--the obsessed, who trace the outlines of skeletons with calloused fingers hoping that others will see what we have--sought not to disturb their spirits, but to honor their memory. We sought to show, by reaching deep into the well, what might be drawn from out of its darkness.
-- @billytheked
Dear Muser,
Unfortunately, recent occruences have rendered the top/zaprank filter less reliable for finding singal, so I'll go by the top/zapped instead.
Here are the highlights (not in any particular order).
a saloon haikua saloon haiku
Sky darkens slowly,
Whisper of drops on the leaves.
Rain is in the air….
in the musein the muse
Information Overload
#1428897
@Kontext asks us to tune in to our inner voice, and to stop searching without. A prescient message for these strange times we are living in.
UnPhiltered - Chapter 17 - A Rotten Uncle
#1430120
@TotallyHumanWriter's post describes a children's book project he undertook for his nieces. This one really put the amount of dedication it takes to make a go of it as a writer into perspective.
My January Writing Wrap up 🍓
#1424148
@plebpoet's method for holding herself accountable was interesting. Since reading her post, I've wondered about her, and how it has been going. I've also considered doing the same thing for myself. Very cool:
I have set a reminder on my phone that pops up each day at 9pm and it says, "write :)". Well, each day, instead of ignoring it, I'm trying to notice it. Once I notice it, I must write down the excuse I have for not writing that day. After a pattern begins to emerge in my excuses, that will be the next phase of the experiment.
[Book Review] Bonhoeffer-Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
#1416193
@jbschirtzinger again entices us to read another biography. I can recall some time ago when I was requesting that my readers share some works in this genre. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with that, but in any case, this was a satisfying review. Definitely put Eric Metaxas on my radar.
A Winter Road Trip – Part Three
#1423483
I found @siggy47's third part to the Winter Road Trip series to be another great read. The part about Jekyll Island It gave me chills, but I'm glad R was there to diffuse the tension.
Book Review of “The Great Harvest”: And YOU WON’T BELIEVE THE TWIST AT THE END
#1425743
I loved this review by @denlillaapan's, which led me to believe we were going one way only to U-turn and send us barrelling into AI oblivion. I'm not so sure how to explain it, nor can I prove it, but somehow, when I am reading AI generated text, the inner monologue that I normally have turns off. When I am reading Den, I hear Den (creepy, right?)--not so with robots.
shy, unfinished short story
#1424165
@ek's writing was prompted some nice discussions. It seemed to be well-received by people in the comments. I appreciated the understated writing style and the meta title. I hope he keeps at his writing.
elsewhere on SN
@jasonb had a nice idea to highlight some posts that flew by our radars and it allowed me to uncover some hidden gems, like this one (#457845) and this one (#1294046)
Till next time.
Some pretty great posts in there. I keep marveling at this wonderful world we live in.
I agree, there's lots to marvel at!
my god... what have I wrought?
Yes, https://stacker.news/top/posts/day?by=sats has been a better bet than
Hotrecently.What is Stacker News?
It is a social media platform intentionally created to enable a P2P V4V BTC denominated community.
V4V can encourage quality content and reduce spam- SNs has been testing this concept and appears to largely succeed.
Originally Stacker News (SN) custodyed sats on behalf of participants but the threat of government regulatory prosecution on the pretext of money transmitter forced a move away from the custody of sats by the platform to the platform enabling participants to send sats via their wallets.
To achieve this participants need to attach wallets to both send and receive sats.
Where participants do not or cannot attach LN wallets transactions will often default to Cowboy Credits.
This change was a compromise forced by the threat of government prosecution.
The difficulty of attaching both sending and receiving wallets is moderate- it takes some effort and newbie or non tech people may struggle with it, but most competent Bitcoiners can succeed in attaching wallets and thus enabling sats denominayed P2P transactions.
But a number of Stackers have chosen not to attach wallets- in particular sending wallets which enable you to send sats into the SN community.
Very few who have attached just a sending wallet- many have attach just a receiving wallet.
Those who only attach a receiving wallet can receive sats from others but cannot send sats into the community. They may feel that as content providers they have no need or obligation to send sats into and within the SN community. I disagree.
Where these receive but not send (horse but no gun) Stackers proclaim to be Bitcoiners but refuse to enable a sending wallet they are demonstrably hypocrits. They claim they want to build and grow the BTC LN MoE network but they cannot be bothered contributing toward that growth by attaching a sending wallet and demonstrating they are not just talking, but are also walking and supporting a sats denominated platfrom.
If we do not use the LN it will not grow and develop.
Some claim it is too hard to attach wallets- its too hard on their self custody nodes or wallets- this just highlights how muich work the LN needs before it is capable of anything approaching reliable MoE capability.
The best way to grow and strengthen the LN is it use it – despite its remaining flaws and glitches.
When wallets are supported by people using them they receives transaction fees and can develop liquidity and systems further.
When LN wallets are not used the LN decays- it does not have the usage and fees income to grow.
So when self proclaimed proponents and advocates for BTC and LN refuse to attach wallets (especially sending wallets) I see hypocrit.
And I will continue to see hypocrit until and unless someone can explain why I should not.
Calling me a Nazi, trolling and making fun of me crudely seeking to avoid the issues I raise will not stop me from asking why are you claiming to be a Bitcoiner but refusing to attach wallets and use the LN here where we can help it grow.
Now some are deliberately concealing their wallet status, as if this is about a right to privacy.
Concealing your wallet status means nobody else can verify whether or not you are serious about using BTC LN, or whether you are just an all talk no walk hypocrit.
Do not trust- verify.
What about this fundamental principle do they not understand?
And they talk about 'content' being more important than whether or not you have attached wallets - in this context the intentional lack of attached wallets undermines your credibility as your actions do not match your words.
Your submitted content may be great, but you as someone claiming to be a serious Bitcoiner are undermining your credibility and the credibility of your content by being a hypocrit. Your content, is tainted by hypocrisy.
SNs neens both good content providers and those who pay for that content.
I would say I am more in the latter camp than the former but both are required overall or the model does not work.
So as a net contributor of sats and thus a net consumer of content I object where content providers refuse to engage in the P2P V4V ethos by refusing to attach both sending and receiving wallets and I will both withhold my contribution of sats and sometimes downvote these hypocrits.
V4V must work reciprocally or it will not work at all.
The content providers need the sats contributors as much as the other way around.